Chennai Express(2013)

                     I saw Chennai express yesterday and couldn't make much sense out of it. I am not saying i did not enjoy the movie. I enjoyed it throughly but there are a lot of things in the movie which are very confusing. I though about it a lot and here i have summarized the only way in which i think the film can be rationalized.

                     Chennai express opens with Rahul (SRK) standing with a confused look and a shovel in hand. His shirt is torn and there is blood all over his face. He also sees an image of hundreds of Madarasi gundas running towards him. At this moment a very important question flashes in his mind. "Why the fuck is a standing there in the first place and who are these people running towards him?. He pauses and starts to re-think his past.So, in essence what i am theorizing is that the entire film is deconstruction Rahul's Multiple Personality Disorder and hallucinations.
                        
                        It turns out, when young Rahul who is actually the only son of huge sweet stall tycoon in Mumbai, looses his parents in a car accident. He starts to suffer from PTSD. .So, when his grand mother, the only other person alive in the family begins suspecting that there is something wrong with the boy, she takes him to a renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Alagusundaram, who discovers that Rahul has developed a lot of alter egos to cope up with the traumas.

                         
                        He finds, that in his head, first there is Rahul himself, who is an Halwawala. His mental age is of a teenager who is obsessed with cellphones and anthakshari. He also has a deep bitterness towards Madarasi men but love towards Madarasi women after seeing films like Padosan. Like a lot of teenagers and young men, his goal in life is to go to Goa and dance with NRI women.
                          
                        But to cope up the loss of his parents, his brain creates another personality which is the grand father Rahul has never seen. His mental age is 99 and is a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. In-fact, this is the alter-ego that created suspicion in Grandma's mind, when Rahul starts acting weird sometimes.
                          
                        Then there a couple of friend personalities who got developed later, to cope with Rahul's self-esteem issues.This was a result of constant bullying in school for being totaly stupid. The role these friend personalities is to act stupider than Rahul himself so that he can feel confident.
                        
                        For about 23 years, things were good. Sachin is playing for India, so his grandpa is alive. And whenever he does something stupid, his friends come for rescue, the do even stupider things and Rahul feels confident.


                        But all of this comes to a crashing catastrophic confusion when in 2012 Sachin Tendulkar announces retirement. Now, he doesn't know what to do with his grandpa.  To add to the confusion,  Rahul accidentally sees the Tamil film Pokkiri in Sun TV. He could not deal with the fact that a non-dhoti clad, non-vibhuthi clad Madarasi man beating up gundas. So, his brain goes into a limbo state while trying to process these two traumatic problems. In this limbo state he alternatively sees Sachin getting out on 99, his grandpa dieing and he being chased by vibuthi clad Madarasi rowdies.
                       
                       Again his grandma calls in the doctor and in order to break this limbo state he develops a new method of psychotherapy and names it "Chennai Express". So, what we see in the film is a documentary of what happened inside Rahul's head when he put through this project.

                         The project begins by his grand mother planting the idea in Rahul's head that he has to go to Rameshwaram to dissolve the ashes of Grand Pa. This way he can actually go to South India and face his fears. And the psychiatrist puts him in a train along with his intern who is supposed to act like a Tamil Girl.  This also explains why Meenamma speaks in a fake hindi and as well as a fake tamil accent. From here Rahul's head takes on.

                           It is a stack that is unwinding. So, it starts with the creation of a few Madarasi Rowdies who continuosly board the moving train. This is followed by a Nokia ad and an anthakshari. After this things go deeper. He start dreaming and in his dreams he creates a vivid image of an non existing village in Tamil Nadu and being chased by thousands of Dhoti clad rowdies. This process does not end till he meets his core "self-image" in his dreams in the form of a dwarf non-speaking boy forest boy.

                           By the time, he meets this "self-image" , Rahul is able to reverse the most of Madarasi confusion and able to see only Tam Brahms every where. But unfortunately it was never that easy because Tangaballi comes back with an vengence. Rahul escapes and wakes up from his limbo. By this time Rahul has a reasonably fixed mind. So, Meenamma takes him to Juhu Beach to get rid of the Grandpa Personality, which he does by performing the last rites.

                         The doctor then discovers that Rahul has developed a deep love for Meenamma. So, using this as a weapon, the doctor hypnotizes him back to the village in his head where he fights back all his fears and disappointments. He accepts Pokkiri in all heart and fights the Madarasi Rowdy face to face till he falls down. The doctor finally calls him a brave man and declares him cured as of now.
                        

Udhayam NH4

                        
               I guess, the premise of the Udhayam is well known by now. But  let me give still give a summary here. It is simple boy meet girl love story. The Chennai guy Prabhu meets the Bangalore girl Rithika. They fall in love in their college in Bangalore. But girls father obviously creates problems. So, they elope from Bangalore to Chennai in NH4. The father of the girl being a big political figure sends a bad-ass policeman Manoj, to rescue his daughter. His major concern is his political image. Manoj starts his chase and the story unravels from there. In the end, i felt Udhayam is a good film. I liked it. But i did have a few problems with certain aspects of the film. I have tried to explain the good points and bad points i noted about the film here.

Warning: A lot of spoilers from here on
                      The film has a total of four flashbacks in it. All the four flashbacks are narrated to the policeman Manoj, from people whom me meets or beats up while pursuing the chase.

                     The first version of the story is given by the girl's father. He tells him that he had punished a few guys (one of them being Prabhu) from his daughter's college three months back for teasing Rithika. He says he thinks they have taken revenge by kidnapping her.
                 
                    Manoj upon following some leads gets hold of  Prabhu's roommate. who narrates the second version. But he tells Manoj that the Rithika is his girl friend and but has tricked her into loving him. He also explains in details on how Prabhu invades his space and keeps following them.

                      The third version comes from a good friend of Prabhu whom Manoj catches by tracking the cellphone of Prabhu. Upon being beaten badly , he opens up. He says, it is not just the love but they also wanted to take revenge of the Rithika's father but also because he humiliated the gang by making them stand in underwear in public.

                        Mean while, the gang tries to flee using various routes to Chennai only to find that they are being tracked everywhere. And finally Rithika falls into the hands of the Manoj who handcuffs her and sets on a drive back to Bangalore. Now, we hear the final and deeper version of their love story. Manoj even though gets a little softened but not convinced. Meanwhile, Prabhu rescues Rithika and they run etc etc etc. Finally, in the climax when they are cornered Manoj changes mind and let them go free.
                 
                            Thinking about it, of all versions of the story, the version from Rithika is the most beautiful one. It is very romantic and touching. She explains that she was a lonely motherless child who needs emotional support and a shoulder to hold on. Then when Prabhu enters, she slowly gets attracted to him because of his stable manly nature. She feels secure and safe with him.She is pissed of her father is more concerned about his political image than her welfare. So she decides to elope with the man who cares for her and makes her feel safe. 

                     This is one of those films where its strength is its weakness. First and fore most, the movie is extremely well detailed. There is a back story for almost everyone. There is a back-story for the Prabhu on why he has come to Bangalore and why he is the way he is. There is a back story for Rithika on why she falls in love with him. There is a back story for Manoj about why he is helping Rithika's father and why he finally decides to leave the couple. There is backstory for Rithika's father on twhy he is worried about the media. There is a back story for Prabhu's friends on why they are trying to help them. I am not saying detailing it bad. Detailing is good and a lot of these back stories are needed for making the actions of the characters believable. But the only problem i had is there are simply too many back stories to keep track.

                    The second thing i want to talk about is again on details and this time i am talking about technical details explained in the film. Again, they explain everything. How there are so many routes to Bangalore from Chennai. How cell phone tracking works. How they can use voice to track calls,which i am pretty sure is a bogus claim, but that is fine. It is just a used for convenience. Again, i am not saying it is bad, but the detailing just gets too much to track. I would have been actually happier even if the police shows in some place without  a lot of explanations. Actually, this also happens in the film. But not the police, but the hero somehow magically shows up everywhere. This wouldn't have been a problem generally. But it looks very odd when this is left unexplained.

                     So, what i am trying to conclude is, the film really works for me as a love story. Infact, i really liked the narration of how Rithika starts a liking for Prabhu and how her love for him blossoms step by step.I also liked the detailing on why she feels secure with him. Apart from that, i also really like how their story in general unravels layer by layer through a series of flashbacks. But i definitely had problems with a lot of explanations provided on screen. They were very distracting for me. But in the end, i definitely did feel like watching a good love story but not so much of a thriller or a chase movie.

Argo(2012)

         Since, the film is about a true political story one of the most important events of 20th century, it is important to see the context in which this story happens. Of-course, this is explained in the film. But the problem is, the film skims through 75 years of history in five minutes and explains a two and a half month period in vivid detail. So, first let us see the 75 year history in some detail in Part1 and then go through the actual film in Part2. Please feel free to jump to Part2,if you are familiar with the Iran Coup of 1953 and Iranian Revolution of 1979.

Part1: The history

Till 1909

         Throughout the history, Middle East remains the active center for all action. Middle East is the pioneer in Astronomy, Algebra, Commerce and it is the birth place for three major religions of the world. It has been the center of all wars that were fought to control the Silk Route. Things could have calmed down after the advent of Sea Routes and Air Cargo. But the discovery of huge oil and gas reserves, put them right in center of all attention again in 1900s. This brought in wealth and tragedy alike to the people in the region and middle east still remains of center of activity in the world.

Till 1951

        Iran is doubtfully the greatest nation in middle east. It is one of oldest nations in the world and even today it is an land since, it has the third largest Oil Reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia and Canada. Oil was discovered in Iran in 1909 by a British owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This company would later become British Petroleum. Till 1951, for about 40 years, it enjoyed the monopoly in extracting and selling oil from Iran. Soon, Iranians realized that what they were getting as returns was peanuts. But most of the influential politicians and the Iranian monarchy was under the control of British Intelligence. But in 1951,the newly elected, Iranian PM Mohammad Mosaddegh decided the change this. He realized that the west wont budge to the Iranian terms over profit sharing and administration of oil extraction. So, his government nationalized oil. But, The British and USA did not have patience to negotiate with him. So, they decide to overthrow him. 
 

Mohammad Mosaddegh

Till 1953

After spending 4 million pounds and five plane loads of weapons, the CIA and the British Intelligence which operated from their Iranian embassies, injected riots in Iran.In 1953, things went out of control and the Iranian Monarchy sacked the PM. He was arrested and sentenced to death.(This was never carried out. But he was kept in house arrest till his death in 1967). During the trial he said:

"Yes, my sin — my greater sin and even my greatest sin is that I nationalized Iran's oil industry and discarded the system of political and economic exploitation by the world's greatest empire. This at the cost to myself, my family; and at the risk of losing my life, my honor and my property. With God's blessing and the will of the people, I fought this savage and dreadful system of international espionage and colonialism .... I am well aware that my fate must serve as an example in the future throughout the Middle East in breaking the chains of slavery and servitude to colonial interests"

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Till 1979

           The CIA and British Intelligence,encourage the king Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to take complete control of Iran by destroying democracy. They also seemed to have had a deal with him to get unlimited access to the Iranian oil. In return, he would receive a large sum of money for his personal use. Some historians believe that this is one of biggest blunders did by the West, that resulted in the raise of conservative powers in middle East and created a divide between the Islamic nations and West forever.

Ayatollah Khomeini

            From 1953 to 1979, Iran was under some form of rule that was under the control of CIA and British Intelligence. But for most part of the times it was ruled by the emperor Mohammad Reza Pahlavi directly. With the intend to revolutionize Iran, the emperor took a complete pro-western approach, disregarded Islamic traditions, oppressed and killed a lot of people using his CIA trained spy agency SAVAK. The western powers sucked oil out of Iran for 25 years .The negligence and corruption from the emperor resulted in a lot of angry citizens. The anger slowly piled and exploded as Iranian Revolution of 1979. It was lead by Ayatollah Khomeini, who pulled all people to streets and they all chanted "Death for Shah.Death For America"  This is where Argo begins.

Part2: November 4, 1979 - January 28, 1980 (aka) ARGO

      First, let me acknowledge that Argo is a fantastic thriller. It is excellently written and the pace in which the film moves is amazing. Secondly, it is extremely well made. It creates the mood for the thrill perfectly. The cast is also good and along with good character development for each and every person in the film, we can get the feel of anxiety and tension precisely. Not mention that , the film was nominated for a lot of Oscars and even received its  "Best Film" award from Michelle Obama. And this is an honor no film has ever received before, Academy Award from the white house.

 

      To me and to a lot of critics of the film, it seems very obvious, that the film winning the award and that too from the hands of the First lady of USA , is a merely political move. It is move done to reinforce a different kind of reality among public. The film does not present a different, but just manages to reinforce the existing ideas among public.That is why the film, skims through the part where the CIA is a villian causing the destruction of a country but explains in detail, how CIA acted intelligently saved a few innocent American Lives.

  

      Let us deconstruct the film now. First, Were those people who were taken as hostages were ordinary citizens or spies?. I think no body can answer that. But for Iranians, what matters is that the CIA played the puppeteer role from the American embassy. So, their argument in calling these people as spies is perfectly justified. We can also see that the embassy people are very keen destroying all records. Ofcourse, this is just circumstantial but in this circumstance, i think it is an important point to consider.

      Second, Iranians did not kill anybody from the embassy, they just took hostages. The situation was perfectly under control. They even released all women and minorities in a few days. Of-course,  they did put the hostages through a lot of trauma which is very very bad. But i think, they couldn't have had any means of identifying whether they are spies or not. I am not saying that the hostages were bad people and deserve it. But the fact the real identity of the hostages were not known the Iranians is not clearly explained. What we see is "Iranians took Americans", thats all.

      Third, Let see the portrayal of CIA in the film. The official account of the rescuing hostages from the Canadian Ambassador's house, says that the entire plan was orchestrated by Canada with the help of CIA. But the film takes an opposite stand and it even got criticisms from Canada for it. This painstaking effort of making CIA the hero of situation, is something we need to think about. But i think, it is not a big problem as it happens in a lot of films.

      But the last and the most important criticism, i have about this film is the portrayal of Iranians in the film. The only sense we get out of film is that they are mobs and they just want to kill the Americans. It is not entirely false because the revolution is a mob phenomenon and they did want to kill Americans. But one has to understand the reason behind the anger. They were genuinely angry because they were being exploited by the west for 60 years. But the film is not honest enough to put that forward. Yes, it does pass on a few dialogues about the reasoning. But the impact created by the visuals showing Iranians shouting in mobs is far more deeper.

      So to conclude, I think Argo is an excellent thriller. But it is a very bad dishonest political film. But it was deliberately chosen to be in limelight for re-affirming existing myths about Middle East in the West. I dont think Hollywood is entirely bad and they make only distorted films. They do make films with balls like Apocalypse Now, The Reader, Fight Club etc. But the mainstream films are always made to satisfy the general public stereotyping and Argo is an perfect example for that.

    

   

    

 

Paradesi(2013)

  Part 1            

          Before i write my actual commentary on Paradesi , i think it is important for to see the context or the time period in which this film happens.  So, let me present a quick recap of the time line of India from 1600 AD to 1947 AD. My basic intend is to stress over the fact that rule under British and other European powers resulted in death of over 60 million people due to famines.They were also responsible for the migration of over 1 million Indians as slave laborers to various parts of the world to work in their plantations.

History of India (1600 - 1947)

1600 - East India Company is formed
1605 - Akbar dies.
1613 - Jahangir approves East India Company's trade post in Surat
1627 - Jahangir dies.
1647 - Taj Mahal is complete
1666 - Shah Jahan dies.
1707 - Aurangazeb dies.
1764 - East India Company defeats Mughals.
1857 - First War of Indian Independence
1858 - British Crown takes over the rule of India from East India Company.
1869 - Gandhi is born
1885 - Indian national congress is born
1905 - Partition of Bengal
1919 - Jallianwalla Bagh Massacare
1920 - Non Co-operation movement
1930 - Salt march
1942 - Quit India movement
1947 - Partition of India and Indian Independence
(A better list can be found in Timeline of Indian_history)

Now, I want to add all the famines happened during this time.
Famine History of India (1600 - 1947)
1600   East India Company is formed
1707   Aurangazeb dies.
1764   East India Company defeats Mughals. 
1769   Great Bengal Famine
1782   Mysore Famine
1783   Chalisa famine
1791   Doji bara famine or Skull famine
1837   Agra famine of 1837–38
1857 - First War of Indian Independence
1858 - British Crown takes over the rule of India from East India Company.
1860   Upper Doab famine of 1860–61
1865   Orissa famine of 1866
1868   Rajputana famine of 1869
1869   Gandhi is born
1885   Indian national congress is born
1873   Bihar famine of 1873–74
1876   Southern India famine
1888   Orissa, Bihar Famine
1896   Indian famine(East and South)
1899   Indian famine(West and Centra)
1905   Bombay Famine   
1905   Partition of Bengal
1919   Jallianwalla Bagh Massacare
1920   Non Co-operation movement
1930   Salt march
1942   Quit India movement
1943   Bengal famine
1947   Partition of India and Indian Independence
Approximately 60 Million people died in all these famines.Again, a better list can be found in Major Colonial Famines.

A South Indian family in 1878 by W.W. Hooper

Due to this famines, a lot of people enrolled as Indentured Laborers and were transported to various parts of the world to work in Sugar, Tea, Rubber plantations and in construction work. Here is the modified time line with Indian exodus.

Famine and Migration History of India (1600 - 1947)

1600   East India Company is formed
1707   Aurangazeb dies.
1764   East India Company defeats Mughals. 
1769   Great Bengal Famine
1782   Mysore Famine
1783   Chalisa famine
1786   First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in Malaysia and Singapore 
1791   Doji bara famine or Skull famine
1825   First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in Mauritius.
1827   First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in Srilanka
1835   First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in Guyana
1837   Agra famine of 1837–38
1839   First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in Carribean 
1857   First War of Indian Independence
1858   British Crown takes over the rule of India from East India Company.
1860   Upper Doab famine of 1860–61
1860   First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in South Africa. 
1865   Orissa famine of 1866
1868   Rajputana famine of 1869
1869   Gandhi is born
1885   Indian national congress is born
1873   Bihar famine of 1873–74
1876   Southern India famine 
1879   First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in Fiji.
1888   Orissa, Bihar Famine
1890's  First Indian Slave Laborers arrive in Kenya, Uganda , Zambia
1896   Indian famine(East and South)
1899   Indian famine(West and Centra)
1905   Bombay Famine   
1905   Partition of Bengal
1919   Jallianwalla Bagh Massacare
1920   Non Co-operation movement
1930   Salt march
1942   Quit India movement
1943   Bengal famine
1947   Partition of India and Indian Independence

A total of 1.1 Million moved as slave labors. A better list can be found in this list.More detailed records can be found in UK government's archives.

What is Indentured Laborer?

     Prior to 1833, the east india company did slave trading of Indian labours. However after slavery was abolished in British Empire in 1833, Indians were transported as contracted or indentured laborers. This new system existed till 1920 and it does not take a genius to figure out the contracts were namesake and they were still used as slave laborers. 

Indian Coolies in Trinad

Let me start my commentary on Paradesi with this background in mind.
                                       

 Part 2

About Paradesi 

               First and foremost, one has to definitely appreciate Bala for his efforts to bring out the voices of the people whose voices are not heard.There is no reason why he has to do that but he always goes on to do that. Sethu is about a mentally ill man, nandha is about a juvenile, naan kadavul is about beggars, pithamagan is about an undertaker. These are the people in the bottom of the society. We all stand on top of them, exploiting them and treat them as untouchables. But Bala is determined to make their voices heard. Of-course,that makes his films are raw and look dirty. What do you expect a film about beggars to look like?

               So, this film also talks about the people who are in the bottom of Indian society during British rule. The film is set in a village in Tamilnadu.The village is in famine and there is so much poverty that people see rice only during festivals and marriages.  This is a village of lower caste people and in which lives a guy who is considered to be fit for nothing. We are told about the story his life. He is bullied by everyone in the village and is truly the rock bottom of the civilization. He goes out of village for work but is beaten up for being a lower caste. But determined to save his love, he enrolls himself along with a many others, as a slave labor to a plantation recruiter.

               The film's intention is not to shovel a list of statistics (like what i have given above) or paint us with truth. But it intention is just to make us feel what it means to be oppressed and what it means to feel true helpless in this wonderful infinite universe. Being truly helpless is something most of us have not seen in life. So, film basically moved takes us towards that. As the story progresses, the doors closed one by one for this man. First he realizes that he is cheated. He has to work harder than expected. But he tolerates that ,so that he can save money and leave as soon as his contract his over. After 2 years of working his ass out, he is informed that  his contract is far from over. He is left with disappointment. So, he decides to escape but only to be caught by the guards who break his leg permanently. After a few years, he looses his relatives and friend to a Malaria(?). But he always has one hope left in life which is the hope that he can leave to his village one day and see his son and wife. But finally when he sees that his wife walking into the plantation with his son as a laborer, his last string is pulled and the film ends in true hopelessness. 

               

About its Criticisms

              Why so much of hopelessness? A lot of people are comparing this film to Schindler's List and Pianist. They say Schindler's List ends with a hope. There are two problems with this comparison. First, even though ,holocaust is an extreme tragedy, it is over now and Jews in the modern world are mostly doing good. After the war, Israel is formed and a lot of Nazis were punished in Nuremberg trials. But the agony of the oppressed worker class people of the world is far from over. It happens today for workers in Arab countries. It happens today in china in the hardware manufacturing units. So, it will be an injustice to all these people to end the film hopefully. Replace tea with smart-phones and tea plantation workers to Chinese workers, one can realize that it is still a hopeless situation. Second, this film is attempt to make us realize that. So, it cannot end with hope which is defeating the purpose.

        

             Are we so dark after all? A lot of people have appreciated this film. But there are a good number of negative criticism also. I am not saying the film is beyond criticism. I myself have a few criticisms and it is very important that we should be talking about this film. However, i did read a few reviews which complained about the quality of cinematography, quality of village sets etc. Of all criticisms one can make about this film, there are people complaining about its editing and script nuances? This is like complaining about the someone's teeth while they are screaming in pain. This simply shows how dark people can be.

My Criticism

           First, let me acknowledge that this is awesome film. But it is very very dark and i don't think i can watch it again. It does not mean that film is bad. It simply means that I am not matured enough to process the emotions it invokes.  I sincerely hope one day i will be well balanced to watch this film and talk about it even more rationally.

           However, i do think that there are a few weak points in the film. First, the deliberate atheist message. Bala is an serious atheist and In this film also, he makes a few subtle criticisms on religion. There are three people who share the exploits of the workders a hindu sadhu , a christian compounder and a muslim stock keeper. I can see how Bala wants to stress the exploiting nature of all religious organizations. But what i think is that religion is one thing that still gives hope to a lot of people. Of-course, we see that for a moment in the christian song where, in the end people scream their hearts out and we all can feel how elated they are. But i think the stress is not enough. 

           Second is the black and white description of British in the film. They are simply shown as irresponsible exploiting drunkards. However, it is still not a big problem considering that at the end of day they exploited the workers. But still i think we need to give due credit to a few kind hearted Europeans who have helped us through out.

          But, i want to stress that the above points does not make the film any less valid. I am going to assume that they are just there to make things simpler for the story especially, the depiction of British.Otherwise it would have made the film a far more complex to comprehend.

Part 3

Final Note

          Obviously, Bala has made this film as a response to Eelam situation. And in the context of it ,the film makes perfect sense. The film takes us to the basics and stresses on the importance of lives of ordinary people. 
 
 (This section used to be a little bigger. As a few people in mayyam pointed out its lack of clarity and my dear friend Hari explaining its shortcomings, i removed it .Now,i am undertaking a deeper learning of it and I will be writing a seperate post about it. In the meanwhile, you can refer to this link for better information)

Flying Fish (Sinhalese)

                I saw the Sinhalese film, Igillena Maluwo(Flying Fish) in 2012 Bangalore International Film Festival. I had registered for the film festival months back and received my pass weeks before start of the film festival.But, somehow got stuck in a lot of work during the week. Desperate, i wanted to see at least one film. So,after spending some research on various titles listed in the festival calendar, i chose to see this. So, i went to see it in an afternoon after skipping my work.

                     The reason i wanted to see this film is that, it is a film made by a Sinhalese director in the backdrop of Srilankan civil war. I wanted to find out how unbiased the film is based on my understanding of the crisis. But when i came out of the theater, i realized that not only the film is very truthful to its intentions, it also made to reinvent my understanding of the crisis. It also reaffirmed my views on war. It even got a standing ovation from the audience. I am not sure whether it is a usual thing with all the festivals. But i think this film totally deserved it.

                                                          [TRAILER]

                      I want to mention a few thing before i explain the story. Flying Fish is not a usual film. It is an amateur movie made for film festivals. In-fact, there is a very good chance that you(and me) will never see this film in the future. It makes me very sad, because i think it is a very very important film. Also, i must tell you that even if, you ever get hold of this film somewhere be very prepared for the slowness of the film. Since, it is not made with commercial interests, the director takes liberty of deciding the length of the scenes in whatever way he wants. Every scene is slow,long and tedious.  Also, it is a very very sexually explicit and violent film. So, it is not ideal for your hall viewing.

                  Now coming to the story. This is not a film that deals with the politics of the crisis. But, tt is about the common people who struggle to live their lives in the crisis. There are a lot of characters but overall it depicts lives of three women from different background and their families in Triconamalee in Northern Srilanka.

                      First is Upanasana who is a Sinhalese teenager who has fallen in love with an army man posted in her village. Her father knows about their affair and he despises it, but afraid to do anything because he is an army man.

                      Second is a Sinhala widow, who has lost her husband to the civil war and struggling to support eight of her children alone. Her eldest son is a teenager who studies in local school and is in love with a classmate.

                  
                      Third is a pre-teen tamil girl who studies in a local school and her father is a clerk. He is seriously thinking to send her to Canada because he afraid that one day or the other he might not be able to pay LTTE and they might confiscate her.

      
                We see their lives moving slowly amidst the peace time that existed between the LTTE and the Army. The LTTE is actively recruiting people and the Army is keeping their men posted in all the places. Upasana and the army man are walking around the village and forests carefreely. They make love in the forest, visit monasteries and discuss about the future. The widow is trying to earn money and support her children.She is desperate in need of a support. Her teenage son is walking around the mountains with his classmate. They also discuss their future and lives after war.The Tamil Girl, goes to school and listens to the lectures of LTTE cadres who visit the class. Her father goes to work and faces racial slurs from the Sinhalese shop keepers. He also faces threat from LTTE who warn to take his daughter away, if he does not pay 2 Lakhs by the end of the month.
                      
                      When life is taking a shape slowly in Triconamalee , the peace time breaks down. Upasana learns that she is pregnant. The army man promises to marry her. The widow, in desperate need for support and care, starts an affair with an young shop keeper. His son is punished in the class for seen with a girl in strange places. The LTTE invades the Tamil Girl's home where they kill their dog and give an ultimatum to the father
              
                      Finally one morning, Upasana finds out the army has moved out of the village and her lover has deserted her. In rage she takes a bus ,goes to place where he is posted newly. When he meets her, she unzips his pants, takes out his penis and pretends to give him oral sex. He closes his eyes in pleasure.She then stops ,takes out a knife and cuts his penis. Blood splatters and she walks away in the sunset. She then boards a bus to come back. Meanwhile, the son of the widow, sees her having sex with the shopkeeper in a deserted place. Humiliated, he goes home waits for her. When she returns, he stabs her in front of his siblings and runs away in the sunset. He then boards the same bus in which Upasana is in. While this is happening, LTTE enters the Tamil Girls home and have an argument with her parents. When things go out of hands , they shoot her parents in rage, while she somehow manages to escape. She runs away in the dark and boards the same bus. The bus keeps on going in the night. Finally, when the sun comes out ,we can see that the girl is sleeping on Upasana's lap and the bus is actually running without a driver. Thus the film ends. Such is the power of the last fifteen minutes of the film , we completely forget how slow it was for the first two hours.

                         Everyone, these days talk about the greatness of the armed troupes. Srilankan supporters are happy that the army has won the battle. LTTE supporters are proud of the matyrs. But is there any one, who cares about the people? No body. Not the UN, Not the Srilankan government, Not the LTTE and definitely not the people who talk about the braveness of the war. The message in Flying Fish is very evident. It is an anti-war film. It makes a very clear statement that war does nothing good for common people. You may be in the winning side or loosing side, at the end of the day you loose something. Either you are persecuted or you face the side effects of handing over power to the army. War also brings out huge economic drain in the society.

                      I am very happy that such an anti-war film is made at this juncture.Because history tells us again and again that nothing good comes out of wars and especially ethnic wars. No body wins and every body looses. Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, Afghanistan, a lot many african nations, there is a huge list of examples.Srilanka is a new addition to it. Everyone thinks the war is over. But it is not. As long as there is hatred among people, the war is far from over. This is why Gandhi is a great man. He averted a huge crisis in India. Without him, we would have killed each other and disappeared from the face of the earth. Because he is a wise man who realized that "an for an eye will make the whole world blind". Sooner or later, every one has to realize this and as of now.Now, i can only hope that somehow the hatred among Tamils and Sinhalese disappear in Srilanka. Peace!
                                          

Jussaric Park(1993)

                Most of us, will have very fond memories of Jurassic Park. It came out when i was a school boy. It was one of the rare films,our otherwise orthodox Christian school took us to. The only other film we were taken to was Ten Commandments,without the kissing scenes. Jurassic park even managed triggered a small evolution Vs Creationism debate in my class. I was asked the most famous question "If humans evolved from Monkeys, why are monkeys still monkeys" by a fellow class mate.Nevertheless, it will be always part of our school days memories.

                 
                      It had dinosaurs of all sort. The gigantic plant eating ones, the cocky venom spitting one, the TRex and the Raptors that chase the kids in the kitchen. Not just the dinosaurs, even people in the film are memorable folks. The old, fat, white and white John Hammond. The lovable parent like paleontologist couple.The uncle like guy in glasses who we keeps on rambling things we did not understand throughout the film. The little girl who knows computers and the little boy who is thrown from the electric fence. Also, last but not the least, the bald lawyer who gets eaten by TRex after he runs into a toilet. It had a lot of memorable people and scenes we will cherish for a long time.
                 

                   But, have any of you seen the film lately? I stumbled across the film last year and  found the film is still very engrossing. But i also realized that it has much more in it. It is not a simple science fiction thriller film. Sure, the film is very engaging and has a lot of thriller moments. But overall, the story has a lot of different dimensions.
             
                    To begin with, this one of the rare sci-fi Hollywood action film in which the human race accepts defeat and retreats. Think about every famous sci-fi film you have seen. Mummy, Godzilla, KingKong, Independence day, Predator etc etc...In all these films, in the end, the sci-fi creature dies and the main characters will survive. Of-course, there will always one supporting actor who sacrifices his life to save others. But apart from him the protagonist, his girl friend or wife, their family and every one of them will survive.Sure, in Jurassic Park also every one survives. But they don't win the fight. They will barely manage to escape and the dinosaurs will live on. They will just leave the island and in the end we even see the "When Dinosaurs ruled the earth" banner falling on the victorious T Rex.

                    But, why it ends this way? Even, in the subsequent parts we see that people barely manage to escape the island and retreat. To understand this lets go to the start of this story. John Hammond, who is the owner of the park explains the ambition he had in life and tells how it all started. He says he wanted to create the most amazing show in the world. So he funded a chinese genetic engineer and his team(not explained in the film but explained in the book) to clone dinosaurs. Together they succeed in recreating the most dominant creature of past. He says, he wanted to create a controlled environment inside electric fences, so that these magnificent creatures of nature can be show cased for the viewing pleasure of the people.

                   When paleontologists Alan and Ellie come on board to inspect and certify the park, then are amazed by what they see. Even though they are astounded by what they see, they do share their concerns about the park. However, Ian the mathematician, outright rejects the idea. He says, humans cannot control nature. We think we can but we cant. We are too small to do that and nature will always find a way. He also says that they are building a system which is too complex to control and it can break down any time. But the lawyer is thrilled about the park and he is happy that a huge fortune can be made out of the park.

                  But,when the storm comes in and the same time the IT guy who controls the park tries to a hack , everything crumbles. The predators break loose, follow their instincts and being to hunt. And the most advanced park in the world with all amazing technologies reduces to an uncontrollable jungle overnight.Nature subsequently expands and finds its way into all nooks and corners of the park. This we see in the subsequent parts of the film.
   
                  So, the story in my views is kind of a warning message. It warns about the ever expanding commercialization of everything. From drinking water to education to entertainment, everything is getting commodified. The world is now controlled by the big corporations and we think we are doing amazing. But what we forget and what the scientific community is warning us is, we are screwing up with the nature. We have increased the temperature of earth, we are cutting down trees at alarming rate and we are running out of fossil fuels. The world is getting complex and complex everyday. And as the mathematician suggests, complex systems are too difficult to control. Everything might just flip. This i think is the core message of the story.

                   But what can we do? we the common folk are like Tim and Lex in the film. All we want to do is to live a peaceful life and we cant do much except probably actively talking about. So, we have wait and see if the adults take any action about the distress signals we see. Till then ...."Hold on to your butts!"

              

Life of Pi(2012)

             "Life of Pi" is the story about the life of a Indian boy named PI. He embarks a journey in life which a lot of people would find very hard or boring to take. He wants to find answers to everything and yes, he is determined to find god. The Universe agress with him and takes him through an unlikely journey of life.So,after going through a lot of drama and trauma in the path , the middle aged "Pi" is contended with the god he has found. It is a story that unfolds from his experience and it is actually an attempt to explain what is the god he found to us. So, what is this god that PI finds in his jounrney? Is this the hindu god that was taught by his mother or is it god that is described in the Christian and Islamic scriptures?
           "What is God?".The young boy Pi is not contended with answers he got for that question. He tries all the religions he comes across. He quietly listens to the story of Vishnu from his mother and later he becomes curious about the Christ. But when the priest explains him the story of Christ , he replies "That makes no sense". He tries to explore Islam and offers Namaaz at his home. He also gets into a nasty dinner table spiritual debate with his rational thinking father.
           Then he grows up into a nice teenage boy and his interests change a bit after seeing a beautiful girl. He falls in love with this beautiful big eyed girl and at the moment when everything looks "happily ever after together", the universe rolls the dice and throws him in the middle of an ocean in a life boat. He looses everything and floats in the seemingly infinite ocean in the company of a tiger. He is panicked, traumatized and surprised.After the first few days of jumping around he finally realizes and shouts out to the vast empty open space  "God, thank you for giving me my life. I am ready now.". So, the god obliges and takes him to through a fantastic, breath taking and heavenly journey of his life. 
           It is not a journey without trouble since he is having a hungry tiger around. But he invariably gets something to hold on. It could be fishes or flying fishes or meerkats. He and the tiger get something. He even gets to enjoy a nice bath in the carnivorous island,the symbolism of which i could not understand. And finally when everything seems exhausted ,when he and the tiger are on the brink of death by hunger, the boat hits shore and the tiger disappears into the forest.
           But then later we are told that , while the ending is the same, the path in reality is very very different. In reality, he implies that he had seen his mother being killed by the filthy cook. And he inturn becomes a beast and kill him. The beast which then never sleeps and the beast which he has to stay safe from. But it is the beast that keeps him motivated and saves his life.
           So, everything falls together , isn't it? The message that "no matter which path you take, the end is going to be the same" is conveyed. Pi is also now seemed to have definition of god and even asks us "Which version of the story your would prefer?". And we all prefer the grand, beautiful and magical story with fun, joy and victory. So, he tells us with a grin "And so it is by God". The story is over and we are all happy with the beautiful visuals we saw. We even had tears in a few scenes. And finally we are all happy with happy ending.
            But hang on a second. Doesn't than make the entire story defeat its own purpose? It talks about exploring the truth and understanding god. But it finally tells us , in plain words to hallucinate and imagine things? Well, considering the trauma he goes through , honestly hallucinating is a not a bad option at all. You just need to survive in the end, thats all. Truth does not matter but survival is. Only if you survive you can tell the story. But what if you want to just want to face the truth head on and search for the definition of god there. Then i suggest you to watch "Naan Kadavul (I am God)" sometime. 
                           

Alaipayuthey(2000) / Saathiya(2002)

                  It has been been more than a decade but there was always one thing that bothered me about this film. So i decided to get to the bottom of the problem. This is considered to be one of the greatest romantic films(in Tamil at-least). When the film came it was revolution and even now a lot of people would consider this a very very close to their heart films. Because it talks about the love, marriage and fights between a two ordinary people like most of us. The boy is not super hero beating up 20 people at a time to save the girl. Nor the girl is some beauty queen of the college  being chased by some bad guys. He is an aspiring software guy and she is a medical college student. That is all. This i think is what clicked. Suddenly, we are seeing some one whom we can relate to.
                 However, as i said earlier, there was always one thing that bothered me in the film.We can see that the guy is a crazy guy who falls in love instantaneously with the girl. This i think is not a strange thing for all of us. We can see that he is mightily impressed with her and he chases her every where. He chases her in the train , college and even to her home. So, we have the guys intentions clear from the very beginning of the story.
                  However, the girl is very mysterious. She flirts with him alright, but at no point in the beginning of the story she looks like she is love or something. She is definitely attracted to him. She even looks around in the train when he seemed missing. But she definitely not seen in love with him And she definitely does not look like the kind of girl who would secretly marry a guy. Think about it. She has a loving family, good career ahead and she is very very happy.She even says this to him. "I have veedu, amma, naikutti (house, mom and puppy) and that is enough for me". But then how did her mind changes all of a sudden? I never understood.This baffled me all the time.                          
                  However, from the overall story perspective we can understand why she has to be an average girl. She has to come from a normal family which she sacrifices for the sake of love. Otherwise the second half will not be a balanced one when they actually get into the fights. He would have looked entitled.
                  So, how do you show this normal girl who in no frame of mind would have thought of disturbing her beautiful setup, changing into a girl who would actually betray the entire family for the sake of this handsome yet jobless. Well, in my opinion, you cannot show this transition in a three hour film. Even done it would require a huge drama.She has to  be harassed by some guy or he doing some thing great for the society etc etc. But that would have eaten the entire time and that is not the intention of ManiRatnam as well. He wants us to get to the ICU in the climax as quick as possible which is where the knot of the film unravels.
                     So my guess is instead of wasting time in explaining this stuff  he puts in a song to convey her feelings for him even though we have never seen her in love with him before. This song acts us the necessary underline. It convey her feelings on the screen which even a hundred scenes wouldnt have conveyed properly. Without this song, their secret marriage would have never looked convincing at all. We would have thought she is a crazy selfish girl.
                      So, here is the most important and beautiful song of the film.Thanks to Rahman that this saved Maniratnam a hell lot of screen time and headaches to come up dramatic sequences which would have looked silly for the tone of the film.

                         
                              I realized all this from Bhradwaj Rangan's book Conversations with Mani Ratnam. It is a great book and i highly recomment it for film enthusiasts. Not only this, the book made me realize the importance of songs in our movies. Maniratman explains it quite beautifully.Songs are not a curse for our movies. They are blessings. They can effectively convey the feelings and moods which could not be conveyed by dialogues and visuals. They work in a very very meta level. Without songs our films would be lifeless two dimensional images and thank god i understood this.             
 

Vishwaroopam(2013)

                  I guess by now everyone would have seen this film by now, given the amount of highlight the film received everywhere. However, i am going to write about this film without getting into all the controversies and politics about the film. Not that i don't want to. But it will need a bigger post with more clarity. I myself am not very clear about the various opinions about the film and the various implications of the controversies.
                  Coming to the film itself, as usual like most of the Kamal films, he potrays multiple characters, even if they are not physically different people on the screen, they still are multiple characters. Take for Anbe Sivam, he plays two distinct charachters in the film. One a very fast moving, quick talking, attractive painter/communist and another a not so attractive, limping, verbose philosopher. Similarly, in Vishwaroopam, there are three different characters and film inherits the mood and speed of those characters as they are present in the screen.
                 A story is always is as interesting as its characters. This film has three pivotal characters played by Kamal around whom the story develops. Two of the characters are very inspiring while the third one is not so much. So, overall it is 2/3 of an interesting film.
                  First lets see the not so interesting person in the story. That is the RAW agent Wizam who does detective work in US of A. This person is so uninspiring that you need a FBI officer to ask him on the screen "Jesus, Who are you man?" to try to make him look interesting . And then the otherwise very quite Indian PM had to call him in person and say a few words in praise of him. Apart from that he is there in the film like a glue to connect dots that is all. There is nothing much to talk about him atleast in this part. May be he will have a bigger role to play in the next part.
                 Second is Vishwanath, a very very interesting and fabulous dancer who brings a permanent grin on your face in his presence. It is a tragedy that Vishwanath has to be killed in the middle of the movie to create the RAW agent. The film moves in a very very brisk pace when Vishwanath is around. Not simply because it is very very well potrayed on the screen but because there is something mystery about him. We get a sense of wonder why would he marry the selfish woman on the first place(Ofcourse if you are unaware of the RAW agent part before going to the film). He also has a very very keen sense of humour. This is such a interesting character and it deserves a spin off.
                   Third and the most important is the Taliban-Wizam. Although, this is not a very performance oriented role like the dancer, this silent , observer kind of role takes us to the heart of Taliban fighters and let us witness their lives in raw flesh. This is my opinion is the most honest part of the movie. Because this is where it differs from a typical hollywood technically brilliant " Hurt Locker" kind of a movie. Because this film takes one step further and gives us a "spy cam" view of the lives of the Jihadis. It lives with them. It makes us feel bad for Omar when he cries after loosing his family.It makes us feel close to them when Omar and friends joke around.It makes us feel angry at them for being brutal and barbaric sometimes.
                    Why is this the most important aspect? Because it is easy to demonize the already demonized villian. It is very very easy to call Omar a bad guy and simply move the scenes ahead. The chase between the good guy and the bad guy would have made a racy spy thriller, which is what the film tries to become towards the end. And i have a strong suspicion that the second part is going to be that.But the key difference is ,  the movie sits and explores the lives of Taliban. It travels in the grey areas which the west always tries to paint black and white.But why is it important to explore their lives? Because hearing every ones voice is the foundation of modern Justice and humanity. No matter how obviously "bad" some one it his voice must be heard. We really wont understand anyone unless we hear them out. And unless we understand we cannot come up with better solutions for the problems we face in the world today.
                      This single aspect is definitely the most important part of the film. Hopefully this is explored more in the second part when there is an actual confrontation between Omar and Wizam. I am curiously waiting for it.

Lincoln(2013)

                      As a fan of Daniel Day Lewis, i was extremely excited right from the day Lincoln was announced. So, finally after a couple of months of waiting , Lincoln got released in Bangalore last week. And i had promised myself to check this on the theater. Nothing can be compared to a quality cinema experience in a movie theater. Apart from Daniel Lewis, there was only one thing i was interested in the film which is Abraham Lincoln, the man who abolished slavery in the US of A, himself. Considered to be one of the greatest Presidents of USA and a great leader of modern times, there has been this big iconic image of his being built in our minds right from the child hood.
                        So, today i some how i managed to put aside a few hours amidst the busy weekend grocery shopping, playing with my daughter and cleaning schedules and rode to a nearby theater at 1 in the noon to catch this film. I managed to reach the multiplex only 10 mins ahead. But i was not very worried about the tickets because i was very sure this is not the kind of film that attracts crowd in Bangalore. But after getting the ticket i was very very surprised to see only a handful of people in the hall. I did a rough count in the interval and there were about 30 people in the 200 seater hall. So less in number that you might look like a idiot for laughing at a joke.                     
                           The film opens with a public address by Lincoln some time after getting elected for the second term and ends when a doctor says "The President is no more".  Though we are given a few bits of his life before his second term in a few scenes, the film mainly focuses on the last few months of his life, from the day he decides to pass the Amendment to outlaw slavery in US to the day he gets shot because of that.Let me stop here and say that this is one of those very important films not for technical expertise or great acting, but for its attempt to staying truthful to history.
                            Of-course, the film could have just fed the myth of Lincoln on    
how a great man he was and a how a great leader he was and etc etc. It still does, but it takes the high road of demystifying him and then decorating him with his greatness. It exposes the politician in Lincoln and puts us through all the situations where he could have simply taken the safest route and passed the buck to the next person without making any difficult decisions. It also tells us the cunning politics played by him to get a few conservatives to vote in favor of the bill.  Lincoln in this film is a guy who strongly in favour of democracy but however on the contrary plays some dirty politics to get a few votes in favour of abolishing slavery.
                               So, it offers a very very valuable lesson to us about how even in a democratic society at the end of the day, the strings are pulled by only a few people who are elected by us. And these are the guys who make important decisions on behalf of us. And how it is important to elect the right people to represent us because not Just Abraham Lincoln, even Adolf Hitler was elected by the people and for the people.