Dear Jeyamohan,

The tribute to Bharathiraja was emotional yet restrained. In it, you speak about the pretence we often display on the occasion of the death of a film or political personality. The media expects those attending such events to perform their grief like actors. Their aim is to extract a few dramatic moments that can be published and circulated.

The YouTube media, in particular, has become aggressive and often venomous. It tries to turn everyone into its puppets. You may recall how Ilaiyaraaja refused to act according to their expectations and was subsequently abused. The same happened to you after this article. The accusation against you was that you had written only two lines on your website, leaving them with no material from which to create their abusive content. They then discovered your English article. Their reading capacity extended only to a single paragraph, and they began attacking you based on that fragment alone.

The menace posed by this petty media is becoming increasingly antisocial. It no longer merely reports events; it seeks to manipulate them, reducing public discourse to sensationalism and abuse.

Rajendran M

Bharathiraja (1942-2026): The complete artist