Modern 💓 Chennai - Touching Most Parts

6. Heart Emoji

Almost a Maniratnamesque escape episode. Heroine reminded me of the ‘Cinema Paithiyam’ Jayachitra – crazy about movies and sees movies in everything and vice versa. Her approach towards love isn’t any different. Her love affairs get egg-puffed; cheated; ‘caste’d out and finally resigns to an arranged marriage only to find that the guy she gets married to is the real deal. If this reminds you of ‘Mouna Ragam’, pat yourself in the back! 😊

#LoveReelly?

5. Imaigal (Eyelids)

How would you react when today could be the last day that you can see them forever?

Behind all the glitz and materialism that pervades in our lives, there is still that axiom which lives to say: love goes beyond the end-credit of ‘…they lived happily ever after…’. Throw in the
physical problem that the protagonists encounter, you get a good Kumbakonam degree coffee. The scene where Devi and Nithya fight in the roadside… it resonated so much with us that we were like, ‘yes, this is like how we fight!’ The ending was a bit contrived but left a warm feeling, nevertheless.

#WideAngledLove

4. Margazhi (December)

Roll back the years. In an almost homage to Bharathiraja’s Alaigal Oivathillai, puppy love is celebrated sweetly in this episode. If it was Radha learning music there, it is Milton learning keyboard here. If it was the beach there, it is the hilltop here. You get the drift. But the poetic depiction is palpable, and one could almost feel Jazmine’s happiness as her first love blossoms. Use of Raja’s ‘Poove Sempoove’ song and its Western equivalent in that piano scene was shiok!

#EasyNotes

3. Ninaivo Oru Paravai (Memory is but a bird)

It is a film or a meta-film. You can consider it either way and end up tearing your hair. 😉

Jokes apart, the film succeeds in showing the how a situationship (?!) can turn into a relationship and then can breakup over a trivial matter (good direction of not telling you what the breakup was over) only to be put back on track by quirk of fate. I like the concept of ‘World got created last Thursday and all the earlier memories were pumped into us to kind of give a sense of continuum.’ A delicious way of looking at the short duration of life and shorter duration of love/relationship within it. Thiagarajan Kumararaja has dealt with the treatment of memories quite adeptly including the use of long corridors and the appropriate colour combination – pleasant in gold and sad in red… There are a number of Super Deluxe memories – lighting, camera angles, sets etc. Pardonable. Ilayaraja’s music in this segment is epic. One cannot stop wondering how an octogenarian can swing so much pep, vigour and relevance into the proceedings! Salute!

Of course, if your friend walks in with a red star on the back of his palm, you know what it means! 😉

#LoopyMemories

2. Lalagunda* Bommaigal (Lalagunda Dolls)

Talks about the fact that we are all puppets of destiny, and the strings are held by a mysterious Supremo. 😉

So much gets stuffed into each frame of this episode that it makes us rewind and watch it again: The doctor who spouts ‘Attraction! Abortion! What else do you know?’; the online rummy-playing fake godman, the love/infatuation induced by extra pani pooris; the peeled-skin-feet of the girl who got her fetus aborted; ‘You can’t live with men; you can’t live without them too!’ juxtaposed with ‘You can’t live with women; you can’t live without her too!’…

A delightful nugget. Vasundara as the loud-mouthed, do-gooder Vaiju stole the show. The ‘gaana’ song ‘Jingrudanga’ was fresh and so was the twist in the end.

*Lalagunda Masjid is a place in Korukkupet. North Madras.

#TastyPaaniPoori

1.     Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal (Gazelles those reside in a bird’s nest)

A true tribute to Balu Mahendra by Bharathiraja including the subtle and sophisticated handling of a tricky topic.

Separation is difficult. Acceptance, reconciliation, moving on… really tough! In a classic BM triangle, you have the clueless man, an I-won’t-give-up new entrant, a I-can-give-up-but-don’t-know-how’ incumbent. The acting by the three main characters is so top notch, that you think that no one can knock them over. But then you have Delhi Ganesh! Even the extra pause he gives while on the other end of the phone is pregnant with acting!

We loved two bits of no dialogue action: When Ravi sees a groom in the metro being followed by Rohini, he thinks that she has left him to get married to that person and his face changes; only to change into a smile as the actual bride follows Rohini. And when Revathi explains her situation to Rohini about how she is willing to give it all up including the children, Rohini says, ‘I don’t know whether I could do all that you could do…’ There is a small ray of hope in Revathi’s face – after all, maybe she is going to go away… But when Rohini ends it by saying, ‘…but I want to be in it!’, the ray just vanishes. Fantastic acting!

There are so many nice directorial touches in the episode (the cigarette score, the selfies, the complementing outfit of two women…) And it did leave a heavy feeling in the heart even though it seemed to be an amicable arrangement.

#SeparatedUnion

########

Otherwise, true to Web Series grammar, there are a lot of cusswords, double-entendres, kissing & bedroom scenes, rampant smoking and drinking etc. If you look past all that, these six stories do show the mirror to the society on what it is morphing into. 

Apart from a few nice vignettes of Chennai (it is no longer Central station & the beach, but the metro trains these days!), the city in itself is absent, both physically and mentally. It is a city that is still conservative in many aspects. Granted it has moved up (?) the chain. Except for the token Delhi Ganesh character, that conservative approach is shown to be truly out of the window. For a 50+, it is perhaps difficult to fathom; maybe it is the truth, though one corner of the heart says that it could be an exaggeration. Maybe?

Modern Love Chennai is worth your time just to recharge those love batteries. 💝💝💝💝

#ModernLoveChennai #Anthology #PrimeVideo #Tamil #Reviews #sriGINthoughts

 

 

Ponniyin Selvan – 2: Mani Ratnam’s Touch Rules

An edited version of this review appeared in Page 8 of Tabla 12th May 2023 edition.

Also, a Tamil review of PS-2 can be found here...

*********

Roughly at about the halfway mark of Ponniyin Selvan – 2 (PS-2), there comes a scene where Mandakini (played by Aishwarya Rai) reaches the royal quarters of Sundara Chozhan (Prakash Raj). The king, in broad daylight, is sleeping, oblivious to the dangers that he is facing. The lady jumps in and saves his life in the nick of time, and in the process, loses hers. The song that follows lamenting her death is from the great Tamil literature Purananooru, about how no one in the country used fragrant flowers after the death of their beloved king. Mani Ratnam brings out the irony of a tired, sick king being saved by a brave, deaf-mute woman who he had jilted in the past. 

The power of PS-2 is in such moments that are spread across the 2:45 hours of delightful presentation. When Ponniyin Selvan – 1 (PS-1) hit the screens about seven months ago, the excitement was palpable. On the contrary, the promotions for PS-2 were muted, to say the least. Except for the songs that stormed the charts (Veera Raja Veera, Aga Naga, Adi Sankara’s Nirvana Shatakam, Thiruppavai were impressive), there wasn’t anything huge going on.

One even thought that the team did not care too much to carpet bomb the media with advertisements. In hindsight, they were perhaps confident with the quality of the product that they had produced. 😊

Yes, PS-2 is a fitting conclusion to this attempt at bringing the much-loved novel to the screen. Indeed, the fanatical following that the book has created may not approve of the several artistic licenses that Mani Ratnam has taken, but the adaptations were seamless, mostly.

Picking up from where PS-1 left, when Arunmozhi Varman aka Ponniyin Selvan (Jayam Ravi) is lost in the sea along with his lieutenant Vanthiyanthevan (Karthi), PS-2 dives headlong into the political intrigue that surrounded the Chola empire a thousand years ago. The internecine squabbles among the members of the family threaten to tear them apart and cause irreparable damage to their relationships, aided in no small amount by the scheming Nandini (Aishwarya Rai), who has her reasons for seeing the downfall of the Chozha empire. One of the reasons is her unfulfilled love with the crown prince Aditha Karikalan (Vikram), an impulsive, repentant warrior-par-excellence, which turned to hatred beyond redemption due to what he did to Veera Pandiyan (Nasser).

How the knots are unknotted, and how the squabbles are resolved, and how the enemies are won over, form 99% of the movie. And as in Kalki’s written work, the last 1% was the twist, a-la last-ball six to win the game! Well, here the twist is not as per what Kalki wrote and left a bit undercooked as the buildup to that climax was incomplete. To that extent, it was more a boundary to tie the game than winning it completely.

Having said that, the movie was a full paisa-vasool, as they say in India. Unlike PS-1, where the premise had to be set, Mani has the freedom to set the pace and bring in scenes of import at will. Apart from the Mandakini scene mentioned earlier, a few others stuck in one’s mind… 

• Where a blindfolded Vanthiyathevan meets Kundavai (Trisha), and they profess love to each other with the song Aga Naga lilting in the background. The cave where they meet even resonates with Vanthiyathevan’s position, who has such a small land to rule and has his world, Kundavai, in there to make him happy.
• Where a seething Aditha Karikalan reaches Kadamboor and confronts the conspirators atop his white steed, displaying power and authority to no end.
• Where a smoldering and red-hot Nandini meets Aditha Karikalan for their final showdown. The tension in that scene could have been cut with the sword that Nandini held 😊
• Where the brotherhood of Buddhist monks crowds out the killers disguised as monks while chanting the mantras, making them drop the knives not by physical force but through forceful love.
• Where Vanthiyathevan, accused of a dastardly crime, appears in front of the King and pleads for punishment for dereliction of duty.

Of course, Mani Ratnam resorts to some throwbacks to his own movies: Sundara Chozhan, remorseful over his love affair, does an Iruvar reprise; the boat-ramming scene from Raavanan, etc. 😉

The battle scene at the end was force-fitted and probably needed cinematically. After watching some of the other war scenes (that Baahubali again!), there was nothing much to write home about, except that this one had less CGI, if that helps! The screenplay was a bit rushed, with one incident following another, though sound. Of course, as in PS-1, the flow was marred by poor dialogues. And in the interest of changing the ending, some of the key characters from the book were delegated to the margins.

Although it has its flaws, PS-2 is a deserving and commendable sequel to PS-1, creating a cinematic achievement that will be a landmark in Tamil cinema. Despite its imperfections, the two films' enduring legacy will be to make the reels-happy youth and old alike of today turn their attention to the rich history of Tamil people and India as a whole.

Viduthalai Part 1: Free-flowing (a bit cold) Lava!

 

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

Nalla Mittai - Tasty Journey

 

A few days back, JD ‘Grab’bed a pack out of nowhere.

The pack contained several packets of sweets and snacks. I called up JD to thank for the sudden largesse. He did the usual ‘No problems, Sir! It is my pleasure!’ and then uttered those words, ‘அப்படியே கொஞ்சம் ரெவியூ பண்ணிட்டீங்கன்னா நல்லா இருக்கும்!’ :-0

Well, he can’t be blamed. One’s paunch makes people feel that way, perhaps.

Anyways, here it goes, Joel! You asked for it!

{TL;DR. Amazing sweets and tasty savouries. Created with care and natural/organic/rare ingredients. Many hits among the 9 items that we sampled. New tastes. I loved Palm Jaggery Kaju Kathli and Rose Halwa; and would keep munching Little Millet Kara Boondhi & Ragi Mixture, the bomb! Nalla Mittai is here to stay. Caution: Can be addictive 😉 So eat in moderation.}

@Nallamittai (Facebook & Instagram) promises you the unpromisable – healthy Indian sweets and snacks! 😎

Originating from Hosur, India, Nallamittai’s paradigm seems to be:

• Use Organic ingredients
• Shunning white sugar,
• Think native (palm jaggery, cane jaggery, கருப்பட்டி, வெல்லம், cold-pressed groundnut oil etc.)
• Think rare ones (foxtail millet: தினை, ragi: கேழ்வரகு, little millet: சாமை etc.)

After going through the various items presented, I must say that they have #succeeded in sticking and delivering to that paradigm. 😊

Items

Savouries (salted snacks): Foxtail Millet Murukku, Ragi Mixture, Little Millet Kara Boondhi (individual packs of 100g each)

Sweets: One box containing a few pieces of: Wheat Badhusha, Palm Jaggery Kaju Kathli, Coconut Barfi, Palm Jaggery Mysore Pak, Fried Gram Flour Laddu, Rose Halwa

Packaging

The savouries (salted snacks) were nicely packed, with bold lettering and clear text about the contents, manufacturing and expiry date. Personally, I kind of liked the maroon background away from the usual blue ones.

The sweets came in a small plastic box with a latch to open the sheer plastic lid. We struggled bit to open the lid until we figured it out eventually. This box did not contain any literals except for a sticker tape of Nalla Mittai to hold the lid together with the bottom. 😝⌧ Perhaps it was for the sample box only.

Colour & Presentation

All the sweets and savouries were darker than your usual run-off-the-mill A2B, Krishna Sweets stuff – mainly because of the use of jaggery – palm or cane variety. For the ‘Fair and Lovely’ generation this might be a bit of a dampener, but then we are Tamils: Land of the dark-skinned & even the ever-loved Superstar Rajinikanth is dark-skinned! 🖤

Taste & After-taste

I started with the sweets.

#WheatBadhusha was sufficiently flaky; less sweet as Badhusha’s must be. Could feel the taste of jaggery and at times I could taste my mom’s Krishna Jayanthi Vella Seedai (வெல்ல சீடை). #six

#PalmJaggeryMysorePak reminded one of the Krishna Sweets’ Mysore Pak albeit made of jaggery and with less ghee than the SKS variety. It broke in slabs instead of into some congealed mass and that was welcome. It was a bit raw for my taste where I could feel both the besan and jaggery. #five

#PottuKadalaiLaddu (Fried Gram Flour Laddu) had so much good going for it. It was the quintessential பொருள் விளங்கா உருண்டை that your mum and grandmums make. With the flavours of the flour, cardamom powder, ghee and the right amount of sweet additions, it took me back to many decades ago. Sure winner. #four

#CoconutBarfi – With the fine and crunchy shavings of copra (?) this sweet was divine. Maybe me being a coconut buff made me rank this feller above PKL! #three

#PalmJaggeryKajuKathli – You have been there and done that. Peeling one KK after another and devouring them. The overwhelming sugar rush after eating each one of them was overpowered only by the desire to have one more. What is your sugar level, again? 😊

But this PJKK is a different powerhouse. With the right amount of sweet induced by palm jaggery, this KK wins over one important aspect. 

In the usual sugar-based-KK, the taste (and after-taste) of raw cashews would always be there. While I love munching cashews, this used to annoy me a bit. But Nalla Mittai’s Palm Jaggery Kaju Kathli has cracked it quite nicely. The taste of cashew is just about right and that is quite key in my opinion. A sure winner. #two

And to top the sweet list is #RoseHalwa. Mind you I did not know what type of halwa it was until I found out later from Joel. So, when I was sampling it for the first time, two things knocked me out: 

1) texture – right amount of gooeyness; right amount of stickiness and 

2) splash of rose on the palate! 

Yes, Tirunelveli Iruttu Kadai is THE benchmark for halwas. But, no, I am not comparing Nalla Mittai’s Rose Halwa to it. But this guy here can stand on his legs. If only the Rose Halwa had a few tiny cashew pieces in them… #ONE

Then we moved onto the fried snacks.

#FoxtailMilletMurukku tasted like normal besan murukku; the pieces were a bit thicker than usual for my liking. Tasted nice though. #three

#LittleMilletKaraBoondhi had the pepper powder flavour and had the right amount of oomph to go with both both curd-rice and sambar-rice. #two

#RagiMixture – the class topper. Complete with the ragi ompodis and a special home-made masala mix and organic peanuts, this fellow was a real bomb! This mixture is a must if you are to spend an evening with friends mixing a few ‘beverages’! 😂🍻 #ONE

The best thing about the savouries was that the usual suspects will have a bitter after-taste – perhaps due to the oil that was used for the frying – palm oil, sunflower/canola etc. But the groundnut oil, cold-pressed one at that, leaves a fantastic flavour which I have not experienced in ages, not since my Vellore days. 💗

Verdict

The sweets are not cloyingly sweet. There are different varieties to suit different tastes. For the health-conscious (which we must all be), the ingredients are natural, organic and not run of the mill.

The salted snacks are regular with the novelty of newer grains which will gain some traction among people as there the fad for the exotic grains is definitely on; but here again the natural and healthier ingredients such as the type of oil used, the home-made touch etc. are what is going to differentiate their offering.

It will take some time for people to wean away from the normal stuff and taste. But wean, they must, as Nalla Mittai has a sure set of winners here.

நல்ல மிட்டாய் – நல்லதொரு சுவைப் பயணம்.

#NallaMittai #Reviews #sriGINthoughts #IndianSnacks #unpaid

Kantara? Can!!

(an edited version of this review appeared in Tabla! 21-Oct-22 Page 12; screen grab at the end of the post)

 Kantara - The Legend - Kannada - 2022

One must say that Sandalwood, hitherto considered as the poor cousin of Kolly- and Tollywood has grown up. Over the last few years some notable movies such as U-Turn, RangiTaranga, Ulidavaru Kandanthe, and well, the KGFs (yeah...) have caught the pan-Indian (!) imagination.

So, when the wife’s Bengaluru college WhatsApp group went gaga over Kantara, we decided to check that out too. No better way to gain some brownie points, you say? Absolutely!

Kantara was, as they say in Hindi, paisa vasool!

What do you get when you grind mythology, crime, folklore, indigenous sport, caste exploitation and environment sustainability together?

You get, Kantara - The Mythical Forest.

Oh, I forgot a few other key ingredients: fantastic locales, unobtrusive yet hard-hitting cinematography, distinct & original music, and a fantastic climax picturisation.

Beneath all the veneer, Kantara is a revenge thriller. Villagers in a remote corner off Dakshina Karnataka (think pristine forests near Mangaluru) live a carefree life bound by their traditions and associated superstitions. They live off the forests surrounding them in a sustainable way. However, they are troubled by two elements – one in the form of a Deputy Range Forest Officer (DRFO) (played by a strict Kishore) who wants to establish the rules of the government and the other in the form of high-caste land usurpers (a syrupy Achyuth Kumar). Hero Shiva (Rishab Shetty) stands in between the baddies and a peaceful existence of the villagers. Throw in the villagers’ belief in the local demigod Panjurli (a boar-shapedVaraha incarnation) and how Panjurli will save them from all troubles, you get a heady concoction of a movie which ends with a predictable yet spectacular finale.

Three things stood out in Kantara.

Rishab scores 3-in-1

Rishab Shetty has poured his heart and soul into the movie. To have given something from the Sandalwood cinemas to fight the gargantuan PS-1 is a wonderful achievement. But this is not a token fight. The way Rishab has scripted the story as a fabulous interweave of mythology, current day politics and social exploitation, revenge, and rural sports augurs well for Kannada cinema.

Yes, the lines were quite raw – the only beings that don’t cuss in the movie are the buffaloes; the love-angle was contrived; the DRFO’s character swings like a yo-yo; you can predict the flow of incidents easily; But those are not deterrents, as one was able to sit and enjoy the 135 minutes of Kantara without checking the phone! Success, indeed!

In front of the camera, Rishab brings the right amount of nativity in his portrayal of a happy-go-lucky youth, who is ready to pick up fights and is troubled by visions of his priest-father vanishing when he was young. He ably treads the line between naivete and indifference – especially in the caste discrimination scenes. 

Hero-centric movies thrive on making the ‘transformation’ scene of the hero memorable (Remember the ultimate Baasha, the exotic Viswaroopam/Salangai Oli, the 'therikka vidalaama' Vedalam et al.? Okay, fans of other heroes can open the can of worms!) Here Shiva’s transformation in the end was expected all right, but the depiction was top class and therefore will be talked about for some time. 

Colourful Music

Ajaneesh Loknath has scored a fantastic mix of traditional (Kundapura folklore), classic (Varaha Roopam; video below) and breath-taking background music during the last 20 minutes heightening the excitement with an excellent mix of modern and conventional.

Ajaneesh’s discography of about 25 films is not that huge. But if he continues to produce such seminal work, we will hear more about this young man.

Mesmeric Cinematography

I thought that Girish Gangadharan’s cinematography in the Malayalam movie Jallikkattu is a tough act to follow. But Arvind Kashyap has truly excelled himself here.

Firstly, capturing the entire essence of Bhoota Kola (Festival of Spirits), an annual celebration of local demigods in Dakshin Karnataka; then providing an immersive experience of the Kambala Buffalo race, an annual rural sporting event where intrepid men race a pair of buffaloes in a slushy, water-filled field (check the video below on the making!); and rounding up with the resounding climax where a chaotic skirmish between hundreds of people ends in that primal dance-cum-punishment by the hero.

Whether it was the lighting – mostly natural, or the movements through the forests, or the colours – vivid and yet gloomy reflecting the mood of the film, Arvind was to the fore!

In all, Kantara was an enjoyable watch made poignant by the focus that it brought on almost-forgotten traditions and culture, man’s avarice, and exploitation of the poor through a masala pot-boiler.

Kantara?  Can!!

#sriGINthoughts #reviews #Kannada

PS-1: Not a postscript

PS-1: Not a postscript

(an edited version of this review appeared in Tabla! 14-Oct-22 Page 8; screen grab at the end of the post)

Four of us watched PS-1 last weekend.

My mom, who got more up to-date through the incessant promotion on social media; a Telugu-speaking friend, who was curious about all the hullabaloos; wifey who came with a blank mind ready to absorb what is thrown at her; and finally, myself – a two-time PS reader with a decent idea of what to expect and of course extremely curious on how the book has been adapted to screen.

At the end of the movie, the reactions were:

Mom: Nice. They have worked hard and well.

Friend: PS-1 means ‘Pothumda Sami – 1’ roughly translated to ‘Enough dude – 1’

Wife: I liked it; but Baahubali was catchier. The movie ran in a jerky fashion.

And then yours-truly: I loved the movie. 

As usual, here is listicle of five thoughts:

How could a movie look so understatedly grand?

The comparison is inevitable. With Baahubali still fresh in people’s minds, PS-1 will be a let-down for people who were looking for CGI-produced huge palaces, mountains, waterfalls, weird animals etc. PS-1 scores so beautifully by focusing on giving the right amount the grandeur that is necessary for the scene, and it looked so real – which they were. #AuthenticArtPS

How could the female characters look so gorgeous?

The female leads Kundavai (Trisha), Nandini (Aishwarya Rai), Poonguzhali (Aishwarya Lakshmi), Vanathi (Sobhita Dhulipala) – each of them looked like million bucks with those fabulous hairdos, real gold/diamond jewellery, pleasing costumes… #SplendidSartorialPS

How could the dialogues be so insipid?

While the faithful-to-the-book screenplay worked for me despite its jumpy nature, the lines were… sorry Mani and Jeyamohan. Didn’t work. Movies are a visual medium. But to move the story, one needs dialogues that are strong and sharp. Unfortunately, Mani Ratnam resorted to his staccato style of dialogues; it worked partly as it did in the scene where Vanthiyathevan (Karthi) meets Kundavai. But to colloquialize the dialogues in the name of making the frontbenchers understand? Sigh! #DepletedDialoguePS

How could so many stars be assembled under one roof and yet not enough light?

If one were to look at the cast of PS-1 (and 2), the sheer number, as Wodehouse would put it, boggles the mind! Yet, only a few stick to mind. Vikram as Aditha Karikalan lives the character, Karthi rides, jumps, flirts, fights, carries the movie with elan, Trisha, despite her anglicized-Tamil diction (dubbed by Krithika Nelson I understand - then why not make it a bit cleaner!) sways in and out efficiently, Aishwarya Rai with a smouldering mind behind that serene visage… Again, no over-the-top histrionics. Just what is needed to move the story. (The acupuncture scene gets a special mention where Prakash Raj tolerates the pain of both the needles and his ministers' treachery!)  #SubduedThespianPS

How could the music be so sublime – well, for most part?

AR Rahman devotes special attention to Mani Ratnam’s movies. PS-1 is no different. The background music here is outstanding: scenes of Nandini, Trisha-Karthi combo; the action blocks etc., are just a scream. 

Yet the songs are a bit of a damp-squib except the peppy Ponni Nadhi; and a different Devaralan Aattam (the choreo for this was on point and reminded me of Veera Pandi Koettaiyile from Thiruda Thiruda!) #NearPitchPerfectPS

***

Ponniyin Selvan as a novel by Kalki Krishnamurthy is a tome of more than 2500 pages. Some people compare it to Game of Thrones – in terms of complexity, number of characters, the intrigue, the tension and what not – all for the sake of attaining the throne. It is a meandering story – much akin to the Ponni aka Cauvery River, with so many key characters that vie for one’s mind space.

To bring it all together; make it into a cogent screenplay; assemble an almost-right cast and crew; work through the pandemic; shoulder the extra-ordinary expectations of the legions of readers; and fight the nay-sayers who were cross with Mani Ratnam for interpreting the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata in a different manner – it is a fantastic achievement.

But for a few shortcomings, PS-1 is a worthy watch for bringing a much-beloved classic to screen beautifully. I am confident that this and the second part scheduled for 2023 will not be delegated to the PS of Indian movie history.

Go watch!

#sriGINthoughts #reviews #PS1

(From Tabla! 14-Oct-22)