Pages

Monday, 30 April 2018

Re-Entry of Thala

Hi all,
There is plenty of cricket going around well only India this time, as it is the season of IPL. There is no cricket happening elsewhere in the globe.
As usual this year too, there is plenty of action and thinking happening on ads to be shown in the telecast, and pretty much they meet the standards they have set for themselves that most of them does not make sense at all !

The biggest wonder one could ever have is the ads for mobile phones, not a single phone ad shows one messaging / speaking , all they care about is taking a selfie, or a selfie like picture using the back camera !

Now that I have set the context with cricket and jumped to ads immediately I am also trying to be in their league. If at all anybody needs one without any proper coherent thought which I think is the most sought after skill in IPL season, I am all ready and can guarantee that I will be a pro in it.

Coming back to this season specially, there was quite a buzz as it is the much anticipated return of two teams by actually eliminating two teams which was formed as the result of elimination of two teams in the first place ! You probably know this already, unless you are living in a den!
It is Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune SuperGiant(s) which were basically in camouflage making way for CSK and RR. Except for the name change , these teams were practically the same , giving us a Sivaji'um nan than MGR'um nan than moment !

But interesting part is how do we take this edition, since TamilNadu is in auto-pilot mode for protests, which surprisingly is uniting all of us irrespective of caste creed and religion. With advent of WhatsApp and decline of Facebook, we have simply too many protests happening on. If you had to take a road trip from Kanyakumari to Chennai, you could have participated in all sort of rallies protests, by that time you reach Chennai you would realize how diverse TamilNadu is , and you will see the diversity of the protests.
While I seriously believe in the significance of protests and the results of the same, there are some protests which are totally pointless like the one which happened in the movement of IPL from Chennai. I was totally confused with the protests, the ruling party AIADMK was protesting for non-setting up of the Cauvery management board, DMK was protesting that AIADMK was not protesting in full vigor and josh, Congress and BJP were also protesting, only point which we will have to ponder upon is who has to act on these protests if everybody is protesting for the same !
Since the protests were going seriously, some people realized that nobody realized that they exist like Seeman, Communists and some movie makers. Since they were jobless they decided to protest against IPL and they formed a brilliant plan like one of Vadivelu's men who try to stop a marriage by stealing the comb of the groom.
These guys decided to stop the entry of umpires thereby stopping the match.  They let the people in, they let the team in, but delayed the entry of umpires!
People may have heard of threat to player safety, threat to particular religion or race, but being unique TamilNadu made a threat to umpires, and as a result the toss was delayed by ten minutes !

Coming back to cricket (once again ) , this time like always CSK is giving their fans enough reasons to go for a health check up to survive pressure. It seems like Harbhajan was practicing very hard for well learning Tamil and tweeting. I was very surprised to see the squad of CSK, when all other teams were picking up the youngsters, CSK relied on experience and it seemed as though that they were picking up team for a decade of IPL with players who played since the first edition. But you have to believe in MSD, for he can do what others cannot think of.
On a serious note, I think no other franchise has established that much of a fan base. Teams bankrolled or supported by cine stars, industrialists have found their fan base wavering, while CSK had created a phenomenon for itself. CSKs owner Seenivasan, reached a cult status with followers branding him as 'Seeni mama'.
The Chennai Franchise and the entire state, has adopted Dhoni as 'Thala' a localized term for Leader, and the deputy Suresh Raina as 'Chinna Thala'.  It has got to be in the state's DNA that an outsider of the state comes into the state and then becomes the undisputed ruler of the state and its people.
History will always repeat itself ! And the state does not take it as a bad remark, but takes pride in this that an outsider of the state is able to do this in the state and people are generous !

For anybody outside the state to strike a conversation with a guy from the state, the first topic which they will arrive at is Rajinikanth. CSK's campaign so far can be directly compared to Rajinikanth's movie that the hero will be cornered to a point of no return, and then the hero does a jail break and emerges victorious.
It is the same reason why CSK has a strong fan base, that the fan base is organically grown, and there can be so many parallels between CSK and the real happenings of the state. Knowingly or unknowingly, the tradition of the state is maintained in the commercials, also some local guys from the state also grew up in the team to good roles.

It does not matter whether the trophy cabinet is filled this year or not, it does not matter whether we top the fair play chart or not, all it matters for the state is the long-on six of MSD. It does not matter whether Dhoni continues to play for India or not, he will always be welcome in Chennai and when he decides to hang up his boots, for sure as a tribute Chepauk stadium will have a stand named after him.

For a state so generous to MSD and with the current political vaccum, you can never predict what is in store for MSD, he can one day become a ruler of the state as well.
Irrespective of that, he may earn a berth in Marina!
It may well be turnout to be a Mangatha da! moment :)

Bye till next,






No comments:

Post a Comment