Varadan and Chitra

I was not going to publish this post for two reasons. For one , the spoilers would ruin the movie for a lot of people and I wanted to analyze this particular relationship with its nuances , angst , resentment and all related baggage for a longer time before sharing my thoughts for the world to see. But then I had this long DM with PV and I suddenly felt like writing and so here I am. I’d offer one warning though – stay away from my post until you have seen Chekka Chivantha Vaanam and have had the time and patience to let the movie sink in.

Varadan is a selfish man just like his brothers. But what sets him apart is this inherent inferiority complex and resentment against his father who may have married his mother in a Tudor like set up to consolidate power . <It is implied that Senapati murdered his wife’s father , was a serial philanderer and was an emotionally distant father and extremely controlling one when it came to Varadan> . Varadan is married to his first cousin Chitra and it is implied that his father imposed the marriage and Chitra on him and Varadan resents the marriage and Chitra by extension .

There is this simmering resentment between the two but there is also trust and he depends on her to hold things together at the home front. Chitra knows the family and Varadan inside out warts and all. She is blunt , calls a spade a spade and is his emotional crutch and de-facto second in command. She is his mirror and there is nothing that is hidden from her including the paramour . Chitra knows about Parvati and is probably more than a little hurt that her husband loves to wind down with the other woman and not with her. But you don’t see her cry about it. Parvati , to her , is one of the many paramours and she has probably seen men in her immediate family stray and cheat that she appears to take this in stride.

Her love and complete devotion to Varadan is not reciprocated in kind and one gets the feeling that Varadan probably sees her more as an ally than as a wife and that status quo continues until they have to run for their lives. Chitra refuses to abandon her man and matches him step by step as they seemingly outwit their foes and gain a safe abode. There’s a lull where they indulge in normalcy : Varadan , Chitra and their henchmen and then she is caught in the cross fire and is fatally shot.

Varadan rushes to the hospital , never leaving her alone for the moment and you see this vulnerability in his eyes that makes you realize that he loves Chitra in his own way. On her death bed she asks him to abandon her and escape to ensure that their kids at least have one living parent and even then he doesn’t give in or give her the comfort/assurance she seeks . He refuses to abandon her and goes on to lament about his mistakes. In a very vulnerable moment , she asks if he is alluding to their marriage when he is talking about his sins and mistakes . He is quick to say no , but in true selfish Varadan fashion goes on to make that Macbeth like confession and she passes away as he is ranting , denied of comfort , emotional assurance or even a few words of love that she very much deserves. Varadan , the selfish man that he is , knows only to take and even in her death , Chitra is deprived of the attention and affection she desperately craves from her man. But once she is gone , Varadan becomes unhinged and goes on that splendidly choreographed rampage and therefore Chitra’s death is in a way Varadan’s death too.

With Parvati , Varadan is dominant yet passive. She feeds his ego and he feeds her back < literally > .You get the sense that with Parvati , he is probably playing at his version of happy families , where he is the caretaker , the care giver and the man who does not have flaws. One gets the feeling that Parvati is very important to Varadan. Heck even Parvati , Chitra and maybe even Varadan feel the same about it . But once Chitra is gone , taking away that blanket of emotional strength and support , you realize how important Chitra is to Varadan . May be Varadan also realizes the fact only when it’s too late and the situation is beyond salvation.

Varadan strays , not because he is seeking love , but because he is seeking control. Being with Parvati makes him feel in control whereas with Chitra it is probably the other way around. She knows too much about him for his comfort : his ambitions , inferiority , baser instincts , selfishness , self doubt , resentment , suffocation are all known to Chitra and even as he takes a lot of emotional support from her , he resents her because she sees too much and knows too much and Varadan simply cannot come to terms with it and by the time he attempts to man up , everything is done and dusted . There is love behind all these smokescreens but ultimately that love is toxic and is not of any help.

May be , there is redemption waiting for Varadan and Chitra in a different universe – one where he is a little selfless , tactful and sensible and one where he grows to love her. In that universe , maybe Chitra and Varadan would grow into Senapathi and Lakshmi . Maybe there is a better world where Chitra has had enough of this family , takes an out from it when offered and is happily settled in Coimbatore with her children away from all the toxicity , venom and violence. In yet another universe , Varadan and Chitra are running the syndicate together , him providing the strength and her providing the brains . May be in all these universes , Chitra is still unhappy as she only knows to give but not to take or may be she is happy , because she gets to be her man’s emotional anchor . One never knows , because alternate universes rarely exist and even if they do , one can never predict which way things are going to go .

Varadan and Chitra are not real but they felt like real people ( thanks to the brilliance of the actors who carried the part with elegance) with real issues and for a few hours after the movie , I brooded about why Chitra was dealt such a poor hand by the God above and why Varadan couldn’t be man enough to acknowledge all that Chitra has done for him and at least try and repay that in kind.

Thank you Mani Ratnam , for making me feel that .

Baahubali – The Conclusion

Like most film fanatics , I caught Baahubali 2 on the day it released . For almost two years I had waited for the sequel wanting to know the answer to the most important question “Why Kattappa killed Baahubali”. Like most people at the movie hall , I left behind all the conspiracy theories , questions and doubts as the movie started only to come out oddly dissatisfied . If I could compare this feeling to anything at all , I would compare it to a Kalayaana Saapadu that was bereft of the king of desserts , the Ada Pradhaman.

Almost everything in the sequel is an improvement over the prologue. The acting is top notch and the VFX is way better. The canvas is grander and the characters are fleshed out lovingly , with every important facet of their nature being highlighted as the story twists and turns towards it’s thundering end.

The movie begins with a bang where the queen mother is all set to coronate the deserving son and get him married. Said son falls in love and like the ultimate do good guy decides to win the damsel over without revealing his background. The damsel is a revelation — brave , quick to anger , brutally honest and righteous to the bone , she wastes no time in winning the son’s heart and shunning the mother away. From here on , the film starts cruising to the end we are all familiar with – Mahendra avenging his father and gaining the throne and boy oh boy Rajamouli takes us on an unparalleled joy ride through this journey .

The sequel retells the now famous tale of Ramayana and Rama’s Vanavaasa in a largely linear manner with a few clever tweaks and assumptions. What if Bharata was ambitious and evil ? What if he fueled Kaikeyi’s apprehensions to total hate towards Rama? What if Sita was feisty , quick to anger and human ? What if it was too late by the time Kaikeyi realized her folly ? What if Rama’s son avenged him and won his kingdom back ? All these what ifs stringed together embellish the familiar tale with amazing cinematic moments but with one jarring flaw – which is in how some of the characters act and behave out of character. In an effort to underline the Ramayana influence , Rajamouli makes the two chief characters in the Mahishmati universe behave in ways that is so alien to their nature.

The prologue set up characters with strong and wide brush strokes. Kattappa was the grim and dour warrior married to duty. Sivagami was the shrewd , politically aware queen mother and when these characters stray from the established arc for the sake of narrative , you are jarred and it takes a while for you to get over that annoyance and sink into the movie and that to me is an unpleasant experience.

That said , this is a movie that must be watched on the big screen and cherished on DVD. There are moments that make you applaud , moments that make you remember the glorious movies of the past , moments where you know what is going to happen next but not how it happens and this is where the film maker wins.

If I had to summarize Baahubali the conclusion in a line – I would call it an exemplary well written , OOC harry potter fan fiction . It has all elements going for it but the OOC factor results in a slightly unpleasant after taste.

PS : Most fan fiction readers would recognize OOC. It stands for Out of Character and is used to denote fan fictions where the characters act and behave in a manner that is totally contrary to their character arc established in the books / movies or canon universe.

PPS : Anushka is awesome as Devasena. This is one actress who was born to play a queen. Please cast her as Kundhavai whenever Ponniyin Selvan is adapted to the cinema screens.

PPPS : I missed Sudeep in the movie. Terribly so , because the first movie drops a tantalizing hint that he would come to Mahendra’s and Kattappa’s rescue when they are in dire need of arms , ammunition and other things.

PPPPS : Rajamouli should bring Mahabharata to the big screen . There is no other film maker who can do better justice to war sequences I tell you.

Accham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada

My post is going to start with a confession . I’ve never been a huge GVM fan – so to speak . I’ve seen all of his movies , liked them in parts , been affected by a few of those moments but I always had the feeling that his movies were set in a La La land that I could never be a part of. And that was because to me the average GVM leads were people I could never relate to.

They are not reflections of the society at large . They are slightly psychotic , slightly eccentric and when faced with ordinary day to day situations , they react in an absolutely unreal way which makes way for interesting viewing on screen . Take Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya for instance , it resonated with a lot of people who had been through the turbulence that comes with first love , the angst that comes with heartbreak ,the inability to move on from a break-up and the searing pain that accompanies your life as a result of that. All of us had a friend who had loved and lost in college and the early career years , a friend who loved so deeply but bowed down to society and married elsewhere . But it was not every friend who faced that and it was never the norm. I could enjoy these movies but they never resonated with me and thus I had almost given up on GVM until AYM happened.

in AYM , You have a chubby , jobless MBA graduate who loves his sister’s classmate . She sees him in the buff , he later examines his figure in the mirror and says yeah I looked good but I can lose the belly . He has a posse of friends who are as normal as they come. He has a bike , plans to go on a road trip yet he stays back because Lovreeeee . She comes to his house for a stay and he tries to build a rapport and relationship with her. He wants her to accompany him on the road trip and yet when she arrives out of the blue , he warns her by providing reasons that are a deterrent . There is this lovely scene , where she keeps eating as they ride and he almost rolls his eyes . They are the normal , next door couple you could meet on your next road trip and boy did the first half resonate or what.

Me and the Mr kept chuckling as our minds went hurtling back to our early days when we dated around , where we did nothing but talk , that trip in Rhode Island where we sat in companionable silence watching the sun go over the cliff , the thanksgiving before the wedding where I kept nodding off because my sleep was ruined etc etc etc. GVM takes the entire first half to underscore this normalcy and BAM right in the middle of Thalli Pogathe throws this normal couple into an extraordinary situation that wreaks havoc in their life . The entire second half is about how this boy becomes a man overnight and how he reacts to this new crazy in an extraordinary way and yet GVM underlines this with a tinge of normalcy. There are no songs in the second half because lets face it who would have time to sing a duet when your existence is hanging by a thread or when your friend has been shot at and killed. The leads don’t make moon’s eyes over each other and they don’t seem to be sure or cognisable about what’s happening with them . They are in a nightmare that keeps getting worse and then there is sunlight. The mood is right , the scenes are set up the right way and Simbu has acted his heart out and yet this second half is so problematic that it has almost derailed the movie for most people.

All that you know of Leela Raman comes from the hero’s view and it seems one dimensional . You don’t hear Leela in the movie , don’t know if she really feels for the hero and hence you are not able to justify why he does what he does for the longest time . He gets into an accident and confesses his feelings and she abandons him in the hospital and goes home . My father has been hacked to shreds and mother has been shot at she says and he goes in search for her because Lovvreeeeee. Even when they meet at the hospital and afterwards , you don’t know what Leela feels because Leela doesn’t tell us. Even the scene where she confesses her feelings is staged from the hero’s POV. Enakku theriyum he says and we are supposed to accept it as a valid justification for the scenes that went past – only that it becomes even more difficult to do that. The movie is about this man called ‘R’ what happened in his life and how that affected him and he is almost always myopic in the way he narrates that and therein lies the film’s strength and weakness. Take for instance the scene where his friend asks R ” If you think you were dying , won’t your parents and friends come to your mind first” and R says ” Yeah I remembered them in flashes but what mattered to me at the point was Leela” and you understand that this guy is myopic in the way he views things . What we see is his retelling of the things that happened so far , the things that are going to happen and its like ek haath ki taali , almost , because he is not narrating each and every moment and he has no way to delve into his lady’s heart. But it is an honest narration and Simbu is terrific as the narrator . He has gained oodles of weight , has lost his good looks , has a beer belly that he doesn’t hide and has finally learned to emote with his eyes. Its almost as if the career slumps he has faced has made him into this no nonsense actor who is here to do his job and he has aced his brief. Manjima is lovely as Leela but given the fact that Leela is told from R’s POV there is very little substance to her – if only GVM added a few extra minutes to flesh her out and if only towards the end Leela and R lived a fairly normal life – him as an IT consultant in a faraway country recounting this incident over a drink in a pub to his friends with Leela by his side but R’s name is Rajinikanth and with a name like that he has to become a cop , get posted to the villain’s precinct and kill him , we feel shortchanged. Next time GVM , name this new normal hero of yours Karthik and give us more tales about the normal.

Bombay ki Baat Karen toh ….

Bombay is a fascinating city and the Bombay of 1960s all the more fascinating because of the transitional phase the city was going through. A lot of things were happening in Bombay in the 60s – the jazz scene , gentrification , migration . A city undergoing metamorphosis would make for a fantastic movie provided someone could spin a cohesive narrative from the chaotic happenings and therein lies Bombay Velvet’s problem.

Take Mistry and Khambatta , the childhood friends each running a magazine. Khambatta is the gay capitalist , who has risen above genteel poverty . In a masterstroke , his character is explained in a few words ” maine woh sab kiya jo kisi khambatta ne nahi kiya. Mistry on the other hand has married into property. Both men have sacrificed and gambled to build their fortune and fight on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Khambatta of the old money wants the elite ( his elite too) to control the economy and change the face of the city whereas Mistry , him of the new money talks about equality , help for the mill workers. Their point of contention – an incriminating set of photos about a minister. Khambatta has his pawns Hiral and Johnnie to click his photos and Mistry sends his mistress Noronha to retrieve them . Both of them want to control the situation and force the outcome in their favor but are reluctant to get their hands dirty. This is a storyline that would make a hit. Plot this ” fourth estate” type narrative against the 1960s film and it screams blockbuster.

And then the love story , the fragile Rosie and Johnny who is quick to anger . In one of the telling moments of the film , Rosie sings naak pe hai gussa , sitting in a bathtub. Johnny comes home and she stops singing – perhaps she is guilty of romanticizing the angry outbursts (and probably abuse)of her man. He slaps her and she slaps him back. She loves him enough to give up singing and he does not love her enough – There in a dingy hotel room , cornered by adversaries and adverse situations ,she begs him to leave his plans and plots and run away. He refuses and she runs out , only to become a bait to draw him to his death and there are those incredible push and pull moments between them.

The two narratives would have been great – provided they were made as two different movies. Kashyap combines these two narratives and they just don’t mesh. To me the movie struggled in finding the right balance between these two . The first half focuses on the conflict between khambatta , Mistry and the second half is dedicated to the love story making the balance go off kilter , and tragically the movie never recovers from this faux pas.

That said , it’s not a bad movie and has its moments of brilliance . There are fantastic performances within the film be it Karan Johar , Satyadeep Mishra or Manish Chaudry. There is that sizzling chemistry between Ranbir and Anushka. There is the jaw dropping music , taking the story forward , segueing with the situation and characters. I loved behroopia , sylvia , darbaan and I wanted to pause , rewind and watch dhadaam dhadaam again ( never mind I was sitting in a theatre ) cos I loved the way the narrative was mentioned in puzzle pieces. I loved how the characters were named too – Rosie for she looks at the rosier aspects of life . Balraj , the brawny guy with little brain and then he gets that Johnny epithet added ( johnny come lately anyone ?).

This is not lazy filmmaking by any stretch – you can perceive that quite clearly when you watch the movie. I just felt that with separate narratives the movie would have worked better . May be years later , Kashyap would sit at the editing table , work on the footage he captured and give us those two movies about Bombay – but until then , I will love this movie flaws , warts and all for this is a labour of love . You might be bored , be disappointed with the jarring narrative , but you will take a piece of Bombay with you when you go back from the movies…..

English Vinglish Sorry Vorry

There is one moment in English Vinglish , which will make all daughters cringe – not in distaste , not due to the cliche , but in remorse – remorse due to the fact that in the process of growing up ; or rather acting grown up , we’ve hurt the one woman who has mattered the most , in so many ways that a simple sorry would not suffice.

I discovered this fact , 12 years and numerous excuses later , in a multiplex watching what was Sridevi’s comeback movie , accompanied by my loving family – rockstar dad , handsome dude of a brother and my normal down to earth mother – who was brought to life , so beautifully by a lovely leading lady in so potent a canvas that by the end of two hours , I wanted to get up , give my mother a huge hug and say sorry for all that I dished out to her during my terrible teens , just for the fact that she belonged to a different generation and couldn’t relate to my hep thoughts. What I settled for , was a lovely smile and a lump inside my throat as I walked out of the theater , hand in hand with the lady in question.

Shashi Godbole is what one would call a modern woman . She is independent , runs a business , takes care of her family and is a cool mum to a sweet little boy and a cute , oversmart teenaged girl , who wears shortskirts , goes to cafe coffee day and has a grudge against her mother just for the fact that the lady’s English is not one of her strong points , despite the fact that but for her language , her mother is one modern , easy going woman who knows to give her children enough space.

In one of the most endearing scenes in the movie , Shashi helps her daughter find her scrapbook even while not physically present at home, assures her that her privacy has been respected only for her daughter to hit back at her weak point – English and the mother inside her crumbles totally.In an awesome moment that follows , she rants out her frustration in Hindi , to a handsome French cook who loves her and is her classmate at English classes , only to order a coffee , sandwich and water in pitch perfect english in the same breath. English Vinglish is littered with so many lovely moments like these , that you end up forgiving Gauri Shinde , for some of the trite , done to death components like a gay english teacher , the brash Pakistani taxi driver and the ayyo spouting Tamil software engineer who loves his Idlis and Amma.

English Vinglish , has been categorized as a movie about how a woman learns to speak the King’s language and in a way it is – but what the movie really talks about is relationships . A relationship between strangers on a flight – brought to life by the brilliant Bachchan Sr , in an endearing cameo ; A relationship between an insecure wife and a well meaning , emotionally cruel but loving husband – the superb Adil Hussain ; A relationship between a woman looking not for love , but respect and a man alien to her culture and country who falls in love with her, despite the communication barrier – a doomed love , never to succeed – Mehdi Nebbou , him of the shy smile , vulnerable eyes and lovely accent – winning hearts with his portrayal as the French cook looking to open a French-Indian restaurant with a woman having eyes like coffee and milk ; a relationship between sisters who envy eachother’s skills ; A relationship between a loving mother and her cute mommy’s boy ; A love-hate deal between a teenager and her well meaning modern mother ; A relationship between an insecure husband and his lovely wife – watch out for that penultimate moment when Satish asks Sashi if she loves him and pat she replies – ” Why are you asking even ? Would I give you two Ladoos otherwise and btw , thanks for the saree – good choice ” – Husband and Wife dynamics 101 explained in a minute.

All the above mentioned relationships have one thing in common – A lovely lady called Sridevi , making a comeback 15 years after she’d shut shop and my oh my ; what a comeback she’s made. She makes you teary eyed as the vulnerable mother and insecure wife . She makes you laugh as the friendly aunt and cool mum .She makes you fall in love with her – those huge eyes a mirror to her feelings and she makes you go awwww as a strong woman trying to say no to this lovely man without hurting his feelings.Its no wonder that this lady was the only woman to be called superstar – and she deserves this accolade and much much more.

Talking about performances , the supporting cast is lovely too . Be it Mehdi Nebbou or Adil Hussain or the lovely Priya Anand- the actors bring to life the normal human beings we see day to day – flawed yet perfect ; normal yet special. But what stays with you after the movie is Sridevi’s lovely vulnerable brown eyes , NewYork in its full glory , Amit Trivedi’s excellent music score and that brilliant take on a mother – daughter relationship that every woman of my generation can identify with.

Watch English Vinglish atleast once . Its not only a great movie , but also a great way for a daughter to say sorry to her Mother , for all those little wounds caused in the battle while coming of age !

Barfi – Matter of fact and earthy!

It is an almost indisputable fact that films often use life’s misfortunes to lure their audience to connect with their protagonist and their story. In most cases filmmakers use disabled leads , contrived misfortunes , jilted lovers and self-sacrificing heroines almost always leading to loads of melodrama and bags of soaked tissues. Barfi uses all of the above plot tools yet stays so matter of fact and so real that you can’t help falling in love with it.

Barfi is all about three characters who form a love triangle – Barfi , Jhilmil and Sruti played by Ranbir , Priyanka and Ileana respectively. That Barfi is deaf and mute, Jhilmil is differently abled and Sruthi is married , does not affect the story arc and does not manipulate the audience into rooting for/against a particular character. Strip away the handicaps and what you have is a standard done to death love triangle and this is where Barfi as a movie succeeds. Anurag uses a very common story template , adds the above mentioned plot devices and includes spectacular moments to create a heady mix which appeals to one and all.

Often , when one has characters with disabilities or emotional burden , one tends to highlight their angst and plight so heavily that one ends up creating saint like two-dimensional characters. Anurag tosses this out of the window and ends up creating real , believable characters who do what they do , yet regret / resent doing it. In one of the first moments in the film , where one is Introduced to Shruti , one sees her room filled with photos of her and Barfi – capturing what you assume as their life together.Much Much later into the film , at the fag-end , you end up realizing that the photos were not of hers and Barfi’s alone – they also include jhimil , who has been folded into invisibility by Shruti – this despite the fact that but for Sruti , Barfi and Jhilmil would not have had a happy ending.

It is moments like these , that make you root for Anurag Basu the film maker , be it the moment where Jhilmil tries to check out if she’d look good in a Saree like Sruti which indicates her subtle jealousy or the tears in Sruti’s eyes accompanying her bright smile as Barfi marries Jhilmil indicating her heartbreak and happiness. These moments when they occur , makes you forgive the occasional dragging that happens and gives you additional insight into the characters , layer by layer. Jhilmil’s possesiveness towards her man and her fear of Ileana is so subtly indicated as she comes forward , and forms a barrier of sorts with her hands . Much later chronologically , she consoles a broken Sruti patting her arms lightly , letting the audience know that Jhilmil has accepted what has to happen whereas Sruti has not.

Yet for all the spectacular moments , brilliant acting , soul-stirring music – rerecording included and captivating cinematography , Barfi is not without flaws. The movie drags at times and could have very well avoided the kidnap , robbery and mystery angle to the story.The ending , so notebookish also seems a tad contrived. But one forgives the flaws when one comes out of the theatre as what stays is Ranbir’s brilliant acting , Priyanka’s lovely outing as Jhilmil ( which is at Par with Sridevi’s act in Moondram Pirai) , the lovely lovely Darjeeling brought to life by Ravivarman and the music which is undoubtably Pritam’s best till date.

Watch Barfi atleast once – for it is good cinema which appeals to a very wide palate. Watch it because , it brings a smile to your face , a smile which is due to the fact that the experience of watching this movie takes one back to a place where life is beautiful and real , despite the occasional brutality and unhappiness.