After a long time, we went to a movie today – ‘Avatar’, the James Cameron blockbuster in 3D format.
Spoiler Warning: I have explained some parts of the story here. So, do not proceed if you do not want to know the story
The day was quite hectic. We had 4 classes today and had quite a few cases today. I was quite hesitant to go to the movie. But based on the very strong recommendations of those who had already watched it, I decided to go.
It is a 3D movie. This is James Cameron first movie after he released Titanic ten years ago. He has invested enormous time and effort into making this movie. And I’m sure this will be a great landmark in his career.
For most tamils, these lines would invoke memories of a young and beautiful M.S. singing the song as Mirabai. The song is from the film 'Meera' - released in 1945 and one of the classics in the Tamil film history. The song will be more familiar and will invoke greater emotions to our earlier generations - of our parents & grandparents. I have not seen the movie, but have heard/seen the song a few times - A really nice melodious song.
Now, why did this suddenly come up? Yesterday(28-Oct-08), Wikipedia sported a small snippet on this movie in its front-page. I followed the links and was really surprised to learn the movie was directed by an American director 'Ellis R. Dungan'.
Ellis is a native of Ohio, USA. He came to India after completing his studies in the 'cinema department' and directed tamil films from 1936 - 1950. He directed many hit films such as 'Sathy Leelavathi', 'Meera', 'Sakunthalai', 'Manthira Kumari' etc. 'Meera' and 'Sakunthalai' (both starring M.S.) are considered all time classics. Many of his films were based on historical settings and required shooting inside temples. At such times, he would disguise himself as a Kashmiri Pundit. He apparently introduced many new and modern filming techniques to Indian cinema and Tamil cinema in particular.
Personally, I feel that it is great to be able to direct such 'Classic' films in some language that he does not know, reflecting a culture that he's not very familiar with. In those days, most of the films were almost poetic and contained so many songs. The dialogues are so pure and poetic, that many young Tamils of today do not understand them. Even though he would've had so many to help him, I feel that it requires a real skill for a non-native to effectively direct such a film, bring out all the emotions and reach the audience as powerfully as these films did.
After a long time, I went to a tamil movie today - and regretted it. I was not looking out for a blockbuster or a superb award winnig movie, but just a time-pass. Yet I was disappointed, angry and insulted.
The movie I went to - "Yaaradi Nee mohini" starring danush and Nayantara. Screenplayed by Selvaraghavan and music composed by yuvan, the movie sounded Ok.
The first half was hilarious by virtue of being extremely silly. It is so silly that it is almost an insult to IT professionals. Danush is roaming around without a job. He sees Nayantara on the road, follows her and decides to get a job in the company where she works - "Software Solutions Inc.". He scrapes through the written test (which nayantara later claims she helped pass) and goes through the GD. It is one of the most stupidest GD I've ever seen. And Danush especially says he's not fluent in english and is asked to speak in tamizh. And finally the personal interview - The first question is "What is a foreign key?" followed by "what is multi-threading". He gets ready to leave the place not knowing the answers, but then sees Nayantara and starts answering the questions. I didn't know programmng was so easy !!!! Then starts his work. Right on the first day, he is scolded and insulted by Nayantara and becomes dejected. He is not able to code anything and in his frustration types something random and all of a sudden a siren like sound blares through the hall and all monitors go haywire. Our hero danush has "crashed" the system. And there comes the boss and blasts Nayantara right there in front of everybody for allowing Danush, a trainee to work on the critical project to be delivered in two days. He just throws the project docs in her face.This makes danush feel so bad and he spends the entire night working on the code. Whenever he is stumped, he thinks of Nayantara and starts working harder. And after much hard work the code is completed and Lo and behold !!!there is a bright blue box flashing on the screen that says "Code Activiated". And just like that he is selected to go to Australia on a project assignment. My god !!! If only things were that simple
Now the second half. This is one of the most insulting load of rubbish I've ever seen. Danush's father dies and his friend Karthik (mirchi suchi's hubby) takes him to his hometown for a change of mood. Incidentally Nayantara is Karthik's athai ponnu and they plan to get married. Apparently Karthik and Nayantara are from a brahmin family and had come to city against their grandfather's wishes to pursue their careers. Now the story moves into the brahmin household in the village. 1. Danush goes and sits on an oonjal in the house and Karthik's grandmother (sukumari) comes rushing and beats him with her walking stick. Apparently she is horrified that a guy from some other caste has desecrated the oonjal and washes it off. Karthik then explains that she is slightly out of her mind. Atleast that explains it. 2. Danush then goes to take bath. He is asked to bath in the open space (mitham) of the house where he finds Karthik bathing with a komanam (the small cloth used as a brief). He's shocked and Karthik explain that to be the way they do in that household. 3. Then the next day, Danush is made to get up very early and gather along with the rest of Karthik's family where the grandfather recites a slokha and everyone is made to drink arugampul juice and made to walk for some time to ensure free excretion. 4. Then one by one all the mamas in the household start farting. Danush is very uncomfortable and disgusted.
This was the end of the patience for me and my room-mate and we just came out of the theatre. My god ! It was just plain horrifying. What did they think? They've made a complete mockery of Brahmins. None of what is shown is even true in the remotest sense and these things can be shown of anyone. Why choose a community? Because they're so damn sure that none of us would object. Obviously this can't be done with anybody else. There would be mass demostrations and protests. Jodha Akbar is being opposed in the north just because of a marriage between two religons and some supposed historical mistake. Hordes of movies and books have been opposed and even successfully banned. Even harry potter was opposed. But everyone would have a hearty laugh at this movie. This is an absolutely disgusting scenario.
This movie is an insult in both halves - insult to IT professionals by the silliness and stupidity of the first half and to the Brahmins by the mocking comedy in the second half.
This weekend I had gone to a movie called "Blood Diamonds" with Leonardo Di Caprio in the lead. The story is set in the small West African nation, Sierra Leonne. The country has been experiencing a 10 year old civil war that started around 1991. The war is waged by a rebel group called Revolutionary United Front (RUF). These people are so ruthless and cruel. Their main aim is to control the huge diamond reserves of the country. They raid entire villages, abduct the small girls, boys and some men. The rest were cruelly killed. Millions of poor people were amputated. The theory is that democracy survives through voting by hand and so hands were just chopped off to discourage voting. Other body parts were also mutilated.
The story is about an African fisherman whose family is ripped apart by these RUF rebels. He is taken to work in a diamond mine. His daughter and wife are taken as refugees to neighbouring country Guinea. His young son is captured to serve in the child army. The fisherman sets out to track his family. Leonardo di caprio is a diamond smuggler. The fisherman finds a huge diamond in the mines and hides it. Dicaprio helps the fisherman in his search for his family in return for the diamond. They travel through the country surviving the RUF atrocities.
The movie was really voilent. But most of what they show is not too much of an exagerration. I've been reading about these blood diamonds for quite sometime now and I've read quite a few disturbing accounts of the RUF.
The RUF control the diamond mines of the country. They use these diamonds to buy arms to fund the civil war. They do not have any people oriented agenda, plans or anything. Their only aim is to fill their own pockets. They were being supported by the gangster president of the neighbouring country Liberia.
Poor people are abducted from the villages and taken to Diamond mines to look for diamonds. Diamonds occur in places like river beds. The miners have seive, keep filling it with river water and see if any diamond gets caught in the seive. If anyone is caught stealing the diamonds, they are just shot. So these diamonds are just worthless stones to the poor people.
The children are kidnapped and the young boys are inducted into the children's army. There they are tortured and hardened and handed machine guns and trained to become ruthless killers. They are whipped and beaten. One account claims that the rebels rubbed Cocaine on the children's wounds to make them maniacs. Further they are hooked on to drugs to insenstise them to the brutality.
On the whole the rebel camps become a totally cultureless, ruthless place filled with children drinking, smoking, doping and gambling. They just move about the villages armed with machine guns, machetes in open jeeps and loud rauchous music. Villagers are caught, women and girls raped, shot and tortured.
The international arena just turned a blind eye for more than 8 years and just continued to buy these illegal diamonds. In fact many diamond companies funded the rebels in exchange for the diamonds. Then starting from 1998, the UN started sending peacekeeping missions and finally the RUF was quashed by 2002. The diamond industry met in Antwerp and adopted a resolution to stop trading in Blood diamonds. Also they created a diamond certification agency that will certify all legitimate diamonds.
Now for past 4 years, Sierra leonne has been at relative peace. But as long as the needs of the people are not taken care of, there will always be the danger of the country sliding back to anarchy.
