Puthiya Mugam ........ Plastic Surgeries in South Korea

To the regular cine watchers, the tall good looking person would be recognised as a famous cameraman and spouse of actress Revathi (they got divorced is not the subject mater of this post …) …. On a search, understand that this movie itself was based on a TV mini-serial called ‘twist of fate’ (Pursuit) made in 1989…… a story of a German Officer who goes to Israel.   I saw and instantly liked the movie ‘Pudhiya Mugam’ which starts with the scene at the airport – where the hero foils a terrorist attempt and saves children.  The hero is Suresh Menon and the movie was a good thriller.  The storyline is - Vineeth and his fiancée Kasturi while romancing in Sri Lanka sees a murder which results in the death of his fiancée. He avenges her death by killing the people responsible, and becomes an assassin, and is on the run from the police, and be. He undergoes extensive plastic surgery on his face and leaves for Chennai, India to start a new life with a new face and identity. When the assassin (now played by Suresh Chandra Menon) reaches Chennai airport, he foils a terrorist attempt and saves the lives of a group of children. Later, he meets Revathi, falls in love and gets married. Thanks to his heroism, the assassin gets into the Indian Army and rises in rank as the years go by. A few years later, the couple’s grown up son, Vineeth, now resembles his father's pre-surgery days. The son meets the dad’s old terrorist accomplices in the airport by chance on his return from U.S.A. The bad guys identify him and, curious, they follow Vineeth and find the truth about the assassin and his new life. As they learn that the assassin is now a very high ranked officer who has access to the army’s secrets, they blackmail him into handing some over to them.  The son on getting to know the past of the father starts disliking him….. the father a much changed man, takes on the terrorist all by himself, killing them and getting killed in the act…………… a new theme for tamil cinema of plastic surgery and man changing his face totally !!!.. Now read this post in Daily Mail on plastic surgery in South Korea being so good that people traveling home afterwards need  certificates to prove who they are !!!! For some going under the knife is by choice … it is for plastic surgery in the hope of looking a bit different and a lot better. What they may not realize is the chance of looking so different that they are unrecognisable. The report states that some of South Korea’s plastic surgeons are so talented that they are leaving their patients with this (un)expected problem.  Plastic surgery in South Korea has become so successful that some overseas patients are struggling to get through passport control on their way home after the operations.  Those who have flown in from abroad to have the operations are, in some cases, so transformed that they are struggling to get through passport control on the way home, Kotaku reports. According to Korean sites Onboa and Munhwa, some hospitals have resorted to handing out ‘plastic surgery certificates’ to patients to enable them to get home. These certificates are said to include the patient’s passport number, the name of the hospital they were treated at and the length of their visit to South Korea. The theory goes that these certificates can smooth their path through passport control. While hospitals have been aware of the problem for a number of years, it is said to be becoming an increasingly common issue. In 2009, 23 Chinese women are said to have struggled to return to China from South Korea after undergoing surgery. The report states that women who've had plastic surgery in South Korea often end up with larger eyes, higher noses and thinner chins.   A  Shanghai Hongqiao Airport officer  is quoted as stating that they had to compare the uncorrected parts with the photos very carefully.  Some women are having to renew their passports after surgery so as to have a new photo included.  South Korea is rapidly becoming the home of plastic surgery and people there have the most cosmetic procedures per head of population, according to global figures released last year by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.  It is stated that one in every 77 people in South Korea now goes under the knife or needle in a bid to improve their looks. Shockingly, some 20 per cent of women aged 19 to 49 in Seoul admit to going under the knife and one of the most popular procedures involves reducing excess skin in the upper eyelid to make the eyes appear bigger and more 'Western'. It is believed that the rise of the country's music industry is behind the boom, and many patients visit clinics with photos of celebrities, asking surgeons to emulate American noses or eyes. Another story of ‘aping the west’ itself rather than their culture !!
With regards – S. Sampathkumar