salangai oli...

Just the other day, thanks to my fever, I was at home bunking office and I happened to watch Salangai Oli by K Viswanath. A great film, mind you it was dubbed in tamil from telugu (well i am not really sure about this), with exceptional performances by Jayapradha, Kamal Hassan and even his torn shoes. It is one of those movies that unfailingly make my eyes moist at least once before it ends. Most often (as with most of the audience I am sure), it is the scene where Jayapradha gives the national dance festival invitation to Kamal. Or the scene in which Kamal meets his dying mother. Or it might be even one of those scenes where drunkard old Kamal talks to Sarathbabu or his wife.

The immense strength of the film’s emotion comes from Illayaraja. Who else can possibly do that, if not the Raja? K Viswanath’s direction is just brilliant all through. And gosh!!! Jayapradha looks so divine. No wonder Satyajit Ray adorned her so much.

By mere coincidence, on the same day, I happened to read a review of Cinema Paradiso in an old issue of Anantha Vikatan. It is supposedly one of the greatest movies ever made on this earth. Is our own Salangai Oli any less? A Big NO is my answer.

If the western dickheads and those that are born in India who ape them don’t think so, I would give ‘em the middle finger! You might call me an emotional idiot. May be I am. May be not. I jus don’t give a damn! And most of the Indian “elite” that I have met just shove aside Indian films such as this as “tear jerkers” in the likes of Karan Johar (without him no discussion of Indian cinema would be complete, right? At least that’s what the national news channels make me think. Whether Karan Johar makes good films or not is another issue anyway.)

What is realism in films? Most often, we, the elite, tend to consider Hollywood as the god-sent standard with a totally unjustified reverence... So if you underplay like they do there, we have no qualms accepting you as a good actor. (i think this deserves another lengthy post!!!)

Most often, these “elite” friends of mine say they feel like fools when watching films like Salangai Oli. These films make you cry, so what? It is probably the unconscious resistance to show one’s “weakness”, if a heart (kind or otherwise) that identifies itself with a third person be it on screen or off screen, can ever be called a “weakness”.

Or it might be even our fear of emotions, either ours or others’. Probably it is a symptom of the fact that we are losing our skills to deal with emotions. And this argument seems to have a high chance of being true. With so many of us getting educated and becoming intelligent?!, we are capable of confronting violence or answering many intriguing puzzles of nature, but not our own emotions.

We have become so impervious to emotive stimuli (forgive my technical language!) that today we have to have blood spattering gruesomely on our faces to stir our animal instincts and make us understand that the actor is under pain. In the name of reality, all that we are doing is to provide sadistic pleasures and satisfy the bloody animal within.

It seems we are losing our understanding of the subtle language of emotions.

Heil My Führer!

Thanks to Pure Cinema by Satyam Cinemas, I was able to watch Der Untergang (The Downfall) directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, at Six Degrees, on a big screen with superb sound effects. But the announcement made just before the movie began really tested my patience. The voice of that female making the announcement made it sound even worse. "Those of you seen using your cellphones or heard having loud conversations during the movie would be asked by the management to leave the hall. Your tickets won't be refunded". I was expecting her to go on and ask us all to keep our fingers on our lips. Thank god!!! She didn't. And guess what, they repeated the announcement right after the interval too!!! Just in case any STML (Short Term Memory Loss) guys all of a sudden remembered their history lessons and decided to watch the downfall of Der Führer!

Unlike my previous reviews, I won't be able to rip apart this movie, for

1. those movies were of the kind that had no need for a really intelligent mind either from the audience or the creator

2. I severely lack the knowledge of WW II history (wonder how i passed out of my school!). All that I remember are some exaggerated stories from the comics that I read during my school days. One was about Himmler being a look-alike of Hitler and that there were even more Hitler look-alikes used to fool the Allies. Another was about the Allied Forces finding the art treasures supposedly hidden away by Himmler. And of course, I have even heard about a compilation of Hitler's romantic missives to many of his love interests across the country.

The whole movie revolves around the emotions of Hitler himself and those around him, as they get ready to face the end of their lives with the impending annihilation of Berlin by the Soviets. And with that, the ultimate downfall of the Third Reich. Faced with inevitable defeat and death, Hitler goes from heights of completely unjustified optimism in one moment to suicidal depression the next moment. Meanwhile, his ladylove, Eva Braun, tries to keep the spirits up by partying and dancing amidst the music of artillery explosions. And some Hitler loyalists, including the narrator, Traudl Junge, Hitler's personal secretary, decide to stay and die with Der Führer. And, Alexandra Maria Lara, who plays Traudl Junge, looks like an angel amidst all that dust, blood and death.

There is no dearth of emotions throughout the film from unflinching belief in Der Führer that the SS troops have to the betrayal by Himmler, the most trusted aide of Hitler. Ironically, in the end, I could not help feeling a strange kind of belonging with Der Führer, whom I know to have sanctioned the death of about 62 million people, including his own countrymen.

The film superbly brings out the human side of Der Führer and at times, leaves one wondering whether this man could really have done what we have heard he did.

"Hitlerae! neenga nallavaraa?... kettavaraa??"

Sappunu oru kadhal!

I watched SOK (sillunu oru kadhal), the day it got released, of course too expectant for a cool romance after so much of bloodletting by dada and gangster heroes in recent tamil films. The whole movie was way too dry, no jillu at all, in fact hot after the intermission, Damn it! they switched off the ac at Sangam (Probably they didn't see the need for ac when they were showing such a jill movie).

The film started on a promising note with Jo and her friends, who are totally against arranged marriage, planning to fall in love. I expected some interesting tussle between Jo and Surya, who get forcibly married to each other. But the director decides to play God and ignores my wishes; cut from the marriage scene to Mumbai, 6 years later, we see Jo and Surya along with their cute daughter happily whistling to each other busily right in the morning when the neighbours are tensely fighting on their way to their offices. How else on earth can you make the dumb audience understand that Jo and Surya are a happy family! On the way back home from office, in the metro, a gal just droools over Surya with Jo listening nearby. No comments. The director has had the good intentions of showing a happy family, but he overdoes it. Being the genius that I am, I devised a plan to deal with the boredom; I started counting the number of times Surya calls Jo as jillu. God! all the 18 years of my education proved to be of no help and I lost the count. Probably that explains the reason behind the title of the film - Jillunu oru kadhal, later changed to sillunu oru kadhal, thanks to tax cuts for tamil names (i think it is high time we had reservation and incentives for people with proper tamil names!) and a quick economic thinking.

Enakku oru unmai therinjaaganum saami... which girl in her right senses would do what Jo did in the film after reading Surya's diary? For just one sentence which was uttered by Surya in intense pain from the loss of his beloved? Isn't the six years of marriage supposed to have made Surya more mature? Is it like Mudhalvan and Azhagi repackaged?

With a good looking Surya and Bhoomika, we expect their love life in college to be really interesting. Something Mani Ratnam ishtyle. Never mind... that man is God. All that we get after so much promise of something like Kartik's performance in Mouna Ragam and Varusham 16 is just a beer drinking, rowdy Surya, whom Bhoomika falls for, when she had no reason to do so. Given the volume of beer that Surya gulps down in the movie, he is sure to lose quite a few moms and grandmas from his fanbase. Most often, you feel like you are watching the puppy love of a couple of school kids in their infatuation. In fact, school kids might kill me for saying that, as they woo their targets in much more style these days.

Krishna could have saved some time spent on choosing the wardrobe and spent it wisely on pepping up the movie with some interesting scenes. Santanam was the only relief. Especially, the "kaalaila antha tea kadaila vada saaptaen machi, paruppu ozhunga vegave illa" was too good.
Another one:
Surya: " enna vaandhi eduthuttanaa?"
Santanam: "illa ATM la irunthu panam edutha"

Vadivelu's comedy, if it can be called that, was too drab and did not even bring a smile. Contrastingly, the theatre was roaring with laughter towards the end when Jo wakes up from her nightmare - imagining Surya and a ravishing Bhoomika hitting the bed.

Some good music from ARR and a brilliant cinematography by RD Rajasekar would make sure that the songs especially Munbe vaa and New York nagaram very well become part of our lives for next few months. However, my personal favs are the jazzy title song and maja maja.

In the end, all that matters is money, no matter what jobless people like me who go and watch the film on the first day, feel and say. SOK is gonna see 100 days for sure!!! Wedding gift to Surya and Jo from the loving people of tamil fraternity!!!

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Vettaiyadu Vilayadu... a Big Joke

I remember a dialogue, from one of thalaivar’s movie, I guess – “dhrogathilayae periya dhrogam enna theriyumaa? Nambikkai dhrogam”. VV has done exactly that.

I bet you would have never seen Kamal Hasan so uncomfortable in any role. He would sure have been better off without this movie in his career. He has so much difficulty carrying his weight around in this movie. Literally. I have no problem with a fat hero as long as he is comfortable with his figure on the screen. But, in VV, unlike in PKS, Kamal is clearly not happy with his figure and he tries desperately to mask that. And meets with only failure. It really aches to see such a good actor deliver so pathetic a performance. Just think of the kind of cop he played in Kurudhippunal, Soorasamharam etc.

Gautam seems to be a one-film wonder. (I wouldn’t dare call Minnale his movie; it totally belonged to Vivek and Harris Jeyaraj. Even Reema was not that hot, I swear!) I sincerely hope Gautam proves me wrong. If he was hoping to compensate the lack of gripping screenplay (if there is any) with lot of gory violence, he is terribly mistaken. Some of the scenes remind of his previous slick cop movie – Kaaka Kaaka. The comparison, as inevitable as it is, brings out the insipidity of the plot. As a generic rule, thrillers would have a number of suspects at the beginning, from which the detective hero would wade through a lot of clues and unexpected twists and turns to finally nab the psycho before he kills the skimpily clad heroine. Nowadays, the heroine herself finishes off the villain, especially if the director believes in gender equality and more than anything, wants to cut down the bill. After all, who wants to have a highly paid hero when the heroine herself can do the simple job of killing the villain at the end while simultaneously adding quintessential GQ and SFX (special effects… through her high-pitched squeals) to the film?

Unlike typical psycho thrillers, which play up the fear factor, VV, being a whodunit mystery type, could have had some moments of intelligence and interesting dialogues (not exactly the type of comments that Kamal makes towards the climax, about the sexual interests of the villains, even though that was exactly what was on my mind). Again the villain, played by Daniel Balaji, pales in comparison with Pandya, again from KK, played by Jeevan. Someone please ask the director fraternity to give their villains, a nice hair cut and reduce the volume when they talk. Again why did the director have to lend his own voice, at least it sounded more like Pandya's, to the other villain? Budget probably.

And of course, Prakashraj, such a great and stylish actor, has been totally wasted. The director could very well have pitted Kamal against Prakashraj, playing a suave psychotic gentleman (oxymoron?) along the lines of Dr Hannibal Lecter. (Just before the intermission, one could see the poster of Hannibal staring at you from the walls of the villains’ room – that is called attention to detail… Grow up Gautam!!) That would have made an awesome plot and could have provided scope for intense encounters between these great actors, just like those between Kamal and Naaser in Kurudhipunal.

I don’t know whether Gautam’s creativity has touched a new low. He did not even think of new names and uses the same names from Kaaka Kaaka – Maya, Ilamaran etc. He knows for sure that those names are very well etched in the memories of any Tamil moviegoer worth his salt. And gosh!! Why the hell did he have to use his own house address in Gandhi Street, Kaanagam, as Kamal’s address in the movie?

I hoped Gautam would have given some life to the mediocre songs, which should have given Harris much less trouble, given that he had so many tunes to chose from his own recent hits like Ghajini. Partha muthal naalae, the song with Kamalini Mukherjhee, seems to be the bottom of the list in terms of visualization, given that one invariably is made to compare it with “Ennai konjam” from KK. At least, “vennilave” has a moment of hilarious relief when the director himself joins the street dancers in the background.

Gautam could have better used his DVD library membership and watched a few racy, Hollywood psycho thrillers before making the movie. Or even better, his own film, Kaaka Kaaka (sure he must have a copy of it at home!)

The whole film seems to be a big compromise (nobody seems to have an idea of why they started the film), given the track record of the brilliant technicians it had – Ravi Varman, the award winning cinematographer behind Anniyan and Five Star, and Antony, the editor behind Kaaka Kaaka, Manmathan and many other box-office hits. The quality of cinematography is so “good” that it instills a lot of confidence in any first-time photographer. Most of time, the screen is occupied by the bloated faces of Kamal (with that never before, hopefully never again ‘totally lost’ looks!) and Jo.

At the theatre, I was fantasizing that somebody would wake me up and tell me that I had had a bad dream and VV is yet to be released.

They say there is nothing worse than the death of hope. (I think this is from Shawshank Redemption). VV has not dealt a death blow, but sure has cast a serious doubt on the big Brand – Kamal Hasan.