Irudhi Suttru/Sala Khadoos: There is neither the float nor the Sting

A  movie not only gets evaluated on its intrinsic merit but is also influenced by the expectation of the audience.

Let me also profess that I am a hardcore fan of Maddy and familiar with almost all his movies.

IN the recent times, I had inadvertently comes across two You Tube videos of Maddy and one of them touched upon fidelity. I should say the honesty of Maddy was so overwhelming , that my respect for Maddy had risen manifold.

Maddy had the guts to produce Evano Oruvan, based on Dombivili Fast which was again based on Falling Down. A truly important work of anger and angst. Much as it was piece of work which was adapted, the lament of a conscientious citizen, in the background of a civilization languishing and helplessly going  through the motions of life, was worthy of being narrated. Falling Down, probably had to be retold in all the languages spoken all around the world.

However bitter the box office debacle of Evano Oruvan meant, it certainly had to be made.

The bar had been set high.

So when Maddy promoted the film, with a sense of energy and purpose, I truly believed that Sudha Kongara’s work would be something new.

For Maddy, I was quite happy that the movie seems to had made a big impact on the audience. There was enough hooting and approbation, which should send the cash registers ringing.

But  Alas, Maddy, you just need to touch your heart, and ask, yourself If there was an iota of originality in the film.

Formulaic and derived from innumerable movies, one just wondered, why a three minute story of Maddy’s past did not occur in the narrative. While major mapping has happened from Karate Kid, especially in the second half,  one would have expected the unjust axing of Maddy, as a flash back. An important formula just went missing!!!

And our stupid formula has to include the mandatory love/lust story.

We have all round technical brilliance. The editor in particular sends your heart a flutter, in the first forty minutes, with some ecstatic editing.

But have we lost the ability to think something really original.

There is a difference between adapting meritorious works of art and then mapping and building blocks of a storyline from different movies.

Lego may want to build a new line of product for the Indian film community.

Works of art are reflection of the society which we live in.

Our thinking continues to be servile.

For the love of Ali, who gets quoted time and again in the film, one of his most memorable quotes, “Float like a butterfly, Sting Like a Bee. The Hand’s cant Hit, what the eye’s can’t see”.

There is neither the float nor the sting, only a worn out formulaic mess.

Et Tu Maddy?

Airlift

Pushing the envelope beyond the illusions of an identity

I could not miss Oskar Schindler in Airlift. Schindler, who liked the extra sheen in his suit and a hedonist, went on to save 1200 people who worked for him from the Nazis during World War 2.

Much as I was bowled over by the protagonist, I think the masterstroke, was to accommodate, the Kuwaiti stowaway, as a part of the Airlift.

Does it really matter if it is a Kuwaiti, Iraqi, Pakistani or an Indian, a human life is a human life. 

A human's ability to empathize with another human being and bail the person out of trouble, transcending narrow boundaries of nationality and religion, is the sign of greatest maturity.

I just could not resist, remembering the a most poignant scene from Constant Gardner. As Rachel Weisz looses her baby during delivery and is in extraordinary personal grief, she sees that a black lady next to her has delivered a baby and is dead. She spontaneously feeds the black child.!!!!

Our man Ali(not sure about his name) in Airlift, despite his personal grief of having lost his newly wed, gets a stowaway on board, as his own wife, 

This just pushes the envelope beyond the illusions of an petty identities that seem to ever mutate into shapes that we sometimes cannot even imagine.

God help us all be humans.

Airlift

'Schindler's'Lift

Identities blur and Humanity Soars as Akshay 'Schindler' Kumar propels this an unforgettable, must watch, uplifting experience.

Despite the restraint, the subtlety in narrating this movie like a docudrama, you cannot help but get emotionally surcharged.

As the curtain draws down, John F Kennedy's 'Ask Not what your country can do for you' could have never had a better treatment.

Jai Humanity....

Thara Thapattai, Tamil Film

Violence mars poignancy

If there was an effort to rename the antonym of hypocrisy, than it has to be Director Bala. The screen erupts with sarcasm and the movie is punctuated with no holds barred dialogues that has the audience roaring for him.

However i am unable to comprehend the anger that does not seem to recede or abate over the last fifteen years of his career. With his command on the craft, does he have to serve raw and crude violence, unapologetically.

I am sure Bala can do without the crudity. It kind of eclipses his intelligence. He is capable of delivering far more profound work.

The movie certainly belongs to varalaxmi saratkumar. She dominates the proceedings with an explosive performance. A classic case where casting and writing enhances the performance. I am inclined to give greater credit for casting director for the extraordinary impact.

One also got a feeling that the narrative was kind of discrete and fractured with the second half veering away from the first half.

The excessive violence mars, a what could have been a poignant love story.

Star wars, the seventh instalment

I had to really fight hard to stay awake and sit through a most unimaginative rehash. Even in 1979, as a sixteen year old, i found the sabre light duel fairly unexciting. I found a reenactment of that duel, the greatest mockery of the audience. Darth vaders character evolution as a vulnerable minus his menace plus a slouch is another disgrace to the franchise. The fresh little lady lead brings in the much needed energy but surprised as to how the director could allow her to slouch. The most disheartening experience was to see harrison ford ageing. Found it difficult to accept that ford has aged. One does not understand why mark hamill had to reduce 41 pounds to appear one scene. JJ Abrams, Star Trek, was truly entertaining. Not sure, why you could not introduce a single novel sequence in the entire film. Just unable to understand how this can be the highest grocer. Does profitability of making movies just boil to releasing during the holiday season