Representations The core concern of the artists today might be how to wriggle out of the misrepresentation mafia! Long back when a Malayalam movie was titled as ‘Ponnurukunna Thattan’, the Thattan tribe’s representatives went to court pleading how the title will hurt the sentiments of the community since the title, they argued, represented them in poor light. To the best of my memory the movie was re-titled as ‘Ponnurukunna Poocha’. Lucky for the movie makers that the cats didn’t approach any court. No cat with enough self respect will oblige to accept the proverbial Malalyalam query: ‘what’s the cat doing at the goldsmith’s’? Because why can’t a cat be inquisitive enough to know what the goldsmith is up to? After all, a cat is cat, right? I mean, how does one truly represent the ‘cattiness’ of a cat? Is plain observation beside a goldsmith beyond the ken of a ‘typical cat’? Misrepresentation grievances are on the rise. This has become so habitual these days that one
