MyVoice: Views of our readers 13th January 2023

'Naatu Naatu' brings fame for Indian music

Apropos, "PM joins nation in celebrating Natu Natu moment," (The Hans India, Jan 12). It is to the pride of every Indian that "Naatu Naatu," a peppy four-and-a-half-minute dance number from the Rajamouli's Telugu blockbuster 'RRR,' waltzed into the record books on Wednesday when it became the first song from India to win a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. 'Naatu Naatu' finding so much international attention is startling and stunning in the same breath. But a deeper analysis leads to the idea that this may have to do more with RRR itself — the story of the underdog rising, the poverty-stricken India of the 1920s under British rule, wrapped in colours, costumes, nationalism, and puffy music. But while the West's predilection for M M Keeravani's composition, filmed on actors NTR Junior and Ram Charan, is growing, the song is hardly exceptional. The tune, the lyrics, the singing, the expression — are all at best, ordinary. What it has in abundance is what the West values much more — sound quality, mixing, clear chords.

N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru

II

Now that the native 'Naatu Naatu' tune got world recognition through the Golden Globe Award, I wish the music directors of south Indian films will stop mimicking the cacophonic western tunes in their films and start composing in our huge pool of local traditional tunes. Congrats to the 'RRR' team and the music director Keeravani for reminding us the value of original tunes.

Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao, Vijayawada

III

Really, it is very wonderful to know 'Naatu Naatu' had beat numbers like Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Lady Ganga to win the award. With this award, the international community once again reminisced the importance of freedom struggle as triple R pictured the freedom struggle of Alluri Sitharama Raju and Komaram Bheem in 1920s. However, the powerful film media is presently tangled in politics. Thus, I hope the personalities who are in the creative world must not take sides in politics but they give some thing good to society through their creation.

Pratapa Reddy Y, Tiruvuru (NTR Dt), AP

IV

Telugu song 'Naatu Naatu' in RRR movie, the first Asian song to win the coveted Golden Globe award, is a prideful moment to Tollywood and Telugu people. Director Rajamouli, lyricist Chandra Bose and music composer Keeravani have displayed excellent team work and especially actors Jr NTR and Ramcharan have militarily exhibited their foot tapping number which induced repeat audience and made it a super hit. However, I like to mention that there were super-duper musically mesmerised numbers in movies decades ago. To cite one: Songs in 'Suvarnasundari' produced by Anjalidevi and music composed by her husband Adinarayana Rao were hailed by almost all great musicians in India. At that time Telugu films were never considered for awards.

S Vijayaseshu, Godavari Khani

Guv Ravi must quit to work for BJP

Apropos 'TN Governor playing petty politics' (12 Jan). The Tamil Nadu Governor seems to be more keen to please the political masters who have made him the Governor. The Governors are supposed to act as a bridge between state and center, not to become an agent provocateur for the rulers in Delhi. On renaming, the West Bengal government sent a proposal to the Center to rename the state as "Bangla'' last year and there has been no update on this from the Center. It is not clear how the Governor suggested renaming and that too when even central leaders can't easily pronounce it. If Governor Ravi wants to work for the party he must request the Center to relieve and join the party and then fight DMK government.

N Nagarajan, Hyderabad

India must not fall in adulation trap

To believe that India is now a messiah for world peace is a gross exaggeration of our importance. It is only in India that such importance is given to the PM Modi and his attempts at trying to bring the warring factions together. There have been many television channels which claimed that Modi had the power to stop the Russian hostilities and Putin and Biden. Both consulted Modi on the issue. So far, Modi has done the tightrope walk between Ukraine and Russia quite well, but a single misstep cold result in disaster. It would be a feather in the cap for Modi if he were able to get both the warring nations at the negotiations table. What we need to be careful about is not to fall in the trap of other nations using us to further their own interests. It's better to get rid of all the messianic nonsense spring and concentrate on making India a better place to live!

Anthony Henriques, Mumbai

16 species of animals rescued during inspection in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: During inspections of several pet shops in Bengaluru, the Karnataka Animal Welfare Board (KAWB) saved up to 1,344 animals from 16 different species. In addition to this, 44 pet shops received notices over non-compliance to the Pet Shop rules. Additionally, 20 pet stores have received closure notices. Following a report from Humane Society nternational in December 2022 of illegal pet stores operating in Bengaluru city in violation of Pet Shop Rules, KAWB conducted the inspection.

When the BBMP veterinarians visited the locations, they urged the proprietors of the pet stores to register and operate legally, but nothing significant changed. As a result, in Bengaluru, seven teams made up of representatives from the Karnataka Animal Welfare Board, the police department, the veterinary department of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and the staff of the animal husbandry department conducted inspections of various locations where animals are kept and sold.

Tender invited for recruitment of 1000 drivers through outsourcing

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which is struggling to operate all its buses due to shortage of drivers, has invited tenders to hire 1000 drivers on contract basis through private agencies. Drivers with experience in driving heavy vehicles, cargo vehicles are stipulated to be supplied.

BMTC has around 6800 buses and runs only 5565 buses daily due to the shortage of drivers. As a result, adequate bus service is not being provided to all areas of the city. The number of routes and trips has been reduced due to shortage of drivers. The drivers who are currently working are overwhelmed by the pressure of work.

The financial condition of BMTC, which has suffered a loss of crores of rupees, has further deteriorated after Covid. Thus, the recruitment process of drivers, operators and other staff has been suspended for 2-3 years. Many of the suspended drivers were not rehired when the staff went on strike demanding wage revision.