Panchamirtham is Abhirami Ramanathan’s maiden Tamil film. The film is directed by Raju Easwaran.

The film starts on an interesting note, as it takes you back to mythological times with Mareechan (Jayaram). Yes, the one that aped a golden deer in Rama’s time and Idumban (Raju Easwaran) fighting for the favours of Mandakini their guru’s daughter.

Idumban, being the evil villain with equally evil laughter, undergoes the humiliation of being changed into an anklet on Mareechan’s ankle. Up comes Ravanan on his Pushpak Vimana (Prakash Raj) asking his uncle Mareechan to aid him in kidnapping Sita. Mareechan obliges and you know the rest — but there is a twist. Mareechan begs Lord Rama’s forgiveness but redemption will come to him only after many yugas.

That, of course, allows a neat little peek into the present day, as you watch Sita (Saranya Mohan) hop, skip and dance in the Malayalak Karaiyoram, and enter the Ramavilas Estate in Ooty, for a job. Enter various sundry characters in the form of Rajaraman (Nasser), his scheming, silly and useless relatives Kasi and Thiruppathi (Ilavarasu and M S Bhaskar), along with a mildly insane Mayilsamy, who are keen on fleecing their rich relative as much as they can.

And then there’s Sriram (Arvind), Rajaraman’s cook, who has a history with Sita as well. Sita eventually gets the job and gets into her employer’s good books. This necessitates her removal from earth, where Killer Pandi (Karunas) and his henchman Muthu (Kanja Karuppu) to do the honours. The problem here is Killer Pandi is a butcher.

And thus begins a breezy comedy in which Mareechan and Idumban come back to life, aid or destroy everyone’s schemes liberally, arrows bring water, demons appear and disappear at will and anklets are found in the stomachs of fishes. Once you’ve gotten past the shock of seeing grown men prance around in sequined dresses and garish pearl necklaces, you sort of learn to switch off your brain and enjoy things.

Jayaram, for instance, certainly seems to have done so. When he’s almost permanently around Saranya Mohan, helping her look like a ghost or making mischief around her enemies, you can’t help but laugh at his antics. And the rest, in lesser portions, have done their best. Nasser, in his fisherman’s avatar, leaves you in splits.

Ilavarasu, M S Bhaskar, Karunas and Kanja Karuppu have minor roles, but they make a mark. Arvind does his bit well but Saranya Mohan, whose role is pretty much dumbed down, doesn’t make any impact. The climax, however, is a laugh-riot and more than makes up for any lapses in the whole film.

L Ganapathy’s dialogues, especially among the mythological characters, are a refreshing experience. Sundar C Babu’s music is a futile exercise.

The special effects take you by surprise, chiefly because you least expect it, and leave a good impression.

Raju Easwaran, on the other hand, has tried to make a full-length comedy on a weak script but he’s been aided by consummate actors who understand the genre, and that saves the film many times.

New Delhi, Wednesday, January 07, 2009: With public sector oil officers rejecting the appeal not to go on strike from 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the government has drawn up contingency plans to deal with the disruption in supply of petroleum products, including LPG, and warned of the strictest possible action against those abstaining from work.

The Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA), which claims a following of around 45,000 executives, on Tuesday refused to heed the government’s offer of talks on its wage demands. “We are only being offered verbal assurances and there is nothing concrete,” OSOA president Amit Kumar said.

Mr. Kumar on Monday met senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on the issue. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Tuesday spoke to Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the Chief Ministers of Assam and Maharashtra, urging them to take steps to protect oil installations. The Centre has put the Territorial Army on alert to take up operations at various oil sector installations.

Officers of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) are not participating in the strike, while those of Oil India Ltd have also indicated that they may not join the agitation.

Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pandey held a high-level meeting of the heads of oil marketing companies (OMCs) to take stock of the situation. He said Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) assured him that normal operations would be maintained at their facilities.

However, Mr. Pandey said, operations in three major refineries could be affected and private refineries, including Reliance and Essar, had offered to supply petroleum products to the government in case of any emergency. He said a strike in the oil sector at this crucial juncture could cripple the economy and cause severe hardship to people. “We are not vindictive against our own officers. All we want is that the economy be not impacted and citizens are spared any hardship,” he added.

The Centre has already asked the States to invoke the Essential Supplies Maintenance Act (ESMA) to ensure that auto and cooking fuel supplies are not choked. The National Security Act (NSA) would be invoked in States that did not have ESMA.

The OMCs have initiated contempt proceedings in High Courts against the OSOA office-bearers. The courts had barred the body from striking till the next date of hearing in February.

Wednesday 07 Jan 2009: Inter-services intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha reportedly said that he was willing to travel to New Delhi to help in the Mumbai attacks investigation.

According to Pakistan news agency, ISI chief Ahmed Shujaa Pasha maintained that there would not be a war. “We are distancing ourselves from conflict with India, both now and in general”.

The ISI chief said that the Indians have failed to provide evidence to support their claims that Pakistani groups sponsored by the ISI were behind the Mumbai attacks.

“They have given us nothing, no numbers, no connections, no names. This is regrettable,” Pasha said.

The General also said, “The Indians, after the attacks, were deeply offended and furious, but they are also clever. We may be crazy in Pakistan, but not completely out of our minds. We know fully well that terror is our enemy, not India.”

“It is completely clear to the army chief and I that this government must succeed. Otherwise we will have a lot of problems in this country,” he said. “The result would be problems in the west and the east, political destabilisation and trouble with America,” he stressed.

Pakistan had earlier denied sending the inter-services intelligence chief to India in connection with the probe into the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, saying a representative of the spy agency would be sent instead of him.

Kottayam, Wednesday, January 07, 2009: Two people were dead when a van and lorry collided with each other today morning near Changanassery

New Delhi, Wednesday 07 Jan 2009: A meeting of Chief Ministers of seven worst naxal affected states will be held here on Wednesday to chalk out strategies to fight left-wing extremism.

The meeting to be chaired by Home Minister P Chidambaram would see participation of Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

The meeting on naxalism comes at a time when naxalism is slowly spreading its wings in different parts of the country.

Manmohan Singh who had earlier called left wing-extremism a “virus”, on Tuesday said the naxalite groups were posing challenges of a “different” nature because of change in their ethos.

According to latest report on Naxalism, the Maoists have now started recruiting children in Chhattisgarh as part of their children’s brigade.
The Centre as part of its endeavour to root out naxalism is also in the process of raising a specialised anti-naxal force Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) besides more funds for police modernisation and development.

Wednesday 07 Jan 2009: The prospect of living a healthy and long life for the 180 million population of Uttar Pradesh is profoundly disturbing. This is because the life expectancy at birth is 56 years in UP as against that of 74 years in Kerala.

This was stated by Vice-President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, while speaking at the fourth convocation of the prestigious 108-year-old Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU), which was earlier known as the King George’s Medical College (KGMC), set up in 1905. Present on the occasion were governor and chancellor, TV Rajeswar, health minister, Anant Kumar Mishra and vice-chancellor, Dr Saroj Chooramani Gopal and health minister, besides faculty members, teachers and medicos.

” The health of citizens was a component of the globally and nationally accepted parameters of human development. On this count, “UP continues to languish at a low level of human development.” This was a fact, the State Planning Commission had also noted, the vice-president pointed out.

Referring to the data produced by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) of 2005-06, the vice-president said indeed the picture emerged for UP was very distressing. The findings of the survey are as: Around half the women in the age-group between 15 and 50, and 85% children under 3 years in the state suffer from anaemia; Around half of the children are stunted and underweight; Less than a quarter of children have been completely immunised; Infant mortality in UP is 73 per thousand live birth as compared to the all-India figure of 57.

What was most disturbing, the vice-president said, was that less than 10% households in the state had access to piped drinking water in comparison to the all-India figure of 42% and only 43% of households in UP had electricity as compared to 68% nationwide. Likewise, only 33% in the state had access to toilet facility as compared to 45% India-wide, the vice-president said.

The matter, he said, needs to be considered in terms of perceptions, policy, infrastructure, budgetary allocations and administrative procedures, role of the public and private sectors and mechanisms for medical insurance.

UP, he said, had the highest loss in the country due to premature death and disability from non-fatal illness. This needed to be addressed urgently though explicit commitments in policy programmes and the focus had to be on reduction in infant mortality, the vice-president said.

India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia has been named as one of the contenders to receive a top Asian award by a pan-Arab Abu Dhabi soccer weekly, ‘Super’.

The Arabian soccer weekly is honouring top players in Asia, Africa and among Arabian nations and the award carries a purse of $100,000 in each category.

Bhaichung is among 43 candidates in fray for the top footballer of Asia award. The list includes South Korean and Manchester United winger Park Ji Sung, Japan playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura, Thai striker Nantawat Thansopa, Saudi Arabia’s Yasser Al Qahtani and Iraq’s Nashaat Akram.

Bhaichung was elated at receiving the nomination.

“It feels great to be nominated. It is always nice and wonderful to be noticed for your hard work,” said Bhaichung, who is now in Goa for the national camp.

Kochi, Wednesday 07 Jan 2009: Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty has urged the local self-government bodies (LSGs) to make efforts to ensure that there are no homeless among the poor in the State by 2011.

Paloli said that the EMS Housing Scheme had been designed with the aim of achieving this objective. He said that there were about five lakh homeless among the poor in the State.
Paloli however, said that this figure might vary, as the local self-government bodies were not very diligent in collating the statistics of homeless. “While there was considerable delay in coming up with the statistics, in some cases the figures were completely inaccurate,” he said.

The Minister asked LSGs to draw up a realistic and accurate list of people eligible under the EMS Housing Scheme. Minister said that nearly two lakh among the homeless were landless, making them ineligible to receive the benefit extended by the government. “Clear instructions have been given to District Collectors to identify and acquire government land in their respective regions for this purpose,” he said. In cases where government land was not available, private land would be bought for building houses under the EMS Housing Scheme.

Minister said the government had made arrangements to ensure loans from banks for building houses under the scheme. He expressed hope that the government would most probably accept the request of the LSG Department to fully bear the interest on bank loans.

Minister said that local bodies assisted by the Housing Board would renovate the houses built under the One Lakh Housing Scheme, majority of which were in dilapidated conditions, in the coming two years.
He said that about 176 local bodies in the State were yet to receive the Central government’s ‘Nirmal Grama Puraskaram’ for sanitation. “Many of the local bodies that received the award had failed to sustain their performance,” he said.

Thiruvananthapuam, Wednesday 07 Jan 2009: This year’s national conference of the chairpersons of all the State Public Service Commissions (PSCs) and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) will be held here on Thursday and Friday.

Briefing the media, Kerala Public Service Commission chairman K.V. Salahuddin said the meet would discuss measures to improve the recruitment process in government services in the country.

The participating institutions are independent entities that are not bound to one another in any way. The conference is a forum where ideas are shared so that each PSC can adopt the best practices in vogue.

Thiruvananthapuam, Wednesday 07 Jan 2009: The CPM and the CPI have decided to separately observe ‘Palestine Day’ on January 8 and 9 to declare solidarity with the people of Palestine who are facing a severe assault from the Israeli military.

In a statement, the CPM State secretariat called upon all sections of people to join the evening dharnas being organised at all district headquarters on January 8 to protest against the Israeli military assault on the Palestine people.

In a separate statement, the CPI State executive called upon the people to join the ‘Palestine Solidarity Day’ being organised by it on January 9. Demonstrationss would be held as part of the observance, which was also intended to exert pressure on the Centre to take the lead to create public awareness against the Israeli attack.