I wonder how much of Sibi's best stuff was a result of working with Lohithadas. Kireedom in particular has been lingering in my thoughts for over a week now. The efficacy with which the movie demonstrates that Sethu is a product of society and its fickle perceptions is devastating to say the least. Sethu's biggest disappointment however is that his family's perception of him itself is clouded because of their degree of separation from the truth. He say's as much in a scene before leaving home - which is what makes the movie a little more mainstream in that it actually spells out what was until then subtly insinuated. "What could Sethu have done?" is a fair question to ask. Say things progressed exactly the same way up until Keerikkaadan Jose assaulted Achuthan Nair (Sethu could not have altered those events anyway), would people have been less critical of Sethu had he not done anything? Wouldnt he have had to live with his family's condescension at not having done anything to protect is father? A complete no-win situation for him. Just thinking of this makes Sethu's plight feel more intolerable. Pretty much everyone in the movie Jagadi, "Maniyan PiLLa" Raju, Jagadeesh & Cochin Haneefa are little squirrels building Sethu's bridge to oblivion. Lohithadas constructs the scenes quite brilliantly.
What made those late 70's-early 90's movies mainstream, was the slightly above subtle exposition and the songs. Otherwise it was a sort of a mini-renaissance. Even larks like HH Abdullah, which is essentially a crime caper, had lovely undercurrents like the confluence of Hindustani and Carnatic music as illustrated by one scene where Lal impersonating a Namboodiri says that his kOvilagam doesnt necessarily like his singing style because it sounds like "mezhukku varatti" or the now legendary dEvasaBaathalam where what starts of as a competition between Kaithapparam and Lal turns into a Jugalbandhi with even Nedumudi joining in the celebration. But what is surprising is the great reception they received at the theatres. Now Blessy, Roshan Andrews(I thought Notebook was a good effort considering the actors were all pretty much inexperienced) and Shyamaprasad (I am yet to see orE kadal) have to pull teeth to get people in the theatres. In the process I think they pander, Blessy in particular. Blessy's best work, IMO has been with MammukkA - both Kaazhcha and PaLunku, but even those are not without overexposition and patchy acting. I hate saying this, but it seems like the tastes of the movie viewing public have changed in Kerala. I think Bharathan (I have been looking sooo long for Thaazhvaaram and have not been able to find it) and Padmarajan were as much a product of the Kerala that moved at its own pace as the movies that we see now are a product of today's Kerala.
I’ll Have What They’re Smoking
14 hours ago
3 comments:
Star-struck? I guess I must be, coz last Saturday, I sat glued to the TV at 10AM (Showbiz India streams out of LA, on ch. 8 here), watching AR Rahman speak softly/shyly about his GG-nominated score for Slumdog, his workaholism (Warholism?), his tendency to lose interest quickly if he doesn't experiment constantly (hence his work on interesting challenges like the Chinese movie Warriors of Heaven and Earth)...when the segment segued to the week's Entertainment trivia. I found out they are making a movie called "Blue" and (guest?) starring alongside AK and KK would be Australian pop artist Kylie Minogue!
So yeah, you can call me star-struck, considering (a) [OK, I'm making this one up] how often I stare up at the night sky wondering, for instance, where in Ursa Major (that BeaR constellation Van Gogh is credited with painting upside down) is the Big Dipper -- the 7 bright "sage" stars; (b) my unflagging interest in national flags that have stars and/or stripes -- for instance, my observation that about the only things America and Australia have in common are stars and stripes on their flags; the Big Red dot on the white Japanese flag signifies the Rising Sun; the Chinese flag has a large yellow star against a red backdrop, with four small stars to the right; the flag of S. Korea has its origins in the Chinese I-Ching, with its four trigrams surrounding the Yin-Yang symbol; the flag close to my heart, for reasons I can't begin to explain, has a white crescent moon with a white five-pointed star against a Green backdrop...(c) the times I've stared at the USA flag only to find it fondly staring back at me, with its "stars" and "stripes" aligning to author this autograph: "Persist, SS. --Art."
P.S: It's over a decade since I caught a mallu movie, but I remember drooling all over this HH Abdullah number on DD...is Gowthami gorgeous or what!
After last week's Rendezvous with RaHmaN at 10AM on channel 8, on this week's showcase was an SRK clip. It showed the star plowing thru a posse of press people, promoting Rab Ne.... "I'm tone deaf," he answered when asked what his favorite songs were. "But there is something simple/inexplicable -- and not just the picturization -- about Haule Haule that I found appealing."
Shortly thereafter, I had to head out to run errands. Just as I slid behind the steering wheel of my Japanese-model AWD wagon, something struck me (The stars? for right below the name-that-caused-this-epiphany, embossed on the steering wheel, were the Pleaides -- the six-star symbol of this particular brand of car). I said to myself, "S," "RAB" *is* in "U" -- Wow, that was "I" opening!
(G)love is in the air today (and no, not the boxing kind, although I admit it *is* already Boxing Day elsewhere in the world)!
Opening a pair of kiddie baseball gloves earlier in the day, I found myself staring at the red Rawlings tag...at the famed "Gold Glove" award. Later, looking it up online, I learned that the only other nation (half way across the globe) that's just as fanatical about baseball, calls it the "Golden Glove."
(Speaking of awards, any award is, to me, just that -- A draw! [Meaning, one person winning equals everyone winning -- in an
'Armstrong on the moon' sorta way.] Or -- if that one person's ego insists on submitting itself to this affliction-masquerading-as-seduction of the masses called "subjectivitis" -- A [lucky] draw. In general, I tend to buy what sci-fi writer Connie Willis says [of literary awards]: "Writing is a solitary business. You're sort of sending messages in a bottle out into the sea, with no real idea of whether anybody will ever find them, or if they do find them, will ever be able to make sense of them; so the awards kind of tell you someone, somewhere, got your messages and is sending you an answer. They are not, of course, proof that you are wonderful. After all, Fred Astaire never won an Oscar.")
P.S: Taking about the America-Japan connection and stuff, parked on the street outside my driveway, this afternoon, were two cars that made my day: A gray Mustang convertible with a two-feathered dreamcatcher dangling from its rear-view mirror; and, behind it, a black Mazda Miata, with a black-and-white butterfly insignia, again, dangling from its rear-view mirror. (That stroll braving the nip in the December air was well worth it! And I got back in time too, for an impromptu date with this other Ford (not the Mustang Maker) -- a man after my own heart!)
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