Okay, I’ll not beat around the bush and come to why I’m writing this. It is because of one dialogue Surya told Mallaya- ‘you’re a socialite, I’m a socialist’. A tamil film leaning Left is no white crow and I couldn’t care less for a passing dialogue. But many people started posting stories and statuses of this dialogue and I began thinking- wait, is this what the film conveys?   

First of all, I don't exactly know who a Socialite is; might be some extremely social person but I have some idea as to what socialism is and what it entails. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that all the problems Surya faces in the movie is one way or another a by product of Socialism.

Let’s try to understand. The plot moves around a retired air force pilot Nedumaran and his friends trying to start a low cost airline, a business. He had to sift through all the government regulations and had to thaaja the politicians, bureaucrats and even their PAs. For what? To start a business. 

Why did he have to go beg the bureaucrats? Because the State decides who should run what business. How does it do that? With a set of old and rigid rules and oh yes, sometimes arbitrarily according to the whims and fancies of politicians and big businesses. 

This was dubbed as the ‘license quota raj’ where every business needed two dozen approvals from the government and countless trips to the government offices. All this because the State holds enormous power and this is because of the hangover from state socialism. 

To be fair, India was never a complete socialistic country, like say the USSR. But the State had control of all the major industries and ‘planned’ the direction that India as a nation ought to take. When we realised that this system, well sucked, the State started loosening its grip and started liberalising the economy slowly since the 80s. The State is still in no way out of the market, it holds many non-strategic businesses like hotels, condoms, soaps, etc. 

Even after liberalising, the state machinery which was used to state control based on socialistic principles could not and would not let go of the existing power. And thereby people close to this power will benefit more than others. We can think of this as concentric circles where the center holds utmost power and its influence reduces outwardly. 

For example, when MGR's government liberalised higher education colleges, the first people to start them were rich politicians and people who were close to MGR. This is the case even now; most colleges in TN are owned by people who have political influence. 

The film shows a big business trying to influence the government. Obviously he will do that, why does a settled business want any competition? If the State has the power to erase such competition, big businesses will definitely try to buy a few bureaucrats. The solution lies not in controlling all businesses but in reducing the arbitrary power of the State; collapsing the rigid circles.  

I thought this was brilliantly shown in the movie- but that might just be a ‘blue curtain’ moment for me. When Surya sees the sparrow not being able to get out of the window net, he slowly removes the net thereby allowing the sparrow to fly off into the sky. I thought this was a metaphor for Surya’s Air Deccan being shut out by the arbitrary state and unnecessary regulation. It could very well be, but after that dialogue, I don’t think so. 

Now, I don’t know if this dialogue actually appeared in the book or if it is an attempt to fictionalise the role. However it might be, I’m not able to connect the idea of a private business ensuring ‘low cost and higher profit’ with that of a State controlled society which revolves around the idea of common ownership.

While I was discussing this with my friend and co-writer of the blog, he argued that Nedumaran’s history with Class difference- him not being able to afford a plane ticket, the railway station, his sister’s death etc- could have made him socialistic in trying to break that Class barrier. While this might seem convincing, I do not think this is quite the case.

Because if that is the case, Nedumaran would have become a politician trying to influence property rights or join the bureaucracy but he did not do that. He competed in a highly controlled market which was skewed against him by the government and still won at the end of it. If this is not testament to the benefits of the market, I do not know what is. If he is not a liberal, I don’t know who is. 

Think about it, even now, he was able to win because of politicians like the president and the minister. Why should any of these people matter to start a business? Where is economic freedom?

I’m blabbering all this because I don’t think it showed a socialist’s fight against crony capitalism. I believe the movie portrayed the evils of excessive State power and cronies who hate competition and free markets. 

I don’t  know how anything good becomes socialism in Tamil Nadu. All of them are making private profits competing in the market; not working for Doordarshan or something with monthly salaries. The amount of PR behind this word is just too much. 

Oh by the way, the movie is great. Cannot stress it enough, go watch and enjoy!

Happy Deepavali!