Four days after the tsunami hit Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, among those distributing relief material in Devanampattinam village was a tall, fair, handsome young man. Someone told the villagers that his name was Vivek Oberoi and that he acted in Hindi movies.

PICTURE SPEAK

CHARGE SLINGER: Jayalalithaa

For those in the biggest fishing hamlet in Tamil Nadu, still in the vortex of sorrow that the December 26 tsunami had inflicted, this piece of information made little sense. He was just another face in the sea of Samaritans who descended on the ravaged coast. Even after the first wave of help receded, Oberoi stayed put. He consoled mothers who lost sons, set up temporary shelters for displaced families and promised to adopt the village. He called it Project Hope.

Within a fortnight, Oberoi became a household name in Devanampattinam to which movies meant little beyond Rajnikant. But when hope spurs colossal promises and expectations and when sorrow refuses to recede, the ghost of a tragedy comes back to infuse bad blood.

Oberoi realised that three months later. By March-end, Devanampattinam families were levelling allegations against the actor. That he promised permanent housing but gave them only box-sized sheds too hot to live in summer. That he vowed to collect money to bring the village back to normal, but never returned after organising star nights in Indian cities and Singapore. The charges reached a crescendo when Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa told the Tamil Nadu Assembly that Oberoi's tryst with tsunami victims was but a publicity stunt. On April 3, Oberoi had backed out from the Devanampattinam project and selected a different village in Pondicherry.

Whether the actor craved undeserving attention or was showing genuine concern will continue to be debated, but the recent turn of events indicates that he did get carried away initially. On December 30, the day he first visited Devanampattinam along with his father Suresh Oberoi and the family's spiritual guru Chidanand Saraswathi, the actor made tall promises. "I will make a model village out of this devastated place," he had announced. "This village will have new schools, community centres and playgrounds. All the fishermen will be given boats and fishing nets."

CONTINUING AFTERSHOCKS

JAYALALITHAA CLAIMS Very few fishermen got nets from Oberoi. The army fixed boats. Oberoi donated just seven boats. Cataract surgeries were done by two charitable institutions. The Forest Department planted saplings to protect the coast. Even the temporary houses set up by Oberoi are on land allotted by the Government. He ran away to Pattinachery because he reneged on his promises. OBEROI REBUTS Project Hope gave nets to all Devanampattinam fishermen. Repaired boats and also distributed some new ones. Forty cataract operations were done on the villagers. Instrumental in planting 300 saplings. Wanted to build permanent houses for Devanampattinam villagers, but the state Government did not allot land for the purpose.

Three months later, the fishermen families continue to live in temporary shelters on what is left of the 60 kg foodgrains the Government gave them as the first instalment of relief. Playgrounds have come up, but permanent housing and boats for all remain a distant dream. "Oberoi did a good job in the beginning. But he got disillusioned after the villagers started speaking against him," says Cuddalore Collector Gagandeep Singh Bedi.

Oberoi's promises were simply not pragmatic. The Rs 10 crore he thought of mobilising for the dream village was too tall an order. The proceeds of the Bollywood star night, contrary to what the Devanampattinam residents thought, went to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund and did not come directly to them. Again, Oberoi was banking on many donors who, he says, backed out. For the villagers, it was betrayal. "The Hindi nadigar (actor) promised us houses and boats. He put us in these sheds and left," says Krishnaveni of Devanampattinam. "When he promised boats, I believed him. I was wrong," says Neelakantan, who found his boat smashed against the coconut palms on the morning after Christmas.

PICTURE SPEAK

STAR DUST: Oberoi (centre) at Devanampattinam

Oberoi never delivered on his promises, but he caused NGOs to rush to Cuddalore. Hundreds of them flocked to the district to provide relief after the hero took the initiative. But that too backfired. The actor's detractors now harp that Oberoi just distributed what he got from others. That was too much for Oberoi. He shifted the base of his dream project from Devanampattinam to Pattinachery. It also means a shift from Tamil Nadu to Pondicherry. And here lies the crux of the political cacophony that originated in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Raising the issue, Pattali Makkal Katchi legislator G.K. Mani wanted to know if the Tamil Nadu Government had denied land, forcing Oberoi to go to Pondicherry with his pet dream. Jayalalithaa hastened to intervene and said that Oberoi did nothing but take credit for all the things that her Government had done. "The Government did 90 per cent of the work. And he is taking credit. He has done only 10 per cent," Jayalalithaa said. "Because he can't keep his promises, he is moving to Pondicherry."

The Jayalalithaa Government passed an order that made it mandatory for anyone contributing to tsunami relief to go through the administration. And this is something Oberoi didn't like. He says, "The Pondicherry Government processed my request in 10 days." That could, in essence, be a message to Jayalalithaa. Oberoi preferred to visit Devanampattinam when things were at the worst. As he left last week, things had not changed much. "I am leaving this at this. From April 15, I should get back to what I have to do-acting."

He leaves behind a trail of questions regarding the relief work he claims to have done (see box). Oberoi seems to have understood his limitations while dealing with Jayalalithaa. "I've done my bit in Devanampattinam. I can't get things done here. I am moving to Pattinachery. Work has started on a 25-acre land and it's going to be a Rs 11 crore project."

That is a crore more than he had promised in Devanampattinam.

RELATED STORIES:

Eyecathers

Index