I have a problem - It is really me that is the problem

I woke up, a bit like Rip van Winkle and decided that I must blend in with the elite to catch a play. I decided that it has to be a super hit play because everyone just loved the play. I went there with expectations reaching the sky ready eat whatever that was served. But....

It was an hour play, more of a monologue, with props worth Rs 450 max. It used intelligent theatre skills, gimmicks etc. It was against repression of free speech, and how they shut us up. And it was funny in the beginning and saddened out in the end. It was like when someone is all excited and asks you to come to see something wonderful and you go there to say, this is it! Such an anticlimax. However, I was in the minority of minorities. Everyone seemed to love it. That's when I realized that I was not blessed. I did not get it!

It has happened to me before. I went for a play and slept through it. It was the exchange of letters between two giants of the previous century India. They spoke, I snored! And it was a good sleep. Everyone loved it! I did not get it.

So there I am the problem with no solution!

Swami and His Friends - Not a fun group!

Last night, I woke up from hibernation to watch Swami and His Friends by the Madras Players doing its round in Bangalore as part of the Hindu Theatre Fest. It is amazing what publicity and 'build-up' can do to a play. People come walking to a production thinking that it is great and each play then has an opportunity to be greater! I walked in along with this group with all my expectations already met. RK Narayan, Madras Players and the lovable Swami...Tell me what can go wrong?

As it turned out quite a lot! One cannot fault the performance yesterday. It was good over all. There was one shoddy performance (a small role). Hence it did not matter. There was this thing about shouting vs throwing the voice which Swami forgot in a few scenes. He shouted his way is a few places. Not a big deal!

What could not be ignored was the writing and characterization. Swami as I remembered him is this endearing, innocent boy. What I got was a dork! Rajam was this show-off boy, and I got a smart rich kid! The time it took in between stories was too long and the Ganjira was irritating beyond a point. Layering and texture that was possible through story telling, set design and music was reduced to one single layer. There is always a time during performance when you know whether the audience is with you or not. Even with the hugely partisan (and what seemed like friends and family college type) audience, around 55 - 60 min in the play, the audience was getting edgy. To me that is always a measure of the tightness of the script and the story telling. Think about it, not one incident of Swami's young life remains in my mind after one night's sleep. That is not being fair to Malgudi, Swami or Mr. Narayan!

I hope the young director and script writer do take a look at the production and find ways of getting the innocence back in Swami.

Meena by Perch - Rocked

A hibernating bear like me is woken up once in a while after seeing an awesome show that you want to come out of the cave and make a point. One such experience was the performance by Perch in Rangashankara last night. Their performance was called Ms. Meena.

Forget the story. They could have done anything and I would have done the equivalent sound of sucking up the running rasam on a plantain leaf in a Kalayana pandhi with the cook maama coming in with the next round of carbo attack! The best thing about this was the even nature of the performance. There were no bad performers and the good performers covering up for them! For someone who thinks he is an occasional theatre geek, this was a lesson on total theatre. Be it the creative use of the body, highly enjoyable and creative use of everyday things as props, simple tunes to convey a point, highly effective montages to communicate everyday scenes....one word..Awesome!

Now coming to the plot, it is a tragedy sugar coated as a comedy. If you think about it, the behavior of the people in the story is absolutely despicable. How they dump friendship, relationship for instant gratification! How low will they stoop for money and fame...All this told as a doctor who is offering a toffee to a child as he is sliding a huge injection in!

Bottom line: Ms Meena is a show that you need to watch to laugh and enjoy and reflect on the way back. Don't miss it!!!

Sky Crosser

A tinge of sadness, a small lump in the throat and a general feeling of melancholy....Guess that is the formula for a successful love story.

Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya fits the bill perfectly. A movie for the die hard romantics who still keep the flag of hope flying. There is of course the story, the acting, but what made the movie for me was the music. I thought ARR had a ball doing this movie...he seems to have enjoyed it and in the process made sure we did.

All the players were near perfect. Simbu was watchable...I never thought I would ever say that. The only thing he should try is to see if he can get out of his characteristic dialog delivery. It felt like I was watching Airtel Jodi Number 1.

My heart went out to Trisha...Oh My! What a performance! Somehow I felt the lines that she spoke were all written by a man. I can never ever imagine a woman mouthing some amazing lines like that :-P. But to me she was the stand out performer. So subtle, so good! And she was just a treat to the eye and soothed the heart!

The reason I think the movie scores was because the climax was at the interval! One would imagine a walk into the sunset after that, especially since they were in Kerala. One often what happens after the climax. Guess one answer is VTV!

As we were leaving the hall, one person was commenting that the end was practical. Don't know whether the practical end is always the right end. Sometimes you do want a movie to be just that and give in to the romantics! I don't know whether this will be a all time great movie, but definitely one love story to talk about for this generation of movie goers!

I am just one in the crowd

Well I am back! After all the dithering of should I write or not, here I am. 'nuff 'bout me.

Coming back to the movie of the week...My Name is Khan.

Sometimes you just want to make a statement. You want to do that by living a very normal day. Get up. Go stand in a line, buy a First Class ticket, take the family, watch the movie, eat the puff, popcorn and chips. Come back home. By doing that, you are doing an 'Up yours!' to all those that want to change the way I live by inflicting their petty morals on me. I am happy to say, I did just that. So all you so called guardians of my country, guess what, I lived today as I had intended it to be and you could not mess it up for me.

Now coming back to the movie, this is classic Karan Johar stuff. Full of emotions...lot of coincidences, 'We shall overcome' at strategic places. Either you love it or you laugh about it. I have no snide comments at people who laugh about it. It is your choice and you are entitled to it. I was one of those who liked the movie. A little meandering, slightly disjointed, it ain't no Forrest Gump, but it was good nevertheless. Sharukh and Kajol were excellent. This movie belonged to the director as much as it did to his favorite actor(s). Thankfully no Kiron Kher and Zarina Wahab did an admirable job as the mom. Surprisingly, I did not feel the pangs and tears that I should have felt. Normally I do have tears at the drop of a hat. From that perspective, I don't know whether the story reaches out as much as it should have.

One often wonders whether these feel good stories actually do happen. They probably haven't, may be they should!

Movies Movies and More Movies

After a long time, I have been in movies. Not the camera print from under the jute bag variety but the real stuff. My thoughts... (as always I think that they matter!)

Unnai Pol Oruvan - I think a camera print would have been better than seeing it with the latest digital projector that Sampige theatre uses. But considering it is only 50 bucks for a balcony, lets not complain.

This was sooo much better than that 10 role nonsense! I have to thank Kamal for going back to being a no gimmick actor. And he ROCKED! There were some trademark Kamalisms in the movie! But he was simply in awesome form just by not wanting to dominate the screen presence. Of course, much has been said about Mohanlal and how great it was. I for one, having seen Mohanlal before, thought he was not good. He was one dimensional. Every response that he was giving was predictable. The interpretation of this role by him and the director could have been better. The others were good in their parts. After a long time, I was able to associate myself with the happenings on screen in a tamil thiraipadam! And yes I have seen A Wednesday. Unnaipol Oruvan is right up there along with it. Oh by the way, Shruthi Hasan score was nice too. Way to go babe!

Wake up Sid: When you go have a Benne Masala Dosa at CTR, you know what you are getting. In fact that is why you go there. When the waiter brings it in front of you, you look at it. For the smallest fraction of a second admire it and then dig in. Every bite you take is exactly what you had ordered for. You know it and it meets the expectation in every bite and crunch. And of course, the logical conclusion to that story is you order for one more...if you are dieting it is Benne Plain else Benne Masala!

The feeling without the reorder is what you get when you are watching Wake Up Sid. You know what you are getting into. Every scene is known at the title scene. You know what Sid is going to do and with what. There are NO SURPRISES in Wake up Sid. But still it is like the yummy BMD at CTR. And Ranbir makes it that way for you. This movie works because of Ranbir. No Ranbir, it would have been Snooze Sid! The role of all the other actors is to make Ranbir look better. And they do a great job. I loved Konkona, Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak. It is so good to see someone other than Kiron Kher in the mom roles! I loved the lady who plays Lakshmi and Sid's friend. I hope Rahul Khanna does not play the boss who gets dumped all the time. I am sure he is a great actor and hopefully he gets a better role. The movie is made better because of Shankar-Ehsan-Loy They rock! I really loved the background score. It was so rich and made the movie a better experience.

Inglorious Basterds: When you read up the web on this movie, one finds a perverse sense of pleasure in noting that the international media is as jingoistic as the local ones. You read reports on how this is really not a war movie and how things are 'inaccurate'...duh! what did you expect! Personally, I felt that this movie rocked!!! It was just so creative. I believe that the Indian version had scenes scapeled out because of the violence! There was still enough gore, but you set your insensitivity index to a high and this movie does not affect you. And you have to commend the characterization of Hans Landa! Christoph Waltz rocked! It was one of the best performances you can get to see. And you know it is genuine acting and not the spliced up stuff that you see on the Indian screens. With that technique even a mannequin can get a best actor award. But Christoph was the real thing. Brad Pitt was really cool as the American from the Smokies. But end of the day this was the director's movie. Every scene was crafted nicely and no scene was too long! Like the great directors, Tarantino builds the suspense by letting you know what to expect! And then he adds some twists as toppings! This is no WW II movie but is a work of fiction! And a damn good yarn at that!

UP: When you sit back at the end of UP, there is a tinge of disappointment. Why cant our movie makers in India think of stories like this. Why cant we make kids movies that adults can actually be a part of than just be patronizing and watch a kiddy movie? Why?

Because a movie like UP was sooo good! It tackled so many topics sooo well. It tackled love at first sight, growing old, not having kids, a kid with divorced parents, and being just a good human being! You cannot help but admire at the way they have made this movie. The kids loved it and I loved it to the point I forgot to 'explain' to them the scenes. They did not need any as I overheard their discussion later. That was 6 thumbs up for this movie!

The lone bright spot in India seems to be the Amar Chitra Katha DVD release. They are no Pixar movies but nice in their own way.

Thank Murugan for that!

Last week Kandasamy let us down, this week Murugan picked it up! And thank the six faced one for that!

Walked in to the theaters with no expectations! And was taken in by the intelligent script and great execution. Here was one group of people who never pushed a gag too far. Even the epic MMKR had a bad last 10 minutes! But this was one was good fun. The script was the hero, the music was super and the direction was near perfect. They were doing a farce and they made no pretense about it.

From the beginning scenes with Gun Powder who likes Bullit Idlis, to Rice Plate Reddy (an over the top Naser, just perfect!), to the Pandari Bai look alike Anni, to Mango Dolly, to Rowdy MBA and of course Quick Gun! The movie was a treat to watch and I thank the stars that I watched it in English. Each of the sequence has nuggets (from the mind it, to the Gita quotes, to Rascal etc). My favorite in the movie, simply because no one had given it publicity was the "I will beat his back and put Calicum"...too good! Just rocked!!