Thursday, December 29, 2005
Untold Story
Monday, December 19, 2005
Lyrics na.muthukumar Music Composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja Recorded at Bangkok orchestra a selvaraghavan film
Trend breakers must be appreciated and the OST of Pudupettai is certainly one. It is out of the box and in tune literally with the gangster/underworld milieu the movie is set in. Yange area the rap song for instance captures the scorn of a typical lower middle class person for the upwardly mobile. Nerupu Vayinil sung by Kamalhassan in his trademark base voice is another track in which Yuvan Shankar Raja has done justice in creating music capturing the violent theme of the film.
However, tracks like, Survival of the fittest, the instrumental theme song of the film, for instance comes across as pretentious and I am sure have been generously inspired (plagiarised?) from Hollywood themes. While these instrumental pieces definitely sound good the listener is left wondering about how original they are. For the uninitiated nenjodu kalandire was partially lifted from a TheCorrs song called Runaway. Walking through the rainbow the theme song of …Rainbow Colony is supposed to be copied from none other than Ilayaraaja (Yuvan's father!!!)’s BGM for the film Johny. With this kind of history one tends to become a bit sceptical.
My favourite song in the album is oru naalil, which Yuvan has sung himself. It is fresh, melodious and stands out. Full of pathos this song offers na.muthukumar, the lyricist the scope to showcase his talents as a poet. Pul pesum, poo peesum is a gana pattu types, probably set in a similar situation to the sapno me milte hai song in Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya.Fast paced and peppy the song is sure to follow the success of thi pidika, an earlier Yuvan song in the same style.
The OST concept is new here and must be embraced . There is not a single song in the soundtrack, which can deteriorate into a duet on screen. I am pretty sure that only one or two of them will appear as full-fledged songs in the film. In the past Selvaraghavan has got Yuvan to give his best and with Pudupettai the tradition continues. The music promo’s claim to bring “world music at your doorsteps”. Regarding that I am afraid I have to disagree. I thought I would finish with these provocative lyrics from the yenga area song -
Hey Padicha Naaye Kitta Varathey
Enga Area Ulla Varaathey !!
A/C Potta Bathroomil Enna Varum Ponga
Thandavaalam Kitta Othunguvom Naanga
Nethu Vecha Meenkozhambu Kaathula Pesum
Malli Poovum Inga Pootha Meen Vaasam Veesum !!
lyrics source - lazygeek.net
My Rating of the soundtrack - * * * out of * * * * *
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Splendor Of Our Boyhood
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
"The Raaja still reigns supreme" – The Hindu
Sunday, November 27, 2005
As Grey As It Gets
Character - Norman Bates (Antony Perkins) Film – Psycho Director – Alfred Hitchcock The granddaddy of all psychos he became synonymous with the word psychopath. He is in my list because, the shower and the basement scenes aside, this mellow character is as much a victim of ‚ “mother’’ as the other victims. After hearing for years how scary this film was I finally caught up with Norman, along with Kanishkaa when I was in my 1st year of college. More than scared I was disturbed by Norman's character. But I must admit the scene in which, “mother’’ reveals herself in her entirety gave me cramps in my stomoch. Character - Forgot his name (Kamal Hassan) Film – Sigappu Rojakkal Director – Barathiraja This misogynist, who seduces and kills women, burying them in his garden,planting a rose plant above each victim, redefined how a mentally deranged person is portrayed in Tamil films. This seemingly sophisticated character unfolds as the movie proceeds and we see snippets of insanity. Especially the videos of him murdering women which he records for his godfather to see is spooky ( Barathiraja has used a technique for these short scenes, later used in Blair Witch Project ). We are given a wider look at this character’s psychological profile when Sridevi discovers a room in the outhouse whose walls are scribbled with his story. And the finale in which the movie ends with Kamal as a prison inmate staring at the camera (audience) with a blank, melancholic look on his face is sheer class. Character - Sy Parrish (Robin Williams) Film – One Hour Photo Director – Mark Romanek
This lonely photo developer working in a supermarket who stalks, and in his mind becomes a member of a family, is the dark horse on my list. This relatively lesser-known film has Robin Williams in a role totally opposite to his showman like persona in most films. The spookiest scene according to me was one in which Sy is watching TV in a room in his house and the camera slowly starts focusing on a wall – the wall is filled with pictures of the family of 3(husband, wife and son) he stalks. He considers himself as, “uncle Sy’’ to Jake, the couple’s son. Misguided and in a screwed up way, well meaning ,Sy Parrish is as gray as it gets. Character – Vinod (Dhanush) Film – Kadhal Konden Director – Selvaraghavan Vinod is what I would call a psycho by default. Scarred by abuse and pain from childhood Vinod grows up like Oliver Twist. Adam teased in his college and treated as an outcast he becomes over possessive about Divya the only friend he has had in years. Though one sees shades of imbalance in him it is only in the latter half does the director reveal that Vinod is mentally ill. There is a scene in which the police find the corpse of a bar dancer (a nymphomaniac who tries to seduce Vinod) in his room. The setting is shifted at this point to a hilly area ( we now realize he has kidnapped Divya ), where Vinod is dancing with tribals to the tune of the famous kadhal konden theme song. That totally takes you by surprise and hits you on the face. Innocent and yet dangerous, he is a bundle of, a plethora of emotions. I read somewhere that the Vinod character was inspired by a similar one in some German film called Klassenfahrt (The School trip). That was bit of a dampener though. Afterword – I have always preferred psycho’s like those above who are victims as much as victimisers. They are normal humans driven over the edge by circumstances. It is this that fascinates me about them. I frankly find Hannibal Lecter kind of characters who, “kill for pleasure’’ depraved and sadistic. They are evil by choice and meant to give you cheapkicks. None of my favorite psycho’s above fall into this genre.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Outrageous Hypocrites
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
The Rain and the Opposition
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Gay People And Us
A few months back while watching a film at Satyam,I saw this guy carrying a handbag, wearing jeans,a girls shirt ,dupetta and glass bangles .Obviously he was gay and I was a little shocked and instinctively repulsed. I kept starring at him in curiosity. Later I realized it’s like treating him like a specimen in a lab and felt guilty about it. A lot of the other people around were staring at him as well and I don’t blame them. We are a conservative city and someone openly admitting without shame that they are gay, which is what this man had done by the way he had dressed, is something that scandalizes us. Whenever I have thought of this incident one thing that strikes me is the tremendous guts it must have taken to come out of the closet about something, which is still considered very unacceptable in our society. There is this song by Sting called Englishman in New York. It is about a gay Brit called Quentin Crisp who in England in the 1930s, which was still under a major Victorian hangover, was a self-confessed homosexual. After being treated as an outcast he moved to New York in the last years of his life, where he was much happier. The plight of gays in India is similar to what it would have been in England in the 1930s.On this reality chat show called Kadaialla Nijam, which used to come on Vijay TV sometime back, this person who was a gay and lesbian rights activist spoke about how there are a substantial number of these people in our city and how they face disapproval and scorn wherever they go. He was talking about how they have to hide what they are, fearing how people may react to them. I think we should all realize that how much ever absurd the idea of same sex couples and attractions might be to us it is something which seems natural to these people. While we have a right to say that we don’t want to have anything to do with them, we have no business passing value judgments on them. We have a right to keep away, but we are nobody to mock, scorn, and ridicule them or call them evil or perverted. The genaralisation that gays try and harass us is being unfair to them. Just like there are men who rape women there may be gay folk who might make a pass at and abuse others. Just like rapists such gays deserve no pity and must be made to pay for their crime. But ostracizing their whole community for this is barbarian.
The situation of the guy I saw at the cinema house is not dissimilar to that of the defiant British gentleman who lived his life without compromise. “It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile, Be yourself no matter what they say.’’-These lines from Sting’s song convey the amazing defiance amdist unthinkable adversity shown by Quentin Crisp, and all people like him who have choosen to live life the way they want to, despite of being thought of as abnormal and wierd . Of course it is not easy for us to accept these people.But lets us respect their way of life and try to be tolerant to them.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
If You Witness An Accident
Monday, October 17, 2005
The King Performs
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Major calamities have a way of bringing out the best in us. We have been hearing so many stories of despair after the earthquake that struck Pakistan and India last weekend. Amidst all this both the Pakistani and our jawans^, through some spontaneous gestures of compassion and kindness have put to shame the politicians of both our countries. On Tuesday some jawans near the LoC in Pakistan administered Kashmir had been trapped under debris when a bunker had collapsed. They called out to the Indian jawans just a few feet away, on our side, for help. Without sanction from the authorities our jawans crossed over to the Pakistani side and along with some of their jawans rescued the trapped jawans and returned. There was another incident which Barkha Dutt narrated, reporting from Uri in Indian administered Kashmir. Apparently a few of our jawans had accidentally crossed over to their side during a rescue operation. They were met with neither hostility nor arrest. The Pakistani’s promptly returned them in an unprecedented act of camaraderie. Through these moving gestures the humble jawans have proven once again that,we, the people of both our countries, think of each other as sisters and brothers. ^Jawan - foot soldier
Do visit this site set up to provide help to those affected by the earthquake
Friday, October 07, 2005
The Impact, Relevance And The Role Of The Left In The Age Of Neocolonialism
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Short Story/The Old Couple And The Touring Marriage Party
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Reality Check.At Last!
Friday, September 23, 2005
Short Story/The Old Couple And The Touring Marriage Party
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
3 Cases Of Evangelism
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Short Story/The Old Couple And The Touring Marriage Party
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Guest Article/Is There Any Hope For The U.N?
Friday, September 09, 2005
Ten Years Since Mockingbird
It was the way we all read this book together which also made it so special. 12-13 years old at that time things like racial discrimination (read caste, in our country’s context), rape, etc were stuff we were blissfully unaware of .Ok, we had seen a few crude rape scenes from a few crude movies, but it was something which we probably did not fully comprehend. But reading through the book and our teacher putting things in perspective, gave some of us our first true insight into the real world. Even a small character like the Finch housemaid was so poignant. And those unforgettable lines after Boo rescues the kids, which Scout narrates in retrospect-
“ Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.”
They just make me cry & cry & cry & cry & cry.
Ten years have gone by since we did Mockingbird. Ten years of joy & sorrow; triumphs & disappointments; and inevitably- change. God only know what the next ten will bring. Some of us will be married and settled and all. But one thing I am a certain of –Mockingbird and so many other wonderful things that we shared and indeed still share will always give us comfort and reassurance. For some things are far more eternal than the ravages of time.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Idhu Oru Pon Maalaip Pozhudhu
Monday, September 05, 2005
Lost in Translation?
Friday, September 02, 2005
Some Of This Season's Best
Monday, August 29, 2005
Being an Agnostic, Hindu-Brahmin
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Nenjam Marapadilai
There is no scene which is out of place or unneccessary .The initial scenes after the marriage takes place are so poignant. Revathi telling Mohan,"Nenga enna thota kambili pootchi todra mari iruku"-your heart just goes out for Mohan. His attempts at trying to get his wife to like him are so beautiful. Vairamuthu’s poetry in “Mandram Vandha Tendrlluku” is so lovely-“Tamarai mel neer thuli pol talaivanum,talaiviyum valvadena?”;"Nanbargal pole valvadheku,maalaiyum,melumum tevai enna?". Karthik’s role is like a fresh breeze, which cools you, and makes you want more of it. His character really haunts . His gunda intro;his winking at Revathi ,when he comes out of jail badly beaten up,and the latter is concerned about his wellness; the legendary "Mr.Chandramouli”scene…The scene in which he dies-what BGM from the Isaigyani, when Karthik runs off from the police van, and reaches the steps of the Registrar’s office,where he is shot dead-what music thru the movie period! I love the parts when Revathi starts to like Mohan(during the waiting period for the divorce). Who can forget Revathi teaching the gullible Sardar swear words in Tamil? Or Mohan taking her to the Taj?Or Revathi cooking something, which her husband will like, and him turning up late? Or Mohan being rude to his wife's parents, because he wants them to think,that he is the reason their marriage is falling apart? And that last scene! Revathi tearing the divorce sheets and getting on the train, Mohan valiantly catching the running train; his eyes meeting Revathi’s, their embrace ;Mohan pulling the chain and getting off with his wife ,and sweeping her literally off her feet and walking off? From start to finish what a wonderful film! Sure, even I who have romanticized this film so much, know that it is not the greatest movie ever made or anything. I am only saying that it is my all-time favorite film.Like love and friendship it is something I feel. For eternity Mani Rathnam will be remembered for this masterpiece.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Freedom of Expression
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
The Site That Started It All
Sunday, August 14, 2005
The World’s Youngest Political Prisoner
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Thus Spake Selva