Blue

I remember listening to the music from the movie, Thiruda Thiruda, one of A R Rahman’s early works in Tamil. This was before his graduation to Bollywood and at the time was one of his best albums. Blue, Rahman’s first after bringing home the Oscars, shares a similarity with TT. You possibly can’t get the music the first few times you listen to it. I am playing it on the loop now and though the music isn’t bad, it is not a patch on Rahman’s earlier works. Download it instead of buying the album, if you can.

Scribbling again

Top of my head thoughts on the biggest movies of 2008, critically speaking.

Gran Torino : That’s is the name of a car, which plays a central role in the movie. I really loved what Eastwood had done with a simple script on complex issues such as racism. Pic is down to earth and efficiently shot. Eastwood plays a Korea war veteran who becomes a reluctant messiah for his neighbourhood after his wife passes away.

Notes on Sweeney Todd

I hate musicals. I could not watch Chicago beyond the first hour. I hate Sound of Music and My Fair Lady. I can tolerate Singing in the Rain, but only because of the stunning choreography. All of those movies are undoubtedly great works of art and are widely appreciated. I think I hate them because I don’t want singing and dancing in English movies after putting up with them in all the Tamil movies I watch.

I have also always hated the fact that I hate musicals. One of the musicals that I watched in a theatre and adored was Moulin Rouge! The humour was earthy and often wicked. I love what they did with the Police song ‘Roxenne’. And for years after that movie, musicals that stick their middle finger up at the nostalgia and innocence that most such films celebrate were probably not made. But if anyone could make one, it was Tim Burton.

When I met Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Adoor Gopalakrishnan, whose realistic movies spawned a whole new movement in film-making in Malayalam, just like Satyajit Ray’s ventures on celluloid, now has the “honour of having a book on him in Tamil.”

At an event to mark the book’s launch in the city, Adoor – whose speech in English was laced with ironic humour – said he would not speak in Tamil out of respect for the language. Of Akbar Kakkatil, who interviewed Adoor over five days for the book Idam Porul Kalai , Adoor said he was initially hesitant to sit with the writer.

Raghuvaran: A personal tribute

Raghuvaran is perhaps the first major actor to die that I grew up watching. I was hardly 15 when Anjali was released. Even then it was fascinating to see the tall, lanky actor with a gravelly voice perform. Raghuvaran was intense in a way few actors were. Next to him, Revathi – no mean actress of her own – struggled to keep up. Raghuvaran’s pauses and intonations in dialogue delivery were sometimes nothing short of bizarre. He dragged words out and gave them new meaning.

In Anjali, Raghuvaran plays the understanding dad of a mentally-challenged girl. He may have been out of place in that space song, but in scenes that mattered he delivered. There is a scene in which Janagaraj, the mental watchman, is mocked at by Raghuvaran’s kids. He quickly slaps one of them, and when questioned by his wife is unable to explain that he has their kid hidden away. It was remarkable how much Raghuvaran could show through his haunted eyes.

Pulp Fiction

I saw Pulp Fiction for probably the 10^th time over the last weekend and I now believe that the movie, a darling of the Internet generation, is finally losing its charm for me. If I once believed that Quentin Tarantino was the final name in movie making, I am now willing to go beyond his most well-known classic. Tarantino is still a big force, no doubt. But perhaps it is time we took that painful crown off his head. Time those king’s robes came off. Time we saw past the amazing dialogue and the layered, complex screenplay and looked at what the movie really tells us. I recently saw Godard’s My Life To Live and I wonder if that film wasn’t more complex, more meaningful?

Was it or am I confusing Pulp Fiction’s crowd-pleasing, wildly entertaining aspects with its possible shallowness?

P.S: I still think it’s a challenge to write every second sentence in a full-length screenplay with the word fuck in it.

Some Tamil movies and why I liked them

Kaadhal

In my mind the first big Tamil film of the millennium.  I am pretty sure that good Tamil movies were made since 2000, but some Kaadhal was so different that I thought “oh, wow. We have arrived.” I haven’t seen Kaloori, but I doubt if the two are comparable. I am using the term with hesitation, but I think Kaadhal had a neo-realistic touch. The way that paati or (is it aachi) sits on the front room floor and curses everyone walking by. Sandhya’s father’s character. That montage during the song sequence. All of that was awesome.

Paruthiveeran

Quite innovative. Cut from a knife going up the ass to a coconut coming down on another. awesome. Can Saravanan act? Like this? Phew! Never knew. And what a debut from Karthi. Pretty damn good. Even that girl Priyamani was good.

Mozhi

Liked it a whole lot less than the above two, but still a very good movie.

Chennai -28.

Have seen only in bits and parts, but extremely good.

Starting from 2000, do you have any Tamil movies to add?

I would like to make a top 10 list of Tamil movies since the 2000. Make your suggestions that will go into a new post.

Pirivom Sandippom

Here’s the review.

Ok, that was my review written in the space of a hour after the movie got over. I drove so hard from the theatre to the net cafe that I crashed into a bike. Pretty stupid of me. It’s hard when you got to make sure that the story gets uploaded before the day is over. Wish I had more time to write the damn thing. Forgot to put in the part about Jayaram and how he is the director’s conscience-keeper in the movie. And about how irritating the movie gets with the Tamil culture part. Directors really got to think ‘what’s new in what I am saying’ before they shoot a screenplay. Otherwise, PS was actually a pretty sincere, genuine effort.

Wish getting tickets and reviewing was easier. Crib crib. Now my enthusiasm for it is waning. The whole thing seems rather pointless.