Sivaji v/s Sengupta

I had previously written a post depicting the sorry state of affairs the Indian Media was mired in. And we had more proof of it now in the form of a an absolutely inflamatory post that CNN-IBN’s Featuring Editor, Ms Anuradha SenGupta had written on her personal blog on, note this, IBN’s website.

It all started with the publishing of the post titled “Sivaji The Boss. Of Crap”. Herein, the author tries to express her personal opinion about a movie which was in a language in which she can hardly pronounce a couple of words properly. And this she confesses in her post. But immaterial of her linguistic knowledge, Sengupta actually goes on to air her opinion (or a review,as you deem fit) on a movie which she has no clue about except that it is one of the biggest and had some actor from a forgettable 80s film.

When one goes through the post, it is quite evident that Sengupta has little idea what Rajni Kanth means or what his movies mean to the ordinary movie audience. She went on to pass a judgement on the movie , about an actor whose acting skills she had no idea , about the audience whom she had the cheek to call a herd of pigs without even trying to understand their sentiments and emotions. And this according to her is a personal opinion published on a news channel’s website, so that millions will read it and accept it per se.

Now this post obviously irritated a lot of people, as was evident from the 1000 odd comments that had poured in, not because it had lambasted the movie, but because it had ridiculed the actor, pulled into question the sentiment of the general audience and for the sheer crassness of the opinion.

Now this immediately had Sengupta come up with a 9 point retort, which again showed how insensible she was when it came to receiving criticisms. She tries to justify each and every word of her post with an equally crass explanation, while comfortably forgetting the herd part and trying to be sarcastic.

Anuradha Sengupta has watched this movie with no idea on what to expect and what she should not. While she suggests that numerous other movies are equally bad, she hasn’t singled out any one of them and launched a tirade against it. So why Sivaji?

As my friend Divakar had commented on that website, and I quote verbatim

“Why is that actors from the south are always termed as “Southern Sensation” even if they take regional cinema to global level,having a fan following which even Hollywood stars envy of? Aren’t you proud that he is an Indian?Aren’t you proud that even our Prime Minister talked about Rajnikanth in the Japanese parliament amidst huge applause? Is it only Amitabh’s and Sharukh’s who make India proud?”

Sengupta does all this under the guise of freedom of speech. But little did she realise that she was not comfirming to any of the guidelines that were laid down when someone needs to even comment on a post. She not just hurt the sentiments of millions of fans around, but hung on to her opinions steadfast, even when she was pointed out the obvious flaws in her post.

Sivaji, accepted, is not a great movie. The storyline is cliched. The plots are thin and predictable. But the movie is one that was made for Rajni fans , prima facie. It had all the elements that Rajni fans have come to expect from his movies. It was entertaining, it had all the elements that make u forget the outside world and indulge in sheer fantasy, plus it carried a message, albeit a minor one. And the regular moviegoer is satisfied.

This post of hers has actually brought in some self styled movie pundits with their comments and “appreciations” for writing such a “daring” article. These fools neither know nor understand the sentiments of Rajni’s fans/audience. Many of them have neither seen Sivaji, and a few of them wouldn’t even recognise Rajni Kanth on screen. To a few of them, only Akira Kurosowa and Scorsese are the directors whose movie are worth watching. These are the same guys who will watch Keanu Reeves or Vin Diesel do mind numbing stunts without questioning its logic. To all these idiots, I say, balls to you.

And many trash us for being blind Rajni followers. Do you guys have any idea why we adulate him? Do you think people sitting in places like US, UK, France,Sweden ,Australia are fond of him for no reason ? Are you calling them fools and no-brainers? If you think that Sivaji is not a good movie and Rajni Kanth is not a good actor, you are entitled to all your personal opinions. But draw the line there. You can keep your shit about comparing Rajni with others and ridiculing his fans to yourself. Nobody asks for it. Don’t think you can garner a few brownie points just by trashing someone. You will end up being a loser when you all you wanted to prove so desparately was that you were not one.

Anuradha Sengupta did just that.

I have never had a great opinion on CNN IBN. Its nowhere in comparison with its parent corporation CNN, and the legendary BBC , which are way too refined and sensible. NDTV quite matches the sensibility that these two news channels have, but all others here are a mere farce.

Anuradha Sengupta, by issuing a disclaimer, feels that she can shield her channel from all the bad blood. But unfortunately, this will not work.Being an editor, she should have had atleast the common sense to refrain from posting something this stupid on her channel’s blog.But no, she publishes it and asks us not to target the channel, without realising that she is a part of that very channel and whatever she says or does will reflect on IBN’s image.

I, for one, have decided to stop watching CNN IBN for now. I have already done something to this effect by removing that frequency from my Tely. I maybe attaching a little emotional value to this decision, but the sheer crassness of the opinion of one of its editors makes me really want to give IBN the miss.

Adios…

(

Update : IBN is hellbent on tarnishing its image with some sicko reporter putting up another post filled with racial sarcasm. And I thought Rajdeep will be a sensible editor. Won’t these guys ever change ????

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/sanjeebmukherjea/262/2126/rajini-the-blogbuster.html

)