Music - Pachaikili Muthicharam

All fans of music, rush to the nearest music store and grab a copy of this movie's soundtrack. It's worth the money, time and effort. Simple melodies by Harris Jeyaraj and songs written by Thamarai for a movie directed by Gowtham, now that's certainly one winning combination.

Roberto Benigni's next

After the super good 'Life is Beautiful' and 'Pinnochio', Roberto Benigni is back with 'The Tiger and the snow'. This movie appears to be another romance set in the times of the Iraq war. Trust Roberto to treat the story sensitively and in an incredibly humorous manner. I can't wait to see this movie, but I doubt if it would be ever released in my country. That reminds me of something, time to visit Burma Bazaar.

In the larger interest .....

Last night in a program on Times NOW Mahesh Bhatt narrated the following story. He met a boatman in a village and this man was charging Rs.1 per passenger to cross a river. Bhatt asked him if he knew that a bridge was being constructed across the river the boatman answered in the affirmative. Bhatt then asked him if he wasn't worried about loosing his livelihood to which the boatman replied, "Whatever happens to me, the bridge will certainly be good for the people".

A similar incident happened an year ago about which my brother recollected. This happened during one of his trips to Thattekad near Kothamangalam in Kerala. There was this boatman who was ferrying tourists across the river and my brother asked him if he knew about a bridge that was coming a little upstream. To my brother's surprise the boatman said that he was happy about the bridge because people who are sick and bitten by snakes in the forest can be driven to the town hospital much faster.

I salute these Indians!

An update on 'After The End'

This series is yet to go online because I thought of putting up the sound clips in addition to writing about them. Currently I am trying to capture the sound and put them up as MP3's on this blog for readers to listen to the score too. This series will go online in not later than a week from now.

Adrian Newey on McLaren

It's interesting when Adrian Newey, McLaren's erstwhile Technical Director, comments on McLaren and in a tone thats positive and raises hope :

"They're a tough team and in (double champion) Fernando (Alonso) they have perhaps the most proven driver at the moment given Michael (Schumacher)'s retirement.Probably some of the things that hindered them last year, the direction that tyre development took and possibly the way that the engine rules were, have now fallen into their hands.So I would imagine that they will be very competitive this year."

Adrian Newey was the brain behind the MP4/13 which took Mika Hakkinen to his first championship and won McLaren the constructors crown in 1998. This man used to be the force that saw Mclaren's car have that wee bit of aerodynamic advantage and when he left McLaren for Red bull in 2005 some of us would have wondered if McLaren would be able to get a person who could fit the big space that was vacant.
Adrian Newey also is quite a modest man which is evident when one see the interviews he gives to the media. My favourite Adrian quote is also the answer he gave when questioned about the secret of his success.

"I don't think there is a single knack, I mean it's what I always wanted to do. I guess I am reasonably artistic, got a reasonable maths brain as well, and managed to combine the two into what I do. But what the trick is, I don't know."

[The first picture and second pictutes are off Mika Hakkinen & Adrian Newey. The third picture is off Ron Dennis and Adrian Newey]

Geo's Talkies - Salaam-e-Ishq

Nikhil Advani's second movie after the super duper 'Kal Ho Na Ho' [I am certainly not a fan of the movie but loved the music] promised an interesting premise. Six couples and their lives with love as the underlining aspect. After viewing the movie, I am not only utterly dissapointed at the half baked story but also wonder how the screenplay was conjured up.

The story is about love in people of different age groups and sensibilities. John Abraham / Vidya Balan are couple who are married for 2 yrs. Anil Kapoor / Juhi Chawla are married for 15 yrs with two kids. Arbaaz Khan / Isha Kopikkar are newly wedded. Akshaye Khanna / Ayesha Takia are to be wedded soon. Govinda is a taxi driver who gets into love, how? Priyanka Chopra is an aspiring starlet who will also fall in love, how?

The premise is certainly interesting but the story is a hogwash. Music is the highlight of this movie. I couldn't stand the individual climax each couple had on screen, surely Nikhil Advani needs a ruthless editor who can butcher meaningless and worthless length of film which otherwise plays on in the name of character exposition but does anything but that. I salute Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for sitting through the story session and coming up with decent tunes.

All actors except Govinda, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla are horrible actors. Vidya and Priyanka are the least bad ones. John's emotions are surprisingly less wooden. Salaam-E-Ishq is a good idea gone all horribly wrong due to the lack of a coherent screenplay and a strong story. Salman Khan is wasted in a meaningless role and Arbaaz Khan / Isha Koppikar are in miniscule roles where they attempt to consummate their marriage on screen.

If you want to see how multiple stories can be stitched into a decent movie, watch 'Crash'. And for heavens sake movies like this should avoid insulting viewers intelligence by showing 'somewhere in London', 'somewhere near Delhi' etc, yikes, the audience is hardly confused all along the movie. The filmmakers certainly are.

I wouldn't be least surprised if this movie turned into a box office hit.

79th Academy Award Nominations

The nominations for the 79th Academy Awards (OSCAR) are out and this is one of those years when John Williams' score hasn't made it to the list because he didn't have any releases in 2006. Movies nominated for original score are :

“Babel” (Paramount and Paramount Vantage) Gustavo Santaolalla
“The Good German” (Warner Bros.) Thomas Newman
“Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight) Philip Glass
“Pan’s Labyrinth” (Picturehouse) Javier Navarrete
“The Queen” (Miramax, Pathé and Granada) Alexandre Desplat

Sadly AR Rahman's songs too failed to figure in the original song for a motion picture list. The following are the one's nominated :

“I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”, Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge
“Listen” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry Krieger and Scott CutlerLyric by Anne Preven
“Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Siedah Garrett
“Our Town” from “Cars”, Music and Lyric by Randy Newman [My favourite]
“Patience” from “Dreamgirls”, Music by Henry KriegerLyric by Willie Reale

"Apocalypto" figures in both the sound editing and sound mixing nominations and it should win the Oscars despite the presence of heavy weight competition from "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Blood Diamond". I wouldn't be surprised if the sound mixing award went to 'Dreamgirls' though. The visual effects award would most certainly go to the minds that worked on "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest", "Superman" and "Poseidon" are the others nominated in this category.

The best animated feature film of the year award should go to "Cars". "Happy Feat" is a strong contender and so is "Monster House". "Water" directed by Deepa Mehta makes it to the final list in the best foreign film category, I don't know the odds of this movie winning the oscar, but I hear it's got a good chance. Interestingly it was Canada's official entry in this category. "Rang De Basanti" apparently didn't make it to the final list. Go through the full list of nominations and take your pick, let's hope the academy finally breaks the oscar jinx and gives Martin Scorsese the oscar for best director.

Coimbatore --> Madurai --> Coimbatore

Before embarking on this trip I tried to find out various routes to take to reach Madurai online but was not too successful in finding correct information. So I spoke to some friends who belong to Madurai and decided to go via Dharapuram and return via Udumalpet. From Coimbatore, one has to take the NH-67 upto Palladam. One has to drive past the diversion that leads to Tirupur in Palladam and about a kilometre to the right is the road that leads to Dharapuram. There are no diversions or confusions midway and the only area where one will need directions is when entering Dharapuram.

Every road is neatly marked with directions and one will have to drive towards Ottanchatiram from here. This is a fairly straight drive and upon reaching Ottanchatiram one will join NH-209 (right from this intersection will take us to Palani and left to Dindigul). One will have to take the left towards Dindigul and drive to a point where the a diversion towards the left leads to Sempatti. After Sempatti, one joins NH-7 (coming from Karur, Salem) and drive right upto Madurai.

While returning we drove upto Ottanchathiran via Sempatti. The diversion to Sempatti occurs around 45 kms from Madurai on the NH-7 highway. From Ottanchatiram we took the road to Palani and reached Coimbatore via Udumalpet and Pollachi. This drive took 3.5 hrs and the roads were better than the route I took to go to Madurai. One can cruise at 90-110 kmph speeds without any serious risk in the night time because of the lack of potholes and moderate traffic.

Geo's Talkies - Dil Chahta Hai

Dil Chahtha Hai is a primarily about three guys, Akaash, Siddharth and Sameer. All three are from well to do families and they are shown to be the best of friends. They party together, travel together and have fun. Akaash does not really believe in love, he’s more of a realist who believes he has no time to romance. Sameer has time only to fall in and out of love, everytime he falls in love he strives hard to keep it glowing but alas, it never works. Siddharth is an artist with the third eye, he sees what normal people don’t see. He lives in a world of his own and is the type of guy even if we’ve known for years would still not have known him, paradoxically.

The usual stuff that happens between college students like parties, date fundas, crushes, jokes are shown superbly in this movie. The friendship hit’s a speedbreaker when Siddharth begins to develop feelings for an older women, Tara, who’s a divorcee with a grown up child who comes to live in Akaash’s locality and has an eye for art and alcohol. Akaash and Siddharth get distanced over a freak remark by Akaash over their relationship and the movie treads a new course from here. Siddharth takes up art full time, Sameer get’s into business with his Dad and so does Akaash.

Akaash goes to Australia where he meets Shalini with whom he’s already blooped a meeting in a graduation party when in college. Akaash get’s into business professionally & personally and in the process he finds himself inextricably in love with Shalini who’s already engaged with Rohit, an arrogant and overtly possessive son of Shalini’s father’s business partner, why she wants to marry him is also shown in the movie, a la Hindi film style. Meanwhile, Sameer finds love in Pooja after turning down a proposal to marry her because he was averse to the idea of an arranged marriage.

The story actually begins with Tara being taken to a hospital where she is waiting her death on account of a damaged liver. It progresses from there where all these items are presented in flashback sequences. Tara dies leaving Siddharth broken hearted, Akaash apologises to Siddharth and the three become friends again, and if you thought this is where the story ended you just jumped the gun. Months later Siddharth finds love in the form of Akaash’s ex-flame Deepa and all’s well end’s well.

I usually don’t like to spell out the story of a movie but this movie’s highlight is in the way the characters are presented on screen, how they behave and strike a rapport with the audiences. Another reason for making the story public was because this is a fairly old movie. DCH’s team has done a lot of study in etching the characters, we can find very real characters one notable example apart from the main cast being Priya, a cameo by ex-VJ Suchitra Pillai. She simply lives her role exhibiting the upperclass aura that we can usually see around.

There are some scenes that require special mention, one being Akaash’s phone call to Sameer asking him to put him on to Siddharth to apologise. Akaash’s transition from a joker to a serious viewer in an Opera house with Shalini. Akaash, Sameer and Siddharth sitting on a wall of a ruins of a fort in Goa. The most hilarious scene is when Sameer who’s dating a foreigner Christine in Goa is shown groaning and moaning in a bedroom with all kinds of dress and lingerie strewn around, no, it’s not what you are thinking!!!

Director Farhan Akthar has created a mark for him with his debut, his innovative style of presenting the story needs special mention. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is good, very smooth. Ravi K Chandran’s camera work is more than excellent, it’s fabulous. There’s a dominant color tone to signify the youthful feel of the movie. Nakul Kamte has done superb work with the sound, we have lot’s of silences and the foley artists have filled in the gaps. Shot using sync sound, the result is stunning.

Music of this movie is one of the best that came out that year, credits must go to Shankhar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani & Loy Mendonsa for the songs and scintillating background scores. The background scores are a mix of techno-rock, piano-flute-guitar pieces and they are apt and mesmerising. Aamir Khan as Akaash, Saif Ali Khan as Sameer, Akshaye Khanna as Siddharth, Preity Zinta as Shalini, Sonali Kulkarni as Pooja, Dimple Kapadia as Tara gell into their role quite perfectly. Dimple Kapadia has got the most intense eyes in the film industry but this performance is not a superlative one, just the usual one.

Overall this was the best movie to have released then, if you have not seen it then you have missed great entertainment.

[Published originally on the 30th of December 2002 on mouthshut.com]

Geo's Talkies - Parineeta

Vidhu Vinod Chopra is one of the few directors in India who’s got it all to call himself a good director. His movies have had good music, excellent cinematography and a good script to take the story forward. For the novices, he roped in Sanjay Leela Bhansali to direct his songs in ’1942 A love story’. The script is credited to him in this movie and he’s done the screenplay with Pradeep Sarkar. Who is Pradeep Sarkar? With over a 1000 ad movies under his belt, Pradeep Sarkar is the director of this movie. I wonder if a non-Bengali could have done justice to this story.

The original story ’Parineeta’ (Married woman) was penned by Saratchandra Chatterjee, the same person who did ’Devdas’. It begins in 1962 in calcutta where we see Shekhar getting ready for what appears to be his wedding. 30 seconds into the movie a jump cut takes you to what’s running on his mind and that’s Lolitha, his childhood buddy and sweetheart. Lolitha as we later understand has grown up with Shekhar and they’ve been close to each other as cheese and bread. Her parents die when she’s young and she grows up in an uncles place who are Shekhar’s neighbours.

Shekhar’s father, Navin is a construction baron as it’s typical to people from West Bengal. He’s a man known for his ruthless ambition and strict demeanour. Lolitha has an adorable sister, aptly enacted by Raima Sen. She’s always full of life. Enter Girish, almost God like and acts like a saviour, helps Lolitha’s uncles family out of a financial mess antagonising Shekhar’s Dad in the process who manages to engineer a split between the lead characters. Shekhar ends up loosing the two things he loved most in his life, his music and his wife.

Did I say wife? You need to see the movie to know how Lolitha becomes Shekhar’s wife, the scenes depicting this are sheer poetry. Shekhar meanwhile agrees to wed Gayathri Tantia, the daughter of another wealthy baron. At this point the story comes back to the present. Girish’s one sided love for Lolitha, Koel’s (Lolitha’s sister) admiration and crush on Girish, Shekhar’s love for Lolitha and Lolitha’s love for Shekhar, everything is so nicely portrayed in the movie without going over the top. Everything is so subtle but clear.

Though the movie goes back and forth in time, there in no difficult in the audience understanding the transition because of the beautiful execution hence removing the need for ’some time ago’, ’present day’ etc. The strength of this movie is that it is based on a solid foundation, i.e., the original book written by Saratchandra Chatterjee. The screen writers have adapted the story beautifully to the 60’s, the book is originally set in the beginning of the 20th century. Production design by Apocalypse Filmworks, Pradeep Sarkar’s ad company, is top notch. A lot of hard work and money has gone into re-creating Calcutta of the sixties.

Saif Ali Khan who portrays the role of Shekhar brilliantly bringing out the repulsiveness, angst, jealousy, short temper and shows that he’s pampered but with infinite love for his beloved which is understated. If one wonders how can Saif fit into an almost period character this one is a sterling example. Sanjay Dutt is all that Saif’s character is not, we have seen him in similar characters in the past, this is is unique though. Vidya Balan enacts the role of Lolitha to perfection, at one point she makes you feel so bad for the dialog writers because you end up only seeing her, we can hardly listen. She brings out myriad amount of emotions and subtle gestures on her face which light up the screen.

Sabyasachi Chakravarthy plays the role of Navin Rai to perfection, one needs to pay attention to the effortless transition he makes between Hindi and English on screen. He looks, lives and breathes life into his character. There’s nothing one can blame on the actors, this should be one of the movies with the most appropriate cast who don the roles to perfection. Cinematography by Nataraja Subramanian (he’s worked with Pradeep on ads before) captures Calcutta for what it is, Howrah bridge in dusk, Trams on the road, large havelis lit up to show all their splendour, darkness that seem like they are being drawn on screen while they are actually the absence of light. A thousand standing ovations to the cinematographer for the brilliantly capturing the visuals on screen.

Another aspect that strikes you is the use of sound. I saw this movie on a DVD that had a dts encoded soundtrack. When one says dts, immediately you hear helicopters going all over you, gun shots, woosh’s, etc come to one’s mind. This movie is a good example of using technology to create a wholesome ambience sans the loud sound effects one usually relates to it. When you see something on screen, you also hear it. Good use of sound helps in taking the audience right into what’s hapenning on screen, the durga pooja in the movie is an example of this aspect. Biswadeep Chatterjee scores full marks for sound design and recording.

If I have to pick a bone at the director, I’d say the ending was a bit over the top, especially the main guy demolishing a wall with people around him going ’do it Shekhar’, ’come on shekhar’. The speed at which things move when Shekhar get into business is real fast and the director hasn’t wasted any time in developing that part of his character. Diya Mirza essays the role of looking good as Gayathri and nothing much to say about her, we don’t expect much either. Rekha comes in a nice cameo as a Jazz singer in Moulin Rouge, nothing much to talk about it except that she’s done a good job.

Music director Shantanu Moitra has excelled in the simple and hummable tunes he’s created. They are appropriate and fit into the movie perfectly.Pradeep Sarkar is the man of the moment in this movie, all his experience has gone into making this movie which shows. A man who is making his first feature in his early 50’s is not an easy task, but all the experience he’s had has shown in getting the screenplay done and keeping off from the in-your-face commercial tamasha.

On the whole ’Parineeta’ is surely one of the best modern movies that are commercial but still try to strike a balance between what’s logical and aesthetic without getting over the top and crass. ’Parineeta’ is a class apart from the usual bollywood fare, now for all you who are curios about what hapenned to Shekhar’s wife, does he get her? What happens to Girish’s love? Where does Koel fit into all this? Go see the movie or still better buy a VCD or DVD, it sure is worth the price.

[Published originally on the 13th of October 2005 on mouthshut.com]

Censorship and the I&B Ministry

The I&B (Information and Broadcasting) ministry in the Government of India is bent upon playing spoilsport in the past decade. In the past if one I&B Minister thought FTV should be banned, the current minister has taken it a step further and banned AXN from Indian airwaves for a period of two months. This sort of arbitrary action has been a signature recently for example consider the furore over 'The DaVinci Code'. I for one could not watch this movie when it released because of the ban in Tamilnadu. But the fact that I own it (legally) on DVD is another matter now.

Yesterday's ban on AXN was immature if not unwarranted. The statement released by the I&B ministry reads as follows.

“It had come to the notice of the Central Government that some cable operators in the country through their Cable Television Networks are transmitting /re-transmitting a satellite channel namely “AXN” which is reportedly telecasting programmes such as ‘World’s Sexiest Advertisements’ that are against good taste or decency and are likely to adversely affect public morality,”

Now what constitutes 'good taste' or 'decency' is open to interpretation. I am sure all the umpteen mega serials are 'decent' as are all the proceedings shown in state assemblies and parliament. Let's take a look at the provisions in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 that could have been invoked to effect this ban. Chapter 5 section 20 of this act reads as follows.

(3) Where the Central Government considers that any programme of any channel is not in conformity with the prescribed programme code referred to in section 5 or the prescribed advertisement code referred to in section 6, it may by order, regulate or prohibit the transmission or re-transmission of such programme”.

Obviously this section can be invoked at any programme and an arbitrary ban can be effected because there is no established procedure to haul up the broadcaster and solicit an explanation (which I don't think is fair at all in the first place). The program code referred to in section 5 is show below. See for yourself how varied it's provisions are.

Programme Code - No programme should be carried in the cable service which:-

(a) Offends against good taste or decency:

(b) Contains criticism of friendly countries;

(c) Contains attack on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes;

(d) Contains anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half truths;

(e) Is likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promote-anti-national attitudes;

(f) Contains anything amounting to contempt of court;

(g) Contains aspersions against the integrity of the President and Judiciary;

(h) Contains anything affecting the integrity of the Nation;

(i) Criticises, maligns or slanders any individual in person or certain groups, segments of social, public and moral life of the country ;

(j) Encourages superstition or blind belief;

(k) Denigrates women through the depiction in any manner of the figure of a women, her form or body or any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent, or derogatory to women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals;

(l) Denigrates children;

(m) Contains visuals or words which reflect a slandering, ironical and snobbish attitude in the portrayal of certain ethnic, linguistic and regional groups

(n) Contravenes the provisions of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

(o) is not suitable for unrestricted public exhibition.

Explanation – For the purpose of this clause, the expression “unrestricted public exhibition” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Cinematograph Act, 1952 (37 of 1952);

Given this matter, another one came up yesterday which kind of sends one logic in a tailspin. Pray what's in public interest about Shilpa Shetty taking part in 'Big Brother' for a sum of 3 crores for 25 days? Why is the government worried about what is happening in the show? If Bollywood is worried it certainly has a right to and if fans are worries their worry is not misplaced. But the Government certainly has other pressing matters to talk about and work on. The I&B minister calling a meeting of secretaries in New Delhi to tackle the matter of alleged racism in a TV show is surely in India's interest!

At the end of the day, it looks like everyone wants to be featured in the next days' newspaper and all news bulletins. The I&B ministry needs a liberal minded minister who'd be able to open up airwaves like Dr.Manmohan Singh did to the Economy in the 90's. They also need someone like Mr.P.Chidambaram to continue the reforms otherwise the successor will end up undoing all changes effected by the predecessor.

Geo's Talkies - The Shawshank Redemption

What makes a movie spectacular, a cut above from the rest? A good story, a clear screenplay, neat performances, technically sound which includes the faculties of music, cinematography, editing, art direction and production. There are a lot of movie which might fit into one of these genres - action thrillers, suspense thrillers, romance, musicals. There are a couple of genres where we don’t have a tight narrative, where the director takes the liberty to move things at his pace, we could call them drama.

Drama is a tricky slot to be in because apart from all that the movie has, it has to relate to the human spirit in some way to be special. ’The Shawshank Redemption’ is an excellent movie by that standards. It’s a story about this banker played by Tim Robbins(Andy) who’s imprisoned for the murder of his wife, over the course of the movie we get to know more about the murder.

In the prison the movie introduces us to a variety of characters. Morgan Freeman as Red who plays the role of a convict serving a life sentence fits into the character perfectly and so does Bob Gunton as Warden Norton, the hypocrite Bible-obsessed disciplinarian. The film moves highlighting all aspects of prison life, the not-so good and bad side, like Andy being sexually abused. The film begins to show glimmers of hope when Andy begins to get into the system and tries to work it for the good of the prisoners.

There is also a very interesting insight into the murder of Andy’s wifes’ murder when a new convict comes in and things get a bit worse from then. But the real treat is in the last 15 minutes when all things fall right where they have to be and elicit a very positive reaction from each one of us. This is where the film truly wins and this is where the director has proved his mettle.

Frank Darabont had shown a lot of promise with this movie in the mid nineties, though this film failed to get an Oscar despite being nominated for more than one categories does not in any way diminish it’s sheen, we all know about the Oscar’s and how they can be manipulated. Stephen King’s book was translated into this beautiful movie is another achievement, given the fact that Stephen King always dwells with supernatural concepts. The same writer-director team came up with ’The Green Mile’ years later shows the talent in the director, the writers talent is not a question here since it’s been proved more than once in the past.

Music in this movie can be compared to Tim Robbins performance, one could call it under-stated. Given the concept of the movie Thomas Newman has done a splendid work, either this movie could have provided one big theme that went with the concept or it could have a number of themes that went with the story and the music director has chosen to do the latter which fits into the soundscape perfectly, so finally we have one person to carry on the Alfred Newman legacy. Special mention has to be made about the scene in which Andy plays the duet ’’Sull’aria... Che soave zeffiretto ’’ from opera ’’Le nozze di Figaro’’(The Marriage of Figaro composed by Mozart) , as audiences we can feel the freedom that Andy speaks about and that’s what Opera is all about.
Roger Deakins, the cinematographer has also executed his task very well, we have optimally lit(should I say darkened) prison scenes and a beautiful helicopter aerial shot of the prison which is breath-taking, editing has also been done deftly and a very novel method of transition between scenes heightens the narrative, like the sound of gavel in the court and clanking of doors in the prison.
'Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free’, says the tag line and I doubt whether we’d have anything to contrast it, this is one movie everyone must see to know what goes into making a good film. If I had to pick the top movies of all time, I’m sure ’The Shawshank Redemption’ would make it to the list without any second thoughts.

[Published originally on the 30th of October 2002 on mouthshut.com]

Nerd test result

Music and movies - After "The End"

Music in the movies always play a vital role and I am sure most if not all of us walk out of the cinema hall as the end titles start rolling in. There are cinema halls which simply stop projecting as soon as the credits start to roll which is unfortunate too. It makes sense to them to save on electricity and stop showing something which the audience is least interested in. On a personal level, most of the end titles of movies have some of the best music from the movie backing up the credits and I thought why not write about some of them which I've seen and tended to like. With this in mind, we'll be rolling out a new series titled After "The End" which has nothing to do with the Apocalypse or Armageddon, but will only try to talk about the music that underscores the movie credits after we've seen 'The End' on screen. I hope to post the first opinion on this service by the end of this week.

Geo's Talkies - Stigmata

This is a movie which tries to build it’s plot around the Catholic concept of ’Stigmata’,which is a state where the afflicted suffers the wounds that Jesus Christ had when he was on the cross. It’s is supposed to originate from a very high state of religiousness and faith.

The movie has spectacular cinematography, especially when in the beginning before the titles come up. It begins with a priest who’s investigating a miracle in South America stumbles upon a crying statute, the higher up’s in the Vatican put him on another mission where he has to solve the case of an atheist suffering from Stigmata.

It’s here that the movie gains momentum, an atheist suffering Stigmata is not a credible explanation. The priests internal conflicts, the priests struggle regarding his faith, his reason for being a priest and a scientist all form a very interesting narrative. Though the Catholic Church is portrayed in a not-so-good light, it doesn’t spark off a major controversy.

All these were part of the debate the Church has had and is having for centuries now. The end has a surprise which to a certain extent explains all the happenings, which is though not fully acceptable but in any case fine. This is a movie for Christians and non-Christians alike, for Christians it’ll provide some insights to the concept of faith and to non-Christians it’s a mystery solved, a thriller.

Musically, this movie has nothing great to offer, it has some real good Techno, House based tracks which are played when the lead character come in the frame, which enhances the narrative highlighting the mindset of the character. The other scenes in the Church and Priest are the usual, Gregorian, Gothic or Classical music which is passe .

Cinematography and Editing are strong points of this movie, editing is razor sharp with inter-cuts and some inter-play of visuals enhance the feel of the situation. Wonderful camera work all along the movie highlight the look and mood of the movie.

Overall, Stigmata can be termed as an OK thriller which might be heresy to some but valuable insight to many.

[Published originally on the 26th of October 2002 on mouthshut.com]

Trivia

# Stigmata are bleeding wounds in the wrists & feet, back, on the scalp and on one side of the chest. These are believed to be symbols of the wounds Christ got when he was crucified - nails through his wrist and feet, lashes on his back, spear through his chest and wounds caused on the scalp by the crown of thorns.

John Williams on music ....

“There’s a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn’t have to do with body movements, it doesn’t have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual.”

Content - mouthshut.com

I wrote my first movie opinion on the 26th of October 2002 after watching this movie titled 'Stigmata' because I was terribly affected by the content and presentation of this movie. It's always been a challenge to do this consistently and the fact that I wrote only about 13 other views in 4 yrs is a testimony to the lazy bum I am. But with the re-naming of this blog I made a promise to myself that I will be more consistent in putting up opinions and I'm working hard to live up to that promise. To consolidate my writings, I intend to move some views from mouthshut.com over to this blog so that new content is published. With blogger I believe I am able to reach a much wider audience and the absence of word limit works well for a verbose writer like me.

Guru, Mani Ratnam and .......

Looking at the way the media is projecting and reporting "Guru" it appears that the first blockbuster for the year is already in the movie halls. Mani Ratnam should be one relieved man, given the fact that he's yet to taste 'stupendous' success north of the Vindhyas though this is not an indicator of the quality of films he makes. The South Indian audience has already been treated to some off his finest works and most if not all have been big grossers in the box office.

Mani has never been very vocal in the media despite the huge excitement his projects generate. Partnering with CNN-IBN this time for 'Guru', Mani certainly has worked on the PR area and as Anuradha Senguptha said at the end of interview that Mani should allow the media to meet him more. By the way, this interview is a must see for any cinema fan. A usually wry Taran Adarsh has also provided a decent report about the box office opening in IndiaFM.

As I expected, the people who saw this movie in my home town have been raving about the titles and the innovative and rather surprising way in which it's ushered onto the screen. Mind you, most of the people in this part of the world are very aware about the technical aspects of films. No wonder that the largest number of dts theaters are in Andhra Pradesh and every movie releasing in Telugu and Tamils comes out with a dts encoded soundtrack.

Geo's Talkies - Guru

Guru is the story of dreams, of relationships caught in between them and off a man who fought the odds to create value for people who trusted in him. Gurukant Desai hails from Iddhar village in Gujarat whose father is a school headmaster. He goes to Istanbul, Turkey in search of better pastures after failing in school . After doing fairly well over there he returns back to India with dreams of setting up a business.

Guru marries Sujata, a daughter of a wealthy money lender and whose recently been ditched by her lover. They go to Mumbai to setup a business against the wishes of Guru’s father. In Mumbai Guru faces all sorts of hurdles attempting to setting up his business and meets Manikdas Gupta who runs a newspaper ‘The Independent’ who helps Guru in voicing his concerns through his newspaper. Meenakshi aka Meenu is Manikdas’ is the differently abled terminally ill granddaughter of Manikdas aka Nanaji.

Guru setups a strong business empire and in the process breaks a few laws in a system that his largely sided with the one’s that have money. This causes concern in Manikdas who’s straight as an arrow approach towards life makes him despise Guru and enlists Shyam Saxena, a successful journalist, in exposing Guru. Meenu meanwhile marries Shyam and lives the remaining days of her life in his company.

What happens to Guru and his empire? That’s for the audience to see in the theaters. “Sapna nahi dekhna, sapnay kabhi sach nahi hothay” – this is the line Guru speaks as the movie opens in an empty cricket stadium. That sets the tone for the movie and the things to come because we know right then the futility of that line somehow. Gurukant Desai is the character handled by Abishek Bachchan and does he do a wonderful job? Oh yes he does, this is his best performance till date. He displays variety, range and a certain aura which binds us to his character.

Mithun Chakraborthy plays the role of Manikdas Gupta. I wish Mithunda does more character roles in movies, but it’s hard to get a character of such depth and substance. He plays the role perfectly and still has an immense screen presence. Aishwarya Rai plays the character of Sujata, surprisingly for a cynic like me who has never like any of the acting she’s done in the past except her dancing skills, this turns out to be a better performance. The deglamourized Aishwarya works well in the movie and I am sure a lot of hard work has gone into her character and role.

Madhavan walks the character of Shyam Saxena which looks easy to play but there’s a lot of subtle things he does proving his experience in the Mani Ratnam production unit. Vidya Balan essays the role of Meenakshi, this is one capable actor we all want to see more. No running around, no dancing but perched on a wheel chair, she emotes well and has a wonderful voice. All other characters are dealt with by talented people and veterans and full marks to the director in selecting this cast. No song till now has done justice to Mallika as ‘Mayya mayya’ in this movie. This song is sensuous, well lit and shot and has good dance too. It’s not vulgar and arousing like item numbers are these days. We can’t expect any less from the badshah of item numbers Mr.Mani Ratnam.

Rajiv Menon’s camera captures the proceedings accurately and innovatively. This man is not only a good director and singer but also an exceptionally talented cinematographer. The last time Rajiv and Mani came together, Bombay happened. Though the expectations on the second outing could have been huge, Rajiv has equaled them if not surpassed. Look out for lights on temple dooms, light reflections on pillars and the way the Turkish Church is lit up for ‘Mayya mayya’. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is not sharp in the sense that we know how it is in the movies in the past 2 – 3 yrs. Transitions between scenes are not swish-zoom-tak but more subdued and laidback, I guess the subject deserves this kind of treatment. I am sure he’s also ruthlessly chopped out some scenes from the movie, for example, the following scene did not feature in the movie at all.

Samir Chanda’s 20 yr experience shows in the production design. Except for the tram in the Mumbai scene in the beginning, which I thought was a bit too tacky and unreal, everything else about this production is superlative. To believe that the sets were put up in the Binny mills compound in Chennai is tough, it’s so real and fits the period. The train in the movie from the 50’s looks real too. Sridhar (a Mani regular) captures and recreates the necessary aural ambience and the dts mix is not distracting at all. Not sure if they used sync sound, my logic says that the dialogs are dubbed.

AR Rahman, the musical genius weaves a score that at once melodic, periodic and inventive. How I wish producers would give him all the time he needs to work on music. The result can’t get any better than this. A musical from Mani with AR Rahman writing tunes is the best it can get in terms of music in India. All songs fit into the story and the background score needs a separate review of it’s own. Like with all Mani movies this movie has a song too which is not featured in the audio release. This song is used for Meenu’s character.

Mani has a unique way of portraying relationships on screen. Be it husband-wife, father-children or friends, all relationships he films are so real and unique. There's this bedroom scene in this movie where Guru and Sujata are beating each other in a playful manner, who could imagine intimacy can be shown in such weird yet effective manner. Shyam proposing to Meenu and ultimately kissing her after she gives her consent is another intensely romantic scene. The same can be said about the bonding generated between Manikdas and Guru and the lack of that between Guru and his Father. Humor has been woven into the screenplay and dialogs and some lines will hold you in splits.

This movie is a Mani Ratnam movie. I can simply stop my case with this one line. Only this man can take characters from real life, fictionalize them and present them on screen as an entertaining movie. Mani the auteur is the brain behind Guru. Every frame bears his signature, every character is imprinted with his DNA. When you have a good leader, you have a team have team that excels in what it does. That’s the success behind such a nice product, Mani motivates, taunts, guides and extracts the best from each of his team members and the result is there for all to see.

Guru, I am speculating is going to be the launch of Mani into big league Bollywood (in terms of box office collections). He deserves every bit of that attention and he’s delivered a decent movie that’s not void of cinematic elements but are set in an ambience that’s as real as Bollywood can get. Way to go Mani, let’s wait for Lajjo now. This movie is going to be a blockbuster.

Trivia

# The song ‘Barso re’ opens in Athirapilly falls. No matter how many times we see this location, when it’s canned by Rajiv Menon it does look a bit more spectacular. I am sure the remaining locations are somewhere in Kerala too.
# Thirumalainaicker Mahal is the location where ‘Tere bina’ was shot. This is the same location that Mani used in ‘Iruvar’ in the scenes featuring Prakash Raj and Mohanlal.
# There’s this scene almost in the middle of the movie where Abhishekh is talking to Mithun about his means of growing business and Vidya gives a wry smile and Abhishek returns it. Both actors display brilliance in emoting.
# Binny mills compound in Chennai is the same location where the climax for ‘Vettaiyadu Villayaadu’ was shot recently. It’s a big chunk of real estate right in the middle of Chennai city.
# The titles of this movie is very innovative, a big round of applause to the visual team that conceptualized and executed it.
# Gurubhai (as Abhishek is called in the movie) resembles Dhirubhai, but this is coincidental as is The Independent to The Indian Express. Manikdas Gupta is not Ramnath Goenka and Shyam Saxena is not S Gurumurthy. As Mani's first frame says, "Any resemblance to characters in real life is coincidental".

Mullaperiyar - murky waters

A week ago I tried to bring Idukki dam into the Mullaperiyar debate because it appeared to be hiding something the Kerala government didn't want to disclose. This morning Sam Rajappa (political analyst who was with The Statesman earlier) reiterates his position on Mullaperiyar in a column in 'The New Indian Express'. Earlier in December last year Sam posted an article in The Statesman about the same subject. Here are some of his assertions.

The Idukki dam was not getting filled up fully after completion of it's construction because of not so copious rain in it's catchment areas and the KSEB (Kerala State Electricity Board) engineers hit upon an idea of reducing the storage level of Mullaperiyar (which is upstream) to 136ft to bring in enough water overflowing from there. It took 4 years after completion for all 6 power generators in Moolamattom power house (situated downstream of the Idukki dam) to generate power.

Given Kerala's energy situation, the fear is understandable. There is a 30 minute load shedding in summer in Ernakulam district (there could be in others, but I can't say for sure) and if there i no enough storage in Idukki dam which generates the bulk of Kerala's power for the Central region then the situation could worsen. If this assertion is entirely true then full marks to the Nostradamus' in Kerala for the successful campaign in instilling fear in the minds of people.

Previously I stated the following here.

# Despite copious rains the Idukki reservoir was filled only to the extent of 57.365 tmc though it's full storage was 70.500 tmc. The Idukki dam which is situated further downstream ahead of the Mullaperiyar dam can take in excess of 11 tmc water should the worst happen.

And now Sam's article reiterates that all the water from Mullaperiyar will add to about 1ft more water in the Idukki dam. He also makes another interesting observation. After leaving the Mullaperiyar dam the rivers meanders through thick hilly sections for 32 kms and for the remaining 16 kms there are pockets of human inhabitation. The article alleges that these hamlets will not be submerged but might get inundated.

The life of a dam has been a key question and if one was to view it from the Kerala government's perspective then the Stanley reservoir (Mettur), Bhakra Nangal dam, Nagarjuna Sagar dam and a couple of other dams are already running way past their life and could be an 'imminent' danger. This can be anything but true. A dam's life after construction entirely depends on how it's monitored and maintained from there on. Look at the Grand Anaicut (Kallanai) in Trichy, built by the Chola's, it's been in active service for about 1000 years.

All concerns raised by the Govt of Kerala could be valid. That's when you bring Idukki into the perspective. Mullaperiyar is surely not Kerala's only concern, the truth lies in Idukki which nobody is talking about.

Mika Hakkinen - Update

In this post I speculated a full time return by Mika Hakkinen to Formula 1, I guess I was carried away by the prospect of such a development. It's been recently announced that Gerhard Berger was the person who talked Mika into getting back in shape and step into the F1 cockpit instead of doing the rounds in DTM. Ron Dennis footed the bill for the testing and return apparently and given Ron's previous association with Mika it's no surprise. If only Mika would seriously contemplate a return all off us who grew up seeing early Formula 1 (in India) after 1996 would be extremely excited.

Here's the full new report on this news.

Journeys - Jan 2007

2007 is promising to be a journey filled year. I have to make a trip on all weekends in January and the following is how I have planned it out.

5th & 6th Jan 2007 - Avoly, Ernakulam District - Sanu's wedding
13th to 15th Jan 2007 - Madras a.k.a Chennai - Break from the routine
20th & 21st Jan 2007 - Madurai - Ravi's betrothal

Back from God's own country

Though I got back to Coimbatore on Sunday I could not get myself to put up a post about the weekend primarily because I was tired to the bone driving and the next day (Monday) was pretty hectic at work. The route was better than I expected and since we started in the evening, half of the driving was with the headlights on. Surprisingly the total distance was covered in 4 hrs which included a 20 minute tea/snack break.

One reason which contributed to the reduced running time (previously it was 5 hrs) was the improved state of roads in Kerala and the 25 km stretch in Tamilnadu which has been repaired though in a shoddy manner. I must admit that the roads after Angamaly all the way upto Avoly are super smooth and well laid. Ofcourse there will be 3 or 4 places where the road is ruined because of some work but otherwise this stretch is a drivers dream. It also does wonders to a vehicles mileage.

Sunday was the feast of the Epiphany and the main Catholic Church in Muvattupuzha (The Holy Magi Church) was draped with lights. The Church was brimming with people at 2200 hrs in the night and vendors were selling all sorts of stuff from rosaries, dollars, pendants, prayers books to halwa and other eatables. Festivals in Churches are celebrated in grandeur in Kerala and the whole town/village takes part in the festivities. I wanted to shoot some pictures and post it in here but guess what, Murphy's law simply cut me out. That's right, there was no charge left in the camera and I had to get home to recharge it. Lesson learnt and time to invest in some sort of a charger that will work in the car.

After taking part in some festivities we got to bed around midnight. The weather was pleasant and it was not sultry as I expected to be. Early in the morning around 5 the chill was getting to the bones and the sound of early morning mist falling on tin roof woke me up. For a city slicker like me, the joys that a country setting can instill is priceless. Walking across fields drenched with dew kissed blades of grass to the sounds of chirping birds and the sun sneaking across the horizon painting the sky in various hues of oranges and yellows can take one to another world.

The wedding next day was another grand celebration. Sanu wedded Deepa (she's from Manjapra which is near Kalady) in St.Sebastin's Church, Anicadu in the presence of friends and family. The wedding ceremony was conducted by Rev.Fr.Matthew Vellangal (retired Vicar General in Kothamangalam Diocese and Sanu's grand uncle) alongwith Fr.Varghese Paul , Fr.Matthew Paul (both Sanu's paternal uncles), Fr.Shyju (Sanu's cousin) and a couple of other priests from the brides side.

I was amazed at the beautiful music the choir played. It was bad that I did not find out the names of the people in it. The two female voices effortlessly navigated the complex swaras in the songs and the lone male voice was adequate to say the least. Keyborad (Korg) was deftly handled by a man who was thirtysome a tabla added support. The orchestrations that were preprogrammed were done well. There was this one time when the priest didn't keep up with the tempo or sang the wrong note, but that's bound to happen every now and then. Especially when you consider the fact that the priest and the orchestra would never have practised together previously.

We started back to Coimbatore after lunch at 1530 hrs and except for a flat tyre which was fixed in Vadakkanchery, the journey was hassle free. When we finally made it to Coimbatore, the time was 1930. We passed through St.Sebastin's Church in Ukkadam thanking God for the safe trip, this has almost become a ritual. Anytime I leave in in the South West direction by road I make it a point to pass through this Church. The statue of Christ standing atop the Church with open hands is a reassuring sight to me.

I will be travelling to Madras (Chennai, I still like the old name though) this weekend since Monday is going to be a holiday anyway for Pongal. If I make the trip to Pondicherry, it would be worth the trip otherwise Roy Maama's family will make it special anyway, especially the kids Mia and Mishma.

Off to God's own country

I am gearing up for the first travel in 2007. Where else but what's now quite popular as God's own country though I'd be glad to call it the 'Devil's own'. I hope the roads are better than the last time around, but the chances of that are remote given the fact that the worst stretch between Coimbatore and Palakkad hasn't seen any repair works in about an year now. The nice thing this time is going to be absence of rain (I love Kerala's monsoon, I love it's sun more) and the late winter weather which should make living there less sultry.

Travel notes or interesting observations will follow in the next 24-48 hrs. Let's hope it turns out to be an enjoyable weekend.

Mullaperiyar Dam - Another perspective from the Kerala side

This is the URL to a Kerala government's video about the Mullaperiyar issue. The video somehow looks sensational and appears to be made to instigate fear in the minds of people. On the other hand Kerala's concerns appear to be valid too. But amidst all this smoke, what is the status of the Idukki dam? Word is out that the monitoring systems setup on it have not been working or are giving erraneous results since 1990. A little more light on the Idukki dam could open another can of worms and this time Kerala won't be able to deflect attention anywhere else.

Another advertisement from The Hindu published by the Govt of Kerala