Midnight's Mani Ratnam

In their fascination with Madurai and the nearby villages, The good Tamil filmmakers except for seemingly fake over overtures by Gautham Menon, had all but lost out on exploring and re-imagining Chennai, thereby helping Mani Ratnam remain the undefeated king of the Madras genre. In Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum, Mysskin, in the prime of his auteurist prowess, presents a riveting reply.

How do the Chennai streets, where you would otherwise see mass heroes dancing with thousand other men and women or lovers romancing over a coffee, look after midnight? They look brutal and banal. They reflect your true personality, something the daylight is just not capable of doing. And what happens when Mysskin style high drama plays out in these streets with Munnani Isai by the Maestro himself? There is magic, but of a different kind. Magic that is dark and magic that bites your soul into submission.

Once upon a time in a forest, a bear hired a wolf, the most dangerous wolf of all, to hunt down foxes. In one such hunt, the wolf killed a (goat) kid by mistake. Repenting this, the wolf visited the kid's house only to find that the kid had left behind a father goat, a mother goat and a little sister kid, all three of them blind. The wolf gave up hunting and decided to support this deserted goat family. But the bear wouldn't let the wolf be and neither would the tigers roaming around in the forest. They hunted for and haunted the wolf and the goat family till they got the better of them. The wolf was wounded but magically saved by yet another kid. The bear and the tigers however are not taking to this. The hunt continues till no one is sure who is being hunted.

In a theater-style, ultra-noir play-out of this story, we are taken through a varied set of personalities who in uniquely Mysskin fashion, walk in and out of the vantage still camera frame both literally and figuratively. Clearly Mysskin is on top of his skills here. Making use of the technical advantages that a film medium presents and seamlessly seguing it with a script that has been written like a play. Balaji Rangha though is no Mahesh Muthusamy or Sathya in Anjadhey and Yudham Sei respectively where the camera would create shots unimaginable for Tamil Cinema. Compensating the cliched camera here though is some tremendous acting by Sri and Mysskin himself - the latter restrained for most parts except the monologue that is tremendously impacting. Raaja rediscovers background music that so often reminds us of how much his music can become an integral part of the story. Ten of his tracks titled Compassion, Firefly, Growl, The Threshold Guardian, Grim reaper, I killed an Angel, A Fairy tale, Walking through life and death, Redemption and Somebody loves us all tell the story all by themselves.

We see vast, lazily paced, indulgences with Mysskin at times reminding us of the cold blooded gunshot sequences from Gus Vant Sant's Elephant. Watching this in the big screen, I felt this is exactly the kind of cinema I was waiting for all this while. Utterly unpredictable. Not necessarily real but different, different not in the oscar-lusting manner that the Ship and the Lunchbox have brought to the table, but different by the sheer manner in which a film is envisioned and executed. The amount of originality on display shakes you, at least as long as you are unaware of the inspiration (Onaayum is said to be taken from a Portuguese film)

Mysskin movies, like those of Selvaraghavan often come across as dark and serious but the mild tinge of humor in both their styles is unmistakable and is an important fulcrum for the otherwise edge of the seat narratives. In Onaayum, we don't see more than a minute of sunlight and more than five minutes of any other form of lighting. The movie is about the night, the night in all our days and deservedly shot in the night too. Thrillers work most when they have a tearing emotional base and Mysskin manages it with Mani Ratnamesque aplomb. This is Midnight's Mani Ratnam. Probably, the better one.

Valhalla and Ilayaraja

It's 11 in the night. I am about to make my bed. Mom and Dad are already asleep. I keep the TV volume to a nearly inaudible low. I go to my room to check if my laptop has been shut down. From the living room, the sound of guitar repeatedly strumming a set of notes emanates. From the Idiot Box. I know the tune. One whiff of the music and I know what's being played. I rush to the living room with the glee of a child rushing to meet its Christmas presents from Santa. The concern for my parent's need to catch some Z's vanishes in thin air as I accelerate the volume up. After all, even if they wake up, they wouldn't mind listening to this; I console the angel in me.

The Pallavi begins shyly, giving glimpses of the genius to come. Almost like a shy bride, singing for her in-laws and fiancee when they have come to her place to see her and judge her worthiness. Like how she starts coyly, but within that demure cantabile, she impresses them. The would-be groom expectantly looks at his father, who is overjoyed. The mother is unmoved, however is waiting to hear how the song unfolds.

The first line is simple. Has only 1 Swara. Anyone who randomly places the bow of a violin to a string in the middle would get the sound. 1 Swara. Only Sa. 1 Swara.

As the song plays out, the violin faithfully accompanies, giving an almost aching end to the otherwise cheerful lines of melody.

There is no fuss about the song. There are no layers of music. No fancy digital sampling. No unheard-of-instruments captured by a synthesizer. The beats don't beat down the lyrics. There are few instruments. The violin, the Veena, the flute, the keyboard and drums. Nothing fancy. For most of the song, they don't try to overshadow the singer. SPB. No one could have sung it better. Even if it were sung better, it wouldn't have sounded like SPB. And it wouldn't be the same song.

The interlude flows by. The Carnatic extends its hands to the Western in a dignified manner. Starting with the flute, it progresses to the keyboard till the violins take over. All the while, known only to the discerning listener, the background beats is provided by Drums! In an unassuming way, no grand Thani Avartanam for the drums here. And with that, a whole generation was introduced to the composer's brand of East-meets-West music in a subtle way.

In the semi-classical Charanams that follow, the music also pushes the lyrics into the frontstage. Few composers have been gracious enough to give an equal importance to lyrics in the song. As the Charanam reaches a crescendo towards the end, the lines become bolder :

"Kaigal idaithanil nuzhaigayil idaiveli kuraigaiyil
eriyum vilakku siriththu kangal moodum "

(As the hands clasp and the gap between the lovers reduces, the burning lamp laughs and closes its eyes in shame). Incidentally a similar imagery is used in the Charanams of "Nenjinile Nenjinile" from "Uyire".

Sample this in the next Charanam :

"Viyarviyin mazhailae payiraagum paruvamae"
(In the rain of sweat that arises out of sexual tension, the youth gets fructified and harvested)
Bold lines for 1982. And till date, our lyricists keep harping around similar ideas about love.

Probably the only sore note about the song is its picturization. The beautiful melody is reduced to an amateur gymming session in the garden between the hero (a young Karthik, who desperately tries his best to save the choreography gone horribly wrong) and the heroine (a deadpan Jikki, Gemini Ganesan's daughter who thankfully disappeared after this film) who seem content playing Catch-Catch with each other. And that this was directed by none other than Sridhar, who gave us great movies like "Kadhalikka Neramillai" and "Kalyana Parisu" with great songs picturized beautifully, just shows us how bad a swansong a great auteur can get.

The song is "Panivizhum Malarvanam" from "Ninaivellam Nithya (1982)". I always have loved Ilayaraja. My early childhood was spent astonishing relatives with renditions of "Sundari Kannal Oru Seithi" (Thalapathi) and "Innum Ennai Enna Seiyya Pogirai" (Singaravelan). All this before I was 5. When I was 5, "Roja" happened. A.R. Rahman became the rage of the day. I was swept off my feet. Ilayaraja faded away into the dark corners of my grey cells. When I was in 9th Std, I heard this song for the first time. But I was so mesmerized by its beauty that I could only half retain its tune and its lyrics. So I couldn't search the song out in the net. Then 2 years later, in my 11th Std, I heard it again. And this time I made sure to note the first lines. And I got the song. It was an eye-opener for me. It opened me to a world of music beyond Rahman. It introduced me to the beauty of Raja songs. The songs were a brilliant mix of light carnatic music with glimpses of western classical and contemporary pop. For a guy grounded in Carrnatic Music, but thankfully without any shackles preventing me from having a myopic vision towards other styles of music, this was perfect. With "Panivizhum Malarvanam" I had found my Valhalla in the music of Ilayaraja.

Udhav's Ode!!

I had a weird feeling about this film the day I watched it, I did watch the film 2 years ago and somehow never ever thought of revisiting it again, until yesterday. Until yesterday, it didn't occur to me that it was indeed a masterfully made film until 10. PM , 15/04/09.

Before talking about the film, I want to say a few words.

"Breath takingly brilliant and oozing splendor in every Scene".

This film has been an aberration of sorts from Spielberg, who has quite often been seduced by the whim's and fancies of the Hollywood's Big league. Schindler's list is a deviation from his ever present boisterous human chasing beasts and how group of men finally escape the repugnant animals to safety, there by upholding the human race of perseverance and all that Bull shit. To be frank and square, he gets on my nerves, why the hell can't he get a divorce from his first wife(Science fiction and animal chasing humans).

Schindler's list is all about the list Schindler prepares , in the movie, what is that list all about and how and from whom does he gets it done is told in such a poetic way forms the crux of the film.Schindler later goes on to save the lives of Jews who work in his factory, not only that, he makes a huge list of names of Jews and buys them, literally from Kommandant , there by saving the lives of 1,100 Jews.

I am just itching to write about various scenes where in I could just feel my legs go numb.

One of the things which strike's me the most was way the it was shot, it was meant to be a take on history and rightly so, it was shot in black and white. The pernicious honesty was the telling point of the narration, where in every detail of the horror's of the holocaust was accounted for, and how Schindler realized the demons of the Nazi party and got the humane thought of saving Jews. The Schindler's character has been written and etched out so well, that Liam Neesan was simply Brilliant!!!. I would have to take my hat off to him.

Steven Spielberg is the prodigal son of Hollywood, for him to come up with a film with such precision and a film with such a primp screenplay is some thing which needs to be appreciated.

The film as such deals with demons of holocaust,so....the fear and blood stains are ubiquitous through out the film,the opening itself gives fair share of idea of who Oskar Schindler is all about. This sequence gives detailed gist of how he goes about bribing the Nazi bigwigs to help him set up a enamel factory, for almost, throughout the first hour,Oskar behaves as a despotic Capitalist with vested interests, and of course the war and the inflow of Shipment, the prisoner's THEY mean, help him get the worker's for his factory for a very meager sum by just bribing the big dogs of the NAZI Germany. In fact the scene preceding the one which I was talking about, shows him putting on his silk coat, wearing his cuffs and Tie, and taking bunch of notes to the party. This simple narrative tells us volumes about the stature and nature of Oskar Schindler.

Another scene which I am Curious to talk about is "cleaning the Ghetto" sequence. Jews would have been housed in an incubus small area, and they would be FORCED to shift to another place, which of course is other wise known as concentration camps. Jews would just be HERDED through on to the streets and literally washed out, every nook and corner would be searched and anyone who even thinks of hiding would be Shot.

Of course, some try to hide in the houses built in the most eff able fashion for STORING the Jews, quite literally. The soldiers begin the combing operations to search for people who are hiding and they mercilessly kill or Exterminate them, one of the most gut wrenching scene I have seen. Spielberg's narrative needs a special mention here, especially in bringing out the psyche of the kid, a kid jumps into a small drainage of sorts, where they would be few other kids who would be hiding, and those kids would say to him that it is "their" place and he cannot use it to hide. Such beautiful melancholy could be seen in the way that sequence was conceived.

Another instance is where , Oskar Schindler talks to the maid of Herr Kommandant, the conversation between the 2 is straight out of this, they don't talk strenuous English nor do they speak with a complex tone, which you usually find in most of the period films, She says something like " There are no set of rules which you will feel safe if you can abide by it" and she goes on to say, "Herr Kommandant hits me a lot", He hits me more when I ask him Why he hits me, I just can't help but marvel the way in which the emotions of Jews are brought out, there is nothing that the Jews can do. They cannot even hope for a better tomorrow. Coming back to Ghetto scene, surprisingly there is a small girl shown in a Pink color dress, who later on in the final phases of the movie is shown as being dead, apparently that girl would have escaped the ghetto cleansing. No Jew could have escaped once they are into a concentration camp, such was the fallible nature of the kommandants and soldiers involved in these camps. The only motto was to exterminate Jews and build fear among them. The other scene which really holds my attention right now, is the arbit firing of workers from the balcony by the "herr kommandant", he just picks up a sniper and starts shooting the workers working in the field.

So, much attention to detail is given, that I actually wanted to cross check it in Google, for example, the gas chamber at Auschwitz , had been imbibed to the last drop. In fact, the very thought of the gas chambers sends a chill down my spine. Quite on the contrary, there is a scene where a group of ladies would be discussing about how it has been "rumored" that Jews are being killed in a gas chamber. Incidentally when the same people are put through the same rigors of getting their hair cut and getting naked, and sent into the Gas chamber and women just clinging on to each other was just too intense, Spielberg gets 100/10 for this scene alone, for the manner in which he makes me to actually experience the feel of it, women get so anxious and tensed and the showers open inside the gas chambers and what happens next is a suspense, I don't want to bell the cat.

Another place where Spielberg hits me for a Six is the scene where the Rabbi is taken out by 3 guards and they try to shoot him, fortunately the pin in the gun fails to work properly , infact the guard tries to shoot him almost 5-6 times, that moment is captured with masterful perfection and impeccable and true emotions, a very contrasting ones too. Rabbi feels helpless and he is almost dead before being Shot and the guards actually feel, Rabbi is a worthless man, its actually worth to "Just" shoot him and Kill him.

Simply magnificent.

Lastly, the most touching scene of the film was the Schindler speech to the survivor's, where he goes on to declare that they are free from midnight today and that they should forgive him. He even remarks to his guards to either Kill the Jews as per the orders or leave the place as honorable men. The climax succeeding the speech was even more touching....

Schindler simply breaks down saying that he could have saved lot more people, and Jewish women come closer and hugs him. The accountant who takes care of his factories affair's actually present's him with a ring made from his golden teeth as he tries to flee. The workers reciprocate the gratitude by signing a letter in favor of Schindler if in any case he is captured. Its such a pious film with so much detail's stuffed in, surprisingly, it doesn't simply become another UNTERDANG, but it captures the horror's of holocaust and the climax just hits it on the head as to how grateful his "Descendants" are for him.

Watch it for the experience !!!

POIGNANT POETRY ON SILVER SCREEN - Revisiting EK DUJE KE LIYE

The beaches of GOA are witness to the tragic love story of the waves and the rocks. A story which often ends in a violent splash. The camera then climbs up the stairs to a completely deserted fort with haunted interiors chuckling with the voice of a man and a woman deep in love with each other. We hear them talk about how they would want their love story to make history. The camera shifts to "वासू सपना " written with chalk on the rocks, walls and sands of the wet and slippery Goan terrain। I haven't seen an opening sequence as haunted with love as this one. The build up to what went on to become one of the greatest tales of love in Indian film history is simply irresistible.

But before we continue writing an ODE to this ODE of a movie, We should first know why the author of this post watched this movie after a long long time. It all began when Notting Hill was played for the nth time on my computer and the lover of Indian cinema in me rose in curiosity trying to figure out the names of equally good Indian romance films. There were plenty which came to mind - Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge, Qayamat se Qayamat tak, Punnagai Mannan, Bobby and some others too. Looking into the nuances of each of these films, I realised that all these movies have in them some aspect or the other of One Single Romance film made by Prasad studios in 1981. The Mother Of all Twisted Tales Of Love. The quintessential romance saga. The most poetic set of romantic sequences ever scripted on screen. A movie whose very title is the most accurate definition of what love is all about. EK DUJE KE LIYE. एक दूजे के लिये । And I set about watching this brilliant piece of film making. I was literally reading the poem being enacted on screen. Here are a few thoughts about one of the most beautiful cinema I've ever come across.

Ek duje ke liye is like a compilation of all the K.BALACHANDER SYMBOLISMS that exist. There is communication between the lovers through night lamps switching on and off, clothes being banged on the washing stone, dogs barking and books being dusted. There is tea and coffee - the allegoric equivalents of the lives of two women in love with the same man and they get it wrong in the restaurant only to exchange with a typical K.BALACHANDERISH dialogue closely following. There is the Saree falling off the rocks and into the sea showing that the woman is being raped. There is a morphed naked pic shown by a local rowdy to the heroine showing lust. There is playing around with the bindi on the forehead to show the alternating emotional feelings of a widow. And then there is Bharatanatyam to show frustration, anger, love, disappointment, and every other human emotion.

All this apart, EK Duje Ke Liye is also the birth place of all the present cliches of Indian Love stories. This was where it all started - what now has been repeated n million times on screen was once a set of very imaginative ideas.The lovers getting lost on a trip and returning together(ddlj). The lovers having parents with basic difference in ideology and hatred towards each others cast and language.(mani ratnam's Bombay,x,y,z,n,) The lovers being asked to spend an year without seeing each other(suri,etc). The lovers misunderstanding each other thanks to unfortunate events.(every other love story) The lovers dying in the end of the story just when everything is almost in shape for a wonderful future. (aamir juhi - qsqt, and others).

And unlike its soul less successors the tragedy in the climax is not just for the sake of it. It goes with the flow and the mood of the movie and wrecks every nerve which watches the film. There is multiple irony towards the end of the film and that is probably the most difficult thing to write.

And, In between all this great direction and script writing is ONE rocker of an acting performance. A mega display of end less talent. From this gem of an actor called KAMAL HAASAN. The man is totally into the role. Beautifully essaying the part of a tamilian trying to learn hindi. A man mad in love, torn in between reality and passion. Fighting for love and survival of the love. Kamal does a class act. Apart from his absolutely superior emoting skills, Kamal shows off the gymnast in him and also does some daredevil stunts on the BULLET bike. His dance is a treat to watch as always. The polyglot in him comes to the fore in the scene just before the climax where kamal effortlessly essays dialogues in all existing forms of Hindi in perfect accent. All this, just 6 years into acting as male lead. The man is a genius for sure.

However any tribute to this movie would be incomplete without the mention of two more names. Two people who have got together to give 5 absolutely unforgettable melodies. Laxmikanth and Pyarelal in what probably is the most dynamic work of an all-blues composition for a hindi album. Starting with the eponymous track of hum bane tum bane and moving to the spell binding Lata Mangeshkar class act in Tere Mere Beech me and solah baras ki bali umariya, There is romanctic divinity all around. There is also vintage SP Balasubramaniyam in the very imaginative Lift song - The song of titles - Satyam Shivam sundaram - a high flair song with text full of names of hindi films alone.

The film ends with lines which are probably the best thing K.Balachander could do to round off his greatest tribute to ROMANCE. "प्यार एक अजीब सी भाषा है। यहाँ जीतने वाले को कहते हैं हार गया और हारने वाले को कहते हैं जीत गया। इसमे जीतने वाले शादी कर लेते हैं और हारने वाले एक दूजे के लिये जान देकर अमर हो जाते हैं."

Psychedelic Cinema is Finally here - NAYAN TARSE - to see more such Dev D's

"TALKIES" is the name on the hotel board sign as Singeetham Srinivaasa Rao's Puspak gets its credit card rolling - An amazing symbol of Irony - the film goes on to have nil dialogues. Anurag Kashyap seems to have taken a cue from this and has decorated the entire film of his with such super-symbolic hotel sign boards glowing relentlessly through the dark nights of Delhi. One of such boards is a class act - HOTEL GRAND is the place where CHANDA - the "commercial sex worker" carries out her night duty and Kashyap's cameraman cuts the G out to show us just the RAND part of it. Later DEV and CHANDA go on to laugh about how no one uses the word "randi" and its just "C.S.W" to describe people like her.

Filled with such deep allegories and some of the most psychedelic music hindi cinema has ever heard is DEV D - Conceptualised by Main man Abhay Deol (who in just a short time has become the poster boy of hindi parallel cinema and has given it a new lease of life) , written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. The film is so much like the picture above(on my blog). Its a brutally honest, beautifully self indulgent and stunningly different version of subash chandra chatopadhyaay's otherwise boring love saga - Devdas. And From what i have seen, this is the best adaptation of the book on screen so far. (vaazhve maayam starring kamal haasan and sridevi would come in at number 2).

The film is divided into three simple parts, each meant to go deep inside the mind of the three main characters - Paro Chanda and Dev - played very satisfactorily by a tantalizing Mahi Gill, a super-expressional kalki koechlin and a perfectly self-casted ABHAY DEOL.

PARO - The episode starts with anurag explaining literally what "being madly in love" is all about even as Dev asks Paro via phone whether she touches herselves or not and the 5 school girls sitting near me in PVR theatre in Forum at bangalore went ewww. Paro is madly in love with Dev and fate which incarnates through the local worker this time and later on through so many other people sees to it that they don't get together. Anurag's screenplay develops Paro's complex character in a fairly simple manner straight on your face - with a sequence of scenes showing that this girl can go to any extent to please and get the love of her life. Paro version 2 after dev rejects and insults her maintains the passion and tempo in blood flow. The scene where she meets the totally coke addicted, irritated by display light of the mobile- dev and cleans up his room is an emotional master cut. One more special scene in this episode is the STILL CAMERA sequence in the centre of the farm. (When dev rejects paro's advances and blow jobs)

illea(wht was that?)/CHANDA - Anurag at his imaginative best. He takes the 4 year old case of the DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, noida MMS and predicts what the girl would have gone through in the next ten years of her life.This is the film's best written and best enacted role. The anglo indian girl caought in a sex scandal devastated by dad's suicide and a families plan to murder her ultimately takes to prostitution and changes her name to guess what - madhuri's character in sanjay leela bhansali's devdas - yeah thats chanda for u and thats anurag at his best for u.A super positive and well reasoned out look at a prostitutes life. A prostitute who is so internally steady that she can be the perfectly motherly anchor to the desperately drug and vodka addicted life of our hero Dev. Anurag's spray's some nostalgia within nostalgia when he shows that the train Illea(before being named chanda) takes is the same one which PARminder (PARO) took to get the naked picture of her's scanned, so that she could mail it to dev - the dude from her id - chamma challo.

DEV - Self indulgence takes off from here. A solid twenty minutes dedicated to the mindset of a man who has had more vodka and more coke than one can ever imagine. The journey of a mind shown so fantastically through cars, bikes, underground dance shows , pukes, kicks and of course the deadly hit-and-run accident. A dev who remains neither Paro's nor Chanda's is too high to know what he is doing and runs over 7 people. (Another true incidence intelligently adapted). His once strict and later doting father dies and dev almost returns to normality before going on one more vodka filled tour with a dishonest punjabi driver. He is almost done in when in a shocking sequence he just escapes a similar drunken driving accident and realises that its chanda (no more a prostitue) whom he needs. A thankfully happy and peaceful ending to one of the most disturbed stories of all time.

There is still a lot more to write about Dev D. The music by amit trivedi deserves a special article in itself and the handling of the music on screen deserves another one too. :) But the who has the energy to write? I don't.

As a parting line "ishallreview" would advice its readers to NOT miss Dev D at any cost. Apart from treating you to an intensely honest attempt at movie making, DEV D will also make u feel HIGH for at least thirty minutes after you leave the cinema hall. (with no additional lung cancers involved)

NAAN KADAVUL MOVIE REVIEW - From a man shocked beyond limits

Naan Kadavul is the extreme. It is a stunning shocking vayatha-perating ( i mean gut-wrenching) master cut from a director who is at the peak of his film making powers. It is a film that for me marks the zenith of tamil film making. A movie with so much detailing deserves an equally thoroughly detailed review. But the author is in no mood. He is just back from the theatre and carries his uneasiest-est feeling ever. Still he manages to write as much as he can...

Anyways , Here we go.

THE DIRECTION - Its a text book. Its a reference book. To make a film dealing with such a complex issue and make it look this simple on screen. To make so many differently abled, disabled and differently psyched people ACT. To curve out of an inexperienced lead cast a performance of their lifetime. To induce into the audience a rough feeling of uneasiness immediately followed by free laughter.To do all this within just 3 years is seriously a film maker at the very EXTREME. This is the film making heights. Bala is right up there among the best directors this author has experienced.

THE STORYLINE - looks weak from a bird's eye view. But it is actually a deliberately simplicised act of a very complex concept. Still it takes the whole of the first half to introduce itself and the goes out at breakneck speed in the second half. Making every stomach twist and turn in pain, agony, shock and anticipation.

THE PERFORMANCES - Arya has the brightest future in tamil cinema. The bala stamp is all over him. U can literally see him mature as an actor in the film... The scene just before the interval is probably his best act in the film...The dialogue where he declares himself as GOD... I wonder how Kamal would have acted in the scene... It would have looked so much Truer!

Pooja's performance again takes Bala to a new level in making people act... She has given her absolute best in every frame of the film. A wonderful act.

The beggar crew - This is what makes the film Great. A group of faces which u would not even see twice in normal life is made to be loved by Bala... Humour from unexpected corners, Emotions galore... The gang rocks...

Everybody else - IS super-mystic and super talented.... Its like watching a hundred people each giving his/her best performance ever....

THE CINEMATOGRAPHY :- Stands out tall. Arthur Wilson has magic lens... There are so many unused effects and camera tricks and they are real obvious... Super work - especially with the opening scenes of KASI.

THE ART WORK :- I never knew some one could recreate so realistically and yet so beautifully the southern part of tamilnadu and the areas where the beggars beg and live... SUPER WORK

THE B---G---M -AH my RAJA. Ah the MAN. Ah the music SPOKE A MILLION WORDS... An effect thats beyond explanation... There is simply no one else who could have made music for this film...

Overall Naan Kadavul is the showcase of an absolute genius of a director called BALA. A man whose class simply stuck on to everyone else who worked in the film


Don't watch it if u are okay with missing THE experience of Your Lifetime....

Pure Rahmaninan Magic with Just One Minute and Thirthy Two Seconds of MUSIC

eh masakalli masakalli. ud matakalli matakalli

eh masakalli masakalli. ud matakalli matakalli

eh masakalli masa masakalli. ud matakalli matakalli

masakalli masakalli. ud matakalli matakalli

Zara pankh jhatak - gayi dhool attak

aur lachak machak ke door bhatak

ud door dagar dagar kasbe kooche nnu

kar basti me yaay yaay

ikdi se mud. Adaa se ud.

kar le poori dil ki tammanna.

hawa se ud. adaa se jud

bur burr burr tu he heera panna re

masakalli masakalli. ud matakalli matakalli

masakalli masakalli. ud matakalli matak matak.

(laughs)


Even as I listen, eyes closed, to this thoroughly high spirited piece of excellent music with lyrics that are totally language independent and burst with freedom of expressions, I stop just short of thinking that Rahman is now probably one step ahead of Ilayaraja.

This song ( yes, even this one minuter) is as rahmanic as it can get - meaning one needs to listen to it exactly 4 times to start loving it and totally 6 times to completely fall in love with it.

One doesn't even need to watch the video to realize that this song is to describe a person who has complete license to do what he/she wants and is composed by some one who is also in a similar frame of mind.

Open is the word to describe the song. The song is sung absolutely open-throated ( no technicalities i no :P) and is super-spirited.An Absolutely mood uplifting act by Rahman in his complete elements.

WE bow down to the MADRAS MAESTRO

WE can't wait till we see him with the OSCAR in his hand

WE also can't wait for jan 14 when the audio of 'Dilli-6' releases.

WE just can't yet call him better than Ilayaraja but we can be confidently lock kiya jaaye that He is right on track.

THE GOD OF - 'The God Of Small Things'

The first thing i learnt from Arundhati Roy's only novel - 'The God Of Small Things' is that one should never name the title of a creative writing before creating it. I realized later, that there is great fun in doing such an act as it throws up a thousand and one more ideas into the write up. And that is not the only thing that I liked about the novel. The God Of Small Things is semi-autobiography at its best. Arundhati converts all that she has seen of her home town of aymenem and all that her childhood has been through into a seemingly simple but unarguably spellbinding collection of words in what remains her only published novel till date. ( Which sometimes is surprising because I don't believe that Man ever went to moon for he never went there twice. But the question of authenticity is quenched by the autobiographical nature of this splendid book).

The God Of Small Things is essentially the story of a pair of fraternal boy-girl twins and their lives which are altered permanently thanks to a dreadful combination of love,extra-marital love,marriage, divorce, caste,religion (the usual villains), and infinitely many more factors. But as a quote in the opening page of the book goes "No story shall hereafter be written or read as one single story" , the book doesn't really deal with just the story of the twins. Interacting with their lives is the beautiful yet disturbed state of Kerala,the bitter truth behind communist politics,the history and religion of the syrian Christians, the life of a young kid blessed by the blessed one, the heart-break of a young girl in love with a church bishop, the story of a self made man who is tied down by retirement, the agony of a divorced mother who loses her only child when she makes a trip to her ex husband's place, the purposeless life of a woman and her servant maid who watch TV 24x7, the death of a dalit who made a mistake of loving a once-married woman belonging to an upper caste,the disgusting episode of a canteen owner making a young boy hold his penis to help him masturbate and a lot more.A lot lot more

In this narrative which goes back and forth and then flashes forward only to race further back, every mini-tale which ends up constituting this mega-tale is a heart wrenching experience. Every line is tragic and the language is fresh, even ten years after the book was written. She uses repeated phrases, which individually have no big effect but on repeated reading set in the nostalgia ball rolling. A lot of importance is paid to poems which the protagonists sang as kids, objects that they loved, tales that they heard and repeated, handwriting lessons, and every other cute thing that childhood is all about - the major irony being, this almost picture perfect childhood is later ripped off into an irreparable mode.

There are some major highlights where Arundhati hits the peak of brilliant writing. She travels the fine line between over-indulgence and magnificent descriptive writing. For instance the chapter towards the fag end of the novel where she describes the doped kathakalli dancers who want to apologise to god for having sold their art to the foreign tourists and so, come up with a breathtaking show at the temple.

Overall a stunning novel which unlike other uni-sense-drivers, makes every sense of yours get up and imagine-Not only do you imagine the picture she paints, but you also end up tasting her food, smelling her scent,hearing her cries, feeling her touch and more than all that losing your heart to her tale.

I know I am ten years late reading this novel, now in 2008, but the fact that i loved it suggests that this novel has not only withstood the cruel test of time but has ended up triumphing over it.