Romancing the Romance

The felicitation function held recently to thank the chief minister for his benevolence to the Tamil film industry folks will be remembered more for Ajith’s outburst at the function.

At the function the ever out spoken Ajith ruffled a few feathers for good as well as bad. He wanted actors to be left out of politics. He said actors want only to act and not interested to take a stand on social issues. Ajith wanted the Chief Minister to issue a direction that film personalities should not be arm-twisted to attend social and political events.

Ajith asked. “If we don’t attend the protest, we are portrayed as anti-Tamils. On the one hand, they want us to participate in political events and on the other hand they threaten us not to enter politics. What is wrong in our entering politics if we are expected to participate in political and social events?”

The shocked gathering came to their senses when super star Rajinikanth gave a standing ovation to Ajith.

While one feels happy to note the courage of the actor to bell the cats in its own citadel there are also some socially relevant questions.

No doubt the actors entertain the masses with their hard work and sweat. Most of the times, they are the inspiration to overcome depression. They need to be protected. Even in those days when anti-Hindi agitation lead by DMK was taking Tamil Nadu by storm and every spirited Tamilian was fighting for the cause on the streets the leader Annadurai exempted film stars in the party like MGR, SSR and others from participating in the agitation. The reason was if they get arrested or detained the livelihood of all the people associated with their films will be affected.

That was then. Now it’s a different world. In the sixties film stars were behind their political bosses and popularized the party. Popular actors like SSR, KR Ramasamy never thought of setting up their own shop in politics. Until 1972 MGR wouldn’t have thought of jumping into full time politics. But now every popular actor nurtures a dream of becoming the chief minister of the state one day.

But Ajith may not be one among them. The industry knows well the humble beginnings of Ajith and how by only sheer hard work and honesty Ajith reached to the top which today is not at all possible without promoters and godfathers.

In a scenario like today Ajith should not have generalized his statement as actors should be left out. Does that mean filmy people in general and actors in particular don’t have social responsibilities? When every paisa of their earnings comes from the common man shouldn’t the actors take up some of their causes? Agreed that the actors should not be arm twisted, as there are far too many functions and meetings arranged these days by some in the film industry with ulterior motives. But the actors should be able to read between and extend their support for deserving causes.

As responsible citizens of the country they must come out of their closet sometimes to take decisions for the welfare of the people. When Madonnas and Branjelinas travel thousands of miles speaking for the poor African countries; when Richard Gere and Lindsay Lohan come out in support of Tibet shouldn’t our stars also lend support to genuine causes?

How many times the actors of today would have thought of reaching out to the people? How many times they would have wanted to go and thank the people who made their film super hits and super duper hit? How many times the actors would have thought of giving back some thing to the society from which they got everything?


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