Usha Chechi,
Cool. Cool. Please don't get upset. These things will happen.
genesis: Now coming to you. What is wrong with saying that Shaji has an hidden agenda. I personally feel he has been very unethical in his article. Please try and explain to me why he did these things and then I will probably agree with you that Shaji is a great writer and we defenders of Raja are barbarians with no manners whatsoever. He are my questions:
1. Shaji says that on the web people have been saying that 'thumbi vaa' resembles some 'Istanbul' song. Now, anyone with even a fraction of musical of sense of what Shaji is supposed to possess can make out that these songs have nothing in common. So why was this quoted? If Shaji has not heard the song, is it not unethical to quote it? If he has heard the song and still quoted it, is that not unethical?
2. Shaji says that Raja blamed ONV for Pazhassiraja's music failure. When did that happen? If Shaji is quoting from online magazines, the video of the function is also online. Did Shaji watch it? If he has not, should he not have watched it before making that statement? If he has, isn't what he said unethical?
3. He says that Raja has said Bob Dylan and Bob Marley were garbage. On what is this based on? Is it based on the article that Anand wrote for 'Outlook'. Please go and read that article again. It is not at all clear as to what exactly Anand asked and why Raja replied that he is above that garbage. Anand very cleverly writes it at the end giving you an impression that Raja said Bob Dylan and Bob Marley were garbage. If quoting such an agenda driven article and basing your arguments to bash Raja with that is not agenda driven, then what is?
4. If Shaji did not have an agenda, instead of just praising someone like Bob Dylan sky high, would he not have also compared Bob Dylan's personal life with Raja's personal life? You will be surprised that lives of many of the rock heroes are nowhere near being as angelic as Shaji suggests they are. If Shaji was not driven by agenda, he would dug deep into Bob Dylan's life as well and then he may not have had much to say.
5. How can one instance, of Raja being angry with some young singers be reflection of his whole life? Don't people get angry? Does everyone behave in the most logical way in every situation? If such instances are shown and then extrapolated to give a sense that Raja is always like this, isn't that an agenda?
In short, Shaji's article bases itself on some very unethical grounds, not all sources are clearly revealed, comparisons are not fairly done, infact they are lopsidedly done, the whole article reeks of an agenda and belongs to the realm of yellow journalism.
If you love Shaji so much, please pass on this message: We are more than willing to tolerate any criticism of Raja, personal or musical but let it be done with some ethics, with some decency, let the same yardstick be used for all those who are held up as exemplery people. Then we will surely respect such an article. Till then, Shaji and Charu will be the same.
