A tale of three films

Blame it on Adoor! His latest movies Naalu Pennungal and Oru Pennum Randaanum are a collection of four different short films with no direct connection. Here I introduce you to three movies from three different genres, three different styles, and three different languages.

Imagine an Iranian film getting nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar by the American Academy of Motion pictures! If there was a better reason for me to watch Children of Heaven, then it is the fact that it was recommended by Kalai, whose judgement I fully trust. Children of Heaven is all about simplicity and visual brilliance. Trust me, if u get to see this Persian movie without subtitles, U will understand and thoroughly enjoy every bit of it.

What would a 9 year old boy do if he looses the shoes of his 6 year old sister? For the young Ali, it was equal to loosing the world. He knows that his poor father has no money to buy little Zahra another pair to wear to school. So the brother-sister duo decides to hide the fact from their parents. They also decide to strike an arrangement to share Ali’s shoe. Ali’s school time is after Zahra’s. Zahra will wear Ali’s sneakers to school and would run back after her classes to hand it over to Ali who wears it to school. It’s quite an uncomfortable arrangement because Ali is late to school more often than not. How the two little Kids manage the aftermath of the shoe-missing forms the part of the story. You will be drawn into the innate goodness that the movie has to offer.

The only probable reason why Children of Heaven did not win the Oscar is because it was nominated in the same year when a certain Italian named Roberto Benigni decided to storm the Oscars with his movie Life is beautiful winning 7 nominations and three awards including Best Foreign Film. Or would it have been different if Children of Heaven was not an Iranian movie? I would not have been surprised! It’s a must watch for you and your children of heaven.

If Children of heaven is a must watch for any kind of audience, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, directed by Sudhir Mishra, is anything but that. This 2005 movie hailed by Sunday Times as the “Best Political Drama ever made in India” is set in the heat of the Naxalbari movement and the Emergency period.

Vikram (Shiney Ahuja) is in love with Geeta (Chitrangada Singh). But Geeta is bowled over by Sidhartha (Kay Kay Menon), whose first love is revolution and Geeta comes a distant second. Sidharth leads a group of left-aligned students group in Delhi University and want to start a revolutionary movement in Bihar to end the caste based discrimination in the state.

The priorities of the three varies to a great extent and the story unfolds around how their lives gets entangled even years after their college days, more by default than by design. Sidharth dreams of the egalitarian world and is determined to make it true. That takes him go to Bhojpur, which is plagued by the caste system. Geeta can’t have enough of Sidharth, more for her physical needs than anything else and she is almost blind towards the true love that Vikram has for her. Vikram in his part can’t forget Geeta and he comes back to her life time and again. In the process, he can’t avoid Sidharth, his nemesis.

Even though the basic premise of the triangular love story looks straight out of a Bollywood Masala, this movie is a different fare altogether. The movie gives a cross-section of the Indian life during the sixty’s and the seventy’s. What makes Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi special is that it shows an important leaflet out of the book of India which is hardly dealt with by any movie makers. I doubt if there is any topic in Political India that offers as much scope as the emergency and I find it surprising that no film has ever ventured to delve into it.

Shiney Ahuja got a well deserved Best Debut Filmfare award and Kay Kay Menon never disappoints you. But the person who took my heart away was the young and lovely Chitrangada (I would have complained about her not being given the Filmfare for the best Female debut, if only it had not gone to one Vidya Balan!). It’s a pity that she has not acted since this memorable debut, but I hear that she is on a comeback trail. Watch out for this girl.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi is a must-watch, but only for those who can digest a decent dose of parallel cinema and those who are interested in taking a peep into the turbulent times of Naxalbari movement and the Indian Emergency.

Finally, I want to end this trilogy with Cheran’s latest Tamil offering Pokkisham (Treasure)which came with the catchy subtitle “Nee Enakku Ezhuthiya kaadhal kadithangal” (The love letters you wrote to me). The promos, the best I have seen in a long time, really pulled me into the movie and not surprisingly, I was hooked into the movie from the word go.

The story unveils in the 1970’s and portrays the developing companionship between a Marine Engineer based in Kolkata and a Muslim girl in Nagore through letters. Lenin (Director Cheran himself) is the son of a communist sympathizer while Nadeera (Padmapriya) hails from a traditional Muslim family in Nagore (a place known for Hindu-Muslim harmony). Despite her conservative background, Nadeera is a well educated college going girl and talks about women’s liberation - especially in her community - which impresses Lenin, the communist and the want-to-be reformer. They stay in touch through their long drafted letters which is the major attraction of the film. The movie is a personal favourite since it revolves around some of my favorite topics like communism, women’s lib, the art of writing long letters and a breath taking recreation of Calcutta of the 1970s (no wonder that city is so close to my heart).

And before you decide to try Pokkisham, here is a disclaimer. My sister started growling at me within 10 minutes from the start of the movie. It’s not recommended unless you can enjoy a strong dose of Tamil Poetry. The movie progresses through the letters which are actually beautifully crafted poems. The pace of the movie is as fast as the snail mails that they exchange, but once you are drawn into the movie you would never complain. When a director of Cheran’s calibre narrates a tale from his heart, it shows! It’s really a treasure for a true romantic.

Greening the Carpet...

With friends like Minu and Kalai around, I wonder how I become so immune to social and environmental concerns. No, I’m not someone who turns my back to such things. But there is only intent. No action. This post is as a result of the inspiration from the latest article in Minu’s blog.
http://mybetaworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/helping-environment-through-its-ordeal.html

The article which speaks of climate change, also has some simple ways as to how we can contribute to a greener world by doing some very basic things right. And Minu had a suggestion to me that UNEP didn’t speak about. Throw my mobile into the next bush I find. That was drastic. Well, most of my friends will love to have a word on that!

As far as India is concerned, I was expecting that R K Pachauri’s Nobel would add a bit of momentum to the climate change movement. And the odd efforts are definitely on. Did you, for example, know that the Indian International Film Academy has a Green Global foundation to show-case on global warming and climate change? Interestingly, since 2008 the IIFA award ceremony has a Green Carpet in lieu of the normal red carpet! I was immediately reminded of Chairman Mao (It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice).

Does changing the colour of the carpet really help?? It can, for sure, increase the decibel levels and bring the spotlight on these issues. But the real change has to happen somewhere else.

Let us first realise that such changes never happen overnight and we should go back to the drawing boards. I think we should go back to Wordsworth (Child is the father of Man). Let’s go back to school.

The one definite step is to mould a generation that has concern for the nature and the only answer is a complete revamp of our school curriculum.

Just for a moment think of our schooldays. What we have learned and what we haven’t. We have learned how to draw the cross section of eukaryotic cells and recite the elements of the Lanthanides. We know about the military conquests of the Hoysalas and the structure of Trimethylbutane. We learn about asexual reproduction in Protozoa and the components of the rings of Saturn. But, is any of these learning helping?

I am not underestimating the importance of the basic sciences and social sciences. It’s the same science that tells us that the grasping ability diminishes with age and we practically stop learning after a certain phase. But how much of our learning in the first 15 or 17 years of our prime age do we practically apply in our lives and our work?

The environmental and social aspects should be added to the core part of the Carriculum and not a co-curricular activity. We used to have Moral Science classes in school that transforms into extra classes for History and test paper sessions for English.

So the curriculum should implant methods to educate the importance of nature. Let us not talk to kids on how to plant trees and why to plant trees. Make them do it. Let us take them out of the classes and into the lap of nature. Let us teach them gardening. Let us teach them the difference between blue bin and a green bin!

So let us hope that we have a new generation whose motto is Vasudhaiva Kudumbakam. A generation that cares for the world as much as their own family. We are too old now, to usher in a complete change.

My friend Jana says that his objective in life is to become to Finance Minister of the country and speaks passionately about the changes that he plans to usher in. Maybe, I should eye the Human Resource Development portfolio!

And the credit goes to...

At last, Manu has arrived in Blogosphere. And its time for the credits to roll. This would never have happened without the enthusiasm and support given by my friends (yet again). Here I would wish to place on record, the contributions made by some of them (even though I am fully aware of the consequences that many of them are not happy with the very prospect of "thanking" them!)

Let me start with A for Annie. She stands for enthusiasm and encouragement. Right from the day I told her I plan to start a blog, she has been after me egging me on. Thanks also to Jay who is still trying to find a better name for my blog. Keep trying dude, I’ll definitely come back to you!

Rani is easily the scariest of all my friends. For nine years now, she has been scaring me! Whether its quizzing, oration, writing, blogging, whatever… my objective has always been to impress her. And mind you, its tough. “She wouldn’t mind calling a spade a spade”, I had written in her orkut testimonial. Easily the most intelligent, definitely the most unassuming among my friends. If given a chance to select one thing that motivates me, my fingers will be pointing to her!

One thing I have always been fortunate is that whatever be the field, I always manage to have an “expert-friend”. Thanks to my dear friend Arun, with whom in mind, I wrote my first article on Federer. Thanks to Sajana without whom I would never have written that article on Adoor. I have more than one reason to thank Revi Sir. But here I would thank him for making me feel like a normal person after I declared boldly that “I saw Anantharam and I liked it!”. My exploration on Adoor would never have happened without him. Kalai was the first person to whom I showed the article on Adoor. Frankly, I thought that the writing lacked a clear line of thought and wanted to redraft the whole thing. But it was her “go ahead” that actually prompted me to publish it without any further editing. Full credit to her.

Thanks also to Gokul who despite his busy schedule of watching French open, took his time off to give a positive comment to my Federer post. Eventhough, I’m not sure he would have seen even one service game of Federer! :)

And finally, I come to the one person who did almost everything for my blog other than write the 2 articles that I have posted! Minu was the one who planted the idea of starting a blog into my head. When my time for starting the blog was running out, she even wrote in her blog “I am still waiting for Manu's blog launch. Given the fact that he is much of a self starter and is diagnosed with an acute case of verbal diarrohea (I'm stealing his very words here), I am surprised I am still waiting.”. Within a week, my blog went online. The entire layout and the style of the blog has been designed by her. She also did a “gender change exercise” to change my pleasingly pink background to a more masculine looking one. And if U liked “0-0~” that represents my glasses, then U know who should get the credit! And if U want more exposure to her unlimited creative skills, then probably you should vist her blog too. http://mybetaworld.blogspot.com/

Opening a door to Adoor…

Malayalees are a strange commodity, probably matched only by the Bengalis. No, this is not a thesis on leftism. We mallus have a strange habit of owning things that are beyond us. We are honoured that Anil Kumble’s ancestors hailed from Kumbala in Kasargode (and hence his name). A R Rahman’s father R K Shekhar, though Chennai based, was a composer of Malayalam Films and we beam with pride. Parvathy Omanakuttan, the Changanasserry born entirely-Mumbai-bred Miss World Runner up is our girl next door. But talk about our very own Adoor Gopalakrishnan and we can’t stifle a yawn.

In 1995 Shivaji Ganeshan, the legendary Tamil actor was awarded the Chevalier rank of Legion d’honneur by the French Government. The entire Tamil Nadu (including me) went on to salute the great master. And now he is fondly addressed as Chevalier Shivaji. In 2003 Adoor Gopalakrishnan was awarded the Commandeur rank of Legion d’honneur and how many of us actually know it? How did our media receive it? To put things in the correct perspective, the Legion d’honneur is the highest decoration given by the French Government. It consists of three Ranks with Commandeur being the highest followed by Officer and Chevalier. Simply, Chevalier is equal to Padmashri and Commandeur is equal to Padmavibhushan. We don’t care. And now, Adoor wins three Kerala State Awards and Presto! Controversy follows.

Let me start with two confessions when I write about Adoor. One, upto 2 years back I had never seen an Adoor film, though I always wanted to. It was an enigma to me as to why this outspoken headstrong filmmaker is easily the most internationally acclaimed director next only to Satyajit Ray. Two, I have only seen 3 out of the 11 movies he has made to-date. Yes, it may sound unbelievable, but Adoor has done just 11 feature films in the 37 years since Swayamwaram. I don’t think any other person as less prolific has ever won so many accolades including the Phalke Award.

Now, this is not meant to be an anatomy or a review of Adoor’s movies. I am not competent to do that. But a normal Keralite considers Adoor’s Films as storyless and speechless with darkness all around and characters looking into vacuum for what seems like eternity! Ask them how many Adoor movies they have seen and you get that smile and the statement “I don’t see such movies!” How convenient. The fact that I have never come across someone who has seen Adoor and expressed displeasure shows that the general perception on Adoor is out of a mix of preconceived notion and a reluctance to explore his world.

My first experience with Adoor was Mathilukal, a movie which left a sore impression in my mind. It was never the fault of the director. I had read Basheer’s autobiographical novel and I could not relate to Mammootty fitting the frail and thin Basheer image that I had in my memory.

And then I saw Anantharam, almost serendipitously! On a Saturday midnight alone at home I was switching TV channels when I stumbled on the movie. Starring Mammootty, Ashokan and Shobhana, Anantharam is considered by critics as Adoor’s most abstract work and I approached the movie with a lot of skepticism. But in the next two hours I went on to discover why he is considered one of the best in the business. The movie went on to win the national award for Best Screenplay, even though my colleague (and fellow Adoor fan) Revi sir says that there is no script in the movie! It’s for the viewer to weave an own script around the characters that Adoor has etched.

By the time I saw Naalu Pennungal, just months back, I had already become an ardent Adoor Fan. The movie reminded me of K Balachander’s Oru Veedu, Iru Vaasal, for more than one reason. While the KB movie had two unrelated stories, here there were four. Both the movies are woven around strong female characters. The movie showcases four different stories of Thakazhi set in the same geographical area of Kuttanad, but across different time periods. What connects the stories is the presence of the female characters who, against all adversities, holds on to their self. There are strong statements on their sexuality and morality. Adoor considers this as his most simple film to date and you can clearly see why. Notably, this is Adoor's first Film without Mankada Ravi Varma, his favourite lensman. Yet the movie is a visual treat and his characteristic “attention to details” is very much on show.

I started the article by comparing Malayalis with Bengalis, but to give due credit to them, they own their Satyajit Ray. But we don’t. Our doors remain firmly shut to this master craftsman and we refuse to appreciate what he has achieved. Like a kid refusing to get into the shallow water fearing that it’s too deep. If only we care to open that door to judge whether he deserves whatever greatness that is bestowed upon him by the “world”.

Roger Federer's French Connection

When Roger Federer faced Nadal in the Australian Open Final this January, I was among the millions of Federer fans who hoped that he will annihilate Nadal and get his record equalling 14th grand slam... But as a hapless Federer broke down into tears after losing that fateful last set, I put this note on the header of my Orkut Profile “Too bad. Federer has to wait till the French Open to get his 14th!”. It was nothing short of an outrageous wishful thinking. And now, it’s all happening!

When he reached the Semi Finals at Roland Garros two days back, he was reaching the Semi Finals of the 20th consecutive Grand Slam. And that record is not likely to be ever challenged since the closest anyone has come is Ivan Lendl and Rod Laver with 10 Semi Final appearances!! Moreover Federer’s streak shows no signs of ending!

If I were Federer, I would gladly gift one of my Wimbledon Trophies to Soderling for having sent Nadal to cool in his Pool in Majorca, rather than sweat out at the Roland Garros! So with Nadal out of the way, Federer is an overwhelming favourite with a record of 29-0 against all players other than Nadal in the last five French Opens.

If Federer does falter, then I consider it a bigger upset than Nadal’s ouster because Federer is a man for the big occasions. Take this. He played 9 tournaments other than Grand Slams in 2008 without winning a title! Made it to 2 finals and 2 Semi Finals. Average, by any standard. Now take the four Majors– Won the US open, Runner-up in French and the Wimbledon, Semi Finalist in Aussie Open. It would have made Sampras proud in his hey days! And mind you, all this happening in the year when he was diagnosed with mononucleosis.

Moreover, every time Federer has lost in a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2004, he has lost only to the eventual Champion.

Now.. Who can stop Federer from laying hands on the Musketeer’s Trophy on Sunday. Del Petro? On six outing with Federer he has never managed to win a set. The knock-out boy Soderling? He is 0-9 against Federer and has luckily won a set out of the 19 played. Gonzalez? He has managed to win a match out of the 13 played between them. Interestingly, for all the four semi-finalists clay is the least favoured surface. And despite his record against Nadal, Federer is a legend in Clay!!!! (Read this http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=granderson/090601)

Finallly, is Federer the best tennis player ever? Arguably, Yes. Is he the most loved Tennis Star around? The answer is a firm, resounding YES! It's probably the love for Federer that prompted the French Crowd to support Soderling and boo Nadal in that “greatest-upset-in-French-Open”. And this fact was reiterated when Federer crushed the French son-of-soil Monfils in the Quarters and the crowd was firmly behind him. I feel that for most of the people who prefer Nadal against Federer it is not actually love for Nadal, but the love for Sampras that prevails. I can’t blame them if they want the Sampras record to stay! If U have any doubts, ask my friend Rani!