Closing Day, IFFK

Didn't see any films today. 33 films have taken a toll on me. I went to the closing ceremony in the evening where the prize distribution too was held. Here's the list:

Survarna Chakoram (Best Film): Angel's Fall and Forever Flows.

Rajata Chakoram (Best Director): Fireworks Wednesday.

Rajata Chakoram (Best Debut Film): Sankara.

Audience Prize Rajata Chakoram: The Violin.

FIPRESCI (The International Federation of Film Critics): Sankara.

NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Film Centre): Forever Flows.

So the last of the film festivals come to an end. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movies and meeting new people. Eagerly waiting for next year's event.

DAY7, IFFK

So its the penultimate day of the festival. And once again the strikes are going to play spoilsport. Its a 24 hour strike and all the public transport systems have stopped. Fortunately got a lift to Kairali Theatre where T V Chandran's Aadum Koothu was screening. Like most of his films, this one too is well narrated. Cheran, Prakash Raj and Navya Nair have all given good performances. But I somehow feel the movie should have ended fifteen minutes early. The audiences seem to have loved the movie very much and it wouldn't be surprising if it turns out to be a hit when it's released.
In the afternoon I saw two documentaries and a short film. First documentary Blue Sun Green Moon. was about noted writer Ayyappa Panikker. It's informative but technically not sound. Second was a feature documentary Thousand Days And A Dream. The documentary is about the struggle of people of Plachimada against the Coca Cola Company. Very well made and highly informative. My only advise: SHOW THIS TO AAMIR KHAN, RADHIKA & SMRITI IRANI. And then ask them do they still care about HUMANITY?? The short film Life Is A Diamond was made by a young South African lady. Cannot comment on it because I couldn't understand the story and technically it wasn't sound either.
Evening I saw the movie Anantharam by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Amazing movie. Well scripted, well photographed, and well edited and ofcourse very well directed. The best thing is that the story structure is in a non-linear pattern. The child artist did a amazing job.
The day ended after watching Bernie, a film by Albert Dupontel. Though I liked his earlier two movies but this one was a complete let down. High on violence it almost made me puke. The story is about a orphan (Albert Dupontel) who after spending 30 years of his life in an orphanage goes in search of his parents. And then starts his violent search for his parents. And in his search he just about butcher anyone who comes in his way. Already feeling bad. Must stop here.

DAY6, IFFK

After not so good experience at Kairali theatre, I thought of spending the day at Kripa theatre. First movie on the list was The Creators by Albert Dupontel. The movie is about a play writer whose previous play was a huge success. He attributes his success to drinking which according to him makes his subconscious mind to bring out the best of plays. After he realizes this isn't the reason, he tries different methods including killing cats to evoke his subconscious. The movie has been dealt in a very humorous way with a cameo from Jesus Christ who comes as a police officer. Fun to watch. Next on the list was the critically acclaimed Mexican movie Battle in Heaven. The movie is about a car driver, Marcos. Marcos is the driver to the General's daughter, Ana. A very confusing movie is what I felt after watching it. Didn't go for any afternoon show. Evening went for an African movie Bamako. I had seen many movies involving court room drama like Rainmaker, The Accused, A Few Good Men etc. but never as this one. This movie is about a hearing happening in an open court in a remote town in Africa. The case is between Africans vs World Bank, IMF and other financial institutions which "helped" them. Even when the court proceedings are going on, other activities of people in and around the court is shown. The court proceedings are aired live through the radio. With some excellent dialogues, this movie is must watch for those who like court room drama and are also concerned with current scenario in the Third-World countries. There's a song in this movie which is quite catchy. I hope OST of this movie is available.
Final movie of the day was Scream of the Ants by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. I had seen the movie The Cyclist by the same director. It was an awful experience. My friends will vouch for that. I saw Scream of the Ants after hearing that it's a very good movie. The movie is about two Iranian couples who comes to India in search of a Complete Man. The movie begins well but it does what it shouldn't: PREACHING. A German yogi explains how different religions comprehend when the male lead says the "world is a shit". It was funny. Highly "philosophical" and "spiritual". Also it's a cliche, portraying Indians the same way as it had been done by many foreign movies. Also I don't understand why the audience applause after every second dialogue. It's so irritating. They must realize and sooner the better that they are watching just a movie not a political debate. So the count is 27 from 6 days.

DAY5, IFFK

After watching 18 movies I realized I haven't still any of the 14 films included in the festival competition list. I thought watching just competitive films today. Started with The Violin. The movie is simply amazing, portraying the struggle of the peasants against the Mexican army. A black & white with a bit of added grains, this is one of the best movie I have seen in the competition till now. The next one was Angel's Fall. Though the movie didn't appeal much to me, I felt I missed a point or two because the movie had a non-linear story structure. Should have watched it more carefully. The third was a Japanese movie Whispering Of Gods. Really pathetic movie to watch. Imagine a scene where when a man pukes, the man standing next to him say "YUMMY". Yuck!!!. The howling from the jam packed audiences at the end made some sense. After watching this movie I felt somewhat uneasy and was having a bit of headache. I waited for my aunt to come to watch the screening of T V Chandran's Aadum Koothu. I waited outside as I had her entry pass. I went inside to check out whether any seat was available. To my horror it was completely occupied even the floors weren't spared. I stood there and saw the felicitation ceremony. Mr. T V Chandran introduced his team viz. cinematographer Madhu Ambatt, Editor Venugopal and others. As he was introducing came in the lead actress Navya Nair. There was howling all around because of her being late. She then apologized for it but certain section didn't spare her and the howling continued for her embarrassment. It was a pity sight. Atleast the audience should have shown some dignity after she had apologized. I walked out of the hall after the felicitation. I went straight to Kalabhavan to watch The Lovers by Louis Malle. Fifteen minutes into the movie, I walked out again because of headache. Later on in the night I went and saw a documentary Yakshagana and a movie Ellipathayam, both by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The movie started well but the end wasn't so satisfactory. So the count is 23 movies in 5 days. Not bad eh!!

DAY4, IFFK

Record breaking performance by me...saw SIX movies today. At the end of 4th day, I've already seen 18 movies. Not bad. The day started by viewing of Look Both Ways by Sarah Watt. The producer of the movie was felicitated before the movie began. When I saw her, I realized she was the lady who sat beside me for the screening of Black Eyed Dog. The movie begins with a fatal accident of a kid by a freight train. The story is then interlinked between the witness of the accident, the train driver, reporter & photographer who covered the accident and the victim's mother. Well the movie is very good because of its narrative style. It contains animation which the director herself had drawn. And it had an interesting montage sequence when the reporter realizes he is affected by cancer. Second movie was supposed to be Bamako but it got replaced by Safarina which later on got replaced by Yesterday and which got replaced by Cry, The Beloved Country. Except for Bamako rest of all the films were directed by Darrell Roodt, which was directed by Abderrahamne Sissako. So after so much of changing I was waiting (fingers crossed) for the screening to begin. And good for me they showed Cry, The Beloved Country which I anyway thought of watching during this week. A well written and superbly photographed movie is what you realize after watching this movie. In the afternoon I went and saw Locked Out by Albert Dupontel. A hilarious movie in which the lead role was enacted by Dupontel himself. The narrative style or to be more precise the editing style reminds you of Amelie and Love Me If You Dare. Thoroughly enjoyable. Evening I saw Climates. Well this was a critically acclaimed movie. Must say couldn't like the movie much. The movie is about the relationship between a research professor and his costume designer wife. A slow paced movie but it has some of the best locations which I haven't yet seen. In the night saw a documentary by Adoor called Guru Chengannur. Well it could have been better. It was followed by Adoor's movie Kathapurushan. As pointed out yesterday I just love watching this movie because of its simplicity.

DAY3, IFFK

Today was some kind of a record for me. I saw 5 movies at the theatres. Starting from Yesterday by Darrel Roodt. Its first movie to be made in the Zulu language. Second one was a thriller Cache. Its a movie which you should watch from the very first frame to the very last frame else you surely gonna miss the plot. The storyline made me remind of another great movie called Battle For Algiers. Watch out for one of the most gruesome scene of alltime in the movie Cache. Excellent movie. Third movie was Black Eyed Dog, a Canadian movie. Interesting movie but couldn't link myself to the characters. Fourth one was the much awaited movie Paradise Now. Interestingly I had to sit on the steps to watch the movie. And I wasn't alone, there were 20 others sitting on the stairs to watch the movie. Some even stood and saw the entire movie. I must add that it was first film at this festival where not even a single audience left the hall till the movie got over. It starts with two friends (Palestinians)being recruited to perfoem suicide bomb attack in Tel-Aviv. Nothing more..watch it and enjoy it.
I must say I was dead tired after watching four movies and so was not interested to go for the fifth and the last movie of the day. But somehow I made myself to the theatre as I had heard from many that this was Adoor's best movie and best performance by an actor ever. The movie is Kodiyettam. I must say Bharat Gopi is indeed Kodiyettam Gopi. The minute details that has gone in creating the character is mind boggling. The story is about a village simpleton played by Gopi. He is dependant on his caring sister who works as a maid servant in the cities. The problem begins when his sister stops sending him money after she gets married and to add more to his misery, his wife (KPAC Lalitha) too leaves him because of his careless attitude. Must see movie. One things for sure I realized is that after a hectic day of movie watching, its always good to finish with Adoor's movie. Tomorrow they are going to screen Kathapurushan which I've seen thrice on TV and once at the theatre but still I'll see that movie again tomorrow.

DAY2, IFFK

Well I started the second day in a very promising note. First film was Something Like Happiness. A well made film about the problems faced by three families in an apartment. The story is woven in and around these families and more specifically around a young lady Monika.
The second film was Persona Non Grata . The funny thing was that I was actually waiting for an Australian movie Look Both Ways but maybe because of the unavailability of the print, they played this movie. And it was a blessing in disguise as I would have missed this wonderful movie. Moreover I can watch the Aussie movie on 13th when it'll be screened again as per the schedule.
Evening I went for the inaugural of the Adoor Gopalakrishnan's retrospectives. The chief guest was Minister for Culture, Mr. M A Baby. The programme started about 10 minutes late. The guests included stalwarts from Indian cinema like Girish Kasaravalli and Gautham Ghosh. At around 30 minutes into M A Baby's speech about Adoor Gopalakrishnan, suddenly a young lady shouted aloud "Can you just start the movie". It was followed by claps from few guys. Most of the audience were just stunned. But Mr. Baby took the comment in a sporting way and carried on his speech for 5 more minutes. He said it was the organizers who wanted him to speak for such a duration and he doesn't have any intention to bore the people. I felt very bad for the minister as he was giving a very good speech about the cinema and I must say he does indeed know about the cinema. He spoke about his days as the college union arts club secretary and criticism of the left movement in Adoor's film.
The function was followed by screening of Adoor's first film Swayamvaram.

International Film Festival of Kerala Begins

Today 11th IFFK began. Though the inaugural function was held in the evening, the screening of the shows began at 9.00 in the morning. The first film was French Fried Vacation by Patrice Leconte. One word for it: CRAP. One might have seen n number of American movies like Screw Balls so on to the more famous British series like Carry On.. Wonder why such a film was kept and that too as the first film of such a prestigious event. The second and third were documentaries by Louis Malles. Though many were annoyed due to lack of subtitles still I felt both the movies were engrossing enough. The first one was Human Condition. It shows the condition of men and women working in a car manufacturing plant. Infact at times one wonder whether they are humans or just machines doing the same job again and again and again and again....phew. Great documentary. Second was even better one. The title is The Pursuit Of Happiness. It deals with the lives of people emigrated to USA both legally and illegally. People from almost every continent of the world was included. Though the narration was French, it hardly mattered as conversation between the interviewer and emigrants was in English. Another great documentary.
In the evening I attended the inaugural function. The function was held at Nisagandhi auditorium which is an open air auditorium. Filmmakers, actors and other people who were part of the early film making movement in Kerala were felicitated at this function by the Minister for Culture Mr. M A Baby. Later on a dance choreographed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy consisting of 250 artists showing various art forms of Kerala was shown.
After the felicitation ceremony, the inaugural film Songs of Sand by Marion Hansel was screened. The movie deals with the condition of people in remote war ridden African country. It begins with a tribal family moving out of their native place in search of water and the problems they face through the passage from the rebels and the soldiers and more importantly the hot desert. A touching movie and the applause it recieved from the jam packed auditorium said it all. Must watch movie.

Film Appreciation of 12 Angry Men (Contains Spoilers)

Title of the film: 12 Angry Men
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Genre: Drama/Crime
Duration: 96 min.
Certification: Approved

Name of Production: United Artists
Director: Sidney Lumet
Producers: Henry Fonda,Reginald Rose
Associate Producer: George Justin
Story and Screenplay: Reginald Rose
Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins
Cinematographer: Boris Kaufman
Editor: Carl Lerner
Art Direction: Robert Markel
Second Unit Director: Don Kraze


Cast (credited):
Martin Baslam - Juror #1
John Fielder - Juror #2
Lee J Cobb - Juror #3
E G Marshall - Juror #4
Jack Klugmann - Juror #5
Ed Binns - Juror #6
Jack Warden - Juror #7
Henry Fonda - Juror #8
Joseph Sweeney - Juror #9
Ed Begley - Juror #10
George Voskovec - Juror #11
Robert Webber - Juror #12

(Unaccredited)
Rudy Bond - Judge
James Kelly - Guard
Billy Nelson - Court Clerk
John Savoca - The accused


The film begins in a courtroom where the judge after hearing the case wants the 12 men jury to pass on their verdict on the case after the necessary discussion. The case is about an 18 year old guy committing a premeditated murder of his father. The jury has to come to a complete majority to have a verdict i.e. 12-0 either guilty or not guilty. And if found guilty the boy will be sentenced to death. The jury members begin their discussion on the case. The jury members are numbered from 1 to 12. The person, Juror #1 presiding over the discussion decides that as in any case let them have a preliminary voting so that they know in which way the verdict is going. The voting ends and the verdict stand as 11 guilty to 1 not guilty. The only person who thinks that the boy is not guilty is the Juror #8 (Henry Fonda). This begins the debate between him and other jury members. With passage of time he is able to convince more and more members that the boy is innocent. At the end of second voting the verdict begins to sway. It’s now 8 guilty and 4 not guilty. The Juror #3 who is in favor of the boy being guilty gets irritated and accuses Juror #8 of being manipulative and brain washing others. The main point against the boy is the evidences provided by two witnesses an old man and an old lady. The old lady being an eyewitness to the incident and the old man heard the heated confrontation between the father and son. And according to him when the father hits the boy, he retaliates back by killing him using a switch knife. Now the debate gets heated up and it turns into a racial and socio-economic confrontation between the jurors. In mean time, Juror #8 points out certain faults in the evidences provided by the old man. This makes Juror #3 go berserk. He tries to attack Juror #8. The reason for him being very much in favor of sending the boy to electric chair is because he too had a sour relation with his son. And as a result of which his son had abused him and left the house. So he is adamant that the boy is guilty.
As the jurors settles down again, a third voting take place. This time verdict is 6 guilty and 6 not guilty. The debate continues and slowly the verdict sways more in favor of the boy. At one point its 1 guilty to 11 not guilty. Only the Juror #3 does not change his stance. When he finds out that he is alone, he freaks out. He speaks against the verdict made by others and abuses others. At the end of his speech he breaks down and pronounces the boy being not guilty. Juror #8 goes and consoles him. The verdict is now passed and its 0 guilty to 12 not guilty. In the end Juror #8 is shown to go out happily from the court.

The film backs the universal belief that the truth prevails in the end. It through the portrait of the Juror #8 shows a dutiful citizen, who was not convinced with the evidences put up against the accused and so debates in his favor. It shows the various human emotions and how these emotions affect other matters in life. This can be best realized in the case of Juror #3, who had a very sour relation with his son and as an act of vengeance he takes it all against the accused. The film shows that no matter how faithful immigrants are to their adopted country, there always exists an iota of doubt against them in the minds of the “true citizen” of that country. This can be well understood between the heated exchange between the Juror #7 and Juror #11. Also how these immigrants have to try hard to prove their loyalty to their adopted country. The film through the conversations between Juror #5 and Juror #10, also tries to show the tension between different economic classes and the prejudices that they have for others.
All these emotional elements are interwoven in the movie with the sole motive in getting to a verdict in the case. It once again emphasize that in a democratic structure, it’s of utmost importance that there should always be a jury in any case involving sensitive issues. And care should be taken that the jury appointed are people from different background so that the case can be studied, discussed and understood from all perspectives before coming to a unanimous decision.
The casting in the film is spot on. With persons from different strata of life, there always exists friction and to enact them without going over the board is commendable. Henry Fonda as the protagonist is calm, thoughtful and quite assertive in what he states. He in the beginning is not sure or rather confused on the case and therefore votes in favor of the boy being not guilty. Lee J Cobb as Juror #3, who is having a troubled relation with his son, portraits how one reacts at the point of utmost state of sorrow. How one loses his emotions and has his feeling affect the outcome of other matters. Robert Webber as Juror #12, an advertising guy shows his way of pleasing others and even during such a serious discussion has that penchant in impressing others with his advertising strategies. John Fiedler as Juror #2, portraits very well the role of a person who is very reluctant to share his views. Ed Begley as Juror #10 acts as a short tempered 50-some man who has always an opinion on any subject and doesn’t bother whether his opinion is right or wrong. The rest of the cast too gels quite well and together they have given a sterling performance.
The peculiarity about this movie is its location. The movie almost entirely is shot in a single room. As a result of this it would have been difficult for the cinematographer to decide on the type of shots. Being in just a room, chances of the shots getting repetitive is more. So he has gone for lot of mid to full shots as the screenplay involves discussion between a group of people. The camera tracks back when a person stands up to show the simultaneous action and reaction. It doesn’t wait to show a reaction after an action. This is felt when the characters lose their temper and barge on someone from the jury. This helps a lot because it shows reaction of not one but many characters. Close-ups are used in minimum but effectively. The usage of tilt down and tilt up shots too is common.
But all these shots are used so effectively with the screenplay that when watching for the first one never realizes its effectiveness. The editing used is quite conventional. The cuts are infrequent. But there are lots of instances of crossing the line. But as said earlier, the screenplay is so fool-proof that on first viewing all these technical anomalies are not noticed.
The director has brought in the best out of the ensemble. When a film has so many characters of equal importance and equal screen time, its very difficult to handle them. Even though the screenplay is fool-proof, one still need to visualize and present it in a way which is accepted by most. And this is exactly what the director has done. And that too in his first movie as a director, it is quite a remarkable feat.

Film Appreciation of Manichitrathazhu (Contains Spoilers)

Title of the film: Manichitrathazhu
Language: Malayalam
Color: Color
Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Comedy/Drama
Duration: 156 min.
Certification: U

Name of Production: Swargachitra
Director: Fazil
Producer: Appachan
Story/Screenplay/Dialogues: Madhu Muttom
Cinematographer: Venu
Editor: T R Shekar
Music Director: M G Radhakrishnan
Second Unit Directors:
Lal
Sibi Malayil
Priyadarsan
Siddique
Second Unit Cinematographers:
Sunny Joseph
Ananthakuttan

Cast:
Mohanlal … Dr. Sunny Joseph
Suresh Gopi … Nakulan
Sobhana … Ganga/Nagavalli
Vinaya Prasad … Sreedevi
Nedimudi Venu … Thampi
Innocent … Unnithan
Thilakan … Brahmadattan Namboothiripad
KPAC Lalitha … Bhasura
Sudeesh … Chanthu
Ganesh … Dasappan Kutty
Kuthiravattom Pappu … Kattuparamban
Rudra … Alli


The film revolves around a haunted villa Madampally. It begins with the arrival of the newly married couples, Nakulan (Suresh Gopi) and Ganga (Sobhana) from Calcutta. As this ancestral property is passed on to Nakulan’s mother, he insists on staying there despite the fact it is haunted.
A series of supernatural incidents follows, leading to which Nakulan’s uncle, Thampi (Nedimudi Venu) reminds him that the incidents are result of the curse, which befalls on the newly wed bride who lives in the villa and iterate that Ganga is one such girl. Nakulan isn’t convinced and he blames that the incidents are happening because of Sreedevi (Vinaya Prasad), Thampi’s daughter.
Nakulan calls up his friend to help him out of this trouble. This brings in the arrival of Dr. Sunny Joseph (Mohanlal), a psychiatrist.
Sunny tries to find out the reasons for such untoward incidents. An incident happens in which poison is found in Nakulan’s tea; Sunny blames it on Sreedevi and locks her up in a room. Thampi can no longer bear the trauma faced by his daughter.
Thampi sorts help of renowned mantravathi (magician-physician), Brahmadattan Namboothiripad (Thilakan) to perform rituals. Sunny happens to be an old acquaintance of Brahmadattan. Sunny reveals to him the real story. He tells him that the actual patient is Ganga and not Sreedevi and she is suffering from Split Personality Disorder. This disorder was dormant in Ganga, who once in her childhood had faced similar psychological problems. This problem became active again when she returned to her husband’s ancestral home. She started to believe that she was Nagavalli, the danseuse who was killed by the then head of the family.
Brahmadattan warns Sunny that curing her is near impossible and so it would be wise to keep Nakulan away from Ganga, for her other personality Nagavalli sees Nakulan as the head of family who had killed her. Sunny tells him that he’s ready to take such a risk.
Sunny then with help from Brahmadattan and Nakulan with great precision and unconventional methodology cures Ganga from the psychological disorder.
The story ends in a happy note with Sunny, Nakulan and Ganga leaving back to Calcutta and also Sunny expressing his desire to marry Sreedevi.

The film’s message is quite simple and clear. It draws parallel between the traditional and the modern beliefs, without hurting either of the sentiments. It smartly avoids criticizing either of the sentiments which in itself is quite a remarkable achievement. It shows through the characters of Nakulan and Ganga, the deep love and caring the husband and wife have for each other. Through the character of Sunny, it portrays the virtue of a true friend and breaks the cliché that intellectuals have to be quite and introverts. Most notable is the character of Chanthu (Sudeesh), younger brother of Sreedevi. He is shown in deep pain and trauma when others accuse his sister to be mentally imbalanced. This gives quite an insight of the relation between the brother and the sister.
Though towards the end of the film, the problem behind the villa to be haunted is revealed and solved, but few questions are still unanswered. As viewers we’re told that the villa is haunted but it is only after the arrival of Ganga, we’re shown. So before Ganga’s arrival who was responsible for it? This is quite important because only Thampi, Nakulan and Chanthu are the only three male children of the family. And as per the story it’s their wives who will be affected by the curse if they live there. Chanthu isn’t married and Thampi and his wife do not live in the haunted villa. We’re only told few untimely deaths have happened in the past.
Overall the film has made an effort to answer the questions it raises with satisfaction. Though the solution for the cure shown at the end of film is quite remarkable and interesting, still one feels had it not been successful, it would have been quite a deadly business. Suppose the lever that turns the movable platform upside down doesn’t work, then Nakulan would have been killed. And moreover the solution is not quite practical but is shown in such a manner that we are indeed made to believe it. And there isn’t any scope for an alternate solution which would result in a happy ending. Solutions are plenty which even the film speaks about but none could give a happy ending.
Casting has been quite extra-ordinary. With such a good script it becomes very necessary that the actors give their best and the best of them are chosen for the role. The performance by each of the actors is noteworthy. Suresh Gopi and Sobhana makes up perfect couples. Mohanlal as psychiatrist is wonderful with his easy go attitude. Nedimudi Venu as the family head easily acts out his role. Innocent comes out as real winner with his role of Unnithan. He provides the comic element in the movie and his confrontation with Mohanlal is quite hilarious. And towards the end Thilakan as Brahmadattan Namboothiripad is indeed magical. Sobhana gives life to the character of Nagavalli. The way she transforms from Ganga to Nagavalli remains one of the highlight of the film. Her performance single handedly lifts the film to a greater level.
Another highlight of this movie is its lighting and camera work. The camera has been handled by Venu as part of the first unit. Sunny Joseph and Anathakuttan does their part quite efficiently as part of the second unit. For a movie having mystery element as its main subject, lighting becomes quite an important aspect. The cinematographer has to make sure the film doesn’t look bright but also has to ensure that the audience is able to notice each and every frame properly without any discomfort. The shot selection too becomes quite an important issue. The cameramen have gone for full shot, mid-shot, and mid close ups for most of the part in the movie. The camera shakes from the point of view of the unknown to create the fear element. Surprisingly the film has avoided using extreme close ups and even close ups, which is quite a norm for mystery and suspense thrillers.
Sound is another important or maybe the most important element in mystery/thriller movies. Johnson has given the back ground music while M G Radhakrishnan has composed the music for the songs. Both ensured usage of traditional, semi-classical carnatic music for the movie. Usage of veena is quite prominent and has been used to bring out the unknown or mystery element. The song Pazham Tamizh Padi…. sung by K J Yesudas is wonderfully composed. Usuage of western instruments in the beginning of a semi-carnatic classical song is quite unnatural. But it has worked out well. The other major composition is Oru Murai … sung by K S Chitra and KJ Yesudas is again excellent. The song which is in Tamil goes well with the mood. Again a semi-carnatic classical one and usage of violin and mridangam in tandem in the beginning of the song comes out really well. The song has been choreographed excellently showing in parts the imaginary situation and the real act. The lyrics of the song too go well with the situation. The song Oru Murai has been used frequently in the movie. The song used in the mid-part of movie is without music instruments. It gives the haunting feel. Then there are two poems wrote by Madhu Muttom. The poems Varuvanillarum and Pallavattom are rendered at two different situations in the film. Both are significant as they give a hint which a viewer might realize only during the second viewing.
Director Fazil has used well of all the resources he got. He even went further by letting his once disciples to be the directors of the second unit. Second unit consisted of Siddiq-Lal, Priyadarsan and Sibi Malayil. The director made sure the actors doesn’t dominate the characters. He made sure they all are introduced at right time. The film has a good dose of drama, comedy and mystery. The mystery element starts from the first scene itself and is only resolved towards the end of the movie. Even the narrative is very good. He hasn’t gone for those lengthy flashback scenes. The only flashback scene which comes at the end is narrated by the psychiatrist giving justification for all the incidents happening and very good thing about that is that it’s without any dialogues so the director was able to cut down the time in flashbacks. And also he has used wisely few shots of the flashbacks in middle of the movie through songs, so this too resulted in a very small flashback scene towards the end of the movie. And the transformation of Ganga’s character to Nagavalli which is quite mesmerizing, because of the director’s visualization skill. He made sure the character of Nagavalli is not over acted.
So to sum up I would like to put down that the output is quite an enthralling and wonderful movie which one would like to watch again and again. And as always the credit should go to the director.

Me, My Friends and Mr.Lesnie.

Few months back I talked how fortunate I was to go to the premiere of King Kong. Today it was a step more. I was fortunate to meet Andrew Lesnie, the Director of Photography of Lord of the Rings triology and King Kong. He had come over to Chennai for a seminar on Lustre systems of Autodesk. The seminar was great with other inputs coming from Grady Coffer, Digital Supervisor at ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), Elfi Bernt, ARRI and Phillippe Soeiro, Autodesk.
After the seminar me and my friends had a chat with Mr.Lesnie. He was talking about how important it is to have a good script for a movie. He felt there are great films with not so great cinematography and films with great cinematography and less of content. He said he preferred the first one. His own favourite one is On The Waterfront. He also said its a great time to make movies with so much of happenning going around worldwide. And he asked us one very important question, "So who won the election". The answer ofcourse was "DMK".

The Right Stuff

The movie is adapted from Tom Wolfe’s book of same name is must see for those who believes in team work and believes that only through equal participation can one be successful. In a team you don’t need a captain nor a leader what you need is equal and faithful contribution.
The story revolves around seven astronauts who were selected by the US Government on their mission to send men out into the space. It’s the end of 50s and beginning of 60s. The space war between USSR and US is at the peak. The scientists on both sides are high on their heels to knock each other out. Because all knew those who control the space will control the world.
The three hour long movie never bores you down. It comprises of lots of drama, action and some real funny moments. It begins with man’s want to break the sound barrier i.e Mach 1. As the race to break the sound barrier and further on to break the Mach 2 benchmark goes on the story moves from here to the Space War between the two super powers. The recruitment process and the dilemma faced by the seven astronauts’ wives are portrayed well.
To sum up the here’s a conversation between two of the astronauts of the mercury mission at a function organized by the Vice President to felicitate the seven astronauts.

Gordon Cooper (played by Dennis Quaid): You know it’s funny. Here I am, I got 25 grand a year for magazine contract, got a free house with all furnishings, got me a Corvette, got free lunch from one end of America to other and I ain’t even been up there yet.

Gus Grissom: I noticed that.

Gordon Cooper: Oh you noticed that. You noticed that I hadn’t been up there yet……Then I guess they are saving the best for the last.

Must see.

Helping Hand

Months ago as I was going towards Usman Road, I was approached by a person. He was accompanied by two other men and two women with five small kids. He spoke to me in Hindi. He said his family had climbed the wrong train so landed up in Chennai and now they were short of cash to go back to their hometown Sangli, Maharashtra. He said he needed only some money to give some food to his kids. I felt a bit bad and handed over a fifty ruppee note. He thanked me. Again a month or two after the incident, as I was walking through T Nagar, a man approached me asking whether I knew Hindi. I kept quite and walked away.

Today it happenned again.....

I was walking from Haddows Road towards the Gemini Flyover. As I turned towards the right of Taj Hotel, an elderly gentleman who was walking by asked me where is Taj Hotel. I replied it's just around the corner. He continued "Can you tell me which bus goes towards IIT from the Taj Bus Stop?". I replied "I'm new to Chennai so don't know much". He asked "Where you are from?" I replied with a bit of hesitation "Kerala". He said "Is it? Even I'm new to Chennai. I just came today morning from Trichinapalli to join IIT!!" He continued "Are you an engineer?" I knew an affirmative reply would pronlong the conversation. I gently said with a smile "No".

Errata: The hotel I turned from was not Taj. It was Park.

Mind Your Language

It was while watching the film Devdas that I felt a thing very odd about the movie. I wondered how come the Director used Bengali words in the film when the film is a Hindi one. My argument is that, had he used the Bengali words in the movie to bring out the cultural flavor in the movie then he has really failed as a director. If he cannot bring out the cultural feeling with the images then he shouldn’t be making any more movies. The movie is being made in Hindi so that the Hindi viewers could understand it. I feel Bengali viewers will be happy enough watching the Bengali version.
The same happened while reading O Chandumenon’s Indulekha translated by Anitha Devasiya. The purpose of English translation is that others who cannot understand Malayalam are able to enjoy the book without much trouble. But unfortunately the book contains lot of Malayalam words. She has made it easy by adding a glossary in the end. So what’s the point in it!! She may have used the Malayalam words to bring out the cultural flavor but still it will only be understood by a Malayalee. Being a Malayalee myself I found the very interesting to read but I strongly feel this may not be the case for a foreigner who will have to time and again look into the glossary which can be such an irritating process and destroys the flow of the story.
I’m not against usage of other languages in the same book or film if it’s consistent. For eg., in the same book Indulekha there’s usage of Sanskrit slokas which is quite right as even in Malayalam version it’s in Sanskrit.
A fine example of such consistency can be seen in the movie Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick. The movie setting takes place during the World War I and the happenings going around in the French camp. Not even a single French word is used in the movie and even the style of the dialogue delivery is quite American. Its through images and other ways that Kubrick bring in the French substance. Kubrick could have used a easy way out by dropping French words every now and then.

Celebrations!!!

It seems we Indians will tend to celebrate more rather than do anything productive. We still celebrate the eight gold we won at the Olympics but forget that the last one won was 26 years ago when more than half of the Indians were still to be born. Name any field and we could find one barring a few.
In today’s budget our FM has allotted a stunning Rs.10 crores for the preparatory activities for celebrating First War of Independence (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1431852,curpg-6.cms).
It’s really pathetic as what we call the FWI was such a big flop, much bigger than Mangal Pandey and then to celebrate it so lavishly is ridiculous. What’s the purpose of such celebration when there are millions out there who still cannot have a single decent meal?
Moreover we call this as FWI because that’s what NCERT had been preaching since it started writing text books. It overlooked other fight against the foreign powers by Southern States like Kerala and that too much before 1857. To me the first war of independence happened about 110 years before the so-called FWI. In 1748 Marthanda Varma, ruler of the then Travancore State waged a war against the Dutch which resulted in the Treaty of Mavelikkara in 1753. With this treaty came the end of foreign powers from Kerala which had started way back from the arrival of Vasco da Gama in 1498.
Even the ouster of Portuguese from Kerala in 1662 can be termed as FWI but it was only possible with help of the Dutch and Britishes.
So what we are celebrating is nothing but a farce. It’s a shame that none of the NCERT books till today has given any detail on this part of history. What NCERT is good at is fabricating the historical facts.
The North has always ignored the South since the independence. We have a so-called National Anthem which calls the South Indians as Dravidians when there is so much argument in this issue. Moreover if Aryan is racist term then Dravidian too is a racist term. Actually Vandhe Mathram should have been the National Anthem but it was not made one because it would hurt the Muslim sentiments because they cannot bow to anyone but to their God.
So instead of celebrating such an event one could use such a huge amount of money in rural development like establishing hospitals, schools etc. or investing in sports activities or just installations of proper toilets and other such basic amenities in cities like Mumbai, Kolkata to keep it clean.
If anyone is going to write a book on misuage of funds then I think FM’s allotment of money for the celebrations will surely be found on top of the list. I wonder how much the FM has allotted for the Lok Sabha elections!!!(I see one sooner than later, of course with a bit of help from the Left). Then we'll see who is going to celebrate?

Iruvar

I happen to see the Tamil movie Iruvar (Duo) today. The subtitle was really helpful as I cannot understand Tamil that well. I had heard many things about the movie but all of them came false. I think the movie is not only good but its excellent. Though the director claims it to be a fictitious , one can easily relate it to MGR and Karunanidhi. In Hindi, when you have a political drama its either pre-independence one or just relating to a single incident. It seems that there hasn't been a politician worth mentioning after the independence. In Iruvar the story spans a lifetime of the protogonist and antagonist with relation to each other, films and politics. I must emphasis that it was one of the best films Aishwarya Rai has done. All thanks to the maestro himself. The music composition is very good but the best I liked was Narugumaiye (may have spelled incorrectly). The song picturisation, the lyrics and the music was quite remarkable.
The story quite holds good even in contempory political scenario. One may identify Nasser character in phase with Bal Thackeray, Uddhav to Prakash Raj and Mohanlal to Raj Thackeray. The movie takes a quite an entirely new direction in political drama. It doen't show who is right or wrong, nor does it preach. It just goes through the lives of the two political figures.

NEW YEAR: Funny thing to start with.

Myself and my brother went to a computer shop to buy a TFT monitor. It took us an hour or so and we ended up by buying a Samsung TFT. Also my brother chose to buy a flash drive and other computer peripherals for his office. We had a good chat with the salesperson and the Manager of the shop. It was 2nd Jan and still the New Year hangover was not over. The salesperson handed over the receipt of the purchase. We inturn wished him a very happy new year. On the stairway we wished the same to the manager who was attending his mobile. I was very much thrilled to have the TFT. After walking for about 15 min or so my brother asked me the 15 grand(rupees ofcourse) question: "Did we pay the money?" He then put his hand in the pocket to show me those 20 red bucks which he hadn't opened. Yes we hadn't paid the money. Worse, when we went back to the shop the salesperson still didn't knew that he had forgotten to take the money. He was quite lucky that the Manager was not there. My brother handed over him the money. But I couldn't find the embarassment or the thankfulness on his face. I expected him to be either be embarassed or thanking us for walking all the way back to hand over the money. Maybe he won't be so lucky next time.