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Film: Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani
Director: Jiju Antony
Cast: Sanal Aman, Adnan Khan, Amit Singh, Yash Bhosle
1995. Bombay had just changed to Mumbai. I arrived in the mahanagar for my first job. My lodgings were in the Central Government Staff Quarters in Antop Hill, Sion. I stood at the balcony of my third floor flat and looked out. I saw a few Fiat taxis parked and some of the drivers talking to young girls. Wow, my innocent mind went. What a place. Even the drivers have girlfriends. Later I found that those were the ladies of the night and the drivers were their facilitators. My awe was tempered, but taxi drivers still fascinated me.
Fast forward 20 years. My college-mate Jiju has made a movie about a Mumbai taxi driver. A frightening, yet hard-hitting story. Of imbibing violence and enacting it. Of mundane lives and repressed rages. A debut that soars without ever not touching the ground.
Prashant Jadhav (Aman) is a taxi driver. A violent act occurs in his life that leads to consequences. But that’s just the beginning. We go back in his life, all the way to his childhood, to understand the extraordinary circumstances that led to it. And realize they are not so uncommon after all.
Jiju uses the Memento style in that the story is told in reverse. But that doesn’t seem at all a gimmick as our journey is to go back in time. A root-cause analysis, for want of a better phrase! It follows an episodic structure with 10 chapters going back in time. A reverse countdown. Jiju and his cinematographer Pratap Joseph use colour and its hues to separate the various chapters in an ambitious way. Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, the director of the controversial Sexy Durga, supports the venture by taking on editing duties.
The actors are mostly not that. Sanal Aman is an incredibly loud actor, especially considering he barely talks most of the time. His eyes scream out at us. We experience how anger and anguish are not that far apart. Adnan, Amit, Yash enact Prashant at ages 16, 10 and 5. And prove to be excellent finds. Rajshri Deshpande, who cameos in a small role, is probably the only experienced actor. But, at no point, does one feel you are watching non-actors.
A lot has to do with the effortless way Jiju crafts his film. A run-time of 81 minutes leaves you wanting more. The limited budget of the crowd-funded movie never comes to the fore, nor is there any attempt by the professionals working on it to show off.
The title of the film means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It is a biblical phrase known to scholars and a religious few. While retaining it in Aramaic (or Hebrew) will be contested, I don’t think there will be another title that is apt for this story.
The Vinu School of Film Appreciation, Evaluation and Reviewing, of which I am the founding and so far only member, lives and dies by the dictum that you cannot be a good reviewer unless you want to make a movie yourself. So far it has worked on the big Hollywood fare that I tend to write about. But this is much closer to home. I am mad that a country cousin has made a movie in Marathi, a language he knows as well as Vulcan. I am furious that he has done it without any formal training whatsoever. I am incensed that he now has Film Director on his CV. Trust me, I will take out my wrath on his next movie. Because this one didn’t give me any chance.
The Western. That most American of genres, across literature and movies. That which replaced the grit and grime with guns and gals. The drudgery and desolation with scenery and sunshine. The hardships were romanticised, loneliness glamourised and history bastardised. And (American) audiences got good bang for their buck, authenticity be damned. But then, real genius will out itself. Good filmmakers used this genre as a medium to tell their stories and audiences didn’t run away from them. We take a look at some of the commonly acclaimed Westerns. This is only Part 1, mind you.
Shane
It wasn’t all black and white (pun definitely intended) in the West. There was much more than Indians bad, cowboys good. One of the other conflicts was the fight between the cattle barons and ranchers over land. Shane (Alan Ladd) a lonely cowboy with a past comes to a small ranch owned by Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and their son Joey (Brandon de Wilde). He finds that the Starretts, along with other ranchers, are being harassed by a cattle owner Rufus (Emilie Meyer). Rufus wants all the lands for himself and he is willing to go to any length for this.
The 60 plus years since its production haven’t exactly been kind to Shane. The colour is rough around the edges, and the acting a bit theatrical, as was the case those days. But the ambition cannot be hidden. Director George Stevens set out to make an epic and he does. The Oscar-winning cinematography by Loyal Griggs (The Ten Commandments) lovingly captures the vast outdoors, showcasing the loneliness that was meant to be Shane’s lot for life.
Alan Ladd is far too pretty-looking and stylish to be convincing as a lonesome cowboy a long way from home. Jean Arthur, in her last big screen outing, is saddled with a rather thankless role. As young Joey who hero-worships Shane, Brandon de Wilde is the audience surrogate and he is very good. Jack Palance, in one of his early roles, shows a bit of the menace that he would embody later on.
Shane has a lot of ticks in the pluses column. But ultimately, it will be more of fond memory than a true classic that stands the test of time.
High Noon
The best compliment High Noon received would have been from Super-Cowboy John Wayne calling it “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen”. It is that good!
Marshal William Kane (Gary Cooper) has had enough of policing. He has met his match and is marrying her. He and his wife-to-be Amy (Grace Kelly) are leaving the town of Hadleyville and moving to another town to start a new chapter. The wedding just got over when word arrived that dreaded outlaw Frank Miller (Iain MacDonald), who was sent behind bars by Kane, was released and now on the train to Hadleyville to take revenge.
Despite almost everyone convincing him to leave town, Kane refuses and stays back to face Miller. He asks the townspeople to help him, but no one comes forward. Both his wife and his former flame, Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), leave to the station to catch the same train the outlaw was arriving. The clock is ticking and Kane comes to the realisation that he was all alone. It is high noon and the train’s whistle blows from the distance.
Written by Carl Foreman during the years when he was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee for his Communist sympathies, High Noon is a thinly-veiled allegory but also highly effective as a bloody good film. The desperate Marshal, who is just a decent guy who wants to do the right thing, is also a scared man. Not the fearless gunslinger. The townsfolk are appreciative of all that Kane had done for them, but they didn’t feel that warranted a sacrifice from them. A good man is going to his doom, not because of people’s actions, but, rather, their inaction.
Gary Cooper is extremely effective as Kane, even though he looked a bit too old for the role. He won an Oscar for his efforts, but was unable to make it to the ceremony. Guess who accepted it on his behalf. Yup, Mr John Wayne! Grace Kelly lightens up the black and white film. A certain Lee Van Cleef made his debut in a fascinating career of menacing heroes. And does not even utter a single word.
High Noon is not as revisionist as McCabe and Mrs Miller, but within the boundaries of a traditional Western, it subverts expectations. It follows, as far as possible, a real-time narrative and that heightens the suspense. Director Fred Zimmerman claimed that he didn’t think of the various metaphors the story-line could have stood for, but treated it as a damn good yarn. Which it is. And that is what will make the movie stand the test of time.
The Searchers
I was lucky my first John Wayne film was also the one with his best performance. When the All-American cowboy abandons the black and white in his major movies for grey, there is bound to be something special.
Ethan Edwards (Wayne) returns to his brother’s ranch after an eight-year-absence fighting in the war. His domestic stint is short-lived as the Indians raid the ranch, abducting Ethan’s nieces and killing everyone else. Ethan begins a five-year search for his younger niece after the older one was found murdered.
Director John Ford makes no apologies about painting the Comanache Indians jet black. But what is interesting is Wayne’s character. Edwards is borderline racist. At one point he is ready to kill his niece rather than let her continue to live with the Indians as was her wish. He is a brutal man and his actions do not leave room for any explanations. For someone whose actions in movies, and otherwise, were strictly black or white, this was a welcome change. The Duke ups his game and ends up elevating the movie as a result.
The technical parts stand out even today. Much has been written about the last shot of the film. People tend to forget that the same movie started with a similar shot. The Searchers is a prime example of why genre becomes irrelevant if you have a good director ready to tell a good story.
Stagecoach
The movie that made John Wayne and began his long association with director John Ford, Stagecoach is a classic in its own right. While always tagged a Western, it could easily be the father of another very American genre – the road movie.
It’s 1880 and a motley crew take a road trip on the eponymous stagecoach. Among them is a prostitute who is being driven out of town, a whiskey salesman (imagine!), a drunken doctor, a pregnant lady, a gambler and a banker. The coach’s driver and a marshal accompany them. Soon, a fugitive joins the group. Just as they are about to start, they receive info that a bunch of Apaches were on the warpath. Thus begins the journey.
The various characters have their own set beliefs and flaws. As the road-trip progresses, we see how everyone changes. Now that I said that, Stagecoach might also be the father of another genre – the dysfunctional family reunion movie. Albeit with a slight twist in that the get-together happens and then everyone comes together as a family without being related.
John Wayne was pretty much a nobody when he acted as the fugitive Ringo Kid. In fact, he got second billing to Claire Trevor. One of my favourite touches in the film is how when Ringo joins the party, the stagecoach is already full and he has to sit on the floor. Wayne plays the decent guy without any hang-ups or image hanging over him and it is an endearing performance. The rest of the cast are efficient, especially Thomas Mitchell who won an Oscar for playing the doctor.
Stagecoach is a ride that is rare in the annals of American cinema. It blazes a trail that has inspired many across genres, but never been surpassed.
Winchester ‘73
‘Those Magnificent Men and their Flaming Guns’ could be the entire Western genre in a phrase. While there would be an inkling of a plot here or there, the gun would always be a strong supporting player. Until someone decided to make it the main character. A preposterous conceit, one might say. True, but they make it work.
It’s the fourth of July in Dodge City. There is to be a shooting competition. The winner would get an 1873 Winchester rifle as the price. In rides Lin McAdam (James Stewart). He is after an outlaw Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally). Marshal Wyatt Earp (Will Geer) who runs the town has a strict ‘no guns in town’ policy. Lin and Dutch end up being the finalists and McAdam gets the Winchester. But he hadn’t taken it from its sheath when it is taken away from him. The remaining part of the movie is how the Winchester changes hands and the stories of those characters.
James Stewart somehow makes everything he appears in seem 25% better. Winchester ’73 is no exception. Shelley Winters goes through the motion in a thankless role, something not different to most of the women in a cowboy movie. There are bit parts from Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson, the latter as an Indian chief.
There must have been a temptation to let the Winchester go through more hands to add to the story. Thankfully, the writers decided to stick with a few and develop the characters. The plot seems to have been tied up a bit too smoothly, but that is a small matter. Among technical aspects the locations and the cinematography by William Daniels stand out.
Film: Wonder Woman
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Robin Wright
Director: Patty Jenkins
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” - Judy Garland
For years DC was trying to catch up with Marvel in the movie business. For years they tried to be another version of Marvel. And they failed miserably. Until now. What changed things was a decision to go boldly where Marvel had had not gone before – give the reins of the film to a woman. The said woman just made a small movie, but, in the process, also broke a rather thick glass ceiling.
It is a comic book story after all. There is the fun and the fantastic. Little Diana grows up in the misandristic (look it up or ask Tharoor) island of Themyscira. There are no men on the island, only female Amazons. Diana’s mother Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) wants to keep it that way. She also wants Diana to have a peaceful life and not grow up to be a warrior like her mother and aunts. Easier said than done. Diana (Gadot) grows up to be a confident young woman with a natural affinity and aptitude towards fighting. Until one day she finds out she has a few more skills.
But before she has time to brood (a trait that has ruined the DC Universe movies thus far), a plane drops out of the sky. The pilot, we later find, is Steve Trevor (Pine), an American spy serving with the Germans. Did I mention the First World War was just reaching its end when this happens? The Germans pursuing Steve find the island and the idyllic charms of the island are forever lost. Steve wants to go back to England as he has proof the Germans are developing a deadly weapon that could end the War to End All Wars quite differently from what it was shaping out to be. Diana wants to go for a more mythical reason.
After a brief stopover in ‘hideous’ London, allowing for a few fish-out-of-water jokes, Diana, Steve and a ragtag gang go to the French front where the last battle will be fought. The British generals are loath to let a woman come into the room, much less give them ideas about how to fight the war. However, Sir Patrick Morgan (Thewlis), a member of the War Cabinet, realises the threat posed by mad General Ludendorff (Huston) and his scientist Dr Maru (Elena Anaya), and covertly supports Team WW. How does the mission go?
The only person who came out smelling of roses from the truckload of manure that was Batman v Superman, was Gal Gadot. But could she carry an entire movie on her shoulders? Oh, me of little faith! Gadot oozes charisma. She has that rare movie star quality. Time will tell how she will fare in other roles, but when she is on screen as Wonder Woman you just cannot peel your eyes away. Gadot brings a quiet confidence and real empathy to the role. She is adept at humour and anger. Even the love story that is so integral to who she becomes is underplayed in a way that it stays with you long after you exited the theatre.
Chris Pine takes on a rather thankless role in a woman-centric movie. The exact thankless role that thousands of woman take on in 99.9% of the other movies that are made. But the writers and director love him and that works to his advantage. His earnestness rubs off on us. The rest of the cast support, but do not stand out. Possibly because there is no time to develop all characters.
The action is incredible and I haven’t seen slow motion used this effectively in a long time. It helps that other than in the last fight it is about beating up bad guys and not blowing up the scenery. It also means the climactic fight is also the weakest. The incredible cello theme that was introduced in Batman v Superman continues here, but is sparsely used, thereby rendering it much more effective. The cinematography, especially in Themyscira, is stunning.
Patty Jenkins. Remember the name. Taking Allen Heinberg’s script, Jenkins went on to eschew the grandeur and flab that defined Zack Snyder’s Superman/Batman films and instead went about making a small, personal movie, but one that did not skimp on the action or the money shots. This is an origin story like any other, but it is told with respect and affection. Wonder Woman works because Jenkins does not make a movie she doesn’t want to make. It works because, for some reason, Warner Bros let her do her thing. There is no post-credits scene, no nod to the upcoming Justice League movie. Just a letter beginning with ‘Dear Bruce’. Wonder Woman works because Patty Jenkins is a superhero.
There is a scene where Diana and friends are in a trench at the battlefront. She climbs the ladder and into the enemy fire. Because she has to. Because she can. That is when the fanboy in me exploded. That is probably the juncture when the small personal movie bared its big comic heart. Showing the two can exist together. That you don’t need to keep your sense and sensibilities at the door when you come to watch a superhero movie.
That is the lesson, one hopes the DC folks take note of. Listen to Judy, stop aping Marvel. Above all, give the keys to your kingdom to women. They are much better at everything.
We all love giving labels. It helps in pigeon-holing that which can/should not be pigeon-holed. The label that probably fits Robert Altman to a T is probably that he is the one American director who will not be seriously considered to be the best of American directors, but one who will still be in consideration. Over five decades of incredibly prolific film-making, he has achieved hits and misses – almost in equal measure. But the hits will still be heads and shoulders among best of the rest.
Too often he is dismissed as the director with a particular trademark, that of overpopulating his movies with characters and getting them all to talk at the same time. It may or may not be a gimmick and it does frustrate at times, but Altman’s talent and fearlessness to straddle genres cannot be dismissed with any label.
I decided to have a Robert Altman weekend, spend watching a handful of his best works. And in typical Altman style it didn’t finish in a weekend and stretched to more. Here we go, in no particular order.
McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971)
The best way to describe this movie would still be what Altman himself called it – an anti-Western. It is set in the period where Westerns usually take place and then proceeds to act like how real people would have, had they been in that period.
It is at the turn of the last century. In a small town called Presbyterian Church, with a population of a few hundred, arrives John McCabe (Warren Beatty). McCabe is an entrepreneur in that he wants to get rich by the fastest possible means. He gambles, does not correct rumours that he is a gangster and generally gets by on his charisma. His great plan to make money in the town that is slowly growing is to go to the neighbouring town and get three prostitutes to service the town’s builderfolk and to expand his wallet.
Things seem to be going well until a caravan brings a lady, Mrs Miller, who tells him that she could run the business much more profitably if they became partners. They do, and Mrs Miller brings her girls and insists all the customers should first take a bath at their adjoining bathhouse, at a rate, of course. The dual income works.
The money continues to flow in until big business in the form of Harrison Shaughnessy, a mining consortium that wanted to buy up the business. McCabe is not against selling, but he wants to hold out for more, despite Mrs Miller warning him not to. He goes too far and, as was the case in those times (or so I think), the company decided to take the cheaper option of just killing McCabe and taking over the business. Three gunman land in Presbyterian Church and it’s time for the final shootout.
Westerns were meant to be fun. Lots of shooting, some dead people (mostly Red Indians) and a high noon shootout where the loner hero didn’t miss. McCabe and Mrs Miller begins with dirt. How the period, the terrain and the weather made everything dirty. Moreover, the lead character was nothing short of a cowardly pimp. Right till the end, he was trying to escape his fate. The heroine is a guiltless brothel madam with an opium addiction. The hero falls for the girl and she doesn’t reciprocate. Instead she insists on taking money from him. Every time.
Warren Beatty and Julie Christie dig deep into their talent and come up with extremely un-starry performances. The cinematography is excellent without seeming like National Geographic. Going at a leisurely pace towards its unexpected, yet inevitable conclusion, McCabe and Miller will remain the Western that excelled by being unlike any Western.
MASH (1970)
Any movie that has its theme song titled “Suicide is Painless” is going to pull me in! I mean, come on! Legend has it that Altman wanted to write a really stupid song, but couldn’t make the lyrics stupid enough, he being Robert Altman and all. So he asked his 14-year-old son Mike to do it. Guess who made more money.
MASH stood for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, the unit that took care of the wounded in the Korean War. Unlike the brave doctors and nurses who would put themselves in war zones to take care of the soldiers our fighting, our antiheroes Captains ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce (Donald Sutherland), Trapper McIntyre (Elliot Gould) and Duke Forrest (Tom Skerrit) sit around chasing skirt, playing pranks and generally being insufferable. Alongside the war goes on.
MASH was never about the war. It was about the effects of war on those on the sidelines, but it a broad black comic way. The success of the movie, and the TV series it inspired, show that it did achieve what it set out to. Unfortunately for me, I am not one of the fans.
Altman has mentioned that the source novel by Ring Lardner Jr. was quite racist. I happen to think the movie was ridiculously misogynistic. The few women characters were either there for sex or to enable one of the leading trio’s dastardly plans.
Without too much of a narrative thread, the movie progresses as a series of skits. The horrors of war are shown, but it is muted considering the tone is black comedy. There is a very serious and hard-hitting film in there somewhere, and I want to see it. But MASH is not that film.
The Long Goodbye (1973)
This is Altman’s foray into noir and, boy, does he delight in breaking down those walls.
Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould) is a hard-drinking, chain-smoking private eye who lives alone with his cat. One night his best friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouten) arrives at his apartment with a request to be driven to the Mexican border. Marlowe agrees but soon the cops come calling as Terry’s wife, Sylvia was found murdered. Marlowe doesn’t think Terry is guilty, only no one believes him. But when Terry ends up dead in Mexico, he has to move on.
He gets hired by the wife of an alcoholic novelist who wants him to find her husband. Mission soon accomplished, but soon more skeletons start tumbling out.
Altman keeps to the basic rules of a whodunit, while breaking away at the edges. Marlowe is the only smoker in a health-conscious California. His neighbours are a bunch of young things who are into yoga. While being naked. There is also a small matter of a gangster and his cash. The private eye is anything but cool. He is just a regular guy, but with a decent strand running through him.
The action is sparse and there is no glorification of violence. The humour is understated and the acting, other than Gould, is quite theatrical. But this is a movie that will stay with you. The character Philip Marlowe has been played on screen by Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum and Robert Downey Jr, among others. But rarely has he been stripped down like this.
Postscript: Take a look at the picture. The beefcake in the centre, yup, it is you-know-who. Uncredited!
The Player (1992)
Hollywood and narcissism go hand in glove. So much so that Hollywood loves its narcissism being put out there and dissected. And you will find few such striking surgical pieces as The Player.
Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a studio executive. He listens to pitches from writers and selects around 12 from 50,000. He is the cynosure of all eyes and his success was envied by all. But things are not all that rosy. Griffin starts to get threatening letters from a disgruntled writer. A rival executive Larry (Peter Gallagher) starts climbing up the ropes. His relationship with story editor Bonnie (Cynthia Stephenson) is on the rocks, especially when Icelandic beauty June (Greta Scacchi) arrives on the horizon. Is there hope still for Griffin?
The Player is a mild satire, said Altman, offending no one. I beg to differ. This is quite biting satire. Why the targeted people are not offended is because they consider it to be a badge of honour. With a slightly exaggerated approach, Altman parades the Hollywood studio culture in all its shamelessness. The ending is so perfect that we wonder how else it could possibly have ended. Tim Robins has never received the credit he deserves. He does sleazy in such style that we don’t realise that it is sleaze. The million or so cameos just add to the grand take-down.
Gosford Park (2001)
Otherwise known as Altman does Agatha Christie. Once again, Robert Altman dabbles in a new genre. This time, surprisingly, it is a whodunit set in a British upper-class country home. Unlike, his other genre-deconstructing efforts, here Altman pulls a fast one by going straight. With a great script by Julian Fellowes, till then a secondary actor, Altman brings us the class machinations in a decaying British manor with the story being told both amongst the wealthy guests and the servants.
Sometime between the two World Wars, a bunch of wealthy and soon-to-be-destitute upper class folk arrive for a weekend shooting party. While the rich have their own crosses to bear, the servants have their very own class system, depending on how high in the class hierarchy their masters and mistresses are. The despicable host, Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon), is soon murdered. Turns out he was poisoned and stabbed. But the bumbling Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry) does not think it pertinent. It is left to Mary (Kelly Macdonald), a lady’s maid to find out what really happened.
Long before the Harry Potter movies, Altman assembled a veritable who’s-who in English cinema to star in Gosford Park. Besides the above-mentioned there is Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Watson, Tom Hollander and Clive Owen, among others. The production design is excellent and Altman uses it to convey a sense of theatricality in the sad lives of these people. The class disparity and the acceptance of it shows why the Empire finally died out.
When I was growing up Malayalam cinema was something that inspired awe among cineastes from other parts of the country. Not just because we had an Adoor and an Aravindan, but because the standard of popular cinema was abnormally high and the Malayalam audience were quite discerning. The actors and technicians were slaves to their craft and mindless cinema didn’t quite exist. (There was also another Malayalam cinema that was the toast of teenagers with raging hormones across the country. But this is not about that!)
Then things changed. A breed of lazy, misogynist filmmakers decided that aging actors shouting bombastic one-liners and aping Rajni’s fight sequences was the new mantra to success. It lasted more years than it should have. I moved away almost completely from Malayalam cinema. My rare visits to the home town would always include a visit to DVD shops, but that was to check if any new CDs had come out, of cinema created by MT and Padmarajan.
Recently, however, the youth are striking back. Bless them! There is a tsunami of young fearless filmmakers all out to tell their stories in their own way. They favour a realistic style as opposed to the theatrical. They are eager to try new faces and they want actors and not stars. A decade later people will start talking about this as the Malayalam New Wave. I was aware of this, but too immersed in the Golden Age of Television. My loss, as I am discovering.
With a New Year and a resolution I am quite hell-bent on keeping, I asked a filmmaker friend for a list, got most of them and started watching one a day. Here’s my first set.
Anuragha Karikkin Vellam (Director: Khalid Rahman)
There are two love stories in Vellam. The first is that of Abhi (Asif Ali) and Eli (Rajisha Vijayan). The two are already a couple when the movie starts and gradually you see a falling-out-of-love story. The other is that of Raghu (Biju Menon) and his Suma (Asha Sharath). The two have been married for many years and have a ho hum existence, barely acknowledging each other. And their falling-back-into-love story is one of the most mature portrayals of adult love I have seen in a long time, despite (or, maybe, because of) director Khalid not spending too much screen time on them.
Abhi is a struggling architect who works with a white boss (Tom Alter in a Laurie Baker homage) designing low-cost housing for the poor. He dreams of moving to the big league, but this is life and not movies. He has a long-time girlfriend Eli who he feels is too clingy but he can’t summon the nerve to break up with her. His dad, Raghu, is a grumpy cop who has his heart in the right place.
One day Raghu catches a glimpse of Anuradha (his former flame). He tries to get in touch with her. In the thinnest of cinematic conceits Raghu calls up a phone belonging to Eli and she pretends to be Anuradha. Now the scene is set for a hot extramarital affair. Except that Khalid has no intention of going down that road. Raghu’s telephonic conversations make him alive. Egged on by Nandini aka Eli’s suggestion he shares details of these conversations with his wife and their relationship slowly sparks again. Meanwhile, Abhi and Eli are on their way out.
This might be Biju Menon’s most nuanced performance. Though enacting the role of a hothead, the restraint he shows in the other scenes is remarkable. This might be as good a time as any for name-dropping! During my childhood I have played cricket quite a few times with Biju Menon. We used to make fun of his blink-and-you-miss scenes in TV serials, but now he has become irreplaceable in Malayalam movies.
Asha Sharath has a brief and thankless role, but she executes it perfectly. Asif Ali has a meaty role, but is not able to shake off the feeling that it is just a prop for the Biju Menon show. Debutante Rajisha Vijayan is a real find. It is going to take a series of unfortunate events to prevent her from being much sought-after in the near future.
Writer Naveen Bhaskar and director Khalid intersperse the dramatic elements with dollops of clean comedy. The movie passes by at a fair clip while keeping the viewer really hooked. Without resorting to gimmicks they slowly subvert expectations. So slowly, in fact, that you realize how many unexpected turns the movie took only later. The producer roll-call includes Santhosh Sivan and Prithviraj, showing that despite being a debutante Khalid Rahman was able to impress veterans with his story.
Kismath (Director: Shanavas K Bavutty)
How far will you go for love? What obstacles will you overcome? And at the end do you know what fate has in store for you?
Based on a real story, Kismath follows 23-year-old Irfan (Shine Nigam) and 28-year-old Anitha (Sruthi Menon) as they try to get police protection from their relatives who are, naturally, opposed to their union. Irfan, an Engineering student who spends his time customising superbikes, is from a well-to-do Muslim family, while Anitha is a research scholar who comes from a poor Hindu background.
Most of the action happens over the course of a few hours in the police station in the town of Ponnani. There are a few flashbacks and flash-forwards, but the heart of the movie is in the cop-house. While awaiting their turn to meet the Sub-Inspector (a very solid Vinay Fortt, moving away from being the poor man’s Jayasuriya) the couple see the life happening in a police station, including a motor accident involving an Assamese (Mollywood recognised its minorities much before Hollywood!) a corruption case involving a senior cop and a chair that needed repairing!
Kismath’s USP is its stark realism. While many such movies tend to move towards art-film category, debutant director Bhavakutty ensures this is not the case here by cutting across sequences rapidly. The most intensive action that happens may be two people shouting, but still he is able to keep the movie constantly in motion. The cinematography by Suresh Rajan is a revelation.
The acting is uniformly excellent. Shine Nigam may not have typical leading man’s presence, but he is born to this role. He does not speak much here, but his face takes us through all the emotions a vulnerable young man who finds himself at the crossroads of his life. Sruthi Menon is an able foil. She subtly portrays a woman who is in a relationship with a much younger boy and, at times, need to take the lead. There are very few familiar faces and this brings an intimacy to the film.
The only grouse I have is a sort of post-script after the first end credit appears. It serves no other purpose, other than to, maybe, convince us that this was based on a true story and this is what happened afterwards. It detracts from a very satisfying conclusion and rubs off some of the sheen of an excellent movie.
Ann Mariya Kalippilanu (Director: Midhun Manuel Thomas)
When was the last time you saw a children’s movie that appealed to adult sensibilities? One that left you smiling and not cringing? If you can’t recall, I suggest you go check out Ann Mariya.
Ann Mariya (the extremely expressive Sara Arjun) is the offspring of two doctors Roy (Saiju Kurup) and Treesa (Leona Lishoy). Roy is working with the Red Cross in Syria, while Treesa brings up Ann alone. Ann is a budding athlete who wants to excel in long jump.
One day Ann overhears a conversation between David, the Physical Education teacher, and her English teacher. Though too young to understand all that was said, the spunky girl went and told this to the principal. David found out who was responsible and disqualified Ann in long jump. Hell hath seen no fury like a schoolgirl scorned. And what do you do when you are angry with someone? Hire a goonda to beat them up. Enter lazy no-gooder Poombatta Gireesh (Sunny Wayne) and his sidekick Ambrose (Aju Varghese). They take Ann’s payment – an iPhone 6 – and scram. Little did they know who they were dealing with.
Ann and Gireesh begin an unlikely friendship which leads to him turning over a new leaf and the two of them exacting their revenge on David. All’s well that ends well. There is also a small case of an angel, but I am no spoiler!
Ann Mariya succeeds by making us care for the characters, but doesn’t descend into sentimentality. The humour is fresh and lively and the scenes do blend into the next. Sara Arjun is the heart of the movie and it is extremely hard to believe that she is not the nice Malayali girl that Ann is. She and Sunny make for one of the unlikeliest screen pairs in recent times. John Kaippallil does a PG version of Keerikkadan Jose as David, the bad guy. Some of his scenes with the schoolgirls actually points towards a much darker role than what you expect from a kids’ movie. The scene-stealer is, however, veteran Siddique who is brilliant as Perumkudy Baby, a local businessman who plays a big part in Gireesh’s transformation.
The movie works on the assumption we buy into a mother allowing her young daughter to have a friendship with an adult male just because the maid says that he has become a good guy. But if we can believe kuttichathans exist then this is not an issue at all!
Kammattipaadam (Director: Rajeev Ravi)
Real estate. The one commodity that will grow in value and become rarer as time goes by. In Malayalam, ‘earth ’ and ‘blood’ seem to gel well in sentences. And not without reason. There is usually blood involved in getting earth, and not just the ‘blood and tears’ variety. More ‘blood being spilt’. Kammattipaadam tells a small part of the blood that went into making Kochi the place it is now.
Krishnan’s family moves into Kammattipaadam village in the late 70s. He grows up with his friend Ganga. They both look up to Balan, Ganga’s elder brother, who is a small-time hoodlum. As time passes by, they become entwined in the criminal way of life that is around them. Krishnan is also enamoured with Anitha, Ganga’s cousin. They become enforcers for the real estate mafia.
In the present day, Krishnan (Dulquer Salman), who is working as a security guy in Mumbai, receives a call from Ganga (Vinayakan). A call that convinces him to journey back to Kammattipaadam. Between flashbacks and present day we see the story unfold.
There is a lot of caste politics in the movie, which I leave to the better informed to talk about. I am more concerned about the story, and it is riveting. There are no excuses offered for anyone’s actions and no attempts to whitewash the criminal past or glorify it. We are all slaves to our environment and that is what will define us.
Vinayakan has been around for many years in bit roles. But, as Ganga, he goes all for broke. It will be the role he will be remembered for and one he is unlikely to get a chance to repeat. As the unread, uncouth, unthinking Ganga he makes us care for someone who does not deserve it. Manikandan shines as Balanchettan, whose actions and choices are what drive the story forward.
There are excellent supporting performances from Alencier Ley Lopez and Suraj Venjarammoodu, including a rare serious cameo by the omnipresent Soubin Shahir, which initially seems unnecessary, but actually plays a big part in establishing the myth of Balanchettan.
Dulquer is fine. He happily plays foil to the more showy performances and actually convinces us in his 40-year-old avatar. But whatever he does, his looks prove his undoing. We cannot shake the feeling that he is a movie star. One who cannot be part of that milieu. When everyone looks the part, he alone strikes a false note.
We know with whom Rajeev Ravi’s heart lies, but he makes it a point not to add rose petals when the thorns need to stay out. By using flashback and treating the story primarily as a whodunit, he immerses us into unfamiliar surroundings. Kammattipaadam shows us a people who we, the privileged middle class, rather not know about. But they are there. And their story needs to be told.
PS: If you buy the DVD, please do not read the synopsis at the back. It spoils the whole story by revealing everything including what happens in the last scenes.
Guppy (Director: Johnpaul George)
In cricket you often hear – mostly about the New Zealand team – about the whole being greater than the sum of their parts. (Google tells me Aristotle said it first.) It stands for a team effort that proves to be much more than what each individual could achieve alone. Guppy made me think of the opposite – the whole being less than its parts.
Guppy stands for the small fish that is mostly seen in aquarium. In this movie Guppy (Chethan Jayalal) is also the main protagonist. He is a young boy from an impoverished home taking care of his invalid mother and making a living breeding guppy, which is in demand because it eats mosquito larvae. Into their small village comes an engineer, Thejas Varkey (Tovino Thomas), who is going to build a railway overbridge. The two start off on the wrong foot and things go south from there.
There is a lot to praise about Guppy. The performances, for starters. Chethan is understatedly brilliant as Guppy. He brings a raw intensity into his entire performance, be it the loving scenes with his mother, the angry ones with the engineer, the laidback times with his friends or even waiting open-mouthed for the veiled Aamina (Nandana Varma). Tovino Thomas, the most desirable man in Kerala, according to a recent poll, is quite efficient. He makes the audience see-saw between the decent guy he is and also the antagonist he has to be. There is a strong supporting cast including the peerless Srinivasan, Sudheer Karamana, Rohini and Alencier Ley Lopez.
The humour is very evident, but never seems forced. We feel like the we are in the vicinity over-hearing the conversation between friends, rather than watching a stand-up saying funny lines. The actors and their lines bring the sense of realism that is now becoming compulsory in Malayalam cinema.
But one cannot shake of a feeling of being underwhelmed. We don’t quite buy into why the main characters are at loggerheads. The sub-story of Sreenivasan’s railway gate operator does not quite have the impact it should. And, while we are nitpicking, I don’t understand how a government engineer could choose his projects and also how long he goes travelling!
Thinking back, I realise there is a lot to be admired, a lot to like. But those are the individual things. As a whole, we expect much more.
A casual glance at my blogs showed no entries for a whole calendar year. That will not do. A new year came and along with it a new resolution – Watch more movies and write about them. We may be living in the golden age of television, but movies came first for me.
2016 was the year of Korean cinema, or so the critics said. I decided to go for the most famous four. This is how I fared.
Train to Busan (Director: Sang-ho Yeon)
Zombies are everywhere. At least, in the cinemas. Train to Busan actually showed how mainstream it had become by becoming one of South Korea’s biggest mainstream hits.
A father (Yoo Gong – who had a fabulous 2016) and his daughter take a train from Seoul to Busan to meet her mother. In the few hours that it took for the train to reach its destination zombies took over almost the entire country including most of the train. Do they get to their destination? Is there a destination?
Train to Busan was what Walking Dead started out as – a study of the few surviving humans when the living dead have taken over. The cast are regular clichés, father and daughter, pregnant lady with a lovable ape for a husband, the sensitive sports jock and his may-be or may-not-be girlfriend, the villainous corporate type, the steadfast public servant, none of the characters are new. Nor do they do anything unexpected. Yet, in almost two hours of running time director Sang-ho Yeon manages to bring real emotion and pathos. He connects with the audience on a level that has to be envied. No sequence overstays its welcome. No character is paper-thin.
With just enough gore, endearing performances, and a fine pace, Yeon crafts a fine commercial film out of a subject that should be ideally be not so popular with the mainstream.
The Wailing (Director: Hong-jin Na)
Full disclosure: I used to watch the Hammer House of Horror series as a child. But it was not for the horror bits!
Korean horror occupies an important place among genre lovers. The lack of interest in frights meant I avoided these just like I avoided the Korean romances. But I saw The Wailing popping up on a lot of conversations and no one was pigeon-holing it as just horror.
A small Korean village started seeing a lot of strange happenings after a Japanese man set up house in a valley. People started going mad and killing others. An overweight beat cop (Do-won Kwak) wants nothing to do with it, but when his only daughter starts exhibiting signs of being possessed he has to do everything he can to protect her.
The Wailing is unpredictable, to say the least. It lulls you with genre stereotypes and then turns them upside down. Nothing is what it seems. There is good and evil. Or is there? For most of its run-length it is evil that can be seen. The movie has exquisite photography with some of the best rain cinematography to be seen. It proceeds just like a thriller and whenever it becomes something else, the viewer is stunned. It is not much of a spoiler to say that everything is not clear at the end. I read up on it and found many explanations from many people. Which goes to say the movie was extremely successful at what it set out to do.
The Age of Innocence (Director: Jee-woon Kim)
Period movies are tricky. The common man thinks they are boring and have to be avoided, the serious viewer has a sneaking suspicion it is a gimmick, the ones with no jobs spent hours poking holes in the production design, I think that most of them are those are because their plots that don’t stand up to the question “Why didn’t they just use the mobile?”
Once in a while comes a historical movie that doesn’t seem to be one. One that pulls you to the period and doesn’t let go. Where mobiles have no business and you couldn’t care. If you have read till now, you would have guessed that The Age of Shadows is one of them. It is set in the 1920s when Korea was under Japanese rule and the underground resistance was fighting for independence. A few Resistance members have cooked up an ambitious plan to up the ante in their assault on the Japanese and the authorities are trying to stop them. The action happens in Seoul, Shanghai and in a train. What is with Koreans and trains!
The Age of Shadows is beautifully shot. There aren’t too many tacky shots of shadows, but the entire movie gives the viewer a sense that he is watching what unfolds secretly, from behind shadows. The acting is all restraint from the Korean side and all histrionics from the Japanese side, the only grouch I could find. Yoo Gong (Train to Busan), as the senior lieutenant in the Resistance and Kang-ho Song (Snowpiercer) as a Korean captain of Police working with the Japanese have the plum roles and they excel in them. The action is minimalistic, but the build-ups are quite impressive. The Age of Shadows is a breathless thriller disguised as a patriotic film. Highly recommended.
The Handmaiden (Director: Chan-wook Park)
This is true inspiration. A Victorian Era crime novel written at the turn of this millennium inspiring a Korean director, of some of the most violent movies made this century, to make a breathtakingly beautiful fraudster drama set in a time when Korea was under Japanese rule. All the while making eloquent statements on the class system, the influence of pornography and how love is always an unpredictable variable in every well-thought out plan.
A master conman calling himself Count Fujiwara hires Sook-Hee from a family of crooks. Her task: to pose as a handmaiden to Lady Hideko, a wealthy Japanese heiress and slowly convince her to marry the Count. The lady lives with her uncle, who himself has designs on her. The uncle has a large library of ancient books and conducts readings, after which he auctions the books. The plan moves along as intended, except that Sook-Hee develops feelings for her mistress.
To dismiss The Handmaiden as the pretty-looking Korean lesbian drama is the worst disservice you can do, not to the movie, but to yourself as a viewer. The Handmaiden effortlessly steps straddles genres without allowing itself to remain beholden to even one. A conman tale, a love story, a social statement, a revenge drama, it is all there and never feels forced.
The movie unfolds in three parts. The first from Sook-Hee’s point of view, the second from Lady Hideko’s and the last the finale as seen by the viewer. The love story is poignant, while the twists are unexpected. Despite being rather high-brow for the average viewer, the ending is one of the most fulfilling in a long time. The lead performances are perfect while the supporting players never appear to be supporting. The cinematography is pristine with every shot demonstrating balance and beauty, even to the amateur viewer.
The Handmaiden is a gorgeous movie experience that will stay with you for a long time. The moment you finish watching it you want to go back and see it again. I do want to see it again, but with someone who has not seen it before. Their reaction will be equally fulfilling.
Having seen the best movie of 2016 at the start of 2017, I fear it might be all downhill from now. Sigh. But then, I can always go and watch The Handmaiden again.
