Another year end post

2009 has gone by and just like last year my movie watching has been very sporadic as opposed my Utopian ideal of a movie per day. Except for the revisited movies, I cannot recollect more than 10 old movies that I saw for the first time. But 2009 has been a great year as far as the Tamil and Hindi movies were concerned. Bala and Selvaraghavan finally released their movies, after the eternal wait and both of the them disappointed considering their standards(Selvaraghavan heavily). Naan Kadavul despite its continuity flaws, was still a Bala film. In spite of running the major part of the film among beggars, there is never a tiny bit of condescension towards them. With the majority of the people, handicapped, disfigured and living the lowest forms of life imaginable, Bala never gives a glimpse of pity look at them. And that to me along with some momentary brilliances, made the movie a masterpiece. The organic feeling of a Bala film was bigtime missing and that made the difference. As some of them pointed out, I am pretty sure we would gloss over its discontinuity over the course of time and it would rank along with Pithamagan and Nanda.

As I feared, Aayirathil Oruvan turned to be real bad, but I expected his lowlife characterization brilliance to seep through the silly plots, which just never happened. The first half was a snail race and the second half was too idiosyncratic to make any impact. The only worth of money was the just-before-interval scene when those three went mad. Thanks to www.Tamilfms.com, I caught Ayan, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu both of which stood up very well with repeated viewings especially Vennila. The humor in Vennila... worked brilliantly and except for the forced ending, Vennila must be the newcomer movie of the year. Very eagerly awaiting Susindran's next movie Naan Mahan Alla. I also liked Poo(a 2008 film though) a lot, although I suspect whether it was the movie or wine, that worked for me.

All the TV programs declared Pasanga and Nadodigal to be the movie of year. While having tried and failed to complete watching both the films, I think our audiences should go straight to hell. While Pasanga just did not have anything to stop me from switching it off, Nadodigal was plain crap. When you think this movie about a bunch of idiots, doing idiotic things, the movie takes great pride in their idiocy, all in the name of rural high morals. And the terrible line of actors, starting with the ever annoying Ganja Karuppu, Sasikumar and the other unknown bad actors, just made things real worse. I think the pretentious rural movies are here to stay and have to just get over the fact. Venkat Prabhu has become authuttacase afer Saroja, I would need a few beers to even try Goa. It is unfortunate that a substandard product like Saroja became a hit, leading Venakt Pradu down the same crappy path. Kamal continues to waste his directorial talents by giving craps like Dasavatharam and being part of movies like Unnaipol Oruvan that does not even deserve to be inaugurated by him. The saddest thing of all is that Nandhala never got released and I think it is even futile to expect that to happened anytime soon.

It seems that the Bollywood is cruising down its own path to glory with smaller films reaching the heights that we cannot dream of in Tamil cinema. My movie of the year has to be Oye lucky! Oye lucky! which portrayed the class aspirations of small crook in such a controlled and subtle manner, that made it a classic. It is not even explainable how a sad undercurrent runs throughout the film in spite of how lucky and successful the hero seems to be doing initially. A single time watch is just not enough to write about this movie. Love, Sex and Dhokha will be most awaited Hindi movie of the year. Aamir Khan continues to give decent movies, that is lapped up by the audiences as kids do to candy bars. In spite of working in parts, 3-Idiots is full of email forward jokes and cliche of the worst kind, that made me cringe in my seat. With the 44 year old Aamir Khan looking dashing and amazingly youthful in the movie, Madhavan turned out to be the Chinni Jayanth of Bollywood. I think I must be cursed that none of the Vishal Bharadwaj movies would work on me, while the world and the critics I respect the most, go gaga over him. I just didn't have any chemistrty with Kamine . Dev.D was right on the way to be one of best movies of the year, when suddenly towards the end both the protagonist and the movie wanted to just (be) feel good spoiling the whole experience.

2009 had been a great year for the Tamil Film Music with so many newcomers. Being an avid hater of Harris Jeyaraj, I cannot help but like Varanam Aayiram. With Anal Melae Panithuli, HJ reached the heights that I never thought was possible by him. Vaaranam must be his best album since Samurai. Vennilaa Kabadi Kuzhu was good album, with Lesa Panithuli the standout track. Yuvan finally came to the forefront with Paiyaa and Goa. Goa must be complete soundtrack after a long time. Having missed it when it was released, Rameshwaram and Poo must be my favorite of the year. Even songs like Mazhai Peyum Bothum, Thalakulam from Reningunta, Mazhaiye from Earam, turned out to be real gems. I wish these MDs don't turn out to be another Ramesh Vinayakams.

Bad Acting or Bad Dialogue/Direction?

Thinking about this Anjali scene, one thing that stood out was Raghuvaran's acting and a neighbor's complaint about their children acting carzy in 1:30. I should be the only person in the whole universe, who must think that Raghuvaran's acting is just ridiculous in this scene. And look at Raghuvarans dialoue - "Athukku", "Ellarum", "Enna", "Mathavangulukkellam", "Illa", all in succession. It almost seemed that Mrs.Sekar was trying to control Sekar's over-acting.

Mixed Doubles

It only happens with great movies that they bring different response from you at different times. Two years ago, this movie posed as a comedy about the hypocrite nature of the Indian male in terms of his sexual fantasies. Watching it today again, it feels like a dark drama.

Mixed Doubles is the story of Sunil Arora(Ranvir Shorey) who driven by one of his friends suggestion tries to coax his wife malti(Konkona Sen) into wife swapping. This story traverses from the time this idea pops into his head and how he goes about convincing his wife. Whether he succeeds or not is the rest, brought out in one of the best climaxes that acts as the completing arc to this character study. During my first viewing, it played out as a really funny movie with well-defined characters which bring out the mentalities of middle-class folks. But watching it now has a repulsive touch to it on how much of a hypocrite Sunil Arora turns out to be.

Vinay Pathak is a cheating husband who acts as a playboy in Sunil's office and Saurabh Shukla is another colleague of his. It is interesting that they are not just two colleagues in office but rather bring out two facets of Sunil's character in the movie. As an example of how well though out the charcters are,we can note that though all three are seen together, it is rather Saurabh Shukla and Sunil are real friends, as Sunil chooses only him to be complicit in a setup and turn for approval for his and not the dubious Vinay pathak. I was feeling that it was getting moralistic about its lead character towards the end but couldn't complain. The end credit labeled the movie as an "a-moral tale" like any great movie which would know what exactly it was doing.

2008

2008 has been an definitive year as far as my movie watching experience is concerned. Looking back I see a huge transformation in my response towards the movies. It goes without saying that every year makes you feel your younger-self naive in comparison, but at the least I feel a gradation in how early I invalidate myself these days. It is not surprising that all my top movies are the ones that I have seen this year, meaning that I either revisited or just discovered them.

I always felt that why all this fuss about Alfred Hitchcock as he just makes those thrillers which never seem exciting to me. I can pardon myself that I have watched only Vertigo during that time, a movie which doesn't excite even now and even Kurosowa though of Hitchcock the same way(yes very weird). But with Rear Window, Rope and Marnie, Hitchcock has become one of my favorite directors.

Re-watching Trois couleurs: Bleu(Krzysztof Kieslowski) cemented its position as one of the most poetic movies ever. That reminds me that I still haven't seen his much acclaimed Decalogue yet. I also happen to cover more than two-thirds of Michael Haneke movies and it is due to my bad memory and possibly a change in perspective, I'm doubting whether Haneke will attract me the same way he did not very long ago. This year also saw Zodiac from one of my favorite directors who thankfully broke away from his pop-generation image only to return to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which again seem to generate the same kind of wrong-response that Fight Club did years ago. This movie has been in to-do list for long as I wanted to see it theaters. Werner Herzog is another discovery last year and thanks to Netflix online viewing and a sympathetic friend who shared his online account for some high-quality online viewing.

After a few failed attempts, I finally managed to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which made me eat my words that Kauffman films are just clear and nothing more. Eternal... for such a complex films that it is(which you never realize watching it), is amazingly organic and profound in its experience, which I wonder any other writer can create. Talking about organic and profound experiences, I also manage to watch the long delayed The Thin Red Line which again is one of the most beautiful films. I also want to declare that I have adopted Jim Jarmusch as my thalaivar with Broken Flowers and Coffee and Cigarettes racing into my Top-n films of all time. That reminds me that I have to see a lot of Ozu films, whose Tokyo Story tells me that he just might be my man.

One of the constant preoccupation that I have had during the last month is Monty Python. Starting from Flying Circus to Life of Brian and Holy Grail, there is no parallel with what they have done with comedy. I'm sure there must be some religion(?) created after them with absolute disrespect for everything including the religion itself. If we have a religion based upon the Dude of The Big Lebowski, how can we not have one based on Monty Python. But it is rather pity that I will soon run out of all youtube videos, interviews about Monty Python.

Lesser due to my bad memory and probably because of the movies itself, I can't remember many Indian movies that I loved with the exception of Manorama-Six Feet Under and Anjathey. Saroja created a leap of faith in me that there can be pathetic directors who can create good movies by stroke of luck. The Chennai-600028 director has given such a drivel called Saroja, that makes me think whether his debut movie was pure luck or more possibly his only good idea. In preparation for Naan Kadavul, I have been watching Bala's movies and revisited Pithamagan for the first time(one of those rare movies which I never see the second time for a too-painful first time experience). Watching Pithamagan makes me realize that an good Indian movie, more so a Tamil movie gives a much real experience than any of non-native movies that you see, irrespective of how good they are. I must wait for Nandala to see what Mysskin can do as I don't want to make the same mistake as I did with Venkat Prabhu. And I'm still waiting for that first perfect film from Selvaraghavan in Aayirathil Oruvan.

sex, lies and videotape

There is always a talk about whether Sex, lies and Videotape deserved the praise that it got when it came out. Being more familiar with Steven Soderberg's work now, might seem the accusation to be right, but I can do sense the reception when it came out at that time. A good night sleep always put many movies in perspective to me. I generally don't bother to think too much above the movie after it is over and the next day(I usually watch it late at night), I have a more concrete feeling of how much the movie has worked. Sex, lies and Videotape is a tour de force during its run time, but probably feels a bit too optimistic to my taste now.

Anne & John are an unhappy couple, whose marriage is failing both emotionally and sexually. John meanwhile is having an affair with Anne's sister. Enter Grahan, who is long lost friend of John, who was like John before but no more now, to stay with the couple for few days. The story is about how his appearance catalyzes the change in status quo where everyone is confronted with the truth of their situations. The title Sex, lies and Videotape is a misnomer as the movie is about the alienation that people have and how peoples problem are more likely to be caused by it than about sex, lies and of course videotape. There is a beautiful scene where Anne confronts Graham about how he is trying to get away with people, and Graham explains that though he has some problems(real big problems in fact), but they are his.

Probably this is a thing with Soderberg, since I guess he likes to end his films in a suggestive optimistic way, which did not sit well with the rest of the movie. But the whole narrative structure of the movie is top-notch and I feel its better than both Traffic or Erin Brokovich, that it is far more organic than the other films. I have my doubts about this film, and I might have to return to it to find whether this is as good as I think it is now.

Idhayathai Thirudathey

Idhayathai Thirudathey has probably has more moments of amazing BGM sequences than any other movie. It is not just that the BGMs are great, but there are so many amazing moments in the movie that take things to a different plane altogether. And the title sequence is one my favorites one of all time.



The way the flute rushes from 1:30 to 1:35 just to come to a halt. Bringing in the title sequence when they talk about Nagarjuna's condition. And the violin flourish towards the end. Too much.

Current addiction

I'm madly addicted to this great song Mannaiyum Ponnaiyum. Words totally fail me when I try to explain what is good about this song. This is roller coaster ride and the songs changes it rhythm, scale after every stanza. But it seems there is a larger construct to these changes than what I can fathom. If only some one could explain to me in plain English. If haven't paid much attention to this song, do yourself a favor and listen to it.