Thavamai Thavamirundhu

Yesterday I watched the Tamil film Thavamai Thavamirundhu, Cheran's directorial venture after the critically acclaimed and popular Autograph.

The bulk of the story is shown through flashbacks, just like in Autograph. Mutthaiah (Raj Kiran) and his wife Sharada (Sharanya) live in a village with their two children. Mutthaiah owns a printing press, and works there. That is the only source of income for the family. They are poor, but Mutthaiah sends his boys for higher education, and he hopes that they would grow up and become engineers and doctors.

The elder son, Ramanathan (Senthil) gets a diploma from a polytechnic, and gets a job at a nearby factory; For that his father had to deposit fifty thousand rupees which he borrows from a moneylender. Ramanathan starts indulging in life, and soon his father decides that it is time to get him married and finds Latha (Meena - A new actress, not the glamour doll) for him. Latha is not very happy to stay with his parents, and after an year Ramanathan fights with his parents and shifts to a different house. Ramalingam, the younger son (played by the director Cheran himself) is more sensitive and respects his parents' emotions. He falls in love with his classmate Vasanthi (Padmapriya) in engineering college, but is unable to present and explain the whole thing to his parents, who are already upset with the elder son's deeds. Ramalingam does something to aggravate their misery further - he runs away with Vasanthi to Chennai. He struggles for a living in the city for an year.

One fine day, Ramalingam finds his father at his door. Mutthaiah had come to know about his son's story and has come to offer financial help to him. Ramalingam breaks down in front of his father, and he wants to make up for all his mistakes and to stay with his lonely parents. Soon, he manages to get a job at Chennai. Vasanthi stays under her in-law's care at the village, while Ramalingam stays at Chennai and visits the village once in a week. The rest of the story shows Ramalingam's efforts to bring happiness and peace in his parents' life.

A scene from Thavamai Thavamirundhu (Courtesy nowrunning dot com)

Thavamai Thavamirundhu is around 200 minutes long, and it covers the period from 1970 to 2005. The film shows a wide variety of landscapes, brilliantly photographed by MS Prabhu - It starts from a remote Tamil Nadu village covered with palm trees and vast empty lands, then goes to the city atmosphere of Chennai, and finally, to a posh apartment at Madurai, from the balcony of which we can see the tall gopurams of the Meenakshi temple standing majestically. Even though the film is shown with present-day scenes (in black and white) interwoven with flashbacks, the overall story follows the classical narration style of old tales. The story and characters are nothing really new - We have seen these characters in several Malayalam films like Kutumba Puranam, Kutumba Vishesham, Valsalyam, or even in Tamil films like Anandam. But Cheran narrates the story sensitively, with almost no melodrama, and has made it a touching viewing experience. It is a film with a message, but the message never shows up as too explicit, and it is mainly the story and characters that find prominent place in the film.

The pillars of Thavamai Thavamirundhu are Raj Kiran and Sharanya, who have given outstanding performances, capturing even the minute expressions and thought-reflections of the old couple, and made their roles memorable. Cheran himself has given a fine performance, and Padmapriya and other actors also have performed well. Even a small role like that of Latha is played nicely: The scene in which she visits her brother-in-law's apartment and scrolls her eyes through the rich surroundings with jealousy - is a perfect example. The background music by Sabesh Murali underlines the emotional intensity of the scenes.

Cheran comes out as a better director and actor in Thavamai Thavamirundhu compared to his previous film, and his sincerity and dedication is seen in every inch of the film. However, I think he should have tried to make the film shorter by editing few scenes from Ramalingam's college life and romance. Besides, Cheran and Padmapriya looked too old for the characters of college students. Towards the end of the film, Ramalingam's entry to success seemed a bit abrupt. But, Despite all of its shortcomings, Thavamai Thavamirundhu is an immensely watchable film.

CI Paul

In the Malayalam film Vellanakalute Nadu, there is a role of the brother of the character played by Shobhana, the heroine. He had only three or four scenes in the film, if I remember correctly. But I liked the way CI Paul, the actor, played this character. I had watched this film from Christ College auditorium, as part of some free film show. I still remember the scene where CI Paul bursts out at Jagadeesh and team, and kicks the vessels and temporary cooking arrangements that they had setup in his compound, without his permission.

CI Paul never got any roles in his film career that can be called as challenging. Most of them were minor ones, lasting only few scenes, and often with a touch of comedy. But I think he portrayed these characters in a natural way and made them memorable, however small they are. The "good" police inspector of Nadodikkattu, the food inspector of Mithunam, hero's father in Darling Darling - these are some of the characters that come to my mind now. And of course, the role of the hero's (played by Sreenivasan) father-in-law in Vadakkunokkiyanthram, and the scene in which Sreenivasan beats him mistakenly, and then asks "Achchan eppo vannu?", respectfully.

CI Paul passed away on 14th December. I came to know about this only last week, from Mathrubhoomi newspaper where his relatives had put a notice about the 10th day rituals.

Parineeta

I read the short novel Parineeta today. This Bengali novel by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay is translated by Malobika Chaudhuri and it was published by Penguin to coincide with Pradeep Sarkar's film based on the novel (The cover of the book says that it was a film by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who was actually the producer and co-writer of screenplay of the film).

Lolita is very young in the novel compared to the film - she is just thirteen when Shekhar "marries" her, and also Shekhar's father, Nabin Roy, is not given too much of a villainous image in the novel. There is no melodramatic climax either, which had spoiled the film. I felt that the novel has a kind of innocent charm which was missing in the film.

Parineeta is a readable novel, and we can finish reading it in an hour or two. But, I felt that there is nothing very memorable in it, except for a character study of the main character, Shekhar.

Thanmathra

Watched the Malayalam film Thanmathra today at Sangeeth theatre. This is Blessy's directorial venture after Kazhcha, and tells the story of a middle-aged secretariat employee named Rameshan Nair, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The story is inspired from Padmarajan's short story called Orma.

Rameshan Nair (Brilliantly played by Mohanlal) lives in Thiruvananthapuram with his wife and two children. His father (Nedumudi Venu) had wanted him to become an IAS officer, but Rameshan was unable to fulfill his father's ambition. He is now hoping to make his son, who is a plus two student, an IAS officer, and this has been a wish of "three generations", he says. For his son, Rameshan Nair is a "friend, philosopher and guide". It was then that he starts forgetting his office files and bike keys, and is diagnosed of Alzheimer’s disease.

Memories are the most valuable things in Life. The horror that our memories are leaving us one by one - that would be a terrible feeling. One would have expected Blessy to make a film fully exploiting the talent of a great actor like Mohanlal, showing the tragedy of Rameshan Nair as he slowly sinks into forgetfulness. However, after few brief scenes of Rameshan forgetting minor things, Blessy abruptly converts him to a totally broken person overnight, after which he doesn't even recognize his wife and children. In the whole of second half, Mohanlal's role is something like that of mentally retarded person. I kept on wondering how the director will end the film, and expected something memorable, however, he disappointed there as well. It is evident that Blessy wanted to make a good artistic film, but unfortunately he doesn't succeed in that completely.

A Scene from Thanmathra (Courtesy thanmathra dot com)

Thanmathra has several scenes crafted touchingly, mainly portraying the relationship between Father and Son. Rameshan Nair narrating his childhood days in which he had lied to his mother, and his son crying and admitting that he had also lied, Rameshan Nair creating a mock fight with his father as he is about to bid farewell to him - all are examples. In another memorable scene in the second half, Rameshan Nair recognizes his childhood girlfriend, as his wife stands and watches them helplessly.

However, Blessy is not consistent in blending the scenes with sensitivity. His portrayals of the harshness of the World go to the extremes, and are nearly unbelievable. The scene of farewell program that the secretariat employees organize for Rameshan Nair, is an example. All his colleagues look totally unaffected by Rameshan's tragedy. His son (don’t know the name of the actor) speaks smartly but there is a touch of artificiality when he dictates the retirement application for his father. It looked like the audience were getting affected by this, and they were taking these scenes as comic and laughing loudly. In a later scene, the director kills a character called Joseph (Jagathi). Probably he wanted to portray Human Tragedy, but I felt that this was totally out of place.

The Music by Mohan Sithara and the technical department is excellent, and I liked the "kattu viriyithe kannamma" song especially, which fits well in the film.

Beauty and Sadness

Beauty and Sadness (1975) is the last novel written by Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, and it was published after his death in 1972. The novel is translated from Japanese by Howard Hibbett.

In the beginning of the novel, we see aging author Oki Toshio traveling to Kyoto by train. He wants to be there at Kyoto during the New Year's Eve to hear the living sound of the old temple bells. But his real intention behind this trip is to meet Otoko Ueno, with whom he was in love twenty years back.

Oki was a married man in his thirties when he first met Otoko, who was a young girl of sixteen that time. After a brief relationship between them, Otoko becomes pregnant. The child dies during birth, and Oki finds himself unable to marry Otoko. After few months in a psychiatric ward, Otoko, with her mother, shifts to Kyoto. It had been twenty years after that. Oki is now an established writer, with his most popular novel being A Girl of Sixteen, which was based on his own relationship with Otoko. From a magazine, Oki comes to know that Otoko is now a painter and is living near an old temple at Kyoto.

Otoko never had hatred towards Oki. She had learned a lot in Life during twenty years, and it is from A Girl of Sixteen that she actually learns more about Oki and his thoughts during the days of their acquaintance. She had started looking at her relationship with Oki from a philosophical angle, and thinks that the thoughts are purifying her. She doesn't want to admit that she still loves him. She also wonders whether her love for Oki, her mother, and her pupil Keiko are just forms of self-love.

Oki meets Otoko and they together hear the temple bells ringing. But Otoko disappoints him as she doesn't meet him alone, but along with two geishas and Keiko, who stays with her.

The old love affair between Oki and Otoko goes to the background and Keiko, a complex character herself, becomes the main character of the novel, as she decides to take revenge for her mentor. Her targets are Oki as well as his son, Taichiro. And for revenge, she has her own unique plans. But the reader (at least I) is left confused regarding what her real intentions are.

Beauty and Sadness has brilliant portrayals of the five main characters appearing in the novel - Otoko, Keiko, Oki, Taichiro, and Fumiko, Oki's life. It also gives glimpses of Japan's life and landscapes. Along with the main theme, there are few intriguing references to other stories, like that of Princess Kazunomiya. During some excavations, workers of a museum open the tomb of the princess, and they find a little glass plate between the arms of the skeleton of the princess. It turned out that the glass plate was a kind of photograph, and a worker examining it against sunlight saw the figure of a young man on it; but it quickly faded away. Was the princess buried holding a photograph? Who was there in the photograph, was it her husband or lover? Had she asked her maid to keep the glass plate in between her hands secretly when she was dying, hoping to have her lover with her during her death? Kawabata leaves the characters and readers wondering about these matters. And when Fumiko feels sad for the princess's skeleton being "lonely" without the photograph, an unknown sadness comes over us.

Seven and a Half

I was looking at today's date, "December 16" and it looked vaguely familiar. Then I recalled that it has been 9 years since I entered my first job, which was in 1996. I was away for studies for an year and half in between, so in total it makes seven and half years in the software industry.

It has indeed been quite long!! These years have made me rich, greedy, old, fat, cunning, selfish, cynic, and mostly a useless material as far as anything related to "real" computer engineering work is concerned. On the positive side, I have learned to handle English language reasonably well :-)

Indians and Cleanliness

Today, in the Suprabhatham program in Asianet, they showed an interview with Santhosh George, maker of the Sancharam series of video travelogues. It was interesting to listen to his talks. He seemed to be simple, frank, and straight forward.

When asked to compare the Malayalees with other people, with respect to cleanliness, he said that the Malayalees just bath twice a day, that’s all. As far as keeping one's country clean, Malayalees are like barbarians, he said. I would agree with this. For us Malayalees (or for all Indians, for that matter), cleanliness means keeping our house clean. If we throw all garbage out of our houses, that’s more than enough.

Sancharam is a unique travel program, and I have enjoyed watching many of its episodes.

Film on Ravi Varma

The article at http://www.musicindiaonline.com/n/i/malayalam/1430/ says that Shaji N Karun is making a film based on the life of Raja Ravi Varma. I think the life of the legendary artist was as colorful as his great paintings, and there could be many aspects in it which a director like Shaji can use to make a brilliant film.

I remember, earlier there was some news about a film on Ravi Varma being made by Sharat, director of the Malayalam film Sayahnam. But nothing was heard about this project after that. It was supposed to be based on Ranjit Desai's Marathi novel about Ravi Varma, which was mainly focused on the painter's life in Maharashtra.

I think Rajit Kapur would be a good choice for Ravi Varma's role in the film.

Tintin in the Congo

Read my copy of Tintin in the Congo today. This Tintin book, the second one that Herge made, was first published in French in 1931 as Tintin au Congo, in black and white. This book was revised and published in 1946, in color. The book shows Tintin's adventures in Belgian Congo, and it has a foreword section, which says: "In his portrayal of the Belgian Congo, the young Herge reflects the colonial attitudes of the time. He himself admitted that he depicted the African people according to the bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period - an interpretation that some of today's readers may find offensive. The same could be said of his treatment of big-game hunting." It seems Herge even redrew a page in the revised version of 1946. However, it was only in 1991 that the first English language edition of this book was published, that too in black and white. The color English version is coming now, in 2005. It completes my Tintin collection as well.

The issues with racism and hunting apart, the plot of Tintin in the Congo is boring and ideas are childish, and it would highly disappoint any reader who reads it after going through those more interesting books that came later in the series. At one place, Snowy is caught by a monkey, and to rescue him, Tintin kills another monkey, tears its skin and wears it over him, and goes to the monkey and exchanges his hat for Snowy! In another one, a python swallows Snowy, but Snowy tears open the python's stomach, and walks through its body! In yet another one, Tintin uses an electromagnet to divert arrows coming towards him. There are many more such stuff which create disgust rather than amusement.

However, we can also see seeds of several ideas and images in this book, which Herge has enhanced and reproduced in more sophisticated form in later books. The significance of Tintin in the Congo is mainly historical, I feel, and it shows Herge's development as an artist. The illustrations in the book are far more refined than the first book, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets; However, details in drawings are still less, and they are far behind the polished illustrations of later Tintin books.

Pratidwandi

Read the Bengali novel Pratidwandi by Sunil Gangopadhyay, translated by Enakshi Chatterjee.

I have read Malayalam translations of two novels by the author before - Swargam Thedunna Manushyar and Ajnjathan (I don’t know the original Bengali titles), and liked them. But the primary reason for reading Pratidwandi was that Satyajit Ray has made a film based on it, which I haven’t seen yet. Ray has written a "foreword" for this translation, in which he says: "I happened upon Pratidwandi at a time when I was looking not just for any suitable subject, but for a subject of a specific type. This was early 1970. The urban scene was then dominated by the youth - whether in politics, on the fringe of it, or out of it. Joblessness, cynicism, the clash of generations, seething discontent exploding into violence.. one couldn’t help reacting to it all and, going one step further, wishing to put some of this into a film."

Pratidwandi is set in Calcutta of late 1960s. Siddhartha, the main character, is a representative of the youth of those days - He is from a family which was once very rich. But now they are under tough times and he is unable to go for higher studies after completing BSc., as the family cant afford his education. His efforts to get a job are futile, and he spends his days attending interviews, and searching for some object to offload his anger. His younger sister is having to discontinue her studies when she is offered a job. She acts as a rebel, and lives in her own way. His younger brother is attracted towards the communist party, and hopes to build a "new world" through revolution, just like many other young men of those days. "The redeeming feature of this otherwise bleak novel is a streak of romanticism that runs through the narrative and the glimpse of a beautiful and innocent world which keeps the protagonist striving and the reader sympathetic to his cause", the publisher's note says. As Ray has mentioned, the most likeable aspect in this novel is Siddhartha himself. He never appears as an idealist; He is just an ordinary man, with several contradictions and shortcomings, failing in life most often than winning. We could easily understand him and his emotions.

Pratidwandi is a very readable novel. But I cant say it is anything extraordinary or unforgettable.

Strand Book Festival

Today I went for Strand book festival at Chinnaswamy stadium. They have a very good collection there, and I got the view of a cricket stadium for the first time in my life. It looked very small, compared to what it looked like in television.

I spent a good amount in buying books. Few of the books I bought are the following:

- Beauty and Sadness, a novel by Yasunari Kawabata.
- A collection of fairy tales written by Hermann Hesse.
- Elephant Maximus, A portrait of the Indian elephant, by Stephen Alter.
- The Third Translation, a novel by Matt Bondurant.
- Early Views of India, a book about the travels of Thomas and William Daniell through India during 1786-1794, along with several illustrations of ancient monuments made during that time.

When I reached home in the evening, Asianet was showing a program with Mammootty and Jagadeesh. Mammootty was acting as Rajamanikyam of his recent hit film, and he looked like doing mimicry, just like a presenter of one of those several comedy programs like Comedy Time.

Kalika

Today evening, Asianet showed the 1980 Malayalam film Kalika. Based on a horror novel by Mohanachandran (I remember reading few chapters of this novel in old issues of Kumkumam weekly when I was in school), this film is directed by Balachandra Menon, and surprisingly, he doesn’t act in this one!

The story is about four people (played by four nice actors - Balan K Nair, Sukumaran, Venu Nagavally and Sreenath) coming to stay at a haunted house in a village. A village elder (Adoor Bhasi) comes to help them in settling down. They come to know that the devi of the village is captured by someone using sorcery, and the story shows how they rescue the devi.

In the initial scenes, the director has succeeded in creating a romantically eerie atmosphere just with the help of six or seven characters and absolutely no technical gimmicks, and I liked the scenes from the old Kerala village. The film disappointed in later scenes, but nevertheless it was good watching an old Malayalam film during the weekend, instead of junk films like Daivathinte Makan which they have been repeatedly showing on television during weekends for ages.