First half - 50 movies

Most of us have this very basic tendency of doubting any 'round' figures in any report. Even in a water-cooler talk we will go with a person saying, 'Renjith has four (or six) affairs' than with someone, who based on meticulous data collection and thorough third party verification convincingly says, 'Renjith has five affairs'. 

I have completed the first half of 2015 with 50 movies. These fifty fall under different shades of languages, periods, and genres.

Top five:

1. Sunset Blvd. (Eng/Billy Wilder/1950)

This is a 65-year old movie, but Sunset will give a tough fight to any of the black humour/drama made even this date. The film is presented as a narration by a dead man and you get engrossed in it right from the first scene. Set in the times of transition between the silent movies and the talkies, Sunset takes a close look at the peculiar and intriguing relation between a failing screenwriter and a fallen star of the silent era. With a superb performance by Gloria Swanson as the obsolete artist and interwoven with real filmmakers and studio settings, Sunset is easily one of the greatest movies ever made in English. And perhaps the greatest movie ever made on movies.

2. Fargo (Eng/Joel Coen/1996)

This 1996 winner of the Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, is captivating, enthralling and - cold-blooded. The pace picks up slowly, but it just sucks you into it very soon with a series of unexpected murders, culminating in a scene depicting the (probably) most-chilling way of disposing a dead body ever shown on screen. Fargo is full of an amazing set of characters - right from the lead investigator, the pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson (for which Frances McDormand picked the Academy Award for Best Actress), to the clumsy Jerry Lundegaard who hatches a plan to get his wife kidnapped for a ransom from his father-in-law, to the laconic, sturdy criminal Gaear Grimsrud, and the funny, kidnapper Carl Showalter - whose interactions leaves you guessing 'What next?' Interestingly, the film starts with the lines "This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.", though the Coen bros. later acknowledged that while the killings were based on real events, the characters and the plot were imaginary.

3. The Wizard of Oz (Eng/multiple directors/1939) 

One of the oldest talkie movies I have seen. Based on the 1900 book with a similar title this musical is just an amazing take on the fantasies and insecurities of a girl child, and her journey to and from a dreamland, Oz. It was refreshing to experience the use of colours in the film. Unlike the usual colour movies that we are used to - where the flashback scenes are shown in B&W - The Wizard starts and ends in grayscale - but the imaginary world of the girl is presented in colour. That is a masterstroke. The movie has good special effects too. Even after 75 years, The Wizard continues to entertain.

4. Kaaka Muttai (Tamil/M.Manikandan/2014)

A refreshingly simple, original and spectacular take on the rich-poor divide; ironically the beauty of Muttai lies in the fact that it never tries to shout at the top of its voice "I am a leftist movie". Loaded with stellar performances, creative camerawork, fantastic art, a fun-filled freshly-baked script backed by deft direction, Muttai will be around for a long time to come. Success of such movies provides renewed hope for new talents in Kollywood - as well as its audience.

5. The Infernal Affairs - I, II, III (Cantonese/Lau-Mak/2002-03)

Over a Saturday afternoon-evening I completed all the three parts, back to back. (A long back, I had tried this with the three editions of The Godfather, but I did not succeed.) A big fan of The Departed, TIA was always in my to-see list as I was curious to know about the foreign language movie that inspired the legendary Martin Scorsese to remake it in English. After the viewing, I realise the greatness of veteran director Scorsese lies in having an openness of mind to recreate a Chinese spy drama in Boston; and the greatness of TIA lies in converting a die-hard Departed fan into a TIA fan.

Next five:

6. Boyhood (Eng/Richard Linklater/2014)

7. JFK (Eng/Oliver Stone/1991)

8. The Shining (Eng/Stanley Kubrick/1980)

9. NH 10 (Hindi/Navdeep Singh/2015)

10. Wild Tales (Spanish/Damian Szifron/2014)

Bottom five:

46. Komban (Tamil/M.Muthiah/2015)

This is a good paisa vasool movie that delicately and successfully steers away from the Paruthiveeran mould. A slight slip here or there would have rendered Komban unbearable. Luckily, it is not the case. Karthi's screen presence does the wonder. Another trophy in oldie Rajkiran's kitty too. 

47. Naan Kadavul (Tamil/Bala/2009)
I revisited this one after a period of six years. Now the film looks contrived; it just hangs in thin air perhaps just to prove some point to someone. I liked the movie back then. In the mean time, Bala too has gained more aura as a bold creator.

48. Natural Born Killers (Eng/Oliver Stone/1994)

There is something about this Oliver Stone movie. But I am still not able to make out what was the vision he had set for the movie. There are just too many crazy things that do not come together well to deliver a good movie experience.

49. Beyond the Reach (Eng/Leonetti/2014)

I just waited for the film to get over. But interesting casting - Michael Douglas in a purely negative role.

50. Anegan (Tamil/K.V.Anand/2015)

One more case of the talented actor Dhanush getting let down by a big-name director and a seemingly brilliant screenplay. Trying to live up to the inspiration of Nenjam Marapadhillai (Tamil/1963/C.V.Sridhar) and demands of the modern audience, Anegan reminds us no one (including the veteran actor Karthik ver 2.0) can salvage a script gone awry.

Terminator Genisys just missed the list; it was released here on July 3rd. It was my first movie for the second half of the year. Had I watched the movie a few days earlier, very easily Anegan would have looked a lot better. Why was this boring fifth itinerary, bereft of creativity, even made at all? Waiting for another Terminator by James Cameron.

Happy second half!

Summer rains

Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989)

April 14 is the Tamil New Year's day, and I would rate Apoorva Sagodharargal released on this date twenty six years ago as the best masala movie from Kollywood since then. (One of director Shankar's corruption-based movies will come a close second.) Apoorva has a deceptively simple framework of two long-separated brothers coming together to avenge their father's murder. But what a magic on screen! Apoorva demonstrates the possibilities in store when all the A-rated members of an A-rated team click in unison. This is not a movie where you can easily say "The music is wonderful!" and keep quiet after that. With this movie, you cannot leave out P.C.Sriram when talking about Ilayaraja; you cannot miss Crazy Mohan when mentioning about the scriptwriter Kamal or the lyricist Vaali. The same with inspector Janakaraj, mom Manorama and the villain team that includes the veterans Nagesh and Jaishankar. And all the entertainment - three Kamals including a dwarf, four innovative revenge killings, five fantastically shot songs, mother sentiment, great love tragedy, superb comedy, amazing background score and enjoyable circus footage - in just under 2 hours and 30 minutes. Has any other movie managed that? I doubt. 

The movie has a placid start with a close shot of a duck in an idyllic village, only to catapult us to a racy trajectory with a jeep ripping through a thatched hut like an arrow tearing a tender heart. The action block goes on with the father-police inspector Sethupathy Kamal stealing the limelight - behaving like a roaring lion with the foursome villains and at once turning into a naughty kitten with his pregnant wife. Very soon, within 12 minutes, everything is over: Old-time comedian Nagesh gets established as a barbaric villain with a sharp humour, with another oldie, detective Jaishankar joining him as an advocate criminal; the villains are arrested and disgraced by Sethupathy; but court acquits all of them while throwing the upright inspector out of job; soon it is the baddies turn and they ravage the beautiful couple as the couple share some lovely moments; Sethupathy is over-powered and killed brutally; and the title credits keeps rolling as the poisoned, pregnant widow escapes on a boat, with Ilayaraja giving out one of his best melodies.

Only a few other movies might have reached this level of screenplay in establishing so much, so tightly, in just about a dozen opening minutes. Even the the sheet anchor scenes of Thalapathi (1991) shot in black and white - of a teenage, unwed mother abandoning her just born baby in one of the open bogies of a goods train; the baby being rescued by some kids only to be accidentally let to float in a stream; and soon the baby being regained from the flowing water and he growing up into a dejected, angry little boy with a single question that resonates throughout the movie 'Why did my mother abandon me?''; all this with Ilayaraja rendering an emotionally charged melody as the titles roll - that run for the initial ten minutes as the titles roll, and which are equally backed by Ilayaraja's masterpiece melody, is a shade lesser than that of Apoorva's prelude scenes.

The interval block comes around the exact middle of the overall running time of the movie, with Srividya revealing the brutal past to Appu Kamal and the dwarf-clown instantaneously deciding to take revenge. This change of mind of the clown is shown symbolically, beautifully with a shot of the clown shrieking with a long, shiny sword in his arms. The transformation of a despondent dwarf into a revenge machine is complete and conveyed with that single shot. What a thought! The second half is about how the Lilliputian goes about killing the villains - in novel ways. Appu uses one of his circus tigers to maul to death his second target, Nasser. This scene of merciless, gory murder transforms smoothly into a peppy number with Raja Kamal performing the puli vesham (tiger costume) folk dance. And in between this quick and enjoyable transition is ample humour by Janakaraj, as the investigating inspector and his sidekick constable, Sambandham. Neenga engeyo poiteenga sir! And Kamal Haasan, the ingenuous script writer, in an attempt to achieve the desired scene shift, has also used used 2-D cartooning here. It is highly creative, and humourous as well. (In the 2001 movie Alavandhaan, Kamal once again uses 2-D cartoons. This time to mellow down violence and blood flow. It is said QT got inspired by the comic sequences of Alavandhaan, and used the technique in one of the Kill Bills.)

In the scenes in and around Appu's love failure, the actor Kamal and the maestro compete terrifically with each other. These are a set of rare scenes in cinema, that work equally good - without audio or without video. Due to Kamal the actor's sheer brilliance, you can feel Appu's pain even if you cut out Ilayaraja's background score. Well, you have the same effect even when you turn the other side and just listen to the heart wrenching melody. It is like two extraordinary players easily winning the match on their own, yet preferring to come together - not just to win, but to create history. Lyricist Vaali's versatility is legendary. In Apoorva he proves his mettle and range hands down. Sample this: Andha vaanam azhudhathaan indha boomiyey sirikkum.. oozing with pain. Vazhavaikkum kaadhalukku jey! Vaalibathin paadalukku jey!.. pumping love and joy. The visuals too match the high quality of lyrics and music. It is quite interesting to see the car mechanic Kamal Raja dancing his intro song in the shop floor of an automobile factory; same goes for vazhavaikkum song that is made a part of the story, rather than just being left as a prop. That is the beauty of Apoorva. It is quite a task to dissect a scene and say authoritatively who has excelled. It appears the artists, the writer, the composer, and all others associated were in sync, were in flow, throughout the making. Every single frame has everyone's best output.

But if I were to single out one person who raises above the rest, it is probably the cinematographer P.C. Sriram. No hi-tech graphics was used in the movie. It is sheer, old-fashioned camera tricks, real hard work and some good ideas that made Appu look like Appu. Yes, the DOP had a solid support from Kamal. But PC is ultimately the brain of the movie. An angle missed here or there would have made the entire movie look like a high school drama where the kids play dwarfs with their legs visibly folded behind. Even to this day, the making of Apoorva awes everyone around. Even now, in the era of Transformers, Appu does not look childish. Looking back, where did things go wrong with Dasavathaaram (2008). More technology and less sweat?

The crowd of mechanics around Raja Kamal performs really well, though at times it resembles a well-managed stage drama. (Something similar to the kubeer jolly boys of Virumandi, 2004). But every star in the galaxy of artists that include Mouli, Delhi Ganesh and Gauthami shines just the right, best way throughout, and the overall effect it has on the movie is just marvelous. Hats off to director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. It is not easy to manage talent. It is more difficult to manage more talent. Great movies are made bottom-down and it requires an able hand to weave the individual threads of brilliance into an inimitable tapestry of a very high standard. And the movie was in very safe hands.

A few heavy weights, including Kamal's Uthama Villain, are slotted to release this April - a full 26 years after Apoorva. What is a masala movie? It is not easy to define. What is a successful masala? Perhaps, this is even tougher to describe. But whatever they may mean, Apoorva Sagodharargal will be the most successful, big canvas masala of Kollywood since its release; the run will continue even after this April, may be.