Tamil Cinema

The ones that fell through the cracks

2014-08-07T21:32:00.003-07:00

Dear Readers,

Often, we find ourselves looking at life through the lens. No, not a prescription for myopia or hypermetrophia, or maybe even both (though the distinction is becoming less obfuscated with transition optics, contact lenses, and, dare I say it, prescription Google glass. I'n not one for making lists, because I believe that they are just the philistine's road to perdition, the talent deprived's path to fame. But talking to someone close to me today, - and having realized that not being a journalist, if I did not produce works to keep the followers engaged, that I would be forgotten - I've prepared a list of movie related stuff that you should see. This list does not require you to be art aficionados. Nor doe it require you to scrounge about the internet to seek counterfeit examples to enjoy.

There are no pictures on this entry because you have to experience them. They are not popular by any means either because they are my, and mine only, personal favorites. Hope you enjoy enjoy them. All you need is access to YouTube.

1. Kanne Kaadhal Nilame: A futuristic take on Oru Naal Podhumaa. Every single stanza of this song, from the opening to the cadenza is a different tune. I bet this is one of the songs that fell through the cracks between AR Rahman and Harris Jayaraj. Hear it once ans you'll be hooked.

2. Yenga Veetu Ramayanam: A comedy film a la Kaadhalikka Neram Illai, this gem would be forgotten and in the scrap heap of worldd cinem. Please cast a second eye towards it for a Crazy Mohan style screenplay and S. Ve. Sekar style sharp dialogues. This has a style to be a s,sleeper DVD hit if such a thing existed in Tamil cinema.

3. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: If you realized that S. Balachandher's Andha Naal was a frame to frame remake of the crime Dame's And then there were none, you would take a much greater interest in her novels. As a country. we love whodunits a la Holmes, Bakshi and Faluda, but we seem to be aloof to Poirot. Perhaps the truth about this crime drama will convince us otherwise.

4. Vijaykanth: It is fashionable to deride the now obese and constantly drunk MLA and would be Chief Minister, but do realize that this man was instrumental for the genre of spy and soldier super hits such as Mudhalvan, Amaidhi Padai and Ko. Let me draw your attention back to twenty years to such trend setters as Captain Prabhakaran, Pulan Visaranai and Sethupathi IPS.

5. Budget Padhmanabhan: Everyone remembers Ullathai Alli Thaa as the definifing comedy as the nineties. But few acknowledge that it was T.P. Gajendran with his Budget Padhmanabhan that set the trend for aged heroes to have a market again. He cast Prabhu in a rib - tickling spoof of a common man's dilemma, How about this for a nugget about a miserly hero: Vivek, "I have to put this jeans for stone wash.", Mannivannan, "I have to put this dhoti for acid wash,", an incensed Prabhu, "One more word out of you two and I'll put you both for petrol wash."

6. Rhythm train accident scene: Not any would realize that this was a true gem. But it was. It made Tamil film makers realize for the first time that special effects matter. Vasanth had a fantastic script that has been used a dozen time over, but could not get the budget to do justice to a couple of sequences. By his own admission, he was not happy with this scene, nor the item song he had to use Ramya Krishnan for. But it set the trend for improved visual effects in Tamil cinema, and led to, positively or not, the trend that item songs would be used situationally to show the villain in bad light from now on.

7. Thulluvadho Ilamai... Neruppu koothadikidhu song: Noir in Tamil films had been something of a taboo subject till now. It was considered A certificate material. Kasthuriraja was the the first to break it. Very rarely in Tamil cinema or even in Indian films have we seen subjects like sexual crimes being broached. This was a very disturbing movie, more so in the context that it was a father directing his son as protagonist in such a venture. But, perhaps, if more such pieces came along, we as a society might stop basking in the supercilious claim that it happens only in the decadent west?

8. Shankar's Boys or Simbhu's Vaanam: Why is it that we as a society accept so much violence against women... from female infanticide to acceptance of prostitution, but cannot get our sorry asses to realize and accept that as long as there is a taboo and prohibition, there will be prostitution? As statistics have shown, the higest incidences of AIDS are in nations where sex in a Taboo subject. Is it perhaps time for society o change its norms towards longevity rather than pride? I also bill films like Karuthamma about female infanticide and Chandni Bar about the plight of sex workers this category.

9. Walt Disney's Alladin: This was the first movie that broke the mentality that human sentiments were region specific. It made us realize that we could appreciate foreign films as having the same motivations that we did, albeit being a translated movie. Independence day, as the first Tamil subtitled film was another one.

10.Andha Naal (not that same Naal): Sivaji Ganesan is is the hero par excellence. And tragic it is that that Tamil cinema is SO unsubtle that negative roles almost always end up being cruel... that the backgrounds of the main characters are not analysed. The first Tamil movie to do so was Andha Naal, a disgruntled radio scientist's hope to Vyapari came close in spirit (although I cringe that in all the sixty years that had elapsed, it took SJ Suryah to come up to its successor in spirit).

Beta Noir. Beta testing a new genre for Tamil Cinema - Soodhu Kavvum, Pudhupettai, Aaranya Kaandam and Thulluvatho ilamai

2014-08-07T19:01:00.002-07:00

I've been told by many people that my posts are hard to read. That they are too complicated with difficult phrases, obscure English prose or unfamiliar references and require a little bit of initial research to totally follow. I personally think that its not that complicated. All I'm asking of my readers is to follow a few simple rules:

1. No big thinking. There's no need to think beyond the usual stuff . If there is a reference to something you've not seen before, enjoy it or forget it. Look it up when you have time.

2. Don't come here with your mind already made up. This is not a usual blog with the usual description of plot lines and plot holes. Just keep your mind fresh and clear. By the time you come across this little site, you'll probably be well aware of the movie I'm talking about.

3. I'm not expecting you to be either English professors or Tamil medium students. Please have trust in me that I will always write what appeals to the ordinary person, and that I'm no different myself as a reader. I don't have any great expectations of myself, and neither should you. I don' want to torture you.

4. I'll never insult your intelligence. Readers are the heart and soul of this blog, as they are of any thing else. Bloggers post for their readers to read and enjoy. They don't post to get angry responses. They don't post to get frustrated audiences.

And then fifth, this is the most important,

5. If I've screwed something up so bad in an entry, I'll be the first one to apologize. If you've read my entries before, and If you've come back agian, you'll realize that it has probably changed. I'm happy to take constructive criticism and change things that I've been told are not in good taste.

There... these are the five rules I put for myself. And these are the five rules that "KEDNAPING" also successfully works by.

Better to be late than never. Even better, better to be late and latest rather than new and oldest. That's why its taken me so long to write this entry about the fantastic movie Soodhu Kavvum and others of this type.

In those simple five rules from the movie, that I felt are relevant to any walk of life, not just "KEDNAPING," I felt that the director of this movie got everything down crystal clear. You see how with just a few modifications I was able to adapt those rules to my own writing style. It is a gem of a movie that will probable be forgotten in a few years. As Tamil cinema matures and as Tamil audiences start looking for more, movies like this will become templates for future generations. But they themselves will end up in some dark corner of a digital library. Because movies like this are not for everyone. They are only for people who appreciate subtle humor. Most of the humor we have today, like that of Vivek, Vadivelu, Santhanam, even Senthil - Goundamani and even Nagesh, are in your face and body language oriented.

Dialogues and screenplays are mostly as direct as possible in Tamil Cinema with the exception of people like Mysskin and Selvaraghavan. Unfortunately, their brand of movies are not for the everyone. For instance, I personally hated Pudhupettai, but I loved the climax when Dhanush goes to kill the bad guy. The BGM is fantastic. Highly upbeat - capturing utter hopelessness of his one man crusade versus a ton of baddies - and yet utterly hopeless, because you feel that this is the last hoorah of the hero. The scene when ten rowdies come at him with knives and run back in fear as the camera pans out to reveal that Dhanush now holds a gun is pure magic. His mad laugh suggesting that he has become mad and that the director has infused ironical humor into the scene.

Soodhu Kavvum is like that, only the darker elements have been replaced with noir. Let me explain this term. Noir in French means black, and if literally translated into English, means darkness. However, in the context of movies, it means showing the seedier, seamier, uglier parts of life in a way that is not revolting for most of us. Its a way of showing things that we were probably not aware of happening in an acceptable way. Many Hollywood movies have done this kind of thing before. Like Vivek's fantastic explanation of the Policeman's roles in movies from MGR in Ragasiya Polive, Sivaji in Thanga Padhakkam, Rajnikanth in Moondru Mugam, Vikram in Saamy, and, ah (Vivek gives a beautiful pause here, just like Vijayakanth would, if he was advising senior officials across a conference table), "OOmai Vizhigal lerundhu Pala padangalla Vijayakanth, (in many movies since Mute Eyes)", we have movies like Peter Sellers' How I learnt to live with the Bomb, to Sin City, to Fast and Furious to Oceans Eleven and so on. They have mastered this art. We are only learning it.

Aaranya Kaandam approached this genre from a purely masala (action oriented formula) angle. In that movie, it was decided to show the usual aspects of gangster flicks such as violence and implied vulgarity in a very realistic light. Pudhupettai approached subjects like rowdyism, political motives, and unfaithfulness to your wife in a slightly academic way. While Aarayna Kaandam was still not going to gothe extra mile and make us hate a hero who was working for getting a massive cocaine deal done for his own profit, Pudhupettai was trying to get us to hate its hero as much as possible. A very bold move for Tamil Cinema, which even the beautifully made Sigappu Rojakkal only barely managed. But it too gave up in the end by dissolving into a crusade.

The movie that I've not mentioned so far, which is Thulluvatho ilamai, is extremely dark in comparison. It talks about taboo subjects like alcoholism, drug dependence, child abuse, sexual harassment and homosexuality (which is a taboo subject in India, and I don't want to get into here). It also stars Dhanush, but in a role that nobody else in the industry would like to do as a debut. Its like debuting an opening batsman to the bounce of a Perth wicket. Its definitely noir, but its depressing. Like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting (Great but tragic movies - watch them if you're in a dark mood). It has no redeeming qualities as an entertainer. It forces realities down our throats to such a extreme that we end up vomiting in disgust after the film. Being one of the earliest films on such a combination of depressing subjects, its no wonder it didn't do well, and that every other movie on this list took ten years or more the come out.

But, Soodhu Kavvum is different. Finally here's a movie in the same class as any Quentin Tarantino movie, that gives us so much as it subtly tells us, not only in its title (that crime will bite), but also through the sequences that Crimes will eventually bite you in the buttocks (Vadivelu says Betex).

There are several gems in this movie...

1. Vijay Sethupathy ending up back at square one teaching a fresh set of recruits about "KEDNAPING," may imply that you will probably not go anywhere with a life of crime. Atleast according to religious scriptures, you sow what you reap, and his criminal ways have not brought him wealth. He is back to his old ways in his old dirty hideout.

2. The savvy smart stylish guy ended up being an actor in the more disreputable line of cinema. Not much of a future for him there...

3. The other two ended up being assistants to a corrupt politician, being so scared for their lives that they cannot not face anybody new unless they are stripped down to their underwear, fearing that any new meeting could be a sting.

4. And the scheming politician's son ending up a minister, seemingly having fun. But is he really? Maybe he is. but that's the way India is right? I'll give the director that one. Maybe politicians and their kin do have no strings attached happiness at the expense of others' misery.

Oh... and completely out of context, the imaginary friend bit was pure gold. Movie makers... a lesson to you. If you want to show a hero's inner struggle and triumph over adversity, this is the way to go. Not some sob story about handicaps.

Anyway, Noir cinema is something that's only now being explored in Tamil Cinema. Its a good thing to experiment. If its fresh, its sure to be appreciated. I only have one request of directors. As long as you can keep audiences engaged... that is through new ideas or through different and innovative storytelling, you'll have fans. And the best way to get messages across is though humor... atleast some. Don't push high concept down our throats. Like beta testing a new piece of software, we need to have something to like first.

Oh... one final thought. Agatha Christie, the great crime novelist was thought to have Alzheimer's because her later works contained simpler words and less creative phrases. I urge my readers to not take my blogs as affronts to their command of English and feel slighted, but to appreciate the fact that new things are sometimes nice. Once in a while, having to step out of your comfort zone to appreciate something new is a good thing. And being challenged by a new turn of phrase is just a kick in you BETEX that you need to open up a little bit outside of Facebook, Twitter and James Hadley Chase. After all, if you're fifty today, some point before you kick the bucket, you're going to have to try Chinese food. As one of my old professors use to say, "then don't come and say me... Saar, I didn't understand."

Vanjagan Kanna Ada - Krishna is not a criminal

2014-04-06T17:27:00.004-07:00

There are certain stories that tug at our hearstrings just for the sake of evoking a tear. A common man's struggle - Citizen Kane, a society's penance at the hands of a dictator - Battleship Potempkin, a nation's quest for independence - Gandhi, a world's justification for its existence - GATTACA, and a universe's fundamental motivation - the "hopefully" upcoming Foundation. A story that transcends these realities is one of God. Even God has a story. In today's scientific outlook, God has to justify himself also. And while there are a myriad mythologies ranging from human sacrifice like the Ramayan and the Bible, to doctrines on Morality like the Qoran, to questions on what personal morality itself is like the Book of Scientology; and from religious tolerance preached by the Guru Granth Sahib to religious hegemony preached by the politically motivated leaders of today, none has touched upon the sacrifices of God as much as has the Mahabaratha. And no God, including that doyen of human sacrifice, Christ, has ever proclaimed the virtue of malpractice to further justice in a world devoid of such, as has Lord Krishna.

Vigilantism has existed in this world since its existence. From the very first protozoa that decided by cosmic design or evolution - take your pick - it does not matter in the grand scale - that certain species were unworthy, to the Khat Panchayats of today, vigilantism has defined the course of individuals, their moral conduct, nations, their civil codes. Vigilantism has been the torchbearer of what we consider today to be the code of law that defines us as a people, wherever we might live.

To all my Christian friends, Jesus accepted the sins of his fellows as his own, and absolved the world of its ills. He died for it. He was magnanimous. He was the ideal human being, the pinnacle mortal coil. To my Hindu Friends, while Sri Ram was the epitome of human virtue, he wasn't really a good example of how to tackle the political landscape of today's world. And to my other friends, God is an entity to be followed unquestioned. But Lord Krishna is the one God whose canniness is an example on how to lead an ideal life. Maybe because of his birth in the Dwapara world, with its schemes and backstabbing galore. And the movie Karna is the greatest screen capture of the sacrifice of a God.

It is about how virtuous man's destiny is designed by a God's cruelty. It is about how man's cruelty is designed to be God's example of virtuosity. It is about how a pawn is sacrificed in the grand game of Chess. It is about how you can be right all along and yet go wrong. It is about life. This is why, in my opinion, the Mahabharata is the greatest epic on human life that has ever, and will ever be written, It is about sacrifice. Of man. Of God. The universe sacrifices so many subatomic particles every quintessential metric of measurable time to generate more useful entities. Whole stars sacrifice themselves into supernovae and black holes to create the building blocks of a better, more useful universe.

Every measurable instance of time, something in our multitude of universes dies, a little energy is lost towards absolute zero, in the hope that some definition of order may be created out of the chaos that is the cosmos. So too are the examples of Karnan - will a human being be better because of his example; so too is Krishna - will a God have to resort to schemes to make the world a better place; so too is Karna - will a movie be made that asks us the fundamental question of this blog, will there be a better movie than this...

I am too lax of ethics to write any more about this. Persons better than me have composed a beautiful song to commenorate these virtues. Listen, enjoy, cry... and maybe learn a little bit...

Friends, the cosmos is an amazing place. It makes us laugh and cry and feel and emote. Let us try to be a small part of making it BETTER. One simple way you can do that is by reading my blog. Derisive, or sarcastically or wholeheartedly, did that last sentence not make you laugh? Haha... I just increased your lifespan by a little bit. A little bit of Krishna is within all of us.

Statistics, the Stock Market and the National Elections

2014-03-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

A very short letter about how science cannot predict a chaotic process. Wait wait... that is why we have statistics. A seemingly random process is only random because we either don't have the analytical tools to decompose its simplicity or the computational power to deconstruct its complexity. A truly real life example of a statistical system, i.e., one in which trends can be determined with any rigorous error analysis as to how wrong we may be is the stock market, or more generally politics.

A stock market is not a thing that can be a truly random process as day traders and software makers who sell us the idea of being able to make money off of the ups and downs in said system might lead us to believe. Because, human nature is greedy, and as often it unfortunately turns out, greedy people are often the richest. They end up dictating how a stock will go... there are only two ways really - rise or fall. A truly Markovian chain would lead us to believe that either of these eventualities have a finite probability it could be 20% up if the company you've invested in is going bust, or a 60% probability if your investment of choice has promise, but there's a competitor out there that has pluck. But then, in comes the question of insider trading for which statistical characteristics may be drawn (a.k.a Duckworth Lewis in Cricket which predicts rain reduced match results based on historical performances in similar situations), but for the fact that insider trading is a day by day epitomization of corruption in which one individual or company decides that they want to make money off of individual ignorance of the masses.

While statistics is seemingly inclusive of the individual's effect on large scale processes, vis-a-vis an individual's take on what's going to happen, it is totally liable to outliers of a certain kind. One type is an individual's gaming of the system which does not really work in the broad sense. The other is a fundamental manipulation of the system, as in a gaming house's home field advantage. This is why casinos do so well with a house advantage. Its a question of how you game the system. No matter how an individual player thinks and might occasionally win a thousand dollars on a slot machine, the casino plays on the mindset of the masses and eventually ends up winning the 15% house advantage. In other words, a statistical anomaly might win out sometimes, but an anomaly created on a curve based on the general behavior will ALWAYS win out.

So too in politics. If someone says to you, "Vote, because your vote matters," you should reply to them, "Why, because I'm going to be one thousandth of one thousandth of one thousandth (Indian example) of the already fixed chance that my vote eventually matters? In other words, if no one else voted, my vote is not going to matter at all." Because politics is much like a casino. You might think that you vote would make a difference. But notwithstanding the fact that there are so many voters that your vote diminishes in significance by a quantifiable amount each time another is cast (but interestingly, the other way round in not true, because for a statistically significant result, your vote actually matter - why? See note 1 below), there are alliances that dictate a multi-party system's election result in such a broad stroke that the ideals you voted for are most certainly not the ideals that the country is going to be run by, why even bother?

Moreover, elections are like insider trading. Results are decided even before the first vote is cast. Part of that is definitely due to the corrupt nature of politicians, its the richest and the cruelest and the most greedy that make it into public life in the first place, statistically speaking. But most of it is not because of the usual answer of corruption and one party ceding control to the other. It is not even about anti-incumbency.

A fantastic government will still statistically end up losing the third term because of the statistics of human nature. Science, basically. As human beings, we always yearn for change. Change no matter how good our lives are now. Human greed leads us to believe that we can have something better next time around. This is why, left to our designs (unlike in a dictatorship or a kingdom, as the dynamics are quite different) we are not satisfied as a mass with the same brand of car, or the same TV show or the same lifestyle for too long.

This is precisely why molecules are seldom satisfied with a particular state of existence under the influence of outside forces... why for example fusion happens in the sun. We will... no matter how good the governance is, opt for change (See note 2). Can you name one dynasty, empire or otherwise, that has ruled any section of humanity for a thousand years (Inertial too has its limits in an Einsteinian universe)? Neither can I.

Ofcourse, there's insider trading in electoral politics and will continue to be until the sun goes supernova, but a deeper, fundamental reason why governments change is science. Statistics provides us with a tool to study this. Its also why (at our present level of understanding) mass opinion will end up mattering more than an individual's whim of good governance or making money at the slots.

So whether you vote for the Congress, the BJP pr a third front, it will not matter in ten years. Our Markov chain is not going to converge to a steady state transition matrix. We will always... ALWAYS end up voting for SOMEONE ELSE. And no matter what high opinion we might hold for our ourselves, representative democracy as is practiced in most so called democracies today will show scant regard to our votes. Please... still vote.

NOTE 1: If ten people vote for a single party, and an eleventh votes for a different one, then, the first party wins. Obviously. This is based on the assumption than the first ten voted on their own, with their own motivations. But if the first ten were coerced into voting for that particular party by, lets say a monetary incentive, and if the eleventh one voted fairly, then, the distribution of votes, i.e., ten to one was skewed even before the election started.

NOTE 2: Three people decide the fate of a stock. A and B have bought into it and want it to rise. But it rises at a rate they are not happy with. C is happy with his stock, but he feels that he can convince A and B that it would be much better if his stick did well. A is greedy by nature and so he says, "what the hell, let me buy more of C's stocks for a change. Maybe I could make more money that way". And the first stock falls.

A comedy about a philosophy? Well... that's a cliche... Or is it?

2013-11-28T19:42:00.003-08:00

All through my adolescent life and through my youth and ... wait for it ... later on in the age of reckoning, I've grown up with the comical offerings of S. Ve. Sekar and Crazy Mohan, and later Kamal Hassan and Vivek and ... wait for it ... later on, the likes of Seinfeld and George Carlin. Theatre is a crucible in which spontaneity is the spark that kindles chortles. TV and Cinema is the pulpit where that spark becomes a conflagration that captivates masses. And stand up and improvisation is where the hand of god, that is, comedic creation is witnessed and revered first hand. Among the pantheon of intelligent comedy that has defined my defining years walks a new titan today: the United States Inspiring Artists (USIA) group.

Their latest offering, the sixth installment of (yes... sigh!) six stage plays is called Kanna Thorakkanom Saami (Open Thy Eyes, Ye Gods - Biblical liberty of prose liberally taken ofcourse). This play has put a rather heavy capstone on their altruistic raison-de-etre, to raise money for various charitable causes in India including educating close to a hundred children. They have, with this one time performance (erstwhile Soviet spies, take notes... if you could go back in time and record the play, your use for one time notepads as secret codes would be obviated - TV execs, if you're reading, I have a sci-fi idea for you right here... no charge), raised a cumulative 40,000 Dollars for education. In Indian Rupees, notwithstanding the cool new symbol for our national currency and all, is enough to get about a hundred kids from pre-school through college. As one of my old friends would say, as shit goes, "good shit" indeed. And there in lies the greatness of this drama. The empathy, the purpose, and the comedy.

As one my my greatest living icons - Vivek - once said, "good comedy is a hard business." As another great living icon - Dr. Abdul Kalam said to him, "Good comedy with a message is even harder." And dare I quote another great before you pull me up on charges of plagiarism, the creator of the hit show Frasier, quite possibly the father of the longest running sitcom - since P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster - once said (paraphrasing as I'm neither Churchill's speechwriter to remember every alcohol induced rambling nor Carl Rove to retro-modify George Bushes' left vs right fiascoes), we intend for our show to be funny when it needs to be and serious when it should be. Comedy should flow naturally.

That is what the writing of Sumitra Ramjee, does in droves here. Her latest play is all about breaking the boundaries between castes. It is about smashing social mores - especially in India - about taboos regarding LBGT and transvestites. It is about the fundamental belief in a higher power, whether you believe in God or not. It is more than anything, about embracing the differences in cultures and making the world a better place to live in for everyone through the fundamental understanding that we were all put on this earth for specific reasons. Those reasons may be hidden to use at first, or worse, be unappealing. But the simple truth is, without embracing our raison-de-etre (yes I'm clever, that's why that term has been used twice, you philistines), our lives are worth naught. Be it the eunuch or the transvestite, be it the non-believing slum dweller or the jaded new age college goer, everyone starts out as caricatures who are forced to explore new dimensions as their characters discover potentials in their co-stars.

And at this point, let me shout out to the director, Mohan, who has taken this potentially chasmic script and molded it into performances worth cosmic rapture. He managed to eke out body language and vocal modulations that made the comical dialogues into living images that make us emote to the plight of the condition the characters suffer. A superb script needs a superb director to get the best qualities of the actors to gel with the pre-natal vision of the writer to make the end product a child worth keeping. Kanna Thorakanom Saami is a marriage of visions that puts us in splits at the same time as it splits the atoms of stigma. And the music by Ramani, which was top notch speaks volumes about having an Ilayaraaja collaborator on your crew. Doesn't hurt, does it?

No matter how good a play may be screen written or directed, it is up to the people in the rouge in front of the bright yellows that good lines, laughter inducing or thought provoking, may be delivered. The cast of USIA equaled or even surpassed the previously mentioned veterans I've grown up with in achieving this. The local dialect of Madras is one of the hardest to master as it includes equal parts of culture, swagger, abandon and just plain **** you. To switch from corporate polity to brass tacks boondocks, which is what these people must have had to do (I've heard them utter both) requires a special talent that I've seldom seem outside the dorm rooms of the shadiest colleges. From Balajee, the cardsharp lead, to Jeeva, the all-too-common beggar at the streetlight, every single person on that stage knew what they were doing, and more importantly, what they were saying. Including the scintillating dance be Arvind, Gaurav and Aswini choreographed by Shilpa (hey, hey, hey, namma ooru naatu thiruvizha paathirukkiya? Tamizh kalacharam without item song? What are you, distended from time or something?). If I've left out any one's name, its only because I forgot.

Oh yeah, four kudos that I felt were worth mentioning... Kala from Florida whose contribution to the play was the amazing makeup of all the artists - brilliant job as only someone sitting in row one could have truly appreciated, Shyamala, who supplied the costumes from India, Meera, who made sure said costumes got the the set, and Jeeva and her family, who provided the premises for the play's rehearsals.

Every single character was pivotal. The Skeptical ragamuffin father who believes a new deal equates to cash to the loving mother who respects ideals, from the vagabond son turned by the power of love to the haughty girlfriend ... err ... also turned by love, to the thugs who portray the worst in the human condition, and to the eunuch (also played by the indefatigable and indefinably - he has "something" - talented Mohan) who represents hope for a finer future, everyone, but simply everyone lived their characters. This, more than anything else made the play for me.

I was lucky to see it. I wish the USIA well in all their forthcoming forays, and wish the kids of India a golden tomorrow. With stalwarts like this, and with the support of the 500 or so who turned up of this play, their futures are secure. Please be on the look out for future offerings of the USIA. Even if you don't believe in the brand of comedy they preach, their message is noble. Support them in any way you can. I know Keith Olbermann is dead to the American public, and he is dead to me as well, but, "Good night and good luck."

People I know

2013-11-22T17:25:00.002-08:00

Al Pacino is and has been in so many iconic roles that it is difficult to name one and say, yes, this is the character that defined him. Be it Don Corleone's son, or be it Robert DeNiro's nemesis in Heat, or be it a professor in the altogether crappy movie 88 minutes, or the blind man or the political adviser in the moniker of this article, he is, and always will be, a legend of Hollywood. In staying with this title, there are a few people in everybody's life who have played a significantly large role in shaping your destiny that you cannot detail you like without loss of generality by not stating their contributions.

First off... growing up in India and wanting to chase your passion, you have to have good parents. When I say good parents, I mean the kind of people who will say, "okay champ, do what you want." There are very few who do that for the simple reason that when you grow up, even the India of today is a cutthhroat cruel place that values connections more than creativity. My mom and dad did that for me. Even though their background was decidedly middle class.

My dad started his life as a lowly engineer in a public transport corporation, and yet let me chase my dream everytime it changed, before settling into its final form as an Environmental Engineer. My mom had an opportunity to be a superstar chef or an ace TV reporter or even a movie superstar. She is beautiful, talented, and even more than that, she is a gifted individual par excellence. She is an artist and a linguist that would have put other savants to shame. Not as a son, but as an unbiased observer do I say this. And yet she turned down every offer that came her way, because her sense to family was more important. And as I grew up, they made sacrifices that defied common sense and logic as to why they would do this. Turns out, it was for one kid, who they hoped would make it big in his chosen field one day.

MY uncle Balaji, a surrogate father, or his wife Priya, who I adopted as my aunt... they were as important parents to me as my next best own. My grandmothers, Jayalakshmi and Saroja... universes apart in the way they expressed love, but lightseconds together in the way it came to me. My friends, Subash, Vasanth, Shankar, Jagadeesan , Sreekanth and Anand, contemporaries who were as close as the planets in the inner solar system as far as how fast light travels to bridge that gap.

Later, when I had a chance to strike out on my own in the states, it was two other people who supported me in ways that were straight out of fairy-tale fantasy. Have you ever heard of aunts that are as loving as mothers? Even in Indian sitcoms of any language, where extended families are quite simply about usurping you wealth, Indian imagination has never gone past the evil aunt. But in my case, my aunts were lightning rods that did not let even the worst of the worst personal tragedies (mine or theirs), stand in the way of unconditional motherly love.

Sumitra and Meera, poles apart as human beings were always there for me as no biological mother could be. For, a biological mother would have a physical bond that made it an evolutionary directive to take care of her child. But, here... these two women, with just the non-scientifically-quantifiable love in their hearts and literally no physical rule, love me as their own son to this day... what are they? Angels in human form? Do Angles even exist? If they do, they are not called Ramba, Oorvasi or Menaka... they are called Sumitra and Meera.

And what about my late uncle Ramjee, who bought me my first yoyo, or Santhanam, who told me, "you can call me anytime for anything?" These were guys who were executives and the busy men of the world who had stuff to do 24/7. What then, of my cousins Venu, Shilpa and Keshav, who amidst their schedules of excruitiation, would have a minute to talk to me about the most inane of things. Venu, who would help me out with the most arduous tasks, or Shilpa, who would make sure that my limited time with family was well spent, or Keshav, who would ensure that my obtuse brain would grasp the truths of reality and fantasy as best as it could?

And Finally, when I met the girl that will make my life for the remainders of my days, I know that good things are about to happen. Here I am, finally in a place where I can comment on somebody else's misfortune with equanimity when they get out for a duck. How could I do that unless there was a family to look after me and a Swetha in my life and unless Sachin had retired? Not possible.

These are all personal stalwarts who have stood by me through the tests of fire. But there is one that stands tall among all of them. That he is not even related to me by the most wishful thinking of metaphors is irrelevant. He is Sachin Tendulkar. There is one simple reason. Whether it be his blitzkrieg 87 vs New Zealand that first got me into One Day Cricket in an age when test matches were dominating, or his Desert Storm knock in Sharjah when the power went out when me and my dad tried to watch the match in my granddad's house and we first first bonded over Cricket, or the 137 against Pakistan in Chennai when I first realised your worth for the Indian Team, or the 2011 World Cup when I first truly understood that Sachin Tendulkar HAS BEEN my adult life, your career was all about the FIRSTS. It taught me about how much I respected the PEOPLE I KNOW.

The Best Sportsperson of my time... Not really a Tamil Cinema Blog now, is it? No it isn't!

2013-08-02T14:49:00.003-07:00

Sportspersons, like film stars, are a different breed than the rest of us. With my recent PhD after seven years of hard toil, sure, I've contributed to the betterment of Science. Well... scientific Engineering. Urm... let's be honest... to practical Engineering. Uhh... well to Engineering practices. Oh, what the hell, to getting a dusty ledge in a dirty library in a defunct wing of a WORLD RENOWNED (heh... heh.., got you) university. But the point is, I've done something that will most likely end up as a footnote in the annals of human history.

Sportsmen and TV stars, the good ones atleast, do something that people will remember as defining epithets of that field (ha... ha... fancy word there... a pity these are disallowed in rigorous scientific prose). They are remembered as icons. And unless you are a Newton or a Gauss or an Einstein or a Feynman, Science beleaguers you into being one of among a fifty thousand or so who graduate every year. And I bet you that you will be hard pressed to find two other scientists with a vowel appellate. I will name one for you... Abel. Not so with sports and cinema. There are atleast 50 different scientific fields, and I can think of only one name of note that started with an A. But come sports and movies, I can name three: Agassi and Alain (Prost if you are churlish) and Arnold.

So there. In the final tally of what matters to most men - and women, since Amelia Earhart, she who was blessed with not one but two vowelline names and was the progenitor of modern airfield games - its the sports and movie superstars who take the icing on the cake of superstardom built of others in less fortunate fields. And between the movies and sports, there is one key difference. One is live... the other is not.

So then... as an average human being, albeit with an IQ slightly higher than the average bear and with a degree most of you can only hope, in the best of circumstances to come through the mail for services otherwise rendered, the best sportsperson I've seen in my lifetime is... Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum... Saurav Ganguly!

He is the man who transformed Indian Cricket from the immensely popular but also ran Minardis to the powerhouse that is a Ferrari. He changed the face of Indian Cricket from an often mercurial, but more often predictable US Davis cup team to the world beating Aussies. He made Indian Cricket into the Lancia Delta Integrali, a car that could be relied upon to win and win consistently, from an Audi TT, that could only do wet hillclimbs magnificently. He changed Indian Cricket from a side that had its Bests and Beckhams and Rooneys, to one that could challenge for the World Cup everytime with a Pele and a Ronaldo an a Ronaldinho. In short, he was to Indian Cricket as Michael Schumacher was to German Formula One. Better yet, he was to India's new millenium National Anthem of Chak De Blue. as was his compatriot to the Jana Gana Mana decades ago.

As a Cricketing legend who transformed into the Dark Side of the Moon, there can be no other than the great Dada. Not even Bradman, with his uparalled might against the short ball (he managed a hundred in the days when a ball to your ribcage was considered unEnglishmanlike - although, given their conduct through the Raj, I use the term very loosely), or Marshall with his blinding pace that scared tailenders into eternal nightmares, or Sobers with his first six home runs off consecutive pitches (yes, yes, but I do have an American audience as well, you know), and the evergreen Sachin, who is only as old as his next announced retirement is, could match the wholesome grandeur he has brought to Indian Cricket, first as a swashbuckling an critically acclaimed Prince of the off side, and later as India's most successful captain.

Dada gave this side a self belief in itself that none other managed before in any form of the game with any country. You could draw parallels to the great Alain Prost who did something similar with the then fledgling McLaren Porsches, or with Schumacher and the positively uncompetitive Ferraris, but those were more about an individual building a team around THEMSELVES. Here was, in my humble opinion the first example of a TEAM built around an individual. An Individual whose record of four hundred and twenty four intentional matches, 38 centuries and 132 wickets speak for themselves, but who also as a captain led the team to 97 victories in 195 matches with way more wins than losses (97 to 78). More importantly, he won us almost twice the number of matches he lost in tests (21 to just 13). Most importantly of all, he won more matches outside India in tests than he lost (11 to 10), and crucially won in Pakistan, England, Australia and South Africa, the perennial final frontiers for Indian Cricket. Feats unheard of till then except for the great Kapil Dev who only managed it in Old Blimey.

Of all the things that Dada has done for betterment of Indian Cricket, he did a few things that stand out as pure genius. Backing Harbhajan Singh when he
was only one among the pack... that speaks for itself. A Matchwinner par excellence for India with his 400 plus wickets. Lobbying for the great, perhaps greatest Indian captain of all time, Mahendra Singh D when he was but a lark of lad with an Imran Khan wanna be haircut, and controversially but wisely relegating Tendulkar to number four in ODIs to make way for the most explosive batsman the Cricketing world has seen for a while, Sehwag. Canny decisions all... and all indicative of a brain that's fed to the gill with fishes (after all, what else would you expect from a Bengali?), bulging as it does end on end.

Most of all, he swirled his blue shirt at lords and got his first hundred at lords, and well, he lords over all over Indian Captains before or since in terms of just plain Attitude. To a fan of a game that is marginally more than a unifying religion in a country that is divided by a lot less high profile stuff, he is, and will remain, the one and only true DADA.

Honorable Mentions:
Michael Schumacher, for taking a car that would not turn into corners to a memorable win in Catalunya and then onto five consecutive world Championships
Andre Agassi. for proving that talent alone is not the only recipe to become a pop culture superstar in the era or the infinitely more talented Sampras
Lance Armstrong, for quaffing in the face of Cancer? What cancer?
Viswanathan Anand, for showing the world that Chess is not a bohemian pasttime of the idle Russians
Baichung Bhutia, for bringing football to the Cricket crazed billions in a country where that sport has its own holy Trinity
The Black Caps, for showing us that a nation with more sheep than men can actually be good at something
The Giants, for bringing back the faith after the longest interval between superstars and also rans

Viswaroopam - subtle high concepts

2013-01-25T21:25:00.001-08:00

Why did he have to do Die Hard in Tamil? When its Kamal Hassan, the expectations are a Magna cum Laude at the very least. Not a solid 2.0 who wants to be an architect (George Costanza puts these things so matter-of-factly sometimes). This was my first take on the movie, and I even wrote a largely negative piece on it. Then I wanted to write a companion piece on the stupid ban of the film in Tamil Nadu. While researching for that, I realized that there are a lot of subtle messages in the film that elevate it from a mere Die Hard, to something much more important for the communally divided world of today.

Concepts
I am going to come at this from the angle of the ban because I think the movie adds a lot of value to a powder-keg issue when viewed from a stand of intolerance.

Viswaroopam is a big film. There's no doubt about it. Its not a Muslim bashing film. There's no doubt about that either. The ban demanded is clearly another attempt by some politically motivated groups at getting their two minutes' fame at the expense of someone who's clearly deservedly more famous than they are.

I ask you: what's there in this movie that showcases Muslims in a negative light? If anything, the story is about a devout Muslim officer who's a true patriot who's fighting against those who would desanctify that faith's true meaning in the name of a bloody Jihad. There is even a scene at the very end when the protagonist performs Namaz before breaking into a sleeper cell's hiding place to diffuse a bomb.

Isn't the fundamental tenet of any religion kindness to your fellow man? Isn't someone who reneges on that teaching an enemy of humanity, no matter what his faith, color or nationality may be? To showcase a fundamental Islamist group that trades in terror, the Al Qaeda is not a derisive commentary on the whole religion. It is infact an effective means of showing that to pigeonhole a people based on the cruel actions of a few is not only stupid at best, but damaging to mankind at worst. To show an indiscriminate military response going so far as to bombarding civilian centers is the essential example of this narrow-minded outlook.

The movie also goes so far as to show that not even people in the same environment of hate and anguish are likely to behave in the same way. There is a young boy who hates the concept of taking to arms like his zealot father, but instead wants to become a doctor. While the Pashtun tribes have been painted with broad strokes by the media as being backward with little women's suffrage, the movie gives us a mother and wife of a terrorist who is trying to fight this oppression in her own small way. She wants her son atleast, to take a different route to everyone else around her. There is a young man who wants to go abroad and become an Engineer, but whose goal is twisted for nefarious purposes by the religious zealots.

And the movie berates the violence of zealotry by showcasing children playing shoot with one another because gun culture has become so entrenched in that society. It is a scene that without any of the conventional norms of violence is heart-wrenchingly so. Where does a society go when AK-47s have become the playthings of toddlers? It re-blooms through the young boy who wants to become doctor. Hats off, Kamal Sir!

Horses for courses
Kamal himself has said on many occasions that he is someone who chooses characters based on his strengths. Sadly, characters such as the protagonist in this film are not for him anymore. He has grown beyond this both in stature and in age and physique.

The RAW/military officer needed to be someone in the prime of physical fitness. Unless you are a Bruce Willis or a Sylvester Stallone whose entire repertoire is tearing open your t-shirt and revealing six pack abs, so that no matter how old they get, they have to stay in peak shape, you are not expected as an actor to be required to fill these kind of uber - action oriented roles.

However, his ability to deliver a character's realistic response to his circumstance remain chanceless. As the infiltrator, he is convincing in his zeal, and even when revealed to be a RAW agent, he is still able to emote both a patriotism toward his nation and a grudging respect for the friendship he forged with the bad guys. After all, what is more telling about a human dilemma than being torn between the right thing to do and loyalty to someone you have broken bread with?

Having said that, this role is not particularly challenging as an actor for Kamal. There is no commanding screen presence required. If I could make a recommendation based purely on the physical attributes required (for I have no doubt about Kamal the director being able to extract the performance he needs from even a dead tree stump), horses for courses. I think someone like Jiiva or Vikram would have been much more apt choices for Wizam. Or, if you wanted to go with a more nominally priced option, why not pick Srikanth? He could use a big break like this.

But if ever there were inspired casting choices - I have to give Kudos to Kamal for casting Rahul Bose as Omar Qureshi and Jaideep Ahlawat as Salim. Both give stellar performances as multifaceted Jihadists. While Rahul Bose plays the more flamboyant zealot (he has to, given that his character is a top echelon player), he still loves his family dearly. But you can see where his cultural background is rooted, and where his priorities clearly lie. He brings out this slanted balance beautifully. Jaideep on the other hand is the more sophisticated, tech savvy front man of the cell. He is the recruiter, the handler. He has to be more pragmatic, more muted in his zealotry. Again, beautifully done. These two guys actually steal the show away from Kamal, and that's not something you might ever get a chance to say again.

Visuals
There is no doubt that the movie is on a par Hollywood standards. What is the benchmark for Hollywood standards? If its a strong story with a gripping screenplay, then your Thevar Magan had proved ages ago that you are beyond any Wood in film - making. If its character development and acting, then your Virumandi stands alone. If its jaw dropping new concepts, then your Apporva Sagodhirargal and Dasavatharam are striking opuses. And if its social commentary, then Hey Ram and Anbe Sivam are far left field than anything else.

So, what is the standard here? Visual presentation. Yes, its very nicely done. The photography is brilliant. Particularly impressive is Varghese's caution not to fall into the trap of portraying desert climes in sepia tones. Rather, he seems to have used the natural lighting to showcase what Afghanistan looks like realistically. I lived in a desert for four years, and let me tell you, it doesn't always look sepia! The action is well choreographed. The gratuitous chase scene is par for the course. All of these aspects have been seen in countless English movies before, but they are new to Tamil Cinema. As someone who is tireless in bringing the latest in cinema to us, I salute Kamal on his industry gold standard effort.

The standout is ofcourse the US attack on the Al Qaeda strongholds. This sequence really captures the futility of a lop-sided war. General Stanley McChrystal said in a recent interview that a 5.6mm round is supposed to penetrate the human body at 3000 metres per second, and the result is not pretty. Its not supposed to be. War never is. Kamal shows that in all its grit here.

Another excellent place in the movie was in the opening, with Kamal's brilliant dancing. The way this scene is shot is interested, because it brings Kamal and his brilliant steps to the fore every time he sings (by focussing on him), and sends everything to the background when Shankar Mahadevan's voice and the song proper takes over (by using area wide shots). The pretty girls, including second lead actress Andrea Jeremiah and part of the backdrop accentuating the beauty of the dance form, but never stealing the limelight. I particularly liked how Andrea is one of the others in the group with no more or less emphasis than anyone else. Score one for the thousands of nameless and faceless group dancers that have carried Tamil songs for generations! Unfortunately, I felt that this was waste of a great opener, as we never see or hear about Kathak or its implications to a maybe softer side of Kamal till the end credits.

Minor Pitfall
I generally hate pointing out loopholes in movies I enjoy, because if there is a strong story, with excellent characterization, you can usually suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride.

My one gripe with the premise is that, if RAW knows about a dirty bomb threat to a major US city, would they not share this intel with them beforehand? In this case, even MI 6 apparently knows about it, and yet the NSA, CIA, FBI and NYPD are all unaware of this threat? Hell, even the Indian government was warned about the 2008 Mumbai blasts by the CIA well before they happened!

But considering that the movie delivers so much on high concept and packed entertainment, I can and will suspend my disbelief.

Final Word: Say no to the BAN!

Zealotry is prevalent in every faith. But calling a spade a spade does not diminish the fact that there are three other suites in the pack. These calls for bans on the premise that the movie would incite communal unrest are mere fabrications of diseased minds, who cannot see beyond their own immediate political gains. If a movie maker wants to be really brave, forget the Al Qaeda, I say. Make a movie about the evils of religious organizations with political goals (after all, there are several across the board in our country).

One final note: while it is important for minorities to work towards protecting their rights, crying wolf too many times may cause that very effort to backfire someday. What if one of these minority groups loses all credibility with the masses through these frivolous claims to fame and becomes a spineless husk when real oppression of our minority brothers and sisters occurs? Who will they turn to for help then?

And more importantly, a democracy is not an institution in which a single group can demand special disposition for their belief systems alone. I have for long been very strongly against the Unified Hindu Law for Hindus and the Shariat system for Muslims. We are a community of Indians. That is how we choose to represent ourselves. Therefore, our laws should reflect that oneness also. And so too should the creative freedom afforded to artists. That this movie hurts the sentiments of this caste, or that belittles that faith are all well and good if they are true. But political sops to community based vote banks through bans on movies that hurt no one are unacceptable in the world's largest democracy.

When a legendary actor, and now a legendary director as well, takes the pains to make a meaningful movie that delivers for everyone from the thrill seeking action movie buff to the thinking critic, enjoy it. Don't go and ban it!

Rajnikanth - Magic

2013-01-20T18:39:00.004-08:00

You can be Hindu, you can be Muslim. You can be Tamil and you can be from somewhere else. You can be a cinema connoisseur or you could be a grindhouse goon. You could be straight, and you could be gay. But the one thing you could not be immune to is the magic of Rajnikanth.

Whether you smoke or not, you cannot be but amazed by the cigarette flip to the mouth. No matter how much you might abhor even the idea of smoking, with its malodorous stench or its unhealthy implications, touch your heart and tell me that if a cigarette has been flipped by Rajnikanth, your heart has not fluttered a teeny bit. If it hasn't, then its made of stone. There was a time in India, not 15 years ago, when smoking was considered the domain of the male, a cool and and the same time, disgusting thing, that no girl would even try, because it was "bad." Those days are long gone thanks to globalization. But I am not here to judge the advancement or degeneration of culture. I am merely stating that even then, those girls swooned for Rajni's style. Not so much for the cigarette, you see, but what it meant. The style.

And another thing. This may be a personal opinion or one shared by the masses. I don't know. I am attracted to Rajni. But judging by the whistles and the milk coronations, I would tend to believe that I am not alone in this total gayification whenever Thalaivar (leader - please not in the political sense) comes on screen. Rajnikanth could be in the hottest song with the most beautiful heroine in the world - why it could be Angelina Jolie morphed with Aishwarya Rai along with the physical attributes of Venus, and all I would still see is Rajnikanth's stilted dance movements appreciating every second, how much our God has mastered the hours of input by a Michael Jacksonesque coreographer. I would little realize that the heroine is wearing the most revealing outfit; and I would like one self respecting male audience member to describe to me even with the most minimal detail, the color of her dress. And by the way, I would like anyone who reads this blog to touch their heart and tell me that i am not voicing their own opinion, my personal public image be damned.

This is not to say that the heroine in a Rajni movie is just eye candy. Far from it. In recent history, every Rajni film has been driven by a strong feminine character, and I am very thankful for that. Unlike other superstars, our REAL superstar has chosen to go in a direction that is new for Tamil cinema. To explore and utilize the power of the female lead. Straight from Muthu, where a love triangle between the always ephemeral Rajni and the ever so dung like Sarath Babu fought for the affections of a clearly Malayali Meena, to Padayappa, where the Neelambari character all but stole the show but for the superlative presence of the rural Churchill (he of the persistent cheroot), and to Endhiran just recently, when the female drove even a robot to distraction, (although, when you are dealing with an international beauty queen, nominal performance tolerances even from nickel bolts must be expected) it has been his way for quite sometime.

If you though I am forgetting Chandramuhkhi on that list, haha, think again. While Jyothika was a very strong female antagonist, P. Vasu is a terrible director. So no matter how good her characterization was in that film, and no matter how central strong female lead was to the development of that story, a flashlight beam played across Rajni's eyes to indicate the brilliance of some unnamed accomplishment is sloppy direction, so that movie is banned... forever! P. Vasu is dead to me!!!

Is it the man's humility then? There are some who are humble because they know they're not good enough. There are yet other, of the worse second kind, who know they make the cut, and yet fish for accolades. Rajni seems to be someone who's got this balance down pat. Why, every time you tell me he's too humble, I can show you Kamal Hassan sitting beside him, and when you have Brahma sitting next to you, you'd be pretty much asking for it if you said that you designed the human genome. And just about when you are about to tell me that he's just showboarding, he comes up with something like this... "Naan yaana illinga, kuthirai" (I am not an elephant, but a horse) stating that he knows exactly where he stands. Also, please name one superstar today with a bald head who's not afraid to show its phrenology to the masses (and if you can't get that reference to the dead science, then you were probably born around the same time he lost his hair). That's more than humility. That's willful abandon, the elder cousin of Mr. H.

He's not a perfect human being. No one is. Everyone knows about his rancid early days, about his addictions and his womanizing and his tantrums amd his traumas. But the thing that sets him apart is that demigods tend to be just that. They obfuscate the demi and promulgate the god. A god hides nothing. The purpose of a demigod is for you to respect him no matter what he may be. That is why Gaddafi had to be a general although he holds no military rank by right. A god on the other hand exists solely to teach you right from wrong. That is whay Gatothgaja is not in the Mahabaratha to just tell you that Bheema had another wife. He is there to tell, albeit metaphorically, to elicit that polygamy isn't a good thing (my sincere view, and if anybody objects, take it up him when your number comes up). God is an open book for us to learn from. Now, I am not claiming that Rajni is a god. But I am saying that to put the qualifier "demi-" in front of it if you are going to worship him as a god is a disservice to him.

One thing he said in his 12-12-12 birthday address was revealing, and truly shocking to me, as someone who's grown up with the somersaulting cigarettes. He said - paraphrased and translated - I am saying from personal painful experience, if you are a true fan, stop smoking. You know, he may be not be god. Hell, he may not even be the most perfect man to have lived. But, hell, he is the Thalaivar. The only one.

Mr. Hammond welcomes us to the Jurassic Park!

2012-11-29T14:39:00.003-08:00

To put it quite simply, to my mind, this is the greatest movie ever made. None of the concepts here were new. Everything this movie showcases, from the character backgrounds, the moral issues, the action and the suspense had all been done to death from the earliest rendition of The Lost World in 1925 to the first iteration of King Kong in 1933. But everything about this movie was NEW! it is, to me, the pinnacle of movie making, and nothing before or since has come even a mile close to what this did for movies and for movie audiences. It took the concept of movies to a whole new level.

The book was fantastic for its visualization of a world in which Dinosaurs roam free. It gave us the framework for a new kind of terror. A species so alien to us that it could have existed on another planet, but for the fact that fossils tell us otherwise. It showcased the visceral terror of these majestic beings. But apart from this, much of the ethical dilemmas were merely background filler for the real deal - the action. Characters were pretty much one dimensional and what you would expect. Greedy business tycoons, nerdy kids, skeptical scientists and evil saboteurs; the lot straight out a pulp fiction suspense novel. But it was the seed for something so much better than itself. Like a plant germinating to life from a pod, Steven Spielberg took that basic idea and had Mr. Hammond to Welcome us to Jurassic Park.

When you talk about the greatest movie ever made, you also have to think about the greatest director to have ever lived. For movies of this genre, that list is indeed illustrious. You have James Cameroon with Terminator and Avatar. You have George Lucas with Star Wars. You have Stanley Kubrick with 2001, a Space Odyssey. And you have Stephen Spielberg. See, the thing with James Cameroon is that he is all high concept, but quite condescending in the delivery of the message. George Lucas is about stunning set pieces that drive a story forward. And Stanley Kubrick is the king of style and little substance. Spielberg, in this movie atleast got the mix bang on target.

For an excellent and revealing discussion about the movie, please watch Confused Matthews video reviews. I am just going to focus on two scenes from the movie and the musical score. I think these taken together sum up the movie for me.

When John Hammond, the owner of the them park takes the Scientists out for the first time to see the dinosaurs, the sheer majesty of these beasts is staggering. To think that these giants once roamed the very earth we stand on today is beyond imagination, beggars belief. No matter how many fossils and computer renditions we may have seen, nothing could ever prepare us for the shock of seeing one in the flesh. How can someone hope to bring that awe to us, let alone on a screen? How can someone transport us to such a magical place as this, the land of the last titans the world ever had walk on her? Well, it is a combination of brilliant animatronics, camerawork, acting or rather reacting by the cast and probably the best rerecording in the history of films. But mere words can do no justice to this, and for the first time ever in these blogs, I am going to stop writing and just ask you to see for yourselves:

In this scene, you see from Richard Attenborough's delight at his guests' reactions that he is not the TV trope evil tycoon. He is truly joyous of his creation, his baby, and wants it to be his gift to the world. You also see the lawyer ready to merchandise the crap out of this. You see the skepticism in Jeff Goldblum's eyes. And you see the culmination of their lives' work and the fear that comes when you confront giants from a dead past in the eyes of Sam Neill and Laura Dern. And you see the the leviathans themselves in their milieu, going about their day, naturally, uncaring of us puny little insect - like beings. This scene conveys so much of what this movie is about. Yes, there are special effects, but they are a backdrop for the fact that nature is so much more superior than man's machinations. No matter what you do otherwise, life doesn't care and it will continue to do what it must to go on, no matter who's watching or what they're manipulating. It is also a very nice teaser, the docility of these creatures now, for what is to come.

"Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet's ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that's found his dad's gun." This scene serves three purposes. One to get the exposition of the far reaching issue of the morality of creating a world that is not supposed to be. To be playing God. Without being condescending or pedantic, it lays bare the issues the movie is trying to address. Two, it gives us a glimpse of the motivations of the central characters. Man seldom manipulates science with disaster as the end goal. But lazy science - by which I mean, science removed from fully understanding its consequences - has, well, consequences not fully fathomable. And these consequences are invariably bad even with the best intentions. Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed us that. What stock do Stem cell and DNA manipulation research have in store for us? And three, it sets up all the carnage to come in an ethical framework. These are the hallmarks of a great sci - fi action movie. The movie begs us to think about what we are seeing. Again, mere words may elucidate the scene, but the mood of people discussing Darwinian concepts in a relaxed setting that diffuses the ferocity of nature's raw savage should be seen. That this kind of a scene even features in a movie like this is an indication that this is much, much more than just a sci - fi thriller. Watch:

A great science fiction tale is one in which moral questions are asked to which we as a society have no clear cut answer. The tale puts these in a context of a situation far removed from personal experiences so that we may objectively try to approach them without being invested in them on an emotional level. And through the answers we find, we might hope to learn something, and maybe apply them to our own lives. And the role of action and special effects are to show us the consequences of choices made in this fantastical setting. They are not the be all and end all of the tale. That is what this movie does so well. Action set pieces and stunning visual effects that changed the face of CGI and VFX forever are found aplenty here, but they are all part of the grander scheme. That's what I meant about the director balancing his tray.

And finally, the music. As far as I'm concerned, the background score of this movie is everything it needed to be. It captures the thrill of seeing impossible beings walking amongst us. It adds to their majesty. It is suspenseful and awe inspiring, but in a soaring, uplifting way. It tells us that no matter what, life will find a way. Be it the dinosaurs, or the humans who erred in making them in the first place. Life will always find a way. And to add to all this, its haunting tune always brings a tear to my eyes. It is quite simply, to my mind, the best soundtrack ever composed for a movie. But don't take my word for it. Listen:

Even after 20 years, with all the budgets and technologies at out disposal, no one has seemed to have understood the role of visual effects. No one has seemed to be able to balance a truly great sci - fi tale with adventure. No one has seemed to be able to show us the real adventure, that of life itself in a more majestic way than this movie has. To take a dead civilization alien to us in every way and make it come alive again... oh God, what a treat. You may have not seen this in a long time. If so, you must watch it again. Because when you do, you, along with Dr. Grant, and dear Dr. Suttler, will be "Welcome to the Jurassic Park."

Nayagan vs Thalapathi

2012-10-29T15:42:00.003-07:00

Life throws up so many curve balls that there isn't necessarily a logical progression from one state to the next. Like a Markov process, cinema seems to be that bag of jellybeans from which your first pick might be a delectable strawberry while the next could as likely be a raw onion. This is precisely the case with Nayagan and Thalapathi. Mani Ratnam, having reached the high water mark in Indian cinema with a masterpiece of unparalleled storytelling, seemed to have deigned that he has done enough, and gave a squarely middling performance in his next gangster flick.

Everyone, including Time Magazine have heaped lavish praise on Nayagan, and for good reason. It is immense. It is a fantastic movie with a fantastic cast, fantastic music and fantastic camera work. It has mesmerizing dialogues, mesmerizing flow and mesmerizing character development. It has a brilliant story arc, brilliant scenes and brilliant continuity. That is why its on the all time greatest movies ever made list. Not just in Tamil, not just in India, but from around the world. Mani Ratnam the director shined through as India's Francis Ford Coppola, as our very own version of Martin Scorsese.

And then, suddenly, it all hit the fan catastrophically with Thalapathi. While Nayagan was like watching hot caramel sauce melting on vanilla ice cream, Thalapathi felt like being in a boiling sauna, under a UV lamp with an ice cream cone dribbling over your sticky hands. It was a mishmash of ideas, ill-conceived sequences and very very poor acting. It also had a stellar cast, fantastic music and a solid story. But, where everything fell into sonorous unison in Nayagan, this felt discordant, somehow. And the worst part? It was all yellow. Ugly, horrible, mucky yellow! Why, Mr. Ratnam, why did you have to use a filter on every damn scene? Why did you have to go from Coppola to Carrot Top?

Both movies have their ups and down, but for Thalapathi, sadly, it is in a stable equilibrium at the bottom of a deep ravine. Nayagan on the other hand, for all its overt homages to The Godfather, is fighting us every time we watch it and try to pick at it, to stay atop a tall hillock jostling to go back to the apex whenever it is shoved a little this way or that. True, they are both gangster movies. They both chart the lives of people from childhood through a troubling adolescence to their conclusions. They are both set in pretty much the same world of lawlessness and justice for the previlaged. They are both about how the protagonists tackle fire with fire, but are ultimately flawed but righteous individuals. But that is where the similarities end.

Story and characters
Nayagan is a rock solid saga set in changing eras of post independence India and spans nearly three generations. The journey of the hero also mirrors the greater journey that India herself undertook from the thirties to the late eighties. From lifting her people out of poverty to urban agglomeration to the formation of slums to the restrictions on development by a ham fisted government and recalcitrant masses, to the development of parallel regimes and kangaroo courts, this story itemizes all these issues through the eyes of the hero.

It delves deep into how the principle characters become the people they become. It thoroughly threshes out the reasons behind their interacting in certain ways. How Selva forms a lasting friendship with Velu is fluid. Not only that, but this relationship that moves from scorn to friendship to respect to love above life itself is a microcosm of the adoration the people of Dharavi heap on Velu Naicker. So too is the gradual development of resentment by his daughter towards him. Not only are the character interactions so logical, they are also surrogates for the grander scheme of a Don's life. This is where Godfather scored, and no wonder this is the reason why this story also shines.

Secondly, because it spans an entire lifetime, and because it elevates the life of one man to beyond his four walls, its scale is epic. It chronicles the history of a nation, and it teaches us something about right and wrong. It subtly answers questions about Karma, that good deeds cannot bury underfoot the evils that beget them. That is why Velu Naicker has to suffer in his personal life. That is why he has to die in the end. No matter what good the Lord Krishna did for the world, as a human being, he had sinned. He had cheated and he had enacted a protracted brutal war to teach the virtues of good to the world. With millions dead in the Mahabharatha's wake, Lord Krishna had to die a human death, and a painful one to teach the final lesson. Every deed has its comeuppance.

Thalapathi, which also borrows heavily from the Mahabharatha, had none of those things going for it. It is the story of two men set in a tumultuous place. That's all. There are no parallels to be drawn here. Yes both Deva and Surya are doing pretty much the same things that Velu did, but you don't get the sense that it is important. One could argue that the focus of this story is just the two of them. Okay, but I'm sorry, that falls flat too.

Where is the development of the relationship between Deva and Surya? In just one one scene? Is it possible for a man like Deva to shrug off the death of a valued and long serving member of his cabal and just embrace his killer? If he is so amenable to sudden change, then why is that trait of his not reflected in the rest of the movie? Why is he so hell bent on revenge against the collector when all the latter has done is only his job? Why, if he is so concerned about justice that he would even forgive the killer of his associate, is he hell bent on massive carnage over a personal gripe?

And talking about growth, sadly, nothing here. The bond that Deva and Surya form in the beginning remains without progression for the remainder of the story. Yes, its true that the relationship between Karna and Dhuryodhana was also stilted and one dimensional, but that was not the focal point of that tale. It is here. Surely, for a man forged by cruelty and with so many bitter experiences in life as Surya, more conflict has to be in the offing, even with his best friend. Every character in this movie has only one face. Yes, Deva and Surya are hooligans. Yes, the collector is a virtuous man. Yes Karivaradhan is evil. But there is more to a human being than just what he is perceived to be. There are internal struggles, there are relationships, there are emotions and there are circumstances.

While Nayagan explored all of these in great detail, this movie does not. A white dhothi is a white Dhothi. There are no stitches, hell, even the border is not visible. There is no tapestry here. And therefore, that sense of grandeur is absent. This is one long tirade of violence, and pile driven good vs evil gospel.

Music and songs
In both movies, the music by Ilayaraaja was magical. Both movies had brilliant songs, and just to prove to you that I am not biased, I will openly state that Rakamma is one of my all time favorite songs. Not just mine, it is ranked as one of the top hundred songs of all time from around the world. The BGMs were outstanding and captured the mood of every scene. But the litmus test is this: if you are blind, and could only listen to the audio track, you would still get what Nayagan was on about. With Thalapathi, all you would get is a sequence of phenomenal tunes.

While the BGMs were muted and subtle in Nayagan, enhancing every facial expression and adding weight to the dialogues, in Thalapathi, they were there to substitute the lack of anything on the actors' faces on anything coming out of their mouths. Mind you, this not a crtique of Raaja's excellent work, but in Thalapathi, all you remember from each scene is how good the music was, and nothing else. Its as though the savage rumbling V8 soundtrack of a Formula One car was playing over the wheezing throttle of a Maruti 800. The visuals did not justify the BGMs.

The picturization of every song in Nayagan, even the gratuitous item number Nila Adhu Vaanathu Mele forthered the story. Every song came at the right place and did not distract from the larger picture. In Thalapathi, most songs, though pciturized beautifully, felt out of place. They were roadblocks to an already molasses like trickling pace. Rakamma was fantastic, and yet it was basically a standard hero Intro song. Suitable for Rajnikanth, but not for Thalapathi. Kaatukuyile, while being a brilliant technical achievement, did nothign but add five more minutes to an already bloated flim. Sundari Kannaal Oru Seidhi was again well imagined on a grand scale. But is there any time in the movie before or since that shows Shobana envisioning Rajni as her knight in shining armor? Has their love been developed in that vein? Or for that matter, developed at all?

Acting, Dialogues and Recall
Every single facial expression by every single character was appropriate in Nayagan. More importantly, every body language was captured. While there is no equal to Kamal when it comes to thespian prowess, all the others also did magnificent jobs. Janakaraj, Delhi Ganesh, Nizhalgal Ravi, Nasser, even the villains and the female leads had enough screen time and presence to justify their being in those roles. Every single character, even Velu's lowly minions are memorable. Their dialogues were so natural, and so well elucidated. They had so much power and conveyed the emotions so well. If you were reading a transcript of this film, you'd still be enthralled. If you had to shell out Rs. 1000 and go see this as a play, you'd come out with your money' worth of satisfaction. My close friend Ganesh once told me that his barometer for a good scene is if he can put himself in the actor's shoes, and if he can see himself reacting the same way, and saying the same things as those on screen. By that yardstick, Nayagan was an opus.

Thalapathi, regrettably started that irritating Mani Ratnam trend of qualifying every single line by the principle verb beforehand. What am I on about? Well, sample these gems:
Vittudunga, elaathayum vittudunga (Stop it. Stop everything)
Irukka. Indha oorulethaan irukka (She's here. She's in this very city)
Inge oruthen irundhaan. Uyiroda irundhaan. Ippo Ille (He was here. He was here and alive. Now he's not)
Thooki pututtaa. Yenna goods vandiyile thooki potuttaa (She threw me away. She threw me away onto a goods train)

Oh, here's one dialogue that should go down in the record books for the most stilted echange in film history:

Mamooty: Yeppadi? (How?)
Nagesh: Sandai.(Fight.)
Mamooty: Yethana peru? (How many?)
No name: Or aal. (One man.)
Mamooty: Yaaru? (Who.)
No Name: Surya. (Surya.)
Mamooty: Paakanam. (Must meet.)

Seriously, who talks like this? Seems to me that every one in this movie was high on weed or that it was studio full of attention deficit disorders and remembering long lines was going to be trouble from the start.

Where Nayagan made synergetic utilization of even minor extras, Thalapathi falied to provide any recall for even its name actors. Nagesh and Charu Hassan were completely wasted in this movie. Bhanupriya was paid for just showing up. What about Amrish Puri? Such a talented veteran, reduced to a stereotypical Dick Dastardly role that they had to bring someone else in to dub his rotten lines for him. Mamooty was probably told to tone down his performance in keeping with the lethargic dialogues and allow more screen space for Rajnikanth to... well, come and stand really.

When I wachted Ayudha Ezuthu, I told my friends that Madhavan had merely shaved his head, and not really done much else. Well, Rajni shelved his style, and pretty much that was it. This was the one chance in a lifetime for a director to extrude Rajni's true potential as an actor. It was the once chance for a rabid audience drunk on style and action to enjoy a truly remarkable performance from a misused actor. And Mani Ratnam blew it by giving him the same pablum he calls lines as everyone else in the movie. Admittedly, Rajni did manage to salvage a few scenes, especially the one with Jaishankar and the one when his mother comes to visit him. But even these scenes are so BGM heavy, out of focus and YELLOW that they sap any performance out of them.

Perhaps the worst aspect of the spotty acting in this movie is evident in the climax. While Nayagan's climax was in perfect keeping with the tone of the rest of the movie, and Kamal's delivery of his last lines were true to the character built through the film, the last fight sequence in thalapathi was a complete anathema to Rajni's persona in this. Outporing of emotion can be shown in many ways, but having asked your star to cheese every fiber of human emotion for two hours and suddenly requiring it to dial it up to eleven and ham it in the last scene is just plain dumb. I'm sure that the describe-your-friend-punch-villain-in-face rinse and repeat sequence must have seemed like pure inspiration to Mani, but sorry mate, to me it was all constipation. Seriously, how could anyone deliver staccato lines like that unless their bowels were ganging up every few seconds and refusing to come out?

Cinematography

Finally, Nayagan's camera work for scintillating. Every scene had its own hue that kept with the time of day it was, the mood of the moment and the state of affairs in the background. Sunrises and sunsets, pigeons and Gateway of India, nothing was allowed to come in the way of the cast's expressions and body language. It was a textbook display of how to create atmosphere.

The scene when Kamal takes a gang to the house of the factory owner to show him what it means to destroy a dwelling was ominous in the abscene of any life in the building complex. The scene when he meets his future wife near the Marine Drive was set at dusk, encapsulating the end of his bachelor life, but still with enough light left to bode a new radiant future for them. When his daughter weeps on the roof garden and states she is leaving his auspices for good, the lighting and background were sorrowful. And the final scene outside the court was bright and clear, essaying the fact that the verdict is a good one. No ominous grey clouds here to spoil the suspense of the climax.

Thalapathi on the other hand was yellow. Nothing more, nothing less.

So to sum up, Nayagan was the magnum opus of a gifted young director who showed the world that it was possible to take mainstream cinema to unscaled heights. The Mani Ratnam of 1987 gave us a riveting and emotional piece that was art and yet not dull. Every moment in this film flowed from the moment before, and spawned the one next like a harmonious raga. Truly, this was a five star film for the ages. Thalapathi, on the other hand, was yellow.

What is DRS

2012-06-26T18:57:00.001-07:00

I have wondered many times about the quality of F-1 fans. I mean, you talk to a Cricket fan, and he would be able to run you to the ground with his explanation of the cover drive, the role of the sweeper, the "Dilscoop" - although it pains me immensely to use that term - or on how to get Sachin out in the most statistically probable fashion (thank you, dad). Ask a Football fanatic - there really weren't any "fans" to being with, because they actually KILL for their teams, and sometimes their own team members - and they'll go into a brass tacks argument on why Poland was wrongly denied a goal against Russia early this month on a questionable offside decision. A Tennis connoisseur will be able to tell you why he believes that the rain actually didn't help Nadal with the French Open this year because he already possesses superhuman stamina and superb base play.

The common thread in all this is that the rules are simple and the skills are tangible. All it takes for a fan or fanatic - I'm not judging - is to place oneself in his idol's shoes and imagine that they got game to make the right call.

F-1 is slightly different though. After you've sifted through the glitz and glamour of saying you like a sport in which your favorite diva was seen at a page three gala hobnobbing it with other favorite divas and wondering why you weren't born rich enough to afford the five thousand dollar paddock entry cover, or after you've stopped seeing red everywhere (Ferrari, after all, is the most glamorous of all), and after the cool factor of boasting to your friends that the only way to see an F-1 race is on that brand new HD TV you got, there remains one little niggle: what do you really know about how it all works? I mean, how do the little bits fit together?

A disclaimer: By now, you're thinking to yourself - wait this has nothing to do with Tamil Movies. All of this is a rant against casual F-1 viewers. You're thinking either, hey wait a minute... I get what this guy is on about, or hah, screw this know it all, I have a HD TV! Well, the way I see it is this: F-1 is a complex sport - a blending of Science, Engineering and high performance high endurance Sportsmanship. I have seen too many people claiming to be fans who don't have the slightest clue that for every Schumi or Alonso or Vettel or Hamilton, there is a whole team starting with Brawn or Fry or Newey or Michael that is solving often seemingly insurmountable Engineering problems offscreen. Just like how a true cricket fan must know the intricacies of a reverse swinging ball or the difference between a dilscoop - aww that word again - and graceful a pick-up behind the keeper to enjoy the game, so too should a real F-1 fan know a little bit about what's going on to really get into it. Otherwise, you'll be left with an inane observation like "shiny red car... me like it win. Weeeee....."

But in order to get what's happening, a little scientific know-how is required, and the casual observer is not necessarily versed in this regard. I hope that with this series of articles, I can try to explain some of the basic science of the cars and thereby make it a richer experience for you next time. Remember, HD looks a lot better when you can see that pass from nowhere and say, "ahh, I know how it happened and thank god that I could see it crystal clear!"

Unfortunately, science is hardly accessible to the common man, couched as it is in Greek symbols and esoteric terms. Hopefully, with this series, I could introduce you to some of the truly fantastic things that make the F-1 car "go" by simplifying the science without loss of generality (a supercilious jargon phrase used to say that its ok to call a spade a spade, even when it has tassels on the handle).

Also, I'm setting up shop this time, so hopefully the coming articles won't be as long winded.

Back to the point.

Rather than the science being an intimidating put-offer, understanding this witchcraft will put you one up on your guests in an after race conversation. It will make you the exalted one in circles that invite people to see races on HD TVs. If you don't own a HD TV, your pure racing knowledge will get you invited to the homes of those who do. Ofcourse, the trick once you've got yourself invited over is not to make it sound like a boring Physics puzzle from IE Irodov and never get asked back ever again, but that's one instance where personal flair is called for if there ever was.

I'd like to take the science and distill its essence for anyone prepared to spend five minutes on its minutiae - practically rhymed, Jeeves. What? I'm Chaucer, who got language to the masses.

I'm starting off this series with DRS - no, not the Decision Review System, you Dhoni-hater-cum-BCCI-seditionist. This is the sinister sounding Drag Reduction System. Over the next few posts, I'll talk about tires and balance, the front wing and its distant cousin, the rear wing, bottom effects, and finally, the big daddy - aerodynamics. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be able to tell your hot date why Alonso won in Valencia and why Schumi was able to hold off Webber till the bitter end. Yeah! Like that's what she wanted to talk about. Exercise flair and use restraint as applicable.

Simply put, DRS is a system that gives a driver hot on the tail of someone in front a speed advantage offering him an overtaking opportunity provided he is within a second behind the leading car in certain parts of the track. This is very different from another kind of advantage which a trailing car has that's called a tow. But that topic is for another day when we talk about wings. And in F-1, tow comes with its own can of worms.

Before I tell you about DRS, there's a couple of voodoo terms that are good to know: dynamic and kinematic. If you're looking at how things work, you're also probably wondering what drives them. A dynamic thing is something you define with both its function and the driving force for that function. So, a dynamic knife is a knife that cuts the cabbage because you pressed down with it. A kinematic thing one the other hand just does what its doing, but we don't talk about the driving force. The force is still there, but we don't really care what it is. A kinematic knife is a knife that cuts the cabbage, period. With a kinematic knife, you have no way of knowing how deep the cut is going to be, what size the pieces are going to be, and what the knife will be doing once its done cutting the cabbage. But with a dynamic knife, you can tell how deep its going to cut because you know how much pressure you're applying. You can tell that the knife is going to be put away, because you also know what your action is going to be after you've cut your cabbage.

A neat example is a car on cruise control. If that car is doing sixty five on the freeway, you don't have to worry about the accelerator pedal for a while, and the car is going to continue to do sixty five. So, the speed of the car is kinematic. On the other hand, if you've just taken the ramp onto US 101, then you have to start flooring it. The speed of the car is no longer a kinematic entity. Now, you're accelerating at a rate determined by how hard you floor it. In order to determine the speed of the car now, you also need to know how much gas you're giving it, so this is now a dynamic thing.

The reason this is important is because the DRS is a dynamic thing. That will become clear soon enough.

Let's look at it word by word.

Drag. Its been a long drive back home and your bladder is suddenly full from all that coffee you drank along the way. You've stopped by a discrete hedge and you're tacking into the wind. Lo and behold, you're legs are getting wet. Why? Because the wind is blowing against you. You can't turn around... other motorists are tooling along. Maybe there's a cop. So, how can you compensate? You can lift it up a bit. This action has two advantages: one, fertilizing fluid would fly farther and not fall on your feet, and two, you would feel less air pressure on it. In technical parlance, the wind has just imparted DRAG on the stream of pee. It has dragged it down. It has exerted pressure on it. What you did when you lifted it up was to change the arc of the pee and make it look flatter to the air. So, the air exerted less pressure on it, and it flew further.

Drag has a nemesis, its evil twin, lift. Lift is harder to explain. Now you've come back home, but its a hot day. So you stand in front of your pedestal fan tilted up to your face. Your hair is blowing up. Why? Because the air is flowing upwards from the fan. The ceiling fan a few feet behind you is also in full swing. Now, your hair starts to curl upwards and forwards. Its doing this because its experiencing a different pushing forces at its roots and its tips. This difference is LIFT.

Its tomorrow, and you're on an airplane to Tegucigalpa because your boss hates you. Your airplane lifts off at 200KpH. An F-1 car stays on the ground even at 300KpH. What's the difference. A plane takes off because there is a way to make the air beneath it exert more upward force on it than the air above it. This is the shape of the airplane wings. Also, its more likely to take off if the wings don't have too much air pressure in front of them. So, what you want is your wing to have less drag on it, and generate upward lift. It would have look like a piece of paper curved downwards. Also, you don't want it to have much of a profile when facing the air, so you make its front as curved as possible. Its back has to be like a knife edge pointing down to suck the air above it and push it back up against its underside in the back. An F-1 wing one the other hand has to keep the car planted to the ground. So, it has to do everything an airplane wing does, but oppositely. So it looks like an upside down airplane wing.

Reduction. Just what it sounds like. To make your car go faster than your rival's, all other things equal, you need to be able to reduce the pressure of the wind in front of it. As you've probably noticed by now with all those hours if F-1 footage, an F-1 car is by no stretch of the imagination a sleek looker. It has bits and pieces sticking out, big fat uncovered tires, and a new nose job for 2012 straight from the Fiat Multipla design team. What all this does is presents to the wind a clunky profile that increases the drag on it. The only things that can go some way to reducing all this drag, are the wings. Now, the only way the wings can help reduce the drag is their profile to the wind becomes flatter.

System. A system is anything that gets a job done. In this case, its a transducer. What is a transducer, you might ask. I'll tell you. A light bulb tuns on when you switch it on. Electrical impulses travel through the tungsten filament which is heated and starts to glow. So, the electricity was converted to light by the release of high energy particles from the filament. So, in this case the transducer was the filament. A transducer is a device that converts one form of an input into another form of an output. In F-1, when the driver pushes the DRS button which probably activates a hydraulic piston or motor mechanism (which of the two options each team chose is a secret guarded unto death itself!) that flattens the wing by rotating it more horizontally. In this case, the transducer is either the motor or the piston. This thereby reduces the drag and makes the car go faster. But more importantly, being a dynamic system, the wing actually ACCELERATES the car while its being flattened, thereby giving the driver the extra punch over the guy in front. So, while he is going faster than the guy in front, he also able to increase his speed further, overshoot the competitor and make it stick. It has it Achilles heel though. It also reduces the downward lift that kept the car planted on the ground and makes it slide around a bit more (more on this when we talk about tires and balance).

The lawmakers of F-1 have decreed that the driver may flatten his rear wing provided he trails the leading car within a second behind it. Why this one second rule? And why not keep the wing flat permanently if its giving the car so much speed? That we'll see when we come to the wings. As to a question I can answer now, why choose only certain parts of the track where DRS can be used? This is where the F-1 gurus were clever. Most F-1 circuits have dull spots where the race is usually processional. So, by putting the DRS zones here, they're likely to have more on-track action. The existing overtaking spots can then be left to sieve the men from the boys because driver skills becomes very evident in those places anyway.

That's it. That's what DRS is. So, why did Alonso Win and why did Schumi come third? Apart from the totally predictable retirements of Vettel, Grosjean, Hamilton and Maldonado (a big thank you guys, for putting my idol back on the podium), after the safety car period, Alonso was beautifully positioned behind Grosjean, close enough to be able to use his DRS and whiz past. Schumi, on the other hand, was able to keep Webber more than a second behind him through the DRS zones, and thereby retain his place over an ever more irritable Webber.

X vs God - Requests and Denials

2011-12-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

Many people believe in God. And equally healthy is the number of people who vehemently deny His existence. But for all the debate about His existence, one thing remains certain. Everybody has asked God of something or the other atleast once. Oh, you may not call Him God, but I bet you've wondered to a higher power if something could be different. Well, I'm a firm believer in God, and I feel that no matter what your faith may be, there are many times that these requests get fulfilled, and many times when they go unnoticed. Let's take a look at some of the classics.

Nervous Urban X:

X: I've ben playing Super Ninja VI the whole night, and the exam's in two hours! I desperately need to pass. Also, I'd really, really, really like an iPad 2.

God: X, I gave you two hands, two legs, two eyes, two ears, two lungs and one each of everything else. Yeah, I ran out of spares. So do your own stuff on your own time. And iPad 2? I have a gazillion things to do, so I'm on the Xoom. Ask for a Xoom, and I shall giveth it thee.

X: Ok, Xoom then.

G: Buy it yourself.

X: But you just said...

G: No.

X: Please?

G: Get a Kindle, and stop calling.

Frantic Rural X:

X: God, my first born is a girl. I have to kill her. Will you get her five - star accommodations and middle - class Brahmin parents in the city next time?

G: Why, because she couldn't manage her gender? Because you'd actually have to do something menial like clean sewers rather than working in the field if you really wanted to earn for a change, and not whittle away every last penny you have on ratgut? Or is it because you'd prefer to have more unprotected sex and ruin the chances any future kid you might have as well?

X: Hmm ... maybe.

G: Ok, you go ahead and kill her. She didn't do anything wrong, so she'll be a big - shot next time. But you... you'll be a dung beetle eaten by a duck with swine flu when your turn comes.

X: But god!!!

G: [Click]

Desperate Xs:

X Good: I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't do anything bad, but I still got cancer anyway. Can you please heal me?

X Bad: I did all those things, and I got it too. But I still want to live.

G: X Good, sorry, that was my bad. Life sucks sometimes. But I'll make it up to you. Susie, do we still have the Tendulkar template? We do? Good. X good, I cannot do much for you, but your son will be the next greatest cricket phenomenon. Also, I'm working double shifts trying to put smarter people on the ground who can find a cure for this damn thing, so hand in there.

X bad, sorry to disppoint you, but I put these evil things there to tempt you, and make you stronger. But you failed. You get an F. Better luck next time.

Religious Xs:

X0: I believe in you 100%.

G: Good for you. Keep it going.

X0: But X2 here seems to think that you're just a hokey pokey guy, so I'm going to deface him. I'm going to make sure he doesn't have a prayer on anything social, political, etc. [Haha].

G: What's your problem. You like me, he doesn't. Grow up already.

X0: But, here I am, doing the good deeds in your name, and he's insulting you everyday of the week!

G: Listen, I'm glad you're doing my work, but you need to chill out. He'll know me when he sees me. And you have to stop blaming the tsunami and Katrina on him. Next call please!

X1: God, I'm building a temple in your name.

G: Cool.

X1: But its only open to people who believe that you look like a dung beetle, and who smear this special powder on their nose this way on the right side. If you apply it on the left side, you're not invited.

G: Oh ...

X1: And they have to be fair skinned.

G: I see ...

X1: And they need to be born into a certain type of family.

G: Uh ... uh ...

X1: We will also be flogging anyone else in your name as an added incentive.

G: Listen, you piece of shit, you're going to lose everything you have! Hunger plague, pestilence, you name it, it will come to you! I try to be nice, and you spew garbage in my name! Screw you and your ilk.

Xa: God, there's this guy who seems to think that you're not the real deal ... that someone else is.

G: Did you kill any of his associates over this?

Xa: No, but I'm seriously thinking about it.

G: Did you know what happened to the last guy that did it? Susie, who's the ex - terrorist in hell wing D? Osama? He's burning in his own shit right now.

[Cut in ...]

Xb: God ... God ... I just bombed sixty kids that believed in the other guy. Are you happy? I did it for you! Are my virgins waiting for me in heaven?

G: What did you have for lunch?

Xb: Garlic pork with onion sauce.

G: Ohoho ... you're in for a world of pain.

[Cut in ...]

Xa: So ... um ... what should I do?

G: Be friends with the guy who hates me. You can both find middle ground, and agree to disagree civilly.

Politically Expedient X:

X: God, hi. Listen, I started a party in your name down here.

G: Okay ...

X: Yeah, yeah, I'm getting all these votes and people are fighting each other. Swamis and imams are starting up under my blessings. There's chaos everywhere, and the people are too stupid to realise what's happening. I just opened an account in Lichtenstein. My Hawala business is doing great, and I've already got 200 thousand investors for my Diwala Chit Fund Scheme. My son is going to be playing for India in the upcoming tour of Australia. So its all good.

G: How much money did you make?

X: 200 billion! And if I can just get this 5G thing going, I'm looking at a cool Trillion.

G: And how much power?

X: 5 terms in office so far. If only the that reform party guy will quietly take the Animal Husbandry ministry, then 3 more terms! Woohoo!

G: Multiply those two numbers. That's how many years I'm going to make you suffer in hell. Susie ... convert that figure to oil and firewood dear. Oh yeah ... enough fuel for 3 billion billion years. Burn, baby burn!

Reformist X:

X: Hey big G, I don't trust you. You're all lies, you know that?

G: Uh oh ... Here we go again [Sigh].

X: Yeah, you've got idiots calling themselves Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc. doing your dirty work for you.

G: What?

X: Guess what, superguy, I don't give a damn. I'm going to be fair to my fellow human beings no matter what. I'm not going to be judgmental. I'm not going to fight any wars for you. I'm not ...

G: Can I get a word in edgewise here?

X: Go ahead.

G: Ok, don't believe in me, fine. If you want to do something positive, bravo. If you want to end falsehoods about me, kudos. But get this, I'm not the problem. You don't have to question my existence to end all those evil things people do in my name. They are using me, just as you have been used by religious zealots all your life. And finally, whether you trust me or not, I'll still be here for you.

Real X:

X: God, I sincerely wish that the world was a better place, and that people respected one another. That there is universal peace, no suffering and happiness all around. We all have to live on this one planet anyway, and we don't have infinite resources to begin with. So, why waste what precious little we have? Help us all lead better lives and be kinder towards life.

G: Whoa ... Susie, are we on candid camera or something? Are we on a reality show? This caller ... is he for real?

Susie: Yes boss. He's the real deal. Actually, there are quite a few like him around. I think they call themselves human beings.

X: Well ... well ... Mr. X, you have echoed every sentiment I've ever had. Someone like you deserves to be known to the whole world. You don't have to be anonymous anymore. I'm going to give you a name. Gandhi.

So, friends, whatever your beliefs may be, we are all fundamentally the same. Not everyone is a Gandhi, but we can most certainly put our petty differences aside. Also, whether you believe in god or not, don't be a fair weather prayee. I think we can all afford to pray for the general good once in a while between asking for a longer life, new car, better business, more cash, and the new iPad 2.

8aam Arivu - I'm Judging You, Murugadoss!

2011-11-24T07:46:00.001-08:00

Yeah, that's right ARM, I'm putting you in the hot seat. But don't worry. This here's a Kangaroo court, and you just made the cut. Your movie rocked, dude, and you should just keep going on like this. Please don't ever change your style, coz whatever you've got goin' on for it, its working for me.

Your latest offering, 7aam Arivu, blew my mind. Your vibes penetrated my skull boiled off the intra - cranial fluid and fired my neurons to an all new sensory level (hence the title of this entry). And here's why :) Wait, there's a why not section too, because questions on opinion should always be why - or - why - not type (CBSE gold standard 101).

Q: Did your latest offering blow my mind? Why or why not?

A1: Your latest offering blew my my mind because:

India:

Being a staunch patriot, anything that shows us in a positive light makes me smile and brings a fuzzy feeling to the base of my ... (this being a wholesome family oriented blog, go watch James May driving a Ferrari 250 GTO on Top Gear to get the rest of it). And you've got it - patriotism - in spades, judging by what you showed us in this movie and in Ramana. God, how many Discovery Channel and NatGeo documentaries on ancient Indian culture have I watched vainly hoping to see the day when a fellow Indian lets us know that the genes we were born with are worth more than the jeans we love to "live in."

Message:

Science is a big deal and superstition sucks. Yeah, yeah, Galileo said it, Gauss said it, Gavaskar said it (not really, but isn't a picture perfect straight drive a science in itself?). But you had Surya say it - say that turmeric is an antibiotic.

[Aside: Boy that sentence had too many says and saids in it.]

And as far as desi science goes, why is it that the Native American wolf - man synergy has more media exposure than Sukra's limb attachment surgery techniques or the ZERO for crying out loud? For god's sake, Surya - our G2V yellow dwarf (available in in an exciting range of colors from yellow to orange; specify zip code to get a quote from your friendly local dealer, terms and conditions apply), and incidentally the nice guy in your movie - had dibs on our solar system way before Copernicus stole that idea from us. So, way to go on that advert for Indian science, my friend.

China:

I've only ever loved two things about China ... the Chinese circus when I was a kid and my Chinese friends a little later in life. But you showed me that the Bombay circus is just as good. Honestly, I think we did a better job with the forced sterilization thing; atleast we had the decency to put the kabosh on Sanjay, and our we - two - ours - one slogan makes a much pithier bumper sticket than their if - you - first - born - wins - an - Olympics - gold - you - can - have - another - one! As for communism we were clever enough to bofors out Rajiv from office before he mortgaged all our gold (that was the idea anyway, but the Tigers got to him first!). Seriously, between cornering the junk - for - a - dollar market in the US, selling guns in Africa and stocking up on our steel - who's advising your politburo? Rupert Murdoch?

[Disclaimer: I don't personally believe that the People's Republic would wage bio - warfare (except on their own athletes).]

Surya and Shruthi:

This item had IT. They were awesome together. Surya is one of my favorite actors, and he looks very refined. While we're on the subject of looks, Shruthi Hassan does a commendable job of being the scientist next door. She's cute, but not vampish, and she somehow seems to hold sway in that gray zone for non - six - pack guys between "look at Surya, I want to kill myself :(" and "Hey, maybe she would go out with me :)" That's another kudos to you for showing a heroine as a regular person rather than a size zero supermodel.

I have tremendous respect for Surya for putting himself through the rigours of circus training for this role. He didn't have too many opportunities to showcase his acting talents (what with this being Die Hard meets Vector, and all), but you managed to make him seem like the guy who will bowl you an extra over for gaaji, while at the same time letting you know that you have an extra tire to get rid off. Whatever that last brain - fart meant, his performance was top notch, as always.

ARM, let me tell you something about your choice for female lead. You are one of several (four) directors that actually encourages your heroine to act, and it shows. Shruthi did a wonderful job in this movie. The scene in which one of her friends "Allah ke pyare ho jatha hai" was reminiscent of the time when Kamal's son kicked it in one of those horrible petrol bunk explosions that slay six (RIP Nizhalgal Ravi). Kamal sir, your daughter has the potential to be the best heroine after Saroja Devi (see fun fact below).

[Fun fact: Shruthi Hassan is only the second lead lady in Tamil cienma to dub her own dialogues. Do you know who was the first?]

Although, I must say that being the daughter of Pammal Sambandham, Sakthivel Gounder, Singaravelan et al., I think her Tamil accent would be better served in Thenkasi than on the Thames. Seriously though, she is a multifaceted person and I'm sure that she can hold her own opposite anyone.

Story:

In two words - "a fantastic and original socio - political - economic - family - thriller."

Visuals:

We seem to be getting better and better portraying a world unblemished by the human touch. Not so good with the action sequences yet. We're getting historical locations right, but kinda suck on the physics of acrobatics... Hmmm, why is that? Global warming?

Music:

Knew it was Harris with the Martian interludes in the Ringa song. A word to Harris: dude, I love your music, but you should really consider using more ... er ... um ... oh ... WORDS in your songs!

A2: Your latest offering did not blow my my mind because:

China:

Dude, for a country that runs half the world's economy and practically makes all the shit we use (and has a veto at the UN), why would it resort to bio - wars on potentially its single largest consumer? Not cool! I have Chinese buddies I have to answer to, so cut it out!

Pandemics in India:

From the plague to dengue to malaria to chickungunya to AIDS, India doesn't have a prayer on dealing with pandemics (hell, we needed Mother Teresa AND Steve Waugh just for leprosy, and we still haven't shown that the door!). Maybe, just maybe, show one scene on how to deal with these killer unicellulars on a national level competently for once rather than a nation in peril ... we see that every monsoon anyway.

Dong Lee:

Best hypnotist ever! Nah, this really isn't a why not ... just forgot to put it in the why section. Coolest villain, man. He rocks!

Hitler meets Stalin and they have high tea with Mao:

Seriously, who kills 30 million in 60 days? It took Stalin almost 40 years, Hitler six, and Mao atleast a 100 days. Get real.

Jingoism:

Did you know that the gun has killed more people than cars and dirigibles combined? Stop supporting the Tamil Eelam already. They were a terrorist organization that eschewed the peace process, and they killed Rajiv (see reference above).

Hormones:

Jon Stewart's excellent thesis - Earth: the Book - states that 92% of all the male brain functions are oriented towards sex. Why, oh, why, Mr. ARM did you have to put a romantic dream song just after your protagonists escaped a bloodbath? This may yet be the conlcusive proof needed to authenticate Stewart's claim!

Verdict:

Hollywood in Tamil. Go watch it!!!

Ajith's 50th - Does Thala rule? You bet he does!

2011-09-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

I've never been a big fan of Ajith as an actor. But, as a human being, its a totally different issue. He is an individual I look up to in real life. Why? He's everything I want to be and more. He's a self made man, a successful actor, someone who will stand to politics and politicians even when he has everything to lose, and ... and ... get this ... he drives Formula 3 cars in Europe! Talk about jet - setter. This guy is probably India's suavest multitasker, and judging by what his comrades say, he's not even a Casanova. What a perfect guy, but as an actor?

Well, I had my doubts till Mangatha came along, but watching it last night, those washed away too. All I have to say now is ... what a perfect guy!

I'll do a detailed analysis of this movie later, because I have some strong feelings about it and want to use it as an example about where I think contemporary Tamil cinema is headed. But right now, this one is for Ajith and his gazillion fanatics (of whom I'm admittedly one). So, an ode to the Ultimate Star... a eulogy to to the Thala...

There's a distinct vibe about this guy ... he polarizes opinion. you either love him or you hate him, and there's hardly any middle ground. There's no other actor you can really cross your heart and say that about. Nobody ever hates Rajni. Some like his acting, others die for his style and charm, and yet others will stand by hi his spiritualism. With Kamal, his only detractors are those who take offense at his social and religious mores; but even they cannot deny his thespian prowess. No matter what you say about Vijay, the ultimate formula - man, he's really got his boy next door appeal. There's nary a soul in this world who dislikes Surya, and much as Vikram can grate on your senses sometimes, none will say that he doesn't put his life and soul into everything he does.

So, we come back to Ajith. The things that polarize people about him are the same things that feed all these other demigods. Sure, he's stylish, but you'd have to be as elitist as he is to imitate him ... nope sorry, that cigarette trick just doesn't cut it, pal. As far as acting goes, admit it... he's no Kamal ... no one is. Yes, he's handsome, but is he someone you can see standing at the street corner chatting it up with you, like Vijay? Surya is about as likely to sport a paunch as Ajith is to bare a six pack. Finally, even though he's diversified his portfolio as an actor of late, there's no way in hell he's put himself through so many different experiences as Vikram has.

So, there you go. This guy's stylish, but not gimmicky, he's trying his best, but the game's a hard one to play, he's suave, but a cut above you and me (not Navy cut, which he's too sophisticated to smoke anyway), he's fit, but not in an I-want-to-kill-myself-when-I look-at-you kind of way, and he's versatile but not wed to that philosophy. What he is ... what he is is REAL. He's a human being with goodness in his heart, down to earth and someone who knows his limitations and can make the best use of what he's got.

For instance, he can drive ... boy, can he drive! And so he does those handbrake turns and drifts himself. He's got style, so he makes sure that all his movies have the oomph quotient times extreme. He's understated, so he makes sure he gets roles akin to Eastwood and Brando, rather than deNiro and Carry. And above all, its clear that he has a deep empathy for his fellow human beings (which is why he's one actor who enquires about the day - to - day affairs of everyone in his cast and crew), and a great zest for life. His fan base is not only the most vocal in the state (after that one guy ... superstar or something), but also the most giving. His fans love him more for his offscreen persona than for the things he does on it. They do good deeds in his name, and when they go over the top, he keeps them grounded. And they adore him for it.

All this brings me back to the role he essayed in Mangatha. Director Venkat Prabhu said that Ajith wanted a Heath Ledger's Jokeresque part to play. And he delivered with aplomb (or as much aplomb as is possible for a non - Nolan director). You see, to do a Ledgeresque Joker, you either have to be a real life psychopath, or be so confident in your inherent humanity that you can pull off pure evil without it scarring you forever. Ledger (rest his soul), literally gave his life for that performance, and while Ajith is no psycho, is badass enough to realise that his innate goodness can save him from a similar fate. He did a fantastic job ... bottom line.

And this choice of role brings me to my second point. Rajni did Sri Raghavendra for his 100th. Vijay did Sura for his 50th. And more power to them (I'd give my left ball to spend a day with either of them). Rajni did that role to say thanks for his charmed existence. And Vijay portrayed his to acknowldge his fans. Ajith, on the other hand, constructed sixteen titanium inlaid carbon fiber balls to do what he did in Mangatha. High risk and on the edge is clearly what this man thrives on.

That is why he'll do a baddie to end all baddies in hi s 50th, that is why he'll invest his life savings on 200mph deathtraps when he's 40+, that is why he's stand up to the CM, and that too in his own appreciation ceremony (of which there were admittedly many). That's why, as I say ... what a perfect guy!

Reel Netas

2011-01-14T04:44:00.000-08:00

Politics seems to be stuck with Tamil Cinema by a "Fevicol ka jhod - toot nahin saktha!" And it seems that for most, if not possibly all, actors with even a modicum of fame to be the final frontier they must reach. There are, I believe, three primary reasons for this state of affairs.

Fan Power
Nope, I'm not talking about windmills and wind power here. This is the power of the fan-base an actor manages to build up through his career. For instance, actors such as MGR, Ajith, Vijay, Surya, Rajnikanth and Vijaykanth have fans that are prepared to die for them. They will do whatever it takes to see their hero rise up the echelons of power because they believe that he can do something different. They always seem to in the movies, so why not in real life? In politics?

People tend to underestimate the capacity of an ardent fan-base in changing the dynamics of political power. But the reality is that, in a state with just over seven crore people, all an actor needs to have is a concerted base of around fifty lakh followers for him to pull something out of the hat. If you consider that people such as Sarath Kumar, Radharavi, Karthik, SS Chandran and Pandian have not only entered politics, but have also gone on to become MLAs and MPs with popular parties, its clear that their saleability to a huge party is primarily because of that party's belief that they will be able to garner votes. And these aren't even the A-list heroes we are talking about. Now, consider the case of Vijaykanth, who not only managed to start his own party, but has also successfully contested in two elections and has retained his seat, simply because of his persona and his millions of ardent fans. If Vijay or Rajnikanth were to start a party today, who's to say what heights they may not reach?

Secondly, and probably more important, is the image fan associations can create about an actor. Through good works, charities and awareness programs organized under the auspices of the star and through their banners, they not only help bring about grass-root welfare to society, but also create an aura around the star that is worth its weight in gold. Cases in point are the fan associations that owe their allegiance to Kamal Hassan and Ajith. This sort of feel-good factor that these associations create can go a long way in winning the star votes, when the time comes.

The Medium
Tamil Cinema is a very potent medium that can carry any message across to the masses. Infact, its the only real sustainable medium of doing so. This is because other forms of media are not reliable, and because Tamil Cinema has the liberty of being an art form and a mass entertainer, and is therefore capable of representing key issues that matter to people from all perspectives. When film-makers give us fare that is an exposition on good vs evil - which is the case in most commercial flicks, they are always portraying some evil that everyone must have experienced, or are showing us ones that we did not know existed. So, there can never be an angle that is left unexplored, and movie-goers can always expect to get the "truth", no matter how exaggeratedly it might be portrayed. This is not necessarily the case with other mediums.

No matter how many newspapers and magazines you have - the common man is not educated enough to even read one, that the print media can ultimately only cater to a small segment of the population. Also, apart from a few national papers which are not available in Tamil, most of even the very respected journals are polarizing and often paint only one side of the picture: a picture that seems to be distinctly discordant with the one which we see everyday. For instance, a newspaper may report that the government is doing everything it can to beautify the city, and yet, that claim seems to be only as real as the words that talked about this so-called action.

The same problem lies with television and news channels. News channels in India are predominantly owned by political parties and corporate bigwigs with each one answering to its own agenda and preaching to its own choir, that the Fox News vs Liberal Left fight seems to be a mere schoolboy tiff in comparison. So, atleast for the small number of people that are lucky enough to own a television (Kalaignar's Color TV scheme notwithstanding), there seems to be no veracity to be had through this medium.

For most people, the lack of education, or inaccessibility to both sides of the coin - such as internet forums, blogs and opinion pieces available online on both sides of an agenda means that intelligent conversation about the ground realities vs the election time fictions is often impossible. People by and large are therefore polarized not because they are well informed, but because of extraneous issues such as religion, caste, loyalty to an individual, and probably worst of all, the belief that a known devil is better than an unknown god. In this case, the known devil being the leader they elected last time around. For the few people, i.e. the educated urban middle class and worldly wise rural folk, who have access to both sides, sadly, their vote bank is too minuscule to count for much.

The Silver Screen - Political Nexus
The silver screen provides a forum for a star, or for a political party looking to use the star power of an actor, to portray their agendas in full color. It gives solidity to their image of the future. It gives credence to their role in changing social evils. This is simply because their ideas can be visually portrayed to the public on a grand scale. Actors such as MGR always played roles in which he was the savior of the oppressed. But this alone is not enough.

This ideal of a future needs to be sugar-coated. That sugar coating is the grandiosity of the cinema. The extravagant songs, the fights, the impossibly beautiful heroines, the locations, these transport the moviegoer to a fantasy world. For someone who works menial labor all week round to come and see a movie in which the hardships he fights everyday are simply washed away by this superbeing is something fantastic. Add to that the things the Hero does and places he goes, and that movie-goer is sold, hook, line and sinker.

It is this sugar coating that party manifestos and election time promises lack. They also promise a world in which there is no more pain, no more evils, but they lack the pulling power unless the face of the party is a strong, proven leader. This isn't always the case. Another problem parties in Tamil Nadu face is that but for minor local issues, there is no dividing ideology that separates one party from another. There is very little polarizing people by way of ideas or ideals. Everyone pretty much promises the same thing. So, the question then becomes one of loyalty to the party leader. All things being equal then, the bigger star you can get to endorse your party, the more votes you will win. And what better example of this truism than the nexus between Annadurai, Karunanidhi and MGR that created and has sustained the most successful Dravidian party in Tamil Nadu till date? And if a star is big enough in his own right, he doesn't need a political party to back him. He can start his own. And, what better example of this, indeed, than MGR's own party that has proved to be the only real competition to the most successful Dravidian party in Tamil Nadu till date?

So, there. But is this a good thing? Is this a bond we want to stay stuck on forever, or should we break it? Is it possible that actors are entering politics based on the high they get playing roles that are messiahs of their people and that they genuinely think they can change things for the good? Or is it just power for the sake of power, fame for the sake of fame, and politics for the sake of wealth? Are the biggest superstars going to simply join a well established party and tow the party line, while lining their pockets on the side, or are they going to start fresh, and really try to do something?

While there are numerous examples of lesser persons who have done the latter, there are also a few who have managed to really alter the course of history. MGR, on whose popularity, the then fledgling DMK party took to wings. MGR, who started the AIADMK and became the longest serving Chief Minister in one stretch of the state based purely on his Charisma. Vijaykanth who has started his own party, and promises to provide uninterrupted electricity to every household if he comes to power. Rajnikanth, who is a volcano waiting to erupt... all he needs to do flash his eyes at the yearning public, and he will be CM tomorrow. To quote his own Dialogue from Sivaji, "ore oru kan simital."

I think this Cinema-Political nexus is a good thing, if reel Netas become real Netas. Not just real Netas, but REAL Netas. History has shown that there is potential for this sort of thing to happen, that principled movie stars can come to power. MGR, Reagan, Jayalalitha and NTR are but a few examples. I think its fine for us to go ahead and chant, "Thalaivaa," but for the right person.

Message in a Bottle (Lite)

2011-01-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

Vaazhkaingardhu soda bottle maadhiri,
Pagaloda mudivu dhaan raathiri.
Pondaatti pera modhalla sollardhudhaan purushalakshanam,
Indo-US nuclear agreement dhaan Manmohan Singhukku sigaram.

Life is like a soda container,
Night is the day's terminator.
Mentioning the wife's name first is the quality in a husband best.
The Indo-US nuclear deal is Manmohan Singh's Everest.

Deep stuff!

We live in such a confused modern world that we search for meaning in all things under the sun. One wonders who's behind the ten rupee hike in the price of onions and what they're upto this time. If a child is born unexpectedly, then it must surely have been a Dan Brown like plot by someone high up in the Catholic Church to sabotage the condom industry. Or worse still, God's way of telling us that the Kali Yuga is going to end all life by bringing in more and more. With your fan going on a hot day, and the other side of the pillow cooler, wouldn't you wonder if it would have been the other way round if the whole world turned the other way? Maybe Katrina wouldn't have happened, because the cyclone would have spun the other way and gone away? As Hercule Poirot would say, what we need in all this confusion is "order and method."

Yep, order and method. So we have movies like The Dark Knight and Indian and Dhrokhal and Varumayin Niram Sivappu made from time to time. These clear the cobwebs and put us back on the path of the most important issue... the search for inner truth. But what about those who don't believe in the inner truth? Or have gone past it? Or have simply decided its boring or useless and put it away, like a nice thick nine-hundred and seventy four page book on the philosophical musings of Pliny the Younger? For these people, the pudhu kavidhai (new-age poem) need not be logical. Or, it might be an algorithm for life, the universe and everything. So, either these guys simply don't care, or have gone so far beyond the meaning of forty two (which, if you don't know by now, is the answer to life, the universe and everything). For this club, there are guys in Tamil Cinema today. CS Amudhan, Venkat Prabhu, Pushkar and Gayathri, and to a lesser extent, TP Gajendran. Why him? He made Maganey En Marumagane, a shameless throwback to the 80s familial problems diatribe formula. But remember, he also made Budget Padhmanabhan, and Middle Class Madhavan, two forward looking gems like the Chennai 28s, Oram Pos and Tamil Padams.

The Western film industry has been miles ahead of the Indian film industry for several decades now. Stoner comedies such as the unforgettable 1974's Dark Star, cult favorites like 2004's Napoleon Dynamite, and just plain weirdos like 2007's Hot Fuzz have always cropped up amidst the more serious stuff. But Tamil Cinema has been giving us the "right stuff" with Vaanchinaathan, Narashimha, Veerasamy, 6'2" and Englishkaaran. With all the really cool philosophical ideas like zero gravity and faster-than-bullet travel exhausted, we've started seeing a new kind of cinema. Its like finding freshness in MF Hussain's stick men and nude women after years and years and years of Picasso's cubes and Dali's clocks (actually that one is really weird). Yeah, right! Ofcourse I'm being sarcastic. All Mother India taught us was that MF Hussain has a deep seated Freudian obsession with the female form, and all Gajagamini showed us was that brightly colored water probably has Azo dyes and Benzene. Don't drink from that river!

No, the new lineup of movies, Oram Po, Chennai 28, Saroja, Goa, Tamil Padam, Boss Engira Baskaran and Va Quarter Cutting teach us something more. They take us someplace away from having to sit through serious attempts at philosophical exposition or action explosion all the time. These new movies, and the kind of English ones I mentioned before tell us something that even proper "comedy" flicks don't. They tell us that life need not always have meaning. They tell us that not every moment has to have gravitas. They tell us that every though need not be analyzed, every expression studied, and every action scrutinized. More than telling us to laugh, they tell us that you can take yourself lightly from time to time. You can enjoy yourself a little bit more by losing yourself in the moment, not by getting lost in it. And that sometimes, a new-age poem may rhyme, but be meaningless. After all, what has the Honorable Dr. Manmohan Singh got to do with the Luni-Solar cycle, or soda bottles with marriage, eh?

P.S.: I've been told by many that my original post was too difficult to read or make sense of, and that I should simplify it. Hope this is more readable if you didn't enjoy the first one.

Message in a Bottle

2010-12-26T03:29:00.000-08:00

Such is the modern conundrum we live in that we search for meaning in all things under the sun. One wonders why the price of onions has gone up by another ten rupees, and whether there is an ulterior motive to this played out unbeknown to him by supernumerary powers that be. Another frets over the birth of a child unforeseen, often left bemused by what must surely have been a plot of diabolical dimensions by the Catholic Church to sabotage the condom industry... or worse yet, the wrath of God ushering in the Kali Yuga by unsustainable population explosion. Here she stares at the spinning fan, searching for clues that might explain why the swirling winds do not cool that side of her face resting on the pillow... surely, had Coriolis switched poles... Katrina would not have happened, and the proverbial cool side of the pillow would have been but a whimsical sales pitch. Yes. There must be meaning to all the madness. "Order and method, Miss Lemon, order and method. That is the key, n'ai pas?"

Oui, certainement. So we have movies like The Dark Knight and Indian and Dhrokhal and Varumayin Niram Sivappu made from time to time. To restore faith in that most desperate of human conditions... the search for the inner truth. But what of those amongst us who do not believe in the human condition? Or have gone past it? Or have simply deemed it the proverbial cold side of the pillow and put it away, like a nice thick nine-hundred and seventy four page book on the philosophical musings of Pliny the Younger? For these people, the pudhu kavidhai (new-age poem) need not be logical. Or, it might be an algorithm for life, the universe and everything so profound that the true import of forty two escapes all but these elite few. For this clique, there are majordomos in Tamil Cinema today. CS Amudhan, Venkat Prabhu, Pushkar and Gayathri, and to a lesser extent, TP Gajendran. Why him? He made Maganey En Marumagane, that shameless throwback to the 80s familial problems diatribe formula. But remember, he also made Budget Padhmanabhan, and Middle Class Madhavan, two gems which for their time, and their cast, were truly as forward looking as the Chennai 28s, Oram Pos and Tamil Padams of this millennium.

The Western film industry has always lapped the Indian film industry several times over until now. Stoner comedies, such as the unforgettable 1974's Dark Star, cult favorites, the doyen of the genre being 2004's Napoleon Dynamite, and just plain weirdos like 2007's Hot Fuzz have always cropped up amidst the more serious stuff. Tamil Cinema has now reached this plane of superior existence, what with Vaanchinaathan, Narashimha, Veerasamy, 6'2" and Englishkaaran having exhausted the gamut of metaphysical possibilities. With Picasso's cubes and Dali's clocks having embellished the thinking man's brain to its fullest capacity, it is now left to MF Hussain's stick men and nude women to give new meaning to the question of existence. But no, it would be heretical to go so far. All Mother India taught us was that he has a deep seated Freudian obsession with the female form, and all Gajagamini showed us was that brightly colored water probably has Azo dyes and Benzene. Don't drink from that river!

No, the new lineup of movies, Oram Po, Chennai 28, Saroja, Goa, Tamil Padam, Boss Engira Baskaran and Va Quarter Cutting teach us something more. They portray a world that is unique to the ones we are left reeling to have had the misfortune to have been born in as we leave the theater having watched the serious attempts at philosophical exposition or action explosion. These new movies, and indeed the examples of the English ones I listed before tell us something that even proper "comedy" flicks fail to do. They tell us that life need not always have meaning. They tell us that not every moment has to be mired in gravitas. They tell us that every though need not be analyzed, every expression studied, and every action scrutinized. More than telling us to laugh, they tell us that you can take yourself less seriously from time to time. You can enjoy yourself a little bit more by losing yourself in the moment, not by getting lost in its inner workings. And that sometimes, the four lines in a new-age poem's stanza may rhyme, but without reason. After all, what has the Honorable Dr. Manmohan Singh got to do with the Luni-Solar cycle, or soda bottles with spousal relationships, eh?

The Devil and Narayanan Krishnan

2010-12-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

And that is a shameless ripoff of the Title of Vincent Benet's 1939 classic short story, which itself was stolen blatantly from Washington Irving's 1824 faust tale. Anyway, I watched Narayanan Krishnan's speech during a fundraiser in New Jersey a few days ago organized by my aunt and a few of her friends. My parents, who were told by that same aunt that that speech moved her to tears, advised me to watch it. It didn't open the floodgates of fluids in me or anything, but it did give me hope about something I've been saying for quite a while now. India is moving forward despite the politicians who would hold her back. Because we are a nation whose greatest resource is not brain-power or man-power, but will-power to fight on against the odds. That translates to a will to make something out of nothing for folks like you and me. For heroes like Krishnan, its the green mile. See, for them, its about changing the lives of people who aren't lucky enough to be you and me.

Friends, this isn't my usual blog about a movie, because real life is more interesting with real heroes. So, its - to make this as unimaginative a vocabularial extravaganza as imaginable - about real heroes. Specifically, its about Mr. Krishnan (whom I've referenced four times now if you've been keeping tabs diligently, and if so, would have already guessed what the import of all this is going to be. Well done!), and to a lesser extent, my aunt and her friends.

And with that setup out of the way, let me get down to brass tacks. Narayanan Krishnan feeds four hundred people three meals a day seven days a week three hundred and sixty five days a year on less than four hundred dollars a day. Think about those numbers when you go for that next bag of Doritos or that ice-cream treat you've been promising yourself. Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't indulge yourself - forsooth - but think about it.

Obesity means different things in different places. In the USA, it usually means that poor people are at the mercy of corporate culinary giants who dole out the bad stuff in heaps for a pittance. Let's not delve into that too much, because its a necessary evil here. In India, it means that the "I got rich quick" crowd has decided to gorge itself on the starches, often spending vulgar amounts of Gandhis to do so. Think about the difference you could make in the life of just one of those four hundred people only if you ate what your body needs to survive. I am personally overweight by about twenty-five pounds and by the time I've finished writing this spot, I'll make the solemn pledge that I'll try to eat only what I biologically need.That's possibly save that extra bag of crisps or that superfluous burger for the poor in the USA. It'll mean that extra leaf of corn that will be freed up to send to China to feed the needy there, or burn up for Ethanol to power our "green" vehicles and save the planet. There, that's my Krishnan move.

We are both a nation of the hungry and one of the gluttons. When I went back to India this summer, I was shocked to see that on average, two diabetes testing centers had cropped up on every street in Chennai; the same streets that were rife with beggars or all descriptions. My god, how much insulin would it take to combat those calories weened off the mouths of babes and sucklings, and how much loss in revenue would our country have to endure, treating this disease of the excess? Revenue that could have been used to feed the poor, or whatever was leftover after our politicians gorged most of it and got more diabetes.

Amidst this backdrop, what is it that sets Krishnan apart? Here is a man who had it all: a gourmet chef at a five-star chain with a life bearing the infinite possibilities of diabetes on the horizon. Yet, he threw all that away to feed people he didn't know but whose souls his own formed an intrinsic triple-bond with (as in, the strongest biological bonds found in our molecules). He took a bold decision to diminish his own material experience, but enrich the sustenance of so many. He decided to answer his call of humanity, and became a hero instead. Good trade-off, this. Granted, the people under his wing will never die of diabetes. But, more importantly, they will not die of malnutrition either. Now, that's no longer Endhiran or Spiderman or Batman territory. Hell, its not even his namesake Krish's territory. This is the domain of Annapoorna and Jesus supreme combo.

Look here, the supreme combo is all and well, but without facilitators, heroes can be but a pipe dream. That's where people like my aunt and her friends make their foray into this essay. People with the motivation to go above and beyond the call of duty of mere charity, who put together events such as plays and fundraisers for worthy causes. People like my aunt, who from my personal experiences with her, would rather go hungry themselves or sleep a little less to ensure that a needy person may never feel the pangs of hunger. These people are the antithesis of Marie Anne, who asked "them" to eat cakes. Their lifestyles oftentimes aren't practical, for most of us, it isn't feasible, and it certainly doesn't make for a good self help book on how to become rich and successful. But, its certainly a thesis on how to be a human being.

So, the need of the hour is not to be a Krishnan or my aunt or her friends. Be yourself. Be honest and live for the need, not the greed. I guess what I've been trying to say is, you don't have to be a Gandhi or a Periyar or even Krishnan to be a good citizen. Pay your taxes, don't spit on the road, throw that next water bottle into the nearest dustbin, and don't waste food on the plate. That's enough. I'm not saying that you shouldn't grease the palm of the next cop who pulls you over with an ulterior motive or pay full white on your next land-grab: Fair and Lovely works well for that matrimonial ad photo, but our country runs on the power of Black! But please, be a good citizen. And contribute or Akshaya or any other organizination doing the good works if you can. Ciao!

Hollywood, move over, Tamil Cinema is here

2010-10-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

In my 20 something years of watching and understanding movies, I don't think I've ever seen a non-Hollywood movie that had the chops to beat a Hollywood one in technical aspects. In areas such as makeup, visual effects, animation, graphics, cinematography, editing and stunts, no single movie has been equal to a Hollywood one in all these disciplines at once. The creation of a fantasia that suspends our collective disbelief has never been better accomplished than in a Hollywood movie. Movies such as Terminator, Jurassic Park, Avatar, Indiana Jones and Star Wars have had facets to them that simply could not be reproduced by a contemporary movie made anywhere else but in Los Angeles. Today, that world in which Hollywood ruled the science and technology of movie making changed for me. Well, it actually changed a couple of days back, on 1 October 2010. To appropriate a much bandied about quote from politics (thank you, sister Sarah for making it the slogan of wolf hunting hockey moms all over the world), "there is a crack in the glass ceiling." Endhiran has arrived.

What can I say about this movie? There's no way to put into words the accolades that a technical feat of this magnitude deserves. To talk about each behind-the-scenes area of movie making for this film will require an individual blog and more. So, I've decided that I'd rather talk about what this movie did for me, and I hope, for many more as well. If its a review of the film and its various facets you're looking for, I'd recommend this excellent video review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL_55IVCCRY. Unfortunately, its all in Tamil, so you need to know the language. But hey, if you're already here having braved the blog's moniker, you would, wouldn't you?

There have been countless films in which robots, and more specifically androids - or a human looking bucket of bolts - have featured prominently. Mr. Sujatha's core story, while not unique in any way, is still a nice platform on which to build a colossus. You see, for a movie like this, where fantasy has to carry the underlying reality, presentation is everything. That is why a post-apocalyptic world in Blade Runner or a superhuman cyborg killer in Terminator carried us away, while Robin William's Bicentennial Man or Robocop have faded from memory. Okay, the basic story of an innocent entity gaining sentience and being manipulated by the fickleness of human nature with a love triangle thrown in (yennadhaan Hollywood padathukku yeedu kuduthaalum, Tamil sentiment iruukanomudaa!) is quite predictable. But the flow from scene to scene, the picturization of each event in the movie, and the visual effects that are used to show unrealistic situations with as much verisimilitude as possible boggle the mind and addle the brain. You are left with a look resembling that of a dying duck gasping its last - mouth agog and eyes bamboozled by the sheer grandeur of each shot. This movie works not so much because of the story, but because of the breathtaking visuals, sublime background scores and Rajni's superlative acting that all gel into a cohesive unit.

Suspension of Disbelief:
The Chennai city of 2010 that Shankar has created for us, replete with its opulent houses, buildings that are architectural marvels and roads cleaner than a baby's freshly powdered bottom probably only exists in some parallel universe where India has no politicians. Several times, like when looking at scientist Rajni's lab, or the fictional AIRD (the Indian Army's advanced technology procurement division) headquarters, I was left scratching my head, wondering where these places are supposed to be located...

When Chitti, the robot says that his processing speed is 1 terahertz and memory capacity is one zettabyte, you have to wonder. The World's fastest computer today has 225,000 processors operating in parallel, and has a speed of 3.4 gigahertz, with total RAM of 360 terabytes. That sits in a room the size of two football fields. So, Chitti, the size of Rajnikanth, with limited cooling options, has about 300 times the processing speed and three billion times the RAM capacity of this computer. Interesting that such a robot was developed in Chennai by one man.

Chitti's varied talents include technical wonders for which we simply do not have the know-how today to be able to incorporate into the space constraints of one average human sized body. As a simple example, his ability to become a high intensity electro-magnet would require roughly the same power as to run an MRI scanner.

But, Shankar asks us to take all this in stride, and reassures us thus: accept that this might be all be possible at some point in the future, that's all I ask. I'll give you a watertight explanation for every stunt, every action sequence and every superhuman action that follows. That is this movie's greatest strength.

Visual treat:
Without giving anything away, its impossible to describe the feelings the visuals in this movie evoke. Because, more than the story itself, its the visuals that, if I were to describe in any detail, will give away a lot of what you will see on screen, probably for the first, and maybe the last time in your lives. All I'll say is, while every visual effect is a treat in itself, watch the last 45 minutes of the film. There is a sequence in which thousands of cloned Rajni robots join electromagnetically to blitz from one shape to the next - starting with simple shapes like spheres and cuboids and finally culminating in... well, that last one has to be seen to really understand its magnificence! I will wager you anything that you won't be able to find another movie that was ever made that has anything that comes close to this sequence!!!

Asimov, Sujatha and Shankar:
Isaac Asimov gave the world the robots of dawn, the three golden rules of robotics and the first true romanticization of robots. Sujatha, I'm told, gave that romance with machines a distinctly Indian flavor with En Iniya Iyandhira and Meendum Juno, two novels on which the movie is loosely based. Shankar has given the concept wings. I honestly believe that there is no director in the world today with Shankar's imagination and selling power. In him, we have a bit of P.C. Sarkar, a tad of P.T. Barnum and a whole lot of P.G. Wodehouse. He can create new world on celluloid, snare us into it for those three hours the 20 dollar ticket is worth, and give us a ride in that world which leaves us with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Rajnikanth:
What can I say about his performance in this movie. Playing characters like robots is usually described as very difficult, because the performance has to be muted. But, what starts out as such a performance, goes through the full gamut of thespian prowess as the robot changes from an emotionless machine, to one gaining sentience, to one exposed to the evils of human nature, and finally one succumbing to that same evil. His gear shifts from phase to phase are seamless, and when the final villainous being emerges, you can actually experience the definition of evil first hand. This is a very different Rajni that we see here, and I am in love with his performance. Many said that this being a movie originally intended for Kamal, Rajni would be a misfit. But I believe Kamal could have at best matched Rajni's performance here. No more.

So, as Vivek said in the music launch function, Endhiran, the mass. Ergo, watch it in the theatre with the mass. Like Haley's comet, this kind of thing happens once in a lifetime in Tamil cinema. This is its first occurrence, and if you think I'll wait until it comes on TV as a Deepawali or Pongal special, you'll probably die having missed one of the celluloid wonders of our lifetime.

A Day in May, a Common Man

2009-09-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Are you an Indian? Do you remember 11 September 2001 (and yes, that is the structurally correct order)? Sure you do. What about these other dates, like, oh... off the top of my head - 14 February 1998, 13 December 2001, 11 July 2006, 25 July 2008, 13 September 2008, 27 November 2008, and the list goes on. Not so much, eh? I thought so. Honestly, I didn't remember either. Well, let us refresh our memories together - in the order listed above, Coimbatore bomb blast, New Delhi parliament attack, Mumbai trains blasts, Bangalore serial blasts, New Delhi serial blasts, Mumbai terror attack. There have been 24 reported terrorist attacks in India in 2008 alone, and many thousands have died.

The authorities and the media have come up with fancy nomenclature for these things - serial blasts, synchronized bombings, simultaneous bomb blast, etc. but they fail to call it the one thing it is - the willfull violoation of the fundamental right of a human being to live - not by the terrorists, but by the Government of India and the people of India.

For that is what it boils down to. When a succession of corrupt, senile, obese and spineless parties take power at the center with no cogent policies to tackle the terror threat, no mechanism in place to protect the lives of the people and with not even a pair of sponge balls to deal with the terrorists and the the instigating countries, that is what you'll get.

And why are you and me as culpable as those eunuchs at the center? Because we voted for them - atleast those of us who "exist" as per the voters' lists, and those of us not lazy enough not to get off our sorry behinds and go to the polling booths. And we forgot about the countless lives lost, the myriad dreams crushed, the thousand gentle smiles plucked off the faces of innocent children. And we continue to forget. And we'll keep forgetting until it happens to us. And then, time will heal that personal wound also, and we'll rest easy in our collective amnesia. Our nation's very own clinical disorder - advanced parkinson's syndrome - we all suffer from it.

There's also another reason why we forget, and why our government is happy with the status quo. Anything in copious quantity becomes commonplace. Mind numbing ads that tell you to use this soap or that shampoo, characterless cars that all but look alike save for the marquee, the everyday grind of life, and the certain knowledge that the human brain cannot deal with the recurring sadness of terror strikes. Terror strikes that have become the cover story of every tabloid and fodder for every news network that runs a breaking story about one on the big screen and a simultaneous scrolling marquee about Kareena Kapoor's latest zero size dress on the bottom. Our forgetfulness is not of the sensational, it is of the mundane.

Every man, woman and child alive and calling himself an American knows about "9/11" and mourns for the innocent lives lost. As they should. Every person with access to a television or a radio or the newspapers or well informed friends across the globe knows about it, and sympathizes with Americans. As they, ofcourse should. Why? Because it happened once, and for all of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld crimes, for all of its pseudo imperialistic expansions accross the globe, and with all the Al-Qaedas and Talibasn and Hezzbollahs and Hamases of the world, it will never happen again. American lives hold some meaning to the American people, and those elected to office understand the moral responsibility of protecting them. Not so in our sad little poser of a country that sends a lunar orbitter up, but is too docile to hang Afsal Guru.

But, what if there was one man who fought back? What if this one man decided that enough is enough and deal with the terrorists himself? Because he knew that his people are numbed and that his government is quadraplegic when it comes to dealing with terror. That is the subject of "A Wednesday" and "Unnai Pol Oruvan" (remake of the former). Our very own Tiananmen Square Tank Man, alas only a celluloid version.

I am not going to discuss the plot here as it will take the fun out of watching the movie. Both are superlative efforts with the message being clear. The interplay between protagonist 1 and protagonist 2 in that order, Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher in the Hindi version and Kamal Hassan and Mohan Lal in the Tamil one is fantastic. All four are very gifted actors and more importantly, exponenets of acting and not overacting. The emotion Naseeruddin Shah and Kamal display when they talk about the tragedy they witnessed, or their frustration with our goverment are real. Because they are Indians they can associate with them. That makes the roles of Anupam Kher and Mohan Lal all the more difficult, because they have to be a foil to a man with strong emotions and an even stronger agenda. They have to play the "bad" guy who is only so because the law of the land is bad. And they have to be seen to be more emotionally stable than their nemeses which restricts their exploration of the emotions associated with those characters. I think in that respect Mohan Lal did a better job at playing the frustrated police man. Much as a fan I am of Kamal Hassan, he blew my mind away when that single tear fell out of his eye while describing the young girl who had been unprintablelized. Naseeruddin Shah also displayed superlative acting skills, especially when his voice quavered as he spoke about that boy who died in the train blast. Top notch job by the leads.

What about the extras? The lazy policeman, the young and eager officers, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the secretary to the CM of Tamil Nadu were all played by actors who knew their parts and did just enough to make the whole thing look polished. They never came out of the woodwork, but were always part of the notching that gave it its oaken glory.

This movie is dark with its sepia filtered lenswork, intense music, urgent scenes and subdued acting. It is almost as though the people involved in all areas of the production to let their emotions on the subject flow and then make what comes out of it. It is also very visually appealing. The "war room" at police headquarters, for instance is state of the art and beautifully laid out - functional and modern. As are Kamal or Shah's control center with their modems, routers and cellphones all hooked up to a single laptop. And I have to digress here to point out that in scenes like these, the movies give the audience its due. For example, in the movie 1977 starring Sarath Kumar, a similar state of the art computer not unlike the multi-touch one seen in Minority report is shown. Sarath downloads "secret" files, and a dialog box pops up with these idiotic words: "Downloading Secret Files." I mean to say, which operating system in the world will tell you that a file is "secret" when you are downloading it? Sorry for the interlude... back to shop.

The Tamil version one-upped the Hindi version when it came to explaining the background stuff. For example, its not clear how Naseeruddin Shah had the technical knowhow to mask his cellphone traces so artfully, but there is a reference to Kamal hassan being a communications expert in the Tamil version. Secondly, Kamal is shown during the opening credits to be making the bombs with easily available materials and tools, which is a lot more convincing than Naseeruddin Shah just planting them at different locations. And the scene when the computer geek and policeman change their minds out of new-found respect for the "common man" has better dialogues and clearer motivation for their actions than the Hindi version. But then, same diff.

Unfortunately, there is one area where the movie failed. You see, there is a face to terror, and there is a religion to terror. International terror today is largely delivered by Muslims. Islam is not to blame, and millions of muslims are not to blame, but the fundamental elements of that faith are to blame. True that in a country like India, there are localized pockets of violence like Hindutva groups and Naxalites, but terror in India, especially that associated with coordinated bombings is conducted by muslims. The movie takes the safe route that world governments take and refuses to put a face on the terror. This is my personal opinion, and probably not one I would shout out in public. I mean no offense to my muslim readers (I hope there are some), but facts have to be faced. And its no reflection on Islam, or its diaspora that a few crazed zealots have taken up arms against humanity in a filthy Jihad.

I really enjoyed both the movies because not only did they have strong messages to deliver, but also because they have done their part to elevate the quality of the bilge that is spewing out of Bollywood and Kollywood. They respect the audience's intelligence, they do not pander to anyone. There is no glamor in the movies. There are no songs. There is no separate comedy track. There are not fights, no stunts. There isn't any big budget on location shots, no helicopter camera angles. No gaudy costumes. Everything about them is commonplace, yet they are both rare masterpieces.

The climax was one of the most memorable I have ever seen in an Indian movie - almost like Heat or the new Star Trek movie where the protagonist and antagonist have played a riveting zero sum game throughout the whole affair, but meet face to face just once... at the end. That is ultimately, the nub of the issue. The faceless mass of the proletariat condenses into one angry man. His plan culminates in one final confrontation with his nemesis. We as a people have been made to live in fear by the terrorists, not knowing if we will live or die when we go to work, or go to the shop tomorrow. We are in a constant battle with that nameless, faceless nemesis - the terrorist, but his face becomes his handiwork when at that one moment, we see the explosion or feel the bullet that sends us to our maker. Shouldn't the terrorist be afforded the same courtesy?

Punch Dialogues - Summa Adhirudhu Illa

2009-07-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

"Neenga nallavara kettavara? Theriyalaye paa"
"Naan oru dharava sonna, nooru dharave sonna madhiri"
"Naan sollardhadhaan sieven, seiyyardhadaan solluven"
"Yen characteriye purinjika maatengaringale"
"Por! Por! Veeravel! Vetrivel!"
"Odinen, odinen, Kumari munai yellai varai odinen"

And many more. What is a punch dialogue? When was the first time a punch dialogue ever uttered on screen in mainstream Tamil cinema? Which actor was responsible for starting this Freudian over compensatory trend? And finally, is it important today, and if so why? To quote trick questions in exams, "and if not, why not?"

First of all, a punch dialogue is any line that when uttered even once in a movie, implants itself onto the collective memory of the masses. It is a line or monologue that defines the character that is being portrayed by the actor who voices it. It may or may not necessarily contain a social message, but it is one which will evoke one of the following strong emotions in anyone who hears it: awe, anger, frustration or resolve. It is a dialogue that, for the better or for the worse etches the character, not the actor, the dialogue, not the scene, the theme, not the movie into the masses for an eternity.

What about the history of punch dialogues? I am not sure about its origins on its progenitor, but I can say with assurance that its been around for a while. In the early days, in movies such as Parasakthi and Nadodi Mannan, punch dialogues were specific to the role and even required by the storyline. For instance, the famous courtroom scene in Parasakthi in which Sivaji puts society on trial is one punch line after another. MGR and Karunanidhi successfully used punch dialogues to espouse the cause of the downtrodden and further his political agenda. For example - in the movie Ayirathil Oruvan, MGR says "Namadhu thevaiye pirarudaya nanmai dhaan." This is a classic punch dialogue because it extols the virtue of the character and at the same time delivers a strong message about him. Also, at the time it came out in 1965, MGR was a major political player. Cho's political satire Muhammad Bin Tughlak, for instance has a bevy of punch dialogues such as "The previous administration made government an ass ... I will make it a pig." The emphasis in these early incarnations, however, was not so much on the delivery as it was on the line itself.

Later, with the advent of directors such as K Balachander and T Rajendhar (people who know anything about Tamil cinema will be cringing at the mere mention in the same sentence of these two opposite corners of the talent polyhedron), the punch dialogue focused on the director and the scene rather than on the actors themselves. This is also true of directors such as Visu. A classic example which my mother mentioned is a line that closes a scene of estranged lovers meeting in an office in which one of the characters is searching for a file - "Naan thulaichadu file mattum illa, yen life" - note the permutation of the word file into life.

But these early examples are distant cousins to the flamboyant ones we see today. And the template for the modern version was probably introduced with the advent of Rajnikanth once he reached superstardom. The one liners devised for them are too numerous to list here, but rest assured that during the eighties and early nineties, nearly every other scene in a typical Rajnikanth movie had a pithy one-liner. And that set the trend for things to come with guys like Vijaykanth, Arjun, Sarath Kumar Vijay and Ajith. To be fair to Rajnikanth, the directors of the movies he starred in created an aura around him because he was stylish and had a rebel image. So, punch dialogues enhanced his image and made the scenes memorable. And the ploy stuck because for the first time, an ordinary person like you or me could repeat these one liners with ease and sound cool - what's a better hardsell than that?

To answer the last question, let's take a look at the state of Tamil cinema today. By and large, a majority of the films being made will be relegated to the crapheap by purists. They are for the most part hero-worship affairs that cater primarily to niche fan-bases, mofussul crowds and box-office requirements. Movies by directors such as Vikraman and P. Vasu, and those that star guys like Arjun and Vijaykanth are good examples in this category. There are also as many movies as there are new stars and movie-makers that are made specifically to create a brand identity for the players involved - any of Simbu's or Dhanush's movies are good examples. These are not essentially horrible and may sometimes even involve innovative stories, but are still run of the mill in terms of packaging and delivery. Finally there are movies that have star billing, and even though such movies may have a tightly woven script and good storytelling, they still need to cater to public expectations built up across several offerings spread over many many years. Rajnikanth movies for instance fall into this category.

To hide the defects of the first category, to boost the image of the players in the second and to cater to demand in the third, punch dialogues are not only essential, but can also be thrilling and fun if executed well. And I've tried to showcase here how the punch dialogue morphed from an essential element of the script or a delivery mechanism for a social message into an unforgettable or impactful line in the context of a scene and finally became something that will forever be associated with the actor who voiced it, and which is not contextual anymore. And hey, its not as though only Tamil Cinema dishes out the tacky one-liners... what do you call "I'll be Back!", "Asta la vista, baby", and "You gotta do what you gotta do and I gotta do what I gotta do"?

If you are interested in this topic, I recommend this excellent article: http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-articles/movies-01/06-05-06-punch-dialogues.html for well researched factual information on some of the most unforgettable lines in Tamil cinema.

Yaavarum Nalama?

2009-06-16T15:46:00.001-07:00

Generally, Tamil horror flicks have tended to gravitate towards cheap thrills and ridiculous premises. They have either focussed on populist ideas such as the battle between a holy presence and an malevolent entity. Also, because the saleability of this genre is usually limited to a first and only time viewing by the audience on account of the suspense factor, these movies have a lot of vulgarity in them - sometimes in the form of several steamy bedroom scenes that leave a bad taste in the mouth, or in the mould of the typical 70s and 80s mofussal crowd pullers - a needless record dance or cheap item number. Not so in the case of Madhavan's latest offering Yavarum nalam.

Yavarum Nalam has a tight story and excellent performances by all parties concerned. A young couple and its extended family moves into a new apartment complex and all is well for a time. Then, strange things begin to happen primarily to the protagonist and an eerie television mega-serial which is shockingly parallel to their life story begins almost directly they move in. What is the connections between these supernatural occurences, the TV serial and their lives? Why is apartment 13B the epicenter of these strange happenings? What is the final resolution? As an edge of your seat thriller and social commentary on the typical urban household in Tamil Nadu, Yavarum Nalam delivers more that what is expected.

To divulge the story would do a great disservice to those yet to enjoy the flick (although the rank of my fanbase is woefully close to null and I don't even want to think about what would happen to it in an upper row echelon format), so we'll look at some of the more interesting aspects of the movie - such as how it manages to do what it cliams and its place in the horror genre.

With my next to naught knowledge of Hindu spirituality, I know that the athma or soul of a human being, or any living being for that matter is constant. The vessel it is contained in may perish, but the soul continues to exist. One widely held tenet is that after its release from the human body, the soul is restless if there is something incomplete in its past existence and tries to achieve some sort of closure. And since it is formless it cannot achieve the goal on its own accord. Therefore, it needs a medium - an impressionable entity that can fecilitate its objective. However, such entities are rare and in reality, may not even exist. But for someone who buys into the principle wholeheartedly, things like possession (the control of a human being by a metaphysical force such as an aspect of god), shamanism (the ability to be in contact with the spirit world) and seance mediation (to be a middle man between the world of the living and the world of the dead) are possible and true. This is the centerpiece of the movie. Madhavan is one such person, who without his own will, is a medium for certain restless souls seeking vengeance.

Is it possible for such a person to lead a normal life? Can someone who is your next door neighbour and normalcy itself in all walks of life actually possess such an ability? Or in classic movie extravaganza, should such a person be shrouded in mystery and darkness? This is the first major score for Yavarum Nalam. By taking the concept of a medium and applying it to a normal person with a normal lifestyle, it diverges from a formulaic approach.

Secondly, the movie is, contrary to popular opinion, not a typical haunting. One may argue that hauntings are not new. However, usually hauntings are portrayed are a group of people being scared stiff by abnormal events, or being rubbed off one by one. Its usually vegetates into either an excorcism or a last man standing kind of affair. Yavarum Nalam is about the plea for help by these restless souls, and the only way they can achieve this shout out is to do things that would pique the interest of an impressionable living medium. That is the intended objective of the haunting in Yavarum Nalam - and this fresh perspective is dealt with professionally here.

Thirdly, the idea of a television mega-serial with word for word similarity to the day to day lives of Madhavan's family is not only an excellent presentation of the plot, it is also an intentional or unintentional commentary on society. Many households are bogged down by these stereotypical mega-serials, even to the extent that normal healthy family life gets affected by the viewers being sucked into the action (or lack of it) on screen. People start associating themselves with the characters on screen and are glued to the idiot box for hours on end, five days a week. It is like a narcotic - and like every narcotic, it does not claim uniqueness, innovation or difference. Like crack, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol or tobacco, only the names such as Anandham, Vizhudhugal, Pidivaadham, Metti Oli etc. are different. Therefore ones these mega-serials get you hooked on, rehab seems to be the only way out. That the spirits in the movie cash in on this substance dependance to get their message across is a satirical take on the contemporary urban household. The sameness - oh! the sameness ...

And finally, the movie really does it for me because there are no cheap thrills. Since the story, the acting, the music and the editing are so crisp, there is no need for the sudden jarring noise, or the shadow round the corner, or the hand that slowly creeps up on you from behind. Gone also is the inexplicably stupidity of a character with a deathwish venturing alone into a dark room, or the insipid idea the haunted group gets to split up and go in search of what is most certainly their iminent doom. No, in Yavarum Nalam you get a proper mystery and the thrills are only in what direction the story will take in the next scene, and how things are going to pan out. This results in immense resale value for the movie - because you actually end up appreciating the effort that has gone into thinking this through, rahter than watching something that makes you jump everytime there a noise. The problem with the latter is, after the first time, you know exactly when the noise is coming. The difference is between reading an Agatha Christie novel and a Joseph Sheridan LeFanu type horror tale. Agatha Christie is so much more second-time-pick-upable.

So, please do Director Vikram Kumar and the entire cast and crew of Yavarum Nalam and go watch it. It is definitely a notch above the classics including Padhimoondram Number Veedu, Monalisa, Genmanatchathiram, Uruvam, Mayabazaar 1995 and so on. Since its not in theatres any more, you can get a DVD or CD (but an original one please). Piracy is a crime unless you are impecunious grad student living on the most expensive seaboard in the world!

Bommalattam - we are the puppets

2009-01-12T06:37:00.001-08:00

Are you a fan of the novel of mystery? I am, and that's why Bommalattam disappoints. From the days of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes, to the queen of crime's Poirot and Marple, to our very own Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda, a good mystery yarn has been rooted deeply in two important rules: (i) the plot must be watertight, and (ii) all the facts must be presented before the solution is outed.

Let us look at the first rule. There can be no obvious loose strings if your plot is to make sense. Usually, it is the case of committing a murder, or setting up a red herring, or creating an alibi, or some such, and in these cases, if there are glaring errors such as (i) impracticality, (ii) physical impossibility, (iii) uncharacteristic actions of the principal(s) or (iv) irregularities, then there is a leak somewhere, and on closer inspection, the reader feels let down.

Consider for example the following scenario - Mr. X needs to establish an alibi for his activities on the night of the murder. He thus claims that he was in Bangalore during the event. However, it later transpires that he purchased an airline ticket from Chennai to Bangalore at 6:43pm, boarded the flight at 6:45pm and landed at Bangalore at 7:08pm. He then proceeded to his office in Whitefield and was seen by the guard there at 7:30pm. Now, unless there is a prepped and ready rocket jet waiting to take him to Bangalore, and there is a super expressway linking the airport which is someway off to his office, this falls outside the realm of Physics. If later, the claim is made that the alibi is false, everything is "oojah cum spiff." But, if the author claims this alibi is true, then the reader is unaware of some new warp technology for sure.

Now, the second point - a good mystery is one in which everyone including the reader has an opportunity to think objectively about what has happened and arrive at a conclusion. If we are smart, we may hit the correct sequence of events, and guess the psychological tapestry to a nicety. The prowess of the author is then to show us that he or she is more devious than we are. For instance, A, B and C are in a room, and C has been murdered. So, the logical conclusion should be that either of A or B have committed the crime. But, if at the end, the author reveals a person D out of the blue who actually did it, then its no longer a whodunit, but a whatthehellisthis?

Unfortunately for Bommalattam, the movie fails on both counts. Without revealing too much of the plot, suffice it to say that impracticality, time dilation, new character introduction and physical impossibility have all been used in this movie.

But, I would have been willing to accept these major story faults, provided the direction and editing were top notch. Sadly, the movie fails to impress here too. The criminal investigation carried out by Arjun seems to be haphazard, and lacking in order and method. The investigative process is not at all showcased, and results seemingly appear out of thin air. Another way of looking at it is that this is a case where the investigator has a surmise, but he lacks solid evidence to prove it, and is forced to use unconventional methods. However, if this were the case, it is not portrayed logically. Sequence seems to be lacking.

While there is a surfeit of suspense, and the finger points to all the principals at one point or another, there seems to be a lack of interest in exploiting this element. For instance, I suspected Arjun himself at one time, but the motivation for him is built up in a single scene and then forgotten.

The psyche of the director and the heroine of the movie within the movie is delved into deeply, and clearly, it is Bharathirajaa's desire to make this the story's centerpiece. But this relationship is given to us not from the perspective of the principals, which would have been a position of strength, but as a series of conjectures and surmises by the bit players around them. This makes the whole endeavor seem a bit artificial.

But I will take my hat off for the plot twist at the end though. It is completely unexpected and new to Tamil cinema. But, for a mystery relying so heavily on the climax, this could have been integrated into the story in a different manner at a much earlier stage. Revealing more of what I have in mind would be telling all. Ask me in private if you want to know what I think!

And a bit about the editing. The movie moves so slowly in places, especially during the bits about the movie shooting, and the interrogation sequences, that you can cut the silence with a knife. This tends to ease the tension and loosen the grip in places where it is needed most. And whatever happened to the lip sync and the dubbing I will never be able to say. It was like watching a Hindi movie dubbed into Tamil. Totally unprofessional sums it up.

As for the acting, a weak rendition by Nizhalgal Ravi takes the intensity away from Nana Patekar's acting. Lackadaisical performances from Vivek, the heroines, and Arjun seem to indicate that the director has put his entire weight behind the story and has lost it everywhere else. The music, as is the usual Himesh Reshamiya fare, is nothing to write home about, although the BGM's were quite impressive, especially during the investigation sequences.

The puppet master is able to make dolls dance to his tune. Sadly here, although it is clear in the end who the real puppet is (which is a bit of an unexpected shock really), the audience have been made the puppets by being kept in the dark, and by having their intelligence assumed to be sub-par. In all, therefore, Bommalattam fails to impress and really has too many glaring flaws for it to be a good mystery yarn.

By the way, the reason this review may seem cryptic is because I don't want to reveal anything. After a decent amount of time has passed (once the movie has run its course), I will explain each aspect in an addendum.

Slumdog Millionaire - My wonderful India

2009-01-12T05:17:00.000-08:00

Just finished watching Slumdog Millionaire. I know that its an English movie, and what's more, set in Mumbai. But still, I thought I might say something about it, because it resonated with me. It is one of those rare things that happen in life. You suddenly find that a third person has made an observation about you that revelas something about you, and that helps raise your own self beyond what you are presently. Like what this guy Danny Boyle did in this movie - made a statement about my country, a good one, atleast personally to me.

By the way, there are no spoilers here, so watch the movie, and then read my blog.

What a movie!!!!! Everything about the movie showcases the level of sophistication that Indian Cinema has to reach. That a beautiful story like this was told about Indians by a Britisher is most ironical. Why? Because the one tenet of India that the movie showcases more than anything else is the resourcefulness of a nation in conflict with itself, and the root cause for that conflict was the British occupation.

When the British came and wiped out our industrial might (India had a share of 34% in industrial exports in the world pie in the eighteenth century) of a proud nation, and made the disparities hit hard home - on the stomach, they left behind the morass of babudom and corruption, that led to millions of slums and rampant crime in every major city. They left behind a communally divided India, in which followers of one faith pit themslves against those of another faith just to wash the bile in their bellies, if not for anything else. But this movie is about how even the lowliest Indian, and not just the IT techie fights in life to make something of himself.

The tragic life history of Salim (yes, the brother blackguard), and the cute love story were just trinkets on the visage of the fight for life. Nowhere more in the movie is this more visceral than in the scene when the young boy Jamal jumps into the open defacation pit in order to run upto and get an autograph from Amitabh Bachan. In my opinion, that was the moment when the movie for me, transcended the screen and became a monument to the Indian power of will. The power of will, that is and always will be our great nations's mightiest attrribute. It is probably also our Achilles heal, because when anything goes to an end, that only produces more Jamals and Salims.

So, that one scene was the most well conceived one, because it makes a huge social statement about our psyche. We will survive, no matter what the odds, and we will also do anything it takes, no matter what. So, there is a society that is divided by a thin line between what is right, and what must be done - a society where Jamal fight against all odds to make a life for himself; a society where Salim will do whatever he must to make a life for himself. The difference becomes blurred, and good and evil are both in a race for survival. Caste, religion, language and all else is secondary. And finally, the backdrop of the KBC program was just brilliant. Because it underlines the film's fundamental argument. In an impoverished nation like ours (and yes, we are sadly, still impoverished), that thin line becomes a note, and the struggle for the note is the struggle for life.

There were two other scenes, both part of a minor story arc, that were meaningful to me. The first one is when an American tourist couple feels compassion for Jamal when he is unjustly beaten by a policeman, and gives him a hundred dollar bill. The second is when Jamal sees a blind beggar in a subway, and gives that boy the same bill. In a land blessed with plenty, and where its leaders strive for a compassionate society, that compassion is easy to trickle down and easy to express. But, even in a land ravaged by selfishness, there are pockets where the same compassion is evident. This to me, was a significant statement about the values of our people.

Thalaivar Rahman's background score was totally unbelievable. If it were left to me, for the sheer powerfulness of the BGM's, I would give him an Oscar today. But to talk about his music would need a separate essay for itself.

Slumdog Millionaire shows up India for what it looks like - a sham, a lie and a facade. The reality is the urban agglomeration, the slums, the beggars, the exploitation of the meek, the millions of focusless and jobless youth that are driven to crime for a roti in their stomachs, the evils that happen behind the veils of social mores, the open disparity between the rich and the poor. But it also shows our country for what it really is - a nation of hope, of resourcefulness, of infinite patience, a land where life will find a way. That is why Slumdog Millionaire tells us that for all its perceived faults and contradictions, India will be the powerhouse of the future - from the bottom up.

Watch this movie, please. And for many Tamil and Hindi directors out there - racy musicals can sentimental dramas can also be made this way.