Wake up Santhanam

                                                     

                     Santhanam, a name that might be more popular in Tamil Cinema than the superstars!! There are even producers and directors who are ready to orient the script and schedules to suit Santhanam. Such has been his importance in today's tamil films. In fact, Santhanam also ensures that he often does movies that make him play not just a sidekick but a kind of supporting role to the heroes. All his movies with Rajesh and also movies like 'kalakalappu' are some examples. His gradual increase in popularity coupled with slump of form of Viveks and Vadivelus ensured that he became no.1 comedian in Tamil Cinema in no time. It has been really a long journey from being an actor of the evergreen 'Lollu Sabha' to becoming a sidekick to the Superstar Rajni in Enthiran.


                    His timing and counter punches has been strength for years. But off late may be after Kalappu  one may feel he is getting monotonous. Especially after movies like Saguni,Alexpandian,Settai,etc did not tickle much. Every comedian goes through such a phase where audience might start thinking a comedian is getting repetitive. Vivek was at his best between 1998-2003 but soon one got a feel that he is getting monotonous with too much of delivery of social messages and later often appearing in lady get ups which werent well received. Same was the case for vadivelu where his antics of getting beaten up went overdose. Personally I just get the feeling that Santhanam is just starting to get monotonous with counter punches. Moreover, he has also been using more 'crude' double meaning dialogues in recent movies which hasnt gone down well with the family audience. The recent trailers of 'Theeya Velai Seiyanum Kumaru' and 'Madha Gaja Raja' clearly shows he will be again following what he has done before. Also, its time for Santhanam to understand that using Power Star Srinivasan as a source of comedy will not generate humour in the long run. Moreover it was really pathetic to see a director like Bhagyaraj complaining that Santhanam betrayed him in falsely promising that 'Kannada Laddu Thinga Aasaiya' was not based on his classic 'Indru Poi nalai Vaa' . Clearly KLTA was based on 'Indru Poi Naalai Vaa' which made me lose a little bit of respect to Santhanam.


                'Comedy' is of course is one of the most difficult things to think and perform. Building up a comedy track and performing it with correct voice modulation,acting and with perfect timing sense isn't easy at all. Santhanam has shown tremendous consistency over the years. Many of the comedians including the legendary Nagesh haven't been able to rise up much once they lost their steam. Only GOundamani and Senthil have retained their dominance for close to a decade and a half. Santhanam is only 33 and has age in his side. This is the right time for Santhanam to make some refreshing changes to his comedy which could help him in extending the dominance he has had over the years (especially when there seems to be no comedian in hindsight now to challenge him)

Can the Indian Cricket Rise ?

                         
                                   
                                 
                                    "Defeat", well, its no longer seen with a sense of pain to Indian cricket.They got used to it. All those people who said with pride "Come to India,we will show who we are"  are now struggling to find a place in the squad. Batsmen unable to score runs , even in flat tracks. Spinners clueless,even on home conditions,a captain who quickly becomes defensive on the first sight of things getting awry, Team India have gone from worst to super worst in Test cricket.The reason is simple , eventhough we lack quality batsmen from next generation we are struggling to find bowlers who can pick 20 wickets in a test match.It doesn't matter even a batsmen scores 500, if we can't pick 20 wickets a team cannot win.In fact, we have asked "who is going to replace Sachin,Dravid,laxman,etc.." but how many of us thought have we got a replacement for kumble ?  Is there a replacement for Zaheer ? 'No' will be the majority. Over the years, we have only glorified batsmen that we have forgotten the contributions of Javagal Srinath,kumble and our other bowlers. How many of us think those kumble's 619 wickets were as precious Sachin's tons of runs.Did we win only because of the "The Wall" and "God" ?? We were so fortunate to have a few legendary batsmen coming together that our weak bowling affected us only at fewer times.

                   At this stage, India has every chance of dropping below West Indies,New Zealand and it wont be surprising even if Bangladesh upsets us in a test series. The process has to change at grass roots. Atleast a handful of matches in Domestic tournaments like Ranji trophy , Duleep trophy has to be conducted on green wickets. That is one of the main reasons why we are struggling to find a bowler who can bowl consistently over to 140 kph. Lack of exposure to green wickets is also a reason for our next generation spinners failing to get wickets in England and Australia.Another notorious way that often occurs is rushing in youngsters at the first sight of a worthy performance. Those players survive until they are sorted out.After then, these young players lack the mental toughness to see through that phase. Players need to see through enough seasons to ensure they dont fall out after few months or a year in international cricket.


                    For me, the biggest surprise is Dhoni becoming unbelievably defensive. The lowest point was during India tour to Australia,when a No.10 and No.11 batsmen were at the crease and Dhoni had a field that had a long-on , long off, deep cover,deep mid wicket ??!! Post 2011 WC, at the very first sight of things not going according to plan, Dhoni goes on to defensive at the quickest. Why?? God knows.Dhoni's s tale captaincy is also a reason for our downfall in test cricket. But again,is there a BETTER player than Dhoni for a captain ? Well, thats itself a big debate. The main contenders like Gambhir and Sehwag are no longer seen as a permanent player in any format. Just when everybody thought Kohli is the next wonder, he is beginnning to have a slump.So who else ? well, no one.


                    The selectors, not just Srikkanth but the whole lot of others over the years are also to be blamed for not giving a fair run to promising all-rounders.Wait, how many potential all-rounders have they selected ? Well, from the hindsight my gut feeling is that they look at the top 5 run getters and top 5 wkt takers and the job is done. They hardly take a look at those players who fall in between who have taken wickets and scored runs. Many feel that Indians don't have quality all-rounders coming out from the domestic circuits. Well, you may have to change your opinion after seeing through a few player profiles. Players like Abhishek Nayar,JP Yadav, etc deserved an extended run despite their failure in first few ODIs.When players like Rohit Sharma get an unprecendented run for his 'amazing' talent these players deserve too.In my opinion the selectors' decision to ask a blueprint from MS Dhoni on winning the next world cup is ridiculous unless there is some sort of input from BCCI or selectors. A captain can only give an outline, it is the selectors who should have broader details for the domestic players. A captain, that too in today's cricket of hectic shedule will hardly have an idea about the next generation players.


                   So,is there anything positive for Indian cricket ?? Well, the Indian colts winning U-19 World cup and that too in Australia is definitely a good sign for the future of Indian Cricket.Unkumt Chand,Baba Aparijeeth have already earned a lot of praise for their ability. The recent losses is deinitely a blessing in disguise as it has exposed the weakness and frailities present in the Indian cricket for everyone to see. People like Rahul Dravid,Ganguly,Kumble,etc and other former players should be drafted in the technical committee and consulted for re-building the Indian cricket team. In the mean time, it is a great opportunity for Indian hockey,Football,etc to cash in the Indian cricket's dip in popularity.