The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Examining a system wrought with illness of commercialisation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Examining a system wrought with illness of commercialisation

N.J. Nair

CONNOISSUERS ALL: Poet O.N.V. Kurup, CPI(M) leader Kadakampally Surendran, film director Lenin Rajendran and Hindustani vocalist Ramesh Narayanan at the screening of the telefilm Rx and a documentary on `Vayalar Ramavarma,' in Thiruvananthapuram on M onday. - Photo: S. Gopakumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rx, a film by Sajiv Pazhoor, a young filmmaker, examines the ills that can befall the educational sector in the State owing to rampant commercialisation and thoughtless privatisation of higher education.

The film does not prescribe a panacea to inoculate the system against such ills, but it serves as a warning against unscrupulous operators who try to make a fortune in the education sector.

With the use of paper clippings and media reports, the film probes the issue through the mindscape of a student, who is tormented by guilt. The film reminds one how professional compulsions can push students into a mental delirium. Lack of clinical material is one of the main hurdles faced by the students of private medical colleges. The thrust of the storyline, by Sajiv, is on the steps taken by a private management to overcome the cadaver shortage in the wake of a students' protest against shortage of infrastructure. Though a bit exaggerated, the slick editing and apt use of music highlight the horrific misadventure that drive one of the students to the brink.

Once the students of the medical college go on an agitation demanding better infrastructure, the management offers to hold discussions to end the impasse. The management representative, who holds talks with the students, tries to explain the difficulties in overcoming the cadaver shortage and puts forward a proposal, which sounds appalling to the students.

Still, a group of students come forward to take up the challenge and they succeed in meeting the demands of the management. But one of them backs out of the attempt and that becomes a turning point.

The professor who muffles the student unrest with tact and coercion is a symbol of authority, which, often, plays a significant role in running such institutions, and the student who refuses to toe the line taken by his friends is an epitome of the remnants of humanity and compassion for fellow-beings.

Murali, actor, in his introduction to the film, seeks to describe how the dead are being traded for commercial gains, especially in the wake of proliferation of self-financing colleges. It goes to the credit of Murali and Ramesh Narayan, who has scored the music, that they decided to work in a film by an upcoming director. Still, it stirs the conscience and persuades one to react against injustice.

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