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The (Never Ending) Blog Roll
Manipulation of viewer's emotions is one of the major yardstick of success for Indian movies, particularly Bollywood films. That is also one way they escape from the clutches of logic and laws of physics. If your movie make viewers overtly emotional- make them cry, laugh, be angry or anything else other than think, you have a winner on your hand.
Aamir Khan is one movie maker (I would say movie maker because, as he involves in the production of his movies too, he definitely is a decision maker in the process) who is the master of manipulation games as evident from his movies like Lagaan and Taare Zameen Par. I am not demeaning him by this statement, I am being positive. His major achievement is that people expect something different every time his new film is announced. He delivers consistently by making movies with unique themes that also entertains because their structure doesn't vary from other standard Bollywood movies. Audience feel that they are watching something fresh, at the same time they are still in very much their familiar territory.
His latest movie Dangal is not different. I don't want to go into details about the movie itself. But it is a standard Aamir Khan fare- it's about a social issue, it entertains you a lot, it is well made in technical and artistic fronts, Aamir does a brilliant job and the same time ensures that his co-actors get meaty parts themselves, thereby backing his performance.
But my praise for the movie is for another matter. If you remember Aamir's movie Taare Zameen Par, which is about the proper upbringing of kids, you will be astonished to find that this movie portrays something extremely opposite. The easiest way out for the makers was to cover it up beautifully in emotions so that we won't identify this discrepancy.
But here their choice was to show it off by making Aamir's character a bit in grey shade and his behaviour bordering on child abuse. It adds another dimension to the movie. And that is why I feel the movie should be praised, along with several other positives. It gives an opportunity for the viewer to think.
Labels: Aamir Khan, dangal, hindi, movie, movies
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Bridging Connections: A Collection of Sri Lankan Short Stories.
Edited by Rajiva Wijesinha, Bridging Connections is a collection of twenty five short stories penned by Sri Lankan writers. The book has representations from all three major languages of the country. Eight of the stories are English translations of Sinhala stories, seven translated from Tamil and ten are stories originally written in English. There are stories written in different eras- right from 1940s to contemporary ones.
The first story of the collection, titled Diversion is written by Martin Wickramasinghe, who is acknowledged as the father of modern Sinhala fiction. It is about the remnants of colonial attitudes still showing its ugliness even after the English left for good. Going Back is about a retired head teacher visiting her school nostalgically with her son who doesn't care. The Dancer very beautifully portrays a psychological aspect of married life. A Latrine For US Too establishes how a new habit is formed. Initially all are sceptical about building a new toilet, but are forced to make one by the law. Later one by one the family starts using it and it becomes a norm. This story, I feel has significance in the current Indian situation of digitalisation.
Today My Son Comes Home is a dark tragedy as the name indicates. The Teacher is about how desires can veil our humanity. SMS is a heart felt story about the interactions between a consultant and mine searchers in a war zone. Akka is a family drama about a divorced sister.
The Tamil stories starts with Chastity, which mulls about the importance of life over chastity of a lady. Satisfaction has a very personal narration about a boy selling wares to feed his family and to educate himself. Among the Hills starts as a romance and then by the end take an abrupt turn.
Thousands of Directions is about ethnicity and the ridges created by politics. It Could Happen Anywhere, Anytime is a tragedy of lives altered permanently by war. Thanks is a mini story that's interesting due to its sharp anti-Indian twist in the end. The Door of Infatuation is a hilarious retelling of an old mythological tale.
Stories that are written in English are more interesting because they are not translated and comes directly from horses' mouths. Also, absence of the strong ethnic divide seen in the previous two sections make it an interesting read. Notable are the satires Professional Mourners and The Doughty Men of Purantota. No State, No Dog is a story of sudden and drastic change in life, so is The Colour of Life. Home Coming contrasts expectations and reality. Reunion is a black comedy about extreme situations tearing the mind apart.
The Drummer is perhaps the most modern of the stories. The Price goes back to the theme of parents' inability to raise their children as individuals. The Rabbit's Retreat treads a nostalgic path of reminiscing about school life. The last tale Monkeys is like a wise Buddhist fable.
Title Bridging Connections signifies the attempt to unify the two ethnicities that are perpetually at loggerheads with each other. But the stories given in the book showcase the stark difference between their views and attitudes. It is interesting to observe how one party tries to avoid or sugar coat the issue while the other constantly brings it up to the verge of propaganda. One tries to induce restraint and a feel good factor in its stories, while the other tries to stoke the emotions.
Labels: book, books, short stories, Sri Lanka
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El Topo- Violence and Philosophy
Sometime back I had posted on the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune here. I was very much impressed by the vision and dedication of the subject of that movie, Mexican surrealist movie director Alexandro Jodorowsky. I found out that his first movie Fando y Lis is available on YouTube. I tried watching it but it was too much off my taste. So I decided on watching El Topo, his second attempt.
In a YouTube video Jodorowsky himself had elaborated his reasons for the existence of this bizarre Mexican western movie. It so happened that the first screening of Fando y Lis, during a Mexican film festival, ended in a full scale riot. As a result, when the movie was screened in USA, they chopped off all the surrealist scenes that were presumed to be offensive to US audience. To Jodorowsky's disappointment, the movie failed to generate any interest. He decided to make his next movie distinctly American- a western, containing all cliché elements of the genre with his style of surrealism.
El Topo starts with a bizarre image, that of a man with an umbrella riding a horse on a hot desert with a small boy who is stark naked. The boy then buries his toy and a photograph of his mother to declare he has attained manhood. The actors are the director himself and his real son. The movie proceeds to show them travelling through villages being plundered by looters delivering justice. He goes on his journey through desert with a woman, whom he rescued abandoning his son. She persuades him to win over the four masters residing in desert. He fights and win them all, by crook and luck.
But then the woman double cross him and leave him for dead. Some cave dwelling people who are deformed by centuries of interbreeding rescue him. After years he wakes up from coma and decides to help them come out of the cave by making a tunnel. His son who was abandoned has become a monk and wants revenge.
The whole story happens in punishing landscapes in the background of unending cruelty and violence. Everything that happens on screen is so out of the world, but shot so strikingly, that you are forced to find the meaning of it. The movie delivers very high on shock value. But unlike some movies made with only that purpose, El Topo makes us aware that whatever is shown is unreal.
It works as a parable- of a spiritual journey that starts with self and ends in selflessness. Lot of spiritual symbols are thrown in- animals, violent and sexual activities, magic, deformed people, rituals. The movie never bothers to be correct- politically, socially or culturally.
When it was released it became a sensation. It was the movie that popularised midnight screenings, when movies that have disturbing content are shown past midnight in movie houses. If you can handle the disturbing visuals- caution: there are lots of that here- El Topo is an interesting puzzle for the neurons.
Labels: Mexican, movie, movies
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Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Avenger by Frederick Forsyth
A young American idealist relief worker is killed in Bosnia by a psychopathic gangster. To exact vendetta, his grandfather takes the help of Avenger, an anonymous person who is actually a Vietnam veteran who used to hunt Vietcongs in underground tunnel networks during war, an expert in rendition- picking criminals hiding in other countries and delivering them to justice. But what if this criminal is hiding in an impenetrable fortress made as a joint venture by Man and Nature, guarded 24 hours by armed soldiers inside a true Banana Republic and has the backing of... CIA!
All writers have their own style. Frederick Forsyth's style resembles the pose of a tiger about to pounce on its prey. The prey, when it sees the tiger, feels that the moment is infinite. Time flows too slow and you notice every tiny detail from your surrounding, all the while waiting for the inevitable action to happen. He sustains this tension throughout the narrative, building the ambience and gradually preparing readers for the inevitable final showdown.
Avenger is no different. Told in a non linear style, it's timeline span more than half A century. We get snippets of World War 2, Vietnam war, Serbian crisis and even the rise of Taliban. Like most of the Forsyth novels, in Avenger also, every action, every spoken word, every situation pays off by the climax. There is a lot of name dropping- of actual personalities and incidents, which again involves us more with the plot. Every character has a back-story, embedded with so much details that we identify with their actions, reactions and decisions. Each back-story has the potential to start a novel of its own.
The final resolution happens in just the last few pages, but the build up of the background- the quirks and motives of characters, the planning of the operations and even the establishment of the geography make the novel work big time.
Labels: book, books, thriller
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Posted by harish p i at 8:19 AM 1 Comments
Monday, December 26, 2016
കട്ടപ്പനയിലെ ഹൃതിക് റോഷനും ഓർമ്മശക്തിയും...
നാം കാര്യങ്ങൾ ഓർക്കുന്നത് എങ്ങനെയെന്നറിയാമോ? നമ്മുടെ ഇന്ദ്രിയങ്ങൾ അനുഭവിക്കുന്ന ഉത്തേജനങ്ങൾ തലച്ചോറിൽ എത്തുമ്പോൾ തലച്ചോറ് മുന്നേയുണ്ടായിട്ടുള്ള അനുഭവങ്ങളുമായി ഘടിപ്പിച്ചു നോക്കുന്നു. അതായത് നമുക്ക് നേരത്തേ അനുഭവമുള്ളതോ അറിയുന്നതോ ആയ കാര്യങ്ങളുമായി ബന്ധമുള്ള ഒരു പുതിയ അനുഭവം ഉണ്ടാകുമ്പോൾ അത് നന്നായി ഓർമ്മയിൽ നിലനിൽക്കുന്നു.
ഞാൻ നാദിര്‍ഷാ സംവിധാനം ചെയ്ത കട്ടപ്പനയിലെ ഹൃതിക് റോഷൻ കണ്ട് മണിക്കൂറുകളേ ആയുള്ളൂ. എന്നാൽ ഇപ്പോൾ അതിൽ നിന്ന് കാര്യമായൊന്നും ഓർത്തെടുക്കാൻ കഴിയുന്നില്ല. അതിന് കാരണമായി എനിക്ക് തോന്നുന്നത് മുകളിൽ പറഞ്ഞതാണ്. പടത്തിന്റെ ഘടന വളരെ അയഞ്ഞതാണ്. മൊത്തത്തിൽ നോക്കുമ്പോൾ ഒരു കഥയുണ്ട്. എന്നാൽ പല ചേരുവകളും ആ കഥയുടെ ഭാഗങ്ങളല്ല. പല കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളും വന്നു പോകുന്നു. പല ഹാസ്യരംഗങ്ങളും സമയം തികക്കാനുള്ള വെറും ഫില്ലർ മാത്രമായി പോകുന്നു.
ചുരുക്കത്തിൽ രംഗങ്ങൾ തമ്മിലുള്ള പൊരുത്തമില്ലാത്തതിനാൽ പടത്തിന് നൈസർഗികമായ ഒരു ഒഴുക്കിന്റെ അഭാവം പ്രകടമാണ്. അത് കൊണ്ട് പല രംഗങ്ങളും തിരശ്ശീലയിൽ കാണുമ്പോൾ രസിക്കുമെങ്കിലും പിന്നീട് ഓർത്തെടുക്കാൻ ശരിക്ക് വിഷമിക്കണം. പ്രത്യേകിച്ച് ഹാസ്യരംഗങ്ങൾ. കോമഡിയും മിമിക്സും പിന്നെ ഞാനും എന്ന ടിവി പരിപാടി ഒരു ചലച്ചിത്രമാക്കി അവതരിപ്പിച്ചത് പോലെ.
മുഖ്യകഥാപാത്രത്തെ അവതരിപ്പിച്ച വിഷ്ണു ഒരു ഭാവി വാഗ്ദാനം ആണെന്ന് തെളിയിച്ചു. ധർമ്മജനും സിദ്ദിഖും നന്നായി പിന്തുണച്ചു. തന്റെ ആദ്യപടത്തിലെ പോലെ നായികമാർക്ക് ഇതിലും കാര്യമായൊന്നും ചെയ്യാൻ നാദിര്‍ഷാ കൊടുത്തില്ല. സലിംകുമാർ തന്റെ പഴയ പ്രതാപത്തിന്റെ നിഴലിലൊതുങ്ങി നിന്നു കളഞ്ഞു.
പല കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളേയും കഥാഗതി മാറ്റാനുള്ള വെറും ഉപകരണങ്ങളായിട്ടാണ് ചലച്ചിത്രകാരന്മാർ കണ്ടത്. നായികയുടെ പരിചയക്കാരനായ ഹിന്ദിക്കാരനും, കഥാന്ത്യത്തിൽ ആത്മഹത്യയ്ക്ക് ശ്രമിക്കുന്ന കോടീശ്വരനുമെല്ലാം ഈ വകുപ്പിൽ വരും. ഇവർ ആവശ്യഘട്ടങ്ങളിൽ അവതരിക്കുകയും അവരുടെ ധർമ്മം കഴിഞ്ഞാൽ ആരാലും ഓർക്കപ്പെടാതെ ഒഴിവാവുകയും ചെയ്യും. ആൻമരിയ എന്ന പ്രധാനകഥാപാത്രം പോലും വെറും പ്ലോട്ട് ഡിവൈസായി അധഃപതിക്കുന്നത് സങ്കടകരമായി.
ഇത്തരം കഥാപാത്രങ്ങൾ അനശ്വരമാക്കപ്പെട്ട ഉദാഹരണങ്ങൾ വേണോ? ആൻമരിയ കലിപ്പിലാണ് എന്ന ചിത്രത്തിൽ സിദ്ദിഖ് അവതരിപ്പിച്ച വേഷം കഥാഗതി തിരിക്കാൻ വേണ്ടി മാത്രം വരുന്നതാണ്. എന്നാൽ അതിനെ പൊലിപ്പിച്ചെടുത്ത് അവിസ്മരണീയമാക്കിത്തീർത്തു. ദേവാസുരത്തിലെ പല മൈനർ കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളും, അപ്പുമാഷടക്കം, നീലകണ്ഠന്റെ പ്രമാണിത്തം വെളിവാക്കുക എന്ന ഒറ്റക്കാരണത്തിന് അവതരിക്കുന്നവരാണ്. എന്നാൽ അവരില്ലാതെ ആ ചിത്രം സങ്കൽപ്പിക്കാൻ പറ്റുമോ?
Labels: malayalam, movie, movies
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