Yesterday we went for a film - my mother, Peer and I. This was Naadodigal, a film that we were much tempted to see because it promised a totally fresh viewpoint of cinematic life.. here are some thoughts on the same...
My first reaction was to think that this is a very superficial story - but later, on thinking deeper, I felt that there is a point - that love and marriage in a society like ours means more of responsibility and commitment than the romantic fabulous individualistic sexual saga that it's made out to be. It's true that often the risk of bringing together two people from different strata is run not only by themselves but by the entire group of friends and well-wishers.
The story is this - Three friends, Karuna, Pandiyan and Chandran, are just beginning their journey as educated youth in search of careers and experience. Karuna and his cousin Nallal are in love and her father has agreed to get them married on condition that Karuna gets a job in the TN state public service. He is all into that. His sister, Pavithra, and Chandran are attracted to each other and the third friend, Pandian is their loyal and trusted buddy in all exploits.
Meantime, one of Karuna's friends, comes to him, seeking support in his desire to marry a girl against the wishes of either set of parents. Karuna is an idealistic youth full of fervour and rebellion. He ropes in all his friends and very efficiently achieves the formidable feat of rescuing these two members from the influences of their powerful elders... That is the first half of the story.. a complete entertainer.
The second half almost deconstructs the whole thing... While the newlyweds spend the first month of their married life having fun at a beach resort, the brunt of their rebellion is borne by the people who risked their lives to help them suceed. Karuna misses his Government Service Interview, moreover the parents carry out legal proceedings against the three friends, which puts a permanent blackmark on his file; Chandran loses a part of a limb and Pandyan suffers a blow which permanently impairs his hearing! To add to the repercussions, Karuna's uncle blackmails his daughter Nallamma into marrying a different boy - just, it seems, to spite Karuna and his family.
The story comes to an anticlimax when the couple realise that they are more interested in the good life than one of togetherness and struggle so they - SPLIT!!!! All their efforts were for nothing!!!! Now comes the twist - which u can see in the film!
28 June 2009
15 June 2009
Book Review: A Place Within - By MG Vassanji
An emigrant’s journey through history
Subhashree Desikan
First Published : 14 Jun 2009 10:26:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 14 Jun 2009 12:16:14 PM IST
MG Vassanji, author of A Place Within: Rediscovering India, comes from East Africa and now lives in Toronto with his family. He was born in the port city of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. His grandparents had emigrated to East Africa and settled there. When the countries in the region obtained independence from the British in the early 1960s, he recalls, in his wonderfully clear introduction, that it seemed very natural for him to seek an identity that was closely tied to the British and colonial traditions and myth. The contradictions this evoked were stirred by his reading of Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography and his Discovery of India. He realised that he had his own discovery to make. This book is born from that stirring.
A Place Within is not one book, but several, interwoven in the hope of producing a tapestry of abstractions of India. It takes several forms at once — a travelogue describing the landscape of modern India; an emigrant’s quest to follow his own roots and to locate the origins of his family’s tradition of legend and symbol; an unearthing of the layers of history shrouding some famous cities of India such as Shimla, Delhi, Baroda, Ahmedabad and much more.
Buried deep within this tapestry is the story of the syncretic tradition of the Khojas — a sect initiated by “a line of pirs, whose ancestry was Persian Ismaili, but who, except for the first one or two, were all born in India”. With these lines and a brief introduction to the most prominent of these saints — Sadardeen, also known as Guru Sahdev and Sarguru — Vassanji narrates the story of Imamshah, a descendant in the tradition of Guru Sahdev, and the life of the Ismaili sect of Muslims. With this understanding, it becomes easier to understand what follows, the story of this fusion of Islam and brahminism as it had taken place in Ahmedabad. His earlier references to Ahmedabad reflect the reader’s own horrified wonder at how this fusing has actually given way to the presently seen excesses of intolerance and even genocide.
In retrospect, this book should not be called a “tapestry of abstractions”. It is, in fact, a composite of two stories, or even several as more readings may reveal, one consisting of the author’s search for his homeland and the second telling the reader of the understanding he has gained about the workings of time over history as applied to Ahmedabad.
Certainly it is a brilliant book in many respects, not least of which is in its exposition of the nonlinear and tiresome work involved in research. The effort made by the author to compile and assimilate the information it contains is apparent in every chapter. It offers valuable insight to research scholars in any discipline as to how the truth one is looking for can get distorted and covered up so badly that it would take patient and persistent toil to make the crucial contact. Yet the whole thing is too much of a challenge to take through to the finish, unless one has some business with the book. In fact, one cannot help wondering whether this book would get buried in the nanodynamics of modern popular reading, just like the subject it deals with! This is a phenomenon to worry about, and just as missions are launched to save beaches and the ecosystem, it would not be amiss or too late either to start a campaign to save endangered voices such as this. A few months ago, I was impressed by an article in The Guardian of UK, which spoke about the danger of the publishing boom to the value that used to be added by expert editors in the past. Certainly the campaign to save endangered voices is one that should be pioneered by expert and committed editors
Subhashree Desikan
First Published : 14 Jun 2009 10:26:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 14 Jun 2009 12:16:14 PM IST
MG Vassanji, author of A Place Within: Rediscovering India, comes from East Africa and now lives in Toronto with his family. He was born in the port city of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. His grandparents had emigrated to East Africa and settled there. When the countries in the region obtained independence from the British in the early 1960s, he recalls, in his wonderfully clear introduction, that it seemed very natural for him to seek an identity that was closely tied to the British and colonial traditions and myth. The contradictions this evoked were stirred by his reading of Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography and his Discovery of India. He realised that he had his own discovery to make. This book is born from that stirring.
A Place Within is not one book, but several, interwoven in the hope of producing a tapestry of abstractions of India. It takes several forms at once — a travelogue describing the landscape of modern India; an emigrant’s quest to follow his own roots and to locate the origins of his family’s tradition of legend and symbol; an unearthing of the layers of history shrouding some famous cities of India such as Shimla, Delhi, Baroda, Ahmedabad and much more.
Buried deep within this tapestry is the story of the syncretic tradition of the Khojas — a sect initiated by “a line of pirs, whose ancestry was Persian Ismaili, but who, except for the first one or two, were all born in India”. With these lines and a brief introduction to the most prominent of these saints — Sadardeen, also known as Guru Sahdev and Sarguru — Vassanji narrates the story of Imamshah, a descendant in the tradition of Guru Sahdev, and the life of the Ismaili sect of Muslims. With this understanding, it becomes easier to understand what follows, the story of this fusion of Islam and brahminism as it had taken place in Ahmedabad. His earlier references to Ahmedabad reflect the reader’s own horrified wonder at how this fusing has actually given way to the presently seen excesses of intolerance and even genocide.
In retrospect, this book should not be called a “tapestry of abstractions”. It is, in fact, a composite of two stories, or even several as more readings may reveal, one consisting of the author’s search for his homeland and the second telling the reader of the understanding he has gained about the workings of time over history as applied to Ahmedabad.
Certainly it is a brilliant book in many respects, not least of which is in its exposition of the nonlinear and tiresome work involved in research. The effort made by the author to compile and assimilate the information it contains is apparent in every chapter. It offers valuable insight to research scholars in any discipline as to how the truth one is looking for can get distorted and covered up so badly that it would take patient and persistent toil to make the crucial contact. Yet the whole thing is too much of a challenge to take through to the finish, unless one has some business with the book. In fact, one cannot help wondering whether this book would get buried in the nanodynamics of modern popular reading, just like the subject it deals with! This is a phenomenon to worry about, and just as missions are launched to save beaches and the ecosystem, it would not be amiss or too late either to start a campaign to save endangered voices such as this. A few months ago, I was impressed by an article in The Guardian of UK, which spoke about the danger of the publishing boom to the value that used to be added by expert editors in the past. Certainly the campaign to save endangered voices is one that should be pioneered by expert and committed editors
11 June 2009
Madras Buys Art!
Yes, Chennai opens out to literature, theatre groups, koothu, folk dance, sculpture and films... what used to be the pursuit of intellectuals hastening in a semi-daze to Delhi or Bangalore after their dreams of rivalling Hussein's handiwork is now open to all...
The greatest permanent fixtures to have taken place are the two statues installed around Gemini circle... The one on Kalari Attam (which is now a favourite with film makers, too) is something that can engage the viewer for hours. This was sculpted by master sculptor
S. Chandrasekharan and his students of the Madras College of Art, last year.
I have heard the master speak extensively on the Uzhaipaaligal Silai and how the figures depicted in it have seemingly impossible postures, considering the power required of the act the sculptor had made them perform. I wondered then how he would do it if left to him...
Kalari is a magnificient piece of work... we look forward to seeing more of his work around the city.
---SD
The greatest permanent fixtures to have taken place are the two statues installed around Gemini circle... The one on Kalari Attam (which is now a favourite with film makers, too) is something that can engage the viewer for hours. This was sculpted by master sculptor
S. Chandrasekharan and his students of the Madras College of Art, last year.
I have heard the master speak extensively on the Uzhaipaaligal Silai and how the figures depicted in it have seemingly impossible postures, considering the power required of the act the sculptor had made them perform. I wondered then how he would do it if left to him...
Kalari is a magnificient piece of work... we look forward to seeing more of his work around the city.
---SD
09 June 2009
Ten Faces of Today's Cinema
Screenwriting Workshop Ends on a Positive Note:
A nice article in The Hindu summarised the close of this workshop so well (see 4 June 2009; Chennai pages). I liked this picture below and have my own pet caption for it - The Ten Faces of Today's Cinema.
Look at their faces, where have you seen these faces before?
Have fun identifying who's who... Until we meet again....S
A nice article in The Hindu summarised the close of this workshop so well (see 4 June 2009; Chennai pages). I liked this picture below and have my own pet caption for it - The Ten Faces of Today's Cinema.
Look at their faces, where have you seen these faces before?
Have fun identifying who's who... Until we meet again....S
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