I
was indeed a film-fad 50 years before. I suffered from the craze of seeing a
movie repeatedly- several times. However, my interest was on movies which were
mythological, spiritual, societal and those carried some messages, rather than
romance, adventure, thrillers and the like. It is few decades now since I
visited a theatre as I got liberated from that ‘mental sickness’
Nevertheless,
I wanted to recall and review a Tamil movie released in 1966 – a mythological
script – Saraswathi Sabatham – starred by several of the top actors of yester
years – Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, Savithri, Padmini, K.R Vijaya and
Devika alongside the best comedian of those days, Nagesh. The story revolves
around a typical mischief played by Narada with the three Goddesses -
Saraswathi, the Goddess of Learning: Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth and
Parvathi, the Goddess of valour. Narada initiates a discussion asking who is
more powerful among the three. The identity crisis works -intensely among all
the three goddesses each trying to prove their might.
Saraswathi,
the Goddess of Learning, picks up an idiot from a village and transforms him to
a poet, a scholar and a wise man in the kingdom. Lakshmi, the Goddess of
Wealth, picks a poor lady begging on the road and transforms her to the Queen
of the Kingdom with enormous riches and finally, Parvathi, finds out a most
cowardly person of a village and converts him to the most valiant man of the
kingdom who assumes the role of the Head of the army. The real story starts
with each trying to outwit the other to establish their supremacy, thus leading
to a total chaos in the Kingdom and all the three trapped into conflicts and
helpless for their own fault.
Leaving
aside the end of the story, the message articulated in the story is powerful
and eternal – what is important to life – knowledge, wealth or health?
Mere
knowledge (not wisdom) is of no use, if one has a sickly disposition or is suffering from poverty. (Our systems are
providing more information than knowledge and wisdom)
Mere
wealth is of no use if one doesn’t have the knowledge or wisdom to manage it or
has a sickly disposition.
Mere
health is of no use if one doesn’t have financial support system or suffers
from inadequacy of knowledge to use his strength.
In
the existing social scenario – the concept is very relevant;
Schools
producing knowledge without healthcare and a sense of productivity
People
earning money and suffering from want of wisdom and poor health
People
with good health unwilling to work, ignoring knowledge and engaged in dubious
ways of producing wealth.
With
conflicts galore, social set-ups are struggling to manage a multi-dimensional
crisis.
Reforms
in our education system that brings synergy among all the three resulting in
‘holistic development’ enhancing ‘happiness index’ of people is a dire need.
And
of course - films with powerful messages like this that promote social cohesion
and ethics may be the call of the day, and not those which will only provoke
undesirable goals, insatiable desires, illusive realities and emotional
disengagement. While I do see the increasing ‘entertainment’ objectives of
films, a review of the social implications of the films may be required than
their ability to reach the Box Office
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