Vipassana Meditation for Dummies

The last things first. For those of you who know that Vipassana meditation course has got something to do with observing ‘noble silence’ (basically, keeping quiet) for ten days straight — do not panic. At the end of the program your voice box and your capacity to generate sounds will still be in tact. For those who do not know anything about Vipassana — the next five minutes will deliver you quick enlightenment.

Vipassana is supposedly an old Indian meditation technique that was rediscovered and spread by Gautama, the Buddha, some 25 centuries ago; and more recently popularised by the superstar author Yuval Noah Harari. I had heard the term in the early years of the third millennium, in the year 2005. A friend of mine had completed a program around that time. I remembered only the very basic rule that you were not supposed to talk during the 10-day program. By the way, a 60-day course is also on the offer.

… where Harari meets Vipassana

But not speaking was the smallest of the problems I had to tackle during my course last month. In the evening of the Day-1 of the course, you had to deposit all your cellphones at the office. In the initial few minutes without the mobile you really feel like, yes, as if you have lost a little but vital part of your body. But soon you get used to it, though occasionally your old habit kicks in and you even start searching the room for your mobile. (Then you smile.)

In fact, I did not really miss talking as much as I missed the mere holding of my mobile. The cool feel of the glass back…

A typical day unfolds with a wake up call at 4 AM and ends by 9:30 PM. An earth-shattering alteration of the sleep cycle for most of us. Till then I had seen many 4 AMs in my life, but — not by waking up but by simply staying awake. Also have a look at the meal times. It has a better potential to drive you mad. Breakfast at 6:30 AM, lunch from 11:30–12 Noon, and the last things to munch (snacks and tea time) by 5:30 PM. And that is not all. You will notice there is no slot for dinner. That is because you don’t get dinner.

The crazy food-sleep cycle was also not a serious problem for me. And the other rules like no alcohol, no lies, no sexual activities, no non-veg, no smoking, etc. are incidental to ‘noble silence’ and the revamped food-sleep routine. Most of us are good at adapting to situations; and playing the roles we are handed out (Stanford prison experiment, anyone?) Also my illustrious (yes!) academic and professional exposure has made it very easy for me to follow any schedule that an ‘authority’ hands out. I have been a MBA student, management trainee, officer trainee, and above all an obedient kid during my school days.

Every day you end up meditating for some 10-11 hours. In short, the entire day (minus the time for eating, sleeping and resting) is for meditation.

Inside the meditation hall, the instructions from the teacher seem so easy. But the whole game is about following them. For me the most difficult (and amusing) task in the entire program was to fix the mind (and the body) at a place. The meditation opens your eyes too to the very basic question: ‘Who am I?’ Are you the mind? Are you the body? Are you someone/something that tries to control the body and the mind?

I am reminded of the Tamil verses of lyricist Vairamuthu: Udala? uyira? peyara nee? … Moondrum illai seyale nee! Rough English version: Who are you? Are you the body, the soul or the person(name)? None of these. You are your action.

But wait, wait! The defining feature of Vipassana is that the program is not an intellectual entertainment or a spiritual quest. It is neither a philosophical introspection (whatever it means) or a series of motivational sermons. In fact the program is far removed from any of these. The only ‘talking’ that happens daily is the video-taped one hour lecture of Mr.S.N.Goenka (1924–2013), the founder of the organisation.

The program is strictly a boot camp for the mind. You have to work hard, really hard.

Another important aspect of Vipassana program is that the meditation campus is stripped off religious motifs like idols, flags, miracles, candles, etc. Can you believe, there are no framed pictures of even swamijis!

The gates are open… only till the start of the course

The course is open to people of all religions (there were two Christian nuns in my batch), all races, and also to those who do not believe in the birth-death cycle. But the technique of Vipassana is drawn from the teachings of the Buddha. Therefore little and nice Buddhist stories find themselves ensconced in the daily discourse. These stories make you look forward to the talk at the end of a heavy day. There is also this daily dose of loud speaker chants in Pali language. Also, all the meditation sessions end with Pali shlokas. But such things are surely not enough to brand the program as chants-intensive.

Overall, the course is as secular as rain. Or the sun.

I just met a friend who has paid close to Rs.3,000/- for a three-day meditation camp run by a swamiji. And that just reminds me of this — the entire ten-day Vipassana course does not involve any kind of charges or fares for boarding. The application happens online, and right from then till the last day you are not required to pay anything. This again was based on a Buddhist concept, we were told. After the end of the course you could donate as much as you can, but only if you wished. I’ve always known spiritual sessions and cult gurus as an unfailing path to make some quick money and fan following. So to me this zero-fees policy was something just incredible, awesome.

Actually, everything is free. There are no hidden costs.

This is the golden jubilee year (1969–2019) of Vipassana teaching in India by Mr.S.N.Goenka. The first and the largest centre of Vipassana is in Igatpuri, Maharastra. The organisation (dhamma.org) has presence all over the world, and more than that they have a very simple and functional website.

The 7 Habits of Highly Defective People

Habit 1 — Don’t work. Just network. The human mind and soul are designed to follow the path of least resistance. Left to itself the body avoids work. I’m sure you can’t disagree. Self-preservation is a basic nature of all things living as we all have only a limited reserve of energy. Unless we get our daily dose of inspirational quotes or have a Martin Luther King wallpaper we just won’t be able to do anything that needs even an ounce of effort more than what is essential for our survival. Don’t blame yourself for that, it is the way we were all created (evolved?). Accept it. Throw the stuff like ‘No pain, No gain’ into the dirtiest bins and just go with the natural flow of life— don’t waste energy, spend it judiciously. Just get a smartphone and restrict your work to Whatsapp, Twitter, FB and ‘Gram.

Habit 2 — The best decision is no decision. It was like any other day and I was chatting with my auto rickshaw driver as he was wading through the stinking sub-lanes of Bangalore. He was in great distress. The cops were harassing him routinely, for no fault of his. The reason? Kumar (his name) was a normal man a few years ago. But certain situations motivated him to make some ‘life changing’ decisions. And from then on he has been serving the society in a unique way. With the support of a connected NGO, he has been assisting the local cops in giving a dignified funeral for unclaimed bodies in the city. A noble cause, in deed. Down the line he may even get a Magsaysay. Things were smooth and nice until the day when Kumar picked up an orphaned body that had a deep knife injury on its neck. Now his life is entangled with law, criminals and screwed up roads. All of us have the tendency to make sudden ‘life-changing’ decisions and striving to live by them. It may be as simple as deciding to wake up at 4:15 AM daily or saying no to cigarettes as a part of the annual new year celebrations. But wait. Control the urge. Whenever you have the itch to make that life-altering decision — just think of ‘Auto’ Kumar.

Habit 3 — Be safe; Be with the crowd. There was this guy who lost his skull when he tried to bungee jump in some remote area in the Southern hemisphere. He wanted to prove to the world that he was destined for something higher, a greater calling, singular challenges, perhaps. But alas! He is no more. He failed to approach his life from the perspective of evolutionary sociology. As humans, we all have an innate desire to be in groups and to do things that all others do. In fact as the super author Noah Harari has expounded in one of his best sellers, the ability to form huge and complex groups has been the single most defining feature that had set our species apart from chimpanzees, ants and the assorted others. Basically, man is a social animal. It is all for a reason. Respect it. Just imagine if all of us decide that we have superior calling in our lives and start treading our own, different paths. Simple — the human race as a whole will collapse. It may not be the machines but the cockroaches will surely take us over. So just stick with the crowd. Keep your natural instinct in tact. Don’t venture out. At the end of the day it helps to be alive.

Habit 4 — Over-promise; Under-deliver. Imagine you were on a holiday boat ride. Pleasant weather, nice music, breath-taking beauty all around. Suddenly, you hear intense, beast-like cries of a drowning man. Your natural instinct kicks in. You shout, ‘Hang on! I’m getting you a life boat!’ But without any extra effort you pick up a worn out rope lying under your feet and throw it at him. He clasps it for his life. His head above water, he is ecstatic now. He is alive! The old, dirty rope saved him. He jumps into your boat and hugs you like you were his mother. Wait, is he going yell at you, ‘Hey moron! Where is my life boat?’? No, not at all. Human mind is just unmatched in its ability to adapt. A mere promise can make a mind jump with happiness; But a semi-failed promise is not good enough to make a mind get sucked up into the spiralling quagmire of despondency. In easy words, we are better at rationalising things than getting depressed. In the easiest possible terms, it just means — words speak louder than action. Use it to your benefit.

Habit 5— Delegate everything; Claim everything. A fundamental rule in investing is to spread risks. Only an under-developed person puts all his eggs in one basket. Banking on the adage, Habit 5 also takes some strength from Habit 1. It is all inter-connected. Project your energy in as many directions, and on as many people, while actually ensuring that you don’t spend any bit of energy yourself. As a theory it sounds complex but it is easy to practice. Clear? Well, the practical utility of Habit 5 for managers needs no explaining. For the common man you just need to understand that the habit encapsulates so many things. It is like a mammoth tapestry of finely synthesised philosophies of our race. Remember the famous question? Who was the most important person in the field of psychology? Answer — Freud’s mother. Habit 5 works on these lines. It has the potential to cover the entire spectrum of human activity and achievements. Sample this — Just now the news broke that a Kenyan has accomplished the first ever sub two-hour marathon. Let us put to use Habit 5 here. Don’t forget that you too had a role in his record. You stayed away from the race. Pat yourself!

Habit 6— Share, but keep secrets. In most cases, half-baked knowledge is useless and at times, it is fatal too. Remember, how the lion-hearted boy Abhimanyu got killed in the battle of Kurukshetra? He was taught how to break into the enemy defence, but he was clueless about the techniques needed to emerge out of the enemy camp alive. But he was wise enough to know that he did not know enough. But there are millions of us who don’t even know that we don’t know enough. I remember a Japanese (was it Chinese?) proverb — there is no one who knows everything, and there is also no one who knows nothing. All of us are middling beings. Reality. So there is nothing wrong if you hold back secret pieces of learning. Don’t distribute all you know to others. Share knowledge and develop people. But in today’s world where information is no more a rare commodity, you will do good to yourselves if you hold back some vital pieces of the jigsaw. For instance, you could Tweet, ‘Without taking a single breath… Sucssflly spent 143 secs UNDERWATER!!!!’ But you need not Tweet it was in your dreams.

A Brief History of Tamil Comedy Films: From Before ‘Crazy’ to A.D.

Muni Cinematic Universe. Yes, that is how the Muni-Kanchana series of horror-comedy movies have come to be referred. The first installment Muniwas dished out in the year 2007. And till this date the makers continue to entertain (and terrorise) us with their flavour of comedy. Kanchana 3 wasthe biggest hit of the summer of 2019. It was the fourth film of the MCU. Amidst this, we also had a neat horror comedy in Darling (2015). But for an industry that has been around for 100+ years, why are there only a few takers for the niche genre?

In the initial years (1930s and 40s) Tamil films mainly said the stories from popular Hindu myth like Baktha Prahalada, Meerabai, Harichandra and so on, and various sub-plots of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Tamil myth and literature. There were occasional film adaptations of stage plays and stories from Tamil weeklies, like Maathruboomi and Sathi Leelavathi. And there were these set of films on popular personalities like Tenali Raman, Patinathar, and the like. Interestingly, there were also sporadic outbursts like Pakka Rowdy, Madras CID, etc. Yes, there was this comedy film Sabapthy (1941). But hands down, the loyal pet of the initial decades was mythology.

Gradually, the themes veered to the Raja-Rani domain (basically, stories on power struggle set in some faraway lands), patriotic fervour, and magical stories that were slotted under Brand Vitalaachariyaar.

1952. The Dravidian tsunami set the screens on fire with Parasakthi. Till date, Sivaji Ganesan's debut performance is the gold standard for dialog delivery in films. But as a whole the decade was filled with the likes of Madurai Veeran, Manohara, Gulebakavali and Nadodi Mannan. Yes coming back to humour, though there were ‘comedy tracks’ in films, full length, successful comedy films were not easy to locate. Sabash Meena (1958) was the one that stood out. Even if decades had passed after the roaring success of Charlie Chaplin world over, the reluctance of Tamil film makers to find comfort with full length comedy continued. But due credits to N.S.Krishnan for adding humour to Tamil films in the initial decades of its life.

Adutha Veettu Penn (1960) starring T. R. Ramachandran in the lead role provided a hilarious opening for the new decade. It was a laugh riot, a situational comedy soaked in those old tricks boys always do to impress damsels. There is this famous funny song ‘Kangalum kavi paduthey..’ that serves as a template even till this date. AVP was a truly successful comedy film. Sivaji Ganesan’s Bale Pandiya, another landmark comedy, followed it. Still comedy as a genre was not tried often. 1964. Kadhalikka Neramillali. This is a cult comedy that actor Nagesh carried so effortlessly on his shoulders. The scene where Chellapa (Nagesh playing an aspiring film director) narrates a story to his father is rib-tickling even now. Rajnikanth used a similar scene in his comeback film Chandramuki (2005), more or less to the same comic effect. Then came the crop of Nagesh-K Balachander comedy-dramas like Server Sundaram (KB as the writer), Bama Vijayam, Ethir Neechal and so on. Outside these films the concept of ‘comedy track’ was still in vogue taking a helping hand from J.P.Chandrababu, Manorama, Cho and other assorted ‘comedians’. Galatta Kalyanam with its amusing premise was a feather in the cap of the 60s. Again, Sivaji Ganesan proved his mettle with humour.

AVP, the old tricks of boys

1970s was a tumultuous, milestone decade for Tamil films — it marked the generational shift from MGR-Sivaji to Rajni-Kamal; from MSV to Ilayaraja; from Raja-Rani and mythology stuff to serious social and family dramas. Also the legendary directors like KB, Bharathiraja and Mahendran delivered their best in this decade. But what about comedy films? Sorry, the species had just slipped from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Critically endangered’.

Thillu Mullu (a Hindi film remake), the evergreen comedy heralded the 1980s. It presented a very new dimension of Rajnikanth. Supported by Thengai Srinivasan, Sowcar Janaki and an ensemble of cast that includes even Nagesh and Kamal Hassan in minor roles, the film became a benchmark for the genre. Due to the continued efforts of film makers and actors like K.Bhagyaraj (Indru Poi Naalai Vaa, Dhavani Kanavugal), R.Pandirajan (Aan Paavam, Oorai Therunjukitten) and Visu (Dowry Kalyanam, Manal Kayiru), the genre continued to be relevant. In fact the comedy films gained traction in Kollywood. But, while many of the these films were great comedies, the maker comedy film of the decade was still Thillu Mullu released in 1981. The eight years that followed only helped the genre escape the deterioration from ‘Critically endangered’ to ‘Near-extinct’.

Yes, there were great ‘comedy tracks’ during the period, performed exceedingly well by the comic legends like Goundami-Senthil. The 80s too witnessed a revolution in Tamil cinema. Mani Ratnam. But comedy was never his forte. And the auteur even dropped the ‘comedy tracks’ from his films very soon, after attempting it for one last time in Agni Natchathiram(1988).

So this was the B.C. of Tamil comedy films. Before ‘Crazy’.

Now let us move to anno Domino (A.D.), in the year of Tamil comedy God ‘Crazy’ Mohan. It was 17th October, 1990, and Michael Mathana Kama Rajan the greatest Tamil comedy of all times got released. The very previous year, with Apoorva Sagodharargal Crazy had established himself as a real talent on humour and dialog writing. ‘Sir.. neenga engeyo poitenga!’ still lingers in the air. Even Crazy’s Kathanayagan (1988) had memorable funny moments (‘Gaja ka dost’). But with MMKR, Crazy took the onscreen comedy to an altogether higher plane, and set a fresh benchmark. And it was too high for anyone to even attempt beating. Yes, doing all the four titular roles Kamal Hassan played an extraordinary part in creating the onscreen magic of humour.

International Decade of Tamil Comedy Films

The Crazy-Kamal combo went on to roll out one comedy after another — Magalir Mattum, Sathi Leelavathi, Avvai Shanmugi and Kadhala Kadhala, all in the same decade. Crazy also collaborated (less successfully) with others, and gave memorable comedy film like Chinna Mapillai. The decade also had non-Crazy hits like Nadigan (1990, a 1962 Hindi film remake), Singara Velan (1992) and Ullathai Allithaa (1996) that were pretty high on humour — but nothing could outwit the Crazy waves that consistently lapped the pristine shores of onscren humour. The new millennium too kick started with the Crazy-Kamal combo. Thenali (2000), Panchathantiram (2002),Pammal K Samandham (2002) and Vasool Raja MBBS (2004, a Hindi film remake). Switch on your telly and randomly play any Tamil comedy channel, and don’t be surprised if you end up watching clips from any of these. The other film makers collected the baton and continued to run up the humour track with all sincerity. Soon we had two more cult classics of comedy — Imsai Arasan 23-aam Pulikesi (2006) and Chennai 600028 (2007). Well, the decade of 2000s was easily the most humour-packed years of Tamil cinema. May be the UNO should have it as the International Decade of Tamil Comedy Films.

Imsai Arasan…, A cult comedy

Now, why horror-comedy has taken (is taking) so long to evolve? Simple. Even full length comedy has established itself only in the recent decades. Only in the A.D., comedy has been commanding a place for itself. Before Crazy, there were hardly any takers even for the evergreen material of slapstick or the comedy of errors. But just person (teamed up with a supreme actor) changed the pitch; and also the way games were played.

There have been directors and writers who have given us serial blockbusters. Ellis R. Dungan, B. R. Panthulu, S.P.Muthuraman, P.Vasu, Panchu Arunachalam, Gangai Amaran, Shankar and many more. It is a big deal. But to hand out guarantee consistent hits in just the genre of comedy — it is actually a big deal. When was the last time you just laughed so easily? (Unless the person cracking the joke was your boss.) Before Crazy there were just old sprinklers struggling to keep up the grass green. In A.D. the genre progressed from critically endangered to just vulnerable. A giant leap for any species. The genre blossomed.

Now, in the second decade of the third millennium, in spite of gems like Soodhu Kavvum (2013) we seem to be staring at a scenario of over-population. The makers are worried more about the numbers than about the DNA strength. But that is another story, unfolding every Friday. The latest, weakest member being Dharmaprabhu.

Maestro Ilayaraja — just a single person defined the whole of Tamil cinema music throughout the 1980s. Other than him there was perhaps no other person of any section in the industry, at any point in time, who stood as the only identity for his field of work; the one who had total domination. The sky always had a couple of shining stars and a few dazzling shooting stars. May be a rainbow here or a full moon there. But never a sole star glittering with a beaming smile. But from the year 1990, the comedy sky had one such star. It was ‘Crazy’ Mohan.

Don't Pause Your Life...

Once a while we all pause and take a good look around. It could be just for a moment or may be for a minute or it may last even for eternity. It all depends on what you saw first when you stopped. One of my friends saw his own shallow, mean life grinning at him; his pause continues even till this date — a good four years have flown by. A mind’s quest for meaning? I too had had a handful of such pauses, stillness and episodes of reflections in my life. I am not dead sure how long these pauses typically lasted, but the latest brake consumed a few long minutes. It came as a surprise when I opened my eyes and realised (and confronted) my fetish for bags. Well, here I am not talking about esoteric beings like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Bugatti, and so on that are mainly interested in elite females. I am more about the real stuff. The backpacks, duffel bags, messenger bags and the assorted ones that you find in Amazon sale on a daily basis. But I must say life was so simple when all these animals were just classified as ‘shoulder bags’. But I had not relented, it seems. How on earth did this happen? When did I hit ‘Buy Now’ for a laptop bag the first time? And why did I not stop it even after the sixth instance?

Our brains have a smart way of processing the loads of sounds and sights that try to engulf us every second. The routine inputs of the eyes and the ears are just bunched and pushed over as the background. Once the noise is out of way we see and hear only those things that seem to be more important. If the bunching fails, we fail as functional humans. But the grouping does not guarantee accuracy or freedom from madness. In fact, on the contrary, I went mad confronting the dozens of cheap (economical, discounted) bags that fill my room; the bags my brain had pushed to the background. I am sick of them.

Only until the next big sale day in one of those online shops. Tote bags are so tempting. You just can’t have four.

(From the internet, By Linda Mears)

So I call up this semi-psychiatrist friend of mine who is yet to clear his solitary arrear. The paper that has been troubling him was on sleep disorders. But I bet there is no way he is going to clear it. He firmly believes insomnia is not a disorder, but a way of life — especially for a student of medicine. Now he takes a good look at my room, and expectedly his visual cortex is bombarded with the images of bags of multiple colours, shapes and designs; All of them dangling intimidatingly in the fan wind like crazy chimes performing a death dance in silence; His brain is unable to process it beyond a few seconds and he quickly gets out of the room, and shuts the door. He opens it again with the same speed and pulls me out.

Now he sits with me to know more about how it all began. Whether I had used bags during my school days or I just carried them on my head, and stuff like that. We do our usual chat for over an hour, but this time after his last sip of tea, he dramatically announces, ‘The session is over.’ I scratch my head. It did not make sense. He said, I (my brain) was full of ideas; that there was no stop for the constant stream of ideas my one hundred billion neurons generate. Sadly, my brain is unable to handle its own input as the synapses get into an inferno of tricky, unredeemable loop of self-generated stimuli. I stopped sipping my cup of tea. In shock. Forest fire ablaze between my ears? But luckily, he said, my brain has developed its own mechanism to handle it. And that is how I end up buying bags. Though his whole diagnosis felt like a Christmas cake made out of camel milk, I restricted myself to just one question — Of all things, my friend, my dear semi-psychiatrist friend, why bags? Amazon also has deadly deals on digital clocks and designer umbrellas.

He was cool when he said — I bought only the bags and not cheap pyjamas or tooth brushes as I was unconsciously using the bags as containers to store the countless ideas that constantly oozed out of my brain like the infinitely tireless waves that lapped the shores of great seas, regularly powdering the huge rock here and the mighty mountain there, neither with remorse nor with vengeance but only with a touch of mechanical beauty in monotony.

He stressed ‘unconsciously’ and thumped the dining table almost shattering the tea cups when he announced it was a form of, hold your breath, offence mechanism.

Now, I am on the look out for the friend who is in search for meaning. May be he could help me. I also have things to discuss with my medical friend’s professor.

Super Deluxe (Film review)

In his second outing, the avant-garde film maker Thiagarajan Kumararaja transports us to a queer world full of failing men and women, kids and a transgender, a dead body and other beings, and engulfs it with existential questions ranging from God to illicit relations to religious conversions to sex workers to fleeting social norms and so on. He also attempts to provide aswers through funny plots, witty dialogues and a few convenient cinematic devices. And the ultimate solution presented is — sex. It is said in clear terms by way of a B-grade Tamil porn film inside the film, Vaazhvin Ragasiyam (Life’s secret), that is juxtaposed in the movie’s ending scenes. Vaazhvin Ragasiyam starts, as the end credits of Super Deluxe roll.

Written by a team that boasts of three iconic directors of Tamil cinema including Kumararaja, Super Deluxe will be counted among the boldest attempts in Kollywood. Four different script writers have worked independently on the project. Boundaries are pushed constantly; new worlds get opened regularly. It is a unique experiment in Tamil cinema writing.

   

  

The film has three main threads — a quirky story that kicks of when a teen boy gets the shock of his life, when he sees his mother as the central lead in a 3-D porn film that he sits to watch with his classmates, a plot replete with dark comedy that takes off when a lady confesses to her husband that she had a fling with her ex in her own bed and well, the ex just breathed his last in the bed, and thirdly a moving story about a person who returns to meet his family after eight long years, and more importantly after his sex change. Got it?  All the stories kick off with events connected to sex, and they confluence and end with a sex film. So now you get a fair idea where this stuff is going to lead you, right? Wrong. The movie surprises you. But the glitch is with the way it does it — at times the turns look like either forced way too much or boringly long drawn.

Be it the initial scene where he tries to chop the dead body, or the place where he gets to know the cop is no more, Fahad Fasil has proved that he is an extraordinary talent. Same goes with Vijay Sethupathi. His (Shilpa’s) second sequence at the police station, where he struggles it out to reach the bad cop Berlin will be remembered for ages — both for exceptional acting and staging. Oh the bad cop! Bucks (actor) will be lauded for Berlin, and Berlin is the newest and the nastiest face of police in Kollywood. Film maker (also a co-writer) Mysskin also has delivered in his trademark style that leaves you confused and yet satisfied, with his authenticity fused with eccentricity. Ramya Krishan as Leela sparkles in the scene where she almost looks into the camera, as if asking to us directly, why there was no one to help her out. It is a question the society needs to answer. Samantha has tried to breathe life into Vembu, the lady who is geting killed from within by guilt. She has pulled it off in a very demanding scene set inside the famous, old mill of Tamil cinemas. Beautiful! Wonderful! Marvellous! But there seems to be an underlying basic tiff between Samantha and Vembu.

From the bunch of teenage lads who are on the run, to the assorted ones ranging from the school principal who does an impactful dialogue sequence with only one word, to Ramaswamy, the aide of a self-declared guru Arputham (Mysskin), the newcomers have done exceedingly well. The hero among the adolescents  the boy in the cat shirt, is perhaps the find of the year. He is like super cool from his initial scene where he asks for a packet of chips. But wait, there was this Raasukutty (Ashwanth Ashokkumar), the little boy who is too eager to welcome his father. The film belongs to this wonder kid whenever he appears on screen. And how can you forget the place where he talks with his father-mother from behind the closed doors. Just the kid’s voice Vs. Sethupathi draining himself out performing as Shilpa. Decide the winner for yourself.

Yuvan Shankar Raja has a limited role in the film that mostly banks on the ambient sounds ranging from that of a flying aircraft to off screen cats to a dead man’s fart. But wherever the composer had an opportunity, he has experimented in top gear. It is interesting, exciting too. A lot of story gets conveyed in the background dialogues. Quite a lot. Expectedly, there are no songs. But I am not sure of that. The film uses a few popular Hindi disco songs, which is quite okay, but like the film ‘96 (Tamil, 2018), SD also takes so much liberty with Ilayaraja’s songs that you do not get a feel of a song-less film. May be it is just a tribute to the Maestro, or may be it is an easy tool that has been deployed to elevate the script. (Can you think of ’96 without ‘Yamunai aatrile..’?)

Two cinematographers (Nirav Shah of 2.0 fame, and P.S.Vinod) have seamlessly worked to give their best output — which is why there is no one particular place where you could shout ‘The visuals were so good!’; the picturisation is terrific but it does not stand out separately from the overall film craving for your attention. Eyes do not take over your hearts and heads. And I think that is also successful cinematography. But yes, in the sub-way meet between Shilpa and Arputham, the cameraman (whoever it was) strives to capture your eyeballs. May be, he watched Agni Natchatiram(Tamil, 1988) the previous night. The setting and the art work looked as if most of the stuff bought for Aaranya Kaandam have been reused. All the places are uniformly and identically run down; Filled up with the same old stuff like a glowing globe here, a cassette player there, worn out wooden furniture, and the like. Hopefully they are disposing off the stuff now.

Easy Rider (English, 1969) propelled Hollywood into a new phase, in terms of bringing in fresh aesthetics on screen, presenting bold narratives, weakening the studio systems, and much more. Sample this conversation from the film —

“Don’t tell anybody that they’re not free, because they’ll get busy killing and maiming to prove to you that they are.

They’re gonna talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom.

But they see a free individual it’s gonna scare them.

Well, it don’t make them running scared.

No. It makes them dangerous.”

In Super Deluxe, Shilpa too prepares her kid with a similar talk. And the movie tries to stand by it; and almost succeeds too. Not entirely, because the film ultimately sticks to the billion-year old ending — Good should prevail; Evil must die. In this case the curse of a good woman brings about a terrible death of the bad. It is playing very much by the rule book. Nothing fresh or contra about it. But does it take away the credit from the experiment?

The film runs for close to 3 hours with a couple of redundant dialogues and stagnant phases. A tighter presentation would have made the creation ever-green and engrossing like AK. While Aaranya Kaandam was pure story telling, Super Deluxe aspires to be a philosopher with funny oddities.

Duper Seluxe!

Bonus read:
There is an edgy scene in a gully where Shilpa searches for her missing son. Here I’m not sure. I remember seeing a wall in the background with the words ‘Magic events’ scribbled on it with a contact number below it. (As in, a wall ad for a guy who perhaps arranges magic events for birthday parties, etc.) The very next moment, when Shilpa crosses the same place again, two new words, ‘Real life’, seem to have appeared above those two words. Let me know if I was hallucinating, or actually the film maker wanted to surprise us. SD presents us with such moments. 

Vaazhvin Ragasiyam’s film poster has an outline of a ‘door key’ as a part of its title design, apparently to mean it was the key that unlocks the life’s secrets;  Tastefully, throughout the film, a key dangles in the jeep the couple use to dispose off the dead body of the lady’s ex with whom she had just slept. Life’s secret, eh? 

The couple’s track, that of two cross fit personalities thrown into the same bed by the institution of arranged marriage and the painful path they have to tread to warm up to each other, is designed on the lines of Mouna Raagam (Tamil, 1986). It is nice to see that the maker has acknowledged this. The gesture is no small thing especially in a place like Kollywood, where even entire films get unofficially ‘remade’ — without even the slightest hint of gratitude.

What do you do when you find a sea turtle egg…

While our planet is plundered by all of us, a few of us wage a war to save it. I was happy to be on the minority side for a night. The volunteers of the Students Sea Turtle Conservation Network, Chennai have been walking along a 7 km sea stretch every single night of the Olive ridley sea turtles nesting season. The arribada is roughly from January to March, every year. And the SSTCN team have been doing these walks for about three decades now. One segment of the walk typically starts from the Neelankarai beach and ends near the Adyar estuary. During the weekends, a shortened version of the walk (‘turtle walk’) is open for the general public. And that is how I ended up being on the right side for a night. There were about 20 others like me.

It was around an hour and half past midnight, when we rose up to embark on our walk. We had a good, elaborate sensitisation session prior to that. Just to make us more readily connected to the purpose, the SSTCN team had brought along a group of turtle hatchlings, to be left free in the sea water. These tiny turtles were from the early eggs of the season. It is a sight to witness the struggle and ultimate success of these babies as they crawl the beach sand, and guided by light from the torches of the volunteers as they begin their journey into the vast expanse of water, the sea. In any lot, there is that one smart and strong hatchling that desperately pushes the floor with its flippers, crawls across the damp sand, never loses sight of the light beam, braves the occasional fierce wave that topples it, and finally takes to the seawater and swims freely towards the horizon. At a deeper level that baby turtle took me to the realm when one brave and curious ape, very hesitatingly yet in need of something, left behind its group, got down from the tree branches and touched the land for the first time.

The sea turtles have a strong bonding with their places of birth, as wherever they swim, when it comes to the question of forming a nest and having children the females return to the very same nesting ground — from where it all began for them. I will be happy to welcome back the lucky ones from this lot.

These turtles are almost at the top of the food chain of the seas. They do get eaten up often by someone superior and hungry lurking under the salty, warm tropical waters. But the natural survival rate of oliver ridley turtles is abysmal, as only the luckiest one among one thousand hatchlings grows into an adult. These creatures also need ample doses of luck to escape the hands of humans that stretches into the seas. During the course of our walk, we came across a stranded carcass of a turtle. Most likely it got dragged by a fishing net under water for hours that did not make it possible for the olive ridley to come up for a breath of air. And eventually killed it.

More worrisome is the danger the shore line holds. One of us asked the SSTCN guys, ‘Are these Olive ridley turtles some endangered species or what?’. The reply was steeped in philosophy, though it was most practical and sensitive answer we could have wished for. ‘Other than the humans, all species on this planet are endangered’. Other than the usual suspects like stray dogs and poachers, the Chennai coast offers the nests the added problem of ‘development’. At some places along the coast, housing apartments are so close to the beach that you get a feeling perhaps these concrete giants were present even before the beach came into existence. As they break their shells from the inside, instinctively the baby turtles move towards light sources. In this part of the world, it could be the flood lights on the beach road, fancy lamps dangling from sea shore bungalows and light from the fishermen’s settlements abetting the high tide limits. In other parts of the world there are debates on the need for conservation of these turtles, and the efficacy of the efforts. It is fuzzy. Here, the response served with philosophy we got should serve as the lighthouse.

Once a while, our lives long for the presence of people who have surrendered themselves to higher purposes. I was lucky to have met a few such souls in one night.

The volunteers move with a single point agenda. To locate the underground nests and move the eggs to safe zones. These turtles come up the shores, make sub terrain conical nests, lay eggs that could be roughly around one hundred in number, cover up the place with beach sand, and dive back into the deep seas. The trained eyes are able to spot the underground nests by tracking the flipper imprints on the beach sand. Once identified, the experts deduce the exact depth at which the eggs are incubating, free of care for the world above them. Systematically, the nest is dug up and the eggs are collected. These eggs have soft, malleable shells. It is kind of surreal and strange to our fingers that are used to those eggs that need steel spoons to tap and break their shells. Soon, the spherical eggs are moved to a protected, natural hatchery on the same shoreline so that they don’t feel out of place.

In due course, the tiny babies that emerge are guided into the sea. And the cylce of life is made to go round — for one more time.

Petta (Movie review)

The Superstar is back. And how!

Semi-spoilers embedded. It takes an exceptional actor to convert even the little scope a script offers into a memorable performance. With Petta, Nawazuddin Siddique has cemented his position among the top acting talents of the country. The film offered him just one chance to prove himself - the scene where he reacts to the killings of the members of the opposite gang - and man! he has come out with  flying colours. Truly Siddique. And it takes an extraordinary level of stardom and mettle to raise above everyone else in the cast ensemble that includes stars like Vijay Sethupathi, Simran, Sasikumar and many more - and create waves of excitement among the fans. With Petta, Rajni has made it loud and clear he is still the Superstar of Kollywood. 

With a revenge drama core, Petta is about a college hostel warden, Kaali, whose smiles hide more than one mystery. Until about the interval the movie is mainly an enjoyable ride filled with many Rajni moments and some action. The star charms with his one liners (Nallavanaa iru, aanaa romba nallavanaa irukaatha), humour, style and stunts. But there is always an undercurrent similar to Baasha (1995) (just similar, but not intended to be anywhere near, though there is a smart dialogue reference to Baasha) about who Kaali was, and why he worked as a warden in a college atop the hills. The second half that has a sizeable flashback portion is terrific. 

There are a few scenes like the one where Rajni shoots and kills a person in a very odd setting (cannot reveal more here) and goes about it in a cool way, where the director sparkles. The scene recreates the magic of his earlier film Jigarthanda (2014). There is also episode that happens in a moving train where Rajni, the actor, shines. It is heart warming to see such moments on screen. And unlike the flashback portion in Kabali, where the age of the star shows on screen so much that even the director did not want us to see it as one full continuous episode, in Petta Rajni looks so fresh and fine as a young man. The swag is unmissable. The Superstar is back. And the good news is - he is all over.  

Trisha and Simran have roles that are just a bit longer than their portions revealed in the trailers. They have done justice to whatever they were doled out. The script does not bank very much even on Vijay Sethupathi. The motto seems to be - when you have Rajni, why do you really need anyone else? 

With wonderful support from the production design and costumes team, the DOP Thirunavukarasu not just captures beauty but also transports us to places wherever the story goes, be it a village or a hill station or an old town in Uttar Pradesh. Right from his initial years Rajni has blended humour with his stunts, the stunt director Peter Hein has kept the spirit alive. There are some 'mass' fights too. The script takes you into it so well that even when Rajni sprays hundreds of bullets in the second half you really do not feel odd. You know it is staged, it is definitely not real, may be implausible on screen too, but you enjoy it when Rajni does it in his way. 

Vijay Sethupathi (as Jithu) and Rajni have a few smart moments on screen as they get into a cat-and-mouse game towards the end of the movie. The climax is an amazing culmination of the game they play, and the moves they make. Topped with a peppy dance by Rajni for his song 'Raman aandaalum Ravanan aandalum...' (is it also a political statement?) from Mullum Malarum (1978), Petta's climax is among the best finishings we had seen in a Rajni film. It achieves what hundreds of crores of rupees could not achieve in 2.0: frenzy.

If I were to pick just one another person for creating the Petta magic, it is the music composer Anirudh Ravichander. Petta is a wholesome album and the songs have been trending. But the background score of the film is also a superstar in its own right. Hats off! The 'Kalyanam' song is so intelligently done and placed well, it cools down the temper before it builds again and there is blood all over, again.

Directed by Karthik Subburaj, the script is tailor-made for Rajni and fans, with full belief in the Superstar. The filmmaker clearly knows not only what a fan expects from Rajni - but also when s/he expects that. And this is where the success of the film gets defined, especially when compared to the Rajni outings post-Sivaji (2007). While Kuselan (2008) was passable, the iterations of Enthiran (2010 & 2018) were more of tech razzmatazz than a display of the star's aura and talent, Lingaa (2014) didn't even have a decent script to begin with, Kabali (2016) tried to launch Rajni in a new, old avatar, and well Kaala (2018) was Pa.Ranjith's and not Rajni's. All these films made in the past decade assumed either Rajni, the Superstar was a spent force or their scripts would take Rajni to the next level. Both the assumptions were broadly off-target. And immaterial of the claimed box office collections, the end result has always been a kind of let-down for the star as well as for his fans and fanatics. 

Now, Petta brings back to Rajni's fans what has been missing in the cinema halls during all these years: euphoria.