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The Illusionist

2009-09-28T20:22:00.001+05:30

The illutionist [ 2006/Drama ]
Directed by : Neil Burger

One of the most attractive forms of art is magic - even it fascinates a rationalist not as a belief just as science. It's always better not to know the secrets behind them. It's like doing an autopsy to a fantastic IR song - better to let it be like that. I followed the entire series of David Blaine's program in AXN TV few years back and I became a fan of him. The main reason is his skills and he does that in street [ NY mostly ]. And of course, another great American illutionist is David Copperfield who makes the truck or any other big object to disappear in public.

Similarly there lived a person in 1900 in Vienna named Eisenheim, the illutionist.

Plot :

In 1900s, a magician lived - Eisenheim using his supernatural n magical talents to entertain upper-class people. At teenage, he falls in love with an upperclass girl, Sophie. Their teenage romance break up and they depart, temporarily. He leaves Austria and travels all over as an explorer. After few years, they meet again in Vienna - he as a famous magician and she as an would-be princess. She is also engaged to the prince and of course, the prince doesn't like Eisenheim.

The prince tries to keep the magician away using the local police Walter Uhl. The inspector is an outsider in this story and the story is uncounted from his memories.And at the end, the film justifies the plot and the means.

View

The 2 great actors Edward Norton and Paul giletti have done a neat job in handling their roles. Paul's best comes in Cinderella man [ what a perfromance in such a great film ! ]. Edward Norton is also know for his wonderful work in The Painted veil and Fight club. In fact, the story unfolds in the eyes of the inspector Walter Uhl and then he has the mised sympathy and suspection on the illusionist. The climax is interesting and explained much with Paul's expressions [ resembled me old Sivaji Ganesan's acting with his facial expressions ] and it was a good one. Edward manages with his looks and unpredicted charactersization just apt for a mysterious illusionist.

Looks very much like a fairy tale, right ? yep. It was written as short story first and adapted to screen by Neil Burger. The tone of the film is so appealing that they take us the that period. Somehow, commonly they follow a light yellowish brown tone [ like in Hey Ram ! ] and an old technique called 'Autochrome' in filming. The same pattern might have seen in other movies like Sleepy hollow, Sweeney todd. Check Ayutha ezhuthu - the film is told in 3 different episodes with 3 different colours [ Red, Green and blue ! ]. The mood of the film and the selection of colours are really wonderful. The films gives a black n white feeling formed much with shades. Dick Pope has done the commendable job as cinematographer [ nominated for academy award too ! ]. He claims that most of the scenes were as real as possible with less CG involved.

The sound is also interesting and it is used perfectly; when the inspector talking to the prince in the field, where he hunts with loud gun shots. The heroine is more native and doesn't appeal as much as the hero n inspector roles. The good thing is that too see a 2 hrs script converted from a short story interestingly well. [ Memento is also made from a short story - another mysterious masterpice ].

:)

Toto.

Few grams from the gold mine - part II.

2009-09-24T23:49:00.007+05:30

Part I is available here - http://film4thwall.blogspot.com/2009/05/few-grams-from-gold-mine.html

Disclaimer : Do you have the in-depth knowledge of raaga, scales, kamagam, sangathi, melakartha raagam, misra chapu thaalam [ appdinnaa ?! - 7 beat rhythm cycle] ? If you don't have, don't worry - IRs music requires just 2 ears and a slight interest in songs.

* 2 more songs on counterpoint technique are "poonthaliraada" from panneer pushpangall and "Edho Moham" from kozhi koovuthu [ the first interlude has the notes from Santoor ] This song needs a separate post.

* A song transforms from carnatic music and then suddenly changes to western music without any change in the tune or voices. The song is 'Oh Vasantha raja' from Neengall kettavai.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etx1Hasr88k

* There's a reverse song which changes from western to a folk/percussion based, from the middle to the end without any disruption and of course we can hear 2 different songs within one. "Raajathi Rajaa un thandirangall" from Mannan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRyUD276YcU

* Ever tried looking at 'Raja Rajanintha raja' from Agni Natchathiram -it's fully based on percussion [ drums n chorus mostly ] and without the usual flutes/violins/any other regular instruments.

There's no rule that after gathering 10 intersting points I should post a blog [ 10 points kedaikalainnu sollu ha..ha.. ]. How's the photo of IR given above ?

* Thanks to KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM radio show !

Toto

Unnaip Pol oruvan

2009-09-21T22:54:00.005+05:30

Unnaip pol oruvan.

There are 2 possible crowds watching this movie- one which has watched the Hindi movie 'A Wednesday' and the other one have no idea about the Hindi film and watching this Tamil version.I belong to the first type. Raajkamal films has produced this kind of songless police story long back in 1987. So what's new ?

I better don't waste lines, describing about the story. I strictly don't want to compare these 2 films[ though it is apple to apple ]. Whatever it is, the screen presence of Kamal makes a greater impact than anyone else. Kamal does a justified role of his age and experience. He avoids the looks of Naseeruddin shah but not his body language. Kamal's biggest asset is his voice - his intonation is a big plus as he has a relatively small role in story like this.

I was slightly worried about Lal but Lal has done a neat portrayal of his role with his Malayalam accent - of course, they didn't try to hide it. His personality justifies the role along with his body language. The other characters are done by Ganesh Venkatram, Bharath Reddy, Lakshmi and others [ because everybody else comes as just 'others' ]. Interestingly, the Tamilnadu CM's voice is also mimed in this film. [ The trivia is TN CM stays very next to a temple near his Gopalapuram residence - interestingly it is 'Gopalaswamy' temple :) ]. The plot is slightly alien to Tamil fans [ some English dialogues too ] as the bomb blasts are not a close incident as it was to Mumbaikars.

The good thing is that they haven't used songs in this film too. Shruthi Hasan has done an average job in her area. I couldn't find a great scope for dashing BGM [ like Vettaiyadu Vellayadu ] in this film. Instead of introducing Shruthi with a music album, she has a got a film to get her debut. [ Still Nilai varumaa is a nice song ]. The red camera work is as usual an advertising gimmick to add. Those who follow journals can understand these kind of hypes or fights [ why somebody can;t file a case during the shooting itself instead of just before the release date ? ]. If you are able to keep the Hindi original aside, it's a fantastic effort [ without songs, fights, comedy track ]. Tamil version has some jumps with missing flow and gives less importance to the other characters.

Coming to the business side of the movie.. Why Kamal would want to do this film that too along with Mohan lal whereas the same could have been done with Prakasraj as the common man and Nasser as the commissioner - think about the saleability then. That's the idea.. but it's a brilliant business idea. The same reason why Manirathnam has used Abhishek Bachan and Aishwarya for the story of Ambani - GURU [ international sales ! ]. The film could ve been sold well in Kerala along with Lalettan and similarly in Telugu along with Venkatesh.I am not sure about the role of the director Sakri in this lion's feast. [ Innoru Santhanabharathi ! ]. For the comparison game, I vote the Hindi version. [ couldn't resist this line ! ].

Whatever it is

- Tamil cinema definitely needs this kind of film.
- For the best and original effect, watch 'A Wednesday'. Naseer Bhai and Neeraj Pandey deserve the best accolodaes for their roles.

Toto.

Reel rewind - Classics

2009-09-18T00:09:00.006+05:30

Reel Classics - Mullum Malarum [ 1978 ].

World cinema need not necessarily be an Iranian, Spanish, Chinese or a Japanese movie. We do have the best in Tamil. For any art, it is more essential to note the time it is shared to public. If Jayakanthan had written the story 'Agnipravesam' in 2009, it wouldn’t have created the same shock waves as it did in 1965 [ A modern viewer may write about i-pill to Anandha vikatan ]. Mullum Malarum had came and broke all the rules that Tamil cinema had till that time. It was the time where in most of the new directors were experimenting..Bharathiraja wtih Kizhakke pogum rayil and Sigappu rojakkal, Rudrayya with Aval appadi thaan, KB with Nizhal nijamagiradhu. Rajini was a budding hero with Bairavi, Shankar Saleem simon kind of films. It was a transition stage for tamil cinema. [அந்த‌ மாற்றத்துல‌ த‌ண்ணி ஊத்தின‌ ப‌ட‌ங்க‌ளும் வ‌ந்த‌து..]

MM starts with Ilayaraja' artistic standard BGM [ Dolak ] and a beautiful number with his voice [ Maaniname - This song too has the Ganjiraa]. Those were days when none of the technician or artists had adjectives before their names - it's nice to see such a great team with a simple title cards. The very first scene depicts the relation between Kali and Valli. The beauty is that the characters at young age don't speak a single word. It's shown in just few scenes [த‌ங்க‌ச்சி..ப‌சிக்குதாம்மா kind of dialogues were avoided - just 'looks' .. Have you ever called your sister as Thangachi :) ]. They grow up without any transition shots like spinning wheels or running legs or any object in motion. Young Kali breaks the headlight of an ambassador car [ Title card starts here ] - That's Mahendran actually breaking the Tamil cinema cliches.

Kali : He is introduced with his characterization. I observed his natural way of speaking Tamil with including Kannada dialects [ரீய் .. வ‌ங்க‌ளையெல்லாம்.. .., வ‌ள்ளிக்கு மாப்பிளை கேட்டேன்.. க‌ணோ. Kano is used in Kannada - Naavu yaavudhu bidalla :) ]. Once the psychological reason for liking Rajini was said that his common man looks and complexion. Without make-up and seeing him in his kaakhi uniform, anyone can easily say that he is a winch mechanic. His furiousness is well depicted in the fight with the clerk - one of the best fight scenes; watch Kali's body language. The first 30 mins take up time to establish the characters. As the story flows, his character gets built up very strongly as you slowly get into Kali's variants of emotions. His anger, sarcasm, affection, temper, inability and what not. I like the famous scene where he meets the Engineer about losing his job. Character biography and the actir Rajinikanth were used at their best.
ர‌ண்டு கையும் ர‌ண்டு காலும் இல்ல‌ன்னா கூட‌ காளிங்க‌ற‌வ‌ன் பொழ‌ச்சிக்கிவான் ஸார்.. கெட்ட்ட ப‌ய்யன் ஸார் அவ‌ன்..

Valli [ Shoba] : The native face, expressions, innocence, hearty laugh and the character was so pleasing. She cries in case of any issues - this has been used in all the important scenes including the climax. She doesn't know or have much to talk. She is so poetic and got more shots [ may be because BaluMahendra handled the camera :) ]. The way Mangaa [ Jayalakshmi ] and her mother gets in to the life of Kali and Valli was handled very fluidly. The Engineer has the soft characterization and tough when it comes to work. Every character gets their dialogues in ration and that helps to understand them better. Valli was innocently beautiful [ Check "adi penne" song ] and Mangaa was gorgeous [ watch வைக்க‌ற‌ எட‌மா அது ;) ]

The other important factor is IR.. It starts with Maaniname - this is the other song where Ganjira is used apart from Nithtam nitham. For any new director, the role IR played was prolific. I never saw the effective usage of Dolak in any other film - that too it's used in climax. The other observation is that he used a lot of Santoor music. He uses a bit music even for moving the winch. IR's effect is also used with silence too.

Above all, it's a director's movie. He decides what to come and what not to. The neat depiction of even smaller characters make the story interesting [ including ve.a.murthy, samikannu etc ]. The fight sequence which shows the anger of Kali was the best I have seen with persons rolling in the road. The body language used by Kali was amazing with folding the lungi, buttoning the shirt back.. excellent. Every scene show in the first half gets repeated with the same tempo [ Kali doesn't regret for it - the clerk insulting him, uriyadi game, his work etc., ]. The clash between Kali and Engr is well depicted; they are differentiated right from their skin tone, body language, voice, manners, dress, rich vs poor Kali's house doesn't even have electricity - they both are good but entirely different in expressing the same. The beauty is every minute detail is explained in the visuals mostly and more in sharp dialogues. The good example is explained here by Sudesamithran http://www.uyirmmai.com/Uyirosai/ContentDetails.aspx?cid=915

Balu Mahendra has worked as cinemtogrpaher.. with 35 mm limitation, he has worked out the best, it seems. The good thing for that period is that they used minimum make-up [ Check the powder coated face of Radhika in Kizhake pogum rayil - Saamee ]. Though there were 2 pairs, not even a single duet was formed forcibly - what a relief ! Good that they didn't even use the usual Tamil cinema word kadhal [ except when Kali asks the Engr with doubt .. இந்த காத‌ல் அது இதுன்னி சொல்லி வ‌ருமே.. அது....எதாவ‌து.. ? ] - Even the engineer proposes to Valli for marriage very decently - one of the best proposals on screen !

IR played his usual role in BGM and songs. Senthazham poovil, maaniname and Adi penne are the good numbers [ others are inserted ]. I don’t see the connection of tribal people in Mahendran films [ Aasaiyai kaathula in Johny - it's similar to MM ]. He has BGMs for every character and sequence and the best of dolak comes out in the climax. The climax looks cinematic and the compromise looks sudden. I never liked the logic of Villain turning into good. At least, kali says still he didn't like Engr.

It ends with Kali asking

" இப்ப‌ என்ன‌ங்க‌டா ப‌ண்ணப் போறீங்க‌.. புரிஞ்சிகிட்டீங்க‌ல்ல‌..." [ எப்படி ப‌ட‌ம் எடுக்க‌ற‌துன்னு :) ]. Though it was not intended, I interpret that the film asked the tamil cinema world in that way.

Trivia :

- The river scene where the characters feed the fishes was taken in Sringeri temple [ Tunga badra river ]. Check the above photo - I had been there.

- During the shooting Balu Mahendra and Venu chettiyar had some conflict and that was resolved by Kamal !!

-The winch was loacted in Glenmorgan neat ooty.

- There are 2 intrepretations for the title.. முள்ளும் ம‌ல‌ரும் [ உம்மைத் தொகை :) ] and the other meaning was that முள்ளும் ஒரு நாள் ம‌‌ல‌ரும்.

:)
-Toto

The kite-runners - II

2009-09-15T00:12:00.007+05:30

This is the 2nd part of my previous blog 'Kite runners-I' - pls click the link below.
http://film4thwall.blogspot.com/2009/09/kite-runner-not-afghan-film.html

As usual, the next part is in our home town. Along with other sports[?!], [ Goli [ heard of "oorgaa bendha" ?!:) ] , Tops, Gilli [ for every sport I know the village term too - pullu koti or kitti pul ], Mudhugu puncture, cycle race, Thirudan police, exam pad cricket, book cricket - what a decent of games [ Kallaa mannaa aadinadhu therinjaa maanam povum ha..ha ]. We [ me and my cousin ] used to make and fly kites on our own, as our hometown don't sell kites. [ Idhellaam oru ooraa ]. So we decided to make our own. All we needed were a good English paper [ ChettyKulam bus stop Bhai helps us for this ], sticks, few rice flakes. The tough part is always making the 'Susthiram' [ Artha saasthiram maadiri Kaudilyar artha soosthiramnum oru book ezhudhi irukalaam :)].We used to collect the thread from the neibhorhood hand-woven mat looms [ ippellaam power loom ]. The loom workers gave it freely as our entire home town is a small scale industry of making hand-woven mats [ Aranmanai Kili song 'Raasaave unnai vida maaten' song has got a shot of heroine weaving a grass mat]. The string ball has to be formed with a crushed paper in round form. A knot is very important to a string ball. [ Indha knot-i pinnaala use pannuvom ].

Making the kite works out more like the art and craft lesson in POGO channel with Rob. But with not the complicated n costly gadgets that Rob uses - Camlin or Reynolds products. We make a square paper, fix one stick in the diagonal part and the other like a bow the other two diagonals. The glue was some cooked rice. It needs some time to dry in the sunlight and get flattened. To make it flat, we cover it up with another set of paper and keep it under the piles of suitcases [ everyone at home had their own suitcases]. Then comes the Susthiram part.

Artha soosthiram : We calculate it with the height from the top with four fingers and from the bottom, it is 8 fingers. We need to make a knot and hang/balance the kite [ Idhu ellaame uthesamaa dhaan seivom ]. The kite is ready. The string contains few knots as the mat thread doesn't come as continuous. the tail is made up of again some pieces of news paper.

One fine day, We made one of our best Kaathaadis and flew all the way close to the telephone tower. We never knew we could make that happen. Out of curiosity, we extended the thread till the final end was reached. It was held by me in the first hand and my cousin got the second for a safety [ DR site engineeru avaru ]. We missed the important knot to be made in the stringball [ Knot sonnomla :) ]. Close.. In front of us, we lost our glorious kite which was made near perfect. It flew away very fast and crossed the temple nearby. We couldn't climb the temple wall and chase. [ Inneram school groundai dhaandi irukum.. vudraa]. That was the best of kathaadi days. But we weren't sad because the life of our hand made kathaadi is very less [ just a day ]. We never worried and just got into the next sport fluidly [ Srinivasa-la ennada padam ? ].

One sub-plot is about our 'goli' games. The types are : regular, soda, dama [ big ones ]. Dama golis were used for the game 'Lock' played by seniors, mostly [ un pakkamaa.. en pakkamaa ]. We played the simple raja game to oorkaa bEndhaa [ Bayapadadhinga ]. The UB game is slightly a lengthy one and the guy who is lost will be asked to run the goli with his folded fist [ idhuku thamizh per sonnaa enaku adi vizhum.. venaam]. I was good in playing golis - I used to earn [?! ] many marbles from 'goli mela' games. [ bet katradhu - film melayum aadalaam - match box label melayum velladalaam ha..ha..]. My father used to throw the golis back to street [ kashtappatu sambarichadhu ! ]. One more trivia is that Pondicherry still has the tradition of playing Boules [ or bowls ] - a game with iron balls learnt from French people. Do u know 'Pentanque' - the French game ?

Try observing the lyrics of Lajjavadhiye and Veyilodu velayadi songs. Na.Muthukumar has extracted the best of childhood n village games.

After coming back to Chennai, I started visiting beach [ Ungaluku vere edame kedaikaadhe ! ]. The best part of Marina beach now is they sell kites for just Rs.10/- . Leave about the price. The happiness, I felt was priceless. My family still wonders why I buy a separate kite for me and fly the same, smilingly.

:)
-Toto.

Eeram - Neat effort.

2009-09-14T23:48:00.008+05:30

Eeram [ 2009 ] - Suspense thriller

Music : S Thaman [ Remember the stout drummer in Boys ]

Written & directed : Arivazhagan

Producer : Shankar

Plot :

The film starts with a death scene of Ramya in a big apartment complex, which is identified by water leakage. Ramya's ex lover Vasu is the Asst Commissioner who investigates the case with special interest. 2 more mysterious deaths happen in the same block. Vasu starts investigation with Ramya's husband Bala, Bala's partner Vicky, another person X. The case becomes more clueless as it progresses. What proceeds then and what Vasu face are the most terrific and gripping happenings. This is enough to know about the story.

View :

Writer & Director Arivazhagan has done a decent effort in making a nice n interesting suspense flick. Thaman did a wonderful job in re-recording [ and Sound effects too ] and followed Yuvan in the songs [ Thank God - just 3 short songs ]. Cinematographer Manoj has done a catchy job to get the mood of a thriller. The dialogues are sharp and effective. Due to the limitations of Tamil cinema, a thriller which should have been ended in 90 mins, was dragged to 140 mins [ 2nd half konjam dragging ].

The artists have done their job neatly [ especially Sindhu menon] and justified their roles. The design and concept of the film is too good - wetness. Right from the first frame, water is used as an element throughout the movie. Nice to see cloudy/rainy Chennai and Trichy [ he tried something like David Fincher's "Seven" - Trichy eppadi sudumnu kann[ kaal] aara kandavan naan . It's a decent effort from S pictures and Arivazhagan. [ Kids don't like the film - My son was enquiring about when Spider man would come and fight with the police :) ].

It's good to see the varieties of movies that come out. The movie resembles, reading a thriller of Sujatha. As always, it's more effective in theatre.

:)
-Toto.

The kite runners - I

2009-09-12T00:03:00.006+05:30

ஆத்தாடி.. என் காத்தாடி

Out of the mighty sports of Aminjikarai, I was fascinated much towards flying kites. Anything related to kite is a form of art and for every sport, there's a season. I remember, mostly the quarterly exam leaves in September was the period, when people choose to fly kites. In Aminjikarai, I stayed in one of the high rise apartments. From our terrace, I could see Chetpet railway bridge, Perumal temple, Pazhaniappa theatre's rear end etc., If I climb the water tank [ Sometimes, I didn't know how to get down :) ], I could spot out Anna nagar tower. Terrace is the actual place for this sport.

There were different kinds of kites - 25 paise ones are the cheap ones [ 1 sq ft size ] and has less life. Bombay kaathadis are medium budget ones with a triangular tail. The highest classic range is Baanaa kaathadi [ looks like trace paper - see the above photo ]. The sound it makes was so majestic, when the kite perces the air. Baana comes in different designs [ ஒத்த‌க் க‌ண், ரெட்டைக் க‌ண் [ the above photo has rettai kannu baana ] , நாம‌ம், Star, crescent ]. The perfect thread for flying kites was "Maanja". There are different types of threads too [ busku nool [ பார்ச‌ல் க‌ட்டுவாங்க‌ளே ! ], paai nool, twine nool, maanjaa nool ]. Maanjaa nool is the best form of thread for the expert level of flying kites, but a dangerous one. In Thirukurall, there's a saying about "நூலாருள் நூல்வ‌ல்லன்" - Maanjaa is that நூலாருள் நூல்வ‌ல்லன் [ காத்தாடிக்கு குற‌ளா .. ஸாமி.. உன் ஹிம்சை :) ].

The sport doesn't end with just flying the kites. We were supposed to get into deal [ kite fight ] and cut off the opponent's kite [ that's the reason we use maanjaa ]. There's a separate gang which runs behind the kite flying off which got cut from the deal. There are kids who just run through the streets just following the kite which goes in 'off'. The folks jump any kind of terrace [ appave parkour :) ]. The most complicated part of preparing a kite was making the 'soosthiram' ; a triangular grip which holds the kite with right balance. [ illainaa side adikum ]. Only experts could do that job [ ணா ணா.. சூஸ்திர‌ம் ம‌ட்டும் போட்டு குடுணா ]. Also, the novice fly the kites with tail and the experts don't. We the small kids were like camera assistants just holding the string, when the senior takes a break. [ இத்த‌ புட்றா.. தோ வ‌ர்ரேன் ].

The preparation of Manjaa itself is a big process. They get colour powders, glues, eggs, crushed bottle powder [ mostly soda bottles ] and some chemicals. It goes for 2 or 3 days to coat the thread with maanjaa paste, dry it up and roll it. The shape of the thread bowl itself looks majestic and so big to carry. Somehow, I felt using the bobbin [ raatai ] for flying kite as not a native method.

We also had a local gym in our neighborhood where all the teenagers join and looking at the arms most of the times [ For them exercise means dumb bells ]. I had a senior friend named Venkitu. He worked in a local company in night shifts mostly and spends free time with me. I get friendship easily with a person who is hard to get friendship with [ Moody fellows mostly ]. We bought a "Banaa" kathaadi one fine day and started flying it high with manjaa nool. We didn't make Maanjaa but bought it from outside. The whole afternoon and evening we made several deals and cut the opponent kites easily. The practice is that the kite has to be brought down before the sunset so that one can safeguard it. Out of curiosity, we spent more time flying it and it was getting dark at that time. We were about to bring back the lucky kite [ rettain kann baana ]. Those were the days that any terrace was filled up with TV antennas. [ இங்க‌ வைக்க‌றேன் ட்விஸ்ட்டை :( ]

Somehow, in the dark evening just before landing the kite, it went and stuck to the antenna. It was torn - I couldn't digest that sight; I could have accepted even it went off on a deal [ வீர‌ ம‌ர‌ண‌ம் ] . After that we didn't fly kites that aggressively. That was my relation with Bana kathaadis, during my Chennai days.

- To be continued..

Toto.

S(pectacular) P(eppy) Balu

2009-09-07T19:06:00.007+05:30

S pectacular P eppy B alu.

Sometimes, pleasant surprises come in FM channels. The beauty is the unpredictability of the songs. Of late, I heard these 3 songs in FM and thought of sharing. SPB songs are like a party - The basic rule is 'NO RULES'. There are so many songs in his name to talk all about in our life time. Apart from the melody area, I came across these most peppy numbers and highly energetic songs of him. It can't be reproduced at all, immaterial of the number of times, we hear it. It's like Sujatha started guiding the readers to write a short-story. However, we just end up in enjoying his work rather than reproducing or analyzing it.

The common piece in these songs are trumpet [ Mandram vandha thendral ].

1. Senorite I love you

Film : Johnny/IR

Normally, IR tries to keep the singers within the boundary and there are songs wherein he relaxes the rule. One such number is Senorita. It's a western style peppy [intermediate level] song. The preludes/interludes have the regular violin features of IR. On the lighter side, I think it's really difficult to control SPB, to get what IR wants :) [ he has his own way ]. It's like looking back an unusual n mischievous friend’s group photo after a long time. Still, IR dominates with his extraordinary 'violin talks' in the 2nd interlude.

As he sings..

எங்கெங்கோ செல்லுதே
என் நெஞ்சை அள்ளுதே..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mIkY-TSlec

2. Kavithai padu kuyile

Film : Thendrale ennai thodu/IR

I like this peppy song for its masculine voice [ Kaatru en pakkam veesumbodhu ] and the joy in the song. The lyrics was just filler for this fast number with percussion [ something like 'Bogi' molam :) ]. The preludes are more enjoyable. Though the tune is slow [ with light percussion ] the impressive and stressed pronunciations of SPB [ ஒளி வீசும் ந‌ட்ச‌த்திர‌ம் ] makes this song a sweet one. I couldn't resist imagining Mike Mohan with his shaky steps for this foot tapping number.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L93w1n8CkQY

3. Appappa Thithikkum uthan mutham

Film : Japanil Kalyanaraman/IR

The best in this small list. I cannot add this song just one more western song from IR. I could imagine something like this.. Before the recording, IR went out on a call and by the time he returned back SPB did the recording of this song. It's purely a SPB song, apart from the music arrangements of IR. It shows the extreme attachment of the singer to the song even if they might have recorded at odd hours of a day, in a busy schedule. Verve, peppy, freaky song. I always wonder how he could laugh and song simultaneously [ like "மேன‌கை என் நாட்டிய‌ம் பார்த்த‌தால் ம‌றைந்தாள் .. அஹ்ஹா" - remember எரியும் விள‌க்கு "சிரித்து" க‌ண்க‌ள் மூடும்]. Interestingly, the background beat is used in "Rambumpum aarambam" in MMKR and the initial [ pabapapaa humming in Kavithai paadu kuyile. ]

Enormously energetic song. However, when I watched this movie in those days, Kamal's onscreen romance and "silmishangall" overtook the song :)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ajhzyzkm0cn/Appappa%20Thithikkum.mp3

This is neither the complete list of SPB peppy songs nor the list of tamil songs with brass instruments. Just some seashells in the beach of Tamil film music.

:)
Toto.

The Birds - Alfred Hitchcock

2009-09-05T00:10:00.013+05:30

"...and remember, the next scream you hear may be your own !! " - Alfred Hitchcock.

You might have come across the news that Kandasamy masks will be issued to the kids who come to theatre. Don't think it's a new n great marketing idea or a brand new publicity stunt. No. Not at all. Cinema industry had much more veterans than our Kalaipuli in the past, too. In 1963, as part of the movie promotional scheme, 'The Birds' promoters [ Universal studios ] issued bird masks to the public who viewed the film in theatres. Some Tamil film producers can also do the same to ask the audience to wear bird masks ' Come and watch the movie without brains ' :)

What do you think that can horrify the viewer ? Serial killing, Haunting Bungalow, shady looks, horror music, howling dogs or wolves ? That's the conventional way of horrifying. Our master director Alfred Hitchcock, didn't think conventionally and just used sparrows, crows, seagulls and their silence ! Not the animated or enlarged kind of birds. Just 'The Birds'.

If you still wonder n ask ' What great damage birds can cause other than pecking or poking ?', pls watch this movie in the late night [ strictly ]. The original form was a short story named 'the birds' written by Daphne maurier.

The Birds [ 1963 / Suspense ]

Produced/Directed : Alfred Hitchcock

Script : Evan Hunter

Cast : Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Sparrows, Crows, Seagulls :)

Plot

The story begins with young Melanie meeting a lawyer Mitch Brenner in a pet shop. Mitch looks for a pair of love birds and Melanie pretends like a sales girl in the shop. After that, Melanie buy lovebirds and decides to gift the same to Mitch; she gets his address and find his place in the island "Bodega bay". She doesn't meet him there and leave the birds in his home. While returning in boat, she encounters a strange attack by a seagull. Mitch helps her and takes her home, where he lives with his possessive mother Lydia and sister Cathy.

Strange incidents start to happen in the island. Swarm of birds attack the children in a birthday party; birds kill chicken farmer; birds disturb the school children etc., People from the island are extremely frightened and start leaving to SFO. Mitch, Melanie and others stay locked in the house and the birds find the new way to get into the home to attack. No one know when the birds attack and when they remain silent. What happens then is the climax.

View

The Bond movies always have a short action sequence before the title credits roll on and then the actual story begins. Hitchcock uses the reversal theory. His story never gets into the problem directly. Instead, he takes the time for audience to think about something else and present a different side of the story. Like, in Psycho, the story starts with a working girl stealing his boss's money [ $ 40k ] and galloping. But the actual happening was even more worse than the audience could think of. I noticed this technique playfully and later found that there's a term defined for this "Macguffin". MacGuffin is something that the story line is built upon, but it has no significant purpose.

Similarly, 'The Birds' start with a romantic encounter of Melanie and Mitch in a pet shop. She travels to Bodega bay, finds his previous lover and his family etc., All of them are just forming a platform for the actual movie. The story travels on its own flow [ may be first 40 mins ] until Melanie first come across a bird attack in the island. What happens then cannot be explained in text. That's the mastery of Hitchcock.

The beauty of this film is there is no background music for this suspense thriller. That's the height of creativity/confidence, a director can hold. Instead, the role of sound is extraordinary in this film. The use of sound and sound effects consciously changes between heavy noises and dead silences. The effective usage of silence makes the audience more terrifying than the actual attack. The ultimate result was the viewer is frightened not only during the attack but even when nothing happens. The best scene is to get the local school children to come out of the school, where 100s of birds slowly gather one by one and sit on a stand outside the school [ with this school song "ristle-tee rostle-tee" in the background ]. The other intersting shot was the bird's view of the town in chaos.

The mother character was beautifully portrayed for her possessiveness over any girlfriend of her son [ உல‌க‌ளாவிய‌ பிர‌ச்னை போலிருக்கு :) ]. The psychological friction was also portrayed well.

In 2007, there was a news that somebody plans to remake this film with Naomi watts [ "The painted veil" heroine - Have you seen her in "21 grams" ?! ]. The heroine of this film [ Tippi Hedren ] asked this question in an interview, out of frustration - "Why would you do that? Why? I mean, can’t we find new stories, new things to do?". I second and value her opinion. Some things can't be remade again- just like Hitchcock works. This movie is the grandpa for the movies that had animal attack as the theme [ Jaws ].

Hitchcock's films happen to be timeless wonders and they were filmed ahead of their time. I wish I could see all the Alfred Hitchcock series in Sathyam or PVR kind of theatre.

B : காக்கை குருவி எங்க‌ள் ஜாதி - நீள் கடலும் மலையும் எங்கள் கூட்டம்.
H : அங்க‌ வேண்ணா அப்ப‌டி இருக்க‌லாங்க‌. இந்த‌ ப‌ட‌ம் பார்த்திருந்தா அப்ப‌டி பாடி இருக்க‌ மாட்டீங்க‌ ஸார் !

:)
Toto.

Monsieur Verdoux [1947]

2009-09-03T23:09:00.008+05:30

Can you buy the statement "Murder is the logical extension of business" ? Yes, it's the idea of the protagonist, Monsieur Verdoux. [ ஃப்ரென்ச் சென்ட் பேர் மாதிரி இல்லை ? ]

Verdoux is the name of the skilled hero and Monsieur is just the title to the name [ equal to Mr in English - pronounced "meu ssi eu" ]. I used to come across this word used by traffic police, when I ride in one way or stop beyond the stop-line in Pondicherry [ மிஸ்ஸெ.. எங்க‌ போறீங்க‌ ஒன்வேல‌ ? ]. Why French title ? First reason is that Chaplin movies were banned in US for his political inclination towards communism. Second is that the story is about a real-life serial murderer in France [ named Desire Landru ] and the screenplay adaptation has also France as the place.

I don't remember seeing any of the talkies of Charlie Chaplin. The last film, I saw was Modern times. This film was introduced by SRamakrishnan, almost a year back. The interesting part of the film is that Chaplin is the script writer, protagonist,music composer and the director.

Plot

Verdoux is a common man who lives in France, with his wife and kid. He looses his bank job and finds a strange method of making money. He travels frequently across France in different names and lives different roles. His target is any rich widow woman and their unaccounted money. He manages to convince the different ladies of his life at different circumstances. There's a subplot when Verdoux experiments his newly formulated poison on a lonely girl, he finds in streets. Meanwhile, affected people start complaining about him and the detectives get into action. One detective finds our hero, almost. In fact, he arrests him. We expect Verdoux to react aggressively for the arrest. No ! He reacts in a different manner. After all, he is a cool murderer.

Good things don't prolong in life. While he tried to marry the nth rich lady in life, he gets trapped in a situation and escapes. Economy crashes during the world war and Verdoux looses his money and family from him. He meets someone on the road, whom he thought differently in the beginning. Police finds him and what happens is the end.

View

I found the root dialogue of '"கொலை குத்த‌ம்னா.. யுத்த‌மும் குத்த‌ம். Isn't it ?!" of Hey Ram. Check this dialogue in this Chaplin's film "One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!" - In fact it was taken from another 17th century reformer. Do you the root of kurudhipunal dialogue "Everyone has a breaking point " - It's from "12 Angry men". Not only films.. their dialogues also travel across the borders.

All his career, Chaplin did his regular tramp character, edited in fast sequence, type of movies. This movie is extremely unusual from all his earlier works. But he couldn't come out of his character fully in this movie - doing completely a serious role. Sometimes, verdoux's body language changes to Chaplin's tramp character. His characterization involves multiple roles - A calm family man, bank clerk, captain, business man, lover, philosopher, a clever investor and on top the common man who fights against the system to save his family.

Though he gets the money in an unethical manner, he behaves as a perfect family man at home. He never gets tensed. He instructs his kid to be kind with pets. A single sequence is used in this film to explain about his past job - he counts the stolen money at the speed of an automatic counting machine ! . I liked the sequence where he invites a poor girl to his home, for testing his newly formed poison. The sequence that follow was very interesting and the dialogues too.

The way he faces the detective was also an interesting part of the movie. Somehow, he takes the story to a comical one and ends the story with a good note. The boat sequences and the wedding party sequences are enjoyable one [ I laughed ! ]. Interestingly, the dialogue portion is too good as it involves about love, philosophy and economics. I am not sure whether this movie is remade in Tamil - but I recollect that a still of MRRadha [ in the cover of MRRadhayanam book ] resembles the way Chaplin posed for this movie. MRR is the only capable artist who could have done this in Tamil, swimmingly.

One fine dialog to end with.

Priest : May the Lord have mercy on your soul.

Henri Verdoux : Why not? After all, it belongs to Him.

Simple n good movie.

-Toto.

Kanthasamy - Action entertainer.

2009-08-31T23:57:00.011+05:30

Kanthasamy

Tamil bloggers praised the movie Nadodigal,Pasanga blindly. I had checked the same in theatre and was disappointed as they were just average movies. Similarly, for Kanthaswamy - I prepared myself to watch this movie without much interest, in a theatre. Surprisingly, the movie was not as bad as it was presented in the reviews or in blogs. Moral of the movie is

எப்ப‌ட‌ம் எவ‌ர் விம‌ர்ச‌ன‌ம் ப‌டிப்பினும்..

Let me keep this review short [ த‌ப்பிச்ச‌ம்டா !]. Some mythical characters are always attractive. One such character is Robin hood. The concept is catchy - stealing from the rich and serving the same to poor. Fighting injustice and doing good. Till date, we have so many movies based on this concept. In fact, all the movies [ ending with 'n' ] of Shankar had the same old concept of Robin hood. It started way back from Kongu nattu thangam, Neelamalai thirudan, Malaikallan, Karuppu Panam. So don't worry about the story.

The movie fan should not search for same Will Smith of 'Enemy of the state' in the other film 'The pursuit of happiness' or vice-versa. They are different. Kanthasamy is a fantasy thriller type [ like Ayan]. For me, a good film never makes me to check for time or look for killing time in the theater. Neither Ayan nor Kanthasamy did that. It was good.

Plot

If you have already seen Guru, Gentleman, Ramana, Sivaji, Anniyan that's more than enough. The making and looks, make the film to watch it interestingly.

View

The film got a good script and interesting sequences. The screen presence of Vikram is convincing and good in this film. He is basically from modelling and that helps him a lot in this kind of 'looks' based movie [ like Billa 2007 ]. He works as CBI officer and the robin hood who does the money distribution part. He fit the role perfectly and could have done even more rich dressing.[ the best costumes, I have seen is in 'Oceans 11' - Classic ].

Interestingly, the Thiruporur temple has been used in this movie. It's a risky theme to play with temple and people's belief in the system. Fortunately, Susi Ganesan has handled the game cleverly, convincing the audience. He easily got the possible elements of a spy/action thriller. For the first time, the director justifies the way all the gimmicks done by a hero - logic's of flying, make-up and using intelligence. The same old characters of a Don film follows the story like CBI Director, another higher rank police officer, Villain, Villain's secretary, club dance [ அட‌ ..அட‌.. :) ].

Interestingly, Sreya looks far better in this movie [ A mole in the left cheek too ! - padam review ezhudhudaannaa :) ]. Don't think very cheap about me praising Sreya for " Miyaav Miyaav" dances. [ முமைத்கான் பேர் போட்டாங்க‌.. ப‌ட‌மே முடிஞ்சிடும் போலிருக்கே ! :) ]. I consider the work of Devi Sri Prasad as not up to the mark. I could still remember the songs/re-recording of Haris Jayaraj in Vettaiyadu Vellaiyadu - It was so apt as having an ATM in the entrance of a big shopping mall [ Ha..ha..]. DSP lacks the interest in the BGM and only 2 songs were good. Otherwise he depends on loud music [ high decibel hindrances. ]. Had the movies got a better music director, the output might have been entirely different. DSP's music is not matching the movie - they look detached as the vibuthi kungumam stand in Anjappar hotel [ ஆமாம் .. அது எதுக்கு அங்க‌ வைக்க‌றாங்க‌ ?!? ]. The technical part of the movie is good - especially, the Mexico sequences.

Don't ask for logic in action movies. It's sad that our critics also ask for a "message", after watching the eye catching dances of Sreya [ இப்ப‌ தான்டா புரியுது !]. I don't want to get into the collection statistics, Vikram, Dhanu or Abirami Ramanathan [ Chennai distributor for this film ]. Because, I was disheartened to see 150 days life size flex banner for the movie 'KURUVI' in Sathyam theatre [என்ன‌ கொடுமை சர‌வ‌ணா இது]. I neither liked Anniyan nor Sivaji [ except Songs and Rajini ] but Susi Ganesan has definitely done a better job than Shankar. Actor Prabhu has become Tamil cinema's sentiment as the films were hit with him doing a support role [ Billa, Ayan ]. I liked the SUVs used in the Mexico sequences [ Toyota Prado, Nissan Armada - wonderful one ]. Have you seen 'Cadillac Escalade' ? That's mine :)

Yes ! There are flaws in this film like Vikram's unnecessary/forced getup(s) like the lady, old man, etc., First, I was wondering why Susi Ganesan did a small role in this film. It's a budget reason - instead of taking an artist to Mexico, they might have felt the director can do the role :) .Susi ganesan in an interview said that instead of taking the same Rowdy/Madurai /Village/Thiruvizhaa Avyinga/Ivyinga based movies, he has tried the repeated story with 30 new scenes ! Though I disagree with his statement, I can say it's a good entertainer. The only caution is if you have grownup kids, the glamour part is too much. [ not for us :) ]. For kids, I would suggest 'ICE AGE 3' the 3D version in Sathyam theatre.

:)

-Toto.

50th Post :)

2009-08-31T02:29:00.007+05:30

I sincerely thank all of my friends & followers involved and reading the blogs. Thank you for making this to happen. [ Click the image to see the actual version ].

:)
Toto.

Shadows of my cycle.

2009-08-29T01:16:00.013+05:30

அமாவாசையும் அவ‌ர் சைக்கிளும்

If someone asked me in 6th or 7th std about the goal in life, I would have said nothing but owning a BSA SLR. Nobody in our families owned a bicycle, those days. My uncle was the only person in the family who knows how to ride a cycle [ he rents ]. That too he uses that only based on business requirements [ buying lico coal for his machine shop furnace :) ]. He was not patient enough to teach cycling to us. We mostly depended on the teenage seniors in this situation. Don't imagine that our teenage seniors going to college or doing better things in life. They work in either workshops or a store at the maximum.

The presitigious jobs in my hometown were - a salesman in any textile shop [ javuli kadai alla kadal ] , conductor, high school teacher or an accountant sitting in the store with a listpad and a wooden ball point pen without cap [ வ‌ழ‌ வ‌ழ‌ன்னு எழுதும் ]. The workshops I told about, run through out the month except on new moon days. New moon days were special to me because that's when the families used to have some special tiffin in the night [ except idli :) ]. Due to traffic in Chennai, I was not allowed to try cycling till my 5th std. As a Chennai based kid, I felt very insulting to run a single tyre or a cycle wheel [ upper class :) ]. So we used to wait for new moon days.

In new moon days, family outing happens and the workers union meeting happens. The workshop teenagers go out to Kanchipuram for watching the new films. And most importantly that's when the seniors help us in teaching our cycle lessons. It all starts from saving money for a period of 15 days. We used to make friendship with "Jamaal" brother [ ஜ‌மாலுத்தீன் சைக்கிள் வாட‌கை நிலைய‌ம்] to just develop a rapport. And on the D day, we have to wait for the cycle. All the rival children group fight for the same cycle [ there were only 2 small cycles ]. After checking the time repeatedly, we finally used to get the cycle. After taking to our street by just moving the cycle, we start our cycle lessons.

A sub-plot story.. [ பெரிய‌ ஸ்க்ரிப்ட் ரைட்ட‌ர் இவ‌ரு..]. One of family friend used to visit us regularly. I somehow request and convince him to take his cycle away - it was a BSA SLR ladies cycle. We used to roam in that cycle for a longer period and come by the time our conductor uncle is about to leave. One day, for a change we took the cycle to a ground and ended up with 6 punctures in the back wheel. After that incident, he never gave the cycle to us. We too neither questioned him why nor asked for the key again.

Mahalingam annan [ working in my uncle's workshop ] was my senior relative who taught me cycling. It was a bit tough learning cycling without dashing on the wall or running into the houses. I never liked monkey pedalling [ arai pedalling ] - the ugly way of cycling. So we tried our classes with the small cycles and bribe as much as possible to Mahalingam to get the trick of cycling. I wonder how Mahalingam could ride a cycle hands free. That was the highest trick I could imagine. Days passed by and I was on the same stage. Mahalingam scolded me heavily on one new moon day and i was very upset. He laughed at me stating that I never can learn cycling. With that disappointment, the same day I tried multiple times and finally rode it well. I managed to stop and get down too. But I noted that remarks of Mahalingam deeply.

Then I skipped visiting my tutor and started cycling on my own. Mahalingam didn't worry about that. He continued his work and dreams with cutting metal sheets and joining them. I was a great fan of comics [ Muthu, Lion and Rani comics too ]. We the children gang, used to search for something always and I am fond of reading the bit pieces of paper. One fine day, I found a letter written by Mahalingam and about kidnapping my aunt's daughter and settling with his own workshop in Kallakuruchi. We cannot expect much from a person whose life was just made up of metal sheets. My cousin [ அத்தை பொண்ணும் க‌ஸின் தானே [ பின்ன‌ என்ன‌ அஸின்னா இருக்கும் ]] started crying that somebody really would kidnap her and marry. To convince her and Keeping my vengeance in mind, I have handed over the letter to my uncle directly. I never knew the consequences.

It was as good as informing about Aiswarya [ Pechiyammal ] and Mechanic Murugan to the Dindugal wine shop owner Rajendiran [ காத‌ல் ப‌ட‌ம் பார்க்க‌லையா ??!! ]. My uncle smashed Mahalingam in pieces. He begged that he comitted a mistake. For a workshop owner with a single daughter, that letter looked like a life time crime. They hit him heavily and packed him back to Kallakuruchi. Everybody started calling me as a CID. By the time, I realised my mistake, much damages has happened to Mahalingam already. I never met him in life, again.

Few years later, in my 10th std my father bought me a BSA deluxe cycle with white washed tyres. The very first day we did some rituals to the cycle and decorated. I couldn't even sleep that day out of joy. For me, it was a life time dream coming true and for other school mates it's just a cycle. Madhan already owned a BSA Mach then [ அதை ஓட்ற‌துக்கு விர‌ல் தெரிய‌ற‌ க்ள‌வுஸ் வேற‌ :) ]. The next morning, I went to my early morning maths tuition. One the way back, in a junction suddenly, I felt a interruption in the flow and fell down [ முனி அடிச்சிருக்குமோ ??!! ]. I checked riding the cycle repeatedly and fell down fewer times. As Sujatha said in "Arisi" short story my "thinai arivu" was different from cycle mechanism [ அவ‌ர் திணை ப‌த்தி பேச‌லாம்.. நீ ?! ]. I took the cycle to "Jamaal" and explained. He laughed at me saying that I was not eligible to own a cycle. He went out for a ride and while coming back he was strolling the cycle with a mark in his knee. I laughed back at him.

The technology with BSA deluxe cycle was that it had a special feature called forelock [ பெரிய‌ ABS break system ]. The forelock was open and in reacting to any jerk, the forelock automatically gets locked. That's the reason for the sudden stoppage [ முனிக்கு வேற‌ வேலை இல்லை ?! ]. This is what explained by our cycle GDNaidu Jamaal. Due to his anger, he permanently broke the forelock.

I returned back home and said this to my mother. While I was washing the face, my mother asked me whether Mahalingam might have thought about me and my new cycle. After washing my face [ I cannot open eyes with froth in face - my cousin does :) ], I said 'Certainly not'. I know my cycle guru very much - he was a very good person.

Do u know Mahalingam's address ?

-Toto

Banlieue 13 ultimatum - Jumplingam

2009-08-26T00:01:00.007+05:30

Parkour [ டுபாக்கூர் இல்லைங்க‌ !]

In my early days, I used to wait for 'Fights' in the title card and walk away if I don’t see the same. I convince sometimes 'Stunts' or 'Action' in the title card too. I was happy to see Judo rathnam, Hayath, Shyam Sundar (shetty), Kirubaa, Vikram Dharma in the title card. We used to fight with sound effects [ Dishkaal ] with our friends :). In Telugu films, I never wait for the stunts in title card - because by default the film starts with a fight. Our super advertiser Kalaipuli Dhanu advertised for his Vijaykanth starred movie "Nallavan" that 'South India answers to Jackie Chan :) [ எல்லான் ஒரு வெள‌ம்ப‌ர‌ந்தான்ணே ! ]

Then it's the days of Jackie Chan - he is the real master in fights which are choreographed almost like a dance with perfect timing. Bruce lee fights more like a monk. The later arrivals like Jetli and co spoiled my interest towards the fight movies and also the Chinese movie Crouching tiger, hidden dragon.

After a long time, I interestingly watched the chase n fights in 'Bourne identity' series. Then came the superb chase n fight sequence in 'Casino Royale' - that's the real fight in Bond movies - a classic 8 mins chase. First time, Bond ran for a full length jumping n diving without an ultra modern car. The fight was a real treat to watch. Later, I liked the fights in 'Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu' [ Stun Siva ] and Ayan. Ayan had this good fight sequences in Congo. Though the stunt master is Kanal Kannan, 2 South African stunt coordinators were used in Ayan. Seeing the response, Sun pictures has hired them in 'Aadhavan' [ the new Surya film ] too. Watch the title cards in the ads.

Our gentleman Kathir told me that it was Parkour and introduced this new form of sport ! Parkour came from a French word parcour meaning 'go fast'. Parkour is a free style running, jumping, climbing, diving immaterial of the place where they do it. It requires a very high standard of physical flexibility and mental fitness. No wonder, British and US marines introduce parkour as part of their military training. The different between a normal chase and parkour chase is that the normal chase ends when a dead end [ a locked high rise fence :) ] comes up but the parkour chase has no obstacles.

Banlieu 13 ultimatum

The story starts after 3 years from the first part. The government authorities try to settle down the area called 'District 13'. Not many changes happen to the place; instead the place become more worse with guns, drug trafficking, garbage and violence. Also they have so many groups divided by the races and nationalities [ underworld gangs ]. Arabs, Chinese, African American, Mexican and native French warlords share the place.

There's a good guy from the cops and one from the local rogue gang. They team up against all the odds to save the district 13 from troubles. For a parkour stunts based movie, the plot is more than enough to run, dive, jump, twist, swing, climb, roll, drop, leap and what not !!

View

Just take away your age, go back to your school days and enjoy. The film has the perfect elements of fights, suspense, 2 unstoppable and physics defying heroes with a mission. Also, they are accompanied by the perfect teams of small groups and their heads [ typical supporting roles that you find in Telugu movies ]. What you get is 'Gilli' like action packed thriller. The music played a very good match [ rythmic beats ] just accompanying the tempo of the movie.

David Belle has acted as the local rogue - You know what.. He is one of the founders of Parkour and is a treceur. This is actually the second part of Banlieu 13. There are more movies based on Parkour sport. Yamakasi [ உத‌ய‌ம்‍க்கு அடுத்த‌ ஸ்டாப்புங்க‌ளா ?! :) ], Bourne ultimatum, Die hard 4.0. The good part is that all the stunts are original and not cheated with rope stunts or computer graphics. True fight film freaks never liked those cheap n rope techniques for fights.

Thanks to my friend Crankx who suggested this movie. His comment to this film was ' Just dub this in telugu and release it directly '. I second him.

-Toto.

Big Fish - Story-teller's story

2009-08-24T23:45:00.005+05:30

Big Fish [ க‌தை சொல்லியின் க‌தை ! ]

In any friends’ gang, we might have come across one interesting and convincing story teller. They cannot tell anything straight but with vivid explanations. It might have been a simple accident - but the way they explain is like some spectacular miracle has happened. The important thing about this type of character is their tolerance to insult.

I remember one of my aunts used to tell the story of Thooku thooki, Thangap padumai with e every dialogue and song in the afternoons of the summer vacations. She memorized by hearing the same in LP records. My schoolmate was a master story teller - he used to take me in his hero majestic bike to a remote place and explain the films he saw. The first film he explained was 'Chanakya' Kamal's mallu movie - he freely takes almost the time of the movie except songs n fights. He narrated me the furious story of those times 'Shiva' ad the most sweet love story 'Geethanjali'. In fact, he is my first contact for films - he was the one who started giving film lists for me. [ என்ன்ன்னா ப‌ட‌ம்டா .. பெஜாராயிட்ட‌ன்மா :) ]

Nobody can forget the brilliant story telling of Oho productions Chellappa to his father. Chithralaya gopu was inspired by the way Dada mirasi narrates the story with less dialogues and more expressions [ he is a film maker from Marathi; Director of Pudhiya paravai ]. One of my old time friends used to narrate the story with utmost profanity [ 'ச‌ங்கிலி முருக‌ன்' குடும்ப‌ம் டோட்ட‌ல் டேமேஜ் :) ]- otherwise, he can't take the story forward. I still can believe whatever Sujatha writes and whatever Nellai Kannan speaks [ த‌மிழ‌ருவின்னு இவ‌ரை சொல்லி இருக்க‌லாம் !! ]. One such story teller is our 'BIG FISH' [ foreword is lengthier than the review :) ]

Trivia : Once AVM Saravanan told in an interview that the only director impressed him in story telling was KBhagyaraj - He narrated Mundhanai mudichu in Palmgrove hotel in 2+ hrs without a single reference or a paper. He explained the story with all dialogues [ including placement of songs ] with an interval too [ KBhagyaraj took a puff in the break :) ].

Plot :

The story is based on the book with the same name 'Big Fish', written by Daniel Wallace. It was a novel of myths and fantasy illustrations. The film starts from the frustration of William Bloom, a young man who couldn’t understand his father because of his story telling abilities. As a kid, he was convinced by his tales and as a grown-up, he couldn't. Nevertheless, his dying father Edward Bloom talks to everyone with always a story inside.

Narrated in flashbacks and present, William used to recollect his father's fables. The stories about his brought-up in Ashton, involvement with a giant, circus company, meeting his lover and then turned wife. Thus with these unbelievable stories, William decides to disconnect from his father and stays away from his father. However, Will's wife Josephine is attracted to the tales of her father-in-law. Time rebinds Will back to his father who becomes seriously ill. The final part of the puzzle is left and Will decides to join the puzzle game. What happens then is the end.

View :

The movie is combination of drama and fantasy. The story is just filled with unbelievable people, places and happenings. The main character Edward Bloom resembles a few other characters from other films, Forrest Gump, Guido from life is beautiful. The story flows to and forth with change over in the narration with either senior or junior Edward.

As in any fairy tale, this story introduces so many unusual characters like giant, twins, werewolf, mermaid, dream village and of course 'Big fish'. The interesting part is the sub-plots that comes in different stages of his narration. I liked the status of a poet changing into something else in Texas. The way the old doctor explaining about his father to William in his understanding - though everybody knows about the stories they just accept it. Can we go back to our grand mothers or aunts and say whatever you said was not true !

The best part is the senior's love story ending in a marriage. But the happenings in between goes just like a fairy tale. The characters are so interesting to a giant, circus owner, Korean twins, and a poet. They even touch the Texas real estate and Wall Street humorously on the flow.

The way the film ends was fabulous. A perfect climax of the story teller. The BGM needs a special mention in this movie and was so soothing. Especially during the climax, the BGM enhances the movie watching experience. This is one of the kind where you just believe what happens in the story and don't ask for logic [ like Mr Magorium's wonder emporium ].

Remember the S.Ramakrishnan's title 'Eppodhumirukum Kadhai' ?! - That's story of Big Fish.

-Toto.

Children of men - acceptable science-fiction

2009-08-20T23:43:00.004+05:30

"In 20 years, women are infertile. No children. No future. No hope. But all that can change in a heartbeat"

Can we imagine a world without any children ? In fact, "Veenapponavan" may stop writing poems, if there are no children in the world. Science fiction doesn't always mean to chase some atomic or nuclear bomb. The knot of the story should be compelling or attracting to get into the film, first. In olden days, you can see the poster and tell a story of an action film in Tamil or Telugu. But seeing the above quote of the fim, once can't conclude anything and keeps the interest about this film, live.

I'm scared of Sci-fi movies usually, as the story can traverse in any direction. Remember, in old Jaishankar films, RSManohar acts as a villain and with the help of a rubber mask, he'll become any character in the story [ அட‌ப் ப‌த‌ர்ங்க‌ளா..! ]. Similarly, a science-fiction can show anything and put the blame on science. But this movie attracted me because the director said the technology would hit a ceiling along with an increased level of pollution [ wall-E ! ], pandemic diseases and increased problems. As days pass by, the cities we live definitely stink more than we expect it to be better. [ Bangalore was greener ! ]. That' a nice way of depicting the future as the science fiction usually takes the brighter part alone [ showing expressways and 1 seated cars ].

The story handles a sensitive issue - child ! That's the most mysterious part in life, where mostly we don't know how to react. A fine moment in life where emotions take over the science - we can't ignore the child birth just as a scientific happening. What happens when the human race stops and take a break ?! Watch Children of men.

Plot

The knot is in the year 2027, women can't give birth to. The story starts with the youngest kid alive, is shot dead, collapsing the hope of human race. The youngest inhabitant of the planet has just died at the age of 18, and all hope for humanity has been lost. Theo is a common man who lives alone after getting his divorce and loosing his daughter to flu pandemic. He reluctantly gets in to a mission of saving and transferring a refugee who is the real challenge for this issue of mankind. The refugee has to be handed over to the care of a secret organization known as The Human Project.

The story is loosely based on the novel with same name. It's written by P.D. James's gripping 1992 novel.

View

First about the hero Clive Owen.. acted in Derailed, Inside man; he has played the common man role, swimmingly. I like him for his looks and familiarity. He doesn't possess any super natural powers , martial arts etc., He is a divorcee and has the intention to save a refugee girl from a problem. He takes the responsibility and moves forward without knowing what the next step is. The more relevant thing is that he had a flashback of his daughter out of some flu pandemic [ Swine flu is also pandemic - not endemic or epidemic ].

The truth is the future has more pollution, health hazards, wars and of course, technology ! the director has studied psychology and cinema before making films. He has boldly taken a story which most of the directors wouldn't try to. His briliance starts in the first scene, itself. The opening sequence is as shocking as 'Die hard 2' - Manhattan sequence.

This is neither a fiction nor a thriller. It's a combination of fiction, future, mankind told in a thriller fashion [ like the book title told by Vivek.. cosmic energy coupled with atomic energy in the evolution of mankind programmed by java ]. The realistic fiction shows a grim and gloomy futuristic world with unknown attacks. In a way, the happening resemble the world war periods and the camps.

I need a special mention about the photography - I need this because I was wondering for few shots inside a car during a chasing. The camera rotated in 360 degrees showing the incident happening behind, inside and through the front side of the car. The DVD got footage of explaining how they achieved this. Marvelous piece of technical work. Also, this film engages lengthy shot sequences taken in one take [ like the opening scene in Anjaathey ]. Also the sound effects used in the movie is fantastic.

I haven't come across a thriller which deals with this kind of peculiar requirement. I stopped in between to take a break as if I was watching some kind of horror movie - U'll definitely feel the same when Theo and Kee travels in a bus to cross the border. I paused the movie out of anxiety.

Every new scene leasds to a twisted problem which we can't even imagine about. I couldn't resist remembering "Naan Kadavull" by director Bala. I saw "Children of men" as an antidote for "Kadavull". When I finished the movie, I thought of recommending this film and 'Colour of paradise' to director Bala. The literature and art forms always try show the hope and faith. This is one of the fine movies which shows the same.

Conclusion

One of the nice films, which has fiction and faith. It's remebered for its brilliant direction adn techniques. I add Clive Owen's performance also as a factor to watch this movie.

:)
-Toto.

Video Cassette days

2009-08-16T23:28:00.006+05:30

ஊராட்சியும் மாந‌க‌ராட்சியும்

Due to enormous emails and requests from friends [ ப‌ச்சைப் பொய்.. ஒரே ஒருத்த‌ன் தான் கேட்டான் :) ], I share about the video experiences during the school days. My school days were of mixed experiences - ranging from a town to city. I have had the opportunity of watching street plays, Mahabharatham oration [ 18 days - க‌ர்ண‌ மோட்ச‌ம் கேட்டா சில‌ருக்கு 'சாமி' வ‌ந்துடும்..]. Of course, the all time favorite cinema was major entertainment [ even now ! ]. In the evolution, we had spent some time with video cassettes too.

In my Amnijikarai ‘Kaathaadi’ days, I was the first point of contact for any TV schedules. Though our home didn't have one, I had the complete information. Movies/Songs were so attractive those days that we used to wait for the Friday, Saturday [ hindi movie ] and Sunday. We used to run to Mohan's house or 'Mala' akka's house for watching some Tamil movie [ Anandha ragam, Nellikani - Sivakumar ]. Pon Chandrabose was my friend's father and he had big bound books claiming them that were his scripts. He is acting in some serial it seems.

I remember 'Adade' Manohar was staying in the next street [ Vellala street - Aminjikarai ]. Aminjikarai memories deserve more blogs [separate one for Murugan stores and kaathaadi experiences ! ] to share. Sometimes, strangely we have seen 'Roopavahini' too [ Srilankan channel ] with news in a different dialect of Tamil and some movie. Antenna [ Aluminum fish bones :) ] setting needs special skills and coordination [ இப்போ ?.. இப்போ ?... இப்போ ?...ஆன்ன்ன்.. அப்டியே உட்று :)].

In my hometown, we watched TV in even more distorted pictures [ ம‌ண‌ல் ந‌திக‌ள்! ]. Basha bhai's wife used to collect entrance fees to watch the movies [ 15 paise, 25 paise ] - We fight for the place and watch some junk films like Vadai malai [ Bhakthi film - Srikanth acted :) ]. No guarantee if it rains. Then we shifted our place to Jabbar teacher's home. They used to tease me asking the film and actor details. Without knowing their intention, I used to explain whatever I know right from the cast to the director. They were really worried that whether I really study and show the same interest in studies. My school has my name in the achievement board [ then it was history.. சொல்லி வை.. ha.ha. ].

For any of my early experiences, they come in 2 flavors .. one as in Chennai-29 and the next as in my town.

Chennai

We had a neighbor in the first floor [ lived in flats in the 80's itself :) - G1 is ours.. but deviamma or umaamma veedu was the identification. The Marrati neighbour owned a video shop in Shenoy nagar and they get the deck during the weekdays for their family. I still remember the rexin container bag for the video player, with red velvet inside. They never allowed me inside to watch movies - Never care of insults when you are after something, seriously. Mostly, I win by getting in and watching some movie. We had another family in the street where they rent movies and screen with entrance fees [ mostly less than a rupee ].

I can say the movie names even now [ Namma ooru nalla ooru, 36 chambers of shaolin, Naan sigappu manidhan [ useless trivia : SriBrindha, Permabur theatre, started its operation with this film - they regularly screen Rajini movies ]. Shaolin temple, Mandhirap punngai, Poo vizhi vaasaliley, many Jackie chan movies ]. Myself and my younger sister used to sniff anywhere a video deck is rented.

We used so many techniques to get into any video screening place. It was little bit tough if it was night. My mother used to locate me with the chimes sound of Nayagan film. She used to close her eyes and look for me. I was a good friend of my school master [ Prem - He ws like 'Alfredo' in cinema paradiso for me]. He used to give special treat during christmas and new year.

A sub-plot story - I used to roam with him during weekdays. He took me to Shenoy nagar in cycle, bought ice-cream, showed ICF ad then we work for fun in Venkateswara Bhavan in Aminjikarai [ State bank sandhula ]. Then we have our lunch - on the way back I used to buy cut films [ Sivappu suriyan - மிஸ்ட‌ர் மிர‌ண்டா.. எதிரி எவ‌ண்டா ஸாங்க் வேற‌.].

Hometown

It’s the other extreme in my life. I watched theru koothu, Silambam, Poo Garagam, thee midhi [ rewinding when I saw last week the advt of Rayiladi Nagathamman thee midhi thiruvizhaa poster :) ]. We used to check the sky for stars during the video screening days. That’s a signal that video function will happen without any issues by rain. The tradition in our home town is to screen first 'Kafhaa' – a documentary on Muslim’s pilgrimage. It’s about a journey towards Mekka n madina. And then the variety of Tamil films [ Kaalaium neeye maalaiyum neeye, urimai geetham, nayakan, Manithan, pickpocket, tick for treat, evil dead [ evil dead was not a horror movie instead it was awkward ].

Nayakan was the only film which I have watched enormous number of times in different forms Cinema,deck, tv, vcd and dvd. I still remember telling to my cousin that the photography was really good in Nayagan. We saw that in a dark night and open street.

It was a real bad culture of that time that they screen 3 films in night for any damn functions at home - right from 'kaadhu kuthu' to the final journey. Mostly they organize this in streets with magnifiers sometimes or white screens sometimes. Mostly the crowd favour for an action or comedy film.

I'll end it up with a poem from Na.Muthukumar's collection.

க‌ட‌ந்து வ‌ந்த‌ பாதைக‌ளை

காற்றுட‌ன் பேசிக்கொண்டிருக்கிற‌து

குடிசைக் கூரையில் சைக்கிள் ட‌ய‌ர்.

:)
-Toto.

Double indemnity - Insurance crime

2009-08-16T00:10:00.006+05:30

Double indemnity

A claims man, is a doctor and a blood-hound and a cop and a judge and a jury and a father confessor, all in one. - Barton Keyes.

I coorelate the experience of watching a thriller as standing in the doorway of an express train. And, I can equate the twists in a thriller equal to the passing bridges. It's thrill! The two most inconvincible professionals are tax auditors and insurance clearance agents. It's not only the attribute of police to investigate a crime but also for an insurance officer. There are few films associated where the crime is based on insurance. I remember one Tamil movie which followed this theme - Kei Niraya kaasu with Nagesg acted in dual roles.

Double Indemnity - 1944/Thriller
Adapted & Directed: Billy Wilder
Based on a novel by John Cain.

Plot

The entire story is narrated by Walter Neff, a charming insurance agent. Phyllis is rich man's wife who happens to meet Neff once in her home. They slowly develop a friendship and gets into a relation. They get slowly into a dangerous and an almost perfect plan to murder the rich man. In turn, they plan to get the insurance money and lead a new life.

The plan looks easy but complicated as much as a big mess. Neff's boss Barton Keyes, an outstanding insurance investigator who has a little guy inside him [intuition] leading him to crack any great case. With these elements, what happens is the plot for a perfect thriller. The story moves in flashbacks from Neff's view and involves the clash of different fates of all the characters involved. That makes this movie a super thriller.

View

Alfred Hitchcock movies were the eye opener for me, which stated that black & white movies were not slow movies. There are certain films which move at the speed of a bullet train [ Tamil example : Gilli ]. There are many examples of this genre.. Spellbound(1945), The killing(1956), Strangers on a train are few to quote for now. This film is a classic example of a fast executed script.

The BGM is an inevitable part of storytelling - even I remember we used to narrate the action films with sounds and BGM.. In fact, even when we fight in childhood we make sounds [ Dishaaal, Dishyum :) ]. That's the power of BGM. This movie got the perfect BGM which enhances the thrill and increases our temptation to look for what happens next.

I liked the light and shadows part of this thriller. More'shadows' are used in this film to represent the darkness of the events involved in the story. Somehow, this movie resembles 'the strangers on a train'. The best part is the characterization of Barton Keyes. He is one of the sparkling and brilliant characters in the story. His dialogues are rally outstanding and soundly convincing. That's the reason I used his dialogue as quoted in the beginning.

Conclusion

A perfect thriller for a Saturday night movie time.

It wasn't an accident.. it wasn't a suicide.. What it was then ?

-Toto.

Thirai Gaanam - 2008

2009-08-11T23:57:00.010+05:30

திரை கான‌ம்

Let us listen to some songs for a change [ ha..ha.. DVD தீந்து போச்சா :) ]. I have been collecting and listening to music for a long time. Right from my school days, I used to move with slightly elderly friends and hence I was attracted to the songs they listened that time. I remember listening to 'Poondhaliraada' from 'Paneer pushpangall', in Ungall viruppam. I remember in UKG [ yei.. Yei.. Mister.. என்ன‌ இதெல்லாம் :)‌ ], I listened to this 'Mayile Mayile' from 'Kadavull amaitha medai'. Slowly, I grew with All India Radio programme on on film songs - உங்க‌ள் விருப்ப‌ம், திரை கான‌ம், ஒலிச்சித்திர‌ம், ஒரு ப‌ட‌ப் பாட‌ல், சிறுவ‌ர் சோலை, தேன்கிண்ண‌ம்.[ sometimes, Hindi songs used to come 'aap kee parmaayeesh' !].

I spent a lot in recording songs [ in empty 90 mins cassettes ] in my early days of my career. I had a box full of 90mins Maxell/Sony cassettes. I had a friend who owned a music shop with very rare collection. The shop was filled with LP records - I found that as a treasure.. Nandu [ Manjall veyil maalayitta poove ], Mudhal Iravu [ Manjall nilavuku indru ], Karumbu Vil [ Meen kodi theril ], Kazhugu [ Kaadhal ennum Kovil ] are some of the rare gems ! . I even recorded MNM songs in a 90 mins cassette - just for fun [ Crankx knows what is MNM :) ]. I'll recollect more in a separate blog [ இது வேற‌யா ! ] .

The only topic I am comfy and confident talking with Mysskin is Tamil film music and films [ not much on books :( ]. He introduced instrumental music like Santoor [ Pt Shivkumar Sharma ] ,Ramana malai, English film soundtracks [ Braveheart ] to me.

Slowly, my music gadgets changed from Sony walkman, CD - MAN player and now it's a ZEN mp3 player with FM Radio. Now, I have settled with FM radio [ around 9 channels in Chennai ]. The beauty of FM channel is it's unpredictability. Suddenly, you hear the prelude of 'Poo maalaiye' from Pagal nilavu or the mesmerising flute start in 'Siru Thoduthalile' from laadam ; just like a heavy n sudden rain. In my Bangalore life, I missed this beautiful option of hearing songs in radio. After I returned to Chennai, I'm delighted to hear songs almost all the time. The best one's are from Vairamuthu neram - in aaha FM.

This blog is about the female singers of 2008. Though I am not convinced to restrict the songs by year or by any other category, I wanted to share the frequent songs that came in FM.

1. Madhushree - Marudhani / Sakkara katti / ARR

In the outlook, it looks like a simple song. However, during the saranam, the song travels on its own way. [ Kaadhali kei nagam ellaam ] along with a wonderful rendering of ARR. The beauty of Vaali is that he doesn't dominate the song with his poetry skills. Madhushree is a gift to music fans. Without much explanation [ rather himsai :) ], try listening to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbzBJY-kSVA

2. Bombay Jayashree - Yaaro manadhile / Dhaam dhoom /Harris Jayaraj

The chemistry of Bombay Jayashree in Harris's music started way back in 2000 [ Vaseegara in Minnale ]. A trivia about Vaseegara song - it's the only Tamil song which has the word 'Mudivili' - infinity. [ காத‌லெனும் முடிவிலியில் க‌டிகார‌ நேர‌ம் கிடையாதே !!].

The initial lines are sung by Singer Krish. Her voice travels in a different orbit, unexplored by the regular singers in Tamil. A real good one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxeRnmr7DWc

3. Swetha Mohan - Manasukkull / Anjathey /Sundar C Babu

For some people, music is in genes and a big YES for Swetha Mohan. She is the daughter of singer Sujatha. Manasukkul song comes in Anjathey for a short while, showcasing Uthra's unexpressed love. Cool n beautiful song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp0RgRoym3I

4. Sudhaa Ragunathan - Anal mele pani thuli / Vaaranam 1000 / Harris Jayaraj.

What a fantasic start for a song ! Sudha's voice is fresh to tamil film music. Another combination of a carnatic singer, Harris and the poetic poet [ அட‌டே ! ] Thamarai. I like the lyrics of Thamarai in par with any great lyricist in Tamil. She is the sole song writer in all Gautham menon movies - right from Vaseegara days. The only restriction for me is to listen this song instead of watching the video [ Divya Spandana-vai kandaa enaku allergy ].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAiWz-q3uZE

5. Sadhan Sargam - Mukundha Mukundha / Dasavatharam / Himesh

Just for the voice of SS.

Best duets of 2008
1. Kangall Irandaal - Belly raj/Deepa mariam - MD:James vasathan - Subramaniapuram
2. Naan varaindhu vaitha - Hariharan/Madhushree - MD:Vidyasagar - Jayamkondaan
3. En anbe - Sadhana Sargam/Benny dayal - MD:Harris - Satyam
4. Ragasiya kanavugall - Hariharan/Madhushree - MD:Harris - Bheema
5. Adiye kolluthey - Benny dayal/Krish/Shruthi hasan [ Terrific voice !!]- MD:Harris - Varanam 1000
6. Mundhinam - Naresh Iyer/Prashanthini [ Daugther of Malaysia Vasudevan ]- MD:Harris - Vaaranam 1000
7. Machaan machaan - IR / Belashinde - MD:YuvanShankar - Silambattam. Bela Shinde is also a winner from Sa re ga ma program along with another gen singer Shreya ghosal.
8. Lesaa parakudhu - Karthik/Chinmayi - MD:Selvaganesh - Vennila Kabbadi kuzhu.

Happy listening.

-Toto.

Chennai - 600029.

2009-08-06T22:28:00.010+05:30

Daily 4 shows - II [ Chennai : 600029 ].

This post is dedicated to Kathirvel - my only friend from 'Arumbakkam' area.

The period is set between 1981-85 [ 1st to 5th std - Skipped 2nd std - double promotion :) ]. I was taken [ obviously ! ] by one or the other senior at home. Everyone had their own way of watching movies. My father used to take me to Sivaji / Kamal/ K.Viswanath/ KB/ Vittalacharya [ u know what - V.Acharya is a Kannadiga ] kind of movies. My mother had her own circle of friends. My chithappa and his friends were the film freaks who took me to the cinemas, most of the time.

Director Vincent Selva [ Selvam ] was my classmate's elder brother; they stayed just 6 houses next to us, in Aminjikarai. V.Selva was a good artist. He drew us a few pictures on our science notebook. I used to watch 'olliyum oliyum' and Sunday movies in his home [ BW Solidaire with sliding doors - Remember Subramaniapuram TV :) ].

Lakshmi

Lakshmi theater is an important landmark of Aminjikarai and it's a small world on its own. It has so many small shops, lodge and the theatre behind. It's the bus stop too. Lakshmi has been the same since my childhood days. The same 2nd quality pictures used to come [ even now ]. We watched Sakalakalavallavan, Thanga magan, Thalaimagan, Pudhuk kavithai, uyirullavarai usha, Bhaktha pragalatha, Shaan, Payanangall mudivathillai, Mann vasanai etc here.

For "Sakalakala vallavan", my mother took me daily to Lakshmi and we returned without tickets. We were successful on the 3rd day. I am curious to see how this theatre is now. But it's still screening the best possible junk in the list.

Muralikrishna

It's the class A theatre for Chennai-600029 people. The good thing is that it's close to Lakshmi so that we can easily choose between these standing in front of Palace or Gowri Shankar hotel. I ve seen the Nenjathai Killadhe, Theeradha villayaatu pillai, Paayum puli, Naalai unadhu naall, Thoongathe thambi thoongathe, Nanayam illadha Nanayam [ இந்த‌ ப‌ட‌த்தை எடுத்த‌வ‌ங்க‌ளே ம‌ற‌ந்திருப்பாங்க‌ :) - First screen appearance of Judo Rathnam ]. I have collected all these useless trivia and became a blogger. Ha..ha..

Once, my father grabbed me out of my tamil exam [ half-yearly ] in my 4th std. I didn't have the least clue about where I was running towards. My father took me to "Muralikrishna" theatre and we went in - some news reel was going on with Indra gandhi speaking something furiously in hindi [ Most of the times, I remember seeing "Neenga nallaa irukkOnum" MGR song before movies]. The movie was Salangai Oli. I still remember the large banner where Kamal bows his head to the ground level and watching the dancing foot.I was madly dancing [ நென‌ப்பு தான்.. ! ] the next 2 weeks.

Pazhaniappa

We were taken to this theatre in a short cut from the back side of Vellala street [ too many buffaloes :) ] passing on the koovam wooden bridge to the theatre directly. Pazhaniappa is the 3rd class theatre [ the theatre started it's operation with "Pallaandu Vaazhga" ] - you can understand by the list of movies. Thooral ninnu pochu, malaiyur mambatiyaan [ Hindi remake Rajini's 'Gangwar' was screened in Ega -ஐயா.. ஸாமி ஆளை விடு.. நீயும் உன் த‌க‌வ‌லும்.. :) ].

Ellaam inba mayam - The best of those times. In return after 27 years, I took my father to Dasavatharam in PVR - Bangalore. Ellaam inba mayam was far better. மாம‌ன் வூடு ம‌ச்சு வூடு.. ப‌ரிச‌ம் போட்ட‌து குச்சு வூடு :)

I never wonder why I remember all these things. There are only 2 ways to remember a thing - either you like it very much or you do it repeatedly [ once I read this in Kumudam ]. I like cinema - simple.

Ega and Sangam were high class theatres and we used to visit them, once in a blue moon. I skipped Sindhu Bhairavi [ in Ega ] and watched Mard [ later remade by Rajini as Maaveeran in Tamil ]. I watched Velaikaran, Andha 7 natkal, African Safari, My dear Kuttichathan in Ega.

GRAND- I have seen only one movie - Lolita [ 1997 ] directed by Adrian Lyne. Don't get afraid that I have mentioned about the director - Wrong n atractive posters technology :). Anna nagar badly needs a Theatre - I still wonder why none has tried building a theatre there.

My friend Crankx watched 3 shows in a day in the same Abirami theatre complex. :). The sad thing - Roxy has been demolished and getting replaced by Saravana stores. People are too busy in buying rather than spending time with family in entertainment. Too busy to fill up gas :).

-Toto.

Daily 4 shows

2009-08-05T22:40:00.009+05:30

தின‌ச‌ரி 4 காட்சிக‌ள்

Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater - Roman Polanski

Disclaimer:
This is definitely not an autobiography to test your patience [ ச‌த்திய‌ சோத‌னை ‍ - ப‌டிக்க‌ற‌வ‌ங்க‌ளுக்கு :) ]. Just registering my thoughts about my hometown theatres.

Gents, Ladies, bench, chair, balcony, fire, exit, projection room, காலைக்காட்சி, இப்ப‌ட‌ம் இன்றே க‌டைசி,வ‌ருகிற‌து, வெற்றிக‌ர‌மான‌ இர‌ண்டாவ‌து வார‌ம்– All these words resemble my glorious movie days.

The movie experience is considered best, only when it is watched in a big theatre [ I am not a fan of mini, cine, baby kind of theatres ]. The psychology of watching in the big screens is that it controls us rather we controlling the film with a remote. We completely loose the control watching a movie in a theatre [ that's the key of entertainment - forgetting the EMI/assignments/family/office ]. The DVD or home theatre experience is just a bogus alternate to cinema, where you pause the video, skip a song, conscious about fan/AC speed, some sound in the kitchen [ கேஸ் வாஸ‌னையா வ‌ருது ?! ], tea break, kid running out with remote [ BOLT ப‌ட‌ம் போடுப்பா :) ]. The worst form is watching a movie in the TV channel with 50 advertisements in between, in an omni bus or a car DVD system. That's not the true cinema experience, I call. Let me recollect some of my movie hall experiences in the past.

My hometown didn’t have many places to spend time for entertainment. Either the place had to be a temple, school ground or a cinema theatre. By default, our first choice in a free time was movie and most of the time we were free :). We didn't have biased views, filtering, preview, review[ tortures like film4thwall :) ] talking about the movie. We just experimented whatever the junk it was. It was the glorious late 80s where so many films were released in a month. That's when IR was scoring for all the movies. We used to watch any flicks ranging from 'Karimedu karuvayan' to 'Kaaki chattai', 'Selvi' [ Devar films with dog in it ] to 'SriRagavendrar'. We used to applaud for just showing Rajini photo advt card in the interval [ Skylab tailors :) the first card used to be தின‌ச‌ரி 4 காட்சிக‌ள்- Sathya arts followed by புகை பிடிக்காதீர்].

If Sundara Vinayagar crosses our bus stop, that’s the final warning for us to run towards the theatre. [ we used to tell the time by seeing the bus - பெரிய‌ விஞ்ஞானி இவ‌ரு ]

Srinivasa :

It was the class A theatre [ Bench – 1 Rs., Chair Rs.2.50 The school teachers used the balcony Rs. 3.50 class ha..ha..]. Any new movie [ at least 4 months old ! ] comes to this theatre first. I watched all the movies in my school days sitting in almost all the rows of the theatre.. We preferred the first 10 rows. I need to watch the movie from the white screen to white screen. I can't digest getting into a movie that was already started. [ I was glad to see Woody Allen saying the same dialogue in ANNIE HALL – என்ன‌ ஒரு க‌னெக்க்ஷ‌ன்.! ]

The beauty of this theatre was the morning shows were dedicated for classic films like Moondram pirai, Naadodi mannan, Manohara, Vee.Pa. Kattabomman etc., The regular shows were the new films of that time like Udhaya geetham, Vaidehi kaathirundhaal, Mudhal mariyadhai, Maapillai [ Some examples.. For the full list, I may need the help of Film news Anandhan :) ].

"Thaai veedu" was the first film, we [ I had a great company - my cousin ] started watching by going to the theatres on our own. Till then, we were taken through the ladies counter and then get shifted to the gents. That's how I ended watching enormous number of movies in my school days. We were allowed to see almost all the movies. However, only married couple used to go to Bhagyaraj movies in the 2nd show [ ரெண்டாம் ஆட்ட‌ம் ].

I remember all Kamalhassan, Rajini, Mohan movies were released in Srinivasa. The uniqueness of the town was everybody liked Rajinikanth movies and never allowed a Kamal movie to run for more than a week [ except some real blockbusters like Aboorva sagodharargall, Kakki chattai . Guna ran just for 3 days.. Think about Hey Ram ! ]. On the contrary, Rajathi Raja ran 5 weeks houseful in all the 3 theatres, simultaneously.

Due to ill fate, the theatre is converted to a marriage hall. I don't know whether the groom thinks that his marriage is going to be like an action thriller in the future. :) . I couldn't digest that news and started avoiding that area, when I visit my hometown.

Balan

It's the typical old type theatre which has got front elevation looking like a glorious building and on the back side it's the usual rice mill model of cinema hall. This is class B theatre wherein medium films were screened [ Rama.Narayanan, TRajendar, Suresh, Murali ] and sometimes old movies were screened [ re-release ]. Before renovation in the 80s, it had the parapet wall running between the ladies and gents section [Remember the fight scene in the film 'Kozhi koovudhu' ]. It's highly inevitable that I use examples from cinema to explain anything :). The small boys who sell snacks [ அர்ஸ்ஸ்ஸீ முறுகேய்ய் ] and 'goli' soda [ I used to collect 'soda' goli ] in a wooden crate, used to easily jump between that great wall of the hall [ சோடாய்..க‌ல‌ரேய் ].

I remember watching 1000-il oruvan, Billa, Kazhugu [ காத‌ல் என்னும் கோயில் பாட்டு கேட்டிருக்கீங்க‌ளா ?] Thillana moganambal, Rathak kanneer, Vijayakanth kind of action movies in this theatre. The other good thing was this theatre was the next compound to our great [?!] school. Next to the Kabadi ground, we had a small tree on which we climb and listen to movies in the lunch break [ it was some funny noises – mostly climax fights ]

Rajalakshmi

It's a class C theatre where nobody had a clue what the film screened in that theatre [ even if you watch the movie, you can't understand :) ]. It's the place where typical Thiyagarajan, telugu dubbing, animal based action movies, revenge flicks were screened. I watched Andha oru nimidam, Solla than ninaikiren, eeety [ Extra Terrestrial இல்லை‌ங்க‌.. இது Vijaykanth padam ].

My Uncle had a habit of watching movies in this theatre especially the last day of a movie. The identification is that they paste " இப்ப‌ட‌ம் இன்றே க‌டைசி" on the existing poster. His logic was that he'll get a chance to watch the trailor for the next movie. [ வெவ‌ர‌மான‌வ‌ராமாம் ]

Touring talkies :

The evening show starts with a MGR song "1000 கைக‌ள் ம‌றைத்து நின்றாலும்" and then some songs till the crowd gathers. It had low class [ sand ], bench, aluminum chairs as the high class and the rags as the side doorways. The entire family was once taken by my father for "Bhaagap pirivinai" [ Ada che ! ]. In fact, I was compelling him to take us to 'Vikram' that day. I stopped asking him then. I remember seeing Viduthalai, Bala nagamma, Kaali, Mullum malarum, Maya mothiram in that theatre.

I have been watching the fall of theatres and highly disheartened by the same. Slowly, my childhood theatres started including English movies [ not the good ones ! ]. They didn't get the mass as they used to get. I remember people coming cycles from the villages a few KM away from the town. Rajalakshmi was gone long back and it's still not demolished/reused. Similarly, for Balan – it’s just bushes there.

The only theatre which is still live is Padmavathy [ mini theatre ] – recently, we were just 15 people watching the movie TN07 4777. I was not watching the movie [ crap ] and started rewinding the list of movies, I saw in that smallest theatre of my town [ Idhayathai Thirudadhe, kodi parakudhu..]. I remember they started the first show sentimentally with திருவிளையாட‌ல்.

I’ve watched movies in theatres ranging from touring talkies to the theatre in New York [ PVR screens in Bangalore is a real good experience - Pudupettai, Vettaiyadu Villaiyaadu ]. Films are not only just about entertainment but the memories associated with theatres, the friend(s) we go with and other things matter a lot. I still remember seeing 'Aboorva sagodharargall' multiple times along with the Kamal narpani mandram friends [ They distributed Kamal photo and candies to the audience ].

That's why I became very emotional when I watched ‘Cinema Paradiso’ - I saw my hometown in the Italian town "Giancaldo ". It's a masterpiece.

'Theatres in Pondicherry' is another nostalgic topic where 22+ theatres were running and now there are just 6 theatres existing in Pondy. That's a separate story.

-Toto

My plan is to have a theatre in some small town or something and I'll be manager. I'll be the crazy old movie guy. - Quentin Tarantino [ His life is also completely made up of movies ! ]

List of thrillers.

2009-08-03T22:44:00.007+05:30

List of must-watch thrillers from my DVD collections.

The easiest category of movies to watch is Action/Thriller. I started collecting DVDs when STAR MOVIES aired the entire series of Bond movies [ it was promoting Casino Royale then]. That's where I started my DVD list. Then the Hitchcock movies fascinated me, which I was under a wrong impression that old movies weren't so interesting. I am delighted to watch fast paced movies based on robbery, secret agent, murder mystery, serial killing, nerve-racking chases, prison escapes etc.,

Consciously, I have avoided the too famous films like Termintor, Mission Impossible, Speed etc., This list is to enable our friends to have the list of actoin movies to be watched.

This time, I would like to list out the best thrillers, which I came acoss. I am damn sure that this is not the comprehensive list of thrillers to be watched. However, it'll be a good start here to move on for movie collections. Don't worry if you have covered only a part of this list. I still have the unfinished movies list. After all, we need some pending things in life to keep it ticking :)

Film & Director

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

1.Silence of the lambs --Jonathan Demme

2.Rear Window --Alfred Hitchcock

3.The French connection --William Friedkin

4.North by North west --Alfred Hitchcock

5.The usual suspects --Bryan Singer

6.Seven --David Fincher

7.The Manchurian Candidate [ 1962/2004] --Jonathan Demme

8.Fargo --Coen Brothers

9.Chinatown -- Roman Polanski

10.L.A.Confidential -- Curtis Hanson

11.Reservoir Dogs -- Quentin Tarantino

12.Vertigo -- Alfred Hitchcock

13.The Departed -- Martin Scorsese

14.Memento -- Christopher Nolan

15.Eastern Promises -- David Cronenberg

16.Cape Fear [ 1962/1980 ] -- Martin Scorsese

17.The fugitive -- Andrew Davis

18.Blue velvet -- David Lynch

19.I confess -- Alfred Hitchcock

20.Spellbound -- Alfred Hitchcock

21.Broken arrow -- John woo

22.Face off -- John woo

23.Clear & present danger -- Philip Noyce

24.The Jackal -- Michael Caton-Jones

25.Bad boys I & II -- Michael Bay

26.Rope -- Alfred Hitchcock

27.Fight club -- David Fincher

28.Inside Man -- Spike Lee

29.Escape from alcatraz -- Don Siegal

30.Apocalypto -- Mel Gibson

31.Frenzy -- Alfred Hitchcock

32.Topaz -- Alfred Hitchcock

33.Shadow of a doubt -- Alfred Hitchcock

34.Flawless

35.Italian job -- Gary Gray

36.Eagle eye -- DJ Caruso

37.Birds -- Alfred Hitchcock

38.Thick as thieves -- Mimi Leder

39.Pulp fiction -- Quentin Tarantino

40.Jackie Brown -- Quentin Tarantino

41.Death proof -- Quentin Tarantino

42.Eraser

43.Derailed --Michael Hafstrom

44.The Peacemaker -- Mimi Leder

45.88 Minutes

46.The Training day -- Antoine Fuqua

47.Carlito's way

48.The Killing -- Stanley Kuberick

49.Body of Lies --Ridley Scott

50.Brother -- Takeshi Kitano

51.Taken -- Act:Liam Neeson

52.After the sunset -- Act:Pierce Brosnan

53.Cloverfield

54.Dial M for Murder -- Alfred Hitchcock

55.Strangers on a train -- Alfred Hitchcock

56.Ronin

57.Minority report -- Steven Speilberg

58.Family plot -- Alfred Hitchcock

59.Kill Bill 1 & 2 -- Quentin tarantino

60.Catch me if you can -- Steven Speilberg

Happy watching !

-Toto.

Hide and seek - Catch me if you can.

2009-07-29T00:57:00.005+05:30

Dad : டேய் சிகாம‌ணி.. நீ ஒரு எஞ்சினிய‌ரா, டாக்ட‌ரா, வ‌க்கீலா வ‌ருவென்னெல்லாம் க‌ன‌வு க‌ண்டேனேடா.. நீ இப்ப‌டி இருக்கியேடா.
Son : உன‌க்கு அறிவே இல்ல‌ப்பா.. ஒரே ஆள் எப்ப‌டி எஞ்சினிய‌ரா, டாக்ட‌ரா, வ‌க்கீலா வ‌ர‌ முடியும்.

This might not have been possible for Sigaamani but Frank William Abagnale Jr made it happen in 1960s. You must be interested in what he did and of course, how. Based on his real life, a film was made and the name is CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. I admire the dialog said by a con in an old Tamil film Manthirikumari – “கொள்ளைய‌டிப்ப‌து ஒரு க‌லை”. Covering up a fraud is more difficult than committing it. I am highly fascinated towards the Con/robbery movies – Inside man, Oceans 11, MI, The day of the Jackal, flawless.

Sometimes, I look forward for associating simple themes to great directors. Like Spielberg directing a bank robbery [ Imagine ARR worked in the movie 'Kadhal' ].. The reason is they’ll definitely study the subject very well and we’ll be offered a real good cinema experience. Similar thought came to original Frank Abagnale and he laid the condition that his life story has to be directed with only Spielberg so that his interesting life is justified on screen. Spielberg, in fact, didn't disappoint Frank.

There are 2 types of frauds – one using the physical power and the other one using mental skills. This white collar crime is tough to crack; especially counterfeiting. Remember our SME Salomon in ‘Counterfeiters’ and the novel 'Rajarajan kinaru' by Sujatha.

Catch me if you can - Drama/2002
Cast : Leonardo Dicaprio, Tom Hanks
Music : John Williams
Produced & Directed by : Steven Spielberg

Plot

This film picturises the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. ( Leonardo DiCaprio - don't read about the real life character till you finish this movie ), a near-perfect artist who is good at cheating in all posible ways. All he needs is just paying attention to what he says. He becomes the youngest victim wanted by FBI for the list of forgers. He is chased by agent from FBI called Carl Hanratty ( Tom Hanks). Abagnale escapes - but not always. You have to watch the movie to know what happens to such a great artistic and master fraud.

View

The titling is one of the finest aspects in the film. In fact, the story board comics kind of title previews the happenings. It is by far one of the more artistic titles. As I indicated that’s the power of a great director to get involved in this category of movies - they start their presence in the titling and in the first shot [ like opening shot in Anjathey ]. It’s cleverly done so that the animation doesn’t reveal the story but just the outline.

The movie starts at a dull pace showing the problems with Sr Agabnale. Once, Jr Abagnale is left alone to lead a life, the script traverses at a different speed. We all have the secret desire to cheat sometimes [ டேப் அடிச்ச‌ 10 ரூபாயை ம‌த்த‌ நோட்டுக்கு நடுவில‌ வ‌ச்சி த‌ள்ளிடுவோமே.. அந்த‌ மாதிரி :) ]. The techniques Abagnale use, are amazing. Of course, it’s more of his speech mixed with actions. Whenever he does something, he engages the opponent with his eye contact.

The core of the film is not about the adventures he makes rather the problem that forced him to do so. Disturbed brought-up and separated families are used as the undercurrent. The FBI agent gets a call on Christmas from Abagnale and the talk continues. For the first time in life, he calls the FBI agent Tom. Tom says to Abagnale that he has called him not to give any clue where he stays now but the actual reason is that he doesn’t have anyone else to talk. The film subtly touches about the disjoined families and loneliness.

Watch for the beautiful flow of the script. It has all the best possible incidents that could happen in a hide and seek movie. This movie incorporates ‘open suspense’ type of storytelling. [ where the victim is identified and getting chased; like Krishnaswamy chasing Senapathy in INDIAN ]. Even there’s a scene where the FBI agent happens to meet Abag. The unpredictable nature of Abagnale is the key in the story. He always plans a level above the FBI guys to overcome the traps.

As I mentioned in ‘Counterfeiters’, no knowledge is useless; even his undetectable frauds saves him. Watch out the fabulous ending and check what happened to Abagnale afterwards.

John Williams is the music director of this film. What a great scope can a MD get in a police-thief theme ? In fact, it’s a challenge to showcase the talent in star studded period film and that too directed by Spielberg. John has done a sparkling job and it can be experienced when you listen to this theme music of this film. [ Saxaphone vellayatu ].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8hLI12qi1o&feature=related

Kudos to the entire crew for incorporating US in 1960s [ really a challenge to set the period ]. Even they recreated MIAMI international airport as in 60s.

Brilliant screenplay - The true story of a real fake !

Toto.

Reel rewind - Classics.

2009-07-27T00:39:00.006+05:30

Reel rewind - Classics series.

It was a bright Sunday afternoon in the early 90s..[ க‌தை சொல்ராறாமாம் :) ] In Doordarshan, after the 1.15PM news for challenged, I was waiting for the national award movie [ Even the newspaper TV schedule shows just as regional film without the title – nobody knows till the film is screened ]. Surprisingly, there was an interview before this movie. The interviewer was Srividya - gorgeously dressed in silk saree with untied wavy hair [ போதும் பிர‌த‌ர் ! ]. The interviewee was BR. I cannot forget the question and this particular answer.

Q : Sir.. You have used a phrase 'Easppaatu' in this film. What does it mean?
A : You see.. If one kuyil kuckoos, the other kuyils replies with an answer cuckoo. This is what Esappatu is.

His language might not have been convincing as Srividya's. But the passion, emotions he showed with his facial expressions was the most memorable one for me. Though I had seen the movie already in theatre, I watched the movie again.

The movie didn't have exotic foreign locations, noisy BGM, comedy track, eye-catching photography, fast cut editing, club dances, furious chasing or fights, violence but the key is it had a beautiful story, well etched characters, extraordinary BGM and wonderful visuals

Film details

Mudhal Mariyadhai - 1985/Drama/Tamil
Story, Dialogues - R.Selvaraj
Music : Illayaraja
Produced & directed by : Bharathirajaa

மீண்டும் ஒரு கிராம‌த்து ராக‌த்தை என‌து ப‌ரிவார‌ங்க‌ளோடு பாட‌ வ‌ருகிறேன். - BR.

Every artist has their own peak periods in the career curve. Interestingly, every artist involved in this film was at their peak artistic form. The story & dialogue part is already established by R.Selvaraj. What BR could do to establish his talent ? How he converted the story on the paper to the celluloid ? That's the talent of BR. Like Alfred Hitchcock, he neither formed the story nor wrote a single dialogue in the movie but he had the enormous confidence in executing this project [நான் விஸுவ‌ல்ஸ்ல‌ வெள்ளாடிருவ‌ன்யா..].

He aptly used flashback, a suspense, love, fidelity, interestingly woven characters, narration and of course, songs. He is one of the directors who believed in story rather than the stars. This was really a craft in his career.

Music : If you ever happen to watch this film without music or BGM, it would have attained 50% of its essence, what it has achieved. IR added life to this project. If a MD is interestingly working in a project, the output is always brilliant - this movie is a beautiful example. Similar to Hollywood musicals, we too had our other art forms mostly depending on music. The first 40 mins of the film has 4 songs ! The script just flows along with the songs - to mention specifically short songs were also used in this movie. The music is blended very aptly in this movie; there’s never been a forced situation for a song [ Innaiku night party-la international smugglers varaanga..:) ] The main character is introduced with his interest on songs to overcome his personal shortfall at home.

I have to appreciate the peppy title song which aptly sets up the mood for a perfect village film. To make it simple, this film can be kept as a lesson for how a BGM should be. If BR used visuals to narrate the characters, IR in parallel plays his role to elevate the flow. The flute bit music used when the character Sevili dies and the following sequences - exotic visuals with a fantastically accompanied music.

He has contributed valuably right from the opening song to the end title card. The initial dialogues of Ponnathaal slowly dissolve into the flashback without any break - the dialogues just continue. The divide starts with a slow violin bit [ when she serves food ] and the peppy music his outside world once he comes out of the home. BGM for trying to lift a rock [ guitar ], for his daughter rasamma’s introduction, when they fish out, when kuyilu gets arrested, the final deathbed of Malaichamy [ No need to worry about revealing the fine moments , when it comes to writing about old classics :) ].

Above all, the parts of the songs are also used perfectly in the flow of the story. The song ‘Ye Kuruvi’ has this line ‘பொல்லாத வீடு.. க‌ட்டு பொன்னான‌ கூடு', which travels upward from the plane where it started.The original mark of IR.

Kanaiyazhi magazine quoted once IR as - அங்கீக‌ரிப்ப‌தின் மூல‌ம் புற‌க்க‌ணிக்க‌ப்ப‌ட்ட‌ க‌லைஞ‌ன்.,இளைய‌ராஜா. How true !

R.Selvaraj has written the story and dialogues very beautifully with perfect mix of melodrama and other feelings. The characterization of Malaichamy was so fantastic [ even his interest in good food is used – அரிசி சோறு க‌ஞ்சி தானே.. இருக்க‌ட்டும் :) ]. The dialogues are remarkable [ ஆத்தை க‌ட‌ந்து அனுப்ப‌றியே.. அங்க‌ என்ன‌ அர‌ண்ம‌னையா க‌ட்டி வ‌ச்சிருக்கு, அவ‌ங்க‌ குடும்ப‌ம் ந‌ட‌த்த‌, உன‌க்குத்தான் ஒரு கூடு இல்லை, the dialogue Malaichamy talks with his grandson [ similar resemblance in Thevar magan ], the emotional dialogues with aruvaa towards the climax – even the village profanity [ ..க்காளி was perfectly used :) ]. The village shown is not from TN but KA. In a scene, Malaichamy returns from Andipatti in red colour Karnataka bus - the movie was majorly shot near Mysore. One more trivia is that the photographer who takes the photo of Malaichamy and kuyilu, in the village market was Illavarasu [ he worked as asst cameraman to B.Kannan ].

Sivaji – I really don’t know how BR narrated scenes or shots to him. Because, the moment he gets into the frame, everything changes. Sivaji just answered so politely back with his under-play acting to all his critics.

“I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.” - Charlie Chaplin.

This suits for Sivaji too. Vairamuthu wrote a particular line for Sivaji in பூங்காற்று திரும்புமா..– உங்க‌ வேஷ‌ம் தான் கொஞ்ச‌ம் மாற‌ணும், just keeping his overcoat and strange wigged useless n usual movies, he was doing those days. He requested him trhough a song :). Radha also did a commendable work.

The technicians neither had pressure nor had boundaries, I guess. The entire team has done a neat work and the final form is an unforgettable experience.

ஒரு ந‌ல்ல‌ திரைப்ப‌ட‌ம் க‌தையை ம‌ட்டும் சொல்வ‌தில்லை.அதில் எல்லாம் இருக்கிற‌து.ஆழ‌மாக‌ப் பார்க்கிற‌வ‌ர்க‌ளுக்கு ப‌ல‌ நுட்ப‌மான‌ விஷ‌ய‌ங்க‌ள் அத‌னுள் இருக்கின்ற‌ன‌. எந்த‌ ந‌ல்ல‌ ப‌ட‌மும் பார்க்கிற‌ பார்வையாள‌னை ஏமாற்றுவ‌தில்லை. ‍ ‍‍

- செழிய‌ன்.

It's always better to watch a mix of films ranging from old classics to world classics.

-Toto.

POO - Memoirs of Mari.

2009-07-24T10:05:00.009+05:30

ந‌ம்முடைய‌ க‌தைக்க‌ள‌ம் பிர‌ப‌ல‌ ந‌டிக‌ர்க‌ளை விடுத்து, ந‌க‌ர‌த்தின் பிர‌ம்மாண்ட‌ம் விடுத்து வாழ்க்கையின் எதார்த்த‌ம் தேடிப் போகும்போது தான் தமிழின் அச‌லான‌ திரைப்ப‌ட‌ம் தோன்றும். -‍ "பேசும் ப‌ட‌ம்" செழிய‌ன்.

None of the 5 star hotels will be able to reproduce the simple irani chai what we have in a simple tea stall [ புத்தி போகுதா பாரு ]. Similarly, a simple movie does the biggest magic, what multi-crore budget movies fail to do. ந‌ல்ல‌ சினிமா த‌ரும் ச‌ந்தோஷ‌மே த‌னி. People who watch cinema beyond entertainment value understands this.

It’s always challenging to capture the minute feelings of a girl in celluloid. What KB did was nothing but gimmicks. In fact, he degraded the value of a girl – his heroes always have 2 or more affairs. Even the very few women directors fail to capture the true girl from life. A serial did that to a great extent – PENN, a tele-serial directed by Suhasini .I liked the episode of Revathy wherein she realizes her relationship with her mother Srividya, after marriage. Anyhow, all the fiction girl’s life is extended until city limits and not beyond.

Though I stopped Balakumaran long back, he was the first one to define love as mutual concern [ mutual fund illainga.. ப‌ர‌ஸ்ப‌ர‌ அக்க‌றை]. When a girl/boy thinks that the other soul has to be happy, be in peace, irrespective of their conditions, that’s the actual affection. All the great world cinemas share the same stuff – unconditional love [ like the mother superior in Anbe Sivam ]. Though I am not a fan of woman oriented films [ not a fan of ‘Aval appadi thaan’ ], POO fascinated me very much. It’s the best ever depiction of a girl’s character in celluloid, so far.

Once, Mysskin asked Naaser that why ‘Anjathey’ is not getting appreciated to its actual level. Naaser replied that if the industry praises your movie as the best in script and direction, what happens to their earlier products. BR asked Ameer – நீ காட்டின‌து தான்யா கிராம‌ம்.. Obviously, we ask what BR showed us then ?! POO makes the same impact – Our heroines in village are shown till now in films, but not a true village girl is shown on screen.

A big bouquet to the director Sasi !

Poo - 2008/Drama/Tamil

Cast : Parvathy menon, Srikanth

Music : SSKumaran

Photography : PGMuthiah

Written & directed by : Sasi

Story : Based on a short story 'Veyilodu poi' by S.Tamilselvan. Came 18 yrs back

Plot

The story is about the magnanimous n deep love of Mari on Thangarasu, right from childhood. She is a daring village girl who just dedicated her entire life thinking about Thangarasu. Even in her class, she tells the teacher that her life time ambition is to "become the best half of Thangarasu"! But Thangarasu goes out of the village to purse engineering studies. It’s the dream of his father ‘penakaarar’ to get his son a degree. Socially there’s a big gap between them, though they are relatives.

She is accompanied by her friend ‘Cheeni’, a co-worker of her age in the fireworks factory. She is the all-in-all for Mari. Mari hesitates to express her unconditional n true love to Thangaraasu. Meanwhile, Thangarasu’s father gets into some other situation. What happens to them in life is to be experienced in the emotional journey.

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The first credit goes to Dhananjeyan, CEO of Moserbear for boldly coming forward to produce this movie. Of course, it’s purely a director’s movie – simply and poetically portrayed film. Sasi did a fabulous job in maintaining the content and for the brilliant treatment. It’s not so easy to knit a story with a girl’s perspective and her minute thoughts/feelings.

The success of a director is to bring the goodness of the story interestingly in the script. Trust me; this simple story has too many unnoticeable twists. If you expect a character to behave in a pattern, they don’t and exactly the opposite, when you don’t expect. It’s full of surprises. Sasi had never been to those village setup in Rajapalayam/Sivagangai areas – in fact, he was brought up mostly in Salem and Chennai !

Script writer Sigfield says that once you build the character biography of different characters, the incidents automatically falls in the correct places of the script. Especially the character biography of Mari.. Even she cannot tell why she cares for him so much. Mari’s total body shivers, the moment she sees Thangarasu.. Her walk collapses, her eyes become restless, speech becomes blabbering – Stunning expressions.

The script is extraordinary.. As I say, one shouldn’t know the story of any movie, before watching it. Because the director plant so many twists / turns in the simple happenings. No audience would be able to predict what Maari is going to react in every situation. The beauty of the Mari character is : Inspite of knowing all the difficulties, inequalities with Thangarasu, she deeply n madly loves him – unconditional. Her affection is not based on money, beauty, lust but a mere n strongest concern about him. She gets restless in a scene where Thangaraasu just clears his throat. I find it very difficult to digest her characterization. Her varied expressions, dialogue delivery and body language are quite commendable. There’s a scene where she forgets a cell phone number and recollects when seeing Thangaraasu.. Brilliant expressions !

You know what.. till the end, she doesn’t even shed a single drop of tear for whatever the pain she undergoes. She weeps only once in the film.

Thangarasu, his father Penakarar, Cheeni [ excellent character ], School vaadhyaar, Alo tea kadai owner, his wife, Maari’s mother [ I was really shocked to see such an original village mother on screen ], Maari’s brother, supervisor in the fireworks company, oil mill owner – everyone does the justice to their character with neat performances.

Coming to Zhaming Yimou.. I watched a Chinese movie ‘ The road home’ [ ஆர‌ம்பிச்சிட்டாண்டா ! உல‌க‌ சினிமாவை ! ]. The Chinese film had some similar sequences with the girl [ ஆஹா..அது பொண்ணு.] – where she daily waits on the way where hero passes on. She becomes extraordinarily happy just at the sight of him. Finest movie with a fantastic background score. In fact, POO ‘s BGM also carries the same tune. I really admire Sasi’s sincerity to acknowledge the film, from which he got inspirations.

The way the director has used the landscape [ the 2 palm trees in the above photo are used as characters !! ] with the help of cinematographer P.G.Muthiah is noteworthy. Some of the dialogues are perfectly sharp, sensitive, and realistic. He effectively uses silence too. It’s good that Srikanth didn’t do anything in this movie – he just underplayed his role.

Conclusion

Subramaniapuram – violence = POO. The director doesn’t even show a single flower in the movie, though he had this title. The intention is to have the fragrance of the movie, even after the end. There were some flaws but I consider this movie as the finest in this category of movies. Great mistake .. I missed to watch this film in theatre [ க‌ண் அச‌ந்த‌ போது க‌ட‌ந்து போன‌ க‌ட‌வுள்- Effect of Na.Muthukumar’s aana avaana poem collection]. Unfortunately, this movie didn't even run for 100 days.

ம‌ழை நின்ற‌ பின்னும்
ம‌ர‌க்கிளை இன்னும்
மெதுவாய்த் தூறும். - ‍நா.முத்துக்குமார்.

'பூ' இன்னும் என் ம‌ன‌தில் வாச‌னையோடு தூறிக்கொண்டு இருக்கிற‌து.

-Toto.

Coming next - Poo,

2009-07-22T23:41:00.004+05:30

பூ .. என்ன‌ ப‌ட‌ங்க‌ !!

அன்புள்ள‌ ....

.....

இதுக்கு மேல‌ என்னால‌ எழுத‌ முடிய‌ல‌.

எழுத‌வே முடிய‌ல‌.. நீ ந‌ல்லா இருக்கனும்..அவ்ளோ தான்.

- மாரிய‌ம்மா.

This is one of the best ever written letters in fiction. I am speechless thinking about the story and the way this film was written. I really feel very much that I missed this movie when released in theatres. A true classic film crafted in Tamil !

The Director Sasi thanked the chinese director "Zhang Yimou" in the title cards. Do you know why ?

-Toto.

Nadodigal --Why ?!

2009-07-22T00:33:00.007+05:30

I remember once, 'Pudhiya kalacharam' came up an article with the heading 'காத‌ல் ப‌ட‌ங்க‌ள்.. க‌வ‌லைப்ப‌டு ச‌கோத‌ரா !' - the period where 'Kaadhal kotai' started a trend of 'Kaadhal' films. I have been watching since the early TRajendar peak periods - whenever a character talks about love/friendship to the 4thwall [ the dialog meant for audience ], it gets a roaring applause [ Indha ponnungalE ippadi thaan kind of dialogues ]. Of course, it still continues. The writer of 'Alaigall oivadhillai' Manivannan said in 'Gokulathil seethai' that why our films just end in marriage and don't show what happens after the lovers got married. 'Alaipayuthey' dealed with that concept whereas Nadodigal deals with the friends who help and make the love marriage happen.

Samuthirakkani worked as an associate with KB in 'Kalki'[ adhu oru paadaavadhi padam - film that demoralises women power ] and then with 'Paruthi veeran'. Meanwhile, he worked as a serial director [ killer :) ] in many famous TV serials [ I never ever watched a single episode of any serial in my life time ]. He even directed 'Thanga vettai'. He patiently waited for his turn and directed 2 films. 'Unnai saran adainthen' and 'Neranja manasu' ; both didn't do very good at box office. He stunned me as Kanagu in Subramaniapuram with his sparkling performance as an actor.

If Subramaniapuram is Veenaaponavan's poem, 'Nadodigall' is like a poem comes in 'kavidhai solai' of vaaramalar. Yes ! Subramaniapram is a craft and nadodiagall is not.

Nadodigall : Drama/2009/Tamil

Writer & Director : P.Samuthirakkani

Music : Sundar C Babu

Photography : SRKathir

Plot :

In Rajapalayam, there are 3 friends [ Sasi, Vijay, Bharani ] who are closely knitted along with their families [ idhulaye oru 15 charcters therum ]. Sasi loves Ananya and Vijay loves Abhinaya, sister of Sasi. Another friend comes to their town seeking help for his love and intensifies it by a suicide attempt. What the friends do for the couple to get married is told as part one. In the process, the friends loose what they value most. Did the couple live properly ? What is the compensation for the loss faced by the friends ? இதான் க‌தை.

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Let me take the good things first.. The film has too many characters involved and some of them are etched really well. Epscially Paandi, his father, his noisy atmosphere [ poetically used for another reason ], always munching Nallammaa [ Enna azhagu ! ], 'Pasanga' teacher. Some of the touches are

- Saravanan explains the reason why he approaches Sasi. It's shown in a single shot. A couple sit in a beach and the girl's father comes in and separates.

- Most of the dialogues used by Paandi are really stunning. Unaku valikaaddhadaa.. Nee valichaalum illembe..' The price he receives for his help is stunning. One of the best sound recording happened on screen. The impact it makes to the audience is terrific. His performance in the second half was really good.

- The racy interval sequences.. Though it's just an interval the sequences are filmed as if for an action thriller [ like Gilli ]. This gang has one more friend who doesn't even utter a single dialogue.. Nice characterization [ like Mottai in Anjathey ]

- The local politician 'Chinnamani' character is portayed and used properly.

- The heroines are unusually beautiful. Ananya was too good and steals the show. Equally, the other hoerine Abhinaya also did well [ the fair girl standing first in the left side of the above photo !! ] - The shocking truth is that she is challenged in real life [ unable to speak or hear ]. The director did this after a popular heroine rejected the role stating that she was unable to communicate with Samudrakani in English. Director proved he is good by using a girl who cannot communicate to anyone.

Why I consider Nadodigal as average

Music.. My strong opinion is that a good film always has good music. Whether it is song or BGM [ Veedu ! ]. Even for a plain entertainment movie like Chennai-28, music is so important. That aspect is highly spoiled in Nadodigal. there's not even a single good duet though almost everybody falls in love :) . The BGM part is mostly covered by the siva sambo song - a racy n noisy one.

I never liked 'Ivaar dhaan Sankaran.. Chief accountant' kind of intro. Cinema should be given it's due respect in visuals.

Dialogues : Everybody explains too many things in dialogue.. Varalaaundradhu.. Love-ndradhu.. Natupu-ndradhu.. Every word is explained. Remember the KB's torture days.

Telugu impact - Now the movie is getting remade in Telugu. It's planned one. That's why they introduce the lady MP character and sho all the SUV category of vehicles in high speed [ Scorpio, Tavera, Innova, of course Sumo ].

Through out the movie you get questions about some logic. Most of them are unanswered. A good film never makes me to ask questions at least while watching. The grip is missing. You get those frustrations in most part of the movie.

The climax is the most confusing aspect of the movie. I don't believe that the rich lovers get a moral of Sasi's lecture. On top of it, the 3 friends get ready for one more help. In TN, if anybody says better not to love and go for work/studies, that film will be considered as junk. As per FM radios, one cannot live without having a lover. [ Sorry ! next caller please :) ]

The sister character falling in love is not a convincing one. Why the rich lovers come to Sasi.. Of course, what stops their love to express to their parents ?

The kuthu song on the way to Namakkal - I was disheartened by underestimating the level of audiences. Also, I was shocked to see Sasi resembling T.Rajendar in some dance and action sequences. Sasi.. We expect 'direction' from you and not 'action' !!

Unnecessary insertion of Kanja karupu character - It's purely sentimental and nothing else. The fault is not definitely on Ka.Karuppu. Samudrakani lacks sense of humour.

I am not bothered about the success of the movie. In fact, a successful movie makes so many families happy and motivates the assistant director to think about the story/script. Definitely this film is extremely better than SundarC films [ SundarC is the exact replacement of those days Thiyagarajan/Telugu dubbing movies - I couldn't even sit and watch the trailor of '5-m padai' ]. But the hype made for Nadodigall equal to Subramaniapuram, Paruthi veeran is too much - those comments makes me uncomfortable.

ச‌ரியான‌ ஒரு பட‌த்தை எம‌து ம‌க்க‌ள் ஓட்டினால் அதை க‌ண்டு ம‌கிழ்ச்சிய‌டையும் முத‌ல் ர‌சிக‌ன் நான் தான். அதே ச‌ம‌ய‌த்தில் ம‌கேந்திர‌னும், ம‌ணிர‌த்ன‌மும் க‌ட்டிக் காத்த‌ த‌மிழ் ப‌ட‌ உல‌கில் பிழையான‌ ஒரு ப‌ட‌ம் தெலுங்கு ரைட்ஸ்‍க்காக‌ எடுக்க‌ப்ப‌ட்டு ஓடுகிற‌தென்றால், அதைக் க‌ண்டு வ‌ருத்த‌ப்ப‌டும் முத‌ல் ர‌சிக‌னும் நான் தான்.

To repent for this, I'll come up with a review on POO [ a classic film by Sasi ]. Have you ever wondered, why Director Sasi thanked chinese director Zhang Yimou. in the title cards ? Our directors normally thank Nungambakkam HDFC bank or Kothaalampatti Karur vaisya bank for giving loans :).. யோசிச்சு வைங்க‌..

-Toto.

KILL BILL - Vol I - Quentin's Kurudhip punal

2009-07-16T01:29:00.004+05:30

"I steal from every movie, ever made" -Quentin Tarantino.

Disclaimer :

If you have the habit of fainting at the sight of blood, pls skip this 'bloody' review :)

Malayalam film industry [ Idhu verenga :) ] used to have music directors who are more towards the melody types of songs. JASSIE GIFT jolted the entire industry with LAJJAVADHIYE with his sand paper voice. The audience didn't know how to react and they didn't want to ignore, also. They enjoyed it to the peak and the song / MD was admired very much. In film history, there's always been a rebellious person in any category of art. Like MRRadha in Tamil industry. On the outlook, we hesitate to enjoy them and we admire them personally. It's not only their performance but also their perception. These kinds of artists differ highly from the crowd. Similarly in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino is one such extremely different story teller. Like Manirathnam, he is self taught.

We are used to stories that have a finite structure. However, it's not necessary that all movies hold this pattern. For eg. 21 grams, Rashamon, Andha Naall. These type of stories starts from the middle and connects different events to form a story. Sometimes instead of a story, a film ends up with a just a collection of events. Quentin Tarantino is of this strange category. This film involves extreme violence, profanity, pop music, lengthy dialogues and sudden shocking moments. No wonder, Quentin Tarantino liked "The killing", a Stanley Kuberick movie. [ Sk is another strange director - never come across a movie called Clockwork orange - Satirical drama film ].

When I watched "Reservoir Dogs" [ Quentin's first film ], I was confused whether to follow this Director or not. I liked as well as disliked the movie. Yes ! The film was about a diamond robbery and the robbery was not shown at all.[ appa enna dhaandaa kaatnanga :) ]. But his narrating style attracted me very much and I started following his films. PULP FICTION was the best of Quentin Tarantino. I enjoyed watching DEATHPROOF. The beauty is none of his films were told in a linear fashion [Except JACKIE BROWN ].

KILL BILL

Don't get surprise to see that it's a plain revenge story with stylishly excessive violence. The bride [ Uma Thurman ] is attacked by her ex-squad members and the chief in her wedding. They kill everyone and brutally beat Uma to almost closer to death. Somehow, she survives and takes revenge. Adhaan kadhai. The total movie length is 4 hours and hence KILL BILL 2 was released.

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The film starts with this phrase on screen. "Revenge is a dish best served cold".

Though it just looks like a simple Chiranjeevi or Suman movie, the way it is taken is interesting. I still have a double mind whether to say the violence shown is good or not [ Like Subramaniapuram ] but I can easily say that it's the most shocking shots. The film combines multiple categories of films styles like martial arts, mix of US and Japanese cultures, Characters with Samurai attributes, shocking level of violence and x.

As I said, on the outlook once can ignore this film easily but as a fan, I liked the styles used in the movie. The director fluidly used animation in telling a particular flashback. It's about the American girl becoming a Don in Tokyo and that episode is shown in animation style [ Manga comics with whooshing blood ]. The fights are choreographed stylishly with perfect timing and the visuals are as clear as a crystal. The tempo used in the revenge can be used as a complete reference for our Indian action film [ Hero walking on a glass floor shown from low angle - Watch what's written on Uma's shoe :) ].

Quentin Tarantino is a great fan of music, comics and films. Every shot in his film has almost all the mentioned elements. The characters in other films - they talk a lot, different opinions, and different music. One needs to be so familiar with the history of music and culture in US to understand his narration to a great extent [ Remember sub-title is just a translation ].

Conclusion :

Never ever watch a QT movie with family or kid.

:)
Toto.

Time to blow the speakers..Baby !!

2009-07-08T22:50:00.011+05:30

Time to blow the speakers..Baby !!

It's just another category of music. It's not necessary that we always look for soothing melodies and it's time for some "JING BANG" music.

1. Aathichoodi.

Film: TN07 4777
Singer : Vijay Antony, Dinesh Kanakarathnam
Music by : Vijay Antony
Choreographer : Shobi
Lyrics : Thevai illai :)

For a long time, I restricted myself not to see or listen for this song, due to a perception [ Effect of Nakka mukka - may be ]. Later, in a function, I heard this song in a series of peppy songs. The way you hear in a big music system changes the view. Come on.. Why should I act like I hate peppy songs ! This one was well choregraphed by Shoby with some decent movements even at the end [ funeral beats - It's like secretly watching liril soap ad in the school days. I like it but don't reveal it outside :) ].

I like the line.. Maalu maalu maalu.. muje hindi nahi maalu.. Indha paatai kettuputtaa unaku mullaikum vaalu .. Unmai dhaanga :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxbIgzE2EV0 2

2. Daddy mummy

Film: Villu
Singer : Mamta Mohandas, Naveen Madhav.
Music by : DSP

I like Vijay'sincerity when it comes to dance. He doesn't care much about the co-dancers. yes.. Even if it's Khan sisters [ Mumaith Khan with her sister Zabyn Khan .. Kudumbam Vellangumm ;) ]. You can easily visualise Prabhudeva dancing in all the steps. The opening music and the beats are perfect for a party song. Watch for the graceful [?!] steps and the beats. All these complicated dance steps are started from the telugu hero Junior NTR.

For me, even Dole dole dhaan is a better product from DSP's [ Devi Sri Prasad] juke box.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmOTt1QJYtg - Daddy Mummy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EXpM90E-ic - Dole Dole dhaan

3. Madai Thirandhu
Album : vallavan by Natchatra group
Singer : Yogi B, Lockup Guna, Natchatra

Yogi B is an Malaysian-Indian who has a pop group Natchatra. In their album [ Vallavan ], they have this beautiful number 'Madai Thirandhu'.I am not a fan of remix and in fact, I oppose spoiling the original creation. [ Even engaeyum eppodhum in polladhavan didn't attract me ] However, an exception comes to break my perception, as always. I had heard this before in FM and ignored initially. Later, when I heard this in a big pub [ B&C ] , I was fascinated towards the song. Watch this live performance of YogiB group ..I think they haven't damaged the original. He says ' Super.. excellent and fantastic Balu ' .. Better way to respect the senior singer. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXhuGtoQSv8

4. Hit em up style
Singer : Blu Cantrell

This is a little bit older English album song [ 2001 ]. I used to collect dance numbers during that time. I remember once a foreigner said to Vaariyaar Swamigall after listening to 'Uruvaai aruvaai' in his speech, 'I don't understand the language but it does something to me'. I say the same thing for Blu Cantrell [ Adap paavi !! ] . She got a fantastic voice perfectly matching for a dance number.

There goes the dreams we used to say (oops)

There goes the time we spent away (oops)

Ha..ha.. What a song !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kQDyCTSzpg

:)
-Toto.

Thalainagaram Engall Subramaniapuram

2009-07-05T13:54:00.014+05:30

ஒரு ந‌ட்பு .. ஒரு காத‌ல்.. சில‌ துரோக‌ங்க‌ள்.

In 1985, 3 different films of great directors came simultaneously with surprisingly the same story line - A middle aged man's extra-marital friendship with another girl. Sindhu bhairavi [ Nov-11-1985 : KB ], Mudhal mariyaadhai [ Jan-01-1985 : BR ] and Chinna veedu [ Nov-11-1985 : Bhagyaraj ]. The difference is how they worked out the script and visualized the story. Similarly, Pithamagan, Paruthi veeran and Subramaniapuram have common characters, love and story but the way the stiry is treated, made all 3 unique and special. A thug, his lover [ school going or polytechnic - rendum onnu dhaan :) ], another rustic friend with no lover, Thiruvizhaa, the killings, no modern gadgets, gory murders, the climax, Madurai, theni, Kamudhi are common in these movies. Coincidentally, they share the Guru sishyan chain.. Bala -- Ameer -- Sasikumar.

For me, including a cell phone makes a big difference in the script. If cell phone was used by Ajith and Devayani in Kadhal kotai, there wouldn't ve been a chance for such a dramatic climax. Director Sasikumar cleverly avoided this gadget tortures by taking the story to 1980s. However, he was so meticulous in using almost all the possible elements of 1980s.. not only the bell bottom pants and 'kazhudhai kaadhu ' collar shirts. What a nice thought !.

Have you ever wondered why youngsters in Madurai were so much involved in cinema n politics ?! I remember one article analyzed this and concluded that there were no industries came up in Madurai region [ like BHEL in Trichy, LC in Neyveli, SAIL in Salem, Mills in Coimbatore ] and hence the people were attracted to cinema and politics, during the period mentioned in this movie. This story revolves around 5 jobless youngsters in a small time village and their experiences.

Story

The story, set in the 1980s, happens in a town called Subramaniapuram, a suburb of the city. It is built around 5 friends, importantly Azhagar, Paraman and Kasi. They are jobless and involve in small time street fights and become visitors to the local police station. An ex-councilor and his family stays in the same area, helping the friends gang in needy times. Azhagar falls in love with the councilor's daughter Thulasi. Insults and isolation triggers the events in the rest of the story. We never know how a change happens in life and why we undergo changes. Whether we accept or not, it happens !

View :

The film starts with a dark n rainy day out of Madurai Jail. All the great movies use flashback effectively. That attracts us to get into the story. [ Remember Muthal mariyadhai opening scene - Why Malaichamy thevar sickly lies in a cot of an isolated riverside hut !! ]. Similarly, Who comes out of the jaiil, What happens when he is released kind of questions.. In the previous days, films starts with a song considering late coming audiences [ ப‌ட‌ம் ஆரம்பிச்சி ரொம்ப‌ நேர‌ம் ஆச்சுங்க‌ளா.. [ நேர‌ம் ஆகி இருந்தாலும் ].. இல்லைங்க‌.. இப்ப‌ம் தான்.. ஒரு 5 நிமிச‌ம் இருக்கும்.. காலை மிதிக்க‌றீங்க‌ பிர‌த‌ர்.. :) ]. The movie then travels from 2008 to 1980.

The three elements shown in the film are friendship, love and perfidy.

Friendship part is shown so naturally. The 5 friends Azhagar, Paraman, Kasi, Dopu, Dumkaan spend time in Sithan sound services. For me, drinking tea or having a fag can depict the friendship fluidly [ that's what we do when we gather.. டீ சொல்டா ம‌ச்சான்.. அப்டியே 2 கிங்ஸ்..] They are jobless but happy. They spend their quality time in Sithan's shop, local bar, bus stand, tea shop, cinema theatre. But everyone has their own idea about living. Azhagar falls in love with Thulasi. Paraman somehow doesn't accept this as she is from the ex-councilor’s family. They believe that the family helps them during troubles. The beauty is they don't even own a cycle - they use sithan's cycle. This shows their social status and been used later cleverly when they take another cycle for a purpose. Paraman angrily gets involved in whenever Azhagar falls in any trouble and they are very close friends except Paraman warns Azhagar about his love.

Love : The burden of telling a love tale is reduced tremendously when you have the right casting in place. Swathi was the perfect choice for Thulasi and her eyes do more then what the director wanted to convey [ Swathi vandhaa Sasikumar-i marandhuduven :) ]. Azhagar and Thulasi share very less dialogues in the film. Sometimes, a song can speak for the director and Kangall Irandaal song speak volumes of their love. Watch out for the fantastic costumes worn by the Azhagar and Thulasi in the song. [ Thaavani and blouse are in same colour as in 1980s.. Saamee ! ].

Betrayal: In the outlook, everyone was playing their part quite well. The characters are introduced with their mindset and qualities.. For example.. Kasi favours people of his caste and in need of money, always. But when there's an issue everything gets different and the problem begins from there. And the consequences were shocking and gory. The trigger comes from the ex-Counselor’s wife insulting him and the cascading effect in the family. Kanagu mentions this as 'Pombalainga kooda madhikalainaa apram enna'. This triggers the team and the rest changes their lives. The betrayal is shown when the victim(s) stop opposing what happens to them like Azhagar, Paraman, Kanjaa karuppu, Kanagu, Thulasi. It's not just one betrayal but it's a chain. Kanagu expresses anger, insult, pain, vengeance, cunningness fluidly in his eyes, body language and performance. The betrayal makes us stunning as the characters become motionless and express their inability to digest the treachery.

I favour the best part as the screenplay and the casting. Director Sasi has done a wonderful n bold job.

What are the elements you can think of 1980s ? Paavadai thavani, bell bottom, rippled hair style, bearded youngsters, Rajinikanth cinema, Lamby scooter, wired chair, green ambassadar car, Radio news and Saroj Narayanswamy, Idhayak kani MGR rikshaw stand, Ilayaraja songs, LP records [ Melodies of Yesudoss ], large cone shaped speakers, betromax lights, Solidaire 4 band TV with distorted images and dots [ we had tri-coloured aditional screen for a BW TV, TV antenna at the height of a eucalyptus tree, boosters :) ], Thiraigaanam, Neyar viruppam, advertisement in cycle bar area, Photo studios with flower designs background, rettai jadai and ribbon [ Ribbon vacha ore heroine - thani para-la vachikkaren ], Mahalakshmi dollar, jimiki, big buckled belt, cinema posters, wall advertisements [ eyetex / tortoise / narasus coffee ], coffee bar with family rooms, sithan sound services, Jatkaa, cycles. These observations are the success of the art director Rembon.B and costumer K.Natarajan [ New guys ]. Though it's illogical for the local guys to have such a great wardrobe, we can ignore it in the name of appreciatiing the taste.

Music.. IR is a musicpedia.. Anyone can refer his music, songs in any of the Tamil films. The film starts with a serious title music with showing the shady n dark night life of Madurai [ Similar to one shown in "Kaadhal" ]. Apart from the mesmerising songs, James used IR's 'Siru ponmani asaiyum' so aptly in this movie for the lovers and the Muratu Kaalai song for a celebration in the threatre. Watching Rajini movie's first show is definitely a celebration. I easily forgot the 'Kallukull eeram' version of Siru ponmani asiyum and remember this [ Similarly, I relate Mambazhaam maambazam Vijay song to Anjathey's area light music party - Sathya.. Sarakku saapduvamaa :) ].

The heroine introduction is so poetic with the bits from Kangall irandaal song in piano and flute and of course, the most catchy song in the film [ "pEsa enni sila naall" line resembles "Thanimayile oru raagam" song - of course, we can leave this as the composition is for 1980s ]. Similarly, the Thiruvizhaa sequence [ the black humour creates a sag in the movie ] score is good. James Vasanthan did a wonderful job in his debut film.

Thulasi. the heroine with "i-max" eyes and a beautiful smile :).. I better take the help of Na.Muthukumar to talk about her.
க‌றுப்பு வெள்ளை பூக்க‌ள் உண்டா
உன் க‌ண்ணில் நான் க‌ண்டேன்.. உன் க‌ண்க‌ள்
வ‌ண்டை உண்ணும் பூக்க‌ள் என்பேன்.. ‍ ‍ நா.முத்துக்குமார்.

Cinematographer, SRKathir did a sparkling job, catching the true colours of the town. In fact, it's not only the story of the people but also about their town. There's a chasing scene where Azhagar and kasi are chased by some other gang. That's one of the finest chases in gullies of a village with an appropriate background score. Except the lengthy Thiruvizhaa scene, everything else perfectly fits the movie. There's long walk by Kasi in the introduction and the same long walk is cleverly used at the end of the movie. One of the most stunning climaxes, I have ever seen.

Every scene and dialog is carefully penned and used to connect one or the other part of the movie. The movie has an element of suspense too. Also, the dialog carries the justification of the characters activities. Every frame shows the meticulously worked script and execution. Even the fights [ fights with rickshaw drivers and local thugs in the theatre .. Stunts by : Rajasekar ] were depicted with a natural effect. Thanks to the master for not cheapening the fights with silambattam or maan kombu fights :). ந‌ல்ல‌ வேளை..ஜ‌ல்லிக்க‌ட்டு / ரேக்ளா ரேஸ் எல்ல‌ம் வ‌ச்சி ஹிம்சிக்க்லைங்க‌ !

It’s easier to understand the movie when you watch it for the second time. I watched this movie in a theatre and the whole crowd was jumping and shouting for most of the scenes.. Siru ponmani asaiyum song, Kangalla irandaal song, the revenge, Subramaniapuram theme song. The crowd cheers for the goriest murder too. The film has been released in DVD format from Moserbaer.

When I had a chat with Sudesamithran, he mentioned that Sasikumar is from a wealthy family [ owns a theatre it seems ] and the film was shot in 16mm camera [ a low budget format ! ]. Shankar travelled to Los Angels to pick n train the 3rd row dancers for Style song in Sivaji in AVM's budget.. Enna kodumai Sir idhu ??!!

I remember seeing Paraman chasing Thulasi in the trailer as well as in the posters. But it is not shown in theatre/DVD. i don't know what happens to Thulasi ??!!

Towards the end Paraman says this..

நாலு காசு ச‌ம்பாதிக்க‌லைன்னாலும் ச‌ந்தோஷ‌மாத் தான‌டா திரிஞ்சோம்..

How true it is ! I remember a good friend recently recollecting his earlier days and asked 'Why the hell did we grow ?! ". Whether we accept or not, it happens !

-Toto.

Gilly of Gully :)

2009-07-01T00:06:00.015+05:30

Fine entertainment from the Sharks and Rockers teams.

When did you laugh out loud while watching a movie ? If you can't remember, just watch this movie, even if you have watched it already. Luckily, in Tamil cinema industry, we have so many good films based on humour. One such gem is 'Chennai - 600028'.

I still wonder the guts of Venkat prabhu and SPCharan to convince SPB to produce this movie. Either they have narrated him and explained extremely well or they just gave a try. I would rather assume the first one, as the script is so convincing to believe whatever shown on screen.

The movie starts with SPB's voice over giving an an introduction about gully cricket and what can be expected from the movie. [ as in NILA NIZHAL novel by Sujatha - He once visited Srinagar and observed kids playing cricket on a frozen lake. That inspired him to write a novel with cricket background and of course he was a good player too ].

Story

Cricket is the life of the story, with 2 rival teams [ Sharks and Rockers ] involved in it. Rockers Raghu moves from Royapuram to Visalakshi thottam [ Sunnambu kaalvaai ]. The cricket ground rivalry gets in to the ground as well as their personal lives.What happens then is the story. As SPB narrates in the beginning, the friends go through intimate friendship, love, joyful moments, rivalry, dances, celebration, fights, problems and above all CRICKET.

At one time or the other, we all have played cricket [ at least book cricket :) ] or been to ground saying so. With cricket as the main ingredient, the writer slowly assembled the story in bits and pieces. In fact, its a combination of events rather than a story with some purpose. Hats off to the script and dialogues [ not only Venkat Prabhu - his associate Saseedharan and Sripathy - always repect the team work ]. The beauty of the narration is that all the prime characters were introduced in the first 12 mins of the movie.

The first credit goes to SPB who took a bold decision to produce this movie. The sports movies are always told seriously in most of the cases. First time, they have combined cricket and humour. We have watched variety of humour ranging from Kali N Rathnam to 'lollu sabha' santhanam. This type of humour doesn't fit anywhere what we have experienced earlier [ Even the crazy Mohan dialogues ]. A set of friends talk and through out the movie [ almost ! ] I never felt that they speak some written dialogues. I heard once that Venkat prabhu asked the crew to chat casually and captured some of the wits came out of the conversation. Also, the characters get equal opportunities to enact their roles [ including the character Rockers team captain John ].

Dialogues are used with almost freshness without looking for the grammar of cinema dialogues.. [ Somebody hits the ball outside the ground and Siva going out to get the ball says pOdaa poramboku :) ]. I remember my school friends used to utter the best available tamil words, damaging the entire family, if a catch or 4 is missed.

Editing needs a special mention as the lengthy game cricket can't be shown over by over in a movie. It would be different for other games [ 10 round boxing was interestingly edited in 'Cinderella man', children's cycle race in 'Children of heaven' - Adhaane.. endgadaa kanamenu nenachen :) ] but it's really tough to edit a cricket match [ thought it's 15 overs ] by showing the gist of the match. The credit goes to Lenin sir.

Yuvan Shankar raja has done a fabulous job with his songs. My favourites are " Un paarvai mele pattaal [ What a song , Vaali at his best as usual ] - Vijay Yesudoss ", "Yaaro - SPB" and of course 'Saroja.. saamaan nikaalo' [ beautiful dance number.. A simple catchy line used by a setji in Mudhalvan ]. Premji Amaren apart from his casual role, has taken care of the background score. Equal to YSR, he has done a fantastic job - he is very brilliant in choosing some old movie songs and music [ Pothi vacha mallaigai mottu, Aboorva saogodharargall sad theme, sax theme for Arvind's love, guitar for a break in friendship, yaaro theme for another love, cricket theme ]. All the music used in the background easily fits the visuals, just like a glove.

Sometimes, a clever crazy Mohan dialogue or a catchy timing of Prabhudeva might be easily missed in a movie. Similarly, when I watched it first time, I couldn't follow much of 'Badawa' Gopi's cricket commentary. Second time, I was able to capture them and listed here. The dialogues are so natural.

என்ன‌டா இன்னைக்கி க்ரவுண்டே ஜிலோனு இருக்குது..

அந்த‌ர் ப‌ண்ணிட‌லாம்டா ம‌ச்சான்

" உத‌டு கிட்ட‌ வ‌ந்து டைம் என்னானு கேட்டா ம‌ச்சி.. ::: ஏய்.. வாட்ச் இன்னா வாய்ல‌யா வ‌ச்சிருந்த.."

"அறிவில்ல‌... :::: இதோ பின்னாடி தாண்டா இருக்கான் "

த‌ம்பி.. டாஸ் ஜெயிச்சிட்டீங்க‌.. சொல்லுங்க‌.. ஃபீல்டிங்கா..ப‌வுலிங்கா..

Snippets from Badawa Gopi's cricket commentary.

முல்லை பெரியாறை விட‌ பெரிய ஆறு.. [ Sixer :) ].

க‌ள‌த்திலே ப‌ள்ள‌மில்லை என்றாலும் ம‌ட்டையைத் த‌ட்டி த‌ட்டி..

கௌரி ஆன்ட்டி வீட்டு எண்ட்லிருந்து..திருப்ப‌தி ல‌ட்டு போல‌ ம‌ஞ்ச‌ளாக‌ ஒன்று வ‌ருகிற‌தே.. அதை தான் நீங‌க‌ள் அடிக்க‌ வேண்டும்

வெற்றிக் க‌னி ஜூஸ் வ‌டிவில் வ‌ருகிற‌து..

இடுப்பில் ட‌ய‌ர் வைத்திருக்கும்.. இஞ்சி இடுப்ப‌ழ‌க‌ன் ம‌ட்டை வீச‌ வ‌ருகிறார்..

ஐஸ்வ‌ர்யா ராய் நேரில் வ‌ந்து ந‌ம‌து சுமார் மூஞ்சி குமாரை எப்ப‌டி ஐ ல‌வ் யூ என்று சொல்ல‌ முடியாதோ.. அதே போல‌ 15 ஓவ‌ர்க‌ளில் 135 அடிப்ப‌து ந‌ட‌க்க‌ முடியாது.

Coincidentally [ God promise-aanga ], I happened to travel with Venkat Prabhu in the same Indian Airlines flight from HYD to Chennai [ IC936 -6.30 AM]. He was accompanied by another guy [ Asst director ] narrating a fight story between a police man and an army man [ VPrabhu paavamga.. 6.30AM flightla pasila kadhai kettu vandhirupaar ]. I had approached him and told that I watched Chennai - 600028 for the third time and it was so refreshing. He accepted the appreciation very humbly and told that the movie GOA will be ready for Diwali release.

the best dialogue is

லெக் சைட்ல‌ போட‌த‌டா.. ஆஃப் சைட்ல‌யே மைன்டைன் ப‌ண்ணு.. அடிக்க‌ரறாணுங்க‌ன்னு தெரியுதில்ல‌.. ம‌ச்சி .. 32 ர‌ன் தாண்டா அடிச்சிருக்கோம்.. பாத்துடா.. ப்ளீஸ்டா..

ஏ.. அவ‌ன் எப்ப‌டி போட்டாலும் அடிக்க‌றாண்டா !

:)
-Toto.

No Man's Land - Universal issue.

2009-06-22T00:06:00.009+05:30

No man's land.

" The war was never a good subject for a feature film. But frankly, my deepest opinion is it's not the subject that matters, it's the way you treat the subject that matters." - Director Danis Tanovic.

History always have specific pieces of land in dispute, where in two countries/states claim the ownership. There are so many examples like Kashmir, Kachatheevu, Sikkim, Belgaum [ inter states ]. This is common and every nation has its own no man's land. This film is based one such NML in Bosnian and Serb border. I would like to use the famous dialog of 'Flags of our fathers'

"Every jackass thinks he knows what war is.. Especially those who've never been in. We like things nice and simple, good and evil, heroes and villains. There are plenty of both. Most of the time, they are not who we think they are "

May be, whenever I come across any war based movies, I quote this dialog. Because the truth is war is just one more genre of movie for us. However, the movies make us to think more than when we read a news/book or going through a debate. There are 2 sets of people involved in the war. The authorities who decide when n where to attack and the other set of people who just follow the orders in the name of country/God/King.

The other important aspect f this film is land mine. [ தின‌த்த‌ந்தில‌ வ‌ருமே.. இளம் க‌வ‌ர்ச்சி க‌ன்னி வெடி ஸ்ரேயா‍‍ன்னு.. அதில்லை.. இது கண்ணி வெடி. :) ]. The total land mines planted in the world as per a reading are around 100 million. Don't worry, if you don't understand where Bosnia is and Why they fight with Serbs; it doesn't matter. You can think of any two fighting organizations and watch this movie. After all, we don't worry much about who dies at the end. Also, don't anticipate this as a documentary explaining why they fight and expect the fight to conclude at the end with 'Malarodu malar ingu' as in BOMBAY.

No Man's land/2001/Bosnian
Written & Directed by Danis Tanovic.
Music : Danis Tanovic

Story

A group of Bosnians travelling to their other camp, miss thier way out and get trapped in their enemy territory. After a clash, one of the Bosnian [ Chiki ] of them escape and hide in a trench. To confirm the finish of intrusion,2 serbs are sent to the the trench. They find one another Bosnian [ Cera ] and capture him inthe trench. To play, the serb plants a 'bouncing mine' under Cera. The idea is if Cera moves or moved, then the mine will explode making an impact within a greater radius. This depicts a problem and the personnel hiding in the trench. 2 Bosians and 2 Serbs with guns. Each one of them believes that they are right. What do they do is the first part of the story.

The next part involves UNPROFOR [ United Nations Protection Force ] and a news channel's English reporter who anticipates for some breaking news or live event in the unmanned place. What happens is the story and to my surprise, it has the utmost turns and twists, maximum possible with this minimal scope of the story.

View :

It is very easy to turn this script into a commercial action thriller types with Will Smith or some hero successfully completes the mission [ in the end kissing the news reporter :) ]. That might have entertained us but never makes us to think or read further. The thin line diverting from action thriller makes this war drama a memorable one. The movie questions a lot. A good cinema makes the audience to think or refer something after watching the movie.

The director is from Bosnia and surprisingly this doesn't lead him to make a biased movie. Instead, he shows how UN works. He treated the subject with humor sprinkled in the movie. Every scene has an interesting twist or at least a lead to something else. The pain, pride, friendship, enmity among the soldiers are shown visually and with dialogues. Things which the Serbs do [ planting mine under Cera ], lead to many complications. The involvement of UN soldiers, their restrictions in unknown fields and their bureaocratic leaders sitting in high command offices, making their spontaneous decisions [ passing the buck ! ] are subtly inserted in the story.

The Global News channel reporter is fantastically captured [ couldn't resist thinking of our NDTV/IBN/Times reporters anticipating breaking news or live events ]. As a news machine, she wants to tape everything on the war ground. For media, it's just the news. The involvement of layers like army superiors, UN army, UN superiors, news reporters change the course of action. So whatever we see or read as the news is definitely not the truth or as it is exactly happened. It is applicable right from the life of Kings to the recent happening in Srilanka. We assume that we know the truth which actually may not be.

Though the movie depicts this situation with humor, I would not want to divert the readers that this as a lighter movie. It's a kind of black comedy [ Ex : enna elavu kazhuvara keiyila thinganum.. avlo dhaan - Esakki in Devar Mahan ]. The Bosnian and Serb soldier confront in many places and sometimes find common things between them.

The arguments the soldiers have, the problems of Cera lying on the mine, their wish to smoke, Cera trying to take a leak, cold-blooded UN operations, inhuman hunger for news by the media and so many other aspects leave us stunned. Cinematography and sound editing are the notable work in this movie. Sudden gun shots, bombing walking on gravel - all such minute sounds are perfectly used.

Conclusion

This movie won the academy award for the best foreign language film in 2001. As I mentioned, the war concept shown is universally true and people from any part of the globe can relate the story with the war, they know - this can range anything from Hogenakkal water issue to Israel-Palestenian conflict.[ Pazham vere.. aana prachnai onnu dhaan :) ].

A wonderful war drama which has to be defintely in your list of movies.

"கொலை குத்த‌ம்னா.. யுத்த‌மும் குத்த‌ம். Isn't it ?!" - Sriram Abhayankar. [ If you ask me who's this, I'll better stop writing about cinema !!! ].

-Toto.

Kikujiro - A touching travel.

2009-06-14T13:49:00.018+05:30

Kikujiro na natsu [ Summer of Kikujiro ]

Play this music in the background while reading this blog [ Oru effect dhaan ! ]. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa0JAvjx05c

" After 'Hana-Bi', I couldn't help feeling that my films were being stereotyped: So I decided to try and make a film no one would expect from me " - Takeshi Kitano.

Once a creator reaches this idea, the next project would be one of his best. A creator has to disconnect from his previous work and the next one [ Remember Minnale and Kaaka kaaka; Nayagan, Agni Natchathiram, Geetanjali and Anjali ]. Variety keeps the art live.

Few things about the director.. Takeshi Kitano is an all-rounder; he started his career as a standup comedian as two beats in Japan [ reason for his other name Beat Takeshi ]. He is a multi-skilled personality; actor, script writer, director, editor, painter and has good knowledge in music. Due to a conflict while acting in a film 'Violent cop', he turned as the director for the movie, accidentally. Till Hana-bi, he worked with the same type of gangster stories with enormous violence and different method of storytelling. Kikujiro is a different craft from his shop. After a fatal accident in 1989, Takesh started working more extensively [ realising 'Life is beautiful' ! ]. He's also a visiting professor in one of the Japanese universities.

Kikujiro : This film needed 4 important elements. Masao [ 9 yrs old boy ], Joe Hisaishi [ Music director ], Yanagishima [ cinematographer ] and Takeshi Kitano [ Editor & Director ]. All of them blended well and the final product is just awesome.

Kikujiro na natsu [ Kikujio's summer ] - 1999/Drama/Japan
Cast : Yusuke Sekiguchi, Takeshi Kitano
Music : Joe Hisaishi
Cinematography : Katsumi Yanagishima
Edited & Directed by : Takeshi Kitano.

Plot :

Masao, 9 years old n sensitive boy lives with his working grandma in the sub-urban of Tokyo. He doesn't have a father and mother stays in a far away town, whom he never met. Summer vacation starts and all the friends of Masoe leave the town for holidays. Masoe is left alone. He finds his mother's photo and address while searching for a stamp. With little money and little knowledge on directions, he walks out of the home and heads towards the address. Takeshi is an irresponsible, loud mouthed person and his wife was a neighbor once to Masoe's family. They find this boy on his way, to go out of the town. Thinking about the risk, she asks her husband Takeshi to accompany the kid to his mother's place and gives some money. The highly mismatched friends start the journey. Takeshi's wife later convinces Masao's grandma that they are taking him to the seaside.

Takeshi has the least interest in taking the boy to the address and starts spending his money in useless ways. The film is all about their journey and the colorful characters they meet, the strange circumstances they undergo which comes out as a wonderful experience. Both end up their search, in a different and unforgettable way.

View :

- It's an elliptical style narration. I mean, the film starts and ends with the same shot [ Masao running in a bridge ]. Watch out for the first 7 minutes titling and theme music [ Fabulous one from Joe Hisaishi ]. Look for the bell sounds in between and it has a meaning. [ Mani sathathula ennadaa meaning.. Unnai keppaare illaiyaa :) ]

- The characters are introduced very rapidly with fewer dialogues. For ex., Takeshi's wife says 'we were neighbors’ to justify her concern for the boy. Takeshi is introduced with his brash attitude and his wish to grab easy money. Masao talks less and filled up with unknown sadness. The alienation of Masao is picturized by a long shot in a soccer field with him, a ball and an empty ground. Class !

- The journey begins with an irresponsible Takeshi and a sad n eager boy, where the chemistry between them doesn't work out at all. The friction is carried out through out their journey and events slowly change the relation.

- The story focuses on the alienation and the nuclear family structure in Japan. The story is narrated with different headings as found in the Masao's diary.

- In a highway motel, Takeshi breaks the glass window of a truck for not getting a lift. That follows a fight sequence. The entire fight sequence is shown in a long shot without any music. A simple and ideal fight which is never shown in that angle. Takeshi never shows the actual fight but he shows the consequences [ Remember the hospital fight in Anjathey :) ].

- The characters : a juggler, her boy friend, a story writer, 2 bikers get introduced and mingles with the story fluidly. Takeshi's comic acts balance the kid's sadness.

- The camp they setup in a riverside and the games they play were really touching one. All the grown-ups just return to their childhood and entertain Masao. Those sequences are interesting and I couldn't accept when they depart. Also, when Masao runs in the end with joy, it leaves an emotional feeling about that kid. The emotion we get when we finish the vacation - a strange feeling which I undergone after the news break in the Sunday evening TV films [ next day school-la enna nadakumo :) ]. Like the feeling during the return journey after a get-together [ ம‌ச்சான்.. நான் அடையார்‍ல‌ இற‌ங்கிக்க‌றேன்டா.. அதான் கிட்ட‌ :) ].

- Takeshi, meanwhile remembers his mother and that sub-plot is a poem by itself. The cello music used in this episode [ The track is named 'Mother' in the soundtrack of this film ] is directly used in the movie "Anjathey"'s climax :) . In Nandalala, it comes with a song, I guess.. [ அம்மா ஒன்ன‌ப் பாத்தா.. வார்த்தை வ‌ல்ல‌ மேல‌.. -Check the song 'Thaalatu Ketka naanum' by IR ]

- Joe Hisaishi - The music director is basically a pianist who has done his part extremely well. The theme music is used in various part of the movies with various instruments [once in violin, cello, just piano etc., ].

- The visuals/lighting elevates the movie to another level. The colors used in the journey are excellent.

Conclusion :

I would recommend this movie for the entire family. Similar to 'In the mood for love', this film also talks about the loneliness and alienation in life. It's a delightful story with an intelligent script, brilliant cinematography and an enchanting score. No wonder Mysskin's office contains only one portrait, where Takeshi Kitano smiles.

Looking forward eagerly for the Tamil movie Nandalala, inspired from Kikujiro.

-Toto.

Paradise now & RONIN.

2009-06-12T22:39:00.008+05:30

RUSH Films.
Endorphin rush - PARADISE NOW.

Of late, I came across the term 'Endorphin rush', which is induced by physical exercise and it leads to the state 'sense of accomplishment'. Why do I attach endorphin rush to a film ? [ ippadi dhideernu kettaa eppadinga.. Eppadiyum link panniduven :) ].

Though I am film freak, I used to know about history/life. more through films. 'Hotel Rwanda' showed me the recent Rwandan genocide [ 1994 ], the fights between Hutu and tsotsi. 'Road to Guantanamo' documentary helped me to understand the way Gitmo works. 'The Pianist' painfully registered the holocaust in Poland. Similarly, we have this 'Israel-Palestine' conflict. If a film can get a bit of pain, what they undergo there, I think it's the success of the creator.

Paradise now - 2005/Arab
Written & Directed by : Hany Abu-Assad

Said and Khalid are friends working in a Palestinian city Nablus. Said has a girl friend 'Suha' and her father was a martyr. Said and Khalid are selected as suicide bombers to plan an attack in Tel Aviv, by their friend Jamal. Before that night, Said meets Suha to return her car keys, and has a chat with her about her father's religious death, and what options the Palestinians have in their handling with Israel.

Next day, they speak about their mission to their family and gets the bombs strapped to their body. Either they have to die or come back to the camp to defuse the bombs by the expert. They get into Israel.. What happens then is the emotional story of these 2 'human' bombs. I used the word 'human' because they think about the impact and their act.

The film easily conveys the message of the story. The characters are very few in the movie and it shows the bigger picture of the missions they carry out.

I was touched by the final speech given by the victims. He says after the speech to his mother to buy something, revealing beyond country, religion and others, they love the family.

The arguments made by Suha are worthy to watch. Of course, her dialogue justifies the title. 'Paradise is myth.. it's here.. it's now and there's no paradise up in the sky'.

The film ends with a shot leaving the imagination to the audience.. What happened is up to the audience. I remember 'Terrorist by Santhosh Sivan and 'Uyire' by Manirathnam Sir are of the same category.

This is the first Palestinian film nominated for the academy award. There are around 40 other films made on this Arab Israeli conflict. [ Remember Spielberg's MUNICH ]. This film gave the sense of satisfaction that I didn't miss a nice drama.

===

RONIN

We come across one more rush called 'Adrenaline rush' in life reacting to stress. It secretes when we are excited, riding in roller coaster etc., I watch action movies to change the mood from the classics - I appreciate any good movie of any genre.

Seven Samurai - a Japanese movie came in 1954 and this movie made an tremendous impact in the west [Magnificent seven, etc., are based on 7 samurai]. Ronin is one such movie. Different talented and unrelated guys form a team for a common mission. Ronin means a Samurai without lord or master. The interesting thing in this film is the body language of the ronin - they don't get into action just for heroism. The masters do it with less words spoken.

Film : RONIN [ 1998/Action ]

Cast : Robert de niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone

Direction : John Frankenheimer

- The story is simple. A team of different experts formed to steal a mysterious suitcase from another gang with all possible twists and turns [ both in story and in locations :) ]. The first 25 mins prepares you for the 'adrenaline rush' later.

- This movie is meant for the deadly car chases in the narrow roads of Europe [ Paris, Nice, Arles ].

- The other important characters are the cars.. Audi S8, Peugeot 406, a Citroën Xantia, a BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 . :)

- Robert de niro is like Kamalhassan - he justifies whatever the role he plays. You believe him as an ex agent ; that's the power of his performance. For his best, watch 'RAGING BULL'.

Just chill out with RONIN. Action oriented entertainment guaranteed.

-Toto.

The Killing.. Shining.. Thrilling.

2009-06-10T22:07:00.009+05:30

Shining Stanley.. Killing Kubrick [ What a sensational title :) ]

If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed. - Stanley Kubrick

The Killing/1956/Action-thriller
Photographed and directed by : Stanley Kubrick.

To introduce Stanley Kubrick [ SK ], Quentin Tarantino is a great fan of SK [ Suththam :) ]. The killing is a film about a big plan connected with a busy race-track on a specific day.. An ex criminal released from the jail plans for a big-time heist with picking up people of various occupations with one need in life - money. A group of different personalities are formed without revealing their exact part. An ex criminal, his old friend, a bar tender, a counter officer, corrupted policeman, shooter and a wrestler [ and a gravel-voiced narrator - may be thought as GOD ! ]. Confusing right ? Definitely not when you see the final outcome of their plan. They form a time-table for the heist and what happens exactly is the film is all about. Of course, fate and morality are to be considered. :)

The film begins from the very first scene and the intelligence n non-linear narration keeps the audience busy in who's doing what and why ? The narration is just like joining various jigsaw puzzles to form the complete picture. Somewhere I read that 35 different segments happen together to form the final act.

It starts slowly with a hose race and haunting theme music. The narration talks about different timings of the day and happenings with respect to the characters. The drawback in non-linear narration is that shots are overlapped and repeated [ remember Virumandi ! ] but the top intelligent director gives a different meaning every time he repeats or overlaps a shot/scene. The non-linear structure makes the film more interesting. The hidden element of the movie is fate.

A must watch thriller which is 53 years old. It's listed in AOL's top 25 thrillers [ that's how I selected this movie.]
======

Shining/1980/Supernatural thriller [based on Stephen King's novel ]
Directed by : Stanley Kubrick.

"I am interested in giving my audience a real scare" - Stanley Kubrick

The psychology of horror film is not to show the ugly ghost, rather making the audience to anticipate it. The anxiety is the exact feeling about seeing a horror genre of films. I would simply say SHINING is the mother of all horror movies.

This movie is not the worst clichéd style of horror movies where in 4 pairs [ exactly :) ] go to a beach resort and getting killed one by one. Non-sense. Instead, an abandoned hotel with just 3 characters, is used as the centre point of the film.

Plot :

The film talks about the happenings of a story writer, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson - his eye brows and vague smile adds value to his character ). He gets an offer to work as the winter caretaker at a hotel which gets almost abandoned by heavy snowfall in the winter season. Jack reaches the hotel with his wife and son Danny [ 6 yrs old ]. During the closing day [ beginning for the audience :) ], the psychic hotel chef identifies something unusual with Jack's son Danny. Danny has the ability to detect ghostly presences in the hotel. The chef calls this talent as "SHINING". Once the hotel becomes snowbound, Jack is occupied by the ghosts in the hotel and then the story begins :)

Brilliant story. Abandoned hotel.. Heavy snowfall.. [ No difference between day n nights ! ]. The film starts with an aerial shot of Jack driving in a small car to reach the hotel. The most important element in horror film is the music. The visual has to be backed up with appropriate n haunting score. Stanley Kubrick is the pioneer in using the steadicam in the film industry. A technology has to be used to enhance the story telling and improve the visuals. I couldn't resist recollecting the irritating time-slice cut used by Shankar in BOYS and 360 degree rotating shots in Vettaiyaadu vilayaadu [ Enna Kodumainga ! ].

Stanley Kubrick is an essential film maker in the film history. His other works are

2001 : A space odyssey
Spartacus
Clockwork orange
Eyes wide shut

I am yet to watch the above list.

-Toto.

Uthirip Pookall - Bloomed only once !

2009-06-07T14:17:00.011+05:30

"If I get anywhere near what Mahendran sir did in Uthirip pookkall, I’ll be a happy man."
- Director Manirathnam.

There are 2 types of directors. Director and director of directors. Tamil film industry possesses the richest chain of great directors. There are few who are predominantly portrayed in this category, starting from Sridhar to Ameer. Mahendran is one such GEM in the industry.

If literary works are properly used, it will turn into fine cinema. Uthirip pookkall is one such great example. Mahendran read the [ only ] short-novel of Pudumaipithan - Sitrannai and fascinated towards the children Raja and kunju. He then developed them into his own version of film. Mahendran had earlier worked with 28 different projects starting from his first movie 'Naam moovar' [ Story writer ]. This includes Thangap padakkam, Kali, adu puli attam etc., The 29th project is Mullum Malarum produced by Venu Chettiar of Anandi films, which was a grand success and fed fresh air in Tamil cinema. Mahendran worked initially in Thuglak for 3 years, writing cinema reviews in the section 'Post mortem' - a good friend of Cho.

This film is all about people, their nature, feelings and stubbornness in their stand. I admire the way the characters are etched, visual narration of story. He wrote pages of dialogues when he was a story writer and when started his direction career he implemented visual narration with bare minimum dialogues. To add, he was accompanied by the top talent of those times Ashokkumar, b.Lenin and Ilaiyaraja.

Uthirip Pookkall - Drama/1979/Tamil

Produced,written & Directed by : Mahendran.

Music : Ilaiyaraja

Cinematography : Ashokkumar

Plot :

Sundara vadivelu [ Vijayan as Su.va. ] is a rough natured school correspondent who has his physically weak and soft spoken wife Lakshmi and 2 kids Raja & Bhavani. Lakshmi's sister Shenbagam and their father live in the same village. Lakshmi's father owes a big sum to Su.Va. Also, Su.Va has an eye on Shenbagam. The entire village is unhappy with Su.Va's behaviour.

Prakash, a new teacher arrives to the village and later harassed by Su.Va. Prakash develops love with Shenbagam. Meanwhile, Sarath and his wife Premi, come to the same village to work in the health centre. Sarath is an old neighbor of Lakshmi [ before her marriage ] and even he proposes his wish to marry her, to her father. But it was late then as she was engaged with Su.Va. Su.Va. approaches his father-in-law for getting his second marriage with Shenbagam. Every one opposes this atrocious decision. He doubts his wife's relation with Sarath and keeps her separated. Sarath, feeling guilty for this, leaves the village.

The village people raise strongly against him this time but Su.Va. cares nobody.With his mother's support, he marries another girl from the next village. Prakash gets the permission from Shenbagam's father for their marriage. Meanwhile, something happens and that leads to the finest climax ever shot in Tamil films.

View :

- Mahendran meticulously developed his characters so that they look unique and stubborn till the end of the story. Even the local barber Samikannu has got one of the finest supporting character roles. Nobody looses their character in the flow of the story. Mahendran was so courteous to offer a sum to Pudhumai pithan's family though he was just inspired by the work.

- The film starts with the flutes music in title and a cliched folk song of IR [ Sentiment Sithravadhai :) GAmaran did the damaging lyrics]. The story starts from the health officer Sarath and the teacher Prakash reaching the village.

- Watch out for the brilliant and villainous performance of K.Vijayan. Though he delivers rationed dialogues, his looks and grim face expresses a lot more about what he thinks. He is one of the best villains portrayed in Dhoti/Jibba/Shirt [ My other favorites are G.Umapathy in agni Natchathiram and Thilagan in Chathriyan ]. Each and every word uttered by Vijayan carries his thoughts. His introduction shows his complete character [ Ennaya sattai pottirukke.. Cinemakaran maadiri ! ]. Sparkling dialogues and close expressions showing his complex, anger and vengance.

- Aswini as Lakshmi. The way Mahendran selected her was interesting. Mahendran was looking for Lakhmi's role and his friend in Bangalore was in a loss that time with a movie produced using Aswini as heroine. That sad face fascinated Mahendran and his Bangalore friend begged him not to use her as she is considered bad, sentimentally. Mahendran was adamant and he succeeded in finding the first homely lady portrayal in Tamil cinema [ even Shoba has the traces of cinema ]. Grim looked, rarely smiling and emotionally packed Aswini's performance was a major element in this movie.

- I can't easily leave other characters as just 'others' [ matrum palar ! ]. Chaaruhasan [ first film ], Sundar, Madhumalini, Charulatha, Master Raja, Baby Anju, Samikannu, Bhoopathy, Sarathbabu, Premi, Vijayan's mother [ few of them are from Kannada industry ] - every one of them was utilised fully. I was touched by the performance of the barber Samikannu and his dialogue 'Naan ambattanaa porandhadhu en paavamyaa' with tears in his eyes. The movie has fewer dialogues but they are as sharp as paper cutter. Charuhasan says after hearing the 2nd marriage proposal from Vijayan .. 'Naan nalla thagappanaa irukken.. brokeraa illai'.

- There's a scene where Prakash swims easily in the river and warned by the assistant of Su.Va. that periyavar doesn't like anybody swimming as he doesn't know swimming. This was used in the later part of the movie. In another scene, Su.Va warns Prakash not to roam behind Shenbagam. He asks Prakash to drink the tea before the dialogues and once he conveys his thoughts, he'll ask Prakash to keep the tea and go back to class.

- To convey his 2nd marriage thought to his wife, Vijayan does some unusual stuffs like buying flowers to her, taking her to cinema and hotel. She eagerly walks out and sees the sky. The director conveys the same with the local barber uttering the dialog 'Amma sandhoshamaa irukaanga.. Innaiku mazhai vara pogudhu'. Azhagiya kanne music is used in that situation and IR rules.

- There's fight scene between Sarath and Vijayan. Vijayan turns furiously towards Sarath and the visuals are shown for strong wind, furious river. The next shot shows Sarath washing his bloody lip in the river water and he collects his glasses/foot wear scattered in the bank. I really wonder the shock Mahendran created among the so called unrealistic fight sequences in Tamil films. ச‌ண்டையைக் கூட‌ க‌விதையா சொல்லி இருப்பார்.

- IR needs a special mention not only for the brilliant composition of 'Azhagiya Kanne' [ HINDU once mentioned this song as Monalisa of music :) ] but also his themes for various characters and sequences. He bridges the silences of the characters and audience with his music. He aptly uses the Azhagiya Kanne music in apt situations. Kannadasan wrote the stupendous lyrics and the song summarizes the entire story.

- Though Vijayan is shown as a villain, he has a soft corner for his kids. The dialogues he talk to his kids at the end was a disturbing one. The end title credit shows what is actually meant in the film title.

- B.Lenin [ his first film ] needs a special mention for his commitment in uplifting the goodness of a story teller. Before the first saranam of Azhagiya song, there's a flute music used where a flock of sheep is shown as visual - After that group of violins emerge and in parallel a single sheep jumps out in sync with the music. The editor described that piece of sync was appreciated in his editing. VT Vijayan assisted Lenin in this movie.

- Have you ever wondered when title card say 'DESIGNS : BHARANI' ? For example, before this film's release, the poster had a photo of aswini sadly sitting sadly with her 2 kids. This design promoted the movie as an unusual film and gave a good identity to the work. The same Bharani later spoiled the work called 'Johnny'. Though Johnny was a music based film, the promotions made the posters with Rajini angrily diving with an umbrella with multiple images in colours [ remember that ??!! ] - the poster set that it was an action film and Johnny suffered because of this. Mahendran told this. [ Dei.. Unaku mattum eppadaa sonnaru :) ].

- Mahendran was introduced as assistant director to kasilingam in Kanchi Thalaivan film by MGR. MGR watched Uthirip pookkall and became emotional, it seems. He said to Mahendran that 'I'll sleep peacefully today' which meant a lot to Mahendran.

Conclusion.

Director Vasanth [ though I don't admire him ] said he would filter 1 in 1000, 1 in 100, 1 in 25, 1 in 10 and finally just 1 best Tamil film and that is Uthirip pookkall. The impact it made on Tamil directors and writers was tremendous. The same year 1979 opened the gate for Balu mahendra for Azhiyadha kolangall, his first Tamil venture.

Uthirip pookkall is highly considered par with any of the best films made in the wolrd cinema [ except the 2 junk songs in female voices .. poda poda bokkai and one more SPSailaja song ].

Mahendran once quoted that 'Even if I try out again, I can't reproduce what I have achieved in Uthirip pookkall'. Great ! I salute this 30 years old n fantastic film.

-Toto.

25th BLOG :)

2009-06-06T00:21:00.003+05:30

Friends.. Thanks for the sparkling n cheerful responses and support. I ve reached 25th blog !

Coming soon.

"If I get anywhere near what HE did in this Tamil film, I’ll be a happy man."

- Director Manirathnam.

-Toto.

Adadaa vaa asathalaam - New good songs

2009-06-02T00:35:00.010+05:30

1. Oru Vetkam varudhe
Film : Pasanga
Singers : Naresh Iyer/Shreya Goshal
MD : James Vasanthan

The song starts with the James's choir brand [:) ] and flows fluidly. The song slightly touches the humming in thendral vandhu ennai thodum song [ Tharadhath tharadhaa ] and Hishaisi's piano from Kikujiro [ Nallaa dhanadaa irundhe ! ]. The voices are fantastic in this song. I admire lyrics of Thamarai - a true n fabulous KAVITHAAYINI in Tamil cinema.

The picturisation was done extremely well so that you feel the rain when you see that song in theatre. The heroine got beautiful... [ irungappaa varen :) ] eyebrows. Mannil indha kaadhal song got a line called 'Villeriyum puruvam' - this heroine Vega got that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpncS6zECB0

2. Leysaa parakudhu
Film : Vennila Kabadi kuzhu
Singers : Karthik-Chinmayi
MD : V.Selvaganesh

Remember the old song 'Meham karukudhu.. mazhai vara paakudhu' from Anandha Ragam, Sivakumar movie. This song resembles that tune but the lines are as cute as Saranya Mohan [ Ennaikaavadhu hero pathi pesi irukkiyaa nee :) ]. The songs uses a melody base and the instrument gatam .. U know why.. yes.. The MD is the son of Vikku Vinayak ram. The other gatam based song is 'Narumugaiye' from the classic IRUVAR. I heard Chinmayi after a long time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEdErZbwKpo

3. Adadaa vaa asathalaam
Film : Sarvam
Singers : Ilayaraja, Andria
MD : Yuvan Shankar Raja

What a song ! One need to hear this in a high end music system. A peppy number from IR voice. Thank God he stopped those extremely sad graveyard numbers. The voice of Andria resembles Destiny's child [ song : Jumpin Jumpin ]. It's short song and the flute bit is spectacular. All said and done, I love this song very much. It's long time since IR sang some peppy number. I like IR's punnagaiyil minsaaram from Bharathan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eQbVPkRawQ

4. Sirugugall
Film : Sarvam
Singers : Javeed ali, Madhushree
MD : Yuvan Shankar Raja

It's a simple number from YSR. Javeed ali uses his high pitch to elevate the song and as usual Madhusree is talking something [ Konjal :) ].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eQbVPkRawQ

5. Un perai sollum

Film : Angaadi theru
Singers : Suresh Iyer [ Yaarmaa nee ! ], Shreya Goshal.
MD : GV Prakashkumar.

A folk like melody n good number from GV Prakashkumar with simple beat, flute and violin. Nice to hear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SxKycFX1wU&feature=PlayList&p=87765323C13C645B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=9

-Toto.

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso - My hometown theatres.

2009-05-31T23:38:00.015+05:30

I wanted to rebuild what the cinema hall used to be once; a sacred place where people used to know each other, to spend time together, to smile, and dream - Director Giuseppe Tornatore.

I started watching films in my school days at an above average level. I watch any kind of cinema starting from Telugu dubbing Chiranjeevi movies, MRRAdha's classic 'Rathak kaneer' to 'Schindlers list'. But I had the passion to watch them in theatres alone. I watch DVDs with a heavy heart that I could have enjoyed them much in theatre.

Once I remember my father dragged me out of Tamil exam in 4th standard to watch 'Salangai Oli' in Muralikrishna. My mother took me to 'Sakalakala vallavan' twice. Obviously, when I watched 'Cinema Paradiso', I just easily fixed me in that character where the boy's life is just made up of cinemas, he watched.

The other thing is friendship with a father-like senior [ Like paruthi veeran ] and this film deals with that bonding between a 6 yr old boy Toto and his father-like friend Alfredo.

Nuovo cinema paradiso [ New Cinema paradiso ] 1988/Drama/Italy

Music : Ennio Morricone

Written & Directed by : Giuseppe Tornatore.

Plot

The famous Italian director Salvatore gets a call from his mother with a news. He neither called his mother nor visited her for 30 years. But the message takes him back to his hometown. With that his childhood story comes in flashback.

6 years old Toto [ nick name of Salvatore ] helps the local pastor in the church and very passionate about movies. The small town has only one theatre called 'Cinema Paradiso'. He develops with a middle aged theatre projectionist Alfredo. Though Alfredo initially rejects him in the projection room, due to a deal he allows him to work with him in free time. They develop a strong bonding over the time and due to an issue, a new cinema paradiso is built with Toto as the projectionist. The story then flows with the adult Toto.

Toto falls in love with Elena in college and tries to develop the relation. Alfredo doesn't want Toto to fall in love and end his life in the small town. Somehow, the love doesn't become successful and they are separated. Alfredo strongly advices Toto to leave the town and never ever come back for any reasons to pursue his career. Meanwhile, Toto learns to shoot amateur videos.

The 3rd part of the story is the old Toto visiting his home town and spending time with his mother. Toto also finds Elena in the same town and they meet once to talk about their past. Alfredo's wife gives a parcel and film reel as a gift from Alfredo. Toto watches the reel in his personal projection theatre and runs with tears. He watches the best in that cinema reel which he was passionate in his childhood.

View

- As any good cinema, this starts from the first shot as you see 'FRANCO CRISTALDI PRESENTA'. The mesmerising piano + violin music prepares the audience to just attach with the story. As a good narration the movie starts with a flashback, where the movie director rewinds his childhood days in his native.

- The very first scene explains the characters that are introduced. The kid is introduced sleeping in a prayer session where he is supposed to help the pastor. A clever n mischievous boy who is enormously interested in cinema.

- Ennio Morricone needs a special mention for his sparkling score for this movie. He was involved in the movie right from the scripting phase and hence he lived with the story. That is proven in the music. One of the best theme music and soundtracks, in my collection.

- Editing games - Every scene connects with the next scene in a poetic manner.. For ex., The lightning in the first scene changes into the sunlight in the church, the scale blows by a teacher change into the leveling of film reel, small church bell turning into big school bell.. Even when Toto's mother cries about her husband, the boy is attracted towards a cinema poster.

- Alfredo - A perfect father who is tough in outlook but so soft in nature. He advices Toto not to enter projection operator job but wit a ideal he teaches him. His dialogues are almost made up of cinema dialogues as he watches every film almost 100 times.

- The scene where Alfredo talks to Toto was a fantastic piece. Go away and never come back to this town. This is an important dialog to a person who lives in a small town [ Remember the same dialog in 'Men of Honour' for Crawl Basheer from his father.. The intention is not to make the junior to suffer the same as they did in life ].I could understand the reality by being coming from a little town. Little town takes out the energy. The relation between Alfredo and Toto was amazing. A fatherless kid and a childless projectionist.

- The first love is of course shown as just an attraction at the first sight. The girl is not so attractive in this movie, I guess [ otherwise I would have written 2 paragraphs about her :) ].

- The best scene is after 30 years Toto tries to contact his ex lover and the conversation is shown in a single shot.. Zoom in shows the Toto in a public booth and zoom out shows Elena in a silhouette in her window.

- The dialog between Toto's mother and him after 30 years was a touching one.

- Cinema hall - It's a part of the people from that Sicily town.I couldn't resist thinking about my hometown theatres. I am one of the freaks who couldn't digest cinema theatres changing into malls and marriage halls. My hometown got only one theatre now. :( . The various characters in the movie are excellently portrayed including the theatre owner, pastor, his assistant, a prostitute and whom not.

- The morning school and the forenoon school shots are a beautifully communicated with a noisy children crowd and a silent horse walk.

- The adult Toto tries to impress Elena and the dialogues are nice. Also, the scene which old Toto meets Elena was poetic.

- Most of the dialogues uttered by Alfredo are from old movies and his life style was depicted neatly in the film. He heats his lunch in the old projection light box :)

- The cinema hall itself is a character in this movie. The stages it come across and it's end. I attach with the great theatres that were demolished in my time. [ ex : Ananda theatre in Pondicherry :( ].

Conclusion

I am fortunate to see the directors cut [ 173 mins ] of this movie - it was a treat to watch. I wondered how an Italian cinema has the traces of my childhood. I used to play marbles [ Goli ] in exchange for film stripes and marbles too.. [ Rajini films were costly :) ]

By seeing the cut films Toto adds the dialogue to that and also he collects those films in a box. I see myself in that character and hence my name :) .

- Toto.

Kadhal - Film in a song's budget

2009-05-24T22:34:00.008+05:30

ஒரு ந‌ல்ல‌ திரைப்ப‌ட‌ம் முடிந்த‌வுட‌ன் துவ‌ங்குகிற‌து ‍ ‍‍: ஒளிப்ப‌திவாள‌ர் செழிய‌ன்.

Do you know why Tamil kings built temple ? [ Review-la engadaa King-um Temple-um :) ] One Discovery channel video of South Indian temples stated that Kings built temple to repent their sins of killing 1000s of people in the name of war and thus avoiding reincarnation. Shankar repented his sins of making stereotyped robin hood movies by producing his films under S pictures. [ eppadiyo join pannite :) ]. Kadhal was produced in a budget, where normally Shankar shoots a song for his films ending in 'N' :). The good thing is that he marketed the movie well.

Almost, all films in Tamil deal with love but very few unfolds the view of the parent's and the consequences of eloping away.

Film : Kadhal [ 2004 / Drama ]
Cast : Murugan, Aiswarya, Rajendran, Vellaiyan, Karattandi, Stepehen
Cinematography : Vijay Milton
Music : Joshua Sridhar
Written & Directed by : Balaji Sakthivel

Fine points

- Opening title sequences and the theme song [ Haricharan - just the words kadhal, humming and a guitar n flute ] was fabulous. Most of the camera work in the title is done as a candid work.

- Murugan asks the same question to Aiswarya in different situations to reiterate that they know about what they do.

- Watch out for the minute detailing like 'Singamle' in the Sumo of Rajendran, Aiswarya illam, wine shop, workshop, christian school.. even the director uses the lines written on the school wall, When they elope one more scooty is shown as some other pair started their love :).

- The beauty of the narration is all the faces are new and they fit just like a glove .. even with their voices. [ Enpaa.. Paapavuku oru Jigardhanda kudu..].

- The scene where the tiffin box and purse were about to meet by scooty's vibration was a good metaphor whereas the tap symbol was an ugly metaphor.

- The body language of a mechanic , school girl, wine shop owner and almost all characters were awesome.

- The montage song 'Dhandatti karuppayi' needs a special mention. I just depicts the happenings in a function happens in Madurai area. Drunk relatives, fight for a leg piece, playing cards, police officials attending the function, school friends accompanying her.. I like every inch of that song.

- The Karattandi character is new to Tamil cinema who is an assistant mechanic in the shed. Even when Murugan was about to say farewell silently, the boy pretends to get beating. When Murugan leaves, the boy runs and ends up in a confusion.. may be his work. That scene was poetic.

- Sandhya - She portrays the childish, rich school girl who happens to live between a poor lover and an affectionate family. Her brahmin friends perfectly matches a typical school friend who accompanies a gir almost everywhere.

- Joshua Sridhar.. He is one of the few debut music directors who makes an impact in the first film. The theme music is the most lovable one apart from Thottu thottu, Dhandatti karupaayi, Ivan dhaan.. The voices are fresh as flowers especially the humming of Shalini singh, Haricharan, Sruthi.

- In the first half, songs are used just like BGM and the audience don't separate them. Also, he had used western music for a Madurai backdrop film and it worked out !

- The dialect was so new to Tamil people apart from Madurai/Dindugal area [ Indhaaru... Tharsaaiyuruve ].

- I would have happier if they ended the story like the girl's father stops them while eloping, itself. Chennai segment [ 2nd half ] of the story is very weak by all means. The story looses its fine touch here.

- The story doesn't have a Villain.. How can you call a father who looses his school-going daughter eloping with a mechanic ? The father character is accompanied by an one handed brother who traces this pair. The end leaves the movie to be thought about.

- Director portrays the time along with the school [ 10th exams, practical notebook ]. The technicians Vijay Milton, N.Muthukumar put a worthy effort.

-Toto.

Visual poem - In the mood for love

2009-05-23T14:27:00.012+05:30

தனிமை.. த‌விப்பு.. த‌ய‌க்க‌ம்

Can anyone be able to express freely to the other person honestly ? We have so many filters, we rehearse the dialog before we let it out. There are very few places that we let out whatever that comes to our mind like close friend, in prayer etc., Once Kamalhassan said that he likes the Villain character in any story because he is honest - if he wants to rape a girl, he does it straight forward :). We the normal people hesitate, oscillate, falter, boggle.. at least within ourselves before we express out. This film is about those minute emotions.

Have you heard of the song 'Oru naalil vaazhkkai' in Pudhupettai ? The most philosophical song that I have heard of late. That touches upon the loneliness,hesitation,unexpressed emotions of self. How about an entire movie talking about the same. A normal form of cinema deals much with the story like Bhim singh films.. Another form of cinema mostly deals with the visualization of a simple story. The second form is slightly tough to get attached with. But he Wong Kar-wai made it very simple so that we understand what the characters feel about. The beauty is without dialogues and with the help of cinematography and music.

Film : In the mood for love [ Drama / 2001 / Hongkong ]

Director ; Wong Kar-wai

Music : Michael Gallaso / Umebayashi

Cinematography : Christopher Doyle [ Remember.. Rabbit proof fence ].

Plot :

The story is set in 1960s. Two couples move to adjacent apartments simultaneously. The first apartment has Tony a journalist whose wife mostly comes late or travels. "So" is the other lady who stays in the next apartment and her husband travels most of the time. She works as a secretary in a company. They are accompanied by a friendly house owner lady. Though the apartment is a lively place with people our 2 main characters don't mingle with the crowd, much. Wife of Tony and husband of 'So' don't respond to their spouses properly. Tony and 'So' hardly meet each other. they slowly come across each other in the hallway, restaurant, a rainy day.

One day they have dinner in a hotel and in their conversation they realise something. This disturbs them a lot. they slowly develop a friendship but very cautious about their limits. Tony starts writing about martial arts in the paper and So helps him. he stays in hotel for writing without any disturbance. she meets him in the hotel. Time pass on and on a rainy day Tony says to her that he is slowly loosing himself towards her and nothing good is happening. he says that she anyway cannot leave her husband and things won't change.. also he thinks that they also may end up in a relation. Hence, Tony leaves to Singapore..'So' tried to stop him but not. She weeps.

After 3 years, Tony gets a blank call from 'So' .. he realises that it is her. Tony does a confession at the end. Something happens ..

View :

- The story might look vague but the emotions it leaves us is a simple heartbreak. Director Wong doesn't much believe in script. He shoots through the year and cuts as he needs them and mostly the story is formed in the editing table and given life by cinematographer and the musician [ of curse , less dialogues ]. The true form of visual communication.

- The music makes the movie lively. Their loneliness, hesitation, sadness, compassion, unexpressed love is expressed in music. Just a cello talks to the audience instead of the characters and they use mostly slow-motion.

- Their interaction is poetic and they take their own time to interact with each other. It's not like they dash in the hallway and the next moment they sing and dance in Swiss, half-dressed.

- The story has very few characters and they are neatly used. House owner, maid, ugly friend in press, lonely manager in shipping company.

- The first lengthy conversation they make is brilliant as it reveals their personal sadness. The beauty of this cinema is they never show 'So's husband and Tony's wife. they just exist in the story, invisibly in phone / conversations.

- Some single shots express the feelings magically. An empty football ground, a boy, a foot ball from a top Angle shows the summer loneliness of a boy in Kikujiro. Similarly, Jason Bourne [ the master action hero for me ] enters New York in a ship - the shot is just shown with Statue of liberty on one side and his ship on the other side. here, Wong Kar-wai uses rain to show the loneliness. It rains heavily on the lamp post and road in the lonely street at night. Both Tony and 'So' mostly exchange silences in place of their dialogues.

- Michael Galasso, Shigeru Umebayashi and Christopher Doyle are definitely the masters who made this visual poem lovely to watch.

- The way the movie ends in Angorwat is lyrical. Just a simple beat and a cello. He talks to the hole in the temple wall and closes. A monk just observes from the top side of the temple. I admire the characterization of Tony and 'So' - the casting is perfect with actors having sympathetic faces.

Conclusion

Some movies just pass by with some questions to us. If they lived together this movie would have become one another adultery movie. But the thin line between the hesitation and the romance makes it interesting to watch.

Emotional journey of loneliness and unexpressed love.

-Toto.

Ameer Sultan's Saga - Paruthi Veeran.

2009-05-20T00:12:00.009+05:30

Paruthiveeran received 2 national awards. One for actor Priyamani and other one is ?

The scope of a film is determined by the impact it makes on us. Most of the movies continue the impact for one night and then diminishes slowly. Very few movies make a lasting impact and make Toto to think for a longer time. One such brilliant piece is Paruthiveeran. Everyone knows about the story and Toto would like to get the sweet spots of the movie.

- Opening : This movie starts right from the frame where 'studio green' logo appears with a sparkling music [ Paruthiyur Ochaandamman kovil thiruvizha ]. Ameer, once said we have heard the film music of villages but not the actual music of village. This movie does the village percussion at its natural best.

The fine point everyone wonders that it's a montage song for titles and the festival. If you watch closely, all the characters are introduced in the song along with their characterization, including douglas and the 2 relative persons of muthazhagu. [ Kazhuva Servai smiles when the eunuchs sing about Devar community ]. This is one of the best montage songs in Tamil [ one more is dhandatti karupaayi from Kaadhal ].

- Trivia time : Thought the movie is set to happen in 2006, no single element of technology has been used [ No cell phones, signal towers, Sun news, computer, bank :) ]. The movie at the maximum has 2 ambassador cars, enfield and yamaha bikes.

- One of the best opening scene for a debut hero, Karthi . Also, watch for the shot when Ameer's name on screen. It appears colorfully with fireworks.

- Priyamani studies in IX 'B' and her teacher justifies the age stating that she spent 4 yrs in the same class. Also, the complexion difference between the young and adult muthazagu is explained in a dialogue.

- They deployed a nice method of using multiple dialogues in the background.. For ex., Muthazgu friends talk about the history class [ Kanmani en kooda cycle-la varratum ], some talks throughout the movie. All the dialogues of kuttichaaku are in this category.. [ nee ennapaa kaathula padam varainjikittu ]. The dialogues are aptly sprinkled with sense of humour.

- Some people reviewed that they don't like the climax and suggested for alternate climax. Ameer's answer is review should be done for the film made and not the film could have been made. Cinema is always made for Toto and not for reviewers :) . How true !

- Some anamorphic shots in wide angle cover the rustic look of the locations fully and those shot gloriously enhances the look of the film. Mostly used in the song sequences. Cameraman Ramji did a fabulous job.

- "Kaadhalin deepam ondru" song gets an apt placement in the film. Veeran mentions about radio and not FM.

- The editor did a wonderful job if placing he flashback sequences without disturbing the main story flow and also doesn't loose in the entire length of the movie [ 2 hrs 40 mins ]. Raja Mohammad got the other national award for his work.

- Sellakka kurathi character is new to Tamil cinema.

- Priyamani got her life time role in this film. 3 best sequences of her are getting beaten up by kazhuvan, getting beaten up by veeran in the pond and the breath taking climax.

- Karthi's wonderful body language needs a special mention.. One nice sequence is that he goes to Muthazgau's house for asking her to marry and the climax. He did a splendid work in the dances. Class ! [ Ameer choreographed his steps - loose control :) ]

- I have to mention about ponvannan and Saravanan.. Ponvannan [ Kazhuva Servai tha/pe : Seenikannu thevar ] natural looks with moutache, beard and his characterization was nicely portrayed. Saravanan needs to be mentioned explicitly for his catchy character depiction. Every character in this movie got a link with the story flow.

- Villain is karthi and circumstances.. Every sequence happens accidentally. The moment you see the lorry in the climax, you get a lump in the throat. [ of course, when u watch it second time ].

- Ameer said some of the sequences weren't actually turned up as he thought and listed that could have been avoided.. cinematic fight with gusthi vaadhyaar disciples, sarigama song, Veeran's reaction in the climax. As per him, the veeran character doesn't know how to cry and he stays still.. for cinema it's changed.

- Yuvanshankar raja's work is noteable as he just followed the true colours of village music except in duet songs. He slipped up in the climax scene, I think. Other BGMs fil aptly. I like the love theme, whenever Muthzagu tries to look for Veeran.

- Madurai slang was used extensively in this movie and it was very nice. Thirapparvai Madhan said to Ameer said the he could'nt follow the dialogues. Ameer replied that the people can't speak Chennai Tamil, sir. :)

- Have u noticed [ Unaku mattum endaa ippadi :) ]. the director chain Bala-Ameer-Sasikumar have a common charcterization in Pithamagan-Paruthiveeran-Subramaniapuram [ school girl loving a thug and thug has a friend ]. I'm afraid Samuthrakani comes up with one more story like this [ he is the associate in Paruthi veeran and he is the villain in Subramniapuram - Kanagu].

Above all, Ameer says 'I don't follow world cinema' !! No wonder this film was screened in Berlin film festival and appreciated much !

Rajini said to Ameer ' idhaan.. idhaan.. idhaan.. idhaan namma cinema.. idhu padamnu solli solraanga..idhu padamillai.. kaaviyam'. I second him.

-Toto.

The LIGHT dynasty

2009-05-19T23:41:00.006+05:30

சென்னைல‌ 2 ஆல‌ம‌ர‌ம்.. ஒண்ணு அடையார்ல‌ .. இன்னொண்ணு ஆழ்வார்பேட்டைல‌.. yes.. It is P.C.Sriram.

These are the noticeable, successful technicians [ Cameramen/Directors/others] from the school of PCSriram. Also, I have listed their noteable works for their identity.

** Late Jeeva [ Indian, Kadhalan ]
** Thiru [ Hey Ram, Lesaa Lesaa ]
** Velraj [ Asst of PC and Thiru.. Polladhavan ]
** YNMurali [ Chathriyan ]
** Chezian [ Kalloori ]
** Ramji [ Dum dum dum, Raam, Paruthi veeran ]
** SR Kathir [ Asst of Ramji.. Subramaniapuram, Katradhu Thamizh ]
** MSPrabhu [ Mahanadhi, Thavamaai thavamirundhu ]
** Aravind Krishna [ Pudhupettai, Kadhal konden ]
** KV Anand [ Kadhal desam, Sivaji ]
** Mahesh Muthuswamy [ Chithiram pesudhadi, Anjaathey ]
** Dwarakanath [ Autograph, Mayak kannadi ]
** D.Ramesh babu [ Veede - Telugu ]
** Arjun Jenna [ Kaadhal virus ]
** Preetha [ Abiyum naanum - Lady ]
** Fowzia [ Mitr - Lady ]
** Michael Earnest [ Visual effects supervisor ]

Sabu James, Andrew and Vincent are the other cinematographers, I got apart from this incomplete list. I am afraid of digging it further and stopped. Instead, I started wondering about the master cinematographer, worked and influenced numerous assistants/technicians in the industry. He worked for almost 30 films and directed 3 films in his career. The number of successful assistants are more than his number of films, I guess :).

P.C.Sriram is the first technician whom I saw on screen, getting applause [ I applauded while watching 'Idhaiyathai Thirudadhe' ].

He neither had a colorful academic education nor had guidance from the industry. The closest connection with cinema is that he stayed close to Venus studios. His whole world changed after he joined the Chennai film institute. After the institute life, at first, he shot a 16mm film with his friends and nobody knows the whereabouts of the film. The first official offer he got, was from Pratap bothan for 'Meendum oru kaadhal kadhai' [ Remember Gaapi & Sarasu; Adhikaalai nerame song ] and they shot it for 2 years [1984-86.. loosely based on the backdrop of 'One flew over cuckoo's nest' ]. Then came the offer from Fazil for 'Poove poochoodava' [ 1985].

The greatest chemistry happened then in 1986 when Mani Sir's 'Mouna raagam' brought both together and the rest is history. Both the technicians are legendary and influenced the film world but they assisted nobody.

Alfredo shared to Toto that he couldn't beleive that one can quickly learn cinematography by assisting somebody and come out as a cameraman. I don't know but it happened.

Do you know the cameraman of ' Pallavi anu pallavi', first film of Mani Sir ? It's Balu Mahendra. Also, give a try to find the cameramen for Pagal Nilavu and Idhayak kovil.. You'll get a trivia there :)

-Toto.

From Mao to Mozart - Musical journey

2009-05-17T17:43:00.014+05:30

"Music is not just black and white. Music is every color and some that even painters don't have."
- Isaac Stern, Violinist/Music teacher.

We know the cultural differences between western countries and China. People of these 2 countries cannot come together with any of their qualities, language and culture. But one thing can easily fill up the gap and that is MUSIC.

In 1979, Isaac Stern and his pianist friend made a cultural trip to China as invited by the Chinese government. As part of the trip, they travelled, conducted concerts and exchanged the goodness of their rich western music with the traditional and disciplined music of China.

We can't imagine how restricted Chinese culture to let the western music into their system. There was a cultural change going on between 1966-76.

Documentary

The doc starts with a plane landing in Beijing airport welcoming the western Music teacher Isaac Stern and his team. Isaac Stern, a Jewish violin master brought up in Sanfrancisco. The best part of Isaac is that he is not only great violinist/music teacher but he was also enormously interested in spreading his knowledge to younger generation. During their visit, they conduct concerts, take lessons, and share the best practices in handling the instruments. Isaac is surprised by the young talent in China and their disciplined mastership in the work with lack of emotion in playing. He explains the sweet spots in playing the instrument and everything about music. He visits the music conservatory and learns how the music infrastructure works there. In turn, he shares his views on tuning what they already do to elevate their skills.

Though it was intended to be a concert tour, he took some additional steps to boldly express what he thinks.. That too in China. The documentary also reveals the repression happened to the music teachers who favored foreign music. Though the trip was just a month long, the impact and infectious enthusiasm Stern showed to Chinese musicians had a dramatic impact.

View

- Slightly resembling Alfred Hitchcock, Stern vigorously and also nicely shares his views on music and the best practices like having a sponge pad hiding under shoulder to rest the violin base.

- His lessons are irresistible and it is understood from the students listening to him. He doesn't stop himself explaining the intricacies of the instrument and also the emotion and life in playing the music.

- One fine scene was that, he asks a Chinese girl to sing what she played in violin..She hesitates as singing is not taken lightly in their culture. Students happily accept his improvisations and reproduce the same instantly.

- The doc touches also upon the tough times the musicians faced for favoring foreign music. Music teachers who favored foreign music were arrested and tortured.

- After visiting the intensive sports coaching of Chinese tots, Stern Amazingly tells that 'but they can't play Mozart' :)

Conclusion

Stern said ' What is music all about? The instrument is not that important. It just the means to the end. Don't use music to play violin but use violin to play music.'

He is an excellent and highly practical teacher. I admire his knowledge and admire him more as he also shares to the next generation. Stern later visited China after 20 years and amazed by the change he has observed.

He ended the documentary with..' You know what I mean.. Open up'. China opened up.

Maestros in celluloid - Themes.

2009-05-16T13:43:00.016+05:30

I would like to register some thoughts on the theme music tracks, which made an unforgettable impact on me.

1. Kikujiro / Music : Joe Hisaishi / Director : Takeshi Kitano.

It's an enchanting piano piece. The movie is all about a kid and his friend travelling to find his mother. The kid receives unconditional love from the people he meets on his journey. The peppy part of the music represents the bubbling age of the kid. Also, it resembles his loneliness and wait for his affection from the family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjXvptz3pW8

2. In the mood for love / Music : Micahel Galasso / Director : Wong Kar-wai

This Hong Kong film analyses about the loneliness one gets after the marriage [ Hong Kong-layumaa :) ] . The entire film psychologically depicts the hesitation and hidden thoughts of a man and a woman. The director Wong depends on music and photography rather than the story. He starts his films without a script and forms the film mostly during the editing. So Yumeji's theme explains all about the loneliness in a cello. A slow solo chord represents sorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa0JAvjx05c

3. Cinema Paradiso / Music : Enio Moricone / Director : Giuseppe Tornatore

This Italian film is about life of a boy Toto, his old friend Alfredo and his love [ adult stage ] in a small town with cinema theatre in the backdrop. The theme starts with a piano and joins with sax, violins, cellos and flute. Such an enchanting piece to portray the nuances of this classic Italian movie. Another brilliant piece is 'Toto and Alfredo' from the same soundtrack.

THE BEST IN THIS LIST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FzVWlOKeLs&feature=related

4. The Shawshank redemption / Music : Thomas Newman / Director : Frank Darabont

One of the foremost classics, I have watched. The story is all about hope and friendship. Thomas Newman was introduced to me in this movie and later I became a fan of him. Apart from the story, visuals, narration Newman's score added value to the flow of the film. Great movies have lesser dialogues and they convey more in cinematography and in music. The other soothing scores of Thomas Newman are Wall-e, Road to perdition, Finding nemo, Cinderella man, etc.,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoZ4V4Ffrdc

5. Braveheart / Music : James Horner / Director : Mel Gibson

Apart from IR, I have never heard of Hollywood soundtracks. Mysskin introduced me the Braveheart soundtrack and the name 'James Horner' - one more Maestro. The music is composed according to the nature of the movie [ Historic Scotland warrior movie ] and hence more pipes were used in this film. The entire movie is a visual treat along with glittering music. The other remarkable samples of James horner are Titanic, A beautiful mind, Troy etc.,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDEQjGIleKg

This is definitely not a top - 5 list but the list that came up when I thought about soundtracks.

To end with a small trivia, all the great movies [ even the above list ] had rain sequences in them. They somehow use rain as a mood. Remember the heavy, black rain in Rashomon, Meoirs of a geisha.. As ARRahman said in worldspace ad, "with world cinema and music, there's so much to see and hear".

-Toto.

Memoirs of a geisha - Colourful visual.

2009-05-13T22:27:00.012+05:30

"A story like mine should never be told. For my world is as forbidden as it is fragile. Without its mysteries it cannot survive. I certainly wasn't born to the life of a geisha. Like so much in my strange life, I was carried there by the current. "

Who is a Geisha ? [ Trisha illeenga :) ]. Geisha means artist or a performing artist.

We have very limited knowledge about the other rare breeds of people and culture [ Sumo wrestlers, Eskimos, etc., ]. Books and cinema are the sources to open up the doors for our knowledge. You might have come across a category of people in Andhra Pradesh called 'Daasi'. A film came in 1989, on this subject which yielded national award for actor Archana. Daasi is a slave breed, where they send the Daasi girls as part of marriage gift as maids. They have their own bleak world.

The world of geisha is peculiar and more ceremonial. Their entire life is all about getting recognized as a Geisha. First, I wondered why Steven Spielberg opted for producing a movie based on a Japanese culture [ even directing it - and delegated later ]. It's because of the poetic nature of the narration and a subtle sorrow n freedom of a poor girl. This story is based on a novel written by Arthur Golden.

Film : Memoirs of a geisha [ 2005 ] Period drama
Cast : Zhang zyi, Gong Li
Cinematography : Dion Beebe
Directed by : Rob Marshall [ Chicago ! ]

Plot

" We do not become Geisha to pursue our own destines. We become Geisha because we have no other choice. "

It's a typical Cindrella story with stunning visuals told in the backdrop of Japan.

The film begins off in the late 1920s. On a rainy day, a young girl Chiyo and her sister are sold by her family. They are sold to geisha's house as maids. Life becomes tough for the poor girl as no one shows kindness to her [ fairy tale narration ! ]. There's another girl called pumpkin who is trained to become a geisha and one more senior girl [ Hatsumomo ] who plans completely against Chiyo. Chiyo meets one particular person on road, [ a soft hearted chairman ] who treats her very kindly, which she never felt before. She develops an unknown respect and love towards the chairman. This is the first part of the story of the girl.

Later as an adult, she is later taken under the custody of another kind-hearted geisha named Mameha. She trains Chiyo as a perfect geisha. Also, Chiyo's name is changed to Sayuri and becomes the top rated geisha in the district. She attracts men, who don't attract her. She still longs for the chairman and circumstances make chairman to stay away from her, because of his business partner and friend.

Sayuri, later in a different status, gets her final chance to showcase her skills as a geisha and get an offer. Her life continues to be be painful with hatred, backstabbing and jealous. Did she live a life that she wanted ?

View

- It's a visual treat. Right from the first frame, the film is presented with exotic and beautiful shots. In VLC plyer, there's an option to convert any frame of the film to a wallpaper. This film worth all the frames :) . The other film, I recollect is 'Anna and the King' [ Thai based ].

- The story as you read is simple but slow. No action sequences, thrilling moments or hilarious wits. The story flows just like a stream. Like Geishas, the film concentrates more on the outlook rather than the emotions [ Fantastic sets, extraordinary visuals, fine costumes ].

- The next beautiful aspect was the music, of course. The efforts to recreate Japan in 1930, Sumo wrestling, houses, especially costumes [ Kimonos - similar to silk saree ] are laudable. This movie has won academy award for cinematography, art direction and costumes.

- The water element in this movie is attractively portrayed. The film starts with rain, sea side fishing village, ends in a small park with a pond. The heroine herself is identified as an element of water as per their tradition.

- They were able to find a girl as well as an adult with same attributes of twinkling blue eyes. Those eyes express love, sorrow, pain and what not. [ Chinese ponnudaa.. Vittu veidaa.:) ]. There were handful of scenes, where the girl smiles fully. Even the emotions of the geisha are muted.

- The heroine Ziyi Zhang has done stupendous job as Geisha. The surprise is she is from China and played this Japanese traditional character.

- I liked the chiyo and Hatsumomo characters equally as they portray the good and evil natures very easily.

- Sayuri doesn't cry in the movie, though she had moments for the same. Also, expressing love. Geisha is not accustomed to express her love easily and that justifies her action in the movie.

- The demerits are it's a complete girl movie and the pace. The chairman - sayuri relation doesn't make an impact. A fragile Geisha. The other issues are that they speak English [ Why the hell ! ] and romance relationship lacks the grip.[ Un expectation puriyudhu :) ].

Conclusion

Geishas are definitely not prostitutes [ at least, that's my wish :) ]. This movie is a different genre and serves the purpose of soft entertainment. "Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances, she sings, she entertains you... What ever you want... the rest is shadows, the rest is secret." - So was the movie.. It sings, it dances and it entertains.. but slowly.

Few grams from the gold mine

2009-05-10T22:48:00.017+05:30

Toto's first post on film music. [ Click the above drawing to see the actual size ].

1. What did IR's father named him as ?
2. Could you guess the early work of ARR as a keyboard player with IR ? - Answers at the end.

- Mayile Mayile - First time, IR experimented mixing a carnatic raga and a folk tune. This song is based on a carnatic raga hamsadwani with a folk tune.Sung by SPB and Jency [ Watch for the best guitar interludes ].

- Prelude [ introductory part of the music just before the pallavi ]. The longest prelude in tamil film songs of IR is "Poongathave" from Nizhalgall. It starts with a violin, violin - group, a percussion bang and slow veenai.

- Normally, there are 2 BGMs in a song. BGM1 is before the Saranam1 and BGM2 is before Saranam2. One IR song has both the BGM1 and 2 as the same. The song is 'Naan yaaru' from Chinna Jameen [ Sung by IR ].

- We know about humming.. ever heard of high/low pitch humming ?!! High pitch humming is used in "Ninaivo oru paravai" from Sigappu rojakkall and a low pitch humming is used in "poo maalaiye" from Pagal Nilavu. [ thanana nanaaa :) ]. My favourite humming is from 'Aagaya gangai' - Dharma yuddham

- Dissolve technique.. [ to break up / melt ]. Rakkamma keiyei thattu song dissolves from a peppy number into a devaram song very easily. The contrast dissolve is from "Ennulle ennulle" from Valli.. Its starts from Chendai and ends [ begins ! ] with a guitar.

- Obsession has been portrayed with the help of flute sound in "Sundari kannaal" from Thalabathy - along with the voice in the pallavi and "aasaiayai kaathula" from Johnny.

- IR did a craving prayer song in Achaani.. Madha un kovilil. SJanaki had done her best to get the right emotions. Watch the voice in this line.. Mezhugu pol uruginom.. Kanneerai maatra vaa .

- Counterpoint technique - Two or more tunes [ voices also ] getting executed simultaneously. En kanmani from Chittukuruvi is based on this technique. Even Vaali tried counterpoint in lyrics too !

- Circular music.. Rarely a song starts and ends in the same music.. "Poove sempoove" from Solla thudikudhu manasu starts and ends with the same guitar n flute notes.

- The known only-aroganam [ ascending scale ] song is 'Kalaivaaniye' from Sindhu Bhairavi. It's done much before in 'Tham thana Nam thana' song in 'Pudhiya vaarppugall' . The songs steps up and don't silde down.

- Kanne kalaimaane from Moondram pirai - This song has a solo violin following just Yesudoss's voice. This deepens the sympathy mood of the song.

- One regular instrument was missed in all the 6 songs of Agni natchathiram - Tabala.

Answers

1. GnanaDesigan
2. Film : Moodupani [ 1980 ].

-Toto.

** Few of the snippets are taken from 'Pesum padam', book written by Cinematographer Chezhian.

Nallasivamum Krishnaswamyum

2009-05-08T00:07:00.012+05:30

Sometimes trivia happens.. sometimes it is made.. That's the freedom of the viewer to interpret things in his own way.

Nallasivam [ Kamal's name in Anbe Sivam ]

- Can you identify which earlier script of Kamal, had the names Nallasivam and Anbarasan, apart from 'Anbe Sivam' ? .. Answer at the end of this trivia collection.

- The power glass kamal wears has +10 points with which he can't walk or do other activities easily. The nicety is he wears a -10 point contact lens and then the glass.. to come out of this blue. Of course, this question was raised by R.Pandiarajan and explained by Kamal.

- The Shiva painting was based on Salvador Dali's painting "Galatea of Spheres" and Diego rivera's "Men at cross roads" ..Rockefeller centre. which had Lenin's face.[ it's separate controversy by its own but it's also capitalism & communism issue based !! ].

- The photo of Salvador Dali was used in Michael Madhana Kama Rajan. Great artists and their different moustaches shown in background when fireman raju takes his moustache off. [ Dei.. Set property-i kooda vida maateengaladaa :) ]

- Initially, the film was supposed to be directed by Priyadarshan. Heard once the dance master told that he was just smoking with SundarC while the song 'ele machi machi' was choreographed. SundarC got a jackpot in his career - it will be his name in the direction[?!] for the next generation who happens to watch the DVD. :)

- I like the song 'Yaar yaar sivam' - an aptly penned song for the movie. Among all the petty characters, I like the mother superior [ Yaarunga avanga ?!]. Kamal's grateful looks on her increases the value of that character.

It's always easy to say that a film is based on x or y.. however, it is extremely tough to change it according to our format.

Answer : Remember Aboorva sagodharargall villain group :) .. Dharmaraj, Lawyer Satyamurthy, Nallasivam, Francis Anbarasan. Ha..Ha..

Krishnaswamy [ Kamal's name in Mahanadhi ]

- Interesting one.. Main characters have names of the rivers.. Krishna, kavery, Bharani, Yamuna..[ Thulukaanam river perannu kekkadhinga :) - I like his charcterization ].

- The story mostly happens in the river banks..Cauvery, Coovam (jail) , hooghly.. journey returns back and ends in a well.

- The script/dialogues were penned by Kamal and Ra.Ki.Rangarajan.. Ra.Ki. hesitated first.. but kamal gifted him some books on movie scripting..

- I like the contrasts & smaller details shown.. with funk hairstyle to get the impact of close cut hair in jail sequences.

- Kamal's wife was Jayasudha.. an apt BW marriage photo was used from an old Kamal movie. [ Remember Jayasudha's sister Gayathri - Aasayai kaathula thoodhu vittu :) ]

- MS Prabhu was the cameraman [ debut film ] - school of PCSriram.. To my knowledge, it was the first film shot inside chennai central prison's actual cell.

- Kamal's scripts Mahanadhi and hey Ram came were translated as a book in Malayalam as 'Kamalhassante randu thirakkadhagall'.

- The climax was a cinematic one - Kamal had an alternate climax which he couldn't use for commercial reasons [ it is applicable for all his good movies ].

Kamal is an unavoidable personality in my movie experiences. "Hey Ram" ப‌த்தி விலாவ‌ரியா அல‌ச‌லாம்.. Opening shot-la.. ஹ‌லோ.. பாஸ்.. ஓடாதீங்க‌.. நில்லுங்க‌..

Toto.

Chithiram Pesudhadi - Nam sindhai Mayangudhadi..

2009-05-07T22:58:00.009+05:30

Q : Do you know the meaning of the name 'Mysskin ' - Find the answer at the end of the post.

Chithiram Pesudhadi was the first film written and directed by Mysskin. Previously, he worked as an associate with Kathir and Vincent Selva. With kathir he didn't work in a film but spent some months on story discussion. With V.Selva he worked in "Youth" and "Jithan". Though the working style of the directors are different, it helped him to grasp the coordination work in the field.

CP is a very regular story of Tamil cinema; a love story between a thug and a beautiful girl with a small element of suspense in it. Let us see the nuances of this simple n neat cinema.

- Character biography was introduced to me in this film. The hero introduction was nicely planned and in a single dialogue with his mother he tells his background. Normally hero has a flashback either in an introduction song [ stealing vada ! ].

Naren's character directly enters into the script by a simple dialog " 10th certificate kekkaraan.. un kitta irukaa..Un purushan sethutaannu ennai 8th-oda niruthitta.." This is the background of our hero which is depicted by just one line which usually doesn't happen in Tamil cinema.

- The Annachi character was aptly portrayed. He is not a Boss sitting in an old building with cartons/barrels [ usually a ration shop godown ! ] arranged everywhere. He is just another business man and he owns an ambassador car. [ Dadha without a sumo/scorpio ! ]

- Heroine's father character was a nice portrayal [ with white costumes mostly - metaphor for outside purity] of a person with some unexpressed feelings. He always cleans something - psychologically cleaning his mistakes. First, Sivakumar was considered for this role and they dropped the idea, later.

- Hero keeps his head always, low because of the complex on his henchman profession. Also, he walks fast to come out of a crime scene or location to detach himself.

- Heroine’s father utter a dialog in the beginning scenes which looks like an advice to his daughter but not.. " Namma pala samayam enga porom edhuku poromnu yaarkum theryama irukaradhu nalladhu "

- One of the friends always eats in all the frames or sleeps [ literally ]. Even in the initial hospital scene the character concentrates on the fruits basket, takes an apple and just munches.

- The henchman Gaja always stammers except in the climax where he hesitates to stab the hero. The reason is stammering doesn’t happen when a person speaks emotionally from the heart. [ Do you know the singer Madhumitha stammers when she speaks but once she starts singing she'll change herself - Mudhal mudhalaai : Lesaa Lesaa ].

- One of the fine scenes, is ..the hero and friends come out of the auto, talks about the 20K, they fight and join for tea. It was taken as a single steady cam shot.

- Blind woman - She represents the audience. The blind thing also symbolises the hidden truth in the movie.

- Everything was experimental. For ex the hero refuses to accept money from the Mahadevan and asks him to get out of the scene. After this, the camera goes behind him and stays for 10 secs capturing the breathe of the hero. Editor did want to cut this shot early but Mys refused.

- My favourite scene.. A scene explains the come back of Naren [ Thiru ] as a henchman. In single steady angle, the shots are shown in long, middle and close ranges. The scene includes the exercise bar and the bar is used to bang one on it, at the end of the scene.

- Though the movie contains violence, less blood is shed or shown on screen.

- Thiru uses a simple defense technique in fight sequences.. Standing before a wall - so that he doesn't need to watch his back while fighting. :)

- There's a sequence that after turning soft, Naren has to chase somebody on road. He comes across school kids on the way. The hesitation is shown in his legs and then he runs towards the victim. Look for the apt BGM, there.

- No graphics, No foreign songs, No comedy track. The first half contains subtle humour. [ Vanntaangadaa Sowkar janaki :) ]

- Sundar C Babu composed the song .. Vaala meenukum with additional western instruments. Mysskin corrected it like this..' It's a song happening in slum ; where do u get western instruments in the slum - use the bare minimum instruments". He choreographed the Gana ulaganathan's mannerisms, also advised Shobi [ dance master ] to have simple movements and not as trained dance professionals.

Mys said in Madhan's thiraiparavai that Chithiram Pesudhadi is not the best film from his bag but a neat effort to start with. He later proved it in Anjathey. [ Nandalala varratum.. We'll have a vivid discussion :) ].

Mysskin is a persian name meaning simple man. It's taken from the Russian novel 'The Idiot'.

-Toto.

Life is beautiful - for those who faced the hard !

2009-05-04T23:01:00.017+05:30

"There is no bigger tragedy than to remember the happy times during the misery." - Unknown quote.

Life is beautiful - for whom ?

Life is beautiful movie was awarded best foreign language film by the academy in 1998. Do you know the other 2 good nominations in the same year ? Answer at the end of the review.

Life doesn't become beautiful for all. In fact, for those, who met with a tragedy, it becomes one. You might have come across the horror movie series SAW.. the serial killer is a 70+ years old cancer patient and sees the other people, how they waste their valuable life.. Also, he kills them for their unimportance about life :). A small tragedy opens up the door.

As I mentioned in 'The counterfeiters' review, there were 300+ movies made on Holocaust, till now. The difference in Life is Beautiful is that it involves a kid and the hero is clownish. A father can take his 4 year kid to a park or a zoo. This father in Life is Beautiful happens to accompany his kid to the concentration camp. We do answer our kids about any damn question, they ask for. How can one explain about mass murder to a kid ?

Every director has their dream to direct a movie based on God Father in their own variation [ Nayagan, Devar magan, Sarkar ] Similarly on holocaust, everyone has tried their own version and Roberto Benigni overtakes others by mixing the right flavours of emotions.

Life is Beautiful [ 1997 / Italian / Comedy-tragedy-war ]
Cast : Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini
Co-written, produced and Directed by : Roberto Benigni

Plot

The film begins with this dialog in the voice-over. "This is a simple story but difficult one to tell. Like a fable, there is sorrow, and like a fable, it is full of wonder and happiness." - It's a fable which one can't forget easily !

Before the World War II in Italy, Guido [ Roberto Benigni ] and his friend travel to the city to find job.Also, they plan to open a bookstore. Meanwhile, he works as a waiter and he comes across a school teacher named Dora [ Nicoletta Braschi ]. Guido’s funny behaviour and charm eventually make Dora to fall in love with him. They marry and lead a peaceful life. Later, they have a son named Joshua [Giorgio Cantarini]. 5 Years passes by. Till this point, the movie is just a funny flick.

The big game starts. Since Guido is Jewish, and he and his son are forced to settle in a concentration camp; Dora, though she is not Jewish, refuses to separate and is sent with them. Trying to protect his son from the horrors others are undergoing, Guido creates a fiction for them to live inside: they're playing a game, a contest, and they must play it to the hilt in order to win the first prize: a real, live army tank. A tough time for a father to hide out the tragic attributes of a camp and interpreting the entire setup as a game to his son. He makes his son to believe too.

What happens then ? You know for sure that it's not a feel good story.

View

- The film symbolises a journey and through out the journey, Guido is able to sustain his faith in humanity and a hard desire to survive in life.

- At no point, the holocaust's horror is cheapened by the humour of Guido. The sense of horror is actually intensified as the audience is left with a joke and they can't laugh for it.

- Benigni's father spent 2 years in German concentration camp. He shared his experiences to his family members in a comical way so that the kids are not frightened. That's the knot and essence of the movie.

- Benigni was initially a stand-up comedian in his initial stages of his career. [ like Woody Allen ].

- The film starts in a lighter way with some slapstick moments.[ break less car, girl falling from her house, dashing on someone ]. The director cleverly prepares the audience for a dangerous ride in the later part of the movie. [ Sethu follows this technique ! ]

- Benigni's original wife played as his wife in this movie. [ May be because of the concentration camp :) ]

- One of the touching scenes is that a person who is supposed to help Guido talks about something else, when asked for help, in the hotel.

- Guido mocks the soldier's walk - at first we smile on it.. but during the second time we can't. the wink they make at each other stumps the viewers.

- Here Guido's life and his unconditional love is shown with respect to holocaust and not in the reverse. It's about to what extent can a person go to save his beloved ones in crisis times.

- Though it's a drama to keep a kid in the concentration camp, the impact it makes is tremendous.

-Life is Beautiful does not detail on the horrors of the camp, nor it ignores them. The second half of the movie is more emotional and emphasise love and the power of desire to survival at the best.

- I need to appreciate Benigni for casting himself for the Guido character - it's tailor made. He chose what comes to him, best [ Like MGR.. MGR never chose a character which doesn't fit him - a retired officer ! ] Also, selection of the boy character is a fantastic move. His innocence can never be forgotten.

Conclusion

Comedy is used to emphasise the tragedy and the director Benigni wins. He crosses the thin line of making concentration camp as a funny place.

A father of a girl child can't digest 'Mahanadhi'. Similarly, a boy's father can't digest "Life is Beautiful" [ Of course, a father is a father ! ]. Great films n stories deal with unconditional love [ Hotel Rwanda, Kikujiro, Anbe sivam - Mother superior, The way home, Schindler's list ] and this film does the same.

அன்பின் பாதை சேர்ந்த‌வ‌னுக்கு
முடிவே இல்லைய‌டா
ம‌ன‌தின் நீள‌ம் எதுவோ அதுவே
வாழ்வின் நீள‌ம‌டா !

Life is Beautiful won 3 academy awards [ best foreign film, Best actor, Best original score ]. The other foreign movies nominated were Children of heaven [ kaaviyam ! ] and Central station [ Brazilian version of Kikujiro ].

The English Patient - Tales of love quotient.

2009-05-01T17:53:00.008+05:30

Film : The English Patient [ 1996/Drama]

Based on a novel written in 1992/British/160 mins

Cast : Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche

Cinematography : John Seale

Edited by :Walter Murch

Screenplay & Directed by : Anthony Minghella

What travels along with us consistently, right from our childhood [ Shadow-nu kadichu vaikadhinga, pls ].. It's memories. It could be of any kind.. summer holidays, friends, cinema, school ground, college days, girls, journeys, tours, first salary, little surprises. 'The English Patient' is all about digging the memories from almost a death bed. How about a knowledgeable, desert explorer thinks about his past. [ We hardly could differentiate between dessert and desert :) ] This person had been in the most toughest desert journeys, reads books, writes a book, enormously interested in music..

This movie is narrated in non-linear [ mostly present and past alternatively ] and I feel that adds a fabulous experience, watching this movie. Presenting a movie in this manner is a tough job [ Other best movies of non-linear narrations are 21 Grams, Amores perros, Memento, Flags of our fathers and almost all films of Quentin Tarantino (except jackie brown) ]. Tarantino movies are feast to watch [ Thani kadhai ! ].

The goodness of a novel turning into a movie script is its richness of characters and events. Character biography and events are already well set and of course the novel has to be properly penned as a script. [ Academy has original and adapted screenplay section of awards, separately ].

[ Review aarambingappaa .. ]

Plot :

The story is set in 1930s and 1944 [ shown as present and the flashbacks go to 30's ]..

The poetic love story starts with a plane exploding with fire. The severely burnt pilot [ Almasy ] is treated by some Arabians in the desert and eventually moved to a war medical camp. Hana is an ill fated n beautiful nurse starts nurturing him. She looses her beloved ones in the war and she thinks whoever she feel closer would die. She keeps the burnt pilot in an abandoned library like building [ Italian villa ] and takes care of.

The pilot named as 'English patient' thinks of his past life in series of flashbacks [ tiny flashback scenes ] which involves a geological expedition, poetic love, lust, betrayal and war related politics. In parallel, Almasy, Hana, a thief, and a sapper find themselves in each others company in the old Italian villa, close to the end of World War II. The flashback series unfold the identity of Almasy, his love and links to the other characters in the villa.

The past has it story including Mr & Mrs Clifton, where Mrs Clifton is attracted towards Almasy during their joint desert expedition. Also, the expedition carries a mysterious operation, unknown to the members. The narrative structure mixes both present action with thoughts and conversations that offer views of the past happenings.

Do you know what is 'supasternal notch' ? :)

This outline is enough to watch the complicated film.

View :

- The foremost beautiful thing in this film is transformation or dissolving. The sand dunes shot dissolve into the unevenly spread bed sheet [ remember eyeball in Titanic ]. Also, the scenes overlap. Something like this.. the next scene's dialog comes and fills the ending silence of the first scene. Also, the sound.. the foot tapping of Hana while playing hopscotch, turns to a folk beat in the desert. A ballroom dance dissolves in the patient's face. .[ Idhellaam editing games ].

- The main character Almasy is very interesting. I like the intelligent hero who talks less. 4th wall can even feel his performance in his horribly burnt face.

- The moment the character Katherine comes in, you expect something unusual [ Silmisham :) ] to happen. The lead is given by a folk story narrated by Katherine in the camp. She is also an intelligent lady with a caring husband. Still she misses something in life.

- The screenplay is cleverly penned so that the happenings don't traverse in the way audience expect. For example, K leaves the desert along with other team whereas the 4th wall expects her to stay back with Almasy. After a minute drama, something else happens. [ minor twists - usually Bhagyaraj uses this a lot ].

- Also, when you think that Almasy and K develop a relation, they just depart without even saying Bye [ Ada Che! ]. Then she comes back to his place in a nice white dress and the dress is sewed later. 4thwall leaves the reader to guess what happened :).

- The Nurse character Hana is a mix of matured and child-like character. She loves, plays hopscotch, sobs and laughs instantly.. just like a kid. She loves the Sikh sapper named Kip and its' the other love story. Actually, the story is about 2 love stories.. 1 in the past and 1 in the present.

- When I say non-linear narration, it's enormous effort for an editor [ Walter Murch won academy award for this movie in both sound & editing - Editor of all the 3 Godfather movies !]. I couldn't stop thinking about the effort for the film 'Memento' [ narrated in reverse chronology ]

- This film is a period drama without making the 4th wall conscious about that. The costumes, buildings, vehicles, just reflect the time fluidly, without any visual gimmicks.

- A good film shows the same shot twice with a different meaning. Also, the film starts and ends with the same scenes. They call it as elliptical structure. [ Remember the opening & closing scenes of 'A Perfect world' - Clint Eastwood ]. Watch out for such smaller details through out the movie.

- Most of the characters and elements are introduced within the first 15 minutes of the film, including morphine [ a medicine ].

- The dialogues are catchy.. David talks to Almasy saying that 'That is when I had thumbs and you had a face.. n name too'. Almasy, even as a patient cracks wits n jokes.

- The music, silence, sounds are appropriately placed and it's soothing. The folk music 'Szerelem' is a good one.

Conclusion :

If you are a reader, I would suggest you to the read the novel first. Else, if are of Toto's category , just grab a DVD and enjoy the movie. I look forward to read the book 'THE CONVERSATIONS: WALTER MURCH AND THE ART OF EDITING FILM'. [ ஏற்க‌ன‌வே ரொம்ப‌ அழ‌கு.. இதுல‌ எடிட்டிங் வேற‌ ப‌டிக்க‌றியா.. சுத்த‌ம்.. :)].

Jibeuro - Tale of a grandma [ the way home ]

2009-04-29T00:46:00.007+05:30

Name : The way home [ 2002/South Korea/ Drama ]
Director: Lee Jehong
Music : Kim
Actors : Doesn't look like they are actors :)

We, in tamil films, can't digest a single scene where the word love doesn't pitch in. We, in fact, changed the dictionary meaning of love - we understand it can be used only in the most dramatic sentence 'I love you' :). There are a handful of movies for other sort of relationships. Grandparents, Friends, Master-student [ "my tutor" illeenga :) ]. Also, we don't have good cinema for children. I still don't understand why 3D films are stopped being produced. [ I saw MDKuttichathaan in Ega theatre :) ].

We do have rare films deals about grandmothers [ poove poochoodava - U know PC Sriram was the cameraman for that film ]

This Korean movie deals with the summer holidays of a 10yrs old city grown kid, spending time with his grandmother in a remote village. The characters are very natural and their character biography is uncomplicated. But the happenings make the story close to us and interesting.

Plot :

It's about a 10 yrs boy [ San ] who comes from he city (Seoul) to a remote hill town in South Korea. San and his mother reaches a remote village to spend his summer with his grandmother [ 78 yrs, mute but not deaf ] and his mother leaves. San got packed junk foods and video games. He seldom respects the grandmother and of course, criticizes her as 'retard'. He gets 2 friends and they don't want to play with San, for his mischievous nature.

San's video game player runs out of the battery and he roams to get batteries. He asks his grandma for KFC and grandma somehow understands that he is asking for chicken. She manages to buy a live hen on a rainy day and cooks that in country style [ plain - boiled ]. He doesn't accept it as KFC and of course grandma doesn't understand what he exactly asks for.
Out of all the conflicts, the only thing he helps his grandma is to thread the needle. One day she takes him to the market, buys noodles and new shoes. On the way back, he cheats his grandma and comes back alone in the bus, leaving grandma without a nickle. She walks all the way back home without frustration.

Grandma's unconditional love slowly makes some change in the boy. End of the summer, he develops affection towards his grandma and teaches her simple greetings with cards. His mother comes and takes him back to Seoul, He departs with tears. Grandma is back to her simple life with greeting cards from her grandson.

View :

Of the few characters, I liked the grandma very much. Whatever the kid does, she never gets irritated [ just like any other grandma ]. With whatever available with her, she leads a peaceful life and on top she helps others. The only thing she depends on the boy is to run thread through a needle because of her low eyesight and that she waits patiently.

The boy expresses his unwillingness very naturally. The film doesn't end too dramatically making the boy crying for his mistakes .. ha.. !

The shot where he eats chicken in the night is showed in the shadow form on wall [ Thiruttu thanam - Remember Alaipayuthe marriage is shown in silhouette :) ]

I liked a touching dialog - a friend of the old lady ends their conversation like this."Come by again before one of us dies."

The film hardly has 5-7 characters and very less dialogues.

Conclusion :

The movie is dedicated to grandmothers in the world - what an apt thing to do. This is not a stunning or complicated movie but simple n neat one.

An old joke

1 : ப‌ர‌வாயில்லையே‌.. ம‌க‌ளிர் ம‌ட்டும் மாதிரி ப‌ல்ல‌வ‌ன்‍ல‌ "ஆயாவுக்காக‌"னு கூட‌ ப‌ஸ் விட்டுருக்காங்க‌ளே !

2 : யோவ் ! ஒழுங்கா ப‌டி.. அது "ஆயாவுக்காக‌" இல்லை.. ஆய்வுக்காக‌. !!

Match Point [ or Mixed Doubles :) ]

2009-04-27T23:34:00.009+05:30

Match point [ 2005/Drama-thriller ]
Cast : Jonathan Rhys meyer, Scarlett Johansson [ How can I forget this name :) ]
Directed by : Woody Allen.

The best aspect in Hollywood is it's variety. Every writer or Director attracts me for different reasons. One such impressive Director is Woody Allen. Woody Allen started his career as a comedy writer, stand-up comedian, stage plays and then came to cinema. He is famous for his interests in wits, sexuality, New York, Philosophy, Psychology, unimaginable cinema techniques and lengthy dialogues [ walk the talk ! ], etc.,

The film deals with 3 elements.

Luck : [ defined as 'Preparation meets opportunity' ] The film says we are scared to face the reality; about the influence of luck in our life.

Attraction : We get attracted towards for an unreachable item [ Once, BSA SLR cycle was the ultimate attraction for me ! ]. This film also deals with how attraction ignites, burns and become ashes. [ Adade ! ]

Fyodor Dostoevsky : The famous Russian literature 'crime and punishment' also influenced the story. Post crime psychology.

Plot :

The story involves a one time Irish tennis pro Chris [ poor class], who coaches in a tennis club. He is attracted towards the rich life style of the upper class. He meets his old friend Tom and also subsequently his family. He mingles with the family easily and Tom's sister Chloe is attracted towards Chris. Chris.. to an extent yes. He is more towards risky n something unreachable . He eyes on the fiancee of Tom (Nola). She is also attracted towards Chris but plays it cool saying him that she is already engaged. This dangerous chemistry grows. Due to some conflicts, Tom and Nola break their relation; Nola leaves. Tom gets married to some other girl.

Chris is happily married to Chloe and settles with his in-laws business, enjoys the new wealthy life. He couldn't have children because of some medical issues of Chloe. Fate plays a game. Nola returns to the same town [ Cotton bale to Sivakasi :) ]. Chris rebuilds the relation. Passion always has its price. What price did Chris and Nola pay ? What does the title 'Match point' do with this film ? There happens a CRIME !

View :

The very first point is this is not the usual Woody Allen film. Unlike Manhattan and Annie hall, MP doesn't contain any kind of wits that he had in his earlier movies rather he handled psychology to a great extent. Also, this movie is not based on Manhattan, NY.

The casting has to be mentioned explicitly. Chris and Chloe have very much dreary and ordinary looks. In contrast, Nola was stunningly and sensually beautiful [ Podhumdaa. :) ].

The movie starts with an explanation of what a MP is with respect to Tennis. This fantastic definition is mixed with luck and explained in some part of the film.

Chris role was done fantastically with the hesitations, desire, passion, risk [ machaan fiancee-nga ! ]. Credit goes to the casting decisions.

Nola.. She symbolises danger and problem in the movie [ with the enormous beauty as her visiting card ]. Her performance was noteworthy to mention [ Pinna summavaa ;) ].

Towards the end, the story trembles and again comes back on track. The ending was good, especially.

Conclusion :

I recommend the usual Woody movies first and then this MP so as to understand the diversity.

Film Trivia :

"The Shining" was the fist movie [ directed by Stanley Kuberick ] to use Steadicam. I consider this movie as the mother of horror movies.

What is war ?

2009-04-27T23:29:00.006+05:30

Flags of our fathers [ 2006 - War ]
Produced by : Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg.
Directed by : Clint Eastwood.

First.. I thought of writing the review in this style.

In American soil, except civil war, they never faced any external. But they are the masters in creating the war based movies. The best I can say [ from my list ] are Schindler's list, Saving private Ryan, pearl harbour.. I just thought of adding FOF in that list and started watching. The film gave a tight slap on my face.. converted my mind to write this instead of a detailed review.

The film starts with a dialog..

"Every jackass thinks he knows what war is.. Especially those who've never been in. We like things nice and simple, good and evil, heroes and villains. There are plenty of both.Most of the time, they are not who we think they are "

I am one of the j.a. who just watched a war movie. I'm not entitled to write a review on this. :(
The film ends with this..

"They may have fought for their country, but they died for their friends. For the man in front, for the man besides them."

The story was told in a mix of present and war period. The narration starts from the middle of the happening instead of, from the beginning. The technique was too good and captivating. One of the good movies from Client Eastwood. I'm still wondering which of the shots are made up of CG. If it is CG, it is the best in CG history.. If it is original, still it is the best in film history.

A counter movie has been released [ Letters from Iwo Jimo - Japanese viewpoint ]. I am looking forward to watch the same.