Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Mundasupatti(The village of Turbans), Tamil Film: The perfect idiot, just got better



One helping the Sunday before last was not enough, and the second helping today seemed to have only increased my appetite for Mundasupatti.

The epitome of a perfect idiot has always been Kali N Ratnam, in Sabapathy, the 1941 flick, produced and directed by AV Meyyapan(AVM). Mr. Ratnam effortlessly deep dived into moronic activities punctuated by eye popping stares which sent  us into a tizzy. The record for the perfect idiot which stood in the name of Kali N Ratnam, for a period of 73 years at last has been broken by Ramdas, who enacts and emotes the moron MunishKanth, with aplomb. The perfect idiot just got better. Munishkanth will be remembered for a long time to come, not that we will be able to forget the senior Mr. Ratnam.

Not that others are left behind.  In almost equal measure, Kali, the hero’s side kick, manages to steal the thunder from Munishkanth with his wisecracks and whispering  one liners. They do come fast and furious. Munishkanth gets the edge over Kali simply because we are familiar with characters like Kali.

Oh! Yes, Vishnu sends your heart into a flutter, and charms you with his smile, dimple, a wig that fits him like a glove and seems to float around the screen as if he were on moon. And yes, he does resemble, Akshay Kumar while he smiles. He is a joy to behold.
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Nanditha, is a recreation of Bhagyaraj heroine of 1980s, and reminds you of Sulakshana in Thooral Ninnu Pochu.  Her eyes, does all the talking. It is wonderful to see the half saree adding to so much of feminine grace. Don’t you think the death sentence given to the half sarees by the ladies in TamilNadu should be reconsidered?

Remember a few years ago, “Azhagar samiying Kuthirai” pulled the carpet under Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to win the best picture for popular entertainment. Mundasupatti is clever morph of Azhagar samiying Kuthirai.

And to the man who makes your rap all the way through a most enjoyable dirge, probably a first of sorts, music director, Sean Roland, is a man to watch out. Sean was brilliant in “VaayaI Moodi Pesavum”. He does one better.

One more short got made into a full length feature film and Ram Kumar, is one more first film director who makes a mark. The seriousness of film making lies in the small details. In one of the sequences a few days after Nanditha's marriage has been called off, is a sequence where half her palms are exposed to the camera and you would not have probably paid attention if she had the mehndi or not. But Nanditha’s palms gets exposed to the camera for a fleeting second, Nanditha’s Mehndi is fresh.

Over the last four years, we have seen a quiet revolution, Content and Quality, alone seem to be the driving factors, first film directors, first film music directors, unknown and less known heroes and heroines continue to be accepted in droves by the audience. Producers like CV Kumar need to be appreciated for encouraging this activity.

In land where hero worship ruled the tinsel land for almost sixty years, the technicians in Tamil Cinema are indeed calling the shots. This is revolution. And hopefully this permeates in other spheres of life.

Friday, 20 June 2014

Groundhog Day: Evolution of Hope


I somehow seemed to have missed watching Ground Hog Day all these years.

With passing references to “Groundhog Day” in the reviews of “Over The Edge”, I became curious and caught up with “Groundhog Day”

The central premise of Groundhog Day:

What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same and nothing you did mattered?

What if there were no tomorrow?

Well the protagonist got incarcerated on a lustrous winter not by Space but by time !!!!

Would that mean there would be no consequences and no hangovers? Would that mean you could do whatever you wanted?

In Incarceration, are sown the seeds of introspection, which blooms into the bright alleys of redemption.
On one of the days, as the protagonist, downs an extravagant breakfast, in an ungainly fashion, with the lady of his subconscious. Argumentative interactions over the breakfast leads to tangential points of view resulting in the lady voicing, Sir Walter Scott:

The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.

To which the protagonist retorts, Do you think I am acting like this because I am ego centric.

The lady, is emphatic that she knows he is ego centric and that is his defining characteristic.

Not only is he egocentric, but also a narcissist, insensitive and meanness personified.

While there have been many tales of incarceration and the ensuing war to redeem against the fateful imposition, in Groundhog Day lies a pattern and route to hope. The enemy of course lies within and therefore when the individual is beset with a series of unavoidable emotions, hope is intrinsically built into the DNA of creation and it is within striking distance of the individual to exercise it, with a wonderful weapon called introspection.

Traverse these emotions, experience hope evolve and reverse your misfortunes.
  1. Disbelief
  2. Shock
  3. Confusion
  4. Anxiety
  5. Avoidance
  6. Helplessness
  7. Despair
  8. Introspection
  9. Resolve
  10. Hope
I am sure we all get incarcerated either by space, time or our own mindsets.

Reach out to our friend “introspection” , activate and energize the “resolve” within, “Hope” is just around the corner.

Other Must See films on Incarceration: Shawshank Redemption, Hurricane, Castaway, Papillon and Invictus

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