tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83340505064387988752024-02-18T21:50:42.635-08:00Resonance ...A man who is reading a classic will find a way to work it into his conversations.
~UnknownGokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-13760095362218250892013-12-24T03:47:00.001-08:002013-12-24T07:14:03.305-08:00Kalyana Samayal Saadham (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Kalyana Samayal Saadham (KSS) </i>picks an aspect of marriage that usually goes undiscussed in our cinema - impotency. Whether or not it is a permanent medical complication, a matter of sexual compatibility or a stress-induced temporary state can be attributed to detailing, but one could sense that the movie shunned away from topic through out its course the typical tamil cinema way. KSS chooses to instill humour into all the situations arising out and comically dismisses Raghu's (Prasanna) problem. When Meera (Lekha Washington) delivered the "<i>Let's assume you are impotent, so what ?!</i>" line, she appeared as if she was receiving the Tamil-culture-girl baton directly from Vadivukkarasi of <i>Kanni Paruvathile (1979)</i>. The
detailed procession of the wedding through the second half of the movie
is probably a black critique on the system of arranged marriages - the
unimportant modus operandi taking the center stage while nobody seems to
care about important aspects such as the one presented in the film - impotency of the bridegroom.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGD6QWQn7raSzFGGcsqL9lC6xwRDV30SjOcSzopgLUlbdxMMjsvXPb_0dxF4JYeovNnbZoCG_CC-JybtXgTIR0v12iGdKPP_VXHkRJ7DslI8FKEvIevzIfcQduuhlH7wYQi3uertbWeWU/s1600/kss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGD6QWQn7raSzFGGcsqL9lC6xwRDV30SjOcSzopgLUlbdxMMjsvXPb_0dxF4JYeovNnbZoCG_CC-JybtXgTIR0v12iGdKPP_VXHkRJ7DslI8FKEvIevzIfcQduuhlH7wYQi3uertbWeWU/s400/kss.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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One can observe that the movie assumes an elitist and urban setting with the tamil brahmin wedding and a complete song featuring facebook template etc, but the issue addressed is definitely universal. I definitely felt a bit let down with the way the script tackled Prasanna's problem with no honesty or intensity, expecting a psychological study of the problem in the context of a relationship. But the movie still deserves credit for bringing such topics into discussion, considering the mindless escapist stuff dished out in the name of mainstream entertainment in tamil cinema.</div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-57737312328272882682012-12-30T10:22:00.000-08:002012-12-31T09:16:04.212-08:00For Cinephilia, Cheers !<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Le3Lgz_elAB_TggDAJuS18vISo_4PpSJvxQJk0yiy3ZXD_PUs1SMHFsDr2CkSZJJMsVOhRCx5eIDXx0ACt8X182UnT5WHLLmHmrYDlid_80xyk-JV98R0xqRDumBcyDipra6FdMC1gE/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Le3Lgz_elAB_TggDAJuS18vISo_4PpSJvxQJk0yiy3ZXD_PUs1SMHFsDr2CkSZJJMsVOhRCx5eIDXx0ACt8X182UnT5WHLLmHmrYDlid_80xyk-JV98R0xqRDumBcyDipra6FdMC1gE/s400/5.jpg" width="400" /></a><i> </i></div>
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<i> I was one of the insatiables. The ones you'd always find sitting closest
to the screen. Why do we sit so close? Maybe it was because we wanted
to receive the images first. When they were still new, still fresh.
Before they cleared the hurdles of the rows behind us. Before they'd
been relayed back from row to row, spectator to spectator; until worn
out, secondhand, the size of a postage stamp, it returned to the
projectionist's cabin. Maybe, too, the screen was really a screen. It
screened us... from the world.</i></div>
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<b><i>- The Dreamers (2003), Bernardo Bertolucci</i></b></div>
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Caught this during the second watch. The film made such an indelible impression the first time about three years back ... Cinephilia, Paris student revolts, Eva Green's tits, to name a few. Call it confusion or confluence, there's not another work of art that is going to see such a flawless amalgamation of all those romantic ingredients - eroticism, politics and cinema. </div>
Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.842521500000004 8.057220899999999 49.1757745 8.7026679tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-19914601646339932552012-12-26T04:46:00.002-08:002012-12-30T11:09:51.864-08:00Indhu (1994), Prabhudeva and the 'Gaana' genre<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The title, I realize, sounds a bit presumptuous but this is not going to be a comprehensive post on the Gaana music or Prabhudeva. I just set out to register things that struck me while I was checking out the 1994 Prabhudeva starrer 'Indhu'.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_PZ_IQNrnQaxDenySpgp9tJELrhyphenhyphenj88-rBY-hrpwyP_tO9-Jw_3bRhB9HBubHX0wOAAElWo3sPgEZBbUFq3zkYDf6_Zev3pnFgxteoZTqc4j1ffOeM5knd0TkN7bBiGbRbtr-V9BMas/s1600/pd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_PZ_IQNrnQaxDenySpgp9tJELrhyphenhyphenj88-rBY-hrpwyP_tO9-Jw_3bRhB9HBubHX0wOAAElWo3sPgEZBbUFq3zkYDf6_Zev3pnFgxteoZTqc4j1ffOeM5knd0TkN7bBiGbRbtr-V9BMas/s400/pd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It can be safely said that I was drawn towards the movie purely by my
nostalgia for its songs, otherwise the movie's plot is so awfully all
over the place. Youtube watching of all the song videos would have
sufficed !. Deva's <a href="http://www.paadal.com/album/tamilsongs/indhu-tamil-movie-songs" target="_blank">album </a>for Indhu has a special fascination for me, I have very vivid memories of listening to them as a 8-9 year old and I knew all those lyrics by-heart back then. We were living in a close-knit neighborhood those days and our neighbor with a tape recorder played the album so many times that i practically sang along those lines with the speakers all the time. I remember that my mom always disapproved me of singing those verses aloud and now I understand why !. References to female body & sexual overtones are an essential feature of all the songs in the album. Almost all the songs in the album (except may be 'Metro channel') can be categorized under the filmy Gaana genre. </div>
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'Gaana' as a musical genre was born in urban slums and it even has a certain plausible dalit origin. When 'Gaana' songs made it into the cinema, they were tempered a bit to suit mainstream consumption. Even on that level, Vaali's lyrics for Indhu's album are so much over the board (pointing 'mainstream' again) making misogyny in filmy gaana an understatement. A few examples would be<i> 'Ulla theriyum Nayudu hall', 'back a paatha bens car', 'nellu kutha edam kodutha maatikkuva oralukulla'</i> etc. Films usually had one gaana song, usually shot as an item number but with so many gaana songs in the album, Indhu gains a representative significance. I think tamil cinema is well past its gaana glory .. gone are the days of Deva, the most prominent filmy gaana composer of the 90s.</div>
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Going back to Indhu the film, somebody should have been thinking of a good launch vehicle to sell Prabhudeva's excellent dancing abilities and forged together this particular film. By 1994, '<i>Chikku bukku Rayile </i>(Gentleman)' and '<i>Lalaakku dol dappi ma </i>(Suriyan)' have made Prabhudeva a familiar face among the tamil audience and hence somebody was encouraged to really invest in a whole movie selling his dance repertoire. 'Indhu' is his first movie in a lead role and he had a decent acting career to show off following this film. If we were to put in some kind of detailed research into all those songs that Prabhudeva danced to, we might be able to theorize the (urban ?!) youth culture of the 90s in Tamilnadu. More than Rajinis, Kamals or any other film stars during his times, I think these will offer a lot of insight in that direction. Just think of the long list we will have - Indhu, Raasaiya, Mr Romeo, Kaathalan etc. I also always thought his dance moves carried a certain trashiness (can't put forward with a better word - i actually mean <i>inelegant</i>), they were quite fast & hence difficult to follow, may be they were choreographed intentionally to be inimitable, at least in the most famous numbers that i could recall he wore baggies or <i>lungi-pattapatti </i>combo when he danced. I would like to associate these with the specific audience his songs (and movies) addressed, thereby pointing again to the youth culture of the 90s.</div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.842521500000004 8.057220899999999 49.1757745 8.7026679tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-84393866374936640472012-12-24T10:13:00.002-08:002012-12-24T10:14:39.292-08:00Deutschland Bleiche Mutter (1980)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Some spoilers ahead !</div>
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Deutschland Bleiche Mutter (DBM) as a film has to be placed firmly in context. The viewer has to be aware of a little bit of history - the Nazi Germany, post-war trauma and the Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung - for instance. The film was made in 1980 - the German unification was still a decade away and the east-west division was fully in place. <span class="st">DBM is directed by a female director, Helma Sanders-Brahms and that adds a different dimension to the film's perspective concerning agony of the war and motherhood.</span></div>
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<span class="st">The film is not objective at all and thus is very slow paced. The first half of the film extends as a road film with Lene (</span><span class="st"><span class="st">Eva Mettes</span>) walking through the forests & seasons with her new born infant. While on a casual stroll, my actual connect with the film came when Lene gets raped by the allied soldiers and when she remarks "the victors' right, little girl". From that point on my entire perception of the film had a whole new notion that, Lene (as the mother) is the metaphor for Deutschland herself. While I am not sure if it was intended, the film made much more sense on an abstract level after that point. Lene's paralysis on one side of the face, Lene losing all her teeth to avoid the spread of the paralysis, Lene covering one side of the face with a dark veil, her troubled relationship with her husband, her unexplained anger on her daughter - all suggested the disarmament, the east-west division and the mental trauma that the war brought to the society.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XYHBfC5vs6ZdCKlt7R8QDJ56YzUbzfpixzFrPl-CEnzmAFmBBh2NykjZfzA2CfEMLKBtmklLcZY1koU-vqK9ZRj0hEUxOjnB4R9fR0rReGuIBXPbJlBJim3URdABCk_HZS8qBFoSHhY/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-12-24-19h04m13s142.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XYHBfC5vs6ZdCKlt7R8QDJ56YzUbzfpixzFrPl-CEnzmAFmBBh2NykjZfzA2CfEMLKBtmklLcZY1koU-vqK9ZRj0hEUxOjnB4R9fR0rReGuIBXPbJlBJim3URdABCk_HZS8qBFoSHhY/s400/vlcsnap-2012-12-24-19h04m13s142.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="st">Eva Mettes' stupendous performance stands-out and she obviously carries the film almost single-handedly. Her face conveys an infectious gloominess right from frame one preparing us for that epic tragedy - the climax.</span></div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.842521500000004 8.057220899999999 49.1757745 8.7026679tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-10160534968269784732012-10-06T05:30:00.001-07:002012-12-30T11:16:13.845-08:00Collector sir ... <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvsZYDwre1MkRvdoxn1PqtgAuySBKUkSxOIGAWTp6smcPrQK7RML3r1v6rMOOjfhAIkl7253GJibJKP1aIdp5WAO-I7reRGFU1VN3DFXob7pJKTkbe6roWo3jFQQQwbmiGD5E2aDtpwIg/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-10-05-18h57m10s183.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvsZYDwre1MkRvdoxn1PqtgAuySBKUkSxOIGAWTp6smcPrQK7RML3r1v6rMOOjfhAIkl7253GJibJKP1aIdp5WAO-I7reRGFU1VN3DFXob7pJKTkbe6roWo3jFQQQwbmiGD5E2aDtpwIg/s400/vlcsnap-2012-10-05-18h57m10s183.png" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thalapathy (1991), Mani Ratnam </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i> </i> <i>"motham aruvathu naalu case ... Devaraj melayum ... Surya melayum"</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thus began the most impactful scene of Mani Ratnam's <i>Thalapathy</i> <i>(1991)</i>. <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The scene was the first meeting between the new district collector Arjun (Aravindswamy) and the mafia kingpins Surya (Rajinikanth) and Devaraj (Mammooty). It </span>is a clash, a conflict, a contest, all of friction and tension - spectacularly shot, directed and enacted - it was just impeccable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The scene assumes a temporary harmony when Surya starts explaining his point of view in a composed tone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: #0b5394;"><i>"Collector sir, neenga eppovavadhu ezhaiya irundhirukeengala ... ?"</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And then hostility starts to build up in subsequential exchanges and the conversation reaches a clear break-down when Arjun declares in all his capacity ...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>"Unga katthalukku indha oor jananga bayapaduvanga, naan bayappada matten"</i> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Surya's<i> <span style="background-color: #0b5394;">"thodra paakkalam"</span></i> outburst not only gives an idea of the inflammability of the whole exchange but also suggests like <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">the tip of the iceberg, the whole rivalry that might ensue. As predictable in tamil cinema conflicts, the individual has to rise above and <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">counter <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">the system (police, government, administration, feudal setups). This scene is a definitive illustration of this recurring <i>individual-larger-than-system</i> theme in tamil cinema.</span></span></span></span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The scene was like a stunningly written prose, well constructed point by point, arguments built-up <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">step by step, camera probing from face to face capturing the clash of the egos in all details, reaching the crescendo with that masterclass from Ilayaraja. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>"niruthanum ellathayum niruthanum ... MUDIYATHU"</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It was a collaboration of the geniuses of their crafts - Mani Ratnam, Santosh Sivan, Ilayaraja, Rajinikanth, Mammooty, Nagesh and Aravindswamy. The result was simply magnificient and thus Aravindswamy became one of the lasting impressions of the image of an IAS collector as far as tamil cinema is concerned. There are others too !!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Iraniyan (1999), Vincent Selva</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Surya Vamsam (1997), Vikraman</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thevar Magan (1992), Bharathan</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Indira (1996), Suhasini Maniratnam</span></span></span></div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-82058505475797594862012-09-03T08:53:00.001-07:002012-09-03T08:53:43.272-07:00Street Art - Berlin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Berlin is a city of scars, being so much the center of politics, conflict, war and destruction for the most part of last century. Everything in Berlin, the monuments, memorials, statues, architecture tell a sorry story with which Berliners (and Germans) are still trying to come to terms with. Berlin's streets in contrast are so much vibrant, colorful and full of life (for a Karlsruher the effect was much more pronounced). Trying to consume all images and people I encountered, I was having an eye on the street art graffiti in Berlin. To actually tour around the city with a camera, shooting the best of the creative street-art scene would take about a week I suppose. Nevertheless I just present what I had in my camera here. </div>
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Berlin's counterculture scene dates back atleast to the mid and late 1960s student protests. Graffitis are a form of counterculture, non-conformity with the existent social ethos, an act of cultural defiance and more importantly a recognized art form. By the way, <i>Yuppicide </i>is the word of the trip and that's Berlin for me. </div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-83163301411033558542012-08-26T06:04:00.000-07:002012-08-26T06:04:13.552-07:00Samsara (2011)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A poem need not be an explanation, it should be able to paint a much wider and deeper canvas than what is being presented as words. A good poem inspires imagination, evokes soul search, kindles an intellectual discourse - all much larger than the poem itself. Samsara is one such poem on 70mm film and to say that it was stunning to experience Samsara on the big-screen is just an understatement.</div>
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Samsara's idea of aesthetics mostly relies on the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion" target="_blank">Stop motion</a>" and "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_capture" target="_blank">Motion capture</a>" techniques, so to state - finding an order in all randomness, finding the beauty in all chaos. It transcends the audience into a particular psychological state whereby you are forced to concentrate on the patterns and the topography than the individual discrete units that make up the pattern.<br />
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Samsara with all its calmness and soul-embracing music is an expression of contempt in all rigour. It sounded like a harsh critique on the perils of the human civilization, for me. The footage covers arms industry, the adult toy industry, electronics recycling, plastic rag picking, automobile wrecking, car manufacture, African tribals, the skyscrapers, the Buddhist monks in Asia etc, portraying a real comprehensive worldview. Wherever (the fewer times) the human faces look into the camera, they do so with so much rigidity or discernible anger or compassion or self-pity, it looked like they are making a profound political statement.<br />
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Several juxtapositions resonated hard in me - the entire sequence about the meat (animal flesh) industry is followed by prostitutes with number tags exhibiting their bodies, the operations in the dairy industry (machines milking the cows sequence) is followed by a lot of piglets feeding on a pig all raised for slaughtering, the symmetrical/shiny bullets is followed by an army general with so many medals and a disfigured face. </div>
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It will all sound like a philosophical rant but Samsara underlines the human greed, lack of compassion, the human idea of conquest, religious & ethnic chauvinism, exploitation of human labor, war, hunger, death and so on. The footage interspersed with the actual nature - skies, deserts, waterfalls, volcanoes - shows us all the kind of harmony that is expected of the human beings as a part of this wonderful system. May be somebody else who saw the same movie in the same hall would have looked at the brighter side of things - beauty, harmony, symmetry, patterns, love, music, peace - with Samsara. And hence is Samsara's greatness, vastness, prodigiousness and rhythmicness.</div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925819000000004 8.2220158999999988 49.092477 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-18663987894330741482012-08-20T06:40:00.000-07:002012-08-20T10:37:14.280-07:00Good Bye Lenin! (2003) - Iconography<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"<i>Good Bye Lenin! (2003)</i>" is one of the most studied German films (along with "<i><span class="st">Das Leben der Anderen (2006)</span></i>") of the last decade. Identified as an important work for its "<i>Ostalgie</i>" theme, it has a distinct grief perpetuating through out. Its narrative is strewn with details about life in the erstwhile GDR, which I have tried to present here with screenshots. It uses a lot of real footage concerning the fall of the Berlin wall followed by the unification. On a casual first viewing, the following images (the "trabant" as the GDR icon and the "Coca-Cola" for the political transition in the region, for example) struck me. It is a very sad film, hiding all its regretfulness with an ironic comic face. </div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-8659267956092323392012-08-13T06:53:00.002-07:002012-08-14T12:05:32.431-07:00Madhubana Kadai (2012)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Madhubana Kadai (MK) transcends the conventional tamil cinema narrative, as in it doesn't have a form - it holds no premise, no beginning, no building-up of a plot, no interval cut and no climax. The characters emerge from nowhere and then they are lost in some time, of course apart from a few who occupy the entire script. The script works more like, the dirty <i>wine shop</i> with its alcohol supplies, is the central character and the people who visit it are peripherals at the most. In the hindsight, it looks like it could have worked only this way. </div>
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MK had a lot of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bala_%28director%29" target="_blank">Bala</a>-esque scope for instilling emotions and drama, but it decided not to. It takes no moral stance and it's no propaganda engine, the most it did is to disperse several satirical elements which can be labelled "political" statements. The film is set in Erode-Perundurai locales and shows in heart and blood, a single day in the life of a <a href="http://tasmac.tn.gov.in/" target="_blank">TASMAC </a>wine shop. The wine shop is visited by people from all walks of life and occupations and is the center of a lot of political discussions, social skirmishes, drinking as social status elements etc. </div>
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The tamil society (big cities should be exceptions) with all its self-righteous moral-policing is still devoid of genuine social hang-outs. That is where the relevance of so many cinema halls and TASMAC outlets emerge. Cinema theaters and toddy shops are the only centers of catharsis (in the sense of emotional outlets) for the working class (Women are limited to only cinema and neighborhood gossips I suppose). Hence these are centers of social <i>equality</i>, that even the all-pervasive casteistic hierarchy has to stay away from them. The film quite correctly references this as "<i>Samarasam Ulaavum idame</i>". MK is the confluence of cinema and liquor in that sense. </div>
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For me, the last three minutes of the film made a huge impact out of nowhere. It featured the social angst of a dalit sewage drain cleaner in quite some details. I mean, I don't remember the last time a main-stream tamil feature film spoke about this issue. The scene was quite inconsequential from the script's POV but it did make a profound political statement. That is why this film is special, it didn't attempt to have an agenda but then made a spontaneous go at issues like this. A second viewing would certainly help I suppose.</div>
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MK makes a mockery of the drinking culture in a typical tamil society. TASMAC is one of the largest money spinners and is a source of humongous revenue for the state. When the state handles the alcohol industry, it becomes just another object of political & monetary greed and the film rightly presents the case of "duplicate liquor" and gross mismanagement of the infrastructure of the industry. Drinking is thus not a source of bacchanalian pleasure here as it should be. </div>
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PS: The film is inspired by this <a href="http://nanjilnadan.com/2011/10/27/%E0%AE%89%E0%AE%A3%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A3%E0%AE%B1%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%B3%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B3%E0%AF%88/" target="_blank">Nanjil Nadan essay</a> (as in the credits), which offers a brilliant read.</div>
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Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-10980513205686410302012-07-02T10:23:00.001-07:002012-07-02T10:25:36.434-07:00Tut mir leid, Ich bin auch tourist ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Not knowing the language and still being a part of the social setup, is a bizarre feeling. To be shut out of random conversations in local trains, not being able to help somebody who actually trusted you and asked directions to a place, not to be in a position to explain what you want while you shop at the super market, and above all - disability to imbibe the popular culture viz. magazines, news papers, cinema, theater, music etc - It's so awkward. The complexity of the language under question only bolsters my pessimism that I will never be able to keep a conversation in German in the near future. Sometimes I have this imagination that I am a hapless new-born totally unaware of what is going on around me, except for the fact that kids hear and lip-read so fast and master a language really quick. The perils of swallowing a language so late in life is the inability to "get" it in German (for example) without taking the English route -- (i.e) German word - translate into English - write into the memory, and vice-versa. The word-picking rate gets drastically down this way. </div>
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There is a general tendency in us - In a conversation, when somebody discusses things with words that we don't know, it tends to turn us off and we start to perceive the conversation as "boring". Starting to learn a language comes with this warning - each and every word that a native speaker utters is going to be new and to actually fight that ineptitude and somehow boost the learning curve takes some confidence and eagerness. Recently I had this plan to inculcate that eagerness by feeding my imagination about German culture, history and sociology (<i>Ostalgie </i>and <i>Vergangenheitsbewältigung</i>, to name a few). To actually develop a sense of taste towards a language that is not your mother-tongue is not an easy thing. English with its all-pervasive nature and India with its colonial fixations got it into us even before we realized. To artificially drill German into one's self thus is a Herculean task. Being away from the mother-land for so long generally sickens the intensity of the nostalgia for my "own" language, "own" music, "own" cinema and "own" everything. Inability with German is just another conflict within the self. </div>
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PS: The title of the post means - "I am sorry, I am a tourist" (in German).</div>
</div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-24428449499438397122012-06-19T06:37:00.000-07:002012-06-19T06:40:20.912-07:00Vazhakku Enn 18/9<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Not a review - Some random thoughts. </div>
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Vazhakku En 18/9 (VE) ends with an epic climax - Jothi splashing caustic acid on a police inspector's face in the court premises. The scene symbolizes, in addition to many other connotations, the well-channelized angst of a commoner towards the system (law & order and the judiciary). This is quite characteristic of the late 70s and 80s Indian middle cinema of say - Mrinal Sen, Govind Nihalani or Shyam Benegal, wherein the common man questioning the system had frequently been the central theme. One such instance stand out for me - almost forty years back, Shyam Benegal's Ankur (1974) ended with a scene that is marked as the beginning of Indian parallel cinema. It had a young boy pelting a stone at a glass window and running away as the sound of the shattered glass resonates in air. It was remarked as the first stone of resistance against the casteistic and feudalistic setup of the neo-socialist India (of the 60s). VE definitely makes a more harsh statement - with acid.</div>
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VE vividly reminds us of the ground reality about the "existence" of two Indias - of the have's and the have-not's, the privileged and the underprivileged, the rich and the poor. The political and social institutions of the country have always been the center of conflict between the classes. VE features two love stories, both of them confluence at some point in the judicial system.</div>
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My last point would be on the so called disintegration of the "existent" ethical/moral fabric. It is very easy to point fingers or to moral-police, being critical of the technology or the next school going generation but that would be a terrible shortsightedness. To be brutally honest, for somebody who completed schooling just seven years back, I was shell-shocked to see that school going boys use mobile phones and film their girl classmates. I tend to think that there has been this disconnect between education and character building, somewhere in our schooling system. While our system will keep churning out engineers and mathematicians, the sociological aspects of our education badly needs some repair. </div>
</div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com2Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-28784438147130656792012-06-05T13:09:00.003-07:002012-06-06T09:19:29.880-07:00The Love metric<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"Aambalaikkum Pombalaikkum"</i> track from the tamil movie "Kazhugu (2011)" offers a metric to appreciate the<i> state of affairs</i> of romantic relationships in a society - the number of suicides (resulting from "love failures"). The more the number of suicides, the better it seems.</div>
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Shocking it may be, the lyrics actually read ... </div>
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காதலெல்லாமே ஒரு கண்ணாமூச்சி <br />
இதில் ஆணும் பெண்ணுமே தெனம் காணா போச்சு<br />
காதலிலே தற்கொலைகள் கொறஞ்சே போச்சு </div>
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Our cinema always relished opportunities to idealize/idolize human emotional exchanges like boy-girl romance (Vikraman films for example), marriages, friendships (Thalapathy, Karnan for bromance), brotherhood, fatherhood, motherhood, <i>thaai-maman</i> (Kizhakku Cheemayile quite obviously)<i> </i>etc. This usually rendered a lot of scope in beefing up the melodrama and the hero delivering monologues romanticizing whatever that came on the way. They did demonstrate a definitive framework/blueprint on how any relationship should look like. While it can be argued that they are reflective of the collective ethic of the society, I have a feeling that our cinema always went overboard. </div>
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Limiting our discussion to only the boy-girl relationships, it would be interesting to observe how our cinema is going to evolve portraying them from here on. We agree or not, there is already a certain degree of "westernization" or we may call it "pseudo westernization" in place, in our societies (well may be, the metropolitan cities only or the IT sector only). This might gradually change the way we perceive relationships and at some point our society (as a whole) will come to terms with the existing notions of "true love" and "successful marriage". In a land where Lord Ram, Devdas and Ambigapathy are the folklore, there is a certain fixation with the current values system espousing ideas like "divine love" and the whole "<i>kallanaalum kanavan</i>" discourse (for marriages). These simply result from the fact that we tend to give more importance to the status of the relationship than to the happiness of the individuals who are a part of it. NO, I am not judging which one is better - Just read it as an observation. </div>
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As the society evolves, our movies will evolve or the other way around is also possible. Two recent movies will settle the discussion i suppose. First - "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya (2010)" idealised the relationship, it pretty much romanticized the obsession. Second - "Leelai (2012)" set in Chennai IT circles, the protagonist is quite a girl-chaser and dabbles with many a relationships before settling into one. </div>
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A very confused post I would say, I was lost analyzing the relevance and political correctness of stuff I mentioned. I think if somebody gets a bigger picture of what I have been trying thus far, that should make my day.</div>
</div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-32312708497771623772012-05-25T13:43:00.000-07:002012-05-25T14:24:53.742-07:00European Union - An Outsider's view<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Disclaimers:</div>
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The following write-up summarizes my impressions about the European union, on attending the Jean Monnet circle seminar series (ongoing) held at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. Envisaged as a non-academic article, I don't guarantee factual and political correctness of the ideas expressed here. </div>
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It is always a daunting task to achieve any degree of "integration" in a geographically vast region encompassing various forms of diversity viz. language, culture, religion etc. The idea of European Union is very much a work in progress and it presents an excellent study-ground to observe possibilities of integration in a culturally pluralistic environment. </div>
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The European Union (EU) had its seeds in the <i>European Coal and Steel Community</i> of the 1950s and was initially charted out to ensure trade co-operation between France and Germany. More importantly, its agenda was to effect peace amongst the European states after two shattering wars within a span of 30 years. As long as the idea of the union was business/commerce centric (such as the free market for goods and free movement of workers etc), it is an arguably successful model. But, when the union gave rise to other institutions such as the European court of justice, European commission etc, it very much touches the political, cultural and social lives of every citizen in the EU and hence might question the very existence of individual sovereign states in Europe.</div>
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Leaving aside the widely criticized "democratic deficit" in the institutions of the European union, the sheer power dynamics amongst the member states of the union should be discussed. It's an open secret that Germany (amongst other members) with its rock-solid economy enjoys an absolute political clout in the union. Germany's political stature in the union is inevitable but this accumulation of power with a single state will gradually lead to a situation where Germany (or for that matter, any other country or a clique of countries) dictates terms influencing common lives in the region. That will only pave way to a new form of imperialism - annihilating economic, cultural, social and linguistic interests of other states in the union. This is exactly the way British colonization worked - start with trade (East India Company in India, for example) and then increase spheres of influence. We can't rule out the possibility that the whole of Europe might be speaking German (or French or whatever) thousand years from now.<br />
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Another possibility might be the case where individual states of the continent can be forcefully affiliated to the union citing economic (or other) benefits. This might lead to a situation resembling the erstwhile Soviet Union, where states were either annexed or held by force, eventually leading towards disintegration. <br />
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As of today, the idea of a "unified Europe" can safely be considered to be in it's <i>infancy</i>, looking at the loyalties (or nationalism) of citizens towards their own countries than a harmonious "European Nationalism". This is quite explainable - Europe has been a war-torn region for a very good part of the twentieth century and hence overtones of cultural nationalism are expectedly dominant. A sudden shift in the loyalty towards a totally new political entity will not happen. But, if at all that happens it would be killing all indigenous cultures, languages, religions and other forms of social expression, paving way to a unified continent (<i>"monarchia universalis"</i>) with nil diversity. On that day, there won't be German automobiles, no french fashion, no swiss watches and no italian art but the kind of political & economic authority that the EU will have on the rest of the world will be phenomenal.<br />
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To be optimistic for a change, India presents an amazing living example of a culturally pluralist state held together as a successful democracy for more than sixty years now. India as a single entity was a very fancy idea which was somehow successfully achieved integrating more than 500 princely states - diverse on all possible parameters. Many intellectuals predicted doom, Selig Harrison for example wrote in his 1960 book <i>India: The Most Dangerous Decade</i>, “the risk of India being split up into a number of totalitarian small nationalities”. But India survived (with many a hiccups though). Of course, the ground realities are different but the point is, it is not impossible.<br />
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Read more at: <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Tongue+tied/1/2692.html" target="_blank_">http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Tongue+tied/1/2692.html</a></div>
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Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Tongue+tied/1/2692.ht"</div>
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<i>Might be continued ...</i></div>
</div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-24751508700358198342012-05-24T10:10:00.000-07:002012-05-24T12:46:32.230-07:00BaluMahendra-esque -- Thread 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A 7000 word essay. </div>
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A Picture is worth ... know ?</div>
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Azhiyatha Kolangal (1979) - Shobha and Prathap Pothen</div>
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Moodupani (1980) - Shobha and Prathap Pothen</div>
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Rettai Vaal Kuruvi (1987) - Archana and Mohan</div>
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Vanna Vanna Pookkal (1992) - Vinothini and Prashanth</div>
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Marupadiyum (1993) - Revathi and Nizhalgal Ravi</div>
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Raman Abdullah (1997) - Easwari Rao and Vignesh</div>
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Julie Ganapathy (2003) - Ramya Krishnan and Jayaram</div>
</div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.925825 8.2220158999999988 49.092471 8.5378729tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-73808491632334802372012-04-14T10:15:00.003-07:002012-04-14T10:23:39.310-07:00On Chennai Super Kings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;">A short take on the brand Chennai Super Kings (CSK), not much on their cricket.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHYDH906p-XOkU4-QAgmOpjfznHljVgMhUTaPhbINdWsV1c4pCPoeM0qiq6U8RW8_kF_DxAKQ7N6R7tlHouWTA4NB8Ms4odlHbHQiRpy2zVnaU2IeCohwE7D9xpgDI88U6VVMsCBsIAzs/s1600/whistle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHYDH906p-XOkU4-QAgmOpjfznHljVgMhUTaPhbINdWsV1c4pCPoeM0qiq6U8RW8_kF_DxAKQ7N6R7tlHouWTA4NB8Ms4odlHbHQiRpy2zVnaU2IeCohwE7D9xpgDI88U6VVMsCBsIAzs/s400/whistle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;">Right from my university days, I have observed a clear polarity when it comes to the fan-loyalty for the Indian Premier league (IPL) - CSK fans (mostly tamil-speakers) and non-CSK fans who mostly aligned themselves to cheer for Mumbai (as though the remaining teams don't matter much). CSK has established itself into such a humongous brand that people who don't admire CSK have to find a real big cricketing monster to counter it. And, invariably they shield themselves with the stupendous career of the country's greatest cricket icon - Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin is probably India's greatest ever brand, may be after Gandhi, but CSK fans would want Sachin to get a golden duck if Sachin is marking his stance against a CSK bowler. </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;">CSK, in my opinion has very carefully cultivated an image - as a pack of disciplined and professional athletes. When almost every other team had attractive actresses for the TV presenters to turn to, CSK's dugout had no eye-candy. I have seen CSK fans identifying their team as a "chauvinistic" bunch stating the above, but I think the point is CSK has it's cricket right and that there was no need for other crowd-pullers. Not tinkering much with the player composition every season is a very good culture that nurtures team loyalty. Sometimes I am terribly confused if I am watching Kolkata or Pune playing if Dada is up at the toss.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;">There was one striking feature in CSK's promo videos that are broadcast on FM Radios, Television or available at large on Youtube (like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JHAkMFgNbY" target="_blank">this</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkYzOar5fKk" target="_blank">this</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOhQw_B60Vc" target="_blank">this</a>) - Chennai's nativity. They have a very catchy and truly Chennai-esque theme like - "<i>Whistle podu</i>", "<i>Six podu</i>", "<i>Raise your handsu</i>" etc. A fair look at the promo videos would suggest how brand CSK connects with its fans - the videos are so full of life, they are so full of Chennai. They are packed with so much of ethnographic details unique to life at Chennai - temples gopurams, cinema wall posters, beach, <i>pookadai</i>, <i>teakadai</i>, <i>isthiri-petti</i>, gully cricket, <i>kolam</i>, traffic, cut-out culture, <i>dappanguthu</i>, central station, autowallahs, street kids etc. The focus in these videos is not too much on the players who represent CSK but on the fan who cheers up for CSK. Also it features women of all ages portrayed as fans of cricket in general and CSK fanatics specifically. Showing a portrait of a 65 year old grandma with fingers on her lips <i>whistle adichufying </i>is something special - All these quickly establish the fact that CSK's brand of cricket touches all lives in Chennai - no bars on age, gender, social class etc. The visual culture presented doesn't feature any kind of "eliticism" and it all looks like a perfect amalgam of cricket and life in general at Chennai.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
And then there is Dhoni whose aura as a leader is unsurmountable in the limits of IPL. It looks easy but the way Rajinikanth's film persona was blended into Dhoni's cricket persona ("<i>podhuvaga en manasu thangam</i>" score, for example) is something remarkable. This should be something unique to Chennai that might not work elsewhere in the world with any sports team or film star. </div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;">Ofcourse, for a brand to sustain, the team has to perform and CSK delivers. It sometimes looks like many of us CSK fans take their performance on the field for granted.</div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com2Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.933729000000007 8.2478199 49.084567 8.5120689tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-81194534576722826062012-04-12T04:21:00.001-07:002012-04-12T04:26:54.639-07:00John Keats, Thangamani and High School English<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">I was struck by a very intense nostalgia on listening to the beautiful song "Innisai paadi varum" (Thulladha Manamum Thullum, 1999) this morning. Gonna try reproducing what I wandered through.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I had this poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (John Keats, 1819) as a part of the curriculum in our High school English paper and Mr Thangamani was my English teacher back then. I somehow exactly remember how he taught us this particular poem, picking up verses from one of the then popular tamil movie songs "Innisai paadi varum". It was the earliest instance of "Comparative Literature" I ever went through.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard <br />
Are sweeter -- Keats<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">கண்ணில் காட்சி தோன்றிவிட்டால்<br />
கற்பனை தீர்ந்துவிடும்<br />
கண்ணில் தோன்றா காட்சியில் தான் <br />
கற்பனை வளர்ந்துவிடும் -- வைரமுத்து</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Roughly translated as)<br />
<span class="photo-description highlight-links"> If reality meets the eyes, then imagination will come to an end. As long as the reality remains elusive, the imagination is alive. </span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links">Thus Mr Thangamani explained the poem to us quoting Vairamuthu and this explanation has somehow stood the test of my memory so far. </span><span class="photo-description highlight-links"> I just realize that, for me "Ode on a Grecian urn" was how Thangamani taught it to us comparing it with a popular movie song, more than anything else. I mean, I think that's the legacy a teacher can leave in his students, in the limits of a classroom. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links">The above Keats' verse used to be a very famous ERC (Explain-with-Reference-to-the-Context) question that appeared in the exam papers frequently and I remember, I quite enjoyed explaining it. Even after graduation from a rigorous university curriculum, I can still say that - English Paper I in Tamilnadu's Matriculation board was the most "demanding" exam, I ever wrote in my life. In just about two and a half hours, we used to answer four essay type questions (each in about three pages), ERCs, short answers and a whole lot of grammar. I mean, it used to be a race with time to complete the paper, answering all the questions. We used to come out with aching hands, totally enervated.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links">Diverging ... </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links">Only for the sake of it, I reminded myself of the way we were forced to learn English in our High school. I think, language papers need to be taught in such a way that students look at the linguistic nuances and write what they "experienced", rather than reproducing things that are dished out on a paper or student guides. We were "trained" or "coached" to recite and write things by-heart than being "taught" to appreciate the aesthetics (of say a poem). I see it as one of the many fundamental flaws in our educational system. I definitely had a few teachers who were different and encouraged self-written answers even if it wasn't completely flawless and Mr Thangamani was definitely one of them.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links">In the hindsight, I could understand that there was a really clear dichotomy in the way science teachers and language teachers (Tamil and English) were treated by the school management back then. Because science and maths scores are going to land us into the professional courses at universities, there was/is a stigma that a high school's reputation is proportional to the science & maths scores it's students secure at the final exams. So, the teachers who taught language papers were treated with relatively less importance and respect by the school management and this attitude quite naturally crept into the students. That is probably the reason, why many of my friends didn't have a really good relationship with our language teachers.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="photo-description highlight-links">I realize that this piece has wandered a lot (and enough) without any specific agenda, through my formative years at high school. </span></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.933729000000007 8.2478199 49.084567 8.5120689tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-32159832342093309212012-01-21T16:56:00.000-08:002012-01-21T16:56:42.140-08:00Lisbeth Salander - a few gender perspectives<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lisbeth Salander (played by Rooney Mara in </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"The Girl with the Dragon tattoo (2011)"</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) is easily one of the most powerful and hence impressionable female protagonists I have ever </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">witnessed on-screen. She displays a disrespectful attitude towards almost every man and woman she encounters. She doesn't really care about morals </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">or conventions - thus outwardly anarchic in every activity she does. She doesn't crave for love and is utterly unfriendly. Her gothic physical appearance </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with rings, tattoos and extravagant eyelashes would mark her as a countercultural symbol (of the 60s/70s punk culture).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lisbeth's sexuality (she does appear nude in many a sequences) is characterised with a specific macho-ness and hence is devoid of the "tickling" sensuality presented usually with eye-candy ladyleads on-screen. This aspect of Lisbeth's characterisation should be a feminist film theorist's delight - as Lisbeth, in my opinion, counters the "gaze", quite successfully.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The gruesome and detailed presentation of sexual assault on Lisbeth, in a way, prepares the viewer to take the "righteous" side, that of Lisbeth's, late in the movie. The stylised vengeance with which she bounces back was reminding of Uma Thurman of the "Kill Bill" series, but the uniqueness of Lisbeth's cult is there to stay. Her vicious stares and actual physical assaults on many a men present her as the agent of destruction but as viewers, we approve her action as we have been made aware of what she has endured.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In light of the blatant sexism with which a woman's intelligence is portrayed in general in movies (the hollywood "blonde stereotype" cinema, for example), this movie presents a refreshing take. As Lisbeth hacks into Blomkvist's computer and Blomkvist brags about his "encryption", Lisbeth spurts out a condescending "Please" - You get the dynamics there.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The film also presents a really interesting sexual politics with the woman-on-top lovemaking sequences. While her "controlling" of the activity is more demonstrative of the idea, her disinterest in romance would remove any last traces of the "usual" femininity associated with a woman.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Motorcycles and computers are a kind of modern phallic symbols - the former representing physical valour and the later, intellectual superiority. Lisbeth, not just simply masters them but approaches gadgets with a ridicule in her body language - it just looks as if she is too fast for them. Her intellectual dominance on Blomkvist (played by Daniel Craig) in solving the actual case presents another perspective. Daniel Craig has been playing James Bond 007, who is quite an alpha-male, both physically and intellectually. Though Craig's performance in this movie was not reminding of Bond, it was somehow interesting to have a female character which counters Mr.Bond himself.</span></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com2Karlsruhe, Germany49.009148 8.379944448.933729000000007 8.2478199 49.084567 8.5120689tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-12359557007945553752011-07-28T07:14:00.000-07:002011-07-28T17:13:56.667-07:00Movies, Cinema Posters and Cut-outs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vaasanthi writes in her "Cut-outs, Caste and Cine stars".</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The old lady opened her eyes and looked out from the window of her air-conditioned car. "What are all those dear?", she inquired about the figures that dominated the skyline. </i></span></div></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>'Oh, those are cut-outs, Mother', said the official lightly.'Cut-outs of our chief minister.' </i></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Mother Teresa craned her neck and looked up at the sky. Jayalalitha's head was hidden among the clouds. </i></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>'Good heavens,' said a shocked Mother Teresa, "it's so huge!" </i></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Her escort was amused by her reaction. 'Have you never seen such cut-outs ?' she asked. Still watching the passing parade of cut-outs, Mother Teresa replied, 'No, nowhere in the world.'</i></span></blockquote><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cinema wall posters and cut-outs can arguably be regarded as "unique" cultural symbols of South India, more particularly in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. These should probably be the only states (in the world) wherein cine-stars contested elections after starting a political party on their own and went on to become chief ministers of their states. In that sense, Cinema assumes an important part of the social lives in these societies and hence Cinema posters will have an all pervasive presence. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cinema posters in movies provide a curious reminder of this ubiquitous presence of cinema posters in tamilnadu. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few observations on this ..</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A "shot" of the cinema posters in movies, many a times, convey or summarise the mood or course of the film. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In period films, cinema posters are an "essential" prop to re-create the social atmosphere of the yesteryears. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">M.G.Ramachandran and Rajinikanth are probably the most represented stars on the cinema posters (in movies).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over to the Photo essay.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUJ2lp99gIAy0RYRo7Kdc8Msn3XljxqavYScsNJ7vZqFO7sMAFa-9zlTLzFZkI_jKxdT-JX77MzWQrRyWwbK6ganbMQ7zeaA5d46kwU-jKaxIDplm5taJoWET1d-JYMv-FNGaU3Txk9g/s1600/Iruvar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUJ2lp99gIAy0RYRo7Kdc8Msn3XljxqavYScsNJ7vZqFO7sMAFa-9zlTLzFZkI_jKxdT-JX77MzWQrRyWwbK6ganbMQ7zeaA5d46kwU-jKaxIDplm5taJoWET1d-JYMv-FNGaU3Txk9g/s400/Iruvar.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Iruvar (1997), Mani Ratnam</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujhoEPbxzrCsw2eSm5PFe2Y6WtdJufznB1rwaPVnomOpMsJ2JhbBiLZrDhP5aTeKZRZbXwZifGwdp70m5MHrom9i8d_kUhi0BByib9bxiD4EPAuxG_EKImJci1Xufsu7-9IT10s-FDx8/s1600/Thavamaai.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujhoEPbxzrCsw2eSm5PFe2Y6WtdJufznB1rwaPVnomOpMsJ2JhbBiLZrDhP5aTeKZRZbXwZifGwdp70m5MHrom9i8d_kUhi0BByib9bxiD4EPAuxG_EKImJci1Xufsu7-9IT10s-FDx8/s400/Thavamaai.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thavamaai Thavamirunthu (2005), Cheran</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjZ4jM1gLbiVye4kFEo-njkPfCD1ZMjO-FJhAX2_-ecWdUdAZxoE7ezPWlQaAshtZkus3Cy6gZ5U632_Acs8S3_W3eUC145cTBRadf1wjNamuwRCgHoLT9j41VLw2UCkJ8LqxVv595uU/s1600/Veyil.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjZ4jM1gLbiVye4kFEo-njkPfCD1ZMjO-FJhAX2_-ecWdUdAZxoE7ezPWlQaAshtZkus3Cy6gZ5U632_Acs8S3_W3eUC145cTBRadf1wjNamuwRCgHoLT9j41VLw2UCkJ8LqxVv595uU/s400/Veyil.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Veyil (2006), Vasanthabalan</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuB7slimoVyQBpuyFobfhF29JpxtpbQ3wUrBb8-ohNz4fl2UbQ_3nmYACSseodz5baPMpNvOegLSvSgSYoUWh1L4HB12zEQi_WSI1QE8J-40weWCMEZCipCJMKGEj-CYYhTTGfDG5paD8/s1600/Thotta+Chinungi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuB7slimoVyQBpuyFobfhF29JpxtpbQ3wUrBb8-ohNz4fl2UbQ_3nmYACSseodz5baPMpNvOegLSvSgSYoUWh1L4HB12zEQi_WSI1QE8J-40weWCMEZCipCJMKGEj-CYYhTTGfDG5paD8/s400/Thotta+Chinungi.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thotta Chinungi (1995), K.S.Adhiyaman</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxA3sfnhMatDnuHs0W6ehOGjV0mzr8idLYWY8Upazlmw11viTw-vZi3wP8mhHVaOuWy3Dbbun-5aE3SqVEwA00o-_HHoDzOQvg7S9Wkri1UDKSVp6xv_Y7Nr3Hnyoz-OUOs4573a0gIjg/s1600/Subramaniapuram.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxA3sfnhMatDnuHs0W6ehOGjV0mzr8idLYWY8Upazlmw11viTw-vZi3wP8mhHVaOuWy3Dbbun-5aE3SqVEwA00o-_HHoDzOQvg7S9Wkri1UDKSVp6xv_Y7Nr3Hnyoz-OUOs4573a0gIjg/s400/Subramaniapuram.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Subramaniapuram (2008), Sasikumar</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWFWRKfG4_tnaQ7HoMt7UhOku8x_qjgceqAM6PxMgHov-0yKZzbFkymccNpoT-aqY6KhLtubQhjOli1fXBhrHixrzussroNsFdYf3YYLV62Al4vgTSK9G-9WoKSiedVvddGx1sV-JNsM/s1600/Mouna+Raagam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWFWRKfG4_tnaQ7HoMt7UhOku8x_qjgceqAM6PxMgHov-0yKZzbFkymccNpoT-aqY6KhLtubQhjOli1fXBhrHixrzussroNsFdYf3YYLV62Al4vgTSK9G-9WoKSiedVvddGx1sV-JNsM/s400/Mouna+Raagam.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mouna Raagam (1986), Mani Ratnam</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCihm2c0UPsSE_lQhkVpAE5QeYsjNMJmbJyqEPHUfiTMiT4lCCAxM96D_YJHYjTvhAUXU21uu-oZg3IcYyWbgaTHMhGSGpNasOZjPFdwqNAA_rRjl5L714VeuqqIgbJz2wkRkJneRh6c/s1600/Phantom+India.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCihm2c0UPsSE_lQhkVpAE5QeYsjNMJmbJyqEPHUfiTMiT4lCCAxM96D_YJHYjTvhAUXU21uu-oZg3IcYyWbgaTHMhGSGpNasOZjPFdwqNAA_rRjl5L714VeuqqIgbJz2wkRkJneRh6c/s400/Phantom+India.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Phantom India (1969), Louis Malle </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMSHfaf2s8LwsJEukkxBTTXEV5lFAqjOMQS7K2CJqctQ18a8kIdStdvZlOVmBNVHlkY6OcYBO55e5Nn0isW0Ho6A0FRXBXnZ9ZKSX8hmMbZdmldrmozlPCk6ZI_P3XrWjejhONPUT_ejw/s1600/Mannan.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMSHfaf2s8LwsJEukkxBTTXEV5lFAqjOMQS7K2CJqctQ18a8kIdStdvZlOVmBNVHlkY6OcYBO55e5Nn0isW0Ho6A0FRXBXnZ9ZKSX8hmMbZdmldrmozlPCk6ZI_P3XrWjejhONPUT_ejw/s400/Mannan.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mannan (1992), P.Vasu</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtRI6kTlEXl6sIyes7hfISnr6UFqZ3D0Rdeqkfmouavx9DNs3FfK5IuzifLn2E_uqAa32oyobpJFqM6PBq86kCUlEq5lsEeQu1tWzq1ds1JkOm6ecmU4Yw3RkeQcEAMSlE7CNCSZCVhU/s1600/Aan+paavam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtRI6kTlEXl6sIyes7hfISnr6UFqZ3D0Rdeqkfmouavx9DNs3FfK5IuzifLn2E_uqAa32oyobpJFqM6PBq86kCUlEq5lsEeQu1tWzq1ds1JkOm6ecmU4Yw3RkeQcEAMSlE7CNCSZCVhU/s400/Aan+paavam.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Aan Paavam (1985), Pandiyarajan</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKrRN1U3Qkp3k5gbevPS0mMTmOmM1zsT6sho-c7uB1ZwXNmj1OuK0_924J2TVawDEjzlEHhMX57C5iQ4hjw9tZARliNpr0uzWI1XJfCytRTh6SuBoDTDqSeitygWUIwTVe1srlzlvMQXI/s1600/Suvar+illadha.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKrRN1U3Qkp3k5gbevPS0mMTmOmM1zsT6sho-c7uB1ZwXNmj1OuK0_924J2TVawDEjzlEHhMX57C5iQ4hjw9tZARliNpr0uzWI1XJfCytRTh6SuBoDTDqSeitygWUIwTVe1srlzlvMQXI/s400/Suvar+illadha.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Suvar Illadha chithirangal (1979), K.Bhagyaraj</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiQHllZIx41yXJ7t5HEB8kZa83edwLfmjsMWjKI1qyq9e5Jp4MGnJNo1No_VGRjMwh1juohxISVAMI8DAVJNEIX-_IeJQIK6g8NTsWLk7-SibYgQ4BolV0MesBjq8Afo-XZ80G1Hc47ro/s1600/Vaaranam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiQHllZIx41yXJ7t5HEB8kZa83edwLfmjsMWjKI1qyq9e5Jp4MGnJNo1No_VGRjMwh1juohxISVAMI8DAVJNEIX-_IeJQIK6g8NTsWLk7-SibYgQ4BolV0MesBjq8Afo-XZ80G1Hc47ro/s400/Vaaranam.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), Gautham Menon</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2p7tFHZXhS9hISOMXFkRS2YmHQdZOscXaFrFMRrqP4CHKJ_tO3kMB7HMdf-xIIn1w8c11lYTd9wgpTbvmJvJ6d6rl_Y1B79Kz0mpDRGSzb3_PmUY-XC0eK_JWm8Qi9COnUJzEkpB7GvI/s1600/Boss.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2p7tFHZXhS9hISOMXFkRS2YmHQdZOscXaFrFMRrqP4CHKJ_tO3kMB7HMdf-xIIn1w8c11lYTd9wgpTbvmJvJ6d6rl_Y1B79Kz0mpDRGSzb3_PmUY-XC0eK_JWm8Qi9COnUJzEkpB7GvI/s400/Boss.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Boss Engira Baskaran (2010), Rajesh</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5shT1FPUyjesUpz9VPwqwygL-PtsE2YaBRZ_vRwv7XUMdq9CZBlUjC6QLC2XzHzzWqbr-DrX0ZMnNkH-jRLFz_yL61tsmZ54UbiTWzQMJbRbJhFu3GvN3c7bop0-0cH0TulKYY9xyaY/s1600/Vinnaithaandi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5shT1FPUyjesUpz9VPwqwygL-PtsE2YaBRZ_vRwv7XUMdq9CZBlUjC6QLC2XzHzzWqbr-DrX0ZMnNkH-jRLFz_yL61tsmZ54UbiTWzQMJbRbJhFu3GvN3c7bop0-0cH0TulKYY9xyaY/s400/Vinnaithaandi.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya (2010), Gautham Menon</span></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-82391880923031961062011-06-10T10:53:00.000-07:002011-08-02T05:24:55.985-07:00On Vijayashanthi and Bhavani<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The cult of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayashanti">Vijayashanthi </a>is one of the lasting movie-going memories that I carry from my childhood. I have vague remembrances of watching several Vijayashanthi flicks with my mom and <i>Vyjayanthi IPS [1990]</i> is one of them. It was dubbed from the telugu movie <i>Kartavyam [1990], </i>for which she had won the National Award and this </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">was supposedly the earliest movie in which the "Action heroine" tag was associated with her. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyaMec3_Ft2EetQ4IYWTX-S98KG92UlUE5WI8orQHj-_BwYp-9GyC0I-Wn2GSGIy1AyAgNq0yYHjlbmLCpC5DogAvv5Q7nXuOAcRCRmQoUAw7PMdLch6xLoSJcaqUiSpkAUPunylSRmzg/s1600/v1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyaMec3_Ft2EetQ4IYWTX-S98KG92UlUE5WI8orQHj-_BwYp-9GyC0I-Wn2GSGIy1AyAgNq0yYHjlbmLCpC5DogAvv5Q7nXuOAcRCRmQoUAw7PMdLch6xLoSJcaqUiSpkAUPunylSRmzg/s320/v1.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vijayashanthi's on-screen persona (which she successfully extrapolated towards her political career later) should have been constructed with a detailed strategy, taking into account, the existent social norms and gender dynamics in the late 1980s. In an outright patriarchal society where all authority is vested in men, a powerful woman on-screen (who can thrash men aside) naturally enthralls the female audience. Further, in the Police officer roles she enacted in </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vyjayanthi IPS </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">et al, her characters were packed with double the power-quotient, in a sense. At one level, it puts her across as a brave and physically sound woman who is not intimidated (or controlled) by the males. Secondly, the "power" that is inherently associated with the police - with which she audaciously "controls" the proceedings. </span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Additionally, in the film promotions, Vijayashanthi was referred to as the "Lady <i>Super Star</i>", </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">which again has some hidden sense. In the tamil cultural context, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Super Star </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">refers to Rajinikanth who can be seen as the macho symbol and on those lines, she is thus glorified as the lady with masculine traits. The Rajini-Vijayashanthi starrer <i>Mannan [1992]</i>, exploited this association quite successfully.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Was watching (fast-forwarding) the Sneha starrer <i>Bhavani [2011]</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, which fails miserably because of one simple reason - it's not contemporary. A remake of Vyjayanthi IPS after 20 years won't work.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The film had an interesting catch though - instead of suggesting the "power" of the female protagonist symbolically or with her police attire, the film explicitly apotheoses Bhavani, thus combining two different genres of tamil cinema - the "Amman" cinema and the "female cop" cinema.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-5xi7ZWJQ9HAFw5fO8K4ArC8N37p9JNYZ-V_oMz3ne9dyKuaIkJwGzm5E_z0P9oFRCa8I3Fs0EJ7crg07WLC7jRWH0uO-QammF52beJmQohGmS0rI7buH_DcHSJUNMBEZ_VwEtLU99Y/s1600/bhavani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-5xi7ZWJQ9HAFw5fO8K4ArC8N37p9JNYZ-V_oMz3ne9dyKuaIkJwGzm5E_z0P9oFRCa8I3Fs0EJ7crg07WLC7jRWH0uO-QammF52beJmQohGmS0rI7buH_DcHSJUNMBEZ_VwEtLU99Y/s400/bhavani.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Image1: Bhavani's image is juxtaposed with that of big-mustached Karuppa Saamy (male deity).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Image2: Bhavani calls herself the Parasurama (One of Vishnu's avatars - male deity) with the axe.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Image3: Bhavani as the female goddess.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-82580686747011270562011-05-28T06:36:00.000-07:002011-06-01T01:03:55.417-07:00On Keezhvenmani, Thirumangalam and Banganapalle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On one of those random scans through Kamal Haasan’s <i>Virumaandi</i> (2004), I was curiously captivated by the following short conversation that takes place between Sub-jailor <i>Peikaaman</i> (played by Shanmugharajan) and <i>Dr.Angela Kathamuthu</i> (Rohini), just before <i>Virumaandi</i> (Kamal Haasan) is brought for the interview, approximately 58 minutes into the movie.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoKdTlJuGfEqCZRj4TaPU11Fa_4dF989534-ljg2WFAScFSBm3w1ewps4tpwdNYUvPCl9rD9LYcnhAgB4g5W2pA-Fl06w_SbHRfWCMKXF9WxK8777Ffo0_oDvU4V-OeiJ7_2e_qMh1sQ/s1600/Keezhvenmani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeoKdTlJuGfEqCZRj4TaPU11Fa_4dF989534-ljg2WFAScFSBm3w1ewps4tpwdNYUvPCl9rD9LYcnhAgB4g5W2pA-Fl06w_SbHRfWCMKXF9WxK8777Ffo0_oDvU4V-OeiJ7_2e_qMh1sQ/s400/Keezhvenmani.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Virumaandi (2004)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(the conversation in tamil)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">பேய்க்காமன்: மேடத்துக்கு தஞ்சாவூர்னு கேள்விப்பட்டேன் .. ப்ராப்பர் டேன்ஜூர்ங்கலா ? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Angela puts her pen down and with an assured look towards Peikaaman says <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Keezhvenmani</i>)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">ஏஞ்சலா: ப்ராப்பர் இல்ல ... கீழ்வெண்மணி </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(As Peikaaman is noticeably jolted by Angela’s reply, there is a noise of opening of the door and Virumaandi enters)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With respect to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Keezhvenmani</i>, the film’s context doesn’t offer anything beyond this conversation, but the term per se, holds a lot of socio-cultural implications. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Keezhvenmani</b>, a village in Nagapattinam district in Tamilnadu, shot to the national limelight (25<sup>th</sup> December, 1968), when about 44 dalits were burnt alive locked in a hut, in a wage dispute between the landlords and peasants. Keezhvenmani massacre, one of the most horrendous genocides in the post-independent India and a national shame, was not covered in all diligence in the mainstream media and the then Annadurai government is accused of blacking the issue out. The representation of Keezhvenmani massacre in popular culture – cinema, novels etc is also considered inadequate and dishonest. A couple of important novels (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kuruthipunal</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sennel</i>) were written on the subject and Indira Parthasarathy’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kuruthipunal</i> won the Sahitya Academy too. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEhYVroMz4CxFkuqnLOZDWOdItitqtGatOecOYYE9NtMSmDVnYhVMdSu_jHR-jvlFRAMMgNc-ilT2QqSr7xXsJ4ORjogQZJxn2DQ0mAvPYyGf54KxqJKRWfHOVkhFE6AS5B2YSdBFNcQU/s1600/venmani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEhYVroMz4CxFkuqnLOZDWOdItitqtGatOecOYYE9NtMSmDVnYhVMdSu_jHR-jvlFRAMMgNc-ilT2QqSr7xXsJ4ORjogQZJxn2DQ0mAvPYyGf54KxqJKRWfHOVkhFE6AS5B2YSdBFNcQU/s320/venmani.jpg" width="294" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Keezhvenmani massacre (25th December, 1968)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If someone has to look through the annals of tamil cinema on representations of the Keezhvenmani massacre, we might end up with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aravindan</i> (1997) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nellu</i> (2010). Both the above movies were not even quoting the name of the village and hence end up as dummy portrayals. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aravindan</i> made a joke out of it, depicting the whole thing in the first 15 minutes and went ahead with Sarath kumar heroisms. As I see it, only Kamal Haasan was bold enough to atleast quote the name of the village – Keezhvenmani, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Virumaandi</i> (2004).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Disregarding the representations in cinema and novels, the Keezhvenmani uprising is a social churning representing dalit assertion towards social justice. It’s a symbol of the struggle against social, cultural, economic and all possible forms of oppression and exploitation and that is what is being constructed as a part of Angela’s character in Virumaandi (in the form of an intelligent and independent woman). Angela later recounts how she became Angela James and then Angela Kathamuthu again, to Virumaandi and this will suggest that she was exploited as a woman (domestic violence probably) in her marriage. Or, it can all be too simple ... Angela wields her dalit identity with pride and a self-assured aggression.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Likewise, <b>Thirumangalam </b>(Madurai district) made it to the political glossary after the assembly by-elections in 2009. Infamously referred to as the “Thirumangalam formula” patented by DMK’s M.K.Azhagiri, Thirumangalam henceforth might be used as the symbol of money-power in “buying” out votes. I think the mainstream media, including Jaya TV has already used the phrase “Thirumangalam formula” (the whole <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jananayagam</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pananayagam</i> discourse) during the 2011 assembly polls propaganda.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We can probably come up with various other expressions like the above – the name of a place being suggestive of something else in the popular culture - like Auschwitz (holocaust, concentration camps etc), the former USSR (Communism), the Tajmahal (love), Tihar, Mecca etc. The USSR-Tajmahal reference is obviously from Kamal’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anbe Sivam</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On a lighter note, the bubbly Hansika Motwani is addressed as <i>Palli-ye, Banganapalli-ye </i>in the “<i>Nangai</i>” song from the movie “<i>Engeyum Kadhal</i>” and <b>Banganapalle </b>is the home of a famous variety of fleshy and tasty mangoes. :)</span></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-72681059037098501432011-05-22T09:51:00.000-07:002011-05-28T06:43:59.855-07:00National Awards - 2010<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Aadukalam, when it bagged about six National awards including the "Best Director" at the National Film awards last week, reinforced the legacy and value of Director Balu Mahendra in the Tamil filmdom. Balu Mahendra, for all his genius was one of the most uncelebrated and unappreciated figures ever to grace tamil cinema, in his days. His Cinematographic legacy - the beauty with which he caught those empty living rooms in natural lights - would live on those reels forever. More than that, his proteges - Ameer, Bala, Vetrimaaran, Ram - who now form an eclectic band of celebrated directors of today's tamil cinema (with three of the above four having won National Awards for their films), articulate his name aloud. They are giving him frequent <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 28px;"><i>ஈன்ற பொழுதில் பெரிதுவக்கும்</i></span>"</span> moments. For the sheer efforts which Balu Mahendra has put in transferring his cinema and artistry to his proteges, he is right at the top as an all-time great - ahead of even Mani Ratnam or K.Balachander.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Aadukalam, doubtlessly was a mainstream product packed with more commercial interests than auteuristic sensibilities. Roosters are outright <i>Phallic symbols</i> in any possible cultural discourse and Aadukalam, exhibiting several ethnographic detailing on those lines, would have been one of the reasons why the film is given so much critical attention at the National Awards. Dhanush, winning the "Best Actor" only surprised a lot of people, keeping in mind that Aadukalam was not even Dhanush's best performance. In a retrospective scan through his career, Dhanush has packed his powerful performances in may be, "Kadhal konden" and "Pudhuppettai" and this award should hopefully foster the capable actor in him. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For me, the biggest surprise was Saranya bringing home the Urvasi award for the sixth time. For an actress, who is well past her prime, doing character-centric mother roles - this is definitely an achievement. Saranya, for me, is one of those very natural performers with almost zero stage consciousness, acting out her parts with a stunning ease. Her Kongu origins is probably making me feel that she can very easily connect and emote with the audience. Saranya was not a very successful actress in the first half of her career - she always appeared deglamourised and in a masala-cinema era dominated by her male counterparts, she was permanently sidelined like any other actress those days. Her best performances undoubtedly came in her second innings - "<i>Thavamai Thavamirindhu</i>", "<i>Raam</i>" and "<i>Kalavaani</i>" stand out. These days, her <i>amma</i> roles are over-stuffed with a serial-like melodrama but the finesse she brings to her histrionics is evident - she is a standout performer.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And, finally the Dada Saheb Phalke arrived to grace the grand old man of Tamil Cinema - K.Balachander. KB emerged in the mid-sixties and was very much productive throughout his career in terms of the film outputs - he directed over 100 films which will probably stay as a record forever. The Gender dynamics that K.B dealt in his films in the late sixties till Mid-seventies with an unprecedented boldness should have literally shook the existent norms and taboos of the society (atleast what is being portrayed in cinema). But, he looked like he was caught in that time warp - the obsession that KB had in those relationship complexities and the middle class working women plots - he could never come out of it. That way, he never looked contemporary in say, the late eighties and thereafter. He would also be remembered as the man who sculpted two stalwarts of their era - Rajinikanth and Kamalhaasan.</span></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-28303469178805943832011-02-10T09:35:00.000-08:002011-02-10T09:35:26.198-08:00Myshkin's Yudham Sei<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Myshkin is consciously working towards positioning himself as an auteur (atleast semi-auteur) in the tamil filmdom. All his films so far, were able to garner a decent commercial as well as critical acclaim. His films, though are flawed in several aspects, are constructed with a conscious rationale. His storytelling with "symbols" and innovative (read as abstract) shots only resound his potential. Even with flawed cinema, the relevance of his works is very much justified in the present day tamil cinema.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tamil Cinema's confrontations with issues related to love and lust are here to stay. Myshkin however supplies a novel theme to this filmdom to exploit & abuse the <i>already-pounded-to-death</i> female sexuality - the peepshow. We are not exactly sure if this so-called "peepshow" is so much rampant in a normal Indian society but, when people (film directors) are on a search to bring in a new act of sexual perversion/ sexual deviance to garner that ever-important exploitative value to their films, days are not far, for Necrophilia to be treated in a tamil cinema. With so many films on gender, sexuality, exploitation, rape, <i>karpu </i>- so much of opportunity has been lost in communicating any kind of mature feminist perspective and again & again, it boils down to adultery - justification-for-revenge - lectures-for-audience dramas. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yudham Sei is a crazily convoluted movie (probably with an intention). For about three-fourths of the runtime, you are anxiously trying to assimilate the big-list of names, facts and details that are thrown at you - Rajamanickam, Thirisangu, Isakimuthu, Moorthy, policemen, commissioner office, auto-driver, dance-class etc. Is everyone in the audience a CID officer ?. Cinema works with the audience as they identify - the character, his/ her name (if neccessary), the actor who play the character - all the three. When you get introduced to a character via a dialogue only, that "association" goes missing and hence, instead of getting involved with the narrative, you keep thinking who-is-who ?. There is a difference between "gripping" and "confusing", In both the cases, the audience will follow the narrative closely. There is simply so much of action going on - A couple of crime investigations are on, several pairs of amputated hands were displayed in public places on carton boxes, girls go missing, Cheran is roaming around like a loser, his sister is also missing, film is shot in the night time, auto drivers, several oldmen discussing "show" etc etc. "Yudham Sei" is confusing (before everything will be clarified in a flashback and you have to correlate all the facts in a jiffy).</span></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cheran who started out as a very reluctant actor in his "Autograph" has grown comfortable in front of camera these days. The characterization of J.Krishnamoorthy (with an obvious reference to philosopher <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurthy">Jiddu Krishnamoorthy</a>) as a CID officer tries to break every possible aspect with which such characters will be stereotyped in our cinema. He is not athletic, he doesn't walk with a robotic precision, he doesn't deliver lectures on his commitment to the "department" and more importantly he is not thrashing the baddies in air. Infact, in the only opportunity that J.K is provided with to "fight", he uses a small nail-cutter to outsmart about eight people who were armed with daggers and jacksaws. That was one wonderful action sequence, one to remember definitely. The build of J.K's character with so much of emotions has come out spectacular - J.K is an ordinary man, he walks and feels like a loser, he is crestfallen in most of his screen-space, he speaks little, he runs instinctively, he is so much attached to his sister - so many dimensions - Cheran just performs with a definiteness.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dipa Shah (Thamizh) who plays an assistant to J.K., looks more like Andrea Jeremiah (in the movie). Thank God, she hasn't fallen in love with J.K in the movie. Infact, there is a dialogue in the movie which will state that J.K is still a bachelor and so you will naturally expect her to "fall" in love ... luckily, she didn't. Jayaprakash, who is identified as the nextgen Radharavi/ Nasser/ Rajesh overacts and spoils the broth in many a places. As he (Judas) harangues at you with an artificial aggression (in a close-up), "What would you do, had your sister or your girl been sexually assaulted like this ?, will you not chop him into pieces ?", you only want the credits to roll on and the curtains to fall down. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">YG.Mahendran and Lakshmi Ramakrishnan are unbearable with exaggerated emotions and according to me, are terrible miscasts. Shaved heads, black uniforms, open-wide eyes, machine-like walks after getting stabbed and shot - irritation all the way - violence is something that these two people (YGM and LR) can't communicate. Simple.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">A few more things I would want to mention:</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- The victims are tortured in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saw_%28film%29">Saw</a>-esque fashion</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- The victims are "selectively" tortured - either eyes or hands or xyz - Garuda Puranam ? </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Judas (Jayaprakash) call "them" <i>Devadhaigal </i>.. why ?</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- All Myshkin's item-song sirens are dressed in a yellow saree .. why ?</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- the peepshow - Waterbed, Rose petals, BDSM, Grape pool, bondage - so much creativity !</span></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-47447617978614717232010-12-19T10:06:00.000-08:002010-12-19T10:06:19.212-08:00Easan - some thoughts ...<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So many spoilers !</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Easan, for the most part, expresses the wrath and fury of Sasikumar towards the city youth and the pub/ discotheque culture. We couldn't quite </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ascertain if it is "personal" but the kind of turbulence with which the title character <i>Easan </i>is charged with, stands proof for the above. As <i>Easan </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">clobbers <i>Chezhian's </i>(Vaibhav) head and spine with a huge jack hammer/gear rod or whatsoever, you feel that <i>chill </i>down your spine and that moment </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">summarises the movie for you. Sasikumar's eye in detailing blood/gore/flesh finds an expression in Easan too. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is a very natural dimension to the political/capital power - the contagiousness. A mere existence in its environment is sufficient enough for one </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to fancy power. Yes, I am very much referring to that tricky and elusive feeling - being the son of a big-shot, be it a big businessman or a politician, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">affordable only by the Mallyas and Marans though. It's something that has been exploited to a good extent in rendering a dramatic value to the script, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with the characterization of <i>Chezhian </i>and his dudeism. That said, the acting and the dialogues in these areas are pathetic - the dudes are not cool and the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">dialogues are very artificial. The dudes could only manage constipated looks on their faces, trying to project themselves as ultramodern studs. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Easan, in the first half, exhibits a lot of promise, picking up a lot of engrossing stuff on it's way - business lobbying, corporatisation of politics, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">politicization of business, the night life in Chennai, a helpless and desperate policeman etc but when it all boiled down to an individual vendetta in the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">second half, you just feel a bit let down. Many a scenes hang in the air when you try to sync the first and second halves of the narration - especially, the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vijay Mallya stunt. Still, the aspiration itself, to depict the nexus between business and politics, is very much valid and appreciable. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A couple of interesting diaogues were floated </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">upon, during the conversations between <i>Deivanayagam</i>, the politician and <i>Shivaraj</i>, the businessman.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Abhinaya - being a handicapped woman, there has been (or will be) an intentional bias with which Abhinaya's performances has been (or will be) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">approached, which kinda makes sense. There will always be a "constant of integration" summed up with her personality while evaluating her </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">performances. She plays a mute girl who becomes a rape victim in the movie. There is always a serenity and gloominess in her face even during the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"happy-family" sequences. There is a fundamental dynamics based on which the anti-hero/villain & victim characterizations are constructed in movies - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the differentiation in characterizations - they will be portrayed as completely alternate psyche's. The victim, who is a woman almost all the time, will </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">be an embodiment of good virtues and will be associated as somebody who is pure, divine and beautiful. The anti-hero/villain will be presented with a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">sharp contrast with the former - with an unconventional/ awkward face, stern/rough voice, drinker/womaniser etc. To put it simple, the victim is 100% </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">good and the offender is 100% bad. This is very important so as to invoke an intrinsic sympathy from the audience and to justify the hero's final </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">combat with the villain. The victim's character need to be very strong to reinforce this and the quintessential examples of this phenomenon are Sridevi </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in <i>"Sigappu Rojakkal"</i> and <i>"Moondru Mudichu"</i>, Ashwini in <i>Uthiripookkal</i>, Shobana in <i>Mahanadhi </i>etc. Abhinaya's character in Easan is one such </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">portrayal.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is an age-old sacred rule in tamil cinema - with respect to the physical assault on the female protagonist or any female character for that matter - Any degree </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of verbal or physical aggression on the rapist is simply justified by itself. In a patriarchal society, where all the socio-economic powers are vested with the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">men, men intentionally attached a "<i>larger-than-life"</i> importance and sanctity to the virginity of a woman. It not only helped men confine women within </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the houses but also let men free of these rules. Easan is the latest entrant reinforcing this social psyche - all those horrendous flesh-mashing by <i>Easan </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on <i>Chezhiyan </i>is justified by itself.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That Sasikumar is severely critical of the pub and discotheque culture is evident at many places in the film. During the first half, the camera spins into </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a pub every tenth minute and it's a kind of condescending outlook that Sasikumar stamps on the western way of life and the modern youth. DJ, drugs, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">lust, moral degradation is all he portrays. Contrastingly, in a true <i>Mahanadhi </i>style, he shows how the life in a village is so calm, peaceful and satisfying </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in a flashback narrative. And, the <i>"Nattar theivangal"</i> are to be seen extensively in tamil cinema these days. It provides ample scope for detailing in a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">village atmosphere for the film makers. <i>Vamsam </i>did a whole lot of it recently and Easan budgets a good deal of time for the same.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The film also reinforces the healthy chemistry between Samuthirakani and Sasikumar. Still, what Easan lacks, for me, is that clarity in narration and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">good performances. For atleast the first half of the film, you keep yourself engaged in trying to identify the direction of the drama - you simply can't </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">single out a protagonist-antagonist pair. Though its not mandatory to have the same, it has been the way our cinema has worked all these years and on </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the negative side, it will only diminish the curiosity that the audience has on the narration. You follow the engrossing drama on-screen and realise that </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Chezhian </i>is a dude, <i>Sangaiyah </i>is the frustrated but helpless policeman, <i>Reshma </i>is a good looking babe, <i>Deivanayagam </i>is a kingmaker politician etc. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But, that "so-what, what-next" feeling lingers. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sasikumar commands a good fan following for himself which itself is a healthy trend - fans for a film director sounds good .. right ?. Of late, he is </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">being viewed as the <i>Midas </i>of the tamil filmdom - all his previous ventures - as director, producer and actor are all stupendous successes both </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">commercially and critically. Easan would be a tiny speed-bump on his otherwise illustrious career so far. </span></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-49850068043201897342010-10-18T11:15:00.000-07:002010-10-22T07:35:56.562-07:00Vetty Post #2<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Sweet fumes of </span></u></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Nostalghia</span></u></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A trip back to the Alma Mater is always special. It's been just 22 months away from her but the intensity of the Nostalgia was already sky-high. Six of us decided to make it to the "Waves", the cultural festival of the Institute ... If not all of us, I was not bothered much about the culturals. You just need a pretext to be there again - The very idea of walking through those familiar frontiers is always an excitement. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is something very strange about Nostalgia - Only Nostalgia can transform the most mundane of the memories into very special remembrances, Only Nostalgia can render that special halo romanticizing the dullest moments of the past. Nostalgia, in a way is a very "selective" memory - You tend to relive and relish things which with some reason (for that particular individual atleast) are meaningful, sentimental or inspiring or whatsoever.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For me, Nostalgia about the institute was multi-diamensional ... Personal, Nostalgia about the places, the sense of social cohesion which the whole setup provided etc. Visit to the library, being under the Insti-roof , walks through the Shopping complex and the hostel corridors, breakfast at the Monginis - Very special moments they are - Longing for the past was just aggravating over time. As always during the "odd-sems", the campus was sparkling green.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Vasco da Gama occupies just three parallel streets and will look very ordinary in terms of the tourism value and the social life it offers but the kind of experience and memory that each of us carry with respect to Vasco is enormous. Dining at the Vasco Inn and Ginza's, snack at "The Temptations" were a part of the wish-list of all of us ... We ticked the boxes one-by-one. How can you travel to Goa all the way and not visit a beach at all ? - Bogmalo it was and a carefree four hours there.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This will well be incomplete if it doesn't carry a reference towards the perennial raconteur of the group - <a href="http://maheshed.blogspot.com/2008/02/mahesh-maheshed-maheshing.html">Cheenu</a>. Cheenu's storytelling expertise is something which will age like wine - He did recall some of the evergreen bullet-points of our times there. We covered everything starting from Physics 1, Computer Programming exams, Mechanics of Solids project submission, duels with the profs, notoriousness at the labs, check-posts infront of BH1, Birthday parties and so much more - we had an additional audience for the above - the junior guys.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Those are "Good old days" ... {Read the paragraph 2 aloud again}</span><read 2="" again="" paragraph=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> :)</span></read></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">PS: "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086022/">Nostalghia</a>" is a 1983 film by Andrei Tarkovsky, one of my personal favourites.</span></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8334050506438798875.post-45297103849801288992010-10-02T07:46:00.000-07:002010-10-02T22:19:30.759-07:00Rajinikanth and his Endhiran<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Not a complete Review.</b></span></span></div></span><br />
<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rajinikanth is not a mere mortal cinema actor - he is a fantasy, he is an emotion, he is an impact, he is an impression, he is an experience, he is a perception, he is a sensation, he is a marvel, he is a mystery, he is a phenomenon in himself. His movies are not mere 24 frames per second shot with a digital video camera - they are an event, they are a festivity, they are a celebration, they are a detailed revelry to be relished. The moment a Rajinikanth project is announced, Tamilnadu tunes itself for an extravaganza. Everything "Rajini" makes news - still releases, trailer release, audio release - anything Rajini is consumed upon with a reverent devotion and authentic enthusiasm, which only Rajinikanth commands. The fanfare and the mass adulation submitted at this particular individual will be relevant at only one context - Rajinikanth. The fundamental rules of cinema, its narrative structure, its impact on the emotional system of the audience, its effect on the psyche of the spectator - all these seem to work different in this context - Rajinikanth.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Cinema from an Idea" and "Cinema around a star" - each work in a distinct manner. During the studio days, when independent cinema was a distant idea, the studios required some kind of assurance and minimum guarantee at the box office. This is where the relevance of the "star system" emerges, the idea of the fan clubs and fan devotion arises. In the panorama of the "star system", the way a film works with its audience is altogetherly different. The audience, first of all tries to establish a one to one relationship with his favorite star and only after this, the settings of the story and the actual cinema walks into him. The production houses encouraged this idea with mass publicity campaigns and the actors endorsed the "fan activity" in large scales. There is an important drawback with the system though - How-much ever effort a particular actor invests in his performance, the audience will always perceive the personality above the performance. Thus, the idea of "fantasy acting" packs the final punch and the actual acting in a puristic sense - the "method acting" loses out in the race.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rajini's collaboration with Shankar has marked a significant departure from the star-fan dynamics that Rajini has set in motion somewhere at the dawn of his film career. Rajini as a star was an altogetherly new phenomenon in the tamil social milieu. Stars who garnered mass adulation in the previous generations like M.G.Ramachandran and M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar had "attractive" physical appearances (in a conventional sense), their roles were tailored in such a way that at no point of time the audience will develop a sense of aversion or uneasiness with their behaviour on-screen. More importantly, MGR and MKT had a huge following and popularity amongst women. Rajini broke all these conventions when he emerged - he had a rough angry man look, his complexion was dark, he smoked on-screen for almost 100 movies, he did spine-chilling villainy when he set out as an actor - Still, he naturally was the toast of the town with his active prompts and charismatic styles. But, it was the subalterns and the masses who initially were the patrons of the Rajini phenomenon, his popularity and stardom among the elites and women was something that happened at a much later stage. Coming to the star-fan dynamics - it was a totally different ball game those days - Rajini mostly played an angry young man who stood for the people, he fought for the poor in a simulated feudalistic society, he smoked lavishly on-screen, his characters were developed with cues of misogynistic and male chauvinistic behavior (in many movies). The audience enjoyed everything he did on-screens ... those were the audience who inculcated a sense of loyalty and integrity in them towards their "Thalaivar" and were the first generation fans of Rajinikanth. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shankar has brought about a whole new shift in the way Rajini is perceived by his fans. Rajini stopped smoking on-screen (for a different reason though), he has started doing roles of a software engineer and Robotics scientist these days, he wears wonderful clothes, lives in rich bungalows - In all, he is portrayed as somebody whose standard of living is very high. This is in stark contrast with what Rajini has been doing all his career. How many times before "Sivaji" have you seen Rajini trying to woo a girl in all those details ?, How many times before "Endhiran" have you seen Rajini running away with his girl as somebody (Kalabhavan Mani) chase him ?. We all knew Rajini who used to say, "A Man shouldn't be in pursuit of a woman" and "Thaedi vandha kadhal" etc, we only saw him thrash tens of baddies. This is the "image makeover" I am trying to convey. "Endhiran" was an all new standard towards this particular idea - "Endhiran" carries no identity of a "Rajini movie", no styles, no punch dialogues, no intro song with the message to the audience, no freaking introduction scene. Its a Shankar film, its a Sci-fi film, Period.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over to Endhiran: More than Vaseegaran - the scientist it was Chitti - the Robot who garnered all possible attention and applause. Wickedness and Villainy are the real "bread and butter" of Rajini's histrionics with which he started with. He does villainy right from his instincts ( "Mottae boss" of Sivaji is one more example on this light ). It is because of this intuitive performance, Chitti's character has come out so well that it looks almost effortless. Mufflers, pronounced collars, bandages - the costumes to hide Rajini's ageing neck serve the purpose but still, Vaseegaran does look older especially when he is seen alongside with the vibrant Chitti.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In Sivaji, we had Vivek seen with Rajini all the time which kinda irritated. This movie is full of Rajini - the presense of either Vaseegaran or Chitti is guaranteed in almost every frame. After Chitti Version 2.0's arrival, there are more Rajini's - 100s of them all through the frame - Satisfaction. The dialogues discussing Fibonacci series, Neural schema, medical terminologies etc provide a scientific feel but the songs' lyrics were over-stuffed with science tit-bits, I feel. The train stunt sequence and the final animation spectacle were real long - warrants choppings. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Though the film looks rich, I still can't find 160+crores on-screen. The "Machu pichu" song - "Kilimanjaro" was the most visually appealing. Resul Pookutty, AR.Rahman, the animation experts from the west, Rathnavelu - all are felt. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The commercial value of Rajinikanth, the star seem to be on a rise, there's no waning of his star value in the recent future - If an individual can set in motion so much commercial activity, If a cinema star can guarantee so much excitement to so many people, why should he ever retire from cinema ?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One important critic on the big budget productions involving stars of the stature of Rajinikanth is that, it heralds the arrogance of "Capitalism" in cinema production. Just observe - one or two weeks before and after the release of "Endhiran", you won't find any high profile film releases - Who wants their film to be washed away in the frenzy that "Endhiran" generates. Calculations are on - 2500 prints * 4 shows a day * 150 rupees per ticket - How many days does it take for the "Sun Pictures" to gross all the money that they have invested in. With all the media under their control and the kind of intense promo campaigns that they can manage, its a juggernaut of influence that "Sun Pictures" manages over the creativity industry of the state. And, it is the small scale productions and indie ventures that are promptly crushed on the way. Arguments discussing "consumer driven economy" will ultimately project capitalistic undertones only - Quoting Rajini himself from Sivaji - "Rich get richer and poor get poorer".</span></div><div></div></div></div>Gokul Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07108757856377732660noreply@blogger.com1