Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Pinneyum

It’s after 8 years that internationally known  Malayali director Adoor Gopalakrishnan is making a feature film. Naturally, excitement knows no bounds. 

Pinneyum,  released today,  seen as a movie isolated from the fact that Adoor made it, disappoints. One misses the finesse with which his other creations like Kodiyettam, Vidheyan, Elipathayam or Nizhalkuthu was made. 

Pinneyum rolls on in the same low sruthi, with no spark of surprise elements anywhere. Not just that, the supposed realism is just not realism at all.  Dialogue delivery is not natural often.         

There is no  gradual build up to that one important decision in the protagonist’s life. With just a few hasty scenes, he and his family resort to a botched up crime  that gets resolved in an equally hasty manner. The subtle nuances of life in Adoor’s earlier scripts  are  missing in Pinneyum. Gone is the carefully crafted dialect in Adoor films. Dileep and  Kavya Madhavan are not fluent  in the Central Travancorean  dialect.

Acting honours go to Indrans first, then Kavya for that one last scene. KPAC Lalitha brought some sunshine into Pinneyum in a cameo, acting and saying her dialogues very naturally. The boy who acted as the murdered man’s son is very good, though he comes in just two scenes. Nedumudi Venu and Vijayaraghavan look at home in their parental roles. Dileep’s role and acting are nothing to write home about.

Why Adoor had to resort to an old and weather beaten crime story of the last century beats me. That he dealt with what happens to the family of the criminal afterwards, is something new all right, but that could have taken centrestage instead of making it look like an after thought. In the second half, things move at breakneck speed.  A few touching scenes involving Kavya, Dileep, and Indrans are positive points to note.I wish I had more positive things to say about the movie.

Very sorry about that, but it’s the truth.    

Pope Francis is so different

Read the Pope's book : The name of God is Mercy  

                                    A conversation with Andrea Tornielli….published this year.

What he had to say on corruption is so topical and easy to understand. He has an answer too to the scourge. Loved hat he had to say....so human, so full of goodness and humble, talking like you and me. All of us will benefit by what he has to say on corruption, not only politicians and businessmen. And all of us can play a role in eradicating it. This is what Pope Francis says:

"Corruption is not an act but a condition, a personal and social state in which we become accustomed to living. The corrupt man is so closed off and contented in the complacency of his self sufficiency that he does not allow himself to be called into question by anything or anyone.The self confidence he has built up is based on a fraudulent behavior he spends his life taking opportunistic shortcuts at the cost of his own and others’ dignity. The corrupt man always has the gall to say: It wasn’t me. My grandmother would have said that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.The corrupt man gets angry because his wallet is stolen and so he complains about the lack of safety on the streets, but then he is the one who cheats the state by evading taxes, or else he fires his employees every three months so he doesn’t have to hire them  with a permanent contract or else he has them  work off the books. And then he boasts to his friends about his cunning ways. He is the one who goes to Mass every Sunday but has no problem using his powerful position to demand kickbacks. Corruption leads people to lose the modesty that safeguards truth,  goodness and beauty. The corrupt man often does not realize his own condition, much as  a person with bad breath does not know they have it………………

."Corruption is a sinful hardening of the heart that replaces God with the illusion that money is a form of power. It is a work of darkness fed by suspicion and intrigue…….If we want to drive it out from personal and social life, we need prudence, vigilance, loyalty, transparency together with the courage to denounce any wrongdoing.If it is not combated openly, sooner or later everyone will become an accomplice to it and it will end up destroying our very existence…"

Kammattipaadam. Wow!

After the climax scene of Kammattippaadam, I sat rooted to my seat, hands over my mouth. That’s how hard it hit me. Rajeev Ravi has given us a slick movie, though it stretches to three hours. Mushy scenes, dialogues and pretty dolls have no place in Kammattippaadam. It’s life as you experience it, straight from Kochi and its underbelly. But there are  no hi-fi gangster’s molls or gory scenes. Yes, it’s a movie about thugs, but told from a very human angle, how circumstances make or mar people and about the greed of some that spell doom for others. Real estate tactics are real, you realize after seeing the movie and a silent chill goes down the spine. It’s still there!

The highest marks go to the casting director. Every single character,  right to the character with the smallest role, is picked painstakingly. For a minute I thought it was Dulqar Salman when I saw the teenage version of the character.

Kammattippadam is also the triumph of actors who can give of their best but are underutilized, of mainstream actors who rise above their movie image (read Dulqar. Compare his Second show with this and you see how he has grown as an actor or how much Rajeev has worked on him).

Vinayakan and Manikandan who play two brothers leave a lasting impression with the viewer. But my most  unforgettable character is Manikandan (Balan chettan) who has never ever wavered from the character he plays, thanks to the dialogues, make up, demeanour and even the gait.  This goes for most of the characters.  Make up or presumably the lack-of-it look contributes in no small measure to the success of the movie. That a dark girl is the lead’s love interest is a happy progress in cinematic history. The subdued love scenes are touching, without the lovers ever touching each other or mouthing cloying silly dialogues.

The intensity with which each character  mentally and physically  does his/her part as also the pucca timing makes the viewer forget how long she/he has been watching the movie (close to three hours).

The movie is s a free lesson for people who use drones irritatingly to show they have drones. Well orchestrated drone shots and shots that the situation demands, not scenes to show the locales, or unnecessary close ups, make the camerawork a technical joy. When you see the smoke of incense in one scene, I almost got the smell of it! There are so many shots which seem so natural but you know are magical, and come from an expert’s hands. Madhu Neelakandan is behind the camera, I find, not Rajeev.

The  flashbacks, though well interspersed, slightly jar. The female presence,  Amalda Liz and Shaun Romy, including Muthumani’s in a cameo (one really  cant say cameo because most characters have small, good roles) is realistic. The rustic folk lines, which can be called a song, during the funerals, is heartwrenching.

Dulqar Salman, a chance of a lifetime for you. Manikandan, sporting dentures, looked every inch Vinayakan’s brother. Josettan (?) who makes an entry with a bang, simply stole the show. Shine Tom Chacko is also a fine actor. Vinay Fort, P Balachandran (the story is his),  Suraj Venjarammoodu are some of the others. There are a few more who have done brilliantly. The body language  of all the characters: That’s one aspect which makes Kammattipadam  stand out.

 I am struggling to find minuses. Maybe some of the dialogues in the beginning could have been clearer! Thank you Rajeev Ravi!       

Airlift -- true or false? Both

Airlift. It really did lift my spirits. For reasons more than one. First, it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie, fast paced, though the ubiquitous song and dance numbers interrrupted the narrative, but excusable, we might conclude. Patriotism and humanism are in high doses...and why not? The story is all about the Indian diaspora during the Kuwait invasion of Iraq and how they were evacuated through the humane actions of one very rich man, Ranjit Katyal. Part fiction, part history, one doesn't know where one ends and the other begins, though the makers have safely declared that it is all just a story.
At the end of the movie, when people get up to leave the cinema, we are told via the writing on the screen that this man, the hero, Ranjit Katyal, is loosely based on the character of Sunny Mathews, who facilitated the evacuation with his friend. I felt cheated. Airlift tells the story of a supposedly unsung hero but this hero remains unsung, with his name changed to Ranjit Katyal. They should have given this info along with the credits in the beginning. His grand daughter wrote a post about him on her FB page. I found a picture of Mr Sunny Mathews too.(I really hope it's the right pic! Found it on the net) I would love to hear what he has to say about the movie though.

 I am indeed proud of the lion's share of Malayali  presence in Airlift. Director Raja Krishna Menon, Lena, Suresh Nair who co-wrote the script.  Pardon me being slightly parochial!
Airlift is special for another reason, its talented cinematographer, Priya Seth, one of the leading underwater cinematographers in the nation. Her tastefully portrayed belly dancing scenes, without showing the faces, is a first of its kind. T^he vast canvas...deserts, bombings....ships, fights....it was a nice feeling that a certain Priya Seth was DOP.
Acting honours: Yes, Akshay Kumar is good, very good at times, but just a few times, he overdid it. Prakash Belawadi as Georgekutty, Lena's husband, had a well written character role which he put across to the viewers, justifying every nuance of the role, the look, gait et al. Nimrat Kaur as Katyal's wife had a big role but nothing much to write home about. Inamulhaq   as major Khalaf bin Zayd rolled his 'r's well enough while addressing 'Ranjit" Katyal and had that quiet wicked demeanor.
Raja Krishna Menon, director, ah....let's hope he will give the seasoned film makers of Bollywood hot competition. For that he must stand on his own ground and not swim with tide. Airlift is not in the bracket of some Bollywood movies 'for timepass.'...worth the ticket money in a multiplex.

Let's eat clean and safe food!

Does your child sit on that plastic chair and study for long hours, every day? Not recommended, says, 
Dr N Anandavally, FAO consultant, United Nations (UN) and Food Safety and Standards Act.This time for the annual New Year celebrations of the Thampurattipparambu Road Residents Association, which went past mid-January, everyone got some crucial gyan on living a safe life, thanks to Anandam, my old friend, with whom I had lost contact a decade or so ago. I was pleasantly surprised to see her as the main speaker here, the association celebrations, of which I am a resident too.
With more than 30 years experience in food safety practices, she is passionate about this subject and went into the depths of each issue and question. Say HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, a preventative food safety system in which every step in the manufacture, storage and distribution of a food product is scientifically analyzed for microbiological, physical and chemical hazards) and Anandam would get all animated, gesticulating, telling you about the dos and donts in the kitchen and in places where large amounts of food is made. It is this interest and passion which took her to all parts of the globe, where she taught what she mastered and mastered new things. So here are some points of her talk.

Dr N Anandavally

 All colours and other things added to make food attractive or tasty, above the permissible levels, which are chemicals, have the power of affecting your organs and also causing cancer. All that yellow and orange jilebis! Hm.....

There is no guarantee that the chilli powder, coriander powder or other powders that you buy are genuine. Most of them have added colours, the levels of which are usually higher than what is permissible by law. So make your own cooking masalas. Buy chilli etc, wash, dry it in the sun and get it powdered. 
Read the labels always. That will save you a lot of unwanted trouble and disease. Ajinamoto is added to all things as it is addictive and will make you ask for more. So many packages of ready-to-eat food have this chemical which causes obesity and also harms the liver and kidney. (I threw out my ajinomoto packet just now).
Simple things like washing your hands after going to the loo prevents many diseases and a tummy upset.
Keep milk in the chiller, never in the freezer. Store milk for only 48 hours. When you buy eggs, ALWAYS, wash them first before storing them in the fridge. Most diseases begin from the fridge! Old stuff contaminates new stuff.......and the chain goes on. So clean the fridge once a week, compulsorily! And remember to cover all food in the fridge. Also wash the vegetables well, with vinegar added water and dry it before storing it in the fridge. Make it a habit. Growing at least some vegetables at home helps.
 Why do people say too much sugar is bad? Because it is a chemical that makes sugar white. Substitute jaggery where you can.
 Most of the chocolate-cream biscuits have  neither chocolate nor cream! This sure hit me hard! Transfats do the trick!
Some plastic vessels have a label saying micrawavable. It means the container wont get harmed. Nobody tells you whether the food in it gets harmed. This is still being debated. And oh...about sitting in that plastic chair.....more than a thousand chemicals go towards making that chair, so too much contact for too long can be harmful to a child.
Spreading information like this can make the world a healthier place, my friend Anandam says. She has trained thousands of people in the food sector in many countries and within India too, taking the message further and further........may this also go as far as possible........

  
 

My precious Xmas gift

We are not celebrating Christmas this year. My sister-in-law passed away, peacefully aged 85 plus. So, the Star, with multiple coloured lights designs, was never put up, there are no cakes, no chicken. And  tomorrow, on Xmas day, the last part of the last rites will take place.
On my way home after buying veggies in the evening, I saw a thin woman, empty sack in hand, turning her little daughter's face away from the thattukada with one hand while he six or seven year old was crying and turning her head to the thattukada. They walked past me and then realisation dawned. Quickly, I turned around and walked back, past them as if I was going somewhere and seeing the girl cry, asked her why. The mother, embarrassed said she was hungry, and had not eaten since morning. She was going to the shop over there to sell some scrap.
I asked them to turn back and come with me. The little girl refused to budge but the mother persuaded her to walk back. At the thattukada, we bought two plates of chilly bajji and they happily ate it, after drinking  some water first. With a parcel of freshly made ethakka appams and bajji in their hands, they bade me bye, the little girl giving me a million dollar smile. And all that happiness cost me just Rs 96. I thought, what if I had not made the spur-of-the-moment decision to turn back and find out? It was a wonderful Christmas gift for me, the little girl Kousalya's smile. No, I did not take a picture of them, neither did they feel humiliated nor obliged, we chatted and parted as friends.
My sister in law would have been happy.

Pathemari

Pathemari……I sat tongue tied till the end. Relationships are redefined in Pathemari. The cyberyug generation may not be able to relate to the hero, Narayanan, if you narrate the story but Salim Ahamed’s script cleverly does that. I saw young red eyes and noses at the end of the movie. Success is redefined. Also love. Maternal, filial and a lot more that the nuclear family destroyed or diluted. That it’s a period film that extends to the present is beside the point.

That is the single most important contribution of director Salim Ahamed to society, through cinema. And Salim Ahmed is a guy who writes and rewrites his script till it’s tight. His direction seems premeditated and mature.

The story: Risking life, travelling to the new oil rich Gulf in a pathemari, toiling hard to repay debts and live up to the expectations of a huge extended family is the lot of the protagonist, Mammooty. Restrained and realistic, Mammooty as Pallikkal Narayanan will be etched in our hearts for a long long time to come. Dialogue delivery, gait, mannerisms…. there is no Mammooty at all, only Pallikkal Narayanan. All the characters in Pathemari have their own space, that is the beauty of the script. Sreenivasan, Joy Mathew, Siddique, Sunil Sugadha, Jewel Mary, Anju Aravind, Siddique’s son, Shaheem Siddique, and a host of others.

Highlights? The parting shot of Narayanan, summing up the story of an entire generation that brought in hard earned petro dollars to buck up our economy.

A bigger highlight is Madhu Ambat’s magical cinematography. Every mood is captured with such sensitivity that the story and pictures jell into one whole.  The picturisation of the beautiful song, Pathemari…..sung soulfully by Shahbaz Aman, composed by Bijibal, is a treat on big screen. Every shot translates the mood. The lighting is poetic. It sure is heady, the music, photography, lyrics, sound design by Resool Pookkutty. (Yes, one feels the difference and the superior quality)

 Eros International which has distributed this movie came into the Malayalam scene with Life of Josutty. Whaaat a contrast!

Crisp editing by Vijay Shankar sees to it that there is no lagging, yet no untoward jumps. The one minus point is that its realism is almost docu like, yet cinematic license is resorted to in a cloying coincidence at the fag end of the film.

  Salim Ahmed’s outing with Madhu Ambat started with Adaminte Makan Abu, went on with Kunjanandante kada and now, this.

When I went to interview Madhu Ambat about four years ago, some one was with him. I waited till he left a few minutes later. Towards the end of the interview, he told me about Salim Ahamed’s project and then said,”Oh..I should have introduced him to you. He was the one who was here.” That was a close miss for me!