Kochi: Public Works minister G. Sudhakaran has a reputation for speaking his mind and he does not mind who is stung by his remarks. This time, he took it upon himself to throw some light on the decadent tendencies in popular art, especially cinema.
In his opinion, Malayalam superstars should have a compulsory reading of Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography. “Our superstars would be ashamed if they read Chaplin’s autobiography,” the minister said.
“Chaplin was a great artiste who dedicated his life for the common folk until the very end. Malayalam stars demand huge remuneration for acting in movies. Here, greatness lies in spending Rs 100 in the making of a movie,” he said.
He said a movie was relevant only for what it wanted to say, even if it were made with Rs 100 crore or Rs 2 crore.
Sudhakaran also took a snipe at the common folk.
“We have great art forms like Kathakali and Ottan Thullal but we need a westerner to make us realize it's worth,” he said. We have pledged our brains to foreign cultural domination, he rued.
“There was a campaign that jackfruit would cause gastric problems. Jackfruits were heaped by the wayside with no takers all along the Onattukara region. Now it is not available anywhere after westerners said the fruit was good in fighting cancer,” he said.
The minister said this dependence started with the language. “Malayalis are in awe of English. MLAs cannot help sprinkling a five-minute speech in the Legislative Assembly with 500 English words. But none of them can speak properly in English,” he said.
Sudhakaran also regretted the fact that he could not speak English fluently despite learning the language for five years.
He added that Malayalam is an excellent language and he would go to any length to advocate for it.