PFC/Rahmania posts

On why I didn't support Peepli Live's Oscar entry, at PFC http://passionforcinema.com/why-i-will-not-support-peepli-lives-oscar-entry/ (Broken Link) I am glad it didn't make it to the shortlist.

And a post on Rahman's musical ode to the Mother featuring songs like Lukka Chuppi, Azhagu Nilavae, Uyirum Neeye, Kalaiyil Dhinamum, and Oru Deivan Thantha Poove on Rahmania. http://rahmania.posterous.com/maa-a-musical-ode-to-the-mother

Update June 25 2011: While PFC is now defunct, this PFC post was the one that brought in a lot of comments, read brick-bats. Well, nothing as good as healthy criticism :-) Contents of the post follow:

Why I will not support Peepli [Live]'s Oscar entry!

Aamir Khan must have been a very happy person in this past decade (2001-10). With quite a few of his productions being in the race for the Academy Awards for the best foreign film year after year, he sure can take a bow for bringing visibility to Indian cinema, starting from Lagaan to Peepli [Live].

Peepli [Live], as a movie, did bring to the notice of many ignorant Indians, the burning issue of farmer suicides. Did it venture into the issue of trying to solve this problem? Definitely not! Was it a satirical take on the newspersons who try to make a living out of sensationalizing this issue, and many others? Probably yes! While not being completely satirical, the movie did have its moments, and was a class apart from the routine Bollywood movies that the industry churns out in bulk every week. Credit must be given to Anusha Rizvi who made this movie, and with her experience in a news channel, she was able to portray some of the tactics a news channel adapts to address an issue. A good concept on paper handled with a distasteful approach was the sore point of the movie. I am not trashing the movie completely, nor am I endorsing the premise of the movie, but it is just the amateur treatment of a burning subject that upset me. Much drama has occurred in the news channels following the Niira Radia tapes being made public, including some amount of double standards shown by a few news channels that owe their allegiance to a few others. Newspersons held in great regard have lost some amount of credibility among the masses due to this issue. The movie showcases the same loss of credibility of the journalists who tend to blow things out of proportion, which includes a TV cameraman and a reporter trying to track the whereabouts of the protagonist and the time of escape based on when he attended nature's call. Come on, is this truly what you want to see in a movie? Even the movie Summer 2007 handled some delicate issues in a better way, though it was not a perfect movie on any note.

And now the movie has garnered international attention, by virtue of its distinction being India's official entry to the Oscars. What are you trying to show to the world? Does the government want to show to the world, the extent to which our news channels will stoop down, in order to gain TRPs? Or does it want to showcase a realistic portrayal of the farmers' suicides and gain empathy from an international audience? The latter is most definitely not going to happen, and former, sure will partially succeed in tarnishing India's image further, after Slumdog Millionaire. I can only view Peepli [Live] as Aamir Khan's answer to Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, and it succeeds in creating a genre of movies that tend to be called 'poverty porn' (I guess I read this term in a PFC post; I don't tend to recall which).

If Peepli [Live] had gotten released, obtained rave reviews, made money and gone back into the archives, I wouldn't have been ranting so much. It is the fact that it is the official entry to the Academy awards that infuriates me. What further infuriates me is the fact that the melodramatic 'My Name Is Khan' gets long-listed in the regular category for Best Picture. I did like MNIK just for the SRK-Kajol jodi, though the movie was beyond that, and tried to address a global issue, but an Academy Award nomination? Sorry Academy Awards committee, I've partially lost respect in your criterion for choosing a movie that relied on a director’s faith on a superstar rather than handling the premise adeptly.  But MNIK was not nominated officially by India, so let me not get into a discussion on that.

(Update: MNIK was not nominated, but just in contention because it satisfied a few factors that makes any movie released in the US eligible for an Oscar nomination.)

Did we not have other 'good' movies in 2010 that deserved to get nominated, or for that matter in the past even? Take for instance Udaan that released in 2010. A coming-of-age movie whose story line is a global issue, and the treatment to the subject was on par with a few of the Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning movies. Wasn't 'Dor' (2006) worthy of a nomination, for its brilliant portrayal of the quest of the journey of a woman to find another woman without knowing any information about the other woman? If you sent Devdas (2002) that depicted the grandest of the sets and costumes, as a nomination, why didn't you send the modern take on the same novel, Dev.D (2009)? Was it because you still want to portray India as a conservative state? Why didn’t you send the brilliant Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) that addressed a key issue of adoption and how the Srilankan Tamils were affected in the past three decades? And you send movies like Paheli and Eklavya for depicting the colors and art of India? Move on, India is beyond all that!

I strongly hope that a more-transparent voting system falls in place to decide India's entry to the Academy awards for the best picture in the foreign category. When the critics tend to praise the genuinely worthy movies, why don't you give them a chance to decide what makes it to the Oscars? Probably if we had such a system in place, we might have just gotten a lot more Oscars in the past years. That said, one doesn't need an Oscar to endorse a genuinely good movie, because the audience will surely identify it and grant it immortal status, sooner or later.

This said, I might be happy if Peepli [Live] gets an Oscar, but my heart will surely bleed while answering the questions posed by the non-Indian audience on this subject! India is not all about Peepli [Live]!

Alaipayuthey – Waves of Feel-Good Romance (My first PFC Post)

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“Originally published on Passionforcinema.com”

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This was a post published on Passion For Cinema (Broken Link), one of the websites which aims aimed at spreading awareness about good cinema.
 
In 1984, a genius director Mani Ratnam made his debut in a Kannada movie called Pallavi Anu Pallavi. In that movie, he embarked on a new journey with an entirely different genre of filmmaking. He ventured into the waters of Tamil cinema and made everyone turn around with his simple and subtle Mouna Raagam. As the name suggests, it is a ‘silent melody’, and this sure holds good as an adjective for Mr. Ratnam too! A brilliant post on the movie was posted on PFC recently. A short but effective romance segment in Mouna Raagam (a few bits borrowed from Pallavi Anu Pallavi) showed this man’s taste for romance. Without going overboard, he handled the romance in all of his films really well. Here’s mentioning a few more of his movies that had a very different and memorable approach romance segments: Roja, Kannathil Muthamittal, Nayagan, Bombay, Dalapathi, Geethanjali, Aayitha Ezhuthu/Yuva. Though, romance was not the main premise of most of these movies, these segments can be regarded as a few of the best-handled romance segments in Indian films.


In 2000, the ace director came up with an out and out romantic movie called Alaipayuthey (remade as Saathiya by Shaad Ali in 2002). With movies with heavy subjects such as Bombay, Dil Se and Iruvar being his past outings, this movie came as a surprise to everyone. I first saw this movie as a 15 year old, and I repeatedly watch it, and each time I watch it, this movie gives me a different perspective, even ten years after its release. A tribute to this evergreen movie follows, with the disclaimer that no amount of applauding will suffice for this brilliant effort by Mani Ratnam.

Alaipayuthey is initially the simple story of Karthik (Madhavan) and Shakthi (Shalini), who meet, fall in love, get married without informing parents and live separately with their parents. This is probably where a regular Tamil/Hindi cinema would end with the couple uniting. But, Alaipayuthey goes on to discover what happens when the couple moves in together, how the romance changes post marriage and times get strained too, and finally how the couple re-discovers the love that is lost between them.
The Mani Ratnam in this movie is definitely the hardcore romantic, and as always pays attention to the simple detail in day-to-day life. A movie based on war/politics maybe difficult to make, since it is really hard to imagine on that large scale and portray the same effect on screen. But what is more difficult is to compile casual happenings of everyday life, and present it in a way that the audience is not bored, but instead remark saying ‘Hey that happened to me too!’, ‘Why did the girl behave this way?’, ‘We faced similar troubles too when we ran away from home and got married!’ etc.

The romance segment, creative as it could ever be, took place with mostly the Chennai electric train stations and trains as the background. Karthik’s character is almost carved out of the same mould as that of Mouna Raagam (Karthik) in Mouna Raagam. His playful attitude when Shakthi first spoke to her, screaming ‘Yay, Ava Enna paatthu pesita’ (Yay, She talked to me), is probably the reaction of every guy in his late teens or early twenties. The responsibility he showed (within that childish nature) was well demonstrated by the fact that he introduced her to his parents in a house ceremony, with some comical moments. Waiting for his wife for two hours immediately after marriage was bliss to him, but eventually that changed, probably thanks to the boredom setting in after wedding. The final moments of the movie where Karthik talks to Shakthi while on her hospital bed are probably the cutest and the most romantic segments in the entire movie. Karthik appears as the caring husband just waiting for his wife to talk them. Madhavan scores a hundred percent in that scene.

Shakthi on the other hand is this simple homely girl, who definitely longs for Madhavan, yet hides it within herself due to familial pressures, but later succumbs to the love with Madhavan, asking him to marry her. A similar character portrayal was seen in Bombay, Saira Banu (Manisha Koirala), but it is definitely not right to compare the two characters in entirety. The transition from the pampered and playful girl to the girl-in-love and then to the ‘almost’ neglected wife is so very well very ‘lived’ by Shalini. The scene were Shakthi hands over a burning newspaper to Karthik saying, ‘Indha chuda chuda news’ (here’s your burning hot news) was one among the many interesting post-marriage scenes. She should definitely be proud of her performance in this movie, which was her swan song too.

Every form of relationship along with the relationship between the lead pair was very well developed and portrayed realistically. Whether it was Karthik’s father pointing at his carefree and careless attitude, Shakthi’s mother talking to her and sister Poorni during breakfast, or the girly talk between Shakthi and Poorni at bedtime, each of these seemed so natural and unforced into the movie. A few memorable scenes also include, the marriage registrar asking one of Karthik’s friends if this is a marriage without elder taking part and saying there is a different thrill in that too, the lady in the bus that conversing to Madhavan and Shalini saying she is married for 15 years, or Shalini’s potential suitor ‘Evam’ Karthik voicing out his reaction after his father decided to ask for Shalini’s hand in marriage for his son. In addition, the interactions between Madhavan’s friends were something we would have definitely seen at some point of time in our lives.

A few characters might have got very little screen time, but each one of them definitely captured our attention. Each of the supporting characters SwarnaMallya, Vivek, Ravi Prakash, Jayasudha, Sukumari, Pyramid Natarajan, KPAC Lalitha alongside the other characters including Madhavan’s group of friends, all of these people have contributed in their might to this legendary movie.

The tribute to this movie will be incomplete without the mention of the contribution of the off screen technicians. A.R.Rahman had one of his best soundtracks in this movie, and the songs are a favorite even to this day. These included the soulful Evano Oruvan, where Shakthi yearns for Karthik’s presence, Snehidhane where Shakthi meets her ‘secret friend’ Karthik, the chirpy wedding song Yaaro Yaarodi, the colorful Pachai Nirame, and the mischievous Kadhal Sadugudu. The background score was effective, and contributed to the theme of the movie so very well. The cinematography by P.C. Sreeram was out of the world, especially in the song ‘Pachai Nirame’, where he brought colors alive on screen. This cinematography has been adapted by a lot of movies, even 10 years later. Crisp editing by A. Sreekar Prasad ensured that the segments were all short and effective. The movie had a non-linear screenplay, with flashbacks interspersed between current happenings, and this surely was one among the first Indian movies to adapt such a technique.

All in all, no amount of writing would do justice to this magical masterpiece of Mani Ratnam. Such romantic movies are not made everyday. Even if they are made, they do not cause an impact, like Alaipayuthey! Not even its remake Saathiya!

Cast/Crew of Alaipayuthey:

On screen:
Madhavan, Shalini, Jayasudha, SwarnaMallya, with special appearances by Arvind Swamy and Khushboo.

Off screen:
Mani Ratnam  (Direction), Mani Ratnam and R. Selvaraj (Writing), A.R.Rahman (Music), P. C. Sreeram (Cinematography), A. Sreekar Prasad (Editing).