Viswaroopam: life may be fair after all?

As with many habits, it started off as a tendency. A slur here, a humiliation there. All done under the pretext of humor, of course. With time, the tendencies slowly but surely became deep rooted and turned into behavior. And Brahmin/Hindu baiting became the norm.

•         Michael Madhana Kamarajan – fish in a Brahmin wedding feast, a conniving paati with stealing tendencies
•         devar magan – the Brahmin lawyer as a scumbag
•         kadhala kadhala – caricaturing Hindu Gods
•         Avvai Shanmugi –the maami (particularly, the “coming out” scene in front of Nasser), Delhi Ganesh and of course, Gemini Ganesan as the tanning factory owner
•         panchatantram – Yuhi Sethu and Nagesh
•         anbe Sivam – an overt Sivan devotee (Nasser again!) indulging in sins
•         Manmadhan ambu – poetic slur

There was also a second concurrent narrative. Of the minorities and the atheists incapable of doing anything wrong.  

•         Avvai Shanmugi – The Muslim Nasser going through hardships to honor the strict norms of the Brahmin household/kitchen
•         panchatantram – the atheist Kamal is the morally upright guy, his Hindu religious type friends are promiscuous. Well, nearly.
•         anbe Sivam – Kamal is the noble atheist , the good Christian sister healing the wounded Kamal back to good health
•         unnai pol oruvan – Kamal’s beard suggestive of a Muslim identity (Naseeruddin Shah didn’t sport one in A Wednesday)

With viswaroopam’s release hurdles today, orchestrated by the "Muslim brothers", life has come a full cycle I suppose. Karmic justice, anyone?

P.S: With the political twist to this ongoing fracas, there is perhaps another take away: Hell (which Kamal doesn’t believe in, ironically) hath no fury as a woman scorned.

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In writing this, I just realize that the Brahmin baiting was focused almost exclusively at the Iyers/Shaivites. The intellectual Brahmins have invariably been Iyengars: Hey Ram & dasavatharam. Is Kamal a closet Iyengar in an atheist’s garb?

Disclosure: I have not watched dasavatharam, unnai pol oruvan and viswaroopam and do not plan to watch any of these in the next 72 hours.