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.