Shaolin China to Del Norte Colarodo - It' s been 'A' fantastic journey!

Shaolin (China) to Del Norte (Colaroda) - It's been a fun & fantastic journey; Cum Sept & '60'

Hi! Everyone,  It's been a while since I updated my blog! The reason being I was caught up with the post production of my short documentary on Bodhidharma . I am extremely pleased to inform you all that the first DVD copy has been handed over to the producers; and they are extremely happy with the final output! I will probably have some great news to share with you all on the screening of the documentary in a few days. That brings to another bit of great news i would like to share with you all! Right now I am in Chicago at my daughter's place after a brief but exhilarating visit to a small but picturesque town called Del Norte in Colorado close to Alamosa; the reason being my long time american friend Cristi invited me there to explore the possibility of shooting a short documentary on saving conserving and protecting the environment and to effectively protecting the flora and fauna from excessive drilling of oil more particularly around her 235 acre. And guess what? the good, simple people of the small town of Del Norte on watching my documentary on Bodhi Dharma immediately evinced a keen interest and wanted me to explore the possibility of my shooting another documentary about  the history, culture and the fantastic scenic spots of their town as a tourist feature! All this was made possible by the sincere efforts of my largehearted and long time american friend Cristi who started the ball rolling in the first place. And many thanks to my producer Arun, cameraman Sharon and editor Pradeep among many others who helped me complete my Shaolin project! Last of all but not the least the support i have allways received from my wife Rekha & 3 lovely daughters Smriti an avid and passionate archaeologist , Svasti an avid and highly motivated scientist & Sraiyanti who has recently completed a Masters degree in film making in the United Kingdom majoring in cinematography & with flying colours! without them in my life none of this would have ever been possible! I would like all my readers & dear friends both in the media and out of it to share my joy and happiness in all my present and future projects. Your invaluable support acts us the greatest motivator that helps me keep going even as I near '60' cum September!

Until Next Time,

Director Haricharan

31/5/2015

Chicago

Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai - 'A useless, wasted effort!'

Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai - A wasted, 'useless' effort - either way it's bad!

Cast - Arya -Makkalin Nayagan Balusamy, Vijay Sethupathi, Shaam, Karthika Nair - Kulli

& Crew- Director & Screenplay - S.P.Jananathan, D.O.P - N.K.Ekambaram , Music - Varshan, Editing - V.T.Vijayan

Producers - UTV

My ranting and ravings after a wasted 180 mins!

This film is a ball of crap; If a mad hatter 'google' educated scientist ever made a film even he would have done a better job. This film is all about a so called Indian revolutionary Arya whose characterization is a total failure. He comes across as a tame revolutionist in the beginning and finally ends up being an idiotic, spoofed and a brainless character devoid of intelligence, acumen or spirit in the end. He has a band of nitwit followers (revolutionaries) who keep shouting stupid slogans, speaking garbage in Tamil,English, Hindi and even in Sanskrit; and they are supposedly communists who have become maoists. If Maoists happen to watch this film they will probably protest and probably seek it's banning. We also have the tall heroine Karthika as the 'she' revolutionary; who would be much better of playing basketball for the Indian womens team. The director S.P.Jananathan thrives on his misplaced brilliance by introducing  firstly a cop cum jailor who is hell bent on hanging Arya; Why? I don't think even the director knows the answer! Then comes the final black icing on the 'gooey' cake; the special hangman ' Vijay Sethupathi' as per the most contrived judgement only a lunatic confined to a mental asylum would ever conceive off! Definitely not any responsible judge in any court of law! Vijay Sethupathi is a wayward drunk and a kalasi working with the railways. No wonder the maintenance of railway compartments and platforms are so pathetic; employing such good for nothings! off course he has a widowed mother who dotes on him and everytime she gets angry and abuses Vijay Sethupathi you simply want to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole formula! The entire first half is filled with the visuals of a prehistoric jail; it actually looks like a low budget set; but the jail holds high profile criminals; the most dreaded being Arya who is on a death row and going to be hanged. Why is Arya such a high profile criminal in fact he is compared to Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru! In my opinion he can be likened to a loveable priest! Sham the jailor looks like a bar bouncer in a police uniform. His sole job as a jailor is to somehow convince the drunkard Vijay Sethupathi to take up the job of pulling a simple lever and put an end to the poor constipated and docile Arya! Believe me when I say that he has no other work in the jail! Oh! Let me not forget to mention that the entire police force, commandos and black cats are in full deployment to prevent the 'mouse'  Arya from escaping. The director employs hi tech technology (courtesy Google) like encrypted sim cards, tee shirts with printed QR codes, inflated plastic balls, Jamming police surveillance cam footage, digging of tunnels, scaling walls, substituting people with such ease that you tend to think that the entire police force is blind! No scene sticks to your mind; In fact your anger scales such heights that you finally might end up sobbing and crying for watching this film! P.S. I forgot to mention the 'Thar' desert and the grinning camels! this will make you laugh and cry at the same time as Arya and Karthika riding camels mouth slogans in Hindi! Which sounds like children singing nursery rhymes!

& the climax is the most nonsensical, uninspiring climax I have watched in recent times!

Performance: Lets me not waste any more of my time; I have better things to do!

Bottomline: If anyone watches this film and says it's good please stop discussing movies with them!

A quote: "First learn the meaning of the word film before you start to shoot one!" hC

My Rating: 1/5

Until Next Time

Director Haricharan

16/5/2015

36 Vayadhinile - 'Penn' to the power of 'Jo'!

36 Vayadhinile - Suriya's JyothiMahal!

Cast - Jyothika-Vasanthi, Rahman - Tamil Selvan, Abhirami, Sanjay Bharathi, Prem, Siddhartha Basu, Nassar, Delhi Ganesh, & M.S.Bhasker among others

& Crew - Director - Roshan Andrrews, D.O.P- R.Diwakaran, Music- Santhosh Narayanan, Editor - Mahesh Narayanan, Screenplay - Viji

Producer - Suriya

Forethought - I liked what the director wanted to say;Not so much what he finally said!

Sum & Substance of women power; First of all kudos to director Roshan Andrews for taking up the cause of the husband and family submissive Indian women.....but you feel let down as the director continuously relies on strong dialogues rather than visuals to highlight the cause of the women and the premise. In fact the opening song Rajaathi... is probably the only 4 minutes where the director decides to let the deprived women to share screen space with Jyothika! That's fine with me but once again Jyothika comes out looking like a Naidu Hall Sari model in terms of looks, the saris she wears etc which is more evident when she shares screen space with other women of equal backgrounds like Devadarshini etc. Secondly she is not de glammed like Kangana was shown in Queen. Look! don't get me wrong; I am not implying that she should like a bedraggled, poverty stricken woman but definitely more attention should have been paid to her make up and costumes in the first half of the film where she is portrayed as a submissive woman the costumes and makeup are better suited for a transformed Jyothika in the second half. Let's look at the premise; during the first half the director characterizes Jo as a subdued and submissive woman after she gets married to Rahman; Why so? A firebrand and an emancipated woman Jo (flashback of college days) literally becomes a bonded labourer to her husband; devotes her full time to her aging in laws and bringing up her only daughter and goes about mechanically doing a mundane job as clerk in the revenue department. Fine! We have all seen this happen but should the director not dwell into the psyche of this problem by narrating a few issues from her past? This would make us empathise with her and travel with the character throughout the film. All the issues shown looked so trivial and superfluous that makes you want to yawn at times. Even the accident scene;Rahman trying to foist a false case on Jo was not enough to convince me of jo's submissive attitude. (A scene depicting marital rape or even an alcoholic husband would have really helped and taken Jo's character to new heights) Jo's arguments with her only daughter was also rather trivial and lacked total credibility ( Puberty, infatuation, Mensural and other more delicate mom- daughter issues would have been wholly effective). Then comes the going to Ireland issue; the very first consulate interview with Jo looked silly and lacked credibility. In fact Jo starts speaking English with a strong Tamil accent and as the films progresses her English is almost faultless. The in laws in the film purely make up for the comedy quotient else it serves very little purpose to the premise. The meeting with the president of India all because of her daughter posing a question once again lacked maturity. It appeared like Jyothika was recipient of a golden ticket from inside a chocolate wrapper. Here again the whole facade of heightened security, the urbane look president etc looked so un-Indian. Jyothika passing out before the president and becoming the butt of ridicule with all her friends and foe is more to make usage of facebook, twitter taboo in actual fact the incident must have evoked sympathy for Jyothika and should have enhanced her status in society! The director later tries to set right this anomaly but fails.The sudden transformation of Jyothika into an entrepreneur owing to an inspired motivational lecture by the arrival of her long lost classmate and friend  simply lacks conviction. 

In the second half bringing in the concept of green house terrace cultivation as a business model looked more like a populistic government scheme. I say this because the whole process of devising and implementing this scheme is made so easy for Jyothika by the director that it appears to be child's play. This is where Rajini the crusader in an old Hindi serial scored because the issues she decides to crusade were far more real and achievable. 

Finally the director attempts to set right all the wrongs in Jyothika's life and ends up providing the biggest wrong in the film the insipid and dull climax! An emancipated and strong Jyothika of the second half should have forced her husband Rahman to accept her as an equal half if not a better half!

Performances: Though Jyothika's performance cannot be faulted though at times her demure and body language does mirror on Sridevi's role in English Vinglish. Secondly Rahman looked more like a distant cousin rather than her husband! Why? Let me give u an example in the scene when Rahman returns from Ireland; Jyothika should have turned and probably attempted to hug her husband or show some sort of blatant happiness due to his sudden and long absence and unexpected return. Secondly the bond between mother and daughter bordered on step mother - daughter relationship. Rahman looked more like a dull, selfish and guarded villain always told to maintain a 3 ft distance between himself and Jyothika. The daughter looked more like she was relating to her close friends mother rather than her own. The In laws comedy quotient provides some comic relief though looked irrelevant most of the times. Why Jyothika becomes dull and again gets galvanized all of a sudden not clear. Why she opts to take her mother in law instead of the daughter when she meets up with the president a mystery; Why she does not have the wholesale vendor arrested when he deliberately poisons and adulterates the vegetables; the director fails to address this and many more issues; The screenplay and cosmetic incidents that brings down the quality of this film quite a bit! 

P.S What the visuals fail to do the dialogues does!

Bottomline: More an ode to the wife by a doting husband; rather than an ode to Indian women perennially facing a midlife post marital crisis!

Finally a Quote: "I measure the progress of a society by a director's portrayal of women in a film!" hC

My Rating - 2.5/5

Until Next Time,

Director Haricharan

16/5/2015

UTHAMA VILLAIN - an "AutObituary"

UTHAMA VILLAIN - an "AutObituary"

Cast - Kamal Hassan -Uttaman/Manoranjan; Andrea Jeremiah - Aparna; Pooja Kumar - Princess; K.Balachander - Marghadarsi; Nassar - Mutharasan;Jacob - Jayaram; Urvashi - Varalakshmi; MS Bhaskar - Chokku Chettiar; K.Vishwanath - Poornachandran and many others
& Crew - Director - Ramesh Aravind; D.O.P -Shamdat; Music - Mohamaad Ghibran; Edit - Vijay Shankar
Producers - Kamal Haasan, N.Linguswamy & Subash Chandra Bose

Uthama villain from the start to finish was like watching Kamal Haasan's autobiography in bit's and pieces. The 3 hour long 'autobituary' saga labors constantly between the present and the fantasy. It is a sketchy depiction of Kamal's life story, his acting talent, his way of storytelling, his singing & dancing prowess, his brand of humor, his style of choreography, his agnostic religious beliefs bordering on atheism and revulsion to Brahmin rituals, chants and  prayers. All in all if you are an ardent Kamal fan you will watch this film with mixed feelings of love and toleration. For the rest like yours truly watched it with sadness in my heart as Kamal touches the final frontier to simply plead to his fans and viewers. 'I am still there and can do what the younger heroes can do and much more ; so please do not write me off as yet ! I am still 'Kamal' in my own right the eternal legend of Tamil cinema !' The problem is age has caught up with this highly versatile and talented actor. He should now take a leaf out of big B Amitabh Bachchan's life and start acting his age by doing more meaningful roles. If he does not mend his ways then another legendary Indian actor will be walking away into the sun set without much fanfare!  

Premise - Kamal as Manoranjan portrays the character of a typical 'Kollywood' hero and the film starts with a bang - a dance sequence with all the moves of a 'la' Vijay and Suryaa, but as the scene progresses you start feeling sad for him; as he vigorously shakes a leg with a younger heroine your mind simply refuses to eliminate the age factor that the visuals automatically conveys and conjures in your mind. Anyways in the first half our arrogant, conceited, egoistic, narcissistic but highly talented aging hero showcases the mass support he has among his fans though most of the visuals are created graphically using archived and technique of computer graphics used over a decade ago. A typical Tamil hero who has all the traits of a minor villain but deep inside a noble and likable one. He then goes on to establish the other characters in his present life as an actor in the film (through all these actors feature in his inner circle in real life too!) like Urvashi who plays his wedded wife, Andreah Jeremiah as his love quotient and personal physician. Kamal during the course of becoming a superstar is forced into marriage by his producer father in law to Urvashi and begets a son through him and at the same time has a passionate extramarital love affair  with a much younger Andreah and uses her for his 'sexapades'. Doesn't this 'reel' scene have a similarity to Kamal's 'real' life? Anyways the story then moves on to the pathos mode; a typically Kamal like move as he suddenly discovers that he has a brain tumor and has very little time left in this mortal world. To add to his woes he discovers that he has a daughter through his old flame and lover Yamini, Jayaram's daughter, once again a page out of Kamal's own life story? So what does he do? He reaches out to his mentor KB (K. Balachander) and pleads with him to do his last film before he dies! KB initially refuses but finally succumbs to the sympathy factor and agrees. Once again Kamal typically brings in the father in law character , a leading producer & Kamal's greatest benefactor and his long drawn feud with KB his mentor, though the reasons of hatred between the two aging characters is rather shallow. KB and Kamal then team up to make a historical/mythological period comedy. In this fantasy part of this film Kamal introduces himself as 'Uthaman' a character based on the mythological character 'Prahaladan' and can never be killed. He also brings on board his long time fan and buddy Nassar as a king to play the character which bears a similarity to 'Hiranyakasipu'. His love interest in KB's fantasy comedy film is the young doe eyed Pooja Kumar. The imprisoned and shackled princess who 'Uthaman' rescues by enacting a Tenali Raman kind of role. This portion for some reason reminds you of Vadivelu's '23 aam pulikesi'! This transition into the fantasy acts as the main comedy quotient and garners a few smiles laced with occasional laughs; once again the typical Kamal kind of humour!

& the climax - The merging of the two halves; the present and the past as Kamal the hero goes through the notions of his advancing brain tumour and towards the jaws of death and the film shoot half wherein the killing of Hiranyakasipu by Narasimha is being enacted by Kamal which is being directed by his mentor KB; After almost 3 long the film reaches it's finale.....

What worked for me- Though past his prime Kamal's acting talent simply cannot be faulted; Portrayal of a lonely Hero's life is believable and one can truly empathise with the character; especially the scenes involving his wife, son and daughter; Pooja Kumar essays her role well in the comedy quotient half of the film; Kamal's screenplay ( I have deliberately avoided mention of director Ramesh Arvind's name in my review as in my opinion he had very little to do in directing this film). Visuals are acceptable but the CG work deplorable; especially the scenes with fake 'life with pi' like tiger scenes; choreography plausible but nothing new or exciting; humour worked in parts and keeps you from drifting off to sleep.

What failed - The long at times dreary 3 hour saga to watch Kamal's 'autobituary'; The crass depiction of the brahmin rituals does not reflect the class we normally expect from seasoned and classy actors and directors like Kamal Haasan; Choreography and dialogues a cliched repeat from a number of Kamal's earlier films; A 45 minutes edit cut would have brought great relief to the discerning viewer; KB's portrayal was like watching a tiger without its claws and teeth! Camera work adequate no great shakes though! Edit under Kamal's control?; BG score and songs orchestrated entirely by Kamal; Gibran - KMV (Kamal Masters' Voice)

Bottom line - Is this Kamal's grand finale film???

Finally a quote - "An aging actor should never try to reinvent himself by aping a younger actor but should move to higher ground commemorative with their age so that younger actors can continue to watch their awe inspiring performances and ape it!' hC

My Rating 2.5/5 (.5 for Kamal's sake)

Until Next Time,

Director Haricharan

6/5/2015

Past,Present &Future!

My father passed away last Monday,my present was filled with thoughts of the past & sadness. This Monday my daughter scored a distinction in her masters ( film making) program at Bournemouth UK; thoughts of my future brought me cheer! Isn't that the philosophy of life!