Aaranya Kaandam - A unique chapter in Tamil Cinema!

    
As usual, it was another lazy Saturday afternoon. We had gone to the less publicized Aaranya Kaandam. There was not much a crowd. We were hardly thirty people in the theatre. I didnt mind. I knew that this is an experimental movie and also there were no advertisements in television. However I had been desperately wanting to watch this movie, since its theatrical trailer and teaser had released. By seeing the teasers, I felt this movie could have been inspired from Taratino's movies and my guess was right. This movie is totally unique, stylish, bloody. Yes, its a complete adult movie. Its not a movie where you go with your family, but still this movie is different. I am not sure if such movies will fill the producer's pocket. S.P.B Charan has the guts thought. In fact there are no songs in this whole duration of 150 minutes.

                                                      

Gangster movies are not new to Tamil Cinema. However what is new in this film is the plot is revealed at its own pace by the different characters of the movie and it is the situation which makes the characters good or bad. Its not a racy thriller. Its calm, composed and rises to peak at instances. Debutant director Thiyagarajan Kumararaja seems to have completely inspired with neo noir films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs and he has given this product beautifully.
I completely enjoyed! Be it the blood shed scenes, the retro type background score, the ambience, the references to popular stars, its a complete inspiration from western movies. I am liking this trend in Tamil cinema. Even the plot of the movie is similar to Pulp fiction, where there is no story as such, but there are different incidents in which the characters cross each other and their transformation for survival. Every character here is a hero and every character here is a villain.

                                          

It is welcoming that there is no song in this movie. Yuvan's background score is promising. Silent in most places, violin interludes at a few places and Raja sir's songs at some places. Its again inspired from western films especially Tarantino's, where there are musical references like a popular song aired in a radio or television and some places there are references to the retro/pop culture similar to Kill Bill. Though Jackie Shroff's nude appearance doesnt impact or add any significance to the movie, the debutant character Somasundaram as Kaalayan and his son character Kodukkapuli, completely steal the show. An innocent-desperate-angry son and a completely drunk-dont care-attitude foul mouthed father. Their characterisation is laughable, interesting and entirely different.

                 


If I am fascinated with the camera work, lighting, ambience and the apt back ground music, am more amazed with the kind of dialogues that are used in this film. They are raw at some instances, they are filthy in some but everytime they are spontaneous and that is one of the reason, I did find some difficulty in understanding a few dialogues. They were so spontaneous and lowly delivered that there should be pin drop silence to hear it. There are many notable places which will deserve applause especially when Sampath asks the kid whether he likes his father so much and the kid's response is simple and sensible. Another notable place is where the lady describes men and their attitude. I spontaneously laughed and clapped at another scene involving the astrologer.

                                 


I know its not the regular movie which will lure tamil audience and generate revenue. Still, this film will be a milestone in the list of good unique tamil movies. Well...I dont mind watching it again in theatre!

Its been a couple of months...

... I had been scribbling in this space. Half the blame to the company I joined....I had been into a hectic project after a week I joined here and since then, there is no looking back. Somehow I felt that, I had been actively engaged with work in this project for the past three months.Well dont ask if I am able to deliver? :) Well I dont know. Am I trying to showcase or is there a pressure really? May be both are right. Sometimes had to work more than office hours..slog almost every day. Well more salary, more work!!! Wait Wait Wait!! Is that statement correct..no not at all...its not always true...May be its an inconvenience of being a bachelor. But in spite of all the wierd thoughts about work, slogging, working on weekends..I somehow managed to relax as well. I didnt miss to go to friend's marriages and engagements ...I still managed the weekend get to with my ex colleagues..  As usual I didnt miss to watch newly released movies. I did not miss to attend the A R Rahman concert here in Bangalore. None of my pastimes changed. Just that there is no free time. Its all occupied. I would say the lazy time of mine had just reduced. Somehow I am content about it. If you are wondering what a lazy time is, I would say its a time spent by me on a weekend or weekday doing nothing. Nothing means literally nothing.

 Now that its almost three months, I just got some breathing space and just peeped in here. Reason being, I want to blog, atleast once in a while. And thats why I made a point to scribble here, though this post has no context or significance! I am not a writer or a philosopher. I am not preaching. I may be a liar. But I wanted to blog, and thats the beauty of blogging, you have this liberty to blabber whatever you want. Wish I blog with relevance in future!! I wanted to talk about the movies I watched recently, the places I had gone, the new restaurant I had experimented. Just that I should not be lazy. I know, once in a while I post such scribblings without any specific context. I start of with something and end with something irrelevant. He he, I am liking to do that!!   :)

Cup of Joy - Regained!

If there is something that unites all the states in India, the non national game, cricket is one of the major contributor. Particularly, when India hosts the world cup tournament of the most viewed sport here and when the trophy is retained for the next four years in Indian soil, the result is priceless. There is a quote "Coming together is a beginning, Keeping together is a Progress, Working together is a Success". Today this has been a truth in the history of Indian cricket. Its not only part of Indian history, but part of every ardent lover of Indian cricket. Particularly for me, I was never born, when India gained its first ever World Cup title in 1983. So its a first in my history. May be India will retain the title next time, but this moment is fantabulous. Its a nation's pride.

 Every match after the preliminary round had been crucial. When India advanced ahead each step beating the current world cup champions and the age old rival, world cup was almost a sure shot. But the finals against the Srilankans was not an easy one though. A 275 target in a world cup final is not at all an easy task! Like its in the movies, there had been a initial twist with  Malinga giving the early break for the lankans with sending the heros Sehwag and Sachin very early to the pavilion.

This may not be a better match for the Srilankan spin wizard, but a decent world cup exit for him, with 500 plus wickets in his basket. Competition should always exist and thanks to Mahela, without him this final would have never been a tough fight. However the rest is all history with Captain Dhoni and Gambhir at rescue operations and we all are happy now.

What a match! What a crowd! When all the icons were there at Wankhede stadium - Rajnikanth, Aamir Khan, Mukesh Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar, victory is 50 percent acheived. I felt we just missed A R Rahman though! Its the power of the people. The success waves created by every single soul in India wanted this! This has to happen and it has happened. It is all written!

Its the last world cup for Sachin, and he will be the most happiest person than anybody else in the country. If this is not gonna happen, then it would definitely be a black patch despite of all his records and achievements in his two decade old career as a cricketer. We are all happy watching him being proud.

And one more feather in Dhoni's cap, the captain of success. His way of handling pressure helped us from sinking the ship in the finals. Be it the support he gave to Gambhir or his winning helicopter six, the moments cannot be erased so easily. We could witness all the emotions not only from the spectators but also from the players. Winning stroke after all!

One should experience, the after winning moments. You need not be necessarily in Mohali or Mumbai! You can be at Madurai also. Wow the crackers they burst on the streets, greeting each other, staying happy, cheering people, I dont think it can happen on any other occassion. It was an unanimous celebration altogether.


April 2, 2011 - Cup of Joy, Regained!

Run Lola Run!

I happened to see this German flick - Run Lola Run!  Life is all about probability based on time. Athletes win the race by milli seconds and nano seconds. And this movie explains it in a very interesting and fast paced manner. Especially with the style and the fast paced background music, this decade old movie seems to be technically brilliant and makes one sit at the seat edge!

Lola has twenty minutes and needs huge amount of money to save her boy friend. She decides to get the money somehow and run to the destination, where her boy friend is actually waiting. This whole movie is split into three different runs by Lola for the same situation, with the first two runs being a failure and the final run becoming successful. There are flash forward sequences shown for each of the people whom Lola encounters during each run. Even the life of the other people whom Lola bumps in take different directions for each run. The director neither says which one of the outcome is actually true nor he wants it to say as he only gives us a thought that only seconds of your time are required to change the direction of your life! Very true!

I sometimes imagine things in real life in a similar way. Sometimes very crucial turns in one's life happens in seconds. Most of the times we will not have control on it. I know we cannot go back and change things, atleast we have the liberty to dream about it. Knowingly or unknowingly, be it the past incidents or the future endeavours we always have a habit of dreaming those things in the present. We all have a wish to do something in life and most of us end up in doing something else. Like it is said in a Tamil movie - Mudhalvan "How good life be if it has an rewind option?" If every single person in this world is blessed with this option, I bet we will never go forward..what say? :)

First things First!

It could be whatever you do, wherever you live, which ever place you had gone, who ever you have met, the "first" one is always a probable moment. It could give you loads of surprises and excitement. It could be a happy moment or a sorrow one. And irrespective of the outcome, I bet the first things always have a special place in one's heart. Be it your first school, first crush, first date, they all have longing memories! This time its first last day @ work!

Well yesterday was my last day in my first company. In these five years, I had seen people staying around and moving out. I could hardly recollect faces that I saw during my first year! But there are a few people like me hanging around still as if they were anchored deep to the sea bed!  So as usual, it was my turn to send out my last day mail and I could not cut short the content. Whatever I wrote, came from the mind. I did not care if the recipient would care or not. An irony is that I had actually criticised others for their last day mails here!

It was a kind gesture having friends sending me off with all the usual cake cutting, wishes and memento. Finally, it took less than a minute to return my identity card and my longing association with my first company ended abruptly. And particularly when you are associated with a company for a very long time, it definitely takes a little time to get over the comfort zone. Its not only the organisation but the people, with whom you had built a relationship with. 

Its like the timer is reset and again the time starts ticking from zero. I know this will happen and I wanted this to happen! I am a stranger now and I need a visitor pass next time to enter! But that is what life is all about. Every phase you leave something and you search and pick some other thing and move on with taking only the memories about those you had left in the first place!

Aadukalam - The ground set in Madurai Again!

Director Vettrimaran unfolds a story which revolves around the descendants in southern Tamilnadu region who care and care only to win the age old gambling animal sport in southern Tamilnadu – Rooster fight. Rooster fight is an age old game not only in Southern Tamilnadu but all over the world especially in Mexico. Wikipedia says it has reference in Tamil literature which is more than 2000 years old. Such genres are very rare and welcoming to Tamil cinema. This film not only portrays the sport but also reveals its cause and effects over the people who were deeply involved and show us how determined and egoistic are they and how extent they turn villainous for retaining and regaining the pride in winning the blood sport game. For them it’s a life and death scenario.

Definitely the director has taken me to seat edge experiences in a couple of scenes, especially the rooster tournament scene. Be it the history of rooster fight or referring the diminishing Anglo Indian people in Madurai, the director has taken close to real facts and figures and filmed it. More than rooster fight, this movie is full of emotions. Every small character marks their presence and show justification to their role.

                                     

This movie also evolves a mind game filled with loyalty, trust, betrayal, cunningness between the mentor and his beloved student and when the student outsmarts his mentor, the director has cleverly handled the characters and reveal how trust turns betrayal, and betrayal seeks guilty. It is hard to say who the bad guy in this movie is. If you think one person to be the baddie in the beginning, you are probably wrong. There is no good or bad but the situation and circumstances is when good turn bad and bad turn ugly. What is something unique is the ending. It’s not about the stunts but the emotions between people that talks more.

Madurai based theme seems to be the genre these days. Most of the movies seem to be exaggerated and over shadowed creating a misinterpretation for how Madurai and Madurai people are. Well I think I have seen Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal more in movies than in person! Tamil cinema needs a destination change! Though this movie is also set in a Madurai backdrop, people shouldn’t care as the characters and the story outplay altogether.

The White Balloon

When we were a kid, do we ever remember how we nagged our mom for a chocolate or a toy car or for that matter any thing we wanted at that moment? We were so adamant on that and we would either cry or be silent or shout until we get what we wanted. Did we ever care why our mom scolded us for not obeying her?

When we were a kid, did we ever know what is good and what is bad? We always believed whatever our teachers, our friends or anybody said is true and we follow it blindly.

When we were a kid, little we had known about the value of money and we were so determined about the small small things which would shower happiness. We didnt even know how long would that happiness last long! May be it would have lasted till our mind gets distracted to some other things we see. Have we ever remembered to talking to strangers? If so how did we do? Were we afraid? I dont recollect!


What if we had a chance now to see that cute little face of young times, when we showed all kinds of expressions through our little face - happiness, curiosity, anger, sorrow, fear, respect, loneliness, restless, adamance and so on...

It was a few days back, I came across this Iranian movie - "The White Balloon". I saw this movie, of course with subtitles and I could not say exactly why I liked the movie. The movie is about a seven year old cute litte girl who is desperate to buy a fat gold fish for the new year which is approximately 75 minutes far and this movie is narrated in a very ordinary, yet beautiful way from the little girl's perspective. Some movies are inspiring, some are fun, some are romantic, some are interesting, some are boring, some are bloody, some are crap. I felt "The White Balloon" is a feel-light-good-movie.

Be it the determined, yet sad face when her mother denies to buy her the fish or be it the change of her expression when her brother actually convices her mom or be it the way she builds confidence over the guy in the fish store or be it the affection she shows for her brother, when he is beaten by another guy or be it the determination and expression of hope she shows when she finds a way to take the money out or be it the way she tries to protect the money from the Iranian soldier or be it the courageous, yet fearsome talk she makes to the snake charmers to get back her money, or any other expression she had to make, one has to watch the movie to feel it!
 
 

 
So did I....Better late than never!

Five years and still counting...

Okay, its a milestone in my life and I have completed five years in the IT industry! Ooph! Should I appreciate myself or should I think of doin something else? Well instead of talking about my profession, I thought I will recollect what all the irrelevant things I had gained out of this journey so far!

If I am blogging here right now, I dont think I would have done it or even thought of scribbling such crazy thoughts, if I am not in this industry. May be I could have not known what blogging is! Thanks to my "bench" days which actually made me to create a blog!

Something which I can boast of is may be I have learned basic cooking or atleast made some attempts to try to make some regular dishes. No no, dont expect a delicacy, I said basic cooking...!

 



If I am lazy and not active, thanks to most of the weekends spent literally by just staying at my so called bachelor family home and not doing anything. Sometimes we dont even go out for breakfast! And now we dont even do the basic cooking. Andhra Mess is our rescuer for most of the weekend afternoons. Birds of a feather, flock together, Bachelor guys mock Andhra Mess together! Any area you are in Bangalore, there will be one such eatout. Full meals with dhaal and egg burji! Wat a combination!!!

With the increasing factory outlets and shopping malls in the city and given the fact that we have to push the weekend going, we land up in these places and have most of our money exchanged for new tees and casuals almost every alternate week! Gone are the days, where you purchase clothes only during Diwali festival!



When you are in this industry and when restaurants offer corporate lunch buffets and when colleagues throw birthday treats and farewell parties and particularly when you are in Bangalore where you have lots of eatout options ranging from south indian to international, Almost, you can say you will become a foodie and so have I! It is very obvious, you get to go to all the team outings or fun trips and so did I. No matter if its Coorg or Las Vegas, it is the enjoyment and break you get out there!

In movies, policeman are portrayed with their pot belly, soon they may show IT people in a similar way. If its one thing I think I should take measures atleast now, is to control my tummy level! In fact I know, how much lean I was in my college! Thanks to KFC and Dominos and of course Andhra mess!

Almost I have watched most of the movies in this five years. I have learnt to admire good movies. If I am not in this industry, I would not have known the torrents site and wikipedia. May be its a very useful site for all purpose, but for me mostly I have used this site searching information about movies,actors and directors. I just love to click links in a link in a link and browse information.

So far so good....Five years and still counting!

Sujatha's நைலான் கயிறு (Nylon Kayiru)

I dont know, suddenly I started reading novel. I remember being addicted to Rajesh Kumar's crime novels. Once I used to go to the streets near New Cinema Theatre in Madurai to get the second hand novels from the book stores. Somehow I came out of that habit!

And its now when we guys went to Erode for one of my colleague's wedding reception where we just happened to walk into a book shop opposite to the hotel we stayed and I picked up a couple of books which included Nylon Kayiru (meaning a nylon rope)! 

Well its the first novel by writer late Sujatha in the end 60's which was published for 14 weeks in a Tamil weekly magazine. Now they have compiled all the episodes and published as a single novel. I started reading the novel and finished in 3 hours. The reading experience is like watching a thriller movie! So interesting!

I was amazed with his writing style and given the fact that it was published 40 years before! His style was different. He is so knowledgable. He is trying to intoduce unknown facts and also explains them. In one of the episode, he hints about a medical term "sepsis" and "internal hemorrhage". These terms are definitely new 40 years back and even now "sepsis" is new for me :) ! I did a google search to find its explanation!

He has adopted a different narrative style in this novel with inserting a snippet from a person's diary and narrating a murder followed by the sequence of its investigation and finally the investigation leads to the diary. It might have been a trend set in introducing different writing style. At first you dont get to know the relation between the diary and the scene described in the episode. Given the fact that it was published weekly, it would have created an immense curiosity among the readers! In fact, after reading the whole novel, I went back and read the diary snippets alone from each episode again to get a clear picture of the story! I am sure, movies are inspired from his writings! If I was amazed with the non linear editing style in Christopher Nolan's Memento, then I had a similar feel while reading this novel. I didnt know that through writing also one could give a non linear view!

Sujatha is no more, but he has shared lots of his knowledge and views through his writings and has given work for us to read, enjoy, learn and think! Indeed, Art is long and life is short!

It striked me when..

... I went home for Diwali. I was occupied more with my laptop than with my mom! And this was not the first time. She was surprised when I started talking to her when the power got cut. She enquired for which I replied there is no power and there is no internet! She now understood the fact and asked me to disconnect the internet connection permanently.  Lately there has been such cribbings in my home that i am being a guest at home and not spending most of the time with them. Very true, now there seem to be a sort of addiction among we young guys. Either we meddle with our high end mobile or glue to our lap tops all the time. 

I guess, soon there might be a substitute name for a mobile phone as it is used for more than the required telephonic conversation. There will be no surprise at present if some body asks you that apart from being a teetotaller, how many hours you waste before the internet or how often you use your mobile phone per day. I dont know where it will lead, the destination is still unclear! And definitely not a healthy destination. On the other hand, its high time we can imagine being without mobile or internet! Its like the earth stood still and have a feeling like having losing something close to the heart.

I admit its important to stay connected when we are away from our dear ones. But, is it required when they are close and near is the next billion dollar question... Well then I can call it addiction! If you smoke or drink, it takes time to quit or you dont quit at all, may be you reduce the frequency and so is this..atleast stay away when you are at home !