On the evening of Saturday, February 6th, Chennai saw one of the most star-studded, yet badly organized and chaotic events in the history of Tamil cinema – the FEFSI-spearheaded function to honour Tamilnadu’s CM Mr. Karunanidhi for his support and path-breaking perks for the film industry.

Breaking the scenario into the good, the terrible and the noteworthy:

The Good:

The entire industry turned up en masse, from the biggest stars to the most respected filmmakers and technicians to thousands of fans and the general public. It was fantastic to see the tall and charismatic Amitabh Bachchan sitting next to the CM; he had specially flown in just to be at this event because of his immense respect for the Tamil film industry. In the front row were Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, R. Sarathkumar and other stalwarts, flanking the CM. Amongst the VVIP guests were Radikaa, Sripriya, Khushbu, Trisha, Shriya, Prakashraj, Mr. AVM Saravanan and Mr. L. Suresh, actors Vijay, Vikram and Suriya and almost every single name worth reckoning from the Tamil industry. The evening’s entertainment programme was in Tamil and was put together to resemble the story of the CM’s journey as a poet, politician, leader and bastion of Tamil rights. His presence and sharpness of mind has always been an inspiration for poetry and interesting performances. Stars from the industry performed and acted on stage with gusto in their endeavour to impress the esteemed Chief Guest. Kamal Haasan and Amitabh Bachchan sat alongside each other, a picture of dignity, elegance and sophistication, with Kamal Haasan explaining bits and pieces of the programme to the Big B.

The Terrible:

It was a wonder that anyone other than the scores of policemen, the stampeding general public and the CM himself could even enter the gates of the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, let alone be treated as respected guests and members of the industry. Had every single member of the film industry decided that being manhandled was enough at the gates, then it would have been a function with zero stars and zero performances; that was how bad the entry and access organization was. The police stopped everyone indiscriminately; several of these "protectors of the people" roughed up celebrities and general public alike. Much yelling, hurling of curses and pushing people around happened and the security detail seemed to have little clue of what to do. Stars from the industry were stopped, yelled at and rudely mowed about. A near-stampede situation prevailed at all times, with everyone’s tempers rising sky-high. Veterans like Radikaa and Sripriya were crushed and pushed about badly and had to resort to violence and aggression to even get through. This, despite seemingly hundreds of random policemen and “organizers” teeming about the place. The entry gates had to be kicked open; stunned and helpless people like actress Sandya had to be bodily carried through to prevent being trampled upon. Radikaa and director K.S. Ravikumar even had to rescue a young girl who was about to be crushed beneath their feet. Even Rajinikanth was made to wait for more than 45 minutes in his car at the entry for no apparent reason!