Proliferation of the decomposition of tamil cinema

(Disclaimer : All characters referred to in this post are NOT figments of my imagination. If there is any resemblance to reel life characters, it is exactly whom you think they are.)

Imagine this - Our 'Mr.Ilaya thazhavali[sic]' Vijay after watching 'Vettaikaran' with his wife and son, eagerly asks his wife for her feedback. Or 'Mr.Title-relinquisher-on-account-of-unworthiness' Ajith Kumar accompanied by Shalini  watches 'Asal' and asks her the same dreaded question - How eez the movie sweetheart? I really pity these women and our resilient audience who keep going back to theaters expecting a decent movie at-least on their God knows which visit. Are tamil movies so bad these days? For those innocent souls, sample these -     

• In the late 60's when a soon-to-become-CM was happily serenading a   not-so-soon-to-become-CM, heroes were portrayed with a lot of dignity as wealthy businessmen, doctors, law enforcement officers and even scientists. But these days they are all uniformly cast as happy-go-lucky uneducated youth sitting on a wall (frequented by stupid donkeys)  along with their friends who never seem to age. Well, we (read as audience) are to be blamed to some extent for this. Fed up with the 'angry young man' themes of the 80's, we wanted some realism in our movies. Looks like the directors had taken it very seriously and started casting heroes (read as Vijays and Dhanushs) in their real life avatars.
• Gone are the movies where heroines were a prominent part of  the hero's reel life (ya sometimes real life too). These days whenever our hero is fed up caring for his ailing mother or 'vazha vetti' sister or unemployed brother or bashing the villains,  he jumps into a Raymond suit or Tommy Hilfiger outfit and starts dancing with the girl nearest to him in the movie sets. That girl is the heroine. And if that girl gives a solo performance thats the 'item' girl.
• If the movie has no story or screenplay but a compulsory run-time of  2.5 hours and the producer has lot of funds, cast another heroine and picturize 2 more songs in a foreign locale.
• Can we ever imagine Sivaji Ganeshan doing a triple somersault followed by a long jump followed by a pole vault 'n' number of times? It's one thing that his anatomy wouldn't allow him to do so, but the fact is he didn't have a Kanal kannan or Rambo Rajkumar as stunt masters. These guys make a completely mockery of Sir Isaac Newton with the help of Archimedes (defying gravity with the help of pulleys and levers) and help our heroes vertically scale running trains and flying planes . But one good thing is they have done away with the biggest legacy of tamil cinema on mankind - that quintessential 'dishoom-dishoom' BGM.
• From the days of Nambiar to Nasser, villains had a real bash in movies. They got to trash the hero till the climax, forcefully sleep with some close or distant relative (obviously female relative) of the hero  and at the end get general amnesty.  But  now a days they get the trashed from the beginning, can't touch even the hero's servant maid and on top of it have to consistently shout at 90dB level.
• Latest techniques to compose a song - A.) Pick your favorite old song. Attenuate the voice and amplify the music and throw in some drum beats here and there. And place it exactly in the middle of the only good scene in the movie. B.) Repeat A. 
• The latest menace are the new breed of hero cum director cum producers who look like and act like yuck. But whats the big deal. Cast yuckier guys as co-artistes and all is well by the theory of relativity .

And the worst among the herd are those directors who staunchly believe in the concept of re-usability and hence don't want to waste their non-existent creativity.

(N.B. - The title suggests nothing more than the fact that tamil cinema is decomposing rapidly...)

Home Away 10 : The Nirvana

So it is that time of the year, when 'time' for a brief instance is not a continuum but rather jumps to a new start point as if resetting our lives. And as we usher into the next decade, it also marks a decade of me adventuring out of my home. From the cozy womb of my home to the hallowed portals of one lofty institution to another loftier institution to my dream career, the journey has been ebullient, enlightening, and exasperating all at once. What is to follow is a reminiscence of the indelible mark it has left on my fabric of life. (Looks like I have over indulged in hyperbole in the previous sentences. Well, that is me when I am free-flowing and just wanted to show some folks how much effort I or otherwise put to curtail my natural instincts.)

The day I left my native town to pursue college, it was the beginning of a life-long journey away from things that had defined my life till that time. And that thought was overwhelming. To add salt to the wound, the initial days in hostel did me no good either. For a boy physically and mentally corrupted by the luxuries of home nurturing, the prospect  of being on my own in a hostel (that looked all but uninhabitable) was daunting. From having a room to all myself to only having a bed, from delicious food to unpalatable grub, from washing machine to washing hands, life was clearly miserable. But it parallely opened up a new world with a lot of exciting vistas. Far from the scrutinizing eyes of my parents and in the company of friends who were in sync with me, I realized why college was the much touted sanctum of fun. If there was something that I had in abundance it was the freedom to explore and interpret the world the way I wanted. College culturals, class trips, late night shows, and late-into-the-night chats, it was a new and addictive experience. And after many years of patient waiting I also had the chance to interact with the fairer sex.

But as freedom in the hands of a corrupt politician can spoil the nation, I too started feeling the toll. Academic performance became an inverse function of the college year. Lot of technical knowledge I gained, but they weren't compatible with grades. There was a huge chasm between what I had desired and what I achieved. With a heavy heart I scraped through to the institution on the other side of the road with a brief pit stop at an IT company.

The day I landed there I realized this place wasn't going to be easy. My passion for analog design had led me here, but initially it was difficult to stand up to it high standards as I had been on a long sabbatical from academics. My guide was a genius and a task master (inseparable traits!!!) and he made a nice ham of my lazy a**. But here again I found some in-sync guys who helped me in redeeming the academic loses I had suffered. I also started developing keen interest in world cinema, world politics, photography and even my external personality (something that I thought would never engage me). And off the campus I had regular bashes with my old buddies. Towards the end, life again became miserable sans accommodation, sans job and sans signs of passing out. Those were really dark days and I was just banking on time to pop an answer. And 'time' it came when I moved to a career in analog design and thats where I am right now after ten years.

The last decade had seen the world undergo a sea of changes and thats the case with me too. The things that define my life now are vastly off from what they were a decade ago. I have undergone subtle and drastic changes and my perspective of lot of things has changed. Memories are what make us laugh at things that made us cry and cry at things that made us laugh and I am full of it.  It was a journey that I am completely happy I ventured into...

        

Pasanga - A classic ?

A few days back when I stepped out of the theaters after watching Pasanga with two of our 'pasanga' (aani and bull), I was completely overwhelmed. I was sure I had just seen a classic and one that will be a trend-setter. But was it just an impulsive reaction borne out of the drought of good movies in tamil cinema? Or was it a genuine classic? What is to follow in this blog is a deconstruction of my thoughts into words and see if it turns out to be a classic.
To squeeze the story into nine words - it's about the rivalry between two secondary school mates. If inflated it would read something like - the pride and arrogance of the highly naughty son of a teacher (antagonist) along with his two 'close associates' is challenged by a new-comer (protagonist) who is an immediate hit with both his class-mates and teachers. The innocuous scheming employed by the triumvirate and how the new-comer tries to reconcile with them along with the brief animosity that develops between their families amounts to a run-time of two and half an hour. Sounds like our regular run-of-the-mill movies except that the characters are abridged in age? But the similarity ends here. The simple yet refreshing and entertaining screenplay and the characterization that is both realistic and interesting, is like a fresh whip of cool breeze. From the start there is a discernible difference in the treatment of the movie. For a change kids behave and speak like kids. There is a dignified appeal to the classrooms and at least in this movie teachers are sensible and seem to be in control of the classes. The portrayal of parents is heartening in the sense that they are ready to give up their ego for the welfare of their children. There is also an underplayed romance that runs parallely devoid of any sleaze and glamor. But the icing on the cake is the characterization of the kids. The naiveness, rivalry, cravings and aspirations of children have been brought out in an enjoyable manner with loads and loads of humor. Let it be the disposition of the protagonist to demand encouragement for his deeds or the innocuous instigation of the antagonist by his 'close associates', there is a sure charm in them.
For a movie of this genre, the technical finesse is also a sweet surprise. The songs are just average but the BGM seamlessly alternates between the various moods of the movie. The cinematography is refreshing with some pleasing shades and hues that beautifully complement the movie. Overall the movie is a sincere and straight-out-of-the-heart effort, that explores the lives of children in a realistic manner. And just for the records here is a rural themed movie sans its blood and gory. Looks like I am convinced this is a classic. How about you?

N.B. - There are no protagonist or antagonist in the movie. I used them for the ease of referral.

Burden of cultural diversity or sheer populism?

India's highest civilian awards had been announced recently. And our 'beloved' Aishwarya Rai is there in the coveted list. It is a recognition of her accomplishments - winning the Miss World crown, brand ambassador for international brands, bollywood actress and becoming a part of the Bachchan household. You think I am kidding? Aren't they accomplishments worthy of a Padma Shri ? If you don't think so, then you are not able to discern a fine artist. Because the Indian government thinks Aish has made contributions to Indian cinema more significant than stalwarts like the versatile Nagesh or the redoubtable genius Ilayaraja. Aishwarya Rai's glamor quotient has fetched her international fame whereas these guys are relatively unknown outside Tamil Nadu. You might argue it is no match either to the unrivaled musical wizardry of the Mastero who will enthrall music aficionados forever or the acting ingenuity of Nagesh, who can seamlessly transit between humor and melancholy. Well thats what I too think but not the selection committee (The two examples being from tamil cinema is just because they are some outrageous omissions I know of. Such omissions should be there in every language for sure.) So how can an award which honors its outstanding citizens be mired with so much discrepancy?
One possible argument could be that India though a geographical amalgamation of tremendous diversity, still remains disparate in its soul. In such a milieu, when a group of individuals come together for a decision making exercise, unintentional cultural ignorance and prejudice are prone to creep in. But as a country that prides in being secular and diverse, the government should make sure that every deserving candidate in any nook and corner of the country is given his due respect. It is imperative that such selection committees be highly inclusive and include individuals who are free of any prejudice and well informed about the various regional happenings. And at the end of the day if such inappropriate candidatures keep perpetuating, then such awards might be displaced from their highest pedestal. The day is not far off when a prominent personality rejects these awards exposing the inequalities embedded in it.

P.S : All these rumblings are not out of envy or frustration because, as a non-recipient I am already in elite company.

Unity in Adversity

A terror attack has again been unsuccessfully averted. Political heads have rolled. Indians have expressed a spectrum of emotions from angst to desperation. And Pakistan buckling under pressure from US (and apparently India too), ostensibly seems to be in hot pursuit of its home-grown terrorists. At the end of the day, unimaginable and irrevocable damage has been done to the lives of many a people. Lets temporarily pause here and shift our attention to another problem plaguing the world currently - 'financial whatsoever'. When the bubble first burst, I was frustrated as to how the 'financial wizards' could have committed such a blatant blunder. But as the sun kept rising and setting, the frustration has turned into awe as to how the crisis can transmit itself across the global without any loss of information (networking at its best!!). Everything under the sun seems to be affected, to the extent that having a job by itself could make you the most eligible bachelor in town. So these two adverse scenarios set me pondering if there was anything positive that might pop out?The fact that countries across the globe irrespective of their ethnicity, geography and economy are falling prey to stateless extremists, gives them an opportunity to group under a common umbrella to shield themselves. The sharing of intelligence, joint counter-terrorism exercises and joint monitoring operations could infuse some sort of good-will between nations. A fine example is how the US and NATO forces have come to depend heavily on Pakistan to purge the Talibans out of Afghnaistan. In the same way, Pakistan feels the urge to engage with India to wrest its country free off the same terrorists which it had surreptitiously trained to be used against India. When US was feeling the heat of insurgents in Iraq, it vaguely hinted at seeking the help of Iran with whom it had severed all diplomatic ties since 1979. On similar lines, the financial downturn has elicited an unequivocal consensus that only a concerted action by world nations can rescue us out of this carnage. The egos of developed countries has been severely dented and they are looking up to developing countries like China and India to play a key part in their rescue. Infact economists have been suggesting that China can play a key role in rescuing the US financial system by lending $500 bn from its huge forex reserve of $1800bn. Similarly developing countries like India which have an 'outsourcing' economy, need a buoyant economy in the US, EU and other developed countries. Russia with its 'petro' economy is also wary of the global recession as oil prices are plummeting with declining demand. A lot of relationships that are forged now might be symbiotic, but we can hope the positives that come out of these associations enthuse nations to carry the camaraderie forward.
Mother Earth also for its part provides us with frequent opportunities to unify ourselves in the face of natural disasters. But at the end of the day if such crises and disasters fail to motivate us towards a common goal of universal harmony, you can only wait for divine intervention. And people like me have to wait for some extra-terrestrial intervention.

Lonely at the top.....

It is getting pretty lonely at the top these days. And if you want to know how boring and melancholic it is to be alone at the top, ask Sachin or Roger or Tiger. But it wasn't like this always. Few years ago a lot of my friends were performing at the top most level and there was a lot of healthy competition between us. As we grew older, the going got tougher and the pressures and anxieties started building up. A lot of my friends were not able to stand up to these adverse conditions and they slowly started fading away. And even those guys who supposedly were smarter than me weren't able to compete at such dizzy heights and succumbed to the pressures. Luckily for me since my fundamentals were strongly rooted, I was able to stand up to these challenges and perform better than them. At one level I am happy that I have been able to stand the test of time but at another level I am missing all the fun I used to have with my friends. And with every passing day I am not very sure if I can withstand the crescendoing stress levels. But it is very pertinent that I hold my nerves together and somehow cling on to the top slot. Else it might leave the author completely bald!!

As cribbed by the lonely hair follicle in the above narrative, the author has not become so progressively bald. But it dreads this might be the case soon.

Honey, where’s our money???

Looks like I too have joined the bandwagon of writers who have taken advantage of the financial crisis to hog some internet space. But then the crisis is real and so are the fears and the critiques. Also this is not a conscious effort to pen down something, rather something that stuck me genuinely. This is more about the lucky few who still have some savings to worry about, rather than the unlucky many who saw theirs vanish at the speed of the crisis which seems to travel around the globe in few seconds. So what should these ‘few’ do with their hard earned money?
Well, I would be considered extremely insane even if I remotely thought of stocks as an option. They seem to be the most capricious entity man ever invented. These days the sensex seems to be responding to every other thing happening in any remote corner of the world (Globalization!!). And for many, the stock market has been the perpetual reminder of the existence of Murphy’s Law. If you thought of outsourcing the risks involved in stock trading to the Masters of the Universe (read as Fund Managers), the financial crisis has showed they have been living altogether in another universe. They have been taking pride in inventing esoteric financial instruments and testing them with lesser mortals’ (atleast that’s what they have been thinking about us till now) money. But the recent crisis has seriously dented their narcissism. So if we move from Wall Street (or Dalal Street) to the Main Street (read as Commercial banks), the situation looks to be no better. Traditionally these banks were considered to be more immune to such turmoils than the investment banks. But to a large extent this immunity has also been breached as is evident now.
Now if we thought of getting back to time tested investment avenues like real estate, gold etc even these are not always sticky up and are prone to the vagaries of the market dynamics. Atlast after considering (or rather unconsidering) all these options, the best choice seems to be to hoard our hard earned money with ourselves. But in that case a larger crisis looms in the form of ‘wife’, who can convert the money into her wishes at hitherto unknown speeds. So why don’t we ourselves spend off all the money we earned, rather than someone doing it at our cost? Or if someone has a better idea of how to invest money, you could do a world of good by sharing it with us.

ENGINEERING A SUPERPOWER

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With the disintegration of USSR well under the way, UK and France still reeling from their World War wounds and Japan pursuing pacifist ideologies, USA was cruising along as the sole superpower for almost two decades since late 80's. But during this period there were some significant tectonic movements in the geopolitical landscape of Asia. On one side, the Chinese were rapidly and steadily building an empire founded on an oxymoronic ideologue of political communism and economic liberalism. On the other side, Russia was exorcising the disintegration demons of Mother Russia under the dynamic and assertive stewardship of Vladimir Putin, with the abundant natural resources at its disposal. And our own India was starting to reap the benefits of the demographic seeds it had sown for a long time - courtesy economic liberalization and IT revolution. And now the stage has been set for an intriguing battle of superpowers.

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If becoming a superpower is a politico-economic feat, sustaining it is an engineering one, though not in the literal sense. When a nation is evolving into a superpower, it develops quality infrastructure, optimally utilizes national and international resources and attains socio-economic supremacy. But once there, it starts hogging into global resources and exerting its influence on global political scenarios to maintain and assert its hegemony. And to do this, it sets in motion many Machiavellian endeavors (which the esoteric political scientists seem to decipher only when its well and over). And the pioneer of such “engineering” attempts has been our Uncle Sam. If its botched attempts to assassinate Castro was to undermine communism, then the war on Iraq and its ardent support of Saudi Arabia are to quench its thirst for oil. Even the much touted Indo-US nuclear deal is suspected of some hidden foreign policy agenda. But if there is one political goal that it has pursued steadfastly, it is to undermine the supremacy of USSR (and now Russia). From the 70's race for outer space to arming the Afghan mujahideens against the Soviet forces to the expansion of NATO, the US think-tank is more concerned about eurasian politics than its one. Even the recent Georgian crisis seems to have been maneuvered by US (atleast to some Russian parliamentarians). And many of these political misadventures have come back to haunt the US and also the world at large. The recent economic downturn has its roots in the Iraq war and the Islamist terrorism had its progeny in the hegemonic Middle East policies of US. So its the world which is paying for the misdemeanors of Uncle Sam. Not a worthy engineering pursuit, looks like.

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Those halcyon summers.....

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

With school and college days well behind us and a long career ahead of us, these immortal lines by W.H.Davies are very much relevant during this phase of our life. So I decided to derive some nostalgic pleasure by recollecting some of those bygone days. There used to be a pocket of two months during school days when life took a dramatic U-turn - all play and no work. Its that time of that year when children think parents have no moral authority to decide what they should be doing. And it's a luxury you got only till the age of eighteen. Well, who can forget those sunny, carefree and fun-filled summer vacations....

There are many harbingers of these pleasant days. The mercury starts soaring mercilessly and juicy mangoes and rotund watermelons start populating the fruit stalls. With annual exams in full swing and summer holidays just around the corner, there is that familiar mix of apprehension and excitement gripping our hearts. Also school bags take an all new dimension and books give way to writing pads – which gets improvised into a cricket bat. And once the annual exams get over it's the start of a literal merry-go-round (As a ritual I used to throw my bag to a corner of the house after the last exam, metaphorising freedom from the clutches of studying).

As every summer set in, I used to promise myself long hours of sleep during the holidays. But somehow sleep never had a sense of occasion. When I was intently burning the midnight lamp, there it would arrive unannounced. But when I had all the time in the world to do nothing, it never yawned on me. Anyway with cousins who would come down for holidays and friends equally ready to relish the holidays, there were lot of other interesting things to do than sleep. We used to have a wide spectrum of games to chose from. Sometimes it was a game of hide 'n' seek with its myriad nomenclatures. Though simple in its conception it can easily make for a lot of fun-filled moments. The way we scrambled in search of a hideout turning every nook and corner of the house into one are still fresh in my memory. Some other times it was another of those time tested games. If we were indoors then it was one of those ingenious board games. And for those more in love with the cyber world than the real one, there were the computer games.

Though some of these games lost favor as we grew up, one game still remains close to our heart. With the streets turning into a boiling cauldron and moms yelling to get indoors, playing cricket was never going to be easy. But the love for the game that has become part of our genome code due to natural evolution ensured we spent long hours in the boiling sun. I still remember how we roamed our locality armed with bats and balls in search of another game of cricket. And as the sun was signing off for the day draping the sky in an orange splendor, we prolonged the plays as long as an iota of light was available.

Apart from playing, the leisurely mood of the summer holidays is a propitious time for catching up with novels. The vicarious pleasure derived by journeying into the fictitious worlds of "The Hardy Boys" or "Three Investigators" or our very own "Swami and his friends" is something every bibliophile will cherish for eternity. And no summers can be complete without paying a visit to our good old granny. Granny's place were always a breeding ground for fun 'n' frolic because it was a conclave of relatives and also we where away from the scrutinizing eyes of our dad. Hmm... How I wish I never grew up....

Irregularity saves the day!!

Warning : This article is a product of my random thought. So don't mind the insanity....

If there is one trait of mine that makes me hate myself the most, then that has to be my irregularity. Its not that I worried about it much, but people around me seemed to be affected by it a lot - one of the shortcomings of being a social animal! My non-systematic approach to life had cost me a lot. In-fact in hindsight I think I would have achieved more – it’s another thing that I have not achieved anything yet - if only I hadn’t been as irregular as I was, am and will be (Old habits die hard). In short, regularity and systematic working is one of those traits that still keeps evading me.

But as nothing is eternally good in this world, so is regularity too. And this discovery came from a very unlikely source - Hollywood movies. A lot of guys will be familiar with a genre of Hollywood movies that deals with some kind of heist like The Great Train Robbery, Rififi, The Great escape et.al. The most riveting part of such movies is the immaculate planning that goes into pulling out the heist. And the entire planning takes advantage of the systematic routine that is embedded in the target environment. Now you should be knowing where I am arriving at. Yes exactly there. It struck me as very ironical that a trait that is so much desired seems to have a shortcoming. So guys anyone planning to run a bank or start a jewelry boutique, remember to operate your venture in a non-systematic manner!!