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May 4, 2004

Bollywood Junta Party

This 2004 election will be in historical in many dimensions. One important fact would be that the political parties have managed to rope the most number of stars than any other election before. Every single party irrespective of their representation in parliament have roped in stars.

Bollywood has shelled out the major share of it’s stars for this election campaign. From Dharmendra to Govinda to Hema Malini to Sharmila Tagore, Sudha Chandran, Phoonam Dhillon, Zeenat Aman, Smiriti Irani, Om Puri, Yukta Mookhey and Namrata Shirodhkar, this list extends endlessly. South India, known for elevating simple stars to supremo of a state, also offers a bouquet of stars.

While accepting that the stars have added glitter and glamour to the election campaign, are they experienced enough to contest for the MP seats. While it is even debatable if the existing non-star politicians are adding value to their consituencies, a rain of stars in the election will make up for more face and no intrinsic value.

Triggerring a debate if stars should become politicians is as old as elections themselves. I ain’t for it. But just showing them off for a election campaign and trying to woo the voters doesn’t seem ideological. If only stars could denounce the politicial parties, what a noble virtue it would be.

I am just dreaming. Lazy, wake up !!.
May 4, 2004

Footprints…

Guest Blog 6 – Anand Chandrasekharan

One can hardly forget the haunting voice of Rani Mukherjee and the piano as the Bengali lyrics of Akashe Jyotsna (Moonlight in the Sky) are recited in Hey Ram just before the song Nee Paartha Paaravikku unfolds. The poem is written by Jibonanda Dass. I pestered a Bengali friend to translate it for me when I first heard the song (and he did a pretty good job of it!), only to find a good English translation online:

Akashe Jyotsna
Moonlight in the sky
On the Forest Trail the Scent of the Leopard
My Heart is like Deer
In the Silence of this night, which way am I going?
The silvery shadow of leaves on my body
No more deer anywhere
As far as I go I see the moon bent like a sickle
Cutting the last golden deer-grain
Then sinking slowly
Into the darkness of all the sleep
In the eyes of a 100 does.

The analogy of the deer (the heart) wandering about in the forest trail, and the moonlight (love?) shining wherever she wanders paints a very vivid picture in the listener’s mind. The mention of the sickle and cutting of the grain also evokes abstract memories a la Kahlil Gibran’s Prophet. Is it just the capturing of a random walk in the mind of the singer, or is there is a deeper meaning?
May 3, 2004

Rajini Avatars as JAGGUBHAI

I was surprised when my friend called me this early morning and asked me if I was looking at the newspaper. Not the English dailies he said but the Tamil ones. He dropped the happy bomb too. See it, a surprise awaits you.

I knew it was coming. There were talks all over the last week about it. It was said to be on 4th. I was awaiting it but I never knew it could be one day before. It rained all over yesterday and today morning. So I biked against the drizzles to the newspaper mart only to find that Rajini has announced his new film Jaggubhai. Ravikumar had announced last week that he would be directing Rajini’s next flick and so he does. But AR Rahman back on the tunes and Jeeva on the angles have certainly impressed me to the core. I am sure Jeeva can pitch in a lot with his experience.

This move of Rajini announcing his new movie Jaggubhai is certainly very dramatic. For a complete Rajini Fan like me, it is refreshing news. But when I look at with an outsider view, it is dramatic in all the angles. Especially during this moment when Rajini’s integrity gets beaten up by the media and the political arena, this move of Rajini balances him as level-headed. Still it is very dramatic pre-dominantly because Tamil Nadu is set to vote in just one week and the opinion polls suggest DMK / Congress sweeping across the state.

Having been an all-time fan of Rajnikanth films, I was definitely not convinced by his off late call for democratic opposition against the PMK. Rajini who was expected to be refreshing change in the political arena shouldn’t be seen as someone who is involving his fans for a personal benefit. Though I am sure it wasn’t his intention, it was projected by the media and he was forced to do it.

On the promos Rajini poses like a muslim/hindu with a gun beside him sitting in an odd pose. This oddness isn’t new for Rajini. When I saw the first ad of Basha on the same paper, I felt it. The name was very odd. Continuing the same oddity of name was Padayappa. I was thinking that Basha would fail miserable for the name itself. But both Padayappa and Basha proved in the Box-Office as the most successsful movies.

For the hunger stricken media, this odd costume and the pose, inclusive of the name will be a dream come true news. In the next few weeks, Jaggubhai will occupy the first pages and screens of most of the media. Jaggubhai’s news will be bitten, chewed and eaten by the every available media till they over expose the film and it’s cast. I only hope Rajini plays safe this time with the media and makes sure he feeds them well, else the hype would be blown enough that the bubble bursts soon after it’s created.

Check out the Daily Thanthi Ad of JagguBhai.
April 29, 2004

Funda on Fanah

Guest Blog 4 – Anand Chandrasekharan

Just like a book on Oprah’s list suddenly sees sales go through the roof, words used in a Rahman song suddenly come find themselves in vogue. Fanah may have come into popular conversation that way, but it actually has both spiritual and philosophical meaning in Islam.

One of the early Islamic writers (Ghazzali) used Fanah in the Ihya to refer to self-actualization, in a Buddhistic Nirvana Sense. In the state of Fanah, the individual loses the person in the temporal world. This kind of writing met with opposition from some interpreters, who claimed that such a moral world had never existed except in the Quran.

The general theme of the song, that love leads to a higher plane (a la Piravi pizhai, kadhal thirutham) resonates with Ghazzali’s writings, which says that an understanding and following of the Tawhidi in daily life, leads to the state of Fanah.

There you have it! When Vairamuthu says Yakkai thiri, Kadhal Sudar (My body the wick, your love the flame!), we know nothing can follow but Fanah!… It probably also explains why, this is one of those rare occasions when it’s hard to come up with a single word in Tamil which conveys the same meaning (and hence the Urdu word is re-used in the Tamil version).
April 28, 2004

Four Movies and a Weekend

1. The Last Samurai :

It was great to see Tom Cruise in this remarkable role of Captain Algren who is a plan less American soldier. His self-esteem and his sense of being a soldier gets him in-between two worlds which have their own philosophies. There lies perhaps his greatest challenge and this challenge is all about the battle of two completely different psychologies.

Tom Cruise gets two thumbs up for producing this saga of a samurai. Also he has disciplined himself for a role like this. He has managed to bring to life, the American soldier who is caught amidst two eras in Japan. This will be one of the milestones in his filmography after Mission Impossible. Ken Watanabe as Katsumoto brings to life, a true samurai hero. He manages to bring in facial expressions well to balance his character with fewer dialogues. The movie also talks about the Samurai culture and their strong way of life.

As the director Edward Zwick remarked in his interview, it was a time of transition. In every culture, that moment of change from the antique to the modern is especially poignant and dramatic. It is also wondrously visual. Each image, each landscape, each room tells the story, the juxtaposition of the old and new. A man in a bowler hat strolls beside a woman wearing a kimono. A man firing a repeating rifle faces a man wielding a sword.

However, the process of Tom Cruise getting mentally bent towards the Samurai is very detailed. Very dragging at times. A must watch for tom cruise fans and also others who love to watch inspirational stuff.

2. Udhaya :

This movie is from director coming from the camps of Mani Ratnam. Azhagam Perumal, the director of Dum Dum Dum and the latest Joot started this film as his first attempt. But before the film was out, it had various hiccups and that delayed the film’s release. The film was in production for more than 2-3 years which is evident from the looks of the stars getting changed from scene to scene. It’s a classic example of how a film fails in the box-office because of the timing of its release.

A R Rahman being the music director has done justice for the songs. Thiruvallikkenni Kaari gets a pat for AR Rahman.

Any day this movie will be on Ungal Sun TV. So watch it then.

3. Kill Bill :

I want to place my review of Kill Bill Vol 1 after watching Kill Bill Vol 2. Being a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino since his Pulp Fiction, I felt a little let down by looking at those blood fountains pumping out of those Japanese heads since they lacked the finesse and the creativity of Q.T. However it was more gore and violent than The Passion of the Christ. Actually both movies shouldn’t be compared for the violence. Passion of the Christ was more historical violence and Kill Bill was very fictional.

However, I’m inquisitive to watch The Bride take over Bill in Vol 2. Incidentally, I also developed a liking for Uma Thurman since her role as Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin. She is one hell of a female and she hasn’t got roles that matched her capabilities. I wish and hope Kill Bill Vol2 fills the gap. The reviews of Kill Bill Vol2 are out and they are promising and making me more curious. Let’s wait and watch on the big screen.

Co-incidentally I watched The Last Samurai and Kill Bill on consecutive days and it was a Japanese overdose for me 😉

4. Vaanam Vasappadum :

Will write a brief review on this. Read my pre-release note on Vaanam Vasappadum.

Bollywood Junta Party

Footprints…

Rajini Avatars as JAGGUBHAI

Funda on Fanah

Four Movies and a Weekend