Anbe Sivam - அன்பே சிவம்

"Anbe Sivam"...Which roughly translates to "Just affection is God"...is a Tamil Movie that I just finished watching some 5 minutes back.

I've heard quite a bit about this movie for quite some time.....But its somehow been the type I would categorise as arm-chair intellectuals who are the ones I've heard raving about this movie. Now that I've come round to watching it...either the movie is truly amazing or I've become a neo-convert arm-chair intellectual!!

Whats truly amazing is that this film with its highly left-leaning script manages to strike a chord even in this liberalisation trigerred liberated soul (i.e. me). Pitting a very America returned confident-talking diffident-acting Anbarasu (who calls himself - A-Ars; enacted with quite a bit of elan by Madhavan) against a scar faced crippled corny PJ-cracking trade unionist Nallasivam (has to be Mr. Hassan himself), in this see-saw sequence of meetings, conversations and incidents, is a true original. However I just read on wikipedia that, some bits of this film are inspired from some Hollywood flick. But the site again mentions that everything including Anbe Sivam's dialogues and characterisations are entirely different (what is similar is the concept of an unlikely duo travelling together)

Even though I've watched the movie only now, I've always liked its hit song - "Yello Machi Machi" for quite some time now...The picturisation is also quite....I cant think of an adjective more apt that "Nice"...What with its depiction on the crowded top of rickety bus by the coast of Orissa.

It would have been a true master-piece, if only for one thing - The kung-fu movie style fight sequence where the masala hero bashes up around 15-20 armed goons with his home grown martial arts skills replete with the skillfully lethal wielding of a humble umbrella could have been entirely dispensed with!! Kamal Hassan should have controlled this bout of self-obsession.

Now, coming back to the reason for writing this...no this wasn't meant to be a movie review at all....I'll skip the poor man's Nikhat Kazmi routine right away.

What I wanted to write about was on Leftism / Marxism / Communism....Yep, as I said before, my attempt at being the armchair intellectual begins. The last time Leftism influenced me was when I was a 15 year old pouring over the Congress regime influenced Modern History textbooks. As a 15 year old, one tends to get a bit romanticised with topics like equality etc.

But today as the proverbial executive in the equally proverbial MNC, Leftism is not something that I should be even remotely relating to. But there is something definitely seductive about Leftism, or else you would not have catchy phrases like "Red Corridor" and "Pashupati to Tirupati", and the associated reality of an ultra-lefitst parallel structure across probably one-third of our geography.

Maybe, India is multiple "isms" rolled into one. Whereas in Mumbai or Delhi, one needs Western style Entrepreneurship and Enterprise to sustain the progression, in its feudal heartland, the class struggle is required to stop the regression.

I think after watching this movie, one thing that I am definitely going to do is read through the Das Kapital, and understand its tenets. But before I do that, here is a phrase written on this blog, purely for the joy of writing :-).....

"While Marxism's doctrine rests with its faith on the finality of the equality of the reward, Capitalism's doctrine rises with its faith on the finality of the equality of the opportunity. The former dictates fair rationing of reward, while the latter prescribes fair rationing of opportunity"

Back to Anbe Sivam - must watch for everyone. Try and grab a copy with substitles if you dont understand Tamil.