Chekka Chivantha Vaanam

When you have an attractive ensemble of stars that includes - Aravind Swami: the original chocolate boy of Kollywood, STR: the ageless rebel, Vijay Sethupathi: the man of the masses - in a film, backed by an ultra strong crew, unless the maker is your average guy the chances of the movie turning out to be a dud are very less. Going by that obviously, Mani Ratnam's Chekka Chivandha Vaanam cannot be a dull film; and it is not one too. But it needs an extraordinary level of dominance over the craft to convert such multi-star, huge canvas films from just fine and passable flicks to great ones. Unfortunately, the transformation has not happened here. 

Short of 150 minutes of run time, CCV traces the power struggle in Senapathi's family. He is a ganglord and just like Vito Corlenone, Senapathi (played by Prakash Raj) has three sons and a daughter. In the very first scene, there is a botched up assassination attempt on Senapathi and his wife. Over the course, we get to see to what extent the brothers go to take control of their father's empire. There is a lot of razzmatazz filled with gun shots, Dubai skyscrapers, gunrunning, a Sri Lankan wife, a Serbian girl friend, a journalist mistress, Nepal police, etc., but the backbone that is supposed to bind all this together firmly and glue us to our seats - the screenplay - is not well formed. It is not strong enough, not smart enough. As a result, while the individual scenes like a chase here, like a song there are beautiful, as a whole them film is not captivating enough. 

Perhaps, some kind of a backstory, just required to etch the characters and make us enter their world may have worked wonders. Characters look like fairies hanging from thin air. When Senapthati says something, you know it is Prakash Raj saying it; and similarly with Aravind Swamy. Maybe factoring this, STR and Vijay Sethupathi have been cast in characters that are in sync with their 'images'. So whenever Vijay Sethupathi (playing a cop, Rasool) says something he says more like Sethupthi and less like Rasool. His fans love it.

There is a host of artist like Jyotika, Mansoor Ali Khan, Aditi Rao, Aishwarya Rajesh, Jeyasudha, Thiagarajan, et al and you are reminded of your school parade ground. But each one of them has justified the role doled out. While Jyotika proves her mettle, Aditi's role does not have meat, and the sad part is Mansoor Ali Khan stands in as a dignified set prop; But he need not feel bad, there is Thiagarajan.

In Mani Ratnam's films, we expect a certain level of quirkiness in the dialogues and the auteur has not let us down. Like for instance the response of Ethi when he gets a call from India about his father's condition; the response of Thyagu when his wife shouts at him from a boat. It is enjoyable. We feel at home. There is also the usual mirror-sequence - a very important scene that builds up the tension among the three siblings is done brilliantly. You feel at home. You feel you are in the hands of the person who gave Tamil cinema an identity. But the feeling does not last long; and such flashes do not create great movies. 

A R Rahman!  While in most places the movie is dabbling with us, the songs and the BGM lift us to a different plane. CCV is easily among the best works of Rahman in the recent years. Vairamuthu has made us look at poetry. It's sheer magic with words. Awards waiting. There are no special moments with the camera (Santosh Sivan) but for the climax. The ending scene of the movie is written well, shot interestingly, packed with stories and well performed by all the four lead artists. In fact, the ending scene salvages the entire film that starts to drag in the second half. 

Without revealing much, I can say the climax of the movie proves once again to all of us, well, how important is the culmination to any story. In the very old hare and tortoise fable, there is no fun had the hare won the race. The story is eternal because the tortoise won. 

CCV - mostly brawn, less of brain. 

Prism - 3

In the third edition of Prism, we ask deep, very deep questions to Comedian Praveen Kumar. Well, since it requires a super brain to frame very deep questions of life, I have taken these questions from the famous Yaksha Prashna episode of the Mahabharata. Comedian Praveen Kumar is among the pioneers of the stand up comedy circuit in South India. Fuelled by talent and passion for humour, Praveen Kumar is a sought after name in the corporate comedy show circles too.

1. Who makes the sun rise and ascend in the skies? 

My wife. She makes awesome Sun Rise instant coffee. It will taste like Filter coffee only.. It will look good also.. You can instantly upload the pic of the instant coffee in Instagram.. without any Filter. And once you sit in front of the TV and drink that coffee, you will start feeling light and start feeling like ascending in air... especially if it was Tata Sky.

2. Who is the friend of a traveler?

A power bank. Nowadays mobile phone is our best friend and these smart phones have everything.. every damn thing... well except charge.. So you know who is going to be your pal on a travel!

3. What is heavier than Earth, higher than heavens, faster than the wind and more numerous than straws?

Heavier than earth - The burden of a family man. The responsibilities of a family man are really under rated. The weight he carries around is so difficult to reduce by diet or by a gym.

Higher than heavens - A politician sitting in a nuclear Physics classroom - You must have heard about things going above your head when you sit in the class where you dont understand anything. (For me, its called entire education).. But when a politician sits in a nuclear physics class, the dimensions of confusion is much higher..than heavens.

Faster than the wind - Person honking after the red signal turns green. Research tells that.. thats the least calculated time.. faster than a celebrity's mood swings.

More numerous than straws - The holy cows in the middle of the roads!

4. What is that which, when renounced, makes one lovable? 

I think we all should renounce the torn jeans. Earlier the torn jeans looked good.. little torn near the knee.. Now its become worse.. There is very little cloth in the entire jean. Lot of people got confused and put their feet in the holes of the jean while wearing it.

5. What constitutes an incurable disease?

Upmalaria - Regular eating of Upma. One imaginary survey says if you eat upma regularly might or might not affect the physical health but – it will definitely affect the mental health. You will feel that life is coming to an end.. You might feel more angry than ever. You will start feeling jealous of those who eat normal food. I think there is no cure to it. Some imaginary doctors have advised not to have even direct eye contact with these upmas for a safe and sound life. 

6. Who is truly happy?

The one who doesn’t watch mega serials and reality shows on TV. There is only one rule for writing mega serial – don’t end. And the reality shows are more scripted than the mega serials. It just spreads negativity and we should stop watching these. True happiness is avoiding these two. 

7. What is the greatest wonder? 

When a wife apologises to her husband for the mistake SHE has done. Just kidding.. that’s an imaginary wonder..it does not exist. 

Now, the philosophically inclined can look up for Dharma's answers too.

Thanks to Wiki.

Rabbit-proof Fence (Movie)

Director Lenin Bharathi said he had lost more than twenty kilos of his weight in the process of making and releasing his much-acclaimed film Merku Thodarchi Malai (The Western Ghats). No wonder I could not readily recognise him from the photos of him I had seen on the web; Also no wonder his efforts are visible on screen in his intense, left-leaning and poetic film. The director had come as the chief guest at the screening of an Australian production, Rabbit-Proof Fence (Eng & Aboriginal language/Philip Noyce/2002). Set in 1931, the plot traces the 1500-mile homeward journey of three 'half-caste' girls of the stolen generation after they escape an English-run camp. The kids born to a white and a native (Aboriginal) parent are referred as 'half-caste' children. The plan of the white settlers was to forcibly take away such kids from their homes, put them in a camp, raise them inculcating English manners and marry them off to a white - in an apparent attempt to cleanse them of their Aboriginal blood, and transform them into whites over three generations of such selective breeding. In short, it is westernisation in its most cruel form. Based on true incidents, and the book by a daughter (Doris Pilkington) of the eldest of the three girls, Rabbit-proof Fence explores the theme of racism and its ruthlessness; and also the power of love and identity that makes one do the impossible. Yes, the girls (Molly, 12, Gracie, nine and Daisy, eight) walked the entire distance snubbing the unforgiving sun and punishing deserts. 

The film is a visually impressive piece of work. Supported by mesmerising music and extraordinary performance the movie transports us to the harsh lands of Western Australia.  Talking of Merku Thodarchi Malai, it is known that maestro Ilayarjaja gives utmost importance to silence.  But with MTM I felt there was an extra dose of silence and as a whole the back ground music had taken a backseat. In the panel discussion, when one of the participants posed the same question to Bharathi, the director had a different take. He said his creation did not actually require Ilayaraja to create the background score, and in fact his creation could stand alone without music. But, the commercial compulsions required to 'package' a film forced him to take the maestro on board. And even after such decorations it took almost three years for the finished movie to hit the screens. It is a great struggle for genuine films to see the light of the day in Kollywood. Idealistic and iconoclastic, when talking about the leading heroes of Tamil film industry Bharathi did not mince words - he blamed them squarely for the kind of crass creations the industry rolls out week after week.

In Rabbit-proof Fence, there is a particular scene where the forcibly snatched girls are brought to the camp, and there is a Christian nun clad in her white attire to receive them. The children get so shocked at the mere look of the nun, they think she was a ghost. The scene symbolically resembles the final 'arrival' scene of Apocalytpo (Mayan/Mel Gibson/2006) - the protagonist (Jaguar Paw) and the two men chasing him to death are stunned at the sight of the ships and boats anchored on their shores; in one of the boats that is about to touch land we see a priest-like man holding a huge black cross. Such elegant scenes have the capacity to convey a lot in a matter of a few seconds - the inextricable link of state-religion-trade; the very same dangerous link that made one half of the world work like beasts for the other half. The screenplay also candidly gives importance to the psychological defence mechanism that play in the minds of the white officers. A.O.Neville (Protector of Western Australian Aborigines, played by Kenneth Branagh) keeps reassuring that the barbaric acts they do were purely in the interest of the Aborigines. Without such camps, the Aborigines '..are a danger to themselves'. But all these themes apart, just as a movie Rabbit-proof Fence is a beautiful creation from a pure heart. It leaves you joyed and hopeless at the same time.

Cinema Rendezvous, a club that promotes world cinema in Chennai with its monthly screening and follow-up discussion had organised the show. Well done!