Alexperience - A Successful Experiment

Towards the end of #Alexperience yesterday (Singapore, Carnival Cinemas; 21/Jan/23), Alexander Babu won me over completely.

Not because he was energy-personified for over three hours having a 1000+ audience spellbound.

Not because he touched up on subjects dear to one’s heart – music, Ilaiyaraaja.

Not because he was making fun of ‘Ji!’ and complimenting him in a back-handed way!

Not because his humour was clean and did not make you squirm in your seats.

But because he used the second line of the great Kaniyan Poonkundranar’s Purananooru #192.

*****

We all have heard and even used it (without realizing its full potent):

யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்

Well, it is perhaps the most cliched Tamil expression (or a line from a verse) after வாய்மையே வெல்லும், கற்றது கை மண் அளவு, வீழ்வேன் என்று நினைத்தாயோ… you get the drift.

You see, Mr Poonkundranar wrote this poem more than 2.5 eons ago. But it kind of became famous after it was inscribed in UN HQ in NY. More famous after Kalam spoke about it in a conference in Europe and of course entered pan-India (!) mainstream after Modi referred to in his speech during 74^th UNGA.

What does it mean?
Simbly and Humbly:

Every place is ours. Everyone is our kith and kin.

(Maybe Putin took this to his heart and forgot that it takes Zelenskyy also to tango! 😊)

*****

Using this as the starting premise, Alex in his new show #Alexperience (after the wildly successful Alex In Wonderland – subtitled in 10 languages on Amazon Prime – Dei!), dived headlong into his USP: Music.

Instead of ploughing through many songs, he chose to stick to one song (whutt?) and map from there.

The song was தேர் கொண்டு சென்றவன் from the movie எனக்குள் ஒருவன்.

He got into it proper & finally went west to God’s own land & picked up a song from ஙஞணநமன Malayalam: Vaalittezhuthiya Neela Kadakannil from the movie Onnanu Nammal with the same tune/raga.  😊 That பீலி வீஷி ஆடும் மாஆஆமயிஇஇலோ briga was hilarious!

Discussed it threadbare too and finally allowed us to go – reluctantly – for both parties!

Here is the YouTube of the song... (read it like Blue Sattai Maaran 🤣)

The show had everything that you can expect from Alex.

• Music – his voice is a marvel - pitch-perfect even after three hours of standing and walking, jiving and doing some Mohanlal moves (actually those don’t count!).
• Instruments – Slew of percussion instruments including the beauty -Parai: பறை, harmonium and what not.
• His knowledge and faultless execution: singing and playing of the instruments were above par for even ‘paarsaarathyswamisabhamaamas’ like me 😊
• Clean humour – Except for the short 30 seconds when he had to kinda explain/unexplain Vairamuthu’s touch-and-go line in the first stanza of the Tamil song, the humour was clean as a whistle. Of course, being from Tamil Nadu, you have the liberty to pull Modi’s legs and have no elbow room even to talk about Stalin, which is a bit… பிழைப்பு நடத்தணும் இல்லையாப்பா! (Interestingly, some of those jokes about Modi did not elicit as much a response as he would perhaps have got in Chennai or Madurai, I felt!)

He did touch upon a few elephants in the room - #MeToo (start from your home!), #WomenEmpowerment (we will get there; but don’t take away our benefits 😊)…

Yeah, he could have gone easy on the ragging of Malayalam language in itself. After the initial laughs, poor Gayatri and Gowri – perhaps the only two Mallus in the crowd felt like the punching bags. That cute rejoinder by someone in the crowd, ‘Alex! Your Dubai programme is cancelled!’ kind of summarized it!

Some of the flows were predictable – Vairamuthu and #MeToo, the picturization of great Ilaiyaraja songs being screwed up badly, Malayalam language/movies and their making… But then, I am perhaps an old 90’s kid! 😉

And whenever he played the Tabla & Dholak, the words were drowned out. Can correct it by Monday, I suppose?

*****

Coming back…

So, what was the second line of Mr KP that Alex used to end the programme?

தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர் தர வாரா!

(Good and Bad don’t happen due to others – it is all yours!)

This has been my go-to axiom for long and has helped me to approach life in a much better manner. It is all in your hands and as Alex said, ‘Experienssss is a choice!’ (No, Nithy was not spared; neither was Ravi Ashwin who made it to the programme – அவராலே மட்டும்தான் தூஸ்ரா போட முடியுமா?!) and it is the ‘pattern’ one must seek to follow!

Thanks for that, Alex. 🙏

It was my first live stand-up comedy show. I thoroughly enjoyed it with good company and popcorn, of course!

I believe Monday’s show is sold out. I am sure you will get it on OTT at some stage. Have fun!

#Alexperience 3.5/5 #sriGINthoughts #standup_comedy

When Abused Women Go Martial!

An edited version of this review happened on Tabla! - The Heartbeat of the Indian Community dated 13th Jan 2023. Screengrab at the end of the post. 

Violence against women, whether at home or outside is something that is deplorable and disgraceful. Yet, we see news pieces that sprout often in the media about the ‘freak fire accidents,’ ‘violence-induced abortions,’ ‘broken bones due to beatings,’ ‘active and passive sexual abuse by caretakers,’ the list goes on. A study even went ahead to establish that during large international sports tournaments (FIFA World Cup, anyone?), domestic violence increases manifold. Oh! The testosterone-high alpha male cannot take his country’s loss in a mere football game with equanimity, can he?

Got to watch three movies recently.

All three of them had the woman as the oppressed party; men of different shades: downright bad to half-good-half-bad; chauvinistic, abusive etc.

All three of them had Malayalam roots. (Surprise, Surprise!)

All three of them talked about how women escaped the clutches of abuse from their partners, parents, and society at large. No, they did not just walk out of the relationship after things came to a pass. Neither did they traverse the labyrinth of legal systems to seek succour. Yet, they took the justice into their own hands, literally!

I am tempted to say that the heroines of these three movies took a leaf out of Agent Tina’s handling of baddies in last summer’s blockbuster #Vikram. The lady in question there used the humble fork as a deadly weapon to show men on what would happen if they misbehaved!

*******

Teacher

(Malayalam; available on Netflix)

A PE teacher Devika (Amala Paul) gets drugged and raped - naturally, she does not know who did it. After tracing the culprits, she talks to her 'loving' husband. And he does the usual: denial, victim-shaming, worry-about-society, staying away.

Writers Shajikumar and Vivek (who directed the movie as well), have built a taut two-thirds of the movie where not only the protagonist but also the viewers have an uneasy sense of foreboding.

As they unravel what had happened – with no gory details, thanks for that! – one braces for the usual sermonizing and even expect that the husband will change.

Yet in a classic twist, the mother-in-law comes to Devika’s rescue; sows the seed of revenge in the woman’s mind; pushes her to use her martial arts skills to bash the rapists.

The cameo by Chemban Vinod Jose was classic Mollywood writing (when Devika talks to him cautiously lest he also molests her, he deadpans, 'I am not into women!').

After all the build-up, the ending was a bit unsatisfactory. The fact that Devika was adept at using nunchaku was contrived and forced. So, you know what would happen as soon as she picks the weapon up. Instance justice outside the courts!

But for that unsatisfactory ending, Teacher is okay.

3/5 #NunchakuKiller

*******

Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey

(Malayalam; available on Hotstar)

What do you do when you are constantly put down for being a female?

You get your elder brother’s broken toys to play. You get his tattered clothes and books. Your name is a fraction of his name – Jaya for his Jayan!

The need for your education is questioned. Your relationships are microscopically analysed exploited, and you face physical abuse. Duh!

Yet you bite the bullet; roll with the punches and agree to the next forced move: marriage. You hope for the best.

Then as you enter the husband’s house, you notice that the glass panes on the tables, cupboards and windows are cracked; you notice that the TV remote control is broken and is held together with rubber bands.

Remember the sense of foreboding? Yes, that is the one!

Soon you find the husband is a habitual beater and says, 'I will hit you when I am angry and then shall take you to the nearby restaurant to feed you chicken curry and you should be happy!'

The camel's back breaks: Karate kicks in & the house comes down - literally!

Directed by Vipin Das who wrote JJJJH with Nashid Famy, this movie is a light-hearted take on a very heavy subject of wife-beating. Of course, one gets reminded of ‘Thappad’ by Taapsee Pannu, but the treatment is entirely different. Again, the extent to which the families don’t even realise that they are gaslighting a woman to be subservient is brought about in a striking manner.

Darshana Rajendran as Jaya and Basil Joseph as her husband Rajesh have lived the characters!

Yes, the ending was a bit contrived though the court scene prior to that was a scream! Yet, JJJJH talks about the victory of a woman who does not take physical abuse silently and is definitely the last line of the Indian national anthem!

3.75/5 #KarateMeetsThappad

*******

Gatta Kusthi

(Tamil; available on Netflix)

There was Dangal then. There is Dangal now. Girl gets into wrestling from young. Can't get her married off. Lie about everything from hair length to education to skills. Get married into a chauvinist environment. In a transformation scene worthy of repeat viewing, saves her husband from the baddies. Husband sulks. Throws her out of the house. Do they unite?

That is Gatta Kusthi (Tied Wrestling) for you.

Aishwarya Lekshmi as the wrestler Keerthi from Palakkad (where else but from Kerala!) and Vishnu Vishal as her boastful, husband Veera do grapple hard to pull the movie forward. But it is Karunas, the male-chauvinist-par-excellence uncle of Veera who steals the show in the scenes that he appears – especially the scene where he convinces the officer to register Vishal for a wrestling match against his own wife!

Yes, several dialogues are misogynistic – but they only make you root for Keerthi more. Yes, they took the commercial route (wrestling matches; bad, lecherous coaches; intermission-block transformation scene; hero changing mind over five minutes of sermonizing by someone…)

But what made it enjoyable was that except for one (mandatory?) fight sequence in the end, the hero had to play the second fiddle throughout to the heroine.

2.75/5 #CommercialKusthi

*******

So, dear men! If you are about to throw some tantrums and get physical, be ready to get some punches thrown at you too! Teacher, JJJJH and Gatta Kusthi have shown the way! 😁

#sriGINthoughts #reviews