Pawan Kalyan’s robotic speech, pre-determined content, tight body language, dramatic gestures, histrionics and plastic smiles at a moderately attended public meeting in Tirupati on Saturday sent no signals, at all. They communicated no message among any one. A few Telugu Desam sympathisers may have polarized on two sides in favour of and against the actor, whose latest movie Sardar Gabbar Singh ran aground at the box office.
The first glaring gaffe on the dais was the solecism committed by the actor. He urged MPs of all parties and Union Ministers to “safeguard the self-respect of Telugus” and when the public meeting climaxed, quite unmindful of his advocacy for Telugu self-respect, he started appealing to the audience to learn some Hindi and began crass-styled sloganeering in English and Hindi in a manner that evoked a sense of awe.
Clearly, Pawan Kalyan has no agenda whatsoever in conducting the public meeting. His chips are down. His movie flopped. He had a story planted in some media portraying his “poverty” that demanded a drastic decision to dispose of his Mercedes G55 which Pawan had bought exclusively for driving Ram Charan on the occasion of the latter’s marriage in 2011. The story appeared barely 10 days ago on August 16, 2016.
Now, he wants to conduct a series of public meetings to “question the Centre” about the Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh, as promised by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the floor of the Rajya Sabha, in every district. How much does it cost to organize a public meeting? Can a ‘poorer star’ afford at least one public meeting? Any takes to his “poor” status? He has left sufficient hints that he has sponsors supporting from behind the scene. Who is that “generous sponsor” is, of course, anybody’s guess.
Isn’t Mudragada Padmanabham’s move to announce an action plan on September 13 to fight for Kapu reservation becoming too significant at this point in time? Pawan Kalyan’s proposed meet at Kakinada, where the BJP had resolved to separate Andhra and Telangana, on September 9 is being seen as a tactical counter offensive campaign. The choreographer is all too well known.
Telugu newspapers, especially those traditionally supporting the TDP, dedicated almost one full page of coverage to the actor’s meeting dissecting every point. They made no bones about projecting the actor’s stand “nearly in favour” of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Pawan caviled at Chandrababu Naidu for not questioning the Prime Minister and the BJP over the Special Category Status. He went on to ask why was the Chief Minister afraid of the Centre? Was it because of CBI cases? “When you have nothing to fear about, why should you be afraid?” he asked.
His declaration that he wasn’t hankering for any position of power or authority and that he was ready to join hands with the TDP and even the opposition YSR Congress to fight for the Special Category Status seemed hackneyed. In asserting so, he wrote himself off that he was no power to reckon with to compete with either. He swore in full public glare that he would only play second fiddle to someone who is powerful and influential.
The utterance of the names of MP “Avanthi” Srinivas and Minister P Narayana, while bracketing them with MPs Kesineni Nani and Murali Mohan, was surely a denouement of a bad script. Srinivas and Narayana are Kapus. And, Pawan Kalyan declares that he doesn’t like to be associated with his caste, no matter however much amusement and fun such ranting would have evoked. His assertion that his daughter is a Christian was totally uncalled for.
The reaction to the actor’s shenanigans from the TDP leadership, from Chandrababu Naidu to Bonda Umamaheswara Rao to Kesineni Nani to JC Diwakar Reddy seemed to be an effort to “cover-up” the “yesterday’s endorsement” which was only palpable but not overt.
Social media bleaters, however, divided the duties – some taking up cudgels on behalf of the actor and some others against – amongst themselves. While the script did not measure up to the quality of Pawan Kalyan’s usual back-office boss; the story, screenplay, and direction did not gel well with the expectations of audience of the political celluloid.
He made the meeting completely non-serious and slighted his intent when he spoke about poor patronage from his fans to his latest flopped flick ‘Sardar Gabbar Singh’ and he appealed to people not to be carried away by the “on-screen performances” of actors. He came across as yet another actor from the filmy firmament’s chief political patron.