From: chitoor@nori.cis.udel.edu (Srikrishnan R. Chitoor)
Subject: Cinema field (was Re: valai malar 'a' - some comments)
Followup-To: soc.culture.tamil
Organization: University of Delaware, Newark
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 20:30:11 GMT

In article <2B3B668D.10813@news.service.uci.edu> sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu (M. Sundaramoorthy) writes:
>	I apologise if you are hurt by my comments and they are not directed
>	at you personally. Nevertheless I stand by my comments in general.
>
>	It is none of my business to dictate what one should or should
>	not do for time pass and the comments are not intented at any
>	individual. But I am entitled to criticize the society of which
>	I am a part. I am not interested in changing one's personal taste,
>	but I am concerned about the taste of a society, that clearly is
>	cinema oriented.  
>
>	I strongly feel that our society is plagued with cinema
>	culture and gives utmost importance to commercial cinema
>	compared to any other art and literary forms, and social 
>	and political issues. The cinema knowledge of a common Tamil

People get addicted to something if they do not
have good alternatives. For example, Star TV is getting very popular 
in India because of Doordarshan's poor quality programmes. This is
inspite of Star TV ignoring coverage of olympics and Wimbledon which
most of the Indians watch.
     So, do not bother to blame the cinema field. Try to improve the
presentation in other forms of art and literary works and get people 
to appreciate them. IMO, the other art and literary forms in TN are
so esoteric that common people are put off by them. The only stuff
they can identify themselves with are cinemas and this explains their
poularity.

>	is much more than any of these issues, becaues they are fed more
>	with that. I DO FEEL TAMIL COMMUNITY IS ADDICTED 
>	TO CINEMA CULTURE no matter you like it or not. So it
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What is the exact meaning of this word ? I have heard is being
used in a lot of places. We do not see people fighting or singing
songs in normal life as being portrayed in cinema. Does it refer
to the concept of attributing the characteristics of
the role played by an actor/actress to the actor/actress in real life ?

>	is not strange that we identify Tamil poets from lyrics
>	writers, recognise music from film songs, choose our leaders
>	leaders with movie background etc. I don't say they are not poets,
>	musicians, or they can not become our leaders. But they get lot more
>	importance than they actually deserve. Then what is the point in
>	crying  about the possibility of Rajini or Kushboo becoming the 
>	next Chief Minister?.
>
>	I do watch two Tamil movies per month on average (it was more when
>	I was in India), but I don't think that is very important to
>	discuss, because, I believe there are better things that deserve
>	serious discussions.

Every body's opinion to himself. It is just that we should be sensitive
to other's views and do not even refer to their discussions if we are
not interested or if we do not think it is worth discussing it.

>	BTW, I never argued "If you're educated,you should discuss only 
>	tamil literary works", which you I strongly disagree. Please read
>	my previous comments again.
>	
>	M. Sundaramoorthy
>	sundar@indigo1.hsis.uci.edu

-Krishna.
Opinions are mine.