Drishyam, 2013

Watched Driyshyam, the Malayalam movie which is spawning so many remakes, yesterday.

An interesting thriller, which inverts the usual thriller genre, as we know from the beginning who committed a crime. The suspense of the movie is whether the criminals would be saved or not. The sympathies of the audience are towards the criminals. They want them to be saved.

For me, the movie didn't work. And it didn't work because of its moral apathy. What it says that to save one's family, it is alright to hide a killing. What it doesn't explicitly say, but plays upon, is people's disenchantment with the workings of criminal justice system and hence their acceptance of different alternative justice mechanisms like Kangaroo courts or equivalents.

Another reason the movie didn't work for me is Lalettan, as the larger than life Mohan Lal, is fondly called by his crores of fans. In fact, he is so larger than life and every other character is so much in awe of him, that the film looks to be suffering from miscasting. It is not that he doesn't try. He does and also succeeds in conveying the life world of an auto didact, with its attendant lack of self doubt. Life world of a self made man who values the life he had created. But many others seem in awe with his character. And that doesn't work.

Would love to hear more from friends who have seen the movie.:-))

Amma Ariyan, 1986

Went to see, after much planning, missing my lunch, straight from a class, travelling some 10 kilometres, a movie by a film maker long dead again after almost 30 years.

Jadavpur Film Society was showing a better print of Amma Ariyan by the legendary Malayalam filmmaker, John Abraham.

A rebel and a genius, John did many interesting things adding to the mythology around him. One of the stories about him is that once he said that if MGR can be a hero in a Tamizh movie, even a donkey could be a hero. And he really made a Tamizh movie with a donkey in the main role. The movie got him the best film award at the national awards in that year.:-))

John, one of the most respected alumni of FTII had a rather nomadic life. And an influence which went much beyond his four completed films.

Last time I saw Abraham's movies was in a JNU auditorium in Delhi ( somewhere in the city, not on the campus) when I was visiting. This could be 1987, sometime after the death of Abraham at a relatively young age of 50. I remember having seen three of his movies. One was definitely Agraharathil Kazhutai ( Donkey in the Elite Colony). The second one was most probably Vidyarthikale Ithile Ithile ( This way, Students). And off course, Amma Ariyan (Report to Mother). While all the three movies were interesting in their own right, Amma Ariyan had a narrative style which seemed quite phenomenological to me.

In the years since I saw it last, Amma Ariyan ( made in 1986) has grown in stature. It got selected as the only movie from South India in the top 10 movies of Indian cinema mad by the prestigious British Film Institute in 2011.

I realised after watching it that I didn't remember much of the movie except some key facts about it. So it was almost a fresh viewing.

The movie is about a person's journey to look for the identity of a suicide victim and after he finds his identity- his journey to give the victim's mother the bad news.

Through a non linear, as I said earlier, phenomenological narration, the movie tries to present many facets of the dead person. At another level, we get a road trip (and boat trip) from North Kerala to Southern Kerala, seeing many places through very special eyes. Eyes of John as a documentary maker. Documenting the history of people's struggle in the places he travels through. It is almost a visual atlas of people's struggle. The propensity for filming the reflected images made me think of what could be their significance. And invocations to mothers and mother goddess seemed like a tribute to Ghatak.

The film seems to have aged well.

Wonder if Nina Lath would be kind enough to bring out a collection of DVDs of John Abraham to make him available for the next generation of viewers.

Apart from its content and style, Amma Ariyan is also important in terms of how it was made. John and some others formed a cooperative venture called Odessa Collective ( I hope you get the Eisenstein tribute)  to take movies to people. Apart from showing movies to people in villages and so on, they also collected money from people (Preceding what we now know as crowd funding by at least three decades. And typically crowd funding involves a reciprocal arrangement, here were people donating money without any expectations) in small amounts to make the movie. And it was a very frugal film making. Something which Dogme 95 movement of Lars Von trier also tried to do, in terms of its intent in 1995.

Catch it if you can.:-))

Swapaanam, 2013

Watched Swapaanam, a Malayalam movie by the maestro Shaji N Karun.

This is second Shaji movie where he has engaged with a character from performing arts. Vaanprastham (1999) had Mohanlal playing a Kathakali performer.

Swapaanam is about the life and loves of a Chenda player. Chenda is a percussion instrument, apparently, considered an Asura Vadya or demonic instrument.

Story of the movie is like an epic with an elegiac texture- passing away of a world- gentler and unhurried. The film begins with a fire in an asylum. The scene reminded me of the Buddha sermon where he said "all is burning".

Apart from a gripping story, the music and visuals are fabulous. A large number of Chenda players ( more than150) recorded a particular track in a paddy field. The film has fabulous music - Chenda pieces and Mohinattam songs. And many Mohiniattam pieces. And many haunting visuals of landscapes to remind you that Shaji is also an excellent cameraman.

The film is available on DVD with English subtitles.

Shaji also happens to be an illustrious alumnus of FTII.:-))

Would love to have views of the friends who may have watched it.:-))

Rasam, 2015

In my season of Malayalam movies, watched a 2015 release,which apparently bombed on the box office.

Rasam is supposed to be mostly about food, including the name.:-)). It joins movies around food in recent times like Love Shove Te Chicken Khurana, Daawat-e- Ishq, The Hundred Foot Journey.:-)). However, I am still waiting for the Indian Chocolat.:-))

The movie does bring some nuances of the Malayali feast tradition and also shows the way a market economy is transforming the institution of feasts. It also brings out nuances of food in a hierarchical society like India with its notions of pollution and purity.
A casting coup was to have Lalettan as Lalettan. Much better. Because even otherwise, he would have remained Lalettan.

Was also happy to find as bonus some shots of the waterfronts of Doha and lyrics by Malayali poet Kavalam Narayan Panicker.:-))

Would love to hear from friends who may have seen the movie.:-))