Godhi Banna Sadharana Maikattu - Review

Saw this movie this evening with better half.
Anant Nag as 66 year old Venkoba Rao is an Alzheimer's patient left at a Nursing Home (Nightingale!) by his very busy careerist son. Left unattended, he wanders away. The duty doctor Sahana (Sruthi Hariharan) has developed affection for this very interesting old man full of stories and memories of how he met and wooed his late wife Pushpa in the College library. He taught his son how to sketch and have fun. But now the young man is busy chasing his dreams and has no patience with his boring Alzheimer's liability of a father.
Son Shiva and Sahana search desperately here and there for the missing dad. But Venkoba Rao has managed meanwhile to get muddled up with a gang of hired murderers while they were trying to get rid of a BBMP engineer's body after murdering him on a highway.

The rest of the story is a bit long, as several threads have to come together rather slowly until Shiva and Sahana have developed a closeness through her sharing of all the stories she has heard from Venkoba Rao, with Shiva.
Finally all the baddies kill off each other. Venkoba has gone through everything without the least understanding their violent world. He is equally nonchalant when restored to his son. All ends happily for Shiva and Sahana. But not before one is rather bored by the meandering thugs story. Maybe the movie could have catered less to the whims of the producer who always wanted to make a murder mystery but landed up with a director keen on directing Anant Nag as an Alzheimer's patient.

Anant Nag has done brilliantly in his few parts. His humour and pitiful debility are portrayed memorably.

He tells the murderer at one point of the story, feeling pity for him as he is plotting his own escape. "They say there are two dogs in each of us. The black one, who stands for hate, violence, jealousy and revenge. The white dog stands for love, giving, peace and harmony. Who wins in their battle? Ha ha. It is simple. The one whom you give more biscuits!"

Sruthi is very good in her role. Rakshit Shetty as Siva has also done well. Sruthi's somewhat gaunt face needs getting used to, but she acts well. Best wishes to her!

And let me not forget the music. There are a few songs in Raghu Dixit style, pregnant with words of life philosophy sung to some strident guitar and drums. The songs are thrown in whenever the producer felt the movie's tempo was flagging. It seems to be a constant toss up between showing murderers or throwing in songs. Ok, that's a bit uncharitable. Anyways you get my drift I hope.

Zootopia- what I like about this 3D animated movie

I saw Zootopia twice, first with grandkids and then with better-half.

I feel the movie is a bit over the top for kids, unless they are already thinking of career choices and how to make the world a better place for everyone. And whatever your age, if you like crisp dialogue, great 3D animation (especially trains speeding amok), the American Urban Dream, and some wild adventure, you are going to fall in love with this movie.

Many hot buttons of popularity are pressed nonchalantly by Disney Studios:

1. The hero is a young, tiny, girl rabbit, Officer Judy Hopps who doen't blink when she says, "It's called a hustle, sweetheart!", with a boldness and courage belying her social stereotype-imposed self-image and dimunitive size. She pairs up with a wily, well-networked, fox who's on the bend after having been a bit of a vagabond himself. The two make a delightful pair as they take on the notorious complications of a complex urban world full of wheels within wheels of good, bad, lazy, and ugly bits all mixed up nicely. 
2. You do have spoofs of famous movie moments.
3. You have, to boot, Shakira herself appearing as a sexy gazelle, singing and dancing her way into every bison and leopard heart.
4. Animals who think, act, speak human, no, make it American dreamer, all the time.

Go watch it. and tell me what you think!

Mother Nature speaking!

Julia Roberts, the actress who has given us so many memorable performances, speaks in this video as the voice of Mother Nature, for Conservation International.
Here is the script of Julia's words:
“ Some call me Nature. Others call me Mother Nature. I've been here for over four and a half billion years: twenty-two thousand five hundred times longer than you.
I don’t really need people. But people need me.
Yes, your future depends on me.
When I thrive, you thrive. When I falter, you falter.Or worse.
But I've been here for aeons.
I have fed species greater than you. And I have starved species greater than you.
My oceans, my soil, my flowing streams, my forests, they all can take you or leave you.
How you chose to live each day, whether you regard or disregard me, doesn't really matter to me.
One way, or the other, your actions will determine your fate. Not mine.
I am Nature. I will go on. I am prepared to evolve. Are you?”

My first reactions: breathtaking visuals, very hard-hitting dialogue, in the famous manner of a Julia who doesn't mince words. Right now, she sounds ominous. She is telling me, or us, that we had better start mending our ways. Let's not overestimate ourselves or our powers. Mother Nature will go on, whether we mess up our existence or not.

A bit intimidating. Nature with a capital N.

As someone who has sought answers in the Bhagavad Gita all the time, let me see how this relates to what Bhagavan Krishna (God) says in the Gita, in the context of man and nature.

What Krishna says sounds quite different, at least in a literal sense, from the words of Mother Nature in this video. But in the end it all connects in a wholesome way, in the circle of life. How?

 I give below selected verses from the English translation from Swami Chinmayananda's The Holy Geeta (each quote is numbered as "chapter.verse"). The words are spoken by the Lord.

13.20. Know that Nature and Spirit are both without beginning; and know you also that all modifications and qualities are born of Nature. *** Creation is an eternal process***
9.10. Under Me as her Supervisor, Nature produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, the world revolves.
7.4. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, egoism --- these are My eight-fold Nature.
7.5. This is the "lower" Nature; different from it, know thou, My "Higher" Nature, the very Life-element or Spirit, by which this world is upheld. ***this implies that Consciousness is all-pervading and represents the eternal Spirit which exists in all Nature and is yet beyond it ***
7.6. Know that these (Nature and Spirit), are the womb of all beings. So I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe *** man has only the autonomy to change only a few things, but not the big picture ***
7.8. I am the juice/taste in water, I am the light in the moon and the sun; I am the syllable OM in all the Vedas, sound in ether, and virility in men; *** it is not a random design without purpose ***
7.9. I am the sweet fragrance in earth and the brilliance in fire, the life in all beings, and I am austerity in the austere. *** Here austerity means giving more to life than taking from life, the basis of man's responsibility ***
3.14. From food come forth beings; from rain food is produced; from sacrifice (meaning work done according to one's nature, but with an attitude of doing good for all creation) arises rain, and sacrifice is born of action. *** the circle of life ***
3.12. The "Devas" (demigods governing the forces of nature), nourished by the sacrifice, will give you the desired objects. " Indeed he who enjoys objects, given by the Devas , without offering (in return) to them, is verily a thief. *** Man's duty to creation ***
3.20. Janaka (a famously wise king) and others attained perfection verily by action only: therefore you should perform action, even with a view to conserving all this creation. *** the word is Loka Samgraha in Sanskrit, exactly same as global conservation! I give at the end a beautiful explanation of this term by a well-known author in this area, S. P. Agarwal.
13.21. In the production of the effect and the cause, Nature is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, Spirit is said to be the cause. *** Consciousness or Spirit in man ***
13.22. The Spirit, seated in Nature, experiences the qualities born of Nature; attachment to the qualities is the cause of his birth in good and evil wombs. ***the principle of the individual Self and its karma leading to rebirth ***
13.23. The supreme Spirit in this body is also called the Spectator, the Permitter, the Supporter, the Enjoyer, the great Lord and the Supreme Self.  *** Definition of God and how God is always an enabler and motivator, yet giving each creature a degree of autonomy ***
13.24. He who thus knows the Spirit and Nature together with the qualities, in whatsoever condition he may be, he is not born again. *** Concept of wisdom leading to liberation, or Buddha and Nirvana!***

So in summary, the Gita talks of Nature as encompassing all creation including man. Nature revolves, evolves, dissolves and is reborn. It is an eternal cycle of change. Man, by his very nature, is part of this circle of life, and he has to recognise how connected he is. He has to give to life, or nature, willingly, in a spirit of sacrifice or worship. In that spirit, nature is nourished, he is nourished in turn. God has planted the seed of life, the seed of evolution, and the seed of a higher nature or godliness in all creation, which manifests itself as "giving". Knowledge of this truth confers on everyone of us the grace of well-being, and leads us towards the liberation of the spirit. At the same time, this knowledge makes us act responsibly, supporting the circle of life.

Two questions remain. In the video, it is said that when Nature falters, man falters even more. Secondly, man can either destroy himself, or save himself. In the Gita, instead of making it a Man vs. Nature discussion, the Lord tells us that we have the power to save ourselves, or destroy ourselves, through our choices and actions:

6.5. Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone, and let him not lower himself; for, this Self alone is the friend of oneself, and this Self is the enemy of oneself.
6.6. The Self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself by the Self, but to the unconquered self, the Self stands in the position of an enemy like the (external) foe.

In these two verses, the Self is to be understood to be the same as the Spirit, separate from the ego. The self (no capital) is the ego. Conquering himself means becoming wise and owning responsibility.

God exists in Nature. God exists in man. God guides in our evolution. And just as Mother Nature speaks to us, God speaks to us through Nature, all the time. We just have to listen to Nature. And feel Nature. And give to Nature.

Hari Om!

Explanation of Lokasamgraha

You can read the original Bhagavad Gita with Swami Chinmayananda's translation online, here.
You can but the book here.

A Comparison Table (click here to read the Excel sheet)

Mission Impossible 5 : It all started with Hanuman

Most cineplexes in Bangalore are running multiple shows of the latest  Mission Impossible 5 (released recently but grossed $300+M already!) Tom Cruise leads spectacular action and chases with several nail-biting moments and white-knuckles fight scenes. There's beautiful imagery of London, Vienna, and Morocco. There is an incredible bike chase scene. There is a superwoman Faust (Rebecca Fergusson) statuesque like Maria Sharapova and finessed in everything she does including fights. Opera and Symphony fill our ears through DTS surround sound with loud explosions and noises rending the air at regular intervals. Guns hidden in trumpets and stuff.

The MI formula for success is straight forward. Take off where Bond ends. A goulash of a super agent, American politics, international safety fears, almost invisible "devils", European and Mediterranean locales, chases, bombs, some arty scenes, encrypt/decrypt geeks and incredible sci-fi scenarios. All ends well as the totally self-less Ethan Hunt walks away into the dark until next time.

Do you see what I see? That super-dad of poets and script writers, Valmiki. That original super hero Hanuman. Danger, Vice, and Horror like only a ten-headed monster called Ravana can conjure up. A distant island where a damsel lies captive in distress. A good man lost in the forest, hell-bent on righting the wrongs and retrieving his beloved wife.

Comes Hanuman. First off, he jumps across the ocean. Several "minor" hurdles on the way. Clever and secretive, he discovers Sita. Gives her the good news. Gets a taste of the action and kills a few baddies. Encounters Ravana in his own den. Escapes unscathed. His tail is up, in fire, and sets Lanka on fire, too!

Change to the scene of the great battle. Lakshmana in the throes of death. What does Hanuman do? Leaps across to Himalayas, lifts a whole mountain, and is back before day-break.

Incredible action! Impossible challenges. Herioc Missions. The original Mission Impossible Hero was Hanuman!

Come on, #boycottPK ??????? Seriously?

The #BoycottPK on Twitter is trending big time with many Hindus offended by the "laapata" posters of Aamir, the chase after Shiva, the dismantling of Tapasvi Maharaj etc. All these are considered vandalism acts against Hinduism.

I cannot laugh beyond a point as my sides will split. Come on.

I think PK is the BIGGEST ENDORSEMENT OF

1. HINDU SENSE OF SATYAMEV JAYATE
2. KARMA THEORY
3. GOD's LILA IN ACTION
4. LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE BEYOND EARTH.

Take the following facts.

This nanga panga alien PK lands on earth to learn about us and go back.
His need to go back is only after he has understood the rich variety of life here. Do you think he came here only to smuggle out some cassette tapes, an old Pansonic 2-in-1, and two trunks full of Duracell A batteries? NO WAY.

So PK HAS TO GET MESSED UP... otherwise how will he know?


PK had to see life in Rajasthan. Some dancing cars. Some screaming news anchors. Some scheming godmen. Some scrambling in temples. Some considerate policemen who know the colour of a Gandhi 500 rupee note.
He has to fall in love.
That is the theory of HINDUISM. COME, GET EXPERIENCE. THEN GET LIBERATION. PERIOD.

PK mat dekho

You should see PK. But not after a couple of drinks (spoiler: the movie title comes from peekay).

Because as it is, the heady atmosphere of a cineplex smelling of popcorn and full of ads about gold and bank loan and OLX.com will rob you of a sense of humour to appreciate an Aamir Khan film.

Because Aamir is actually an alien amidst us, whether you know it or not and whether you see PK or not. To explain it further,  he thinks different,  acts different,  and makes movies which make a big impact by being different. He doesn't attempt anything cheap,  anything easy,  anything light. Intensely different=Aamir Khan.

Figure this:

We think God is a kind of alien and we always prefer our godmen. We would not be able to handle God. That is the symbolism of Bhagavadgita 11th chapter.

We are so confused about what's the core  of our religious values.  We therefore can't distinguish between a programme on Aastha cable channel, ''Eat Pray Love'' movie scenes, and a feel-good God mela.

In PK:
Anoushka looks like a botched alien plastic surgery job, except when she is romancing Sarfraz in that lovely picture-postcard Bruges.

And Delhi, however you shoot it, looks like a spicy chat made up of traffic snarls, trishul-sporting temples and I-just-don't-care cops. It's not any different in PK.

Takeaways:

Avatar is an alien movie. It succeeded big time. So time for PK here!

Aamir is an alien in Bollywood.

Bollywood needs themes about gods and godmen for survival.

God is an alien in our make-believe world.

We need an avatar to solve this mess called our world. PK is that avatar!

And of course we see reality only on TV News channels! So this movie also plays out through a news reality show.

Best part of PK:
A Rajasthan cameo with the delightful Sanjay Dutt, sands, camels, and pagdis and some wonderful music and dance is actually a lot of fun.

Postscript:
OK,  if I sound cryptic,  sorry.
My rating for PK ****  4/5
My reco:  MUST SEE.

Movie songs: OFFICIAL: 'PK' Full Songs JUKEBOX | Tharki Chokro…:

http://youtu.be/_q-_SPgzSXo

2 States - Sarson Da Saag and Murungakai Sambar

We were determined to see this movie.. Lido screen 1 shut down after ten minutes and we went and bought tickets for the next show in screen 3 yesterday to watch this movie made on Chetan Bhagat's story. It is a delightful movie with many many interesting moments. I encourage you to see it, to understand today's Indian youth, especially educated ones. And more so what successful authors and moviemakers peddle.

In any case, it was once again a revelation to me how much we have stereotypes and myths about people and their ways in different parts of India, for example Madrassis. The myths that people who eat sarson da saag and swig Scotch have about Madrassis has been roundly blasted by Chetan Bhagat, Karan Johar and everyone else who have made this movie. BUT alas these moviemakers have added a lot of incongruities and fancy notions of their own. The kind of stuff you put into your movie when you don't ever overestimate the intelligence of your audience. 

#

I list only a few simple, very simple ones, and you can add more.

1. 95% Madrassis are dark or kaale=Nonsense. In fact a celluloid baby or a doll made of pure bone china called Alia comes from the heartland of Mylapore. In fact under floodlights, her face glows with a bloodless ivory colour. But she does have absolutely pink lips that would make a Paris and Milan fashionista jealous.
2. Madras has a water problem=Nonsense. The inner courtyard in your traditional home receives copious rain night and day in typical Kerala monsoon style.
3. Madras is hot, humid and dirty=Nonsense. You have only three types of places - treelined Pondy-like neoclassical avenues with teak and rose wood classic houses, or lovely lovely flower markets, or glitzy 20-storied corporate towers with curved large glass windows overlooking a Madeira-like coastal skyline.
4. A Madrassi IIMA Iyer girl entrant can't pronounce the word Sambhar to save her life.She eats simple food- tandoori chicken, rumali roti and beer at lunch time.
5. A lady who has won all the Tamil Sangam singing contests is rejected by a series of Carnatic music teachers (all well groomed with talcum powder and pot belly). She can't get past the Mohana varna Ninnu Kori but sings a song in a corporate get-together better than Sunidhi Chauhan.
6. Where do bank managers hold their daughter's wedding? A seashore rockcut temple that would shame Mahabalipuram.
7. Whiskey is as much a last resort of a poor bank manager in Madras who is learning Plugpoint, as it is the staple of an abusive Punjabi husband who was thrown out of the army, (The Punjabi ex-armyman runs a security agency called Securities, in a go-down like office full of carboard cartons.)
8. Madrassis are after USA MBA bridegrooms. Punjabis are after fatso UK-returned Dukes. 
9. All the tensions between 2 irreconcilable states vanish into thin air as you type out your dream best seller. Note that you do that on a portable typewriter, no matter that you prefer to use a laptop to draft letters for your dad and to make fancy powerpoint charts for your f-in-law who thinks it's called Plug point. Some humbling for Gates and now Nadella, to see the sentimental might of good old typewriters. 
10. You actually carry your twins back to back and cope, since your ivory queen of a wife is nowhere to be seen. How you pacify them, feed them, and what language you speak to them in, etc. are trifles. Because you are the new Indian youth, earning a salary 4 times that of your IIMA professors with your first campus hire job- which is by itself a  pittance compared to your best-seller royalties.
11. Last but not the least, if you feel suicidal, don't  panic. Seek out a therapist who sits in a lazy boy as you prance around on a sofa, ignoring the large glass windows at the back that cry out for you to go, crash through, and land some 30 stories below in a mess that ends your life. Unless Rajni the Robot comes and saves you.

Kumar Gandharva - how to tell a story.

Dear rasikas,
Thanks to my good friend Varsha, I am revisiting some great moments with Kumar Gandharva over the years. I want you to enjoy these two WONDERFUL narratives about a man who discovered God through music:
1. Shabnam Virmani's classic : http://bit.ly/kumargkoisuntahai
2. Films Division Documentary on Kumar Gandharva: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLw5sZ273vM

A few things for those few who may not know Kumar Gandharva:
-b. 1924 near Dharwad, began singing famous Bal Gandharva and other masters' songs at the age of 8, well enough to merit the title Kumar Gandharva.
- was a star already when he enrolled in Deodhar music academy in Bombay for methodical training.
- married his own student Bhanumati in mid 1940s.
- was stricken with TB and doctors said he didn't have a chance to sing any more, and he went away to Devas in Malva region of MP a sad recluse.
- was nursed back to health by his wife in mid-50s, and rediscovered himself and found a new path to music through Kabir Vani.
- created a new chapter in Hindustani music shorn of gharana tabs and sang thematic concerts for many years afterwards.
- lost his first wife, a great woman...remarried another disciple, and left behind a great legacy and many talented students.

Coming to these two films, unlike many films I have seen especially on South Indian artistes, these two films are not a series of eulogies using words like fantastic, incarnation, prodigy, musicians musician and so on; they are carefully-worded sincere (non-self-projecting) attempts to describe what was unique about the man and his music, with examples and musical audio/video clips. At the end of it all, you are left in a world of music and artistic sensibilities that go beyond hagiography.

The visual content of the films is also very artistic and moving.

I will surely recommend this as a BIG Sunday treat!!!

Ciao
Sachi R

Flipkart vs Seventymm: Dev Anand, ''Kala Pani''

Eulogies poured in after Dev Anand's recent demise at 88. I had to change my opinion of him: from that as an actor with laughable mannerisms who never liked to age or die, to that of someone who had some rare intelligence for Bollywood actors and a combination of business acumen and

talent for acting, directing, and knowing what makes a movie click.

In '60s, Dev Anand stormed Mysore when he came to sign up for movie rights to R K Narayan's 'The Guide' . I heard stories how his fast talk had made the writer sign up in a hurry and get a raw deal. I also heard how from Hotel Metropole in Mysore Dev Anand cast a roving eye for beauties from Maharani's College across the road. 'The Guide' itself was a huge success albeit with an ambiguous end.

I therefore read up more about Dev Anand and how after being cast opposite superstar heroines he finally attained his own star status with his role in 'Kala Pani' in 1958. I decided to get the movie DVD and watch it.

My attempt to get the DVD from Seventymm.com (where I regrettably took a 90 day membership for rentals) was a failure. This company has proved to be one of the worst in customer service. Not only do they have almost no good movies for rental immediately, they also do not update you when you make wish-lists. They further claim they came to deliver the DVD and you were not at home (they never ring up in advance) and so you lose your turn. They send wrongly labelled DVDs and poor quality DVDs. They don't pick up returns. They don't answer calls to Support well. All in all something totally avoidable.

In contrast, my experience with online shopping with Flipkart.com has been wonderful. I placed an online order with Flipkart.com for payment on delivery for this DVD. It came within 3 days. and my total cash payment was Rs. 92/- including RS. 30/- delivery charges!

Let me give you a great movie song clip on You Tube:

The Ultimate Singing Star - Barbra Streisand

Wikipedia says:

Barbra Joan Streisand (born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Streisand holds the record for the most top ten albums of any female recording artist - a total of 32 since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades.

These two clips are from the movie Funny Girl (1968). I think it is the most powerful performance by a female artist I have seen, and she sings these songs like there is no tomorrow. She won the Oscar.

Spielberg's Tintin!

Imagine an experience more fascinating than any action hero film thus far, characters as lovable as Dickens', period scenes straight from the '20s and '30s, action that would put Bond to shame, 3D effects that would give Avatar a complex, a story line that makes you a boy once more, characters so real that you can touch them and feel their spirited breath, and the comfort of a familiar adorable boy hero and his cute dog and swearing sailor of a friend, and you have Spielberg's Tintin. For me Tintin= 1000 x (Harry Potter+Bond+Avatar+Indiana Jones). The 3D effects make you duck flying coins, hide from surging seas, raging fires and sword fights and motorcycle chases that are simply simply edge of the seat for over a couple of hours. No movie makes such an impact before the interval, and carries on merrily afterwards too.
Spielberg's genius is he makes 3D characters come to life, and then assume a doll-like texture so you can play with them almost! Toy Story was toys come to life. Tintin is life made into toys.

Go see it NOW.

If you liked Baghban

I saw this movie la Tete en Friche ( titled in English, My Afternoons with Marguerite). There is this 96 year-old actress acting as a 95 year-old lady left in an old age home by her nephew in a small French town. He is already complaining that he can't afford to keep her there, but the lady is still full of life as she is very well-read  and loves to go sit in the park watching pigeons and reading her books (like Albert Camus's Plague). Sitting one day on her favourite bench, she meets a middle-aged man Germain, who is also a regular there. He comes to watch over the pigeons. He has in fact given each one a name like Thief and Crabster, having closely watched and discerned their personae.

Germain ( enacted by Gerard Depardieu)  is a simpleton but with green fingers. He grows and sells vegetables. He also does odd jobs. Germain was abused as a child and often remembers how he never felt loved by his mother. She also drove out his father, a waster. She is now old and crazy and Germain simply shakes his head in mild irritation during her frequent outbursts when she uproots his plants and screams hell.

Germain was ridiculed at school as he never could read well. But he  has a very likeable child-like nature. Sitting on the park bench on languid afternoons, he is all good-humoured attention as the old lady reads and explains the classics to him. Their friendship develops beautifully as Germain really cares for the lady. One day she brings over a huge dictionary as a gift, and tells Germain how the dictionary is a fascinating journey from the world of one word to the world of the next. But Germain finds the dictionary a tough read, unable to spell words like labyrinth or Anette. He is also unhappy that the dictonary mentions only one type of tomatoes.

The town's social life revolves around a small restaurant, and you can tell that the folks there like Germain for a steady fellow. Germain is also dating young Anette who drives the local bus. They are a sweet and simple couple and Anette wants to have a child.

When the old lady tells Germain that her eye-sight is going down rapidly due to macular degeneration, Germain feels terribly for her, and at Anette's suggestion decides to learn to read to her. He goes to the library, and in a really humorous scene, succeeds in explaining what kind of a book he would like to borrow- not too thick, with a story of adventure, with pictures. Sitting up late in bed, word by word he struggles through the book with Anette's help, and gets to a point when he can indeed read to the old lady!

One day Germain's mother reveals that his real father was not her useless husband but a charming young man. In the next scene Germain comes home to see his mother dead. Sadly bewildered by the turn of events, Germain discovers a photo of his parents in a box of knick-knacks left behind for him. soon his mood changes to astonishment when he learns how his mother had finally been able to express her love in her own way -she had actually saved up her meagre pension and bought for Germain the house they lived in. Doubly happy to know that his girl friend Anette has gotten pregnant, Germain wants to share the news with the old lady. Alas, he finds out at the nursing home that her nephew has taken her away to Belgium, saying this place is too expensive.

The story ends with Germain rushing in a borrowed van to Belgium. He confronts the nephew, discovers where the lady is stowed away in a depressing old-age home, and rushes there to find her sitting like a faded picture in her wheel chair. He simply rushes out pushing her wheelchair, bundles her into the van and drives her back to his world. They are both happy that she can live with him and Anette and he will now read to her her favourite books. Life's truly happy moments are about sharing and caring.

Sleeper - Hilarious robotics by Woody Allen

Enthiran, bless Rajni, has whetted my appetite for robotics! If you want ribtickling HomoRobots, you should watch this 1973 movie by Woody Allen. He not only spoofs all Sci-Fi Robot movies, he anticipates by some 4 decades the kind of meaningless robot tripe that we would pay good money to watch! The only thing a greatly intelligent movie-maker like Woody Allen does is challenge our sense of what is right, but not what is stupid.

This movie shows a man who was accidentally frozen after a failed surgery in an American hospital and revived with 2173 technology and lands in a world of chaos not very different from our crazy police states of today!
If you go to the Youtube site, you can find lots of clips of the movie in a sequence. Thanks to Shinjikun2009!

Endhiran - what fun!

I saw Endhiran. It's in 2D, but I can say it's 4D in fun! It's proved to me beyond all doubt that Indians love mythology and also mythology can do with a bit of technology like robotics and animation. I will not be a spoilsport and tell you the gripping story. I will just list a few things about Endhiran:

1. Rajni doesn't disappoint. I quite liked him and Ash. In fact the movie shows that there are a very small number of people irreplaceable in India like Rajni and Aishwarya.


2. The movie story line borrows heavily from Hindu epics with characters like Raktabijasura ( this is Navaratri time!) and Bhasmasura. However it is a true original.


3. In fact Chitti Chitti Bang Bang movie has copied the idea from Endhiran. You may wonder how, but you see Endhiran (his name is Chitti and he goes bang bang) defies the concept of time. For example the robot can instantly manufacture clones of himself and endow all of them with super programs which can be used in a cloud computing mode.


4. Rajni is called Dr.Vaseegaran. That is perhaps derived from the Sanskrit word Vashikara, which means a Captor. Like Ravana. But then it's not Rajni, but the robot-who-goes-bad Mr. Endhiran who becomes a Ravana. He falls in love with Ash and steals her from Dr. Vasi.


5. Endhiran is not your ordinary everyday robot. He has supersonic speed, super strength, and also SUPER magnetism (and speed 1 TeraHz and memory 1 ZettaByte- 10^21B). He can act like a 10 tesla magnet and attract large quantities of metallic objects. His preference is for machettes used to chop coconuts (he chops policemen's greedy palms).


6. Aishwarya is simply superb. Even a small nut will fall in love with her. Then why not a super robot? In fact he plans to produce robo sapiens after marrying her!


7. Even Endhiran will have to negotiate. But only with Madras mosquitoes. They tame him by reminding him of their powers of mass destruction which far exceed his capacity. They are also indestructible, and have fancy names like Rosalski.


8. Any resemblance to Toy Story 3 (robot gone wrong) and 3 Idiots (complicated delivery) is purely coincidental. If you want to know how to correct with your bare hands a wrong foetal presentation, read here.


9. It is no longer fashionable to say to a woman, "I love you." Better say, "ÿou're my wasabi".


10. You can make a full love song with words that rhyme with Kilimanjaro and Mohenjadaro. (No, they don't show scenes from these places. They use computer graphics for scenery).


11. If you thought all Bollywood dances show lots of men and women dance like robots think again. They ARE robots!


12. Robots will overtake India. They will build the next CWG stadia and stuff in time, without corruption, and without 1000% cost overrun. You see, we have the best software folks in the world like Vaseegaran!


13. However, we still need to solve one problem. Robots need electrical power. And once the power is cut, they fall down almost dead, but thank God we have lots of Amabassador cars stuck in traffic jams in Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai, T. Nagar and Nungambakkam High Road. The robots will rush or crawl and snatch power from their batteries!


14. Finally: some things never change. Sanskrit words mutate themselves so cutely in Tamil. Yantra becomes Endhiran!

Wisdom and the Face of Death

The theme of death continues. It is not an obsession, but a theme much encountered in the last few days. The sudden death of a 40-year old colleague... and the New York Times Interview of Mentor Minister and the architect of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. Titled "Days of Reflection", the interview shows what thoughts and meditations keep the senior statesman of 87 occupied. He is still busy. He is still advising people on all matters of nation building. And he also thinks of the approaching end.....


I saw today a movie on Confucius. I continue to marvel at the stunning visuals, haunting music and intimate insights into the human saga that Chinese movies are made up of these days. I give you a clip from the movie, showing Confucius, banished from his kingdom for being too sagely and peace-loving, and wandering without food or shelter with his small set of disciples. The man is suffused with humanism and takes a moment to live in the world of music...it elevates everyone from their sad predicament.

Come, watch this clip:

The invention of lying

I saw this movie on the plane recently. I think it is telling. It is written and directed by Richard Gervais, the English comedy actor. The Invention of Lying ( paraphrasing Wikipedia) is set in an alternate reality in which no one has ever lied and where people speak their minds, blurting out very blunt remarks and opinions that people in the real world would normally keep to themselves. The concepts of fiction, imagination, and speculation do not exist which results in the movie industry being limited to documentary-style historical readings, with television commercials being straightforward, and an absence of religion. In a hilarious parody, the movie features an ad for Coke. Coca-Cola’s advertising slogan is “Please continue buying Coke–it’s very famous” ! and then there is one for Pepsi too..”Pepsi–when they don’t have Coke.”

The protagonist Mark  is a proverbial loser, with neither looks, charm, nor talent as a movie script writer, and cannot impress his reluctant date. Here is the Youtube video from the movie:

The trailer: The invention of lying

 He begins to lie when his bank teller (remember there''s no lying there) says the computer is down and how much balance does he have.. and Mark makes up $800 when he has about $300 in the account. Thus begins a wild ride for him as he starts turning his life around by simply lying... and finally he makes up, to cheer up his dying mother,  a lie about  "The Man in the Sky" who can give you boons and alter your future... Soon he is hailed as a messiah by the town.. an oracle who can interpret for you the man in the sky!

I have been thinking about how our concept of an all loving, all giving personal God is constantly challenged by our real life experiences, and how we find, except our own childhood beliefs of religion, all concepts of God according to "other" religions pure poppycock.

So what can I believe in? I quote Osho, from his talks, "The Discipline of Transcendence" :
It will be easy if you understand Lao Tzu's concept of tao, or if you understand the vedic concept of rita. There must be something like a law which holds everything together. The changing seasons, the moving stars... the whole universe goes on so smoothly; it must have a certain law.

The difference has to be understood. Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, Hindus, call that law 'god'; they personify it. Buddha is not ready to do it. He says to personify god is to destroy the whole beauty of it, because that is anthropomorphic, anthropocentric attitude. Man thinks as if god is just like man -- magnified, quantitatively millions of times bigger,but still, like man.

God is not a person. You cannot annoy him and you cannot buttress him, you cannot flatter him. You cannot persuade him to your own way. Whether you believe in him or not, that doesn't matter. A law exists beyond your belief. If you follow it, you are happy. If you don't follow it, you become unhappy. Look at the austere beauty of the concept of law. Then the whole question is of a discipline, not of prayer. Understand the law and be in harmony with it, don't be in a conflict with it, that's all. No need for a temple, no need for a mosque, no need to pray.

If you obey, you live in heaven. If you disobey, you live in hell. Hell is a state of your own mind when you are antagonistic to the law, and heaven is also a state of your own mind when you are in harmony.

Coming back to lying, Osho again says elsewhere something VERY significant. "Satyameva Jayate". This expression is on Indian currency notes and is India's official motto. But in the real world falsehood seems to be winning! How do you reconcile this? Osho says, in the real world, people are cunning. They wait to see who wins, and  interpret "Satya" only after seeing who wins...in other words, the winner is always right! That is the misery of our world. No wonder we invented lying!!!!!!

Séraphine

Séraphine. This is a real story, made recently into a  famous French movie (7 Césars including Best Actress for Yolande Moreau) and I was lucky to see it on SQ233 enroute to Sydney.


Like so many French movies I have seen, the movie paints brilliant character portraits against a visually depressing imagery of buildings and spaces. The colours of walls are all dark dirty green or brown and black, and you wonder if you would like to be alive for even a few minutes in such a space, shorn of the bright hues and sunlit life basking under a blue sky (something you can count on here in Sydney).

But the characters are different. I don't understand French much, but their spoken words are so fine on my ears, and the captions help to follow the brilliant expressions and thoughts of the characters.

In this film, the main character Séraphine is an ageing woman of dull appearance and body language, trundling along, working to scrub floors and wash the laundry of her convent nuns in a stream, in a depressing town called Senlis in Pre-WW I days. But wait a bit, and she transforms herself in front of our eyes as she secretly paints in her dingy dark room by candle light. She is very masculine in all her gestures, and has no niceties about her; but two things are luminous always..her paintings in candle light and her eyes and face as she communicates with Mary in the church. The bright shapes of flowers and fruits in her paintings are so cheerful. There is some kind of a dynamic in the visuals as you think you are almost walking amidst these cheerful expressions of Mother Nature.

Séraphine the maid who has always hidden her artistic side from everyone opens up to her benefactor. Herr Wilhelm Uhde, a famous art collector and promoter hiding  in Senlis away from the bustle of Paris, discovers that this house maid is a gifted painter. He convinces Séraphine to concentrate on her painting and make enough works to hold an exhibition in Paris.

Séraphine, who embraces trees and sees visions of beauty as she saunters in the woods, now has dreams of living a life of comfort and elegance. She even rents a large and comfortable apartment. She orders a silk bridal gown in preparation for some dreamy ceremony with silver candles and so on she envisions. By the way, she is touching 60 and says she has no family at all.

But the WW not only  tears down many lives, it also destroys the art market so Herr Uhde is no longer able to promote Séraphine  as a great artist and get her to move up from the drudgery of a house maid's work to the comfortable life of a successful painter.

 The shortlived dream is dashed as Herr Uhde says there are no buyers now for her paintings. Séraphine is left alone to become eccentric and irritable. She is finally bundled off to a lunatic asylum. No one, neither Herr Uhde nor any of the town folk think of taking Séraphine  under their care and making her feel better in her last,dark days.

Luckily, Herr Uhde pays for the asylum to move Séraphine  into better quarters and she is able to walk into the wood peacefully and sit under a large tree as she counts her last days.




There are haunting questions the movie asks. What makes an artist? Whence comes the inspiration and talent?

How weak is man's nature, that we cannot sustain the spirit of creativity in the artist, and show them love and care when they need it most? Why does a Séraphine, or for that matter, van Gogh, go mad?

The Red Balloon

I chanced to see this very simple and imaginative short film. It was made in Paris in 1956 in an area rather bleak in appearance which highlights the contrast of a bright red balloon.

The story is a fantasy of a young boy chancing upon a red helium balloon with a mind of its own. The balloon wants to be with him all the time and he has a great deal of fun taking it to play and school. The balloon has intelligence and feelings too... I saw it fall in love with another blue balloon!

In the end some bullies chase, torment and finally kill the balloon. Thereupon all the balloons of Paris converge to cheer up the boy and in fact take him on an aerial trip!

The movie-maker Albert Lamorisse has kindled our imagination with an insight into how we actually subliminally relate to a universally attractive plaything like a balloon. He won an Oscar for screen play.. and there are VERY few words spoken in the entire film. Shows you how a picture is worth a....

You can find more about the film here. Better still, you can watch a You tube clip here.

Gene Kelly - the amazement continues

Julie Andres & Gene Kelly show you some tricks

Did you know?

Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer. Kelly was the recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors, and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute; in 1999, the American Film Institute also numbered him 15th in their Greatest Male Stars of All Time list. He was born in Pittsburgh, was a very good sportsman, and started a dance school to help the family economically when he was in his teens.

He was also a good student and earned a degree in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh.

To see his incredible talents, see these two You Tube videos (links below the pics)....

Gene Kelly takes it to a new level- tap dances on skates!

Julie Andrews & Gene Kelly show you some tricks

Singin' and dancin' in the rain

No Indian movie can survive without song and dance. Those arty ones where dance and music are eschewed are doomed to fail like a poorly fuelled rocket. But if you think, like I did till yesterday, that Indian heroes are the most unabashed dancers and can dance at the drop of a dupatta, even in VT and even in a karmic Slumdog British bash, think again.

I saw Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain last night. It was made in 1952, and is often ranked as the best musical of all time and the fifth best film in 100 years. It is a totally unreserved Hollywood musical, and songs and dances hit you as often as Pillaiyar temples in Chennai and medical shops in Bangalore. It is co-directed and choreographed by the lead actor, Gene Kelly. You should see him to believe what a man can do as a dancer.

Just watch these You Tube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCpOKtN8ME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW02c5UNGl0

There are breathtaking dances right through, and Gene Kelly is unimaginably athletic, graceful and sings so well, too!  The camera work in 1952, with a smoothness that shows almost no editing, pays a huge tribute to the talents that did it in just one take.

The story itself  is interesting. The stars of the silent era have to face the prospect of singing and dancing and talking in the new talkies, and the star who commands a big rating has a woeful voice and no speaking talent. Her voice is dubbed by a lovely young talent, but the star insists that no one should know that her voice is dubbed and her voice-over artiste should remain unknown. But the hero, Gene Kelly, loves the voice-over talent and wants her to shine and be known. How all this comes about is the stuff of a great film.

I once uncannily wrote in my head a similar story. A Kannadiga starlet becomes famous for her Aishwarya-like looks in Telugu movies, but cannot speak the local tongue. Hence all her voice is dubbed in all her movies by an anonymous talent, whose emotive voice mesmerises audiences with a rich depth. So everyone in the industry keeps praising the starlet for "her voice", when in fact, unseen and uncelebrated, someone else builds up the starlet's entire charisma through her dubbed voice.