Sunday, June 29, 2008

relegion spirituality et al

"Spiritual but not religious means not subscribing to something just because its professed in a religionor not stopping with a religion to explore the divine connection,to seek out the ideals of spirituality outside the limits of my religion.To be non - religious means to do something or to refrain from somethingnot because God will be angry with me for doing so.It is to choose to do somehting,because i like to do it.It is not to pray for favours but to identify a relationship with a supreme beinghigher than a master slave relationship.It is to question about God,analyse and to have the right to accept or reject.To do things that will be regarded as blasphemy by religion just because they dont conform to set practices.To interact with God outside religionTo engage with humanity and to love and care for humans outside religionand its guidelnes and rules.It is the freedom to choose.To take the responsibility to imbibe discipline to oneself and to strive to become a better human being within our limitations ,rather than dependng on a holy book for that."

This is a blog by a friend aand fellow netizen CVR
http://simplycvr.blogspot.com/2008/06/spiritual-but-not-religious.html
I know CVR for the past year and a half .... Like most friends these days we have me only in net and not in person.... CVR is a very serious person as far as penning his thoughts are concenrned.... His tamil blog is even better
http://cvrintamil.blogspot.com/
so do i agree with what CVR has said?

Yes and no

Yes cos spirituality is needed... and he has captured it fairly...

No.. Cos his post leads me to beleive that being relegious is out of fear....
no i dont buy that .. you can choose to follow a relegion or a set of ideals for yourself and yet appreciate those who follow something different...
how is that possible? by understanding a relegion thoroughly you can align yourself to a path ..
My granny (mum's mother) is a strict vaishnavaite... but she appreciates teh dediation andprinciples of all sects and even islam ... her hubby, my grand pa, was non relegious as long as he was in the service .. but after retirement he went deep into relegion and is now nearly a fundamentalist...(he he) .. same is teh case with some others...
But patti has set examples which is difficlt to follow.. how did she acheieve this... well she reads a lot .. her reading habit has made sure that she read teh original manuscripts and understtod her relegion.. the thing she wants for herself... same habit has ensured that she appreciates all...

So whats the conclusion.. naah im not making any this time....

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Flawed masterpiece

Kamalhassan has come out with is latest mega venture dasavatharam
Apart from the facts that he does 10 roles and the controversy regarding govindaraja perumal and kulothunga chola, the film has nothing worthwhile…..

Comin to the story of Govindaraja perumal.

Lord Govindaraja (incarnation of lord vishnu) had his abode in chidambaram , also a vey famos shaivate centre. It is said that the King Kulothunga chola , a shaivate fanatic threw the lord in sea and the lord was somehow retrieved and ket at tirupati…

Many also say that to stop the shaivate vaishnavaite feud, the king established a township called raja mannargudi and built sri rajagopala swamy temle and asked all vaishanvaites to make it their centre and stop feuding at Chidambaram… The rajagopala swamy temple has inscriptions that speak of kulothunga’s contributions.

SO it is really hard to believe that such a king would have thrown the lord into sea.. it appears to be an exaggeration of facts by some aggrieved vaishnavites.. Kamal has managed to dramatize it with his own imagination.. the filming is excellent but his imagination seems naïve.. one really cant stomach the fatc that a priest wud have managed to fend of 10-1 men ofkings army single handedly . simply made a mock of history my including commercial aspects of heroism

Another fact to mention is Kamal has seen controversy a lot in hey ram and virumaandi… but this time he has attracted mneedless controversy as the historic ection of the film has no relevance to the plot . the relevance explained in the movie has no base…

The movie tries to address issues like biological warfare, illegal sand quarrying and castetism all in one go. Thus has cme up with a hotch potch of disconnected sequences.
The film is like a collage and does not keep the audience at the edge of he seats…

Movies like Hey Ram and Abe Sivam had a very strong storyline that strengthened Kamal’s efforts. But in daavatharam , though Kamal’s effort is brilliant the story makes it look ordinary…

Adding to the boredom is Kamal’s rhetoric of atheism and stereo typing brahminsim
His repeated tirades at the community gives the impression that he is feeling guilty about his origins….. And it also makes one assume that he is taking hindusim for granted ..
It is hard to imagine if he has the guts to showcase islam in such a manner J

Ah ah im just imagining here not criticizing him… My point is creative liberty should not be taken for granted and once should not cross hisher limits in the name of liberty
What on eath is mallika doin in this movie? And what abt jayaprada or that role of the sadar singer…
In the end it just seems that with the help of prosthetics and his acting abilities kamalhas triedto over come the thespian late VC Ganesan’s (Sivaji) marvelous attempt in Navarathri. Personally feeling Kamal has tried more versatile things than the late actor but in this attempt he has no done enough… Navratri scores over dasavatharam …
The vigour which Kamal wants to thrust his atheist views makes him no better than a fundamentalist doing his propaganda
Mr Kamal you have every freedom to chosse your belief but the way in which you thrust it and try to prove the people who think other wise as fools is not the way…