Jambajaar Talkies

Lathika and the Lingo Kid

Slumdog Millionaire seems to be the flavor of the season (2008-09). I am writing this post after seeing the Slumdog movie. And, am reminded of Lathika’s character. See inserted picture here. Do you see any resemblance between this child-woman and the toddler she is carrying? Also, the child-woman (waif) seems to be fairly good looking too. Wonder what her story is and how she has come to this state. To those that might question how slum kids could end up as good looking as Freida Pinto, this waif is but one example.

Co-existence of slumdogs and millionaires is quite the reality in India. The dichotomy can inure you to hardships, disturb you to be angry or dig deep or just simply make you aware and appreciate the Joie de vivre. And, yes, from time to time, there are the slumdog fairytales in real life too.

Took this picture from inside my car as we were waiting at the lights by Tharamani and Velachery. Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Below is an example of what a gifted street kid (Ravi) can pick up by way of skills. I had seen the first video below couple of years back and was humbled and inspired by Ravi. The second video, which tracks down Ravi after 3-years of the first one, shows a glimpse of him playing the “Tour Guide”. And, this is what this Curry Bear blog post is mainly talking about.

Once again, thanks to a “westerner” for making this video and piggybacking on the Slumdog wave to popularize this kid. And, back-off (from Danny Boyle) .. all those guardians of Desi pride, who got “hurt” that India was not portrayed in a dignified manner. I will save (my) reasoning to this remark to a later post. Until then, let this slumdog kid (Ravi) inspire you to revisit and expand your own realms of possibilities ..

Lingo Kid – Beginnings

Lingo Kid – The Teenage Years

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23
Jan 09

When Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves spoke in Chaste Tamil ..

More than fifty years back, Ali Baba – an Arabian classic – was made as a Tamil movie. I watched it in the 80′s, nearly three decades after it was made. My parents and grand parents gave it the necessary build up. An exciting story to both share verbally and watch it on-screen as family.

Recently, I watched it with my 3-yr old, more than half a century later. The story is immortal. This particular movie’s version is still very “watchable” and immensely enjoyable. More so, when I find that my 3-yr old is many times as excited as I was when I watched it for the first time (when probably my parents felt what I am feeling now).

Anda ka kasam – this movie’s version of the mantra that is needed to open and close the cave’s door – ROCKS!

Below is the full version:

Open:
Anda ka kasam
Abu ka hukum
Thirandidu Sesame!

Close:
Anda ka kasam
Abu ka hukum
Moodidu Sesame!

Starring:
Alibaba ……………….. M.G.Ramachandran [MGR]
Margianna ……………. P.Bhanumathi
Kasem Khan …………. M.G.Chakkarapani
Alibaba’s sister ………. M.N.Rajam
Margianna’s sidekick .. K.Sarangapani
Cobbler ………………. K.R.Thangavelu
Abu Hussein …………. P.S.Veerappa

Following names sound familiar?
Dances ………………. Waheeda Rahman
Sword Fighting ……… R M.N.Nambiar

A very perfunctory research seems to indicate that the two names mentioned immediately above are in deed who one might think they are. Waheeda Rahman is from the south (Hyderabad) and started her career with bit parts/dances for movies made in the then-Madras.

Regardless of the initials reading R.N. (as opposed to M.N.) in the opening credits, to me, when you put sword fighting and Nambiar in one line or sentence, the reference can be to only one person – the one and only M.N.Nambiar. And, you can see in the credits of other movies where MGR has been referred to as M.G.Ramachander (instead of M.G.Ramachandran). So totally plausible that it is just a case of a simple typo.

Enjoy this immortal story presented in chaste Tamil. Veerappa as Abu Hussain is stuff of legends.

Ali Baba and 40 Thieves – Part 1 of 3 (Tamil, 1955)

Ali Baba and 40 Thieves – Part 2 of 3 (Tamil, 1955)

Ali Baba and 40 Thieves – Part 3 of 3 (Tamil, 1955)

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2
Dec 08

the Visitor

I watch the movie “the Visitor” from the comforts of my Silicon Valley home. Couple of days later Mumbai is attacked by terrorists. Do not look for a connection between the two, for there exists none. That said, the movie presents what could be seen as very early phases of our (US) journey toward an eventual Orwellian Society. The attacks in Mumbai could be seen from one vantage point as the result of (India) having seriously false pretenses to a utopian future.

the Visitor is a very poignant movie that raises questions about racial profiling, dehumanization of the plight of aspiring immigrants, and finally, the possibility of participation from the average American to improve this plight. Orthogonally, it so subtly and beautifully presents the pain that a life of no moorings and no passion can inflict on a person. As the lead protagonist (played by Richard Jenkins) says:

I haven’t done any real work in a very long time. I pretend, pretend that I am busy, that I am working. .. I am not doing anything.

Here is an actor who we might recognize as having seen in scores of movies and yet not be able to name one. That notwithstanding, a subtler and yet such an impactful performance I have not seen in a while. Richard Jenkins is the listless Prof. Walter Vale, who over the course of the movie finds a cause and a passion to possibly start living again.

Without going into a full review, one of which you can see on the IMDB site, or adding to the list of spoilers, a question that seems to be asked in the movie (also, summarized by the tagline Connection is Everything) is what do we become when we lose the connectedness to the humans around us. Is a person entering (or wanting to enter) your country a mere document record on a computer? Is the peson, however useful or not he might be to your society, not a person anymore if he does not have the coveted A# (read, greencard or the like)? Though nothing along the lines of seeking asylum or facing deportation, I can however relate firsthand to being treated as a mere number from my own experiences with immigration.

The preview clip above ends with:

you can live your whole life .. and never know who you are .. until you see the world .. through the eyes of others

.. and, this is shown somewhat metaphorically by Prof. Wale taking easily to an exotic percussion instrument, after years of sleepwalking to nowhere on a piano.

Some noteworthy moments in the movie:

There is a scene toward the end when the large backdrop of the US flag fades into a blank white canvas and a minute or so later, the subway drumming of Prof. Wale blacks out with the moving train. The visual messaging to me was that our lives exist somewhere in between the black and the white.
Hiam Abbass (as Mouna Khalil) is classy and charms you every time she is in the frame. Surprisingly, I did not squirm at the mushiness of the suggested habibti angle – as reel as real it is not – between her and Prof. Wale.
“How do you know what it feels like to be here inside (the detention center)?”, asks Tarek Khalil

Changing subjects, I expanded my horizons. Learned about Fela Kuti. Per wikipedia:

Fela was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick. HMV ranked him #46 on a list of the top-100 most influential musicians of the 20th century.

Let the Visitor make you take part! (visit www.takepart.com site. seems to be a good mission)

Jambajaar Talkies — 5 Comments
30
Nov 08

Mandiri Kumari Revisited

Blog post “Readability” statement: to be able to relate to this post, familiarity with the following is required: tamil/dravidian polity, MGR, M.Karunanidhi, anti-brahminism, Doordarshan.

Released in 1950, the story and dialogues have been penned by none other than the current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi (MK). Of course, the revolutionary dialogues mouthed on-screen by the former Chief Minister, Puratchi Thalaivar MGR, who plays Veeramohan, the commander-in-chief of the army.

Summary, based on the product description on amazon.com:

The son of a cretinous priest and royal advisor (M. N. Nambiar), Parthiban (S. A. Natarajan) has taken to dressing up as a demented superhero and committing acts of banditry and thuggery to discredit the virtuous Veeramohan (M. G. Ramachandran), a decorated general and boyfriend of the beautiful Princess Jeevarekha (G. Shakuntala).

Parthiban is arrested and sentenced to be hanged. But escapes the noose, thanks to Amudavalli, daughter of the Prime Minister. Veeramohan is banished from the kingdom for falsely implicating Parthiban.

The pure-hearted Amudavalli (Madhuri Devi) tries to change the feckless Parthiban from his wicked ways and even marries the guy. Unfortunately, her efforts come to naught as she kills him in self-defense.

Veeramohan is framed for the attempted murder of the king and tried. Amudavalli comes to his rescue, sacrificing her life in bargain. Evilness of the priest is exposed in the end.

This story is really a parable for rousing dravidian sentiments against the upper caste brahmins and religion. The scheming Rajguru, who is also the political advisor and ruler by proxy, is shown wearing the poonul (read, holy tassel) that is a common symbol for those born into the brahmin caste. Brahmins were painted as oppressive, greedy, and exploitative intellectuals, who wielded power and enjoyed wealth disproportionate to their percentage of the overall population. Without going into any sort of judgment, it is this very propoganda that served as the poliitical platform for MK and MGR enroute to their ultimate glory as Chief Minister of the state (Tamil Nadu).

On a personal note, this is a movie I “complete” my viewing after almost 28 years. As a kid, I could never stay awake past 8pm. I guess I got started early on the early to bed, early to rise .. though I have to admit I have strayed very far based on current evidence. It is 12:37a now and I am typing this post! Anyways, back to growing pains, when you are the middle of three siblings, this “weakness” gets exploited as the situation deems it fit. When Mandiri Kumari was telecast on Doordarshan, the last half-hour was kept for after the late night news (say 10pm) in English and I had to rely on my brothers – see, there was no internet, google, youtube, tivo etc – to fill me in the next day on what I missed. Of course, this meant there was some form of barter .. though memory conveniently blanks out what exactly it was that was exchanged for details on how the movie ended.

This post is to Doordarshan and sibling skirmishes when growing up ..

Famous Lines:

Parthiban, sadist son of the pontiff / royal adviser, says:

Aran.maN.eye, Naa.yei, Adakku.da, Vaa,yei

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Read, (you) palace dog, stop barking and shut your trap.

Parthiban tells his father, the Rajguru:

Plundering is an art, I take pleasure in it .. what is wrong, if you cannot see art in this, you are simpleton for it.

I will stop plundering when the carnivores stop eating flesh, when the snakes stop being venomous ..

Parthiban to Amuthavalli:

chandiran, sooriyan udikka manrandilaam
mandiram oda nee marakka mattay ..

Sun or moon might forget to rise but you won’t your chirping ..

Or simply, read, (woman) STOP NAGGING

Scene Stealers:

ITEM number: Travancore sisters (seen here, Padmini of the Lalitha-Padmini-Ragini trio)

Satire: How a ministerial cabinet is formed

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In the absence of Parthiban, Appaavi (read, simpleton) annoints himself leader and forms his cabinet. Interesting how this scene ends with the remark, “Minister position came and went in a jiffy”

Allegory: Buffalo, my dear

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Song: Arumai Kannu Kutty, en Erumai Kannu Kutty

Twist in the tale: murder plot turned on its head

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Sound of a horse’s gallop (from the movie)

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Song: the classic Vaaraai, nee Vaarai .. sung by Tiruchi Loganathan and Jikki

Storyboard and Credits:

1. Masked bandit strikes terror

2. Parthiban, son of royal pontif, is the bandit

3. Rajguru (royal pontif), the puppet master

4. Rule by proxy

5. MGR as Veeramohan, the Army General

6. Evil and scheming - son and father

7. Amuthavalli, the Minister's daughter

9. Amuthavalli and Parthiban - unexpected love

8. Veeramohan in love with princess, Jeevarekha

10. Veeramohan fights the masked bandit

11. Identity revealed -- Parthiban

12. Parthiban trial

13. Amuthavalli pleads with Parthiban to mend his ways

14. Parthiban escapes the noose

15. Veeramohan banished for treason; Parthiban weds Amuthavalli

16. Jeevarekha elopes with the banished

17. Amuthavalli rescues Jeevarekha from Parthiban

18. Rajguru plots king's murder

19. Parthiban tries to bump wife Amuthavalli off

20. Murder plan foiled but Veeramohan framed

21. Veeramohan trial

22. Amuthavalli comes as witness

23. Guilty Rajguru kills Amutha

24. Rajguru to madman and prisoner

A. Actors

B. Actresses

C. Playback Singers

D. Story and Dialogue

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13
Oct 06

Little Superstar

Who would have thought a clip from one of Rajnikanth’s forgettable movies would cross two million views same week the upstart company that hosts this very clip gets acquired by Google for a billion $ and a half.

What is more scary? Thavakalai (read, midget) break-dancing like no one’s business. Or, who is gonna get the next $1B .. and, for what idea?

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25
Jul 04

Bourne-again Damon

Bourne-again Damon’s supremacy is unquestionable in the screen adaptation of the *next* story, Bourne Supremacy, from the Robert Ludlum series. Well, we are in sequel times (read attack of the sequels). My geek compadres, I am not referring to SQL, pronounced sequel, Server. So hold your horses before you start off on a tirade on how we never did leave Oracle and DB2 to be even thinking about SQL, much less declaring present times as belonging to it. I digress but then again I promise that it will not be for the last time!

In a marketing effort to distance the movie from the sequel bandwagon, some reports have it that Universal has apparently positioned Supremacy as the *next* story in the Jason Bourne series (a la James Bond) and not as Jason Bourne – Part Duex. Indications so far have been that the opening weekend will gross more than $30M. So it only remains to be seen how many times beyond Ultimatum will Jason (sorry, Damon) be Bourne again.

Coming to the movie itself, the short – unless you are a can’t-wait-born-in-6-months-types, save this one for a DVD rental from your favorite store. That said, you will enjoy it more with a home theatre system and the company of vetti friends you used to hang out with in your undergraduate college.

The long can be broken down into the good, the bad, and the proverbial ugly.

The good – Jason Bourne wanders in der stadt playing cat-and-mouse with Dubya’s Intelligence Agency, aka CIA, without the help of James Bond-ean gadgets or Lord of the Rings-like special effects. From Goa to Napoli to Muenchen to Amsterdam (the movie does if not Bourne) to Berlin to Moscow to New York. If nothing, it is a visual delight and personally, a flash back for me, including my stay in room #476 at the Westin Grand. Though don’t ask me how close it is to 245, where Agent Landy stays in the movie. And then, there is Goa – shown in tropical and vibrant Indian colors. The scene, where the Maruti Gypsy is pulled out of the river with a crowded bridge in the background panorama, is especially remarkable – visually. Lastly, we have the car chase – Hyundai on Gypsy, in India. I was relieved that there were no Amritrajes driving auto-rickshaws!

The bad – Franke Potente and Julia Stiles are wasted. Joan Allen’s Agent Landy mouths clichés and is as predictable as the release of the *next* story after this one from the Jason Bourne series. Brian Cox and Karl Urban as the US and Russian bad boy, respectively, are adequate and mark their class attendance. Matt Damon does barely enough to collect his paycheck in the scenes where he wakes up after one of his recurring nightmares, as with all the scenes where he mopes the loss of Franke Potente’s Marie.

The ugly – Action scenes, particularly the fist-and-legs combat in Muenchen and the car chase, Lada Zhiguli on Mercedez, in Moscow. If the intent was B-grade blurry-cannot-hold-the-camera-steady visual delirium then there can be no further discussion on this subject. On a personal note, it is unfortunate that I have not had a chance to visit Goa yet, of all the staedten shown in this Bourne thriller .. a situation that needs to be addressed at the earliest!

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2
Dec 03

Jambajaar Talkies

To die-hard Kollywood fans, the term Jambajaar needs no introduction. To all the others, it is to Kollywood what the Strip is to Vegas, or so I would like to conjure, at least symbolically.

If you have no clue what/where Kollywood is, take a hint: Bombay Film Industry : Bollywood :: Kodambakkam, Chennai Film Industry : what-have-you?

Now that we have solved that mystery, let us refocus on Jambajaar.

Jambajaar epitomizes the unbridled flea marketplace, numero uno for which gets to be the Jambajaar Jaggu, a la Kaiser Soze from the Hollywood movie, Usual Suspects. Jambajaar could be real or all in the mind. It could exist in your backyard or in your neighbors’ but exist it does and that, full of stories – fantastic and mundane but gravitic all the same.

Every now and then, jambajaar talkies will ponder on the productions of some of the [A-Z]ollywoods from around the world.

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24
Nov 03

Kollywood Kamal: Main Hoon Na .. in every frame!

Caution: Read on ONLY if you are familiar with Kamal Haasan, Kollywood, Tamil, Bollywood, Hindi, and yes, necessarily in that order! If you have met the familiarity criteria, be further warned that this rant is a blast revived from my rambunctious past (circa 2001 actually). Your reading further should only serve to allay any doubts in your mind about the extent of your own vetti.ness. Vetti Vazhga, Vetti Valarga (Long live Vetti and may it flourish)!

Following is NOT content forwarded from another original mind. It is my own bootless endeavor to unfetter the mind of the abysmal ennui that the new week is already threatening to offer. Like some angel sang, “Rainy days and Mondays always make me cry ..”, that which I follow, assuming the approval of Mathematicians in our midst (truth tables are yonder my idling processor), it being a rainy Monday, cry I must and cry you will in trying to divine the sequitur of the rambling here under.

Lately, the more I try to ignore it, the more I find myself dragged back into the gravitic vortex of the man’s exasperating plenitude. Kamal Haasan(KH)’s recent initiatives irk me instead of offer something enjoyable or entertaining. The chappie is so full of himself now a days that the day he starts playing his own on-screen amore is not too far away. Perhaps, this was true in the past as well but inexplicably it did not bother me so much then. Of course, any smart ass can counter the *so full of himself* stuff with the *when a laloo, peter & kandan can pass off as being so hip that they cannot see below their respective pelvises, a KH’s abundance is well deserved and well placed* rhetoric. Then again, this will fall under Zen and the Art of vidhandaa Vaatham (arguing loud and hollow, silly!).

Anyway, I was scratching my head to list out his movies that I enjoyed in the last 20 years. Careful not to abet nature and heredity in the cause of my already accelerating androgenetic alopecia, I came up with the foll, listed in the order of how entertaining it was:

1. Avvai Shanmughi
2. Pushpak
3. MMKR (Michael Madhana Kaama Rajan)
4. Aboorva Sagotharargal
5. Nayagan
6. Salangai Oli
7. Devar Magan

Though I have given Pushpak a #2, I have to say it was probably the cleanest entertainer I have seen till date, you walk out half a stone lighter, spirits looking up, and, in this case, a silent(!) song on your lip. In recent times, only a Lagaan had a similar effect on moi, though the genres are quite dissimilar.

I have to admit that it is perhaps the TamBrahm element in Selbst (political correctness, vetti ramblings … oil, vinegar … get it … got it … GOOD!) that gets tingled every time I see an Avvai and/or an MMKameshwaranR. First I thought, it is but natural and biassed for people like Vishwanatha Iyer & Sethurama Iyer (where ignorance is bliss, think Gemini Ganesan in Avvai Shanmughi) to appreciate a movie like Avvai but after passive fact finding with the likes of thambi, berther & paandu, it occurred to me that our much heralded Mr. Bharath is preferred more in such a role than an Aadhi (of Kurudhi Punal) or an Ammavaasai (of some stupid, vakhra-budhi-padaicha movie he might come up with soon).

Mind also travels back to an article in some *zine analyzing why there isn’t too much difference between a Gulshan Grover and a KH and trying to understand what the big hungama was about. The thesis being if shaving off ur head, having a beard with a mottai look, mush off/on, Indian thatha look is all there is to greatness in histrionics then a Gulshan Grover should be in the same valhalla as KH.

In a recent interview, KH quotes unwarranted, incongruous, historical examples (jews, herod, sati, etc.) to support the premise of his story. Hear, hear!! Who would have guessed there was an occult method in contriving the Abhay madness. Granted interpretations are subjective but social and moral responsibilities should temper one’s predilection for the asura-budhi ..

Now, okay! All the thambis and bhaiyyas in des have awakened to physical fitness & rippling pecs. But the posters for Aalavandhaan (Abhay, in Hindi) in Madras reminded me of two movies: Mission Kashmir & Wayne’s World – the former, where Hrithik Roshan needlessly shows his biceps to clean a rifle, a frame that was as related to its adjoining ones as my Jeep Wrangler is to Karnam Malleswari (well, at least, as of how things stand today!), and the latter, where Mike Myers pokes fun at such scenes by displaying a “gratituous sex scene” subtitle in a bed room jaunt with Tia Carrere.

If Hey Ram, in which KH plays only one character, put him in every frame/scene there was in the movie, I fear what an Abhay, where you buy one to be shoved with one more, might do.

Abhay – is it the name of the protagonist of the movie or the frame of mind one needs to be in to willfully pay money and endure the infliction otherwise known as Kamal Haasan ???

Footnote:

- This is not a review of the movie “Abhay”. In fact, I have not even seen the movie yet! One poster and one e-review were enough to light the fire up my wazoo!!

- KH has become something like a thegatti-pona-theratti-paal, which ironically is a dish intended to make do off the excess.

- To quote ShivajiGaneshan Bhai (Gani Bhai, to stadtWaasis and their thambis), “paal kettu pochuNNa theratti-paal pannalaaam … aanaaa, antha theratti-paalEy kettupochuNNa …”