POInt of View Part 2: new WINE in OLD BOTTLE

“It is impossible to legislate taste, and if it were possible, it would be repugnant. There are no commandments in art and no easy axioms for art appreciation. ‘Do I like this?’ is the question anyone should ask themselves at the moment of confrontation with the picture. But if ‘yes’, why ‘yes?’ and if ‘no’, why ‘no’? The obvious direct emotional response is never simple, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ has nothing at all to do with the picture in its own right”.

Jeanette Winterson, Art [Objects]

 

I guess KB makes films to trick reality into revealing itself (aka capturing Subliminal Reality)… I was thinking about these tags (extracted from the trailers):

AN OFFBEAT FILM

POI – KB’s POINT OF VIEW

A POIGNANT FILM

LOVE NEEDS A MASK

LOVE THE OTHER SIDE OF “LIES”

FORMULAS ARE BROKEN STILL POIGNANT

POI FULL OF LOVES & LIES

A POEM CALLED POI

new WINE in OLD BOTTLE

A person is walking along the shore and finds an old wine bottle. Three options:

(1) Throw it back into the sea

(2) Ignore the bottle

(3) Take the bottle home

Takes the bottle back home and finds a message.  Turns on the lamp (i.e. mind) and trys reading it.  The message first seems strange and disturbing, but soon it appears to be - A cry for help ???

Poet Osip Mandelstam once wrote:

Why shouldn’t the poet turn to his friends, to those who are naturally close to him?

At a critical moment, a seafarer tosses a sealed bottle into the ocean waves, containing his name and a message detailing his fate. Wandering along the dunes many years later, I happen upon it in the sand. I read the message, note the date, the last will and testament of one who has passed on. I have a right to do so. I have not opened someone else’s mail. The message in the bottle was addressed to its finder. I found it. That means, I have become its secret addressee.

Thus Poi is for all of us who read and enjoy poems…

POInt of View Part 1: Poetic Justice For KB?

During the 150th convocation of the University of Madras on 12 November 2007, K.Balachander was honoured with a D.Litt degree (doctorate in Literature). 

Poetic justice?

Yes sir… No sir… I don’t know sir…

Time for Arts & Humanities graduates to find ways to exploit his films. Till then, the simpleton is going to have fun…

Poi is a poem written in fear… Watch it like a film, interpret it like a poem…  The theme deals with Poetry and Literary Criticism… To  truly enjoy this film, one has buy into this statement by Satyajit Ray:

Even today, there are debates over whether or not cinema can be called a form of art. Those who are not prepared to give it that status claim that cinema has no soul of its own; it is a weird mixture of components taken from literature and other forms of art.

The problem is over the word ‘art’. If the word ‘language’ is used instead, I think the true nature of cinema will become clearer and there will be no need for debate. Just as a writer has words at his disposal, a film-maker has image and sound that make up the language of cinema.

Speaking Of Films – The Making of a Film: Structure, Language and Style (1959, 29).

The key to understanding Poi begins with the song Inge Inge Oru Paatu:

There Is A Song Here…
The Sea Is Waiting To Compose A Tune…
Is Waiting To Tell You A Story…
Who Is It Expecting here…

Is It The School of Poems?
Is It The Face of Love?
Is It The Life Beat Of The Souls?
Is It The Translation Of The Literature?

What Is This?
Who Is Going To Say It?
What Is This?
Who Is Going To Say It?

God! Is It Fair?
Is Your Heart Made Of Stone?
God! Is It Fair?
Is Your Heart Made Of Stone?

He Told His Love To The Sea
She Told Her Love To His Body
He Somewhat Won Her…
She Somewhat Won Herself…

At The End Somewhat Love Won Here…
God… You Lost… You Lost To Love…
A Tamil Poem Is Born Here…
Crossing A Sea… It Crawls Here…

The song describes the film as a narrative poem. A story is being told, but with a poetic flair. The film is crafted to be dynamic, changing from phase to phase. The song outlines the four phases:

Phase 1: The School of Poems

Phase 2: The Face of Love

Phase 3: The Life Beat of the Souls

Phase 4: Translation of Literature

What Is This?
Who Is Going To Say It?

1. The Hindu Review

2. Rediff Review

3. Chennai OnLine Review

4. Galatta Review

5. Cinefundas Review

6. Andhra Cafe Review

7. India Glitz Review

8. News Today Review

Book Review: Godless By Ann Coulter

Oh My God!!! Oops… Being a liberal, I don’t want offend Ann by using the word GOD… Just finished reading Godless and I’m now ready to lower Coulter’s threat to human intelligence from Red to Green (Red = Dangerous, Orange = Annoying…. Green= Amusing)… Loss of credibility by Conservative Think Tanks (i.e. Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, etc) has moved Ann right to top of the Conservative Punditry Chart…

Having read other books from Coulter (i.e. TREASON, SLANDER and the most entertaining of them all: How To Talk To A Liberal (If You Must) ), I knew this book was going to offer a good chunk of in your face Liberal bashing… As usual, Coulter needs to offend some group (just to get some free air time to promote her book) and this time she picks on:

These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9-11 was an attack on our nation and acted like as if the terrorist attack only happened to them. They believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently, denouncing bush was part of the closure process.

These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much.

Link To Today Show’s Transcript

But as usual Coulter refuses to touch her religious conservative group’s ( much larger than the four Jersey Wives and more widespread) claim that 9/11 was God’s way of punishing America:

Now if this book had been just another Ann Rant about dirty Liberals (& patriotic conservatives), the SPIN Book Review could have been avoided…

Unfortunately, Coulter uses three chapters (8 to 11) to challenge mock the theory of evolution with the help of Discovery Institute … OK! This really should be a no-brainer… Use Coulter to sell the Concept of Intelligent Design to the mass… It seems like DI’s lack of intelligence in choosing Coulter is the only thing evolving here because:

(1) Coulter’s comments about 9/11 Widows has overshadowed her chapters on Science and Evolution (most probably Bill Dembski being the Ghostwriter, but then again I could being wrong, esp. when the book totally screws up the Peppered moth evolution )…

(2) DI and supporters of ID are now busy trying to separate themselves from Coulter (Esp. Widow Comment)…

So would I still recommend the book… Sure! But not for educational purposes, just for entertainment and understanding the articulate form of spreading hatred & the art of stereotyping…

NEWS To Make Your Head SPIN

OK! Not the kind of news that would have the Editor scream "STOP THE PRESS"… Yet, fits this quote from Jerry Seinfeld :

It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.

So today, I shall tap into the drunk world for some news:

ITEM 1: Driver 'so drunk he should have been dead'

Vidmantas Sungaila was 18 times over the legal limit, but still managed to drive his truck, recognize the police and even stop for a breathalyzer test… Why do I get the feeling, there is drunk out there, who is probably going to interpret this news as an open challenge and make an attempt for 19 times over the limit… But the person, who probably could have challenged this has quit drinking (See ITEM 2)

ITEM 2: HOUSE FOR RENT: 2 BEDS,1 BATH ..AND 70,000 EMPTY BEER CANS

The investigative reporter has narrowed down the numbers to 24 beers/day within a span of eight years…

ITEM 3: Teacher accused of showing up drunk

With the shortage of Industrial Arts Teachers in US, I'm pretty sure Mr.Johnson will probably show up to class again…

ITEM 4: Unlicensed, drunk car thief risks life in fast lanes

To drink and drive is bad, but to drink, steal and drive without a license is simply cool…

ITEM 5: Man charged with stealing gum ball machine from police station

The man was smart enough to let his drunk friend to drive the car, so the gum ball machine theft should be pardoned…

ITEM 6: Indian court protects wife after drunk husband mumbled ‘divorce’

OK… So the Muslim Clerics in this story had no problem with the husband being drunk (I was always under the impression that drinking was a sin in Islam) and they want to separate a couple that wants to live together? IMHO, a few people need to sober up and it ain't the husband…

ITEM 7: Man With Two Prosthetic Legs, Deaf Man Brawl In Bar

No Comments!!!

ITEM 8: Woman miscarries after scuffle with drunk men

Waiting to see the judgment on this case… The last thing I need to hear from the judge is drunkenness being used as an excuse…

ITEM 9: Bride rejects drunk groom

A standing ovation to the Bride! I mean, if you can't be sober for your wedding, then this match is heading towards hell…

ITEM 10: Drunk man arrested after fighting with police

If you're drunk and have an urge to fight, pick your opponents from ITEM 7… Don't mess around with cops who can use guns and self-defense as an argument to shoot you…

ITEM 11: Cop charged with drunk driving

Please make changes to my comments on ITEM 10… The change should read: It's ok to pick a fight with a drunk cop…

ITEM 12: Driving drunk a sin, cardinal tells Indian Catholics

Driving drunk is not a sin; it's simply a dumb thing to do… Please Cardinal Vithayathil, I think we have enough things added to the Sin Column, no need to expand it…

And with that, SPIN shall end its 12 ITEM Program… (Meant for drunks who are too drunk to complete AA's 12-STEP Program) …

 

And Now Everybody Wants To Be Liberal Leader…

As soon as the Simpleton heard the words “Dr.Ruby Dhalla might be running for the Liberal Leadership,” he knew the time has come to start looking at the list of names of the candidates who will not be running because that list seems to be much shorter…

Rarely does a guy get to say ” I have a crush on a politician,” (not to be confused with “I want to crush a Politican” which has been said many times) but now the Simpleton will shamelessly use those words… I mean, just look at her (or click on her name for better pictures)… And I think its about time Snowland finally got a young, beautiful and talented Liberal Prime Minister (I say Liberal here because even the Simpleton knows about the list of things never to ask from Conservatives)…

But do I really think Ruby has any shot at being a Prime Minister (or even a less important role as the leader of the Liberal Party)… Most probably not for another 20 years… And this has very little to do with either race or gender… It has more to do with her age … I think a 15 year old kid has a better chance than Ruby… For some weird reason, people have a hard time accepting a person in her 30s as a leader…

OK… I admit, I might have used Ruby as bait to get you to read my views on Snowland Politics, but when the Citizens of a country refuse to accept my theory, I have no choice but to export it…

A Crash-Course In Snowland Polit(r)ic(k)s

After spending eons as the ruling party, the Liberal Party (LP) were recently replaced by the Progressive Conservatives (PC or Tories to their enemies) in Canada… The LP was actually flying the course smoothly, until a sponsorship scandal crashed it… And now for those who love a little irony in their course, the major factor involved in bringing the LP to power during the early 90s was actually the Air Bus scandal by the PC… (In 1984, PC led by their leader Brian Mulroney came to power with the largest parliamentary majority in Canadian History, but in 1993 they saw their majority slip down to just two seats… And the LP led by Jean Chretien would take over the business, only to lose it back to the PC in 2006)…

Snowland’s Unique Technique of Choosing A Government

Snowland has to be the coolest place to live… And mostly because of the way the citizens choose their government… Just like most other countries, almost 50% of the citizens don’t care about politics (or simply don’t vote), so we can ignore those folks… But its the other half (or actual voters) who make Snowland a unique country…

In most countries, citizens elect their leaders based on campaign promises, but in Snowland they do it based on the amount comic relief they are willing to provide… And this probably has to do with the two government sponsored 24/7 Comedy Channels on the tube known as Parliamentary Channels (French & English), which covers the daily proceedings live (and later reruns it a few times) … Now I honestly don’t know when these channels actually started, but a few pundits have pointed they have been around since the early 80s…

Now to prove my theory, I’m going to turn the spotlight on two leaders who pretty much held on to Party Leadership for a long period… To be unbaised, I have picked one from the PC and the other from the LP…

(1) Jean Chrétien ( Canadian PM From 1993 – 2003)

(2) Martin Brian Mulroney (Canadian PM From 1984 – 1993)

These two leaders were able to hold onto the party-leader ship for a long period because:

• They looked funny
• They acted funny
• They sounded funny

So the twelve or thirteen ( if you want to add Ruby to the list) Liberal Leadership canditates should start working on these three qualities to win…

 

A Simple Thought Expanded…

So I was thinking (Red Alert: Nuisance To Follow), why do we never hear  news stories on how an “Employee of the Month” from McDonalds showed up at a camp filled with over-weight beings holding a tray full of Big Macs to give a lecture on the dangers of obesity…

If there was actually a thing called “common sense” and all humans owned a piece of it, they would probably say this is a dumb idea… I mean, they would probably call it playing dangerous mind games using temptation (with enough stories about temptation in myths to rationalize)… OK! No problem, I can play along with that…

But then would someone please explain to the Simpleton, why he continues to hear stories about Miss Universe visiting areas that have been labeled as “AIDS stricken zones of the world” to  promote safe-sex… The Simpleton’s idea to promote safe-sex would be to send old folks  and  have them share their sex stories…

This thought actually reminds me of an interesting person I had once met on a plane  (between 1997 – 2001, I did more flying than superman)… Once a doctor in Congo, but now part of sales team for a Telecom Company in the US… Why did the doctor become a salesperson?… Well! His story went something like this:

Being part of a group of doctors who had to go into rural areas of Congo to treat and prevent AIDS, he slowly lost interest in the medical profession… I was told, most of these villages were very conservative as far as discussions on sex goes, so to promote safe-sex via use of a condom, they had to use a banana to represent the male sex organ… What followed was a shortage of bananas within the village, and many reports of unpeeled “condom wearing”  bananas in the local trash cans…

To end this nuisance, I would like to thank the bitch next door ( and I’m referring to the female dog here and not the lady who owns her) for barking and inspiring me with this thought… A Bark which I had translated as cry from a dog wondering why dogs and other female animals (not to mention Aliens) are not represented in a pageant called Miss Universe…

Now think about that… On a second thought, Please don’t think about that or if you really want to do me favour, please don’t think when you read my scribblings…

Mahapurush And The Art Of Farce

Having crowned myself as the King of Patience, it sort of bugs me to think that I have never been able to sit thru any of the Apu Trilogy movies…And this goes back to the campus days, when the Faculty of Arts would host Satyajit Ray Week every year… “Free Refreshments” was all they had to put on that flyer to catch my attention, yet I have always walked out of the Apu Movies (Yes…Without the free food)…

Now, if I were to lie on a couch with a lady shrink asking me for the true reasons why I can’t sit thru Apu Movies, I have no choice but to blame it on the granny… It all starts with the refusal of water to the old granny, I simply can’t buy the thought  that any person would be cruel enough to do that to an old lady… I could sort of understand states or even countries not wanting to share water, but why wouldn’t humans want to share… Oh! Wait, I think I just got an ESP…OK, it reads “a group of humans form a state” and “a group of states form a country”… In that case, I’m withdrawing my statement… There is absolutely nothing wrong with refusing water to granny…  The problem is not with Apu Trilogy…

IMHO, Ray was a man born to make farce…

A wise person once said, “Laughter is an orgasm by the intercourse of reason with unreason” … and Satire, pretty much defines this orgasm…

If I had to come-up with my favourite Ray Movie, ”MAHAPURUSH” (aka The Holy Man”) would be the one…

The Simpleton’s summarized version of MAHAPURUSH goes like this:

Opening Scene:

A retired lawyer Gurupada (Prasad Mukherjee) and his daughter, Buchi (Gitali Roy) are sharing a compartment with the holy man Birinchi Baba (Charuprakash Gosh) and his assistant (Rabi Gosh) during a train journey… Baba performs what seems to be a miracle good enough to convince Gurupada to become Baba’s devotee… 

Next Important Scene:

We get to see a part of Kolkata’s 50s/60s Adda culture in the form of Nibran (Soman Bose), Satya (Satindra Bhattachryya) and others… Satya, who happens to be Buchi’s Boyfriend, quickly finds out that she too has become Baba’s devotee, jeopardizing their future…

Satya turns to Nibran (who Ray tries to project as the leader of this adda group) for help in order to expose Baba as a fake… And that pretty much sums up of MAHAPURUSH…

Simpleton’s Thoughts:

In the post 9/11 era, I doubt anyone would attempt to make a movie like MAHAPURUSH…And the reason here seems to be the unwritten rules of Political Correctness…  Within my own twisted mind, I often see Political Correctness being used by some humans to create an illusion rather than prevention of human sentiments being hurt… The creators of such illusion are those who use Religion more for Political purposes than Spiritual… Those who use religion for political purposes better start praying with the hope  that God delivers to the poor, because if those folks become skeptic, a nation  will find it hard to shut the doors to the 3Rs (Revolts, Revolutions & Radicals)…

MAHAPURUSH is actually based on a short story by  Rajasekhar “Parasuram” Basu (1880-1960) … Basu often is considered as one of the best Indian Satirist and after reading his 1945 short story “The Rise and Fall of Gammans,” I have no desire to argue…

Birinchi Baba being a fake is pretty much established within the opening frames of the movie (just pay attention to his assistant)… So the movie  is more about his  middle and upper class followers… This Baba has very little philosophy  for the poor, so he tends attract the wealthy educated folks …

Baba presents himself as an ageless man, so he has a lot of stories from the past to share with his devoted followers… Some of my favourite Baba Stories: 

• His arguments with Plato (or Pluto according to Baba) over time
• How he taught Einstein E=MC²
• The Crucifixion of christ was actually a crusifact as Baba had seen it with his own eyes

But Baba’s best sales pitch comes in the form of a theory about clockwise and counter clockwise movement of his fingers and how it relates to past and present… You have to see it to believe it or even not to believe it (Click on scene 3 from the SmashHits Link provided at the bottom)…

Apart from Baba, Ray runs wild with the Adda… For those unfamiliar with the term, Adda is nothing more than a group of people getting together and arguing over various topics for just time pass… Romans used the forum, Greeks used the Symposium and in the modern era we have discussion forums, chat rooms and of course blogs for the same purpose…

Below is Nibran, reminiscing about Swami Taritanda (Ray did not shy away from picking names that would rhyme with popular icons)…

Another creative and humorous scene is when Ray beams with this little method to describe the match-making process involved in bringing Satya and Buchi together…

The idea behind MAHAPURUSH is not to poke fun at Baba or even any Religion, but just to show the foolishness of  his followers… It begins with why the two main characters get involved with Baba… Gurupada does it because he is unable to cope with his wife’s death… But, Buchi is simply using Baba to make Satya jealous and sort of trying get his attention on her…

Scenes From MAHAPURUSH (No Subtitles) From SmashHits.com

ARANGETRAM Part 3: The Movie

“ARANGETRAM” (aka The Debut) sort of came and changed the trend of Tamil Films… This is not a review, but just an interpretation.

IMHO, the main problem was not with the movie, but the goverment’s decision to promote it as a message oriented movie to show the importance of Family-Planning… I doubt that was KB’s intention, but of course,as a director he didn’t mind the free publicity… I mean the only family planning message in the movie came in the form of wall poster displayed for a split-second…

In “ARANGETRAM”, KB tries to give a twist to an old thought from Vatsyayana:

“Poverty is not a virtue. It is an obstacle, not only to pleasure, but also to ethics and virtue. Morality is a luxury which very poor people can rarely afford”

But since our own  Intellectuals added spiritual meaning to some poems, censored others and labeled some poets as people obsessed with sex, also labeled everything Vatsyayana wrote was about sex… The man gave some real interesting philosophical thoughts

Vatsyayana was a poet, the only thing a poet asks for is the freedom to express his raw thoughts… Some of it had to do with reality, while others were just poetic exaggeration…

“ARANGETRAM” is all about characters and their attitudes, also how they react to different situations… Though, there is only one major character, all the minor characters are equally important to the movie…

CHARACTERS

The first character is Ramu Saastrigal (S.V.Subbiah), a poor orthodox brahmin making a living by performing rituals for other brahmins… But Saastrigal is a man of orthodox principles and mocks brahamins who don’t follow principles; he even tells them atheists are much above the brahmins who don’t follow rituals… In a small village with only about 12 brahmin families, he has managed to offend 8 families… And Saashtri has a real big family (8 children – 5 girls and 3 boys) and two extra members in the form of a sister and her daughter. The whole family runs on his income…

Is he a bad man? No, just a man who wants to follow principles, but can’t understand why people who don’t follow rituals, but yet wear that white thread as a caste symbol are succeeding in life…

This character passes a few interesting anecdotes… So in case you decide to watch this movie, pay attention to Ramu Saastrigal…

This is Visalam (M.N.Rajam) aka Mrs.Saastrigal… As the finance minister of that house, she often makes suggestions to reduce poverty, but only to have them rejected by Saastrigal using anecdotes…

She tries to convince him into sending the eldest daughter to work, but he wouldn’t bite that vaadai (now known in the west as Spicy Donuts)… He is worried about his image…

As an obedient wife, Visalam never tries to argue with her husband, eventhough she prefers a life with less principles and a bit more money…

The Visalam character, is  a caring mother worried about the future of her eight children…

 

Then we have Thyagu (Kamalhasan), the eldest of the male off-springs with an ambition of becoming a doctor… Often has arguments with Saastrigal over his career choice… Dad wants him to follow his footsteps…

 

Lalitha (Pramila) is Saastrigal’s eldest child… This character begins as a carefree prankster, not bothered by poverty or the future…

Then in Phase two, which occurs after witnessing her mother’s plan to commit mass suicide… She becomes a caring mother… Saastrigal’s anecdotes gets defeated by Lalitha’s logical arguments… And Lalitha starts working…

In Phase three, which occurs after being raped by a man in the city, she puts that incident behind her and continues working at an office…

In Phase Four, she chooses prostitution as a part-time profession after carefully thinking about it and takes full responsibility for her choice (shown using dialogues between Lalitha and her clients)…

And in the Final Phase, she finally  comes back to the village after successfully lifting the family from poor to middle-class status… At home, everything seems fine… Her sister was getting married, her brother has become a doctor and her ex-lover who already knows about her secret life  is going to marry her…

But her dreams of starting a new life in the village gets shattered as soon as the family finds out the source of her extra income (something they weren’t bothered about when the actual money was coming in)…

The mother who once planned a mass suicide because of poverty, today kicks Lalitha out… What turns Lalitha insane after her marriage ?  (a) Guilt about  her past life style?  (b) How society views her now? or (c) Her family’s rejection?

Now lets look at a situation which was considered as controversial both in the press then and at some of the discussion boards now….

Controversy : KB’s decision to use the word ARANGETRAM as a title and to run an actual arangetram parallel to a rape scene…

Aragentram within the popular culture of early 70’s and even now is the term used to refer to the performance of a student who has mastered the classical dance known as Bharatanatyam… After completing the Arangetram, he/she can become a teacher…

But Bharathanatyam also happens to be a term given by E.Krishna Iyer to a former dance routine known as Dasi Attam performed by Devadasis (aka God’s Servants)… All this happened back in the 1930’s…

E.Krishna Iyer (A Lawyer) was more interested in preserving the Art form performed by Devadasis, than the actual life style (often linked to Temple Prostitution)… He also wanted to give a second life to these women and an alternate form of earning income… He cleaned up the dance (which simply meant replacing songs with instrumental music) and had the devadasis perform it on stage for middle and upper-class audience… And also wanted the dance to become part of South Indian culture and continued on by Middle & Upper class families…

A sample of Devadasi songs… Most popular songs were from Ksetrayya’s composition, so here is a song from his treasure box…

The song is titled “Perubada” composed using the raga natakuranji… It’s about a devadasi talking to her friend and expressed thru the dance…

When will I get married to the famous Mannaru Ranga

A daughter’s life in a lord’s family

I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies

Some days pass as your parents do the thinking for you

Some days pass brooding and waiting for the moment

Some days pass pondering caste rules

Meanwhile the bloom of youth is gone
like the fragrance of a flower, like a thick of fate

I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies

Some days pass without any pleasure from your husband

Some days pass in mere courtesies

Some days pass in the pride that we are palace women

looking for quality

It’s a pity all this high passion is like moonlight in a forest

I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies

Some days pass shilly-shallying, knowing and not-knowing

Some days pass ignorant of the ways of experience

Some days pass listening to friends’ stories of lovemaking

Alas, womanhood itself has become my enemy,
and I’m tired

I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies

KB uses the term Arangetram propably as it relates to dasi attam… In the Deva dasi culture ( I don’t even know if you can call it a culture, it was simply men taking advantage of some women using myth), Arangetram was the formal celebration of the debut recital after the completion of dance training.

Here KB tries to link dasi attam arangetram with a rape of a woman in the contemporary society of the 70’s… In a society, where folks are obsessed with a woman’s virginity and rarely care how she loses it,  always seem to find a reason to blame her…

As I said in my previous post, KB’s movies are more about social commentaries than about messages…

The problem started when this movie became a box-office hit… Had it been a flop, it wouldn’t be controversial movie…

Let me end  Arangetram  with this thought from Vatsyayana:

“Without eroticism, the mind becomes restless and unsatisfied… Without Virtue (ethics), the conscience goes astray… Without spirituality, the soul is degraded”

ARANGETRAM Part 2: The Man

Normally, you could put a movie into one of these three general categories: Art-House, Commercial or Documentary …

But in KB’s case, most of his movies pretty much offered a portion of each category… When only a portion is offered it’s hard to put it into any specific category…

KB often refers to himself as a a theatreman who blundered into cinema by accident. But I see him as Subrahmanya Bharathi of Tamil Cinema. A cinematic poet. As soon as he sees the shadow approaching reality (Nizhal Nijamakirathu) he finds new meanings (Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal) to echo (Ethiroli)  the voices of old poets. His films are like  a house with two doors (Oru Veedu Iru Vasal), so at the box-office it becomes a coin toss (Poova Thalaya).

KB’s strength is in creating characters… I mean the characters he creates stays in your mind, even if nothing else in the movie makes sense… This is because the attitude of these characters towards any subject is very real and common within a society… KB’s movies mostly comes in the form of social commentary (and his favorite target being the Middle-Class)…

From his first movie “Neer Kumizhi” (aka Water Bubbles) in 1965, KB was out on a mission to break cinematic myths of Tamil Cinema… And in his fourth movie “Bama Vijayam” (aka Bama’s Victory) in 1967, he broke the first major myth…

The 60’s myth was that if you didn’t use big name stars, you wouldn’t be able to succeed at the Box Office… Bama Vijayam succeeded using just comedians and character actors…

The table you see at the bottom (a table I stole from my Movie Rental store’s database, unfortunately they only carry Tamil movies… Paarthale Paravasam was actually his 100th movie) has a column titled “No. of Days”… And most of the times, that’s probably the only thing producers look at… The Column refers to the number of days a movie stays in four or more theaters, if it crosses the century mark, producers would end-up at your door steps… This system has killed the careers of so many directors… But in KB’s case, even when his movies failed to cross the century mark, the producer’s were still willing to take the risk… Out of KB’s 52 Tamil movies, only 16 crossed that magic mark…

KB is a very smart moviemaker; he didn’t jump quickly into Nouvelle Vague… Instead, he used his first 19 movies to build an audience for himself making conventional movies (while adding smaller elements of Nouvelle Vague)…

And with his 20th movie “ARANGETRAM” in 1973, he uncorks a full bottle of Nouvelle Vague… New formulas and styles was what it was all about… Nouvelle Vague’s first rule was to come up with unpredictable endings for a film, you have to keep changing it film after film… Another rule was to force the audience to break the habit of using the screen as the wall to scale in order to escape from their lives…

Now, I will talk about styles that you would find in Nouvelle Vague films that you could also find in KB’s movies… Styles that you wouldn’t see in conventional movies… And I’m going to pick them all from”ARANGETRAM”

(I) EXTREME CLOSE-UPS of FACIAL EXPRESSIONS:

 

(II) Use of SHADOWS

(III) Use of MIRRORS

No.	Year	Film Title	No. of Days
1	1965	Neer Kumizhi
2	1965	Naanal
3	1966	Major Chandrakant
4	1967	Bama Vijam	100 Days
5	1967	Anubavi Raja Anubavi
6	1968	Thamarai Nenjam
7	1968	Ethir Neechal	100 Days
8	1969	Poova Thalaya	100 Days
9	1969	Iru Kodagal
10	1970	Patham Pasali
11	1970	Navagraham
12	1970	Kaviyath Thalaivi	100 Days
13	1971	Ethiroli
14	1971	Punnagai
15	1971	Nootrukku Noor
16	1971	Nangu Suvargal
17	1972	Velli Vizha
18	1972	Kanna Nalama
19	1973	Sollathan Ninaikiren
20	1973	Arrangetram	217 Days
21	1974	Naan Avanillai
22	1975	Apoorva Raagangal	100 Days
23	1976	Moondru Mudichu
24	1976	Manmatha Leelai
25	1977	Pattina Pravesam
26	1977	Avargal
27	1977	Aval Oru Thodarkathai
28	1978	Thappu Thalangal
29	1978	Nizhal Nijamakirathu
30	1979	Nool Veli
31	1979	Ninaithale Inikkum
32	1980	Varumayin Niram Sigappu	100 Days
33	1981	Thillu Mullu
34	1981	Thaneer Thaneer
35	1981	Enga Ooru Kannagi
36	1981	47 Natkal
37	1982	Agni Sakshi	100 Days
38	1983	Poikkal Kuthirai
39	1984	Achamillai Achamillai	100 Days
40	1985	Sindhu Bhairavi	284 Days
41	1985	Kalyana Agathigal	100 Days
42	1986	Punnagai Mannan	106 Days
43	1987	Manathil Uruthi Vendum	100 Days
44	1988	Unnal Mudiyum Thambi
45	1989	Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal	175 Days
46	1990	Oru Veedu Iru Vasal
47	1991	Azhakan
48	1992	Vaaname Ellai	175 Days
49	1992	Jathi Malli
50	1994	Duet
51	1996	Kalki	100 Days
52	2001	Paarthale Paravasam

ARANGETRAM Part 1: The Critics

Initially, I was planning to do mini-diagnosis about the movie “ARANGETRAM” (aka The Debut)… But after a little pondering, I thought why not kill three birds with one stone… This movie sort of changed the tradition of Tamil Movies, K.Balachander (KB) is a very unique director and that’s probably why he has so many critics trying to execute his movies… Part 1 will deal with KB’s critics (critiquing of the critics)… Part 2 will be Simpleton’s critique of KB’s career… Part 3 will be a focus on the movie “ARANGETRAM”…

A few years back I had  picked up a book called Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen (from a store that specializes in selling books which people refuse to buy at book marked price or better known as Old & Used Bookstore) …

OK… The book is really thick with over a 1000 pages (and a lot of B&W pictures), so I guess my $25 wasn’t really wasted… Obviously, Ashish & Paul must have felt it was time to play Siskel & Ebert (Sorry! But I’m still having problem saying Ebert &Roeper)… Now I have always used S&E to decide which English movies to warch, so whenever I see both give two thumps down, I go and see it …

In this book, KB’s bio reads like this: “K.Balachandar is the most consistent manufacturer of morality tales reinforcing middle class conservatism”…

The out of state critics of KB have never really bothered me because his movies revolve around elements of South Indian Arts, Literature and Language… If the critic is unfamiliar with these elements, the person is going to misinterpret certain things…

KB’s remakes rarely succeed at the box office for the same reason…

The success of “Ek Duuje Ke Liye” at the box-office had more to do with music and a script that was easy to adapt… All KB had to do was replace the Telugu Family with a North Indian one…

Whereas a movie like “Ek Nai Paheli” was bound to fail… Why? The Tamil version of the movie was released in 1975 as “Aboorva Raganagal” (aka Rare Melodies or Unusual Ragas)… The Tamil script was very Carnatic Oriented with KB trying to find other uses for Ragas than just music… Again, for those who are familiar with Indian Classical Music (Hindustani or Carnatic),you would know ragas are associated with Time and Mood… He uses Freeze frame with the subtitle of a raga to introduce each major character, so that the audience who are familiar with ragas know the mood each character is going try to create in the movie…

Of course, this sort of gets lost in a layman’s mind, so what does KB do to satisfy the layman? He begins his on-going project to reduce alapana and add more ragas with words (Sindhu Bhairavi probably the most successful project in this attempt)… So he brings in one of the best in the business,the Late Kannadasan to add verses to ragas… For Instance, in Aboorva Ragangal, if the movie had began with Bhairavi just rendering an Alapana and moving on with a carnatic style, KB probably would have lost half his audience… But here he gets Kannadasan to come up with these verses:

Aezhu swarangalukkul eththanai paadal?
Idhayach churangaththul eththanai kelvi?
Kaanum manidharukkul eththanai salanam?
Verum karpanai sandhoashaththil avanadhu gavanam!

Translated:

How many songs within the seven Solfeges¹?
How many questions within the passages of a heart?
How many afflictions within the humans we see?
But their attention is always on imaginary happiness!

The problem with the remake (Ek Nai Paheli) here starts with casting… Its easy to get a younger person to play an older character, but getting an older person to play a young character is hard to do… Yes! I’m referring to Kamal… I mean, how can you get Kamal to play the same role he did almost a decade ago… Prassana in Aboorva Ragangal was suppose to be a very immature 19 year-old rebellious boy, where as Sandeep is just an angry man… Of course, the translation from Carnatic to Hindustani is not easy, but can be done; unfortunately it was never done in this movie… For starters, Bhairavi in Hindustani is really Hanuma-Todi in Carnatic…

Now if you really want Ek Nai Paheli, then try solve the puzzle on how you could have one set of critics claiming KB as a manufacturer of morality tales reinforcing middle class conservatism, while another set blaming KB for manufacturing movies to corrupt human minds…

Another group that often takes shots at KB (Esp. about Aragetram) comes in the form of movie critics from the press in TN … And you can’t really blame these people because they usually build this imaginary wall around their brains and often find themselves bumping into it… They first try to review a movie from a social approach, if that doesn’t work; they look for a humanistic one… If they can’t find these two, they come to the conclusion the movie either has to do with Psychology or Ideology…

So you probably are wondering (after bad mouthing all these critics) how on earth is the Simpleton going to handle KB’s ARANGETRAM…