MSM certified? Not necessary
Writer Sujatha, in his Katradhum Petradhum in Vikatan has mentioned about Blogswara, which was in my opinion, a fantastic attempt by bloggers. But Sujatha has been patronizing at best in his comments. And I’m miffed, to say the least. Miffed, not because he did not agree with me, but because he has different levels of political correctness for different types of people.
Sujatha is usually all praise of the works of film and other celebrities. At the maximum, he would hardly say anything negative at all due to fear of raking up a controversy. Diplomacy? Maybe. But all that diplomacy goes for a six when it comes to first-timers, amateurs, who do things out of interest and who go to him seeking his opinion/feedback.
I’ve never seen him criticize any well known person in his Katradhum Petradhum, or in any other writings of his, even remotely.
Even in today’s Katradhum Petradhum, he is all praise of Kani Mozhi’s poem.
Sujatha has written in a particular tone about Blogswara. But will Sujatha dare to take on a mediocre music album that is put on sale by a professional music director? I bet NO.
In this sense, i appreciate the likes of Cho much better. Atleast they have the guts to say what they really feel, no matter who the concerned person is.
It is pertinent to note that Sujatha did not have the guts to voice his opinion even on such straight forward, black and white issues like the ‘Kushboo Karpu Episode.’
He simply sidestepped saying there is no freedom of speech in India.
I admire Sujatha’s fiction. His Padhavikaaga is still one of my favorite political novels. But i dont quite agree with his selective criticisms and subtle “thudhi paadals” to biggies in the industry - be it the media or films or politics via his columns for whatever reasons. The fact that he is such a popular writer works to his advantage.
This brings me to another question and had me thinking. Why should we bloggers look for recognition from main stream media? Just like Kamal Haasan does not need the recognition of Motion Picture Academy to measure his greatness, we too do not need the recognition of national/regional mainstream media.
We know how good the following are in their own domains
Ammani with her quick tales,
Keerthi in his collage works.
Ganesh, Jo and Murali, with their music,
Dubukku in tamil humor,
Anand, Kaleidoscope, Srikanth in photography
Sidin, Abhinav in english humor
Do we need a Sujatha to tell how good they are?I don’t think so.
The above mentioned are just a tip of the iceberg. That fact is there are hundreds of people like them.
Each medium has its own dynamics, its own audiences and quirks. Be it Tamil cinema or print media or blogs.
We don’t necessarily need to have ‘MSM certified’ as a criteria to celebrate the best talents in blogosphere.
Let people like Sujatha go ga-ga about Shankar, Mani Ratnam or Kamal Haasan for whatever reasons.
We bloggers have our own heroes and heroines and I think it’s high time we realize it.
July 28th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
My thudi paadal to you - you are definitely among my list of heroes.:-)
July 28th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
PK thanks for the writeup and mentioning about blogswara
IMHO, many talented folks are out there waiting to be discovered.
But thanks to internet you don’t necessarily need the MSM guys to promote, If a person’s work is good may be it writing or music.
I am sure they will get the attention and sure later MSM will come for them.
Its already happening in myspace, youtube and other places.
July 28th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
PK,
I read Sujatha’s thoughts in KP.
I took it positively. I felt proud to be a part of a team that created the album and felt happy that Sujatha ( whom I repect a lot) wrote about it.
That said - He pointed out the problems with Bandwidth which has always been a concern for me. I have always wondered if people in India would be able to listen to it. I even wrote about it in our Blogswara blog.
Artists shine more thanks to the critics - Case in point - Subbudu. His reviews have been like pin pricks at times and now and then you’d hear artists complain about him. But then that is Subbudu’s style.
So, bottom line - I am happy that Sujatha took the time to visit Blogswara and write about it in KP.
July 29th, 2006 at 12:24 am
deepak,
summa iruda nee vera…
Every hero has a past
dganesh,
my pleasure.
But i did not like the way it was put across my sujatha…
the example he gives about rejection not being there which would affect the quality is heights..
does he mean to say a reasonable number of film songs are good in quality?
the fact remains that only a few and that too by top directors and music directors are tolerable…
Give me a break!
NV sir,
For starters, my main grouse is, Sujatha talks more about the medium than about the effort.
There again he writes that there are a lot of similiarities between film songs and songs by teams like blogswara…
He does not even talk about the possibilities such collobarative effort could lead to in future…
Bandwidth may be a issue now, but it will not be a big deal in the days to come.
And what irked me most was his referral about the quality. This is a long held stereotype that anything done by anonymous ppl and for free has to be poor in quality.
And las but not the least, i dont see any constructive criticism either.
Onnu vena sollikalaam, namma favorite eluthaalar nammalai pathi eludhirkaar..avlo dhaan.
July 29th, 2006 at 1:07 am
Cho is straightforward. But a good bit of the time it is just jack-of-all-trade-master-of-none rhetoric. He even extends to topics on which his cumulative knowledge is zilch.
Case in point is his letter to BCCI in 1982 on Venkat’s exclusion from the team.
July 29th, 2006 at 7:22 am
PK,
look what happens if Sujatha speaks his mind, you get angry. :-0) That said his one liner “There’s no freedom of speech in India” isn’t that enuf ? He cannot speak more than that as he will be immidiately attacked as poonoolkaran, brahmnan etc.
BTW like NV, I didn’t find the article posted in Ram Viswanathan’s blog any patronizing. Remember he has to write to a wider audience. Therefore he has to compare the blogswara effort to the kollywood efforts. I think it was a good effort by the troupe and a good encouraging article from Sujatha
July 29th, 2006 at 9:01 am
manase, relax please..!
July 29th, 2006 at 10:51 am
romba kothichu ezhundhiteenga!! i am not that familiar with what is exactly happening!!
July 29th, 2006 at 10:54 am
ttm,
maybe. but i wud prefer that anyday.
karthik s,
i am angry bcos he is choosy when it comes to speaking his mind.
either speak yr mind against all or be diplomatic to all…
while writing that piece, he does not take into account the possibilities that is in store in future.
he does not talk about how things like youtube, blogs are bascially removing the obstacles which prevailed bfore the web era for talented artists as ganesh has rightly pointed out in the comments.
i think these have more significance to a wider audience.
More importantly, he is overly concerned with quality. if only he has bcome so quality conscious he shud’ve stoped writing to the mainstream mags like vikatan, kumudam which ppl buy by paying money(not free).
I dont see any word of encouragement for the artists.
Nor do i see any constructive criticism. which is what one would expect of him.
ennamo pona pogudhu pozhachu ponga -ndra madhiri oru reference..
but from what i see, its like since sujatha has mentioned the word blogswara in his column, its mission accomplished in life for some. i have to come to this conclusion going by the response.
July 29th, 2006 at 11:00 am
relax machi..
dank u. apdiye koncham soda kedahca nalla irukkum:)
priya,
freeya vidunga. yedho poludhu pogadavanga ennamo pesittu porom:)
visit http://chennailiving.blogspot.com
for more.
this post is my (less popular)take on that issue:)
July 30th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
sujatha kittaendhu critisicsm vaenam..neega kooda enna vittuteenalae:-(
July 30th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
PK
I go with Narayanan on this..
Sujatha expressed the same sentiments to Thennavan and I when we met him last month. What he has done now is to refine his thoughts and also do some more background check…
He did start with a complement and then move on to two issues 1)bandwidth & 2) editing / quality..
We do currently have bandwidth issue in India and the nature of the medium (net / blog) does give an opportunity for all kinds of stuff to come out..
But then.. as you rightly pointout, great stuff have come out ‘opensource / freeware’ movement and similar thing is possible in the music field also..
July 31st, 2006 at 7:38 am
vidunga p.k, ovoruthar karuthu oru oru maathiri, and NV sir um DGanesh sir um athula irukura positive paarkuraanga paarunga, that shuld be the wae.
ipadiku
karuthu kandaswamy.
;p
July 31st, 2006 at 8:36 am
Ram and Srikanth
If we are to take it as “Wow, our favorite writer has mentioned us”
Yes, its a positive thing in that case.
And yes our atitude should be Positive, no question about it.
But apart from that, my grouse against Sujatha is different and stays valid (atleast to me) as i’ve mentioned in my post.
July 31st, 2006 at 8:41 am
chandru,
vidu next time yaaravadhu thirrumbodhu unnayum include pannikaren ;p
July 31st, 2006 at 9:44 am
i really can’t stand these KNow-It-Alls who have an opinion on anything and evrything…..
anyways, if we are doing what we love to do, why should anyone’s opinion matter?
July 31st, 2006 at 10:33 am
cho’s guts and view towards different issues is different from all other writers and i personally feel no other critic has taken up his position.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:52 am
monu,
there r 2 things.
>>1. why should we care abt what others think?
i agree completely!
2. At the same time i think i have the right to raise my voice against perceived double standards even in passing judgements…
shobana,
exactly!
August 2nd, 2006 at 9:12 am
Sujatha concludes by saying “Pozhudhu poga villaiyendraal keetu thaan paarungalen”, which is a bet condescending as well as irritating. Otherwise he is right about bandwidth, and the lack of real-world pressures on such efforts. In the blogworld there seems to be lot of uncritical fanboy behaviour; most bloggers/net musicians wouldsimply wilt under the Subbudu kind of criticism. The blogosphere also has it’s form gratuitous back scratching corruption in the form of mutual link-trading. Criticism is good and bloggers/net-musicians should welcome it and not burn copies of AV (ok adhu konjam over :). Also in the same article he criticises ISRO/DRDO which is not so MSMish - What’s MSMish is heaping uncritical praise on those organisations and write yet another article praising Abdul Kalam.
Congrats, BTW, you are really hitting the high note in the last couple of posts about religious conversions, open-source, this one …
August 2nd, 2006 at 10:25 am
bnb,
thanks.
that was precisely the line that got be started on this.
and also he had mentioned in the beginning “tharam mune pinne irundhaalum” kinda statement.
blogosphere’s inherent dynamics are different. And i think there are always opporunities to criticise someone thru the comment box(its a dif. matter that most of the ppl either write something positive or do not write at all)
given all this, i still agree with you that we are better of with some good constructive criticism.
From whatever i’ve seen ppl take it in the right spirit if it comes from someone who is knowledgeable..
(i’ve seen murali commenting on jo’s voice for eg)
regarding sujatha’s take on the ISRO/DRDO, i think he did knowing very well they will not raise a hue and cry. i agree with that part of his definitely too.
but i’m pretty sure he will not write anything like
“Kanimozhi oru kavidhai ezhudhi kaabithaar.. sumaraga irundhadhu.. pozhudhu pogavillai endraal padithu dhaa paarungalen”
No, not in his lifetime!
even if animozhi writes something stupid.
kanimozhi is just a parameter, you can even pass kamal, maniratnam or shankar and my point wud be still relevant.
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Prabhu,
I forgot all about that Kani-Mozhi Jaalra while posting - that puts in entirely in a diff. light. Does indicate that he can go a little soft when he wants. In one of his previous KP articles he actually said that Muslims don’t like being criticized or something to that effect, which I thought was a little un-MSMish.
August 2nd, 2006 at 9:20 pm
PK,
Leave everything and take the positive comments. Blogswara has received attention from a eminent writer like Sujatha, and something published in Vikatan about blogswara.
As someone had already commented he has written for a mass and exclusively for a group of readers.
Looking forward for some interesting posts from you.
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Thank you for mentioning my name here along with these talented people man.
I came here too late. thanks to my messy net connection in the lodge room. (BTW, did I tell you I moved to Trivandrum for a new job??)
I couldn’t read what Sujatha wrote yet. So no comments on that.
But it is true that when I mentioned about BlogSwara to some already famous names in the music industry, they were like “oh,that.. hmm.. okay..”. Just that ignorance. But I think inside, they are very ‘concerned’ about the popularity that BLS is getting day by day but they pretend ‘its nothing’.
Once a brother (not biological) of mine commented in my blog: There is something good about amateurs. They can only progress to be good. They can only aim high and make themselves sound good. This the what I have to say about BlogSwara. This is our strength. Being amateurs who only aim to improve themselves day by day. (I am omitting the word “professional”).
We are not concerned about the publicity like the people in the mainstream music industry, but the concept. We want to keep it going on. We didn’t do this thinking it would fetch us some popularity or publicity. But it came to us. How many of the existing people in the mainstream music industry can say this honestly? In my recent talks with some people in the industry I have heard how people are struggling to get a song and thus, FAME. People pays some grand money to the music director or producer to get a song in an album or movie. Result: The talented ones with no money or who doesnt know how to survive in this, gets abandoned. This is where BlogSwara come in.
We are not going to stop after this first version. More are coming, more talented people are joining, we still prodce music free for all.
And yet, it doesn’t mean we are rivals of the mainstream music industry (MSMI). If we are offered a chance from the MSMI, we will definitely accept it. BlogSwara is an attempt to purify the existing music arena, not a revolting team against MSMI.
We don’t necessarily need to have ‘MSM certified’ as a criteria to celebrate the best talents in blogosphere.
Agree with you totally. And I am glad you wrote about this subject buddy.
Thank you.
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Guys, about the bandwidth issues, we are trying our best to overcome that. Its not an easy thing to fix since we have to consider the quality of the audio yet keeping the file size small. Hopefully, we can solve it soon.
June 12th, 2007 at 4:39 am
Super duper post pa!!
Every word of the post deserves a Booker!!