Two states Tamil Nadu and Kerala in India have, of late, been blowing hot and cold over an issue which is as old as one hundred years. Interesting. What is it?

A 'damned' dam located on the Western Ghats in Thekkadi, Idukki district of Kerala is the 'bone of contention' between the two. It’s 'damned' because the politicians and the people on both the sides behave as if their million-strong race was at stake.

The Mullaperiyar dam is too old to stand and is posing a greater to risk to the lives on both the sides is what Kerala charges. The state is seeking a solution ONLY in building a new dam in the (god damn) place. But Tamil Nadu is proving a ‘tough nut to crack’. “Pay respect to the Supreme Court verdict and raise the water level to 142 feet from 136 feet”, is its argument. 

The controversy snowballed into a ‘tug-of-war’ between the two states for many years and the court (SC) in the year 2010, decided to constitute a 5-member empowered committee that sought to submit a report within 6 months (it's almost more than a year and a half now). While Kerala on its part obliged to the order by ‘letter and spirit’, TN has been dragging its feet and has flatly refused to send a member to the committee. (What an audacity!)

The politically savvy DMK (in 2010) recommended Centre to intervene but its arch-rival AIADMK cried a halt as the latter believed it would end in Kerala's favour. The two major Dravidian parties would ‘leave no stone unturned’ when it comes to political one-up-man-ships. Now the parties (including the newly emerging DMDK of silver-screen fame Vijaykanth) unusually are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in expressing their solidarity. (Long live the unity).

On this issue, I saw recently a Tamil politician (Who? Ans clue: he loves his own images on TV) calling for the disintegration of India in line with what USSR had witnessed in 1991. (He doesn't care if he was joking).

Justice A.S. Anand Committe is still awaiting the arguments from both the sides though. Meaning, the politicians are busy fighting for space on all the 1000 odd TVs in India but never seem to have bothered to put a word across the committee yet so far. The proof of which is the court (SC) had criticized the Union Govt., for failing to fund the committee enough (Knock…knock…what’s latest in Mullaperiyar dam, your honor?)

The spectacle of this has otherwise been brilliantly captured on a 3D movie by a marine engineer turned director called Sohan Roy. (That was how believed he could make money out of the ‘damned’ controversy). He made a mistake though. He failed to find audience in Tamil Nadu for the state went furious over a dam breaking into pieces (even though it was made of GFX) that lead to banning the movie all over the state.

What on Earth the director found on those tiny little cracks on a 116 year old British-built dam?

The god-damn 3D effect (metaphorically) was ONLY visible (notably in Tamil Nadu) when the amnesia-struck people have comfortably forgotten about Kudangulam protests, the disproportionate wealth case in Bangalore courts, 2G scam tainted politicians and corporates, FDI in retails etc.

Well, now the question occupying in the minds of the commoner is: Is the issue legal or political or moral or theatrical?

Only time will tell.