36 Vayadhinile

Yes yes I loved it. Jyothika was awesome. It was light-hearted with a strong message. No tears atleast no ugly tears. Thank you, 36 Vayadhinile team. It definitely passes the Bechdel Test.
This post would be incomplete if I didn't mention the original Malyalam movie starring Manju Warrier. But ignorant me knew about it only after getting to know about this movie.

If we want the quality of our movies to improve, I strongly believe that women should go out to the theaters and watch movies. We should voice out our opinions about these movies. Otherwise, we will be bombarded with lousy and regressive movies. We do not want that, do we?

Azhagar Samy Kuthirai

It is 2012 already. I wanted to write this post for quite sometime now. But I never got around doing it. You probably would have watched this movie. I am still not sure if I should be writing about this movie. But Azhagar Samy Kuthirai is a kind of movie that we should write about. Such movies deserve a lot of appreciation and encouragement. When I started watching this movie I thought “Here we go again. Another Tamil movie about rural Tamil Nadu with a average looking hero (more of an unkempt looking hero) and some silly sentiment.” But as the movie progressed I began enjoying the movie.

In a nutshell, the movie is about an idol of a kuthirai (horse) which is seen as the protector of the village. This idol goes missing and then miraculously is replaced by a live horse. The live one actually belongs to the hero, Azhagar Samy, who wants to take it home. The entire village is against him because they believe it is their God. The hero has very little time to take it home because his marriage depends upon his successful career and his career depends upon the horse.

Now if you are hoping for a few thrilling stunts by the horse, I am sorry there is none of it. It is a story of simple folk who lead monotonous lives. The director sketches the lives of rural people and their everyday struggles. But he does not want you to pity them. He touches upon the social evils of the country. But he treats you like an intelligent viewer who can note the irony in the situation. He does not din about any of these evils with loud dialogues and so on. For instance, the hero is portrayed as one who does not score very high in the looks department and that is an understatement actually. He owns one horse. He is hired by people to transport things across hills and valleys using his horse. The hero is presumably illiterate. The heroine fits into the south Indian definition of good looks. You know the fair, soft spoken, and so on type. She also presumably completed primary or high school because she dresses up decently well. Yet her dad promises pieces of jewels and a small piece of land as dowry. Nobody in the movie reacts to the situation. But as a viewer you cant miss the irony and you acknowledge that such things do happen in every part of our country. Similarly, you will notice child labour, child labour in sweatshops, death of farmers, struggling artisans and so on. They make you sad but you watch helplessly just like we watch them in our daily lives and do nothing about it.

There are hilarious scenes with innocent yet street smart kids, bogus gurus, blind beliefs, and so on. I loved the scene where a few elders of the village go to the police station to report the theft of the horse. All kinds of conspiracy theories come up during the investigation. The local youth to the visiting foreigners are all blamed. You see the trust and the cynicism of the villagers simultaneously. I also loved the last scene where the president curses the village that it will not receive any rains and immediately it starts pouring.

Every time, I watch Iranian movies with simple yet gripping stories, I wonder if we will ever get to watch such movies on Indian cinema. This movie raised my hopes. Watch it if you haven’t already watched it and if you can understand Tamil. You will like it. 

Movies of 2008

I wrote this post last year but somehow never came around to publish it. Now I have to edit “this year” to “last year” and publish it. I did not watch many movies last year in the cinema hall. I watched many movies last year on DVD. I can’t really say if I liked any particular movie or for that matter if I did not like any. Here goes the list of movies that I remember.

• The Note – you probably did not hear of the movie because this is a TV movie. If you are a sentimental fool like me then you will love this movie. It will touch you and move you to tears. It will leave you in a Christmassy mood. It is about a plane crash and the last message left by a father to his child. It is a simple movie and I am sure you will guess the child at the very beginning of the movie. But it will bowl you over with its underlying message of faith and hope.
• A Wednesday - it is slightly OTT; ok no abbreviations, Over The Top. But I liked the movie because it is different from other Indian movies.
• The English Patient – ya I know, you are probably wondering if I was living in a cave until now like my friends did. But I got the chance of watching this movie just now. I could not relate to the movie but by the end of the movie it affected me. I liked Naveen Andrews and Juliette Binoche’s story better. I loved ‘citizens sans frontiers’ message. But it is sad that people realize it after a very tragic personal loss.
• Rock On – this was an average movie. It was about male bonding and so the “emotional mess” had to be at its minimum. But I enjoyed watching the movie.
• A Good Year – this movie was the male version of “Under the Tuscan sun”. It is one of those time pass movies with some funny instances.
• Welcome to Sajjanpur – It has a few subtle messages. But Shyam Benegal does not din it into your head, which is why I liked it.
• Charlie’s war – this was a desperate attempt at being an innocent American patriotic citizen. It does have about two or three witty dialogues.
• Inside man – this movie has a few holes that cannot be ignored but I enjoyed the movie. This is a smart movie with many flaws. It is not a regular thriller.
• Dor - Movie about two women and their struggles. But no crying scenes or male bashing. Refreshing is'nt it?
• Babel – This is a post 9/11 concept. I liked the idea of an event in one corner of the world effecting people in different parts of the globe. But I fell asleep half way through the movie.
• Rab ne bana di Jodi – this is a mix of kabhi alvida na kehna and Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Lessons learnt that day was not to go for a moviethon and watch very long movies back to back. This behaviour leads to very severe headache.
• Varanam Ayiram –I was really looking forward to this combo of Gautam Menon and Surya. But there is only one reason to watch this movie. No, Surya in uniform makes it a second reason. No, the third reason is well was it 6 pack or 12 pack??

There were many other movies that I watched. But I can’t remember many of them. All I remember of 'Jodha Akbar' or of 'Sex and the City', was giggling a lot. It was mostly because of the company and had very little to do with the movies. Everytime I watch movies like 'Made of Honor' or '27 dresses', I wonder why I watch these movies. But I watch them anyways. Oh by the way I liked Indian movies better last year more than Hollywood movies.