July 2011 – Just Jo

‘Chappa Kurish’ is an honest film

‘Chappa Kurish‘ is a strange name for a Malayalam movie. Everybody was wondering what the name meant when they first heard the movie title. Later we learned that it is the Fort Kochi slang for ‘Head or Tail’ and the movie held true to it’s title, portraying two different lives in contrast to each other. The movie is directed by cinematographer Sameer Thahir (his directorial debut) and he also shares the writing credits with Unni R.

The story is simple and contemporary and it has been woven in a credible manner. The protagonists of the movie, Arjun (Fahad Fazil) and Ansari (Vineeth Srinivasan), live in the same city but in two different worlds. Arjun, a successful young businessman and a playboy who is engaged to Ann (Roma) but also has a relationship with Sonia (Remya Nambeesan), his colleague. Ansari is a cleaning boy in one of the super markets in the city, who is always ridiculed by his boss and almost everyone else except Nafeeza (Niveda) – his love interest. The story gets interesting when Arjun loses his iPhone and Ansari gets hold of it. Arjun desperately wants to get his phone back because it contains the video clip of his private moments with Sonia and it can jeopardize his upcoming wedding and Sonia’s life altogether.

Ansari doesn’t easily give the phone away and it is not because of the video clip (he is not aware of it) or he wants to sell it. It is simply because this phone is a powerful tool that he could ever get. He even tells his love interest once that, “when you have this phone, you don’t have to be afraid of anything in this world“. He enjoys it when Arjun pleads to him and address him as “Sir” because he never had respect from anyone else in this world. He loves it even more when he could use Arjun to slap his boss, or to pour black oil on the Volkswagen of a woman who accused him of misbehavior and got his boss to make him apologize to her (for something he never did).

Eventually, Ansari decides to give the phone back when Nafeeza insists. But things go out of hand when the mobile shop owner, who offers to help Ansari to charge the phone battery, extracts the clip off the phone and upload it to YouTube under the title “Mallu Boy and Girl New“. The video goes viral thereafter and Arjun goes to find Ansari on his own.

Almost everything in this movie is told honestly. The plot, the characters, how they respond to each other and situations of the story are all so honest and natural. It is this honesty that I liked about this movie. Fahad as Arjun and Vineeth as Ansari have given wonderful performances. With their body language and acting, they have made their characters credible. I never liked Vineeth Srinivasan in any of his movies until now (Fahad also was disastrous in his first movie), but Ansari is one character that fits him like a T and he has done full justice to his role. Fahad is to be noted for his top-notch, matured performance.

There are a few firsts about this movie when it comes to Malayalam cinema. Except for one song sequence, the entire movie was shot on Canon 7D, a still camera (apparently, the Hindi movie “Stanley Ka Dabba” and parts of Hollywood movie “Black Swan” were also shot with Canon 7D). The traditional ‘blossoming-flower syndrome‘ for love-making scenes has moved way to a two minute smooch between Sonia and Fahad. Remya Nambeesan has to be applauded for having the guts to do it in a Malayalam movie. The climax action sequences were realistic, something that you also would do in real life, if put yourself in a similar situation. We would think that it is going the ordinary way when the movie clip goes online and we see Sonia going to the toilet with a blade. But we spot her in an airport later and she is also joined by Arjun soon. Jomon T John on camera and Rex Vijayan (Avial fame) with music also have done commendable work. But I wish Rex’s background score was a bit more tight at scenes like Arjun chasing Ansari.

If there is anything that I would complain about this movie, it is the scripting and editing and those are not small things to pass on. Had there been a tight script and an editor who knew his job, this movie would have easily become the best Malayalam cinema in the recent years. But in many scenes the movie loses it’s pace when it should have kept it’s viewers gripped to their seats.

My rating:

(Image courtesy: Wikipedia)

Life, on a journey

Train Journey

Train journeys are not always interesting if you are a frequent traveler. When you travel twice a week in the same route and train it can get so boring. I always take either a book to read or charge my Zune fully so I can hear music or podcasts while sitting in the train for long 6-7 hours. But I realized last week that there still could be something interesting if you look around. Last week’s train journey back home was quite interesting that way.

The Thiruvananthapuram-Guruvayur intercity express train is always packed with daily commuters and devotees of Guruvayurappan. Daily commuters would get off mostly at Varkkala, Kollam, Kaayamkulam stations. The devotees to Guruvayur travel with family and there would be new born babies in many of these family groups. I assume that they take their little ones for the “chORooNu” ceremony at Guruvayur temple. It is a pleasure for me to see these babies, mostly because they would come close to the age group of my little one (they would mostly be 5 to 8 months old). Their bright colored dress, wide smiles and naughtiness would remind me of my kiddo and my heart would yearn to get to my son, take him in my arms and plant a kiss on his cheek.

An ordinary seat for three, with no dividers in between doesn’t give you much comfort. So imagine the other two people sitting beside you are XL. The man who sat next to me was a tall, big fellow and there was his wife, who is not so tall but still big, sat beside him. They did not really squeeze me in the beginning, but who has control over their bodies when they fall asleep? So as the train moved, the man’s body went loose and I had to bear much of his body weight.

On another seat was a girl with dark circles around her eyes. The Infosys logo on her backpack explained the dark circles and why she looked so sleepy. She must have worked long schedules to get her leave. You don’t usually spot a regular weekender in a Thursday train. She plugged in the earphones and looked away throughout the journey until she finally got off at Ernakulam. Just a couple of blocks away, a group of cheerful young girls were persuading each other to sing. Finally, they sang together but I guess they were a bit shy, even with their loud voices, so the song faded out after a couple of lines.

When the train passed through the Varkkala-Kollam stretch, I saw many homes that had the Gods’ photos in their sit-outs, all brightly lit with electric bulbs. I guess these are Eazhava houses from the photo of Sri Narayana Guru that took the center stage of the Gods’ photos. Seemed interesting to me because usually the Hindu households would have a lit Deepam on the front.

At Munroe Turutthu, a group of people were waiting to see-off a young man. One of them, an old lady, was weeping loud enough for people inside the train to take notice. A young woman whom the old lady was hugging tight while weeping was looking at others with embarassment and tried to comfort her. As the train slowly moved, rest of the people – all of them looking cheerful except the old lady – moved along with the train to wave to the young man. The old lady, now without a shoulder to cry on stood there alone, still weeping and wiping her tears off with the tip of her saree.

There is something different about the toilet art lately. In the toilet at one end of the compartment had the same sleeze you usually see in the train toilets, but on another end lied a surprise. Here, people were a bit spiritual and philosophical. Here are a few I read while taking a leak.

“Body is mortal, but the soul is immortal – Bhagavad Gita“, read one in Malayalam.

“Why does Lord Vishnu have five hands? To control our five elements“, again in Malayalam.

“We love all, we help all, we are the sons of Lord Krishna“, read another in English.

Another curious one read, “You don’t know yourself, think for once about who you are, then do as you please“.

Finally a fairly new one that read, “I want girls, call 9xxxxx xxxxx“. And next to it another one that read, “Go to your mother“.

Salt N’ Pepper – What really is cooking?

Salt N Pepper poster

From the movie reviews that I read in several websites and FB status messages, it seemed to me that “Salt N Pepper” was a refreshing, path-breaking, unconventional movie that is part of a ‘movement in Malayalam cinema’ (courtesy: Prithviraj) lead by some young people in the industry.

But the hiccup starts right from the beginning, when Kaalidasan abducts Mooppan from the wild. Kaalidasan wants the viewers to believe that he has plans to learn the unknown tribal recipes from the Mooppan, but throughout the movie, Mooppan is just an antique decoration in Kaalidasan’s house. He says nothing, does nothing except staring and smiling at times. We don’t know why that character is even there if not to bring in the ‘human right activists joke’ into picture. Oh yeah, we need to talk about that joke.

Off late, Human rights activism has been made a subject of ridiculeness in some Malayalam movies. It was started off with Major Ravi and his war movies and the nationalist fervor of people has cheered them all the way. Aashiq Abu does the same kind of ridiculing, with that loud ex-police character so it is easy for the viewers to hate the human rights activists. As a result, Kaalidasan, who pulled a tribal man off his environment and does nothing for him and rather Kaalidasan’s intention is to make use of Moopan to please his taste buds, is portrayed as the good man and the hero. The human rights activists who try to save the old man are portrayed evil.

Then comes Maya, the rebellious dubbing artiste who knows how to handle the guys in the studio or the big shot film industry people, who in a boozing session with her flat mates says that “being a woman, I fell for his trap” referring to her failed romantic relationship. The director who was bold enough to let the heroine hold a bottle of beer still couldn’t do without the ‘traditional wisdom’ that women are, by nature, fragile. Typecast never ends as the male assistant in the beauty salon acts like a woman. Again the traditional wisdom that men working in the beauty/glamor industry must be lady-boyish.

The film’s highlight is it’s light-hearted comedy but some bits of it is not so light-hearted. For example, look at the scene where Maya asks for ‘garlic chutney’ (to go with the Thattil Kutty Dosa) and Kaalidasan reacts by looking at his private parts. The hint is clear and Aashiq Abu certainly knows how to please his male audience. We should also note that this is the kind of ‘comedy’ that is seen in Malayalam cinema/TV/live shows these days.

So much so to the ‘path-breaking, un-conventional’ movie. But the film is not without it’s positives. The way that Kaalidasan bonds with Maya through their common love for food has been portrayed nicely. Their conversations on food, their own different reasons to love food – Kaalidasan a born foodie and Maya cooks to connect with her mother’s memories – have also been shown nicely. The most yummy and well taken scene in the movie is when Kaalidasan tells Maya the recipe of Joan’s Rainbow Cake and both make and relish it. The old Premier Padmini is also a part of the movie that does it’s role well while abruptly playing the music through it’s dysfunctional radio.

There is nothing much to be said about Lal and Shweta Menon (who have portrayed Kaalidasan and Maaya respectively) as we already know how talented these two actors are. Surprise of course comes from Baburaj, who usually does villainous characters, doing a comic role here. The scene that Lal asks Baburaj to go with him was hilarious.

When the movie ends, you would be wondering why the much-awaited meeting of Maya and Kaalidasan was scheduled at a museum and not in a food joint. But that is quite obvious as the food factor is forgotten right after the first half of the movie and from then onwards it’s an excessive bit of salt and pepper you taste here and there.

Mazha Njaan Arinjirunnilla (cover)

It has been more than two months since I have sung or recorded anything. Thanks to my wifey and kiddo who were kind enough to leave me alone on a Saturday evening, I recorded a cover version of this beautiful song without any backing track. Do hear and let me know how it sounds. 🙂

Movie: Doctor Patient (2009)
Lyrics: Rafeeq Ahammed
Music: Bennet-Veetrag
Original singer: Hariharan
Covered by: Joseph Thomas (Jo)

Mazha njaan arinjirunnilla (cover) by jocalling

The useless ‘royal, divine wealth’

“I went to the Vatican and I saw that the ceilings were made of gold. And I heard the Pope saying the church takes care of poor children, but if so, sell the ceiling, JP. Do something! I was angry with him. For the same reason I got angry with so many people. Because they are two-faced. Because they say one thing here and then another thing there. Because they stab you in the back. Because they lie.”

That was the comment from the football legend Diego Maradona about his visit to Vatican palace and I remembered this when I read about the ‘honesty’ of the Travancore royal family that the mainstream media is celebrating right now. It was all started when the stock-taking of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum began by the supreme court order. Everyone is surprised at the amount and value of the wealth that was found inside the secret hideaways inside the temple which comes close to Rs. 1 lakh crore and one more secret vault is yet to be opened. This makes the Padmanabhaswamy Temple the richest temple in India.

Since the matter has become a topic of interest to general public, there are many discussions going on about the royal and ‘divine’ wealth. The wealth that was found in the temple is of the old Travancore royal family. In other words, it is the wealth of the old Travancore princely state and it’s people. In short, it is the people’s money, through taxes and everything, that the old Travancore king had added to the temple and the deity through the process of “thRippaTi daanam“. And through that process, the kingdom of Travancore and it’s wealth was ‘surrendered’ to the deity and the temple. Still, it’s only symbolic and the king continued to be in his position; just that his designation was changed to ‘padmanaabha daasa‘ (meaning, the servant of Lord Padmanabhan), looking after the God’s wealth and kingdom for him.

The thing is, no one would dare question a king like Marthanda Varma who was a conqueror and as was the practice with any king, he would do as he please. The royal family had kept their secrets and this wealth in the name of Sri Padmanabhan, even during the merger of Travancore with Indian Union. Which means, they have denied the right of people to know about their ancestral wealth (which includes the hard-earned and no-so-hard-earned money of their ancestors) even in the march towards a newly built democracy.

As a result, the lakh crores worth of wealth of the people were hidden and useless. Not only that it is useless, now, from what I assume from the news, every tax paying citizen will have to bear the cost of safe-guarding this useless wealth. As per the news reports, one of the royal family members seems to have asked proudly:

“How many royal families in the country can be proud of keeping things like this? You should understand that two chambers out of the six have not been opened for more than 150 years and it there that the treasure trove has been kept safely”.

I would like to tell him that if the royal family was honest as the media and they themselves celebrate to be, they would have spent that wealth for the welfare of people. This is not the hard-earned money of their labor. They once did the mistake of ‘surrendering’ it to a God, then with not surrendering it to Indian Union and now by justifying all those actions. And our slavery mentality celebrates this as an act of honesty.

Now who would tell them what Maradona told the pope?