Ragu Sir (Remember Mangalam Sir in BOYS !!) – my ex boss, a terrific character thats gone through this whole cycle of intellectual vibes. His knowledge in Indian literature and Indian cinema knew no bounds. Although he loves to call himself a fool and doesn’t matter if others call him one, he is the one who can give you a path-breaking vision, a deep insight into yourself and can re-engineer you within a few hours to shape your perspectives of the world. Screws you inside out, professionally. Brashed me with hard-truths several times, again professionally. Miss those lovely conversations that I shared with him in that small tea kadai and the dark corridors of MEPZ.

He had written a good poetic verse called Life and Times of a Blogger, about my blog sometime back. He is back after long time following The Battle of the FILMI Geeks. It is a comment that he had left in the previous post. He calls me Subbu instead of Guru and sometime even the SUBBUDU.

Forget that however. Here he goes :

By standers’ blabber- Mr.citizen of Laxman.. Hello everyone(lazygeek my friend courtesy your blog site) I have closely followed your flame, fireworks,heat and dust. I understand the following:

You are one helluva guys, who are good at brainstorming, polemics, and incisive analysis on the art of films and filmmaking. I have no pretensions, would prefer to be called a fool.. I think all of you are quite, intellectual lot, with good ideas, and a sportive attitude to debate on filmi interests. There have been anti-democratic tendencies such as ‘if i dont like what this guy is saying, then i dont like him” I would like to quote thomas jefferson”I would defend my opponents’ right to speak his viewpoint till my death, even though I dont agree with him at all” (Something to this effect). I THINK you guys also restricted your potential by narrow casting your spoke to “Mani V/s Bala” it would have been better if it was “Tamil (Indian also meant here) People V/s Tamil Cinema”

I THINK we all need to have this terrific spirit.

BTW, with you resourceful, guys, why not something of constructive activity crop up such as:
each one analyse and share his / her favourite,most happening / happened director like Rudraiya,Balu mahendra, bala chander, seran,mani,bala,susi, of course the other ones like ritwik gatak,satyajit ray, mrinal sen, goutam ghose,etc..(indian ones, no hollywood yardsticks!!)..like a panorama of the director and works, and let everyone, analyze,critique..
this way the forum could become a film app(dep)reciation club kinda thing..i as a blog-illiterate,e-illiterate, dont know whether such things can happen..projects in a blogcontext. Take it up if you like, you guys have the potential and the energy and sincerity. Subbu i will appreciate if you share this with your group if it makes sense..

Yours sincerely,
film/cyber/blog ILLITERATI
Sd/-
left thumb impression

When he says ‘if i dont like what this guy is saying, then i dont like him’, he means me, lazygeek and not you. As I said I hate bala for all his heroes are cracks. Me and my narrowed words. You are right in quoting Thomas Jefferson. Will try to change myself for that.

A Film Appreciation Club. Well, Thats what many literary guys ask for. From Jayakanthan to Sujatha, from La. Sa. Ra to Sundara Ramaswamy, from Sivashankari to Anuradha Ramanan everyone(except the film personalities) at some instance have hinted for a good film appreciation club. I know there are few of them for tamil / english movies in madras. But I am not sure if there is a virtual one on the net. Good Idea. Any takers ?