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'We are tired': A doctor pens a painful letter to actors Vijay and Simbu! Check what he has written

By alagu, 05 January, 2021
Vijay, Simbu, Master, Pongal

While the ardent fans of Vijay and Simbu are eagerly waiting to watch 'Master' and 'Easwaran' on the big screens during the Pongal holidays, a resident doctor from Puducherry has penned an emotional and painful letter to both the actors and to the Tamil Nadu government against the decision of allowing 100% occupancy in the theaters based on the demands kept by the actors with the view of letting their fans watch the movies in the theaters with the full capacity. 

Dr. Aravinth Srinivas, who is a native of Tiruchirapalli and a resident doctor at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry, had addressed the open letter to the Tamil Nadu government and actors Vijay and Simbu after the state decided to allow the theaters in the state to operate for its fullest occupancy. His letter has come at a high time when both the movies are slated for a release during Pongal.  

In his letter, Dr. Srinivas said, "Dear Actor Vijay sir, Silambarasan sir, and the respected Govt. of TamilNadu,

I am tired. We are all tired. Thousands of doctors like me are tired. Health care workers are tired. Police officials are tired. Sanitary workers are tired. We have worked so hard at the ground level to make sure the damage done is kept to as low as possible amidst an unprecedented pandemic. I am not glorifying our work for I know there is nothing so great about it to the onlooker’s eyes. We don’t have cameras in front of us. We don’t do stunt sequences. We aren’t heroes. But we deserve some time to breath. We don’t want to fall prey to someone’s selfishness and greed.

The pandemic isn’t over and we have people dying till today to the disease. A hundred percent theatre occupancy is a suicide attempt. Rather homicide, for none of the policymakers or the so-called heroes are going to put themselves under the pump, to watch the movie amidst the crowd. This is a blatant barter system, trading lives for money.

Can we please slowly try and concentrate on our lives and make sure we tide through this pandemic peacefully and not reignite the slowly burning out flame, that is still not completely put out? I wanted to make this post scientific and explain why we are still in danger. But that’s when I asked myself, “what’s the point?”

Yours tiredly
A poor, tired resident doctor. 

Dr. Srinivas has penned the painful letter, of describing the fullest resumption of the theaters as the suicide attempt, a day after the Tamil Nadu government had passed the order of allowing 100% of seating capacity in the theaters while it was earlier restricted to 50% owing to the COVID-19 outbreak. As theaters hope for a potential breakthrough after a long time, they had demanded the government to allow 100% occupancy, and recently, actor Vijay had met Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and demanded him to permit 100% seating capacity. 

Actor Simbu had also made a similar demand to the government and based on their demands, the government on Monday passed the order of permitting the theaters to go for 100% seating capacity. While the announcement from the government had relished the fans of both the actors as they are preparing for the Pongal celebrations with the movies of their favorite actors, it also had stirred objections against the government with many experts and a few celebrities had raised their concerns and slammed the government for allowing the fullest occupancy in the theaters amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Actor Arvind Swami took to Twitter and said, "There are times when 50% is way better than a 100%. This is one of them". ICMR Health Expert Dr. Prabhdeep Kaur, who advises the state government in containing the pandemic, tweeted, "Closed spaces without social distancing are perfect settings for the explosive spread of COVID-19. Request the public to avoid such settings". Along with these experts, Dr. Aravinth Srinivas has penned his open letter to actors Vijay and Simbu, and to the Tamil Nadu government. 

Dr. Srinivas's letter has been getting widely shared across social media as it has drawn supportive voices from the experts and frontline workers ahead of the movie release. Neither the actors nor the government had reacted to his open letter. Armed with the government's order, the theaters are preparing for the resumption to accommodate the audience during the Pongal holidays. Vijay's much-anticipated 'Master' will be released on January 13 while Simby's 'Easwaran' will be hitting the big screens on January 14 across the state.

 

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