Ratheesh KrishnaVadhyar's Journal
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Ratheesh KrishnaVadhyar" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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02:44 pm
[Link] | Gabbeh
Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Gabbeh is a film that tells a simple story in a literally colorful way, using an innovative narration technique, which itself becomes the major attraction of the film. The film starts showing an elderly couple going to wash their old woolen carpet in a stream of water. There are lengthy shots of the strange embroidery works made on the carpet, which made me wonder what the movie is all about. Suddenly, a beautiful girl in shining blue costumes appears in the scene, and she narrates her story through her conversations between the old man and woman. She is not real for sure, as we see her vanishing from the scenes now and then, and merging with the story which she narrates, which seems to have blurry borders with the Present in terms of time and space. So, we realize that the various design works in the carpet are actually depictions of various incidents in the girl's life. And in the end we come to know that the old lady and her husband are the beautiful girl and her lover themselves.
I liked the film because of this unique and interesting way of narration, and the way colors are used in the visuals - in the portrayals of landscapes of Iran, in the costumes of characters, in the carpets, and so on.
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07:27 pm
[Link] | I was shocked to hear about the sudden demise of Lohithadas today.
He was just 54. Like Padmarajan and Bharathan, one more talented Malayalam filmmaker dies an untimely death.
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09:19 pm
[Link] | Madhavikkutty
I read Samakalika Malayalam Varika after a long time, this weekend. I wanted to read articles about writer Madhavikkutty, who passed away last week. Along with a memoir by MT Vasudevan Nair, there are many articles in this edition, and they have included Madhavikkutty's short story Pakshiyude Manam, and the first chapter from her work, Ente Katha.
I haven't read Ente Katha yet, which I think is her most acclaimed work. But I have thoroughly enjoyed reading her childhood memoirs, Balyakala Smaranakal, and I remember eagerly waiting for Mathrubhoomi every week during my childhood, in which these memoirs used to be serialized, accompanied with illustrations by AS Nair. Several years later, I read Januvamma Paranja Katha, which too I liked immensely. It seems that Madhavikkutty had told in an interview that she doesn't know many "words". But with whatever words she knew, she created a world of her own in literature, and she would always be remembered for the candid observations and comments she made about the world around her, through those memorable characters in her works.
Madhavikkutty was one among the last writers of the golden era of Malayalam Literature. I think now MT Vasudevan Nair and C Radhakrishnan alone remain to represent inspired prose writing in Malayalam. I haven't been keeping in touch with works of the new generation Malayalam writers, but from whatever little I read, I don't really feel very hopeful about the future of Malayalam Literature.
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05:33 pm
[Link] | Passenger
Director Ranjith Shankar shows promise in his debut movie, Passenger. The basic plot of this movie is pretty simple, with nothing really "new" in it - a corrupt minister, a media reporter trying to expose him, the minister's plans to cover up things, and so on. But the director's narration style has freshness in it, and moreover, he is true to his subject and characters, and hasn't tried to add any of the so called success formula tricks (there is not even Suraj Venjaramoodu in this movie). I think the movie would fall into the "thriller" genre, and not many Malayalam movies have been made in this genre without getting diluted by portrayals of super-heroism or hero's tragic past or romantic adventures. Actually, Padmarajan's Season is the only true Malayalam thriller that comes into my mind now.
Passenger completely belongs to the director, and the actors don't have anything very challenging to do, except for just playing the kind of roles they have played many times, minus their gimmicks. Jagathi is the only exception, as his character doesn't have any traces of comedy which we would have expected from him. In fact, the character of the home minister who personally supervises manhandling of reporters is a bit too stretched, and this would have become much noticeable if the character was not played by Jagathi but by any of the standard villains of Malayalam cinema like Sai Kumar or Siddique. Passenger is not fully devoid of cliches too - The "villains" creating a fully animated video of their proposed plans and presenting it to the minister is an example. But I think all that probably can be forgiven for a debut, and they didn't come in my way of marking Passenger as an interesting film that is worth a watch.
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06:30 pm
[Link] | Bhagyadevatha
Through his latest film Bhagyadevatha, director Sathyan Anthikkad once again gives an indication that he doesn't have anything new to offer to the viewers.
The film is set in the familiar Sathyan atmosphere with KPAC Lalitha, Innocent and Mamukkoya playing their standard characters. Jayaram plays the role of Benny, a local cable television agent, for whom Money is the most important thing in life. Benny marries Daisy (Kaniha), just for the sake of the dowry that her father had promised. When the dowry commitment is not met even after a few months after the wedding, Benny decides to "teach everyone a lesson", takes Daisy to her parents' home, and asks her not to come back until the money matters are settled. After a few weeks, he hears the news that Daisy has won a lottery worth a crore rupees. He is not really in a dilemma, as in the contest between his ego and thirst for money, the latter easily wins. The film later shows Benny's attempts to win Daisy's heart, leading to a predictable "happy ending" where the heroine would happily acknowledge the hero's repentance (!!) and return back to his life.
In spite of its predictable story and narration, I felt that Bhagyadevatha has to be placed above Sathyan's recent films like Rasathanthram, Vinodayathra and Innathe Chinthavishayam. There is no overdose Meera Jasmine, no buffoonery of Dileep in this new film; The viewers are not tortured with songs showing a bulky middle-aged Mohanlal's romance with young heroines either. The story and characters are more believable in Bhagyadevatha. At least, the viewers may not get a sudden urge to run out of theaters in the middle of the film.
Jayaram has carried over his characterization of Sugunan of Veruthe Oru Bharya to Benny. He has actually done a good job in portraying the negative aspects of his character in many scenes. We would often feel, "what a shameless person Benny is", looking at his activities. But in other scenes, where he tries mimicry, the actor irritated me. It was good to see Nedumudi Venu playing an energetic character after a long time, and Venu Nagavalli was also good in his small but important role. Daisy is not as talkative as Sathyan Anthikkad's usual heroines, and Kaniha looks good in this role. The songs are good to hear, and I liked the way Sathyan portrayed the development of warm relationship between Daisy and Benny's family members through the "thira thannil veenalum.." (?) song.
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10:17 pm
[Link] | Mizhikal Sakshi
Mizhikal Sakshi, directed by Ashok R Nath, has an interesting theme, and the director has got some of the finest Malayalam actors like Sukumari, Nedumudi Venu and Mohanlal to play his characters. Actor Kochu Preman, who has always been cast in comic characters that just try to make use of his appearance and mannerisms, gets the best role in his career so far, and proves that he is a capable actor. Veteran composer Dakshinamoorthi has given music for a movie after a long time, and the songs in this movie are gems of melody. In spite of all this, Mizhikal Sakshi fails to come up as a powerful film. It has a few shining moments in it, but the film as a whole remains as mediocre.
Most of the film is set inside a beautiful temple compound (I couldn't figure out which this temple is). Chollu Swami (Kochu Preman) is a renunciate who lives in the premises of the temple reading Ramayana and giving discourses to children. One day, a mute old lady appears near the temple (played by Sukumari). She seems to have found a shelter in the temple. Free lunch is provided at the temple, but the old lady doesn't have a plate to receive food. She accepts a vessel given by the kind-hearted Chollu Swami, but she wouldn't accept monitory help. She makes the temple her home, and as days progress, she even plays the role of a helper in some of the daily rituals inside the temple. From the behavior of Kooniyamma (as she is called), Chollu Swami rightly guesses that she might probably have lost her son. But he wouldn't have guessed that the old lady is a Muslim, and her son was accused of being a terrorist and hanged. When this eventually comes out, it indeed is a shocking news for the temple authorities, and the rest of the film portrays the reaction of the "insensitive" society towards the matter, etc.
In the flashback scenes, Kooniyamma is shown as a typical "filmy" elderly Muslim lady wearing traditional costumes. But during her days in the temple, neither Chollu Swami nor the audience could see any traces of a traditional Muslim woman in her. The old lady is an embodiment of Innocence and she would never have attempted to hide anything with full awareness about the act; so why did the people in the temple fail to get any clue that she is not a Hindu, for so many days? Have the traumatic incidents in her life changed her so fundamentally? Or did the writer think that by making his character mute, he has done away with this issue? There are a few such loose ends in the script, but Sukumari's performance irons out all such questions. Nedumudi Venu and Mohanlal playing father and son in the flashback scenes creates a deja vu feeling, and makes all the flashback business look like predictable fair. Thankfully, Mohanlal doesn't demonstrate his toffee-chewing gimmick to show that his character is an intellectual. The only actor who irritated me in the movie was Manoj K Jayan, who came as a district collector, or something. His character was supposed to empathize with Kooniyamma, but all the time he looked too self-conscious in maintaining his appearance and hairstyle intact, and never gave any impression of being a sensitive individual.
The problem with Mizhikal Sakshi is that it is nothing more than a cinema version of a newspaper article. It is definitely a sincere work, but not as much an artistic experience as it could have been. Even when the director attempts to do a bit of fantasy with the beautiful "manjuthara.." song playing in the background, the scenes involving the Krishnanattam artist and Kooniyamma look like some sort patchwork. Kooniyamma's tragedy touches us occasionally as we see the film, but its portrayal is not strong enough to haunt us.
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08:22 pm
[Link] | The Man-Eaters of Tsavo
This week, I read a book called The Man-Eaters of Tsavo. Originally published in 1907, this book written by Lt. Colonel JH Patterson gives an account of his days in the South African jungles during the last few years of the 19th century, supervising the railway line construction at Uganda and Kenya. The author was responsible for killing the notorious Tsavo man-eaters during this period.
I remember watching the film based on the story of Tsavo lions, The Ghost and the Darkness, sitting in the front row of erstwhile Plaza theater, and it was one of the first few films that I watched in Bangalore (I think the ticket cost was 15 rupees then). In that way, that film and its larger-than-life characters are pretty close to me :) The book however has mainly historic value, in my opinion. The adventures related to Tsavo man-eaters take up only around one-third of the book. This narrative is interesting, but when I think of the wild-life adventure writings by Kenneth Anderson and Jim Corbett, the Tsavo story looks somewhat dry. The remaining two-third of the book is mostly dedicated to accounts of hobby-hunting (though there are some informative descriptions about African native tribes in some chapters). I was least interested to know how the author had helped his friends to "bag trophies" of numerous harmless animals; There was nothing much in the narrative that looked intriguing either. So, I just quickly browsed through the remaining part of the book, skipping many a paragraph here and there.
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10:06 pm
[Link] | Lalbagh, one of the very few last-remaining green spots in Bangalore, is also being threatened now by the so-called "infrastructure development activities".
Over the last 10 years, the botanical garden has seen itself getting reduced to a dusty place with plastic garbage scattered all over. But still, we had something to call as "greenery in the middle of the city". I think the proposed tree-felling and land acquisition by the Metro Project would accelerate the pace of destruction of this place.
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08:30 am
[Link] | Belur and Halebidu
Last weekend, we had a visit to Belur and Halebidu. We started at 4:30AM on Saturday, and thankfully there was only minimal traffic in the city. I managed to miss the left turn towards Hassan at Nelamangala, and realized that only when we reached the toll collection counters on NH4. Anyways, NH4 was excellent, and we drove till Tumkur and then took NH206 towards Tiptur, where we stopped for breakfast at Kamat restaurant. We continued the journey and I once again missed the turn to Halebidu at Arsikere and eventually took another route from near Banvar (thanks to the Eicher road maps which helped me). The Banvar-Halebidu road was narrow, but this journey through countryside was interesting. By the time we reached Halebidu, it was 11AM and it was pretty hot there.
I had earlier visited Belur and Halebidu in 1998. It was a quiet and calm place that time, with not many shops around, and with less crowd in the temple. But now, things have changed a lot. We spent around an hour at the Hoysaleshwara Temple and then went towards the Jain temples and the incomplete Kedareshwara temple nearby. We spent an hour there too (those were much less crowded). After that, we drove towards Belur and reached there by half an hour.
We decided to stay at Belur. I was not sure if we would get a good hotel at Belur; But hotel Vishnu Regency, near the Chennakeshava Temple, was reasonably priced and neat. The receptionist was friendly, and the restaurant food was tasty too (though it took pretty long time to get the food, and we joked that there was only one person to take the order, buy vegetables, cook and then serve the food). We took rest for some time and in the evening, we went to the temple and relaxed there till 8PM. After a tiring day, it was nice to just lie down on the granite slabs in the temple compound and stare at the moon and stars.
At the hotel, they have made a recommended tour-map to visit the Hoysala temples at Hiremagalur, Marle, Belavadi, Hulikere, Pushpagiri, Adaguru, Kondajji, Koravangala, and Dhoddagadhavalli - all villages within 30Km radius from Belur. I hadn't heard of any of these places before. There were photographs of these temples pasted on a large board inside the hotel, which tempted me to visit those places as well the next day. However, I decided to skip that for the time being.
On Sunday we started from Belur at 10AM. The road, through scenic countryside, was in excellent condition till Hassan. Hassan-Bangalore road too was okay, though not as well-maintained as Belur-Hassan road, surprisingly. We stopped at a vegetable market near Hassan for shopping, and then for lunch at Kamat restaurant near Chennarayapatna (I didn't feel that the lunch there was really worth the high price). We reached Nelamangala at 5, but it took another 2.5 hours to reach home as there was traffic jam everywhere. By the time it occurred to me that I could have parked the car at Nelamangala , taken rest and resumed the journey late in the evening, it was too late and I was trapped in the queue of vehicles.
This trip was made mainly for some driving practice for myself. Visiting places on our own vehicle is convenient; But as a beginner in driving, I felt that I would have enjoyed the trip much more without the hassles related to driving. While looking at the great carvings in the temple, various thoughts run in background in my mind regarding how I would take out that vehicle from some precarious position in the parking lot without hitting other cars; While driving through smooth and peaceful roads in Belur, I have to feel tense about next day's drive from Nelamangala, where I am sure I will have to join long chaotic queues of slow-moving vehicles climbing up slopes in the road (with my success rate of starting my vehicle on a positive gradient still below 50%) and then have nightmares about it!
Elephants carved on the base of Hoysaleshwara temple - One of the elephants appears to be staring directly at the viewers!
Entrance of Hoysaleshwara temple
A strange-looking figure carved on Hoysaleshwara temple - I heard a local guide explaining that this is a "foreign judge"!
It reminded me of the carving of a man wearing a hat on the Brihadeshwara temple.
Artist's signature on a carving at Chennakeshava Temple - I think it's a rare occurrence.
Panoramic view of Chennakeshava Temple, Belur (a stitch of many images)
Remains of an ancient temple next to Hotel Vishnu Regency, Belur ( More Photos )
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08:45 pm
[Link] | Rhapsody in August
Kurosawa's 90+ minute film Rhapsody in August shows how so many things can be conveyed to the viewers in such a short time, in an unhurried fashion. The film is set in a beautiful and serene-looking Japanese village close to Nagasaki, where the old woman Kane lives a lonely life. Presently, her four grandchildren are with her for a short period, and the old lady is pretty excited about it. However, there is an obvious generation gap separating the Old and the Young (reminding of many of Ozu's films), and the children find the village life to be boring, just as the dishes made by their grandma. So, they are all thrilled when they get a letter from US, from one of their grandma's brothers (about whom she doesn't remember much). He has invited the old lady to his home at Hawaii, and the children are invited too.
The children try to make the grandma agree for the trip, but she doesn't find it so exciting. "The riches of my brother make no difference to me. I would be grateful if I am allowed to spend this short time with you in this village", she says. The children however try to delay the decision, and send a diplomatic response asking their parents (who are living with this new-found relative in US) to confirm the identity of this "brother". As this exchange of letters goes on, a change comes over the attitude of the children - They realize that their grandpa was killed during the atomic bomb blast at Nagasaki, and they start empathizing with the old woman. They visit the places associated with the tales told by grandma, and try to see things from a different perspective. The grandma denies that she has anything against "America or Americans"; She is aware that the tragedies were never one-sided, and she would just blame the War itself for all that happened.
Kurosawa has made the climax of this film a bit dramatic, emphasizing the fact that the scars and trauma left by the War haven't yet healed. On a rainy night, the old lady is having hallucinations seeing the lightnings, and she thinks that it's War all over again. Time rewinds for her, and the next day, she heads towards the city, with her umbrella, to make sure that her husband who used to teach in a school there is safe, just like she did the day following the bomb blasts in 1945. The winds are strong, and her flimsy umbrella would not be of much use in the rain.
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08:15 pm
[Link] | Kanva Reservoir
Today we had our first journey out of Bangalore on our new car. We visited Kanva Reservoir, a place which we had found out from a few travelogues on Internet.
We started at 6AM, planning to come out of Bangalore traffic early, but there was good amount of traffic in spite of being a Sunday, at least it was sufficient to frighten me and keep me tense throughout the trip. It took an hour and a half to pass Ramanagara and stop for breakfast at Kamat Lokaruchi restaurant. I had a heard a lot about this place from different people, but never had food from there earlier. We had rice kadubu (a variation of idli batter cooked inside a sort of cylindrical vessel made of coconut leaves(?) - which is something similar to hittu which my mother makes at home using jack fruit leaves, but nowhere near that in terms of taste), vada (crispy and tasty), ragi roti and upma with some nice curries and chutney that tasted very homely.
A kilometer after the restaurant, we took a right turn that lead to Kanva Reservoir. The road is in a pathetic condition. The first 1Km has a patchwork of tar. After that, there is some road renovation work still going on, and they have dumped chunks of "metal" and red sand all over the place and are still in the process of leveling it. At places, we had to wait for the tractor vehicles to make the path clear for us, and we found it hard to negotiate our way through all these; but definitely it was much easier than driving with a few auto-rickshaws and BMTC buses surrounding you on Bangalore roads.
Kanva Reservoir
Not Really an "Unknown Paradise!"
After an hour or so, we reached the reservoir. There was not much water there, and some construction work was still in progress near the dam. A helpful officer sitting near the dam (who speaks English) told us that swimming and boating are not allowed in the reservoir now, but we can just relax and enjoy the location. We found some boards warning about the presence of crocodiles too (which was written in Kannada, with a picture of a particular smiling crocodile). It was becoming pretty hot, but there was some cool breeze flowing from the water body, hence we spent some time walking around.
There were no other tourists that time other than us, but it looks like the place is not exactly an "unknown paradise" as I read in a few travelogues - There are all sorts of junk - liquor bottles, plastic bags, "Lays" packets and what not - thrown everywhere around the reservoir and it doesn't really give the impression of an ideal place for a nice picnic. Perhaps we might have walked around for some more distance to look for "unexplored territories" to sit and relax for some time, but we were too tired because of heat and hence decided to return.
We stopped at Kamat restaurant during the return trip as well. It was not yet time for ootta, so we had neer dosa and buttermilk, which I liked. We had planned to visit the Big Banyan Tree at Ramohalli as well, but I missed the left turn to the place while returning to Bangalore.
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07:24 pm
[Link] | Book on Tamil Pulp Fiction
I read this book called The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, which brings out translations of stories by ten best-selling Tamil authors: Rajesh Kumar, Subha, Pattukkottai Prabhakar, Pushpa Thangadorai, Vidya Subramaniam, Ramanichandran, Tamilvanan, Prajanand, Resakee and Indra Soundar Rajan. Except for Vidya Subramaniam, no other author among these has been translated to English before, it seems. The "pulp fiction" is presented "as it is", with no attempt at glorification. And they are indeed "Pulp" - nothing more, nothing less. These stories are very much readable, and would never bore us. They wouldn't follow us after reading either.
Probably DC Books should now publish an anthology of "Malayala Painkili Sahithyam"!
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08:53 pm
[Link] | Detective
Watched the Malayalam film Detective (2007) yesterday on television. Writer-Director Jithu Joseph (I think this was his debut film) has brought out an interesting murder mystery based on a surprisingly intriguing plot, and I think Detective is the best Malayalam investigation film I watched in recent times.
I wished that the director had paid less attention to the picturizations of slow-motion walks and mannerisms of the detective (played by Suresh Gopi) and his car, and focused fully on the development of his intelligent plot. He should not have implemented the gimmick of showing Suresh Gopi in a double-role and all the associated unnecessary background story (which doesn't add any value to the main plot). The dialogues too require a lot of polishing to make them look like what normal people would speak under normal conditions. A few loopholes could have been ironed out, and with all this, this film would have found a place among the finest suspense films in Malayalam.
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07:15 pm
[Link] | Multiple City - Writings on Bangalore
Multiple City - Writings on Bangalore is a collection of more than fifty articles (some of them translated from Kannada) related to Bangalore, written by various authors, edited by Aditi De and published by Penguin. This books provides an excellent reading experience because of the variety of subjects addressed in these articles, nearly all of which are eminently readable. A few writers reminisce about their childhood days in Bangalore, its restaurants, gardens, lakes and streets, its bookshops, while there are few writers who write about contemporary happenings. There are a few articles trying to analyze the behavioral aspects of Bangaloreans while there are a few writers from outside India, who give us their perspective too. Most of the articles are not written specifically for the book, but are extracted from different works, and hence they retain their colors, making this a truly diverse collection of articles.
The first section of the book has a few articles relating to the history of Bangalore, narrating its growth (?) from being a lazy little town of lakes in the 16th century to a city of planned gardens to a cantonment city to "pensioner's paradise" to IT city. One interesting writing in this section is a chapter from the 1908 Kannada novel, Indira, which narrates the hero's visit to Bangalore.
Some of the interesting and memorable write-ups in this book include UT Ananthamurthy's piece about his role in renaming the city as Bengaluru, writings by Shashi Deshpande, Geeta Doctor, Janaki Nair and S Diwakar that give us glimpses of "old Bangalore", the one by Ramachandra Guha about Premier Bookstall (which is mentioned in multiple articles in the book), Zac O'Yeah's affectionate comments on the eccentricity of "Majestic", Shobhana Narasimhan's collection of anecdotes related to CV Raman's days in Bangalore, Nemichandra's narration of her search for Jew families in Bangalore, Paul William Roberts's memoirs of his teaching experiences at Bangalore University, Achal Prabhala's article about vegetarian eateries in Bangalore, A short biography of Doreswamy Iyengar by KN Raghavendra Rao, Sham Banerji's recollection about his days at Texas Instruments, Bangalore and his interactions with a few "famous" people representing different sectors of Bangalore, to mention a few.
In one of the articles, there is an extract from DV Gundappa's descriptions about the visit of Prince Albert in 1889: "As the Royal Party got down at the Railway station and proceeded by horse-drawn coaches toward the city, a grand sight greeted it at the Totadappa Choultry corner. The tank in front, the Dharmambudhi tank, was a broad sheet of cool clear water with a float gently gliding upon it. The float carried a party of Bharatanatyam dancers in colorful attire..". Can we imagine that the charming place described above is today's crowded Majestic, and the calm and beautiful tank that is mentioned here was present at the place where the City Bus Stand stands now? Many such findings in this book made me feel depressed thinking about the present state of Bangalore and its possible future. Also, A collection of photographs of old Bangalore reproduced in this book made me wish for Time to rewind back by a hundred years.
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09:47 pm
[Link] | 2 Harihar Nagar
In Harihar Nagar (1990) from director-duo Siddique-Lal still remains as one of my favorite comedy films. The funny characters played by Mukesh, Jagadeesh, Siddique and Ashokan, and their various adventures portrayed in the film were really hilarious to watch. Whenever I think of Jagadeesh wearing a tie, standing under a tree and asking his friends "ingane simple dress ittu varunnavare penkuttikalkku ishtam aville? don't they like?", and the kakka-thooral episode immediately following that, I still find it hard to control my laughter, and this has happened during my work hours multiple times, while attending presentations by important dignitaries :) Some of these comedy scenes from old movies like In Harihar Nagar, Ramjirao Speaking, Nadodikkattu, Pattana Pravesham, Vadakkunokkiyanthram, Mookkilla Rajyathu, etc. randomly pop up in my mind frequently, and lighten up my day. I think these scenes have become part of my life, and they also make me remember the days when we (my parents, sister and myself) used to go to Irinjalakuda Prabhat theater to watch films almost every alternate weekends (many of the Malayalam films used to be watchable those days), and those anxious moments filled with expectations, standing in the queue near the ticket counter, waiting for the bell in the counter to scream. I also remember the discussions about those movies we used to have during lunch time, sitting on the thinna of Christ College Auditorium, with my pre-degree classmates. Perhaps everyone needs to have a few such things as some kind of nostalgia-blended pills for relaxation.
Siddique and Lal split after a few years, and later Siddique made a few forgettable films on his own. They had none of the magic of old Siddique-Lal films. Now, after 19 years when Lal has come up with his independent directorial-venture of 2 Harihar Nagar, a sequel of In Harihar Nagar, I am at the same time eager to watch it, as well as prejudiced against it. I watched the film today at Sangeeth theater, and found that it is a watchable film offering some "time-pass", though I doubt if I would treasure any scenes in this movie for long term.
The film starts with showing the present states of all the "friends" of In Harihar Nagar. Appukkuttan (Jagadeesh) has become a dentist, and is now even more foolish than he was during older days. Govindan Kutty (Siddique) is doing construction business. After watching the actor in so many type-casted villain roles after his comedy-days, it is difficult to imagine Siddique as the funny character of older days. Mahadevan (Mukesh) conducts "Personality Development" courses, but old age seems to have caught up with Mukesh too, like Sreenivasan, and his recent performances just make me feel sad. The first few scenes of the film show these three getting together at Harihar Nagar (which has become a much posher area now). They have come for attending the engagement ceremony of Thomas Kutty (Ashokan) who seems to be the only one who doesn't have to try too hard to make his character look like an extension of In Harihar Nagar (since his character was the least funny one anyways). Director Lal has managed to make the first half of the film interesting, with Jagadeesh, who shines best when he plays as a simpleton, taking the lead in comedy department. There are a few twists in story in the second half. But after all these Shaji Kailas movies of last few years, in which the most gentle characters consistently come out as the main culprits in the climax, all twists in stories seem like a joke to me and I think they don't even have entertainment value. Thankfully, the film ended just when I was about to lose my patience.
2 Harihar Nagar is watchable mainly for some dialogue-oriented comedy from Jagadeesh. I think the film looks appealing more because of its nostalgic association with the golden days of Malayalam Cinema, than its value as an independent work.
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09:04 pm
[Link] | Madadayo
This month, I watched many movies which have been lying in my cupboard for many years now. I recently discovered that many of my video disks are probably dying because of mysterious reasons. Many of these videos I haven't watched even once. I have always been waiting for "right occasions" to watch these movies, but now it looks like I will have to watch all these movies soon, or try to recover the data as much as possible.
Madadayo (1993), Kurosawa's final film, I felt was a fitting swan-song by the great film-maker. The film tells the story of a professor and his students. The professor retires at the age of 60 as he wants to focus more on Writing. His students are big fans of this witty and humorous teacher whom they call as "solid gold", and they are always there to help the professor in various things - they construct a new house for him when his old one gets destroyed in air-raids, they help to find his pet cat, and so on. They also celebrate his birthday in a big way every year, during which they have a ceremony of all students asking the professor "Madha kai?" (are you ready?), to which the professor would respond, "Madadayo!" (not yet), hinting that he is pretty much alive and is not ready for the final rest yet. The simple film with no dramatic incidents, mainly contains portrayals of interactions between the professor and his students, and creates a feel-good sensation, reminding of all gentle and calm things in Life. In its beautiful and touching climax, the professor's quest for "readiness" spills over to a dream, and takes him to a hide-and-seek game that he used to play during his childhood. "Are you ready?" his playmates ask. He keeps on telling "Not yet", as he hunts for a good place to hide. But when he finds one, he suddenly rises up to look at the magically illuminated skyscape, and then forgets to respond to his playmates.
A few other films I enjoyed watching are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which Priyadarsan had remade into various Indian languages, Spanish film All About My Mother (1999) directed by Pedro Almodovar, and the visual-dramatic extravaganza of Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990). Another film I watched was a 1997 film version of Robinson Crusoe in which Pierce Brosnan played the role of Crusoe, and this film I found as disgusting and an insult to the classic work.
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08:24 pm
[Link] | Kundun
I watched the film Kundun (1997) today, which is based on the life story of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. The film starts with showing the identification of Dalai Lama during his childhood as a reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama, and ends at the moment when he reaches India, escaping from the Chinese.
Kundun has stunningly beautiful, colorful visuals. But the film is mainly narrated as a documentary, and I felt that it offers neither the religious insight nor the amusement provided by the memoirs of His Holiness, named My Land and My People, which also covered the same time-frame in his life.
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10:10 pm
[Link] | The Last Nizam
I read the book The Last Nizam - The Rise and Fall of India's Greatest Princely State, written by John Zubrzycki. It is an excellent work that takes us through 350 years of history of the Asaf Jahi dynasty of Hyderabad.
The book starts with narrating Aurangzeb's victory over the Qutb Shah kingdom of Golconda and later installation of Qamruddin as the first Nizam - Nizam ult-Mulk - of Hyderabad. Around half of the book talks about the first seven Nizams. This also partly becomes the story of the Raj and British empire building in India. The first Nizam was a thoughtful ruler while the second spent his time allying with and against British, Tip Sultan and the Marathas. The next three Nizams had limited independence, with British taking up more and more share in administration of the kingdom. The sixth Nizam became popular and the seventh one, Osman Ali Khan, for whom several chapters of the book are dedicated, comes out as a colorful character. He made Hyderabad one of the richest states in the World. Remaining half of the book tells the story of the "Last Nizam", Mukarram Jah, who was also the grandson of the last Caliph of Islam. We see how the massive wealth accumulated by seven earlier Nizams just went to dust during last fifty years.
Zubrzycki gives an unbiased account of history, showing both sides of the coins. The bigotry, corruption and strange practices of the Nizams are described many times in the book. But at the same time, we are also able to see them as human beings and feel sympathy for them (especially for the last two Nizams) from different view-points.
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08:28 pm
[Link] | Satyricon
Fellini's Satyricon is based on an ancient Roman work with the same name, of which only fragments remain as of today. The film too consists of sequences looking like a series of fragments, with bizarre visuals sometimes reminding of Dali's paintings, and in the climax scene, we see the closeup of the central character merging with a painting of his face on the walls of a broken building.
I could not understand much of this film; But the cumulative effect of its dreamlike sequences was unique and satisfying in a certain way.
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10:08 pm
[Link] | "Noooo!"
Characters in mainstream Malayalam films, when they hear about some tragic news, always yell loudly in English: "Nooooooo!!!". Even those characters played by actresses Mathu and Sunitha during the 1990s, who always looked like people straight out of pages from Malayalee's favorite magazines, Mangalam and Manorama, used to cry "Noooo!!" when they realize that their lovers have been cheating them. I am sure if Chemmeen was made today, Karuthamma and Pareekkutty would have had several "Noooo!" dialogues.
I have nothing against this "Nooo!!". On the contrary, I think that "Nooo!!!" would probably have more impact than an "Illaaa..", and it surely looks like a more possible reaction than the latter in today's times. But in certain movies, the whole thing is having a comic effect, like in MT's Sadayam, for example.
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