Movie madness

There's a rule in Tamilnadu (and maybe in other parts of India) that movies with non-tamil words in their title are taxed, whereas tamil-only titles are not. I'm sure there's a nationalistic logic to this, and perhaps it's a way to make people cherish their "mother-tongue".
Film promotion is often in the news papers, regardless of language, so tamil films with tamil titles are promoted in English papers, transliterated. They can't translate the names .. because of the tax. So you have situations where movies are have promotional text with titles like "Muzhi" which really only make sense to those who understand Tamil.

There was a time when I was a bit of a Tamil-nationalist. I'm now realizing that language, like religion, is simply a way to keep people apart.

Powered by ScribeFire.