Of styles and mannerisms...

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2012

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Of all the news articles I have read about Rajesh Khanna recently, Avijit Ghosh's article in TOI seemed very candid. Talking about Rajesh Khanna's post glory days - Avijit says, "Rajesh Khanna's acting was defined by style. But in his later years, the style degenerated into a bundle of mannerisms. Like Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna too became his own parody".

I feel that is true with most the actors who were once crowned as superstars in Indian Cinema. Uff... the perils of stardom. In an effort to create their own niche, they create their own style. Their fans crave more of it. Then these styles and mannerisms sneak awkwardly into every character and every scene they play. While watching some old movies I have always sat back and said - 'Hey, wait.... there is too much of Rajesh Khanna/Dev Anand/Dilip Kumar/Shammi Kapoor in this character.. where is Gopal or Shyam or Raju in this!!'. 

With multitude of stories being told and diverse characters etched out, I am glad many of current actors are not getting repetitive. I am glad that presently in Hindi Cinema, there is no scope for an actor to become a superstar! Thanks to the new breed of screen writers and directors for that. Kudos to the courage of the actors too.

The 17th one...

Posted by Anantha | Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2012

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Federer wins this Grandslam after a gap of little more than two years. When every great sports person goes through a lean patch of their career, it is common for media to despise him. It gets worse if that person is nearing 30. But, greatest players are those who never let such criticism get into their heads, just the way they never let success get into their heads in their prime time. Me being a devotee of Federer, waited patiently for him to lift up another Grandslam during all this time. In these matters I was as convinced as Federer or his clan could be. As Murray said, I totally believed that Federer at 30 is still better than most of the players out there.


Like the way Tendulkar took his time to reach his 100th ton, Federer might take a little while to reach his 20th Grandslam! Lets patiently wait till that happens :)

Gangs of Wasseypur

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , | Posted on Wednesday, July 04, 2012

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Dir: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Piyush Pishra, Richa Chadda


Movie viewing is a personal experience. A person likes or dislikes a movie based on his/her own reasons. The more the valid reasons are, so genuine will be the like/dislike. Having said that, I do not personally like these kinds of subjects for a movie or a story - to be precise - for my own reasons, which I have tried to elaborate below. Also want to accentuate, that Gangs of Wasseypur is certainly a well made movie, I have a personal liking for Anurag Kashyap, have always liked the distinct quirks in his earlier movies.

The movie is the story of Sardar Khan [Manoj Bajpai] who runs coal, scrap, ‘machchi’, fruit mafia and what not in Dhanbad/Wasseypur with his chacha Farhan [Piyush Mishra] and et al. Besides running  all these mafia, Sardar Khan has a clear motive of killing Ramadhir Singh [Tigmanshu Dhulia], an ex mafia don who is busy making his career in politics now, to avenge for his father’s murder. What seems to be a revenge drama set in the socio-political backdrop of Dhanbad is equally the story of chacha Farhan [who narrates the story to audience throughout the movie], and Nagma – Sardar’s wife, Durga – Sardar’s keep, Ramadhir Singh and coal, sand, scrap mafia and rivalry between different local ethnic groups. I think it’s the brilliance of scriptwriters to make this movie a story of all these people and places and also a handful of other characters which I have not mentioned here. The focus of narration shifts among these characters without audience feeling the jerk. Anurag seems to be very sure of this premise and is in complete command over the story.

Ok, now let me state why I do not like these types of stories. Often, the stories of gang wars stride in the labyrinth of revenge, jealousy, greed for power and plenty of double crosses. Then there are merciless murders, people getting swatted like worms, bodies lying lifeless in the pool of blood, remorseless murderers, toothless police men, lustful romances, myriad of sidekicks and plenty of maderch**, behench**, chut*** and many such cuss words. Actually that’s not entirely the problem I have with these stories, if these elements add to the starkness of the film, I am okay with it. My problem is, why these characters wait so long to kill each other when anybody can get rid of anybody at any place at any moment! Did you get my point..? When the story is aplenty with so many opportunities for the characters to kill each other, when the end of the story can never be just to any single character in it... Why not have a bang-bang climax much before..?! Most of all, with such movies, Ill not be left with anything to carry back home when leaving the theater. It’s for this reason; I do not think I am waiting for Gangs of Wasseypur II in which Sardar Khan’s second son Faizal Khan completes the revenge against Ramadheer Singh. No point waiting for the sequel, as there are no secrets to be busted, no questions are left unanswered and not enough interest generated...

Gautham Menon on working with Ilayaraja

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Friday, June 22, 2012

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Found this interview of Gautham Menon about Ilayaraja here. Nice to read about how The Legend makes his music, his preferences, his style of working etc. There's something very genuine about this whole conversation...

Summertime by J M Coetzee

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Thursday, June 07, 2012

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I came across this novel from my favorite Kannada blogger and profound literary critic, Narendra Pai in one of his blogposts.

I am sure every mortal has spared a thought about how would world remember him after his death. This novel is entirely a collection of interviews of people who were once close to J M Coetzee in the 1970s – a period, an English interviewer Vincent considers to be a very important phase in the life of the character J M Coetzee after latter’s death! The character J M Coetzee in the novel is also a writer sharing great similarities with the real life novelist himself. The boundary between real Coetzee and the character in the novel is blurry.

The novel starts with some interesting fragments from the diary of J M Coetzee, some of them ending with a curious footnote reading “to be expanded later”. Then the interviews begin of Julia – a married woman with whom Coetzee had an illicit affair, Margot – Coetzee’s cousin, Adrina – Brazilian dancer who claims Coetzee almost stalked her and her daughter, Martin – Coetzee’s once colleague and Sophie – Coetzee’s another colleague with whom Coetzee had an affair. Quite predictably there are more women who opines about Coetzee than men, as woman could bring out the best and also the worst in a man. Also it’s always interesting to know Venusian retrospect of a Martian and vice versa. Moreover, all these interviews are not sequential, as in Vincent did not interview these in the same order as narrated in the book.

With some of these interviewees ready to bare all to Vincent, while some judiciously revealing the bits and pieces about Coetzee – as a loner, not a man of great character, surely not charming, incompetent, introverted, highly opinionated, who always carried this mysterious aura around – the reader tries to complete the jigsaw puzzle from the pieces collected from these interviews. As mentioned in Narendra Pai’s blog, if we do not read the interviews as narrated in the book and pick them up randomly, there are chances that we get a different image of Coetzee. A slightly different man, than we perceived him to be. That’s really an amazing technique in the narration, to play with the minds of the readers.

But why try to understand a writer from interviews of some people, and why not his novels, writings, letters and memoirs. When the same question is asked by one of the interviewees, Vincent justifies by saying it would not be right to trust Coetzee from his memoirs and letters as he was a fictioneer. From the interviews of Margot and Julia, it was evident that Coetzee wanted to be remembered even after his death for the generations to come, if not for time immemorial. Hence Vincent could be right in saying that Coetzee being a fictioneer could have projected an altered self in his memoirs and letters. That raises a very interesting question of how do you describe the true self of a man? It is understandable and natural too if there is a gap between what we think we are and what we actually are, but from the above lines of Vincent, what we get to know about a person is always an opinion or is it a version of him or an interpretation. Is objective review almost an improbable thing… That's a pretty interesting thought.
Summertime is actually the third book in the trilogy by J M Coetzee. It’s time for me to pick up the first two – Boyhood and Youth soon.

TCS Open 10K run

Posted by Anantha | Posted in | Posted on Monday, May 28, 2012

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Some times, even after accomplishing some things - though it comes out the way you plan it - it does not satisfy you. Yesterday's TCS 10K was one such thing for me! 
The run began at 8AM from Kantheerava stadium. I finished the run around 8:58AM. That's exactly how I want to sum up my experience! I do not have any thing to mention in between. I can't particularly point to a thing and say why was it so. Was it because I was skeptical about my strained right shin or was it the previous day's junk food intake or was it because my Endomondo did not catch GPS signal during the race or was it because I did not have enough time to use the rest rooms after reaching Kantheerava or was it some thing else... I am sure some thing was not right about the whole run. I basically did not enjoy the run. Mind you, it is not the finish timing, I have nothing much to complain there. 56 mins - 58 mins  has always been my 10Kms timing. 

This TCS 10K was more like my engineering studies, All I know is I finished it, I neither enjoyed it nor  I remember anything about it.


Update at 3PM:
OK... the official timing is out now. My net finish time is 56 mins 49 secs. My overall ranking is 771 out of some 7000 odd people who finished the race in my category. More stats can be found here.

Udaan

Posted by Anantha | Posted in , | Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2012

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Director: Vikramaditya Motwane
Cast: Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy, Ram Kapoor, Aayan Boradia


I am not going to write this post like my earlier movie reco posts. As there is lot to say and I am finding it tough to connect the dots. Just to be really really brief about the plot, Udaan is about the relationship of this teenager Rohan [Rajat Barmecha] with his disciplinarian father Bhairav Singh [Ronit Roy] and also with his step brother Arjun [Aayan Boradia].

I am in a mood to say too much, this post would contain many plot spoilers, but if you have not seen Udaan, don't worry too much about it. Because in this movie how it happens is more important than what exactly happens.


  • The city of Jemshedpur looked really beautiful in the movie. I have never been to Jemshedpur. The city which I had imagined to be a dusty and rusty city through my myopic imagination, actually looks lusciously green and 'beautifully wet' in the rainy season. It has become a cliche for writers and directors to say the city or town they are using as a backdrop for the film is supposedly a character in the film and not a mere locale. But in Udaan, Jemshedpur and Shimla, both the places where the movie is shot, come across alive as any other character in the movie. When Bhairav Singh [Ronit Roy] and Rohan [Rajat Barmecha] were running across the city, I really felt like running in that city! Any marathons in Jemshedpur? ;)
  • Loved many of the symbolism used in the movie. The beating of hot iron by a huge piston kinda in Bhairav Singh’s factory when Rohan works as an apprentice there by equating Bhairav befitting Rohan into a mold he wants him to be in, then Jimmy [chachoo, Bhairav’s younger bro] seeing Rohan catching up with Bhairav Singh in one of their early morning jogs symbolizing the grown up Rohan who no longer wants to follow his father’s footsteps and is ready to take on the world. It is very unfortunate that Jimmy sees it, the audience sees it but Bhairav would not.
  • Rohan's friends Vikram, Maninder n Benoy are introduced to the audience at the beginning and not shown at all after they get expelled from school and return to their respective hometowns. Even when we are shown Rohan speaking to Maninder on phone twice in the movie, we just get to hear the voice of Maninder. This trick works great, as an audience we miss to see Rohan's friends as he misses them after their boarding school. Thus we are made to feel what Rohan feels, we are made to miss what Rohan misses. Basically, the director has made sure that we travel with Rohan in his emotional journey.
  • Loved the way Arjun, the step brother of Rohan played by Ayan Boradia, points his finger at defeated Rohan and says 'disgraceful' repeating their father Bhairav Singh :-)
  • Watched director Vikramaditya Motwane's commentary on the movie where he talks about some of the scenes in the movie which he liked shooting, which he disliked for the way it has come out, where he confesses about some small little bloopers in smoking continuities, hair and make up continuity, some justifications for why the things are the way they were in the movie, scenes which were absolute pain to shoot purely because of the logistical and monetary constraints, scenes where things have fallen in place very very unexpectedly (when Rohan comes to live with his father after a gap of 8 years, the quote - Love Happiness on his Tee appears as Lose Happiness because of a crease when he sits on the bed) and have made them look beautiful. I personally love these kind of commentaries which tell the process of a draft manifesting into a fine final product. Another reason to buy original DVDs :) And I must thank Tess for lending me this DVD.
  • The childhood photos of Rohan and his mother which appear in a photo album in the movie are actually of Vikramaditya Motwane's wife Ishika's and her nephew's. And those were the still photos taken by Vikramaditya himself. The photos are very candid and the lady in the photo Ishika is very very gracious!
  • Another special thing about the movie is, the narration does not appear to be in hurry to reveal everything to the audience at once. It takes its time to sufficiently build the aura of every character and create the projection of image in audience's mind and judiciously reveals the details a bit here and a little there.
  • A word about the acting department. Rajat Barmecha is just fine as a teenager with simmering anger against his upbringing. He shows his vulnerable side too when he is reciting stories, poems and during his lately built camaraderie with his step brother. Ram Kapoor is brilliant in his small yet strong role. Manjoth Singh instantly strikes a chord with the audience. According to me, the best was Ronit Roy as Bhairav Singh. Basically it is a well etched multi-layered character. A gray character that is going to stay in my mind for a long time.

Last but not the least, this is the poem Rohan recites to Maninder when both of them – along with other two friends Vikram and Benoy – get expelled from their boarding school and would have to part ways for getting caught watching an adult film in a theater in Shimla.

choti choti chhitrai yaadein
bichhi hui hain lamho ki lawn pe
nange pair unpar chalte chalte
itni dur chalein aaye hain
ki ab bhool gaye joote kaha utare the

aidi komal thi jab aaye the
thodi si nazuk hai abhi bhi
aur nazuk hi rahegi
in khatti meethi yadon ki shararat
jab tak inhe gudgudati rahe

sach, bhool gaye hain
ki joote kahan utare the
par lagta hai
ab unki jarurat nahi..

Note: chhitrai means sprinkled

I found this poem very close to my heart. Want to dedicate this to my close buddies – Basu, Byre, Prashi and Bhai. Neither did we study together in boarding school nor were we caught watching an adult film in theater, but this is to our share of bullshit and mess and fun we were part of :)

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