Author Archives: cinemachaat

Alaipayuthey

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Having seen and quite liked the Hindi film “Saathiya“ some time ago (mainly for Rani Mukherjee) we were thrilled to know it was originally a Mani Ratnam Tamil language film starring the ever charming Madhavan.  In a broad generalisation, we find the interpersonal and romantic relationships in Tamil films to be more credible than their Hindi counterparts – people discuss their likes, dislikes and fears, sex is not such a secret, there  seems to be more thought given to how couples will live once they are severed from their families and people do get second chances. Alaipayuthey is no exception to this. Told in flashbacks, the story reveals layers of the relationship that go beyond the usual frothy boy-meets-girl rom-com.

Madhavan plays charming middle class boy about town Karthik. He spots Shakti (played by Shalini) at a friend’s wedding and is immediately interested. Shakti is a smart, studious girl who is being educated with the support and financial sacrifice of her working class family, who want to see her move up in the world. Shakti isn’t a push over to be dazzled by Karthik’s floppy hair, dental perfection and easy manner, but eventually (after some traditional filmi stalkerish behaviour) she succumbs. They continue to see each other around town, sharing glances across the train tracks,  and Karthik continues to find ways of placing himself in Shakti’s path. The attraction is mutual, and the struggle between wishful thinking and practical considerations is well developed without being laboured.

The young lovebirds enjoy stilted phone conversations and long awkward silences as they attempt to keep their romance under wraps.

In due course, Karthik pops the question and the families meet. The casual manners of his more moneyed family clash painfully with Shakti’s father – the socialist with a chip on his shoulder – and the union is not agreed upon.

Fear of a forced marriage to a suitable boy pushes the couple into deciding on a secret marriage, which doesn’t remain a secret. Forced to leave both their homes, Karthik and Shakti move into a half built apartment and try to build their lives.  And this is where the story gets deeper and more engaging. This couple struggle. They are both used to having their own way, to being the golden child in their respective families, to following their own priorities and now each has to deal with someone equally determined and ambitious.

Shakti is never going to give up her medical career, and Karthik won’t back away from his dream of becoming successful in his own IT business. The relationship deteriorates and they fall into recrimination and an angry silence.  The half finished apartment then seems an apt metaphor for their hastily constructed life and the shortcoming become more noticeable despite attempts to decorate and patch over them.

Things come to a head when Shakti fails to meet Karthik at the station one evening and he fears that she has left him. How things are resolved does indeed travel through full blown melodrama but having built so much goodwill and emotional investment in these characters, we stay with it to the end.

Madhavan doesn’t shy away from showing the negative aspects of Karthik’s character – his arrogance, sense of entitlement and lack of empathy. Shalini plays Shakti as a girl caught between her traditional upbringing, her ambition to make something of her own career, and her love for Karthik. She is selfish, sulky, cheeky and loving by turns and all the more credible. Vivek Oberoi and Rani Mukerjee on the other hand seem to live in a much cleaner and more sanitised India which is almost Disney-like.  They look almost  airbrushed and never seem to be quite as real as their Tamil counterparts.

The soundtrack by AR Rahman is great, although there is too much of the dreaded montaging for our liking. We know Maddy is not famed for his dance ishtyle but he tries really hard and we would have preferred to see more dancing!

Heather says: I really enjoyed this film, – thanks to everyone who recommended it to me.  The young couples’ story is realistically portrayed, and rather than making marriage a ‘happy ever after’ the film shows the commonplace reality.  The end of the film is more contrived, but in such a way that it doesn’t seem to intrude too much into the atmosphere created earlier in the film.  Madhavan does seem to fall naturally into the role of the spoilt rich kid, but is also excellent as his character matures and has to deal with the reality of life without the support of his family.  Shalini fits her role as the medical student from a working class family, and the two actors are very well matched.  Their increasing frustration with each other as they try to live together and the problems they encounter within their marriage and are very believable, and certainly will ring true with most married couples.  Really good performances from the lead actors and the supporting cast who ensured the story’s realism.   I saw Saathiya a few years ago and thought it was a good Mani Ratnam film, but this version was so much better. Having seen both Hindi and Tamil versions of his newest film as well, I will try and stick to the Tamil in future. I am deducting half a star because there wasn’t quite enough dancing – 4 ½ stars from me.

Temple says: I’m so pleased Heather liked this! This is a well constructed story with memorable characters in a fairly realistic setting. I particularly enjoyed the low key portrayal of the growing discord in the new marriage as it was neither a happy ever after fable nor an overwrought tearjerker. While it follows a standard boy meets girl storyline, the relationship evolved in a way that I could identify with, and I was emotionally engaged. The soundtrack is never intrusive and the songs are well integrated into the story. Visually the film is lovely with rich sun-faded colours and lots of texture, and shot on an intimate scale which made me feel closer to the story. It seems to be a strength in the Southern films (I have seen so far) that there is diversity in the look of the backing dancers and extras that is really charming, and certainly seems different to the Bollywood Beauty Standard. Overall, while the romance genre is not my favourite, I did really enjoy Alaipayuthey. I would have liked more dancing too, but not sure the lack of it detracted from the film for me. I give this four stars – a deduction for the melodramatic ending which was almost too too much.

Mayabazar

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There is always so much debate about whether classic B&W films should be colourised.  Opinion does vary depending on how well the colour is handled.  However, don’t hate us; we do think Mayabazar is beautiful in colour. It is such a jewel of a film, and the pastel and gold palette really suits the mythological genre.  It’s reminiscent of religious themed calendars and colourful drawings of gods and their consorts.  The pretty, stylised effect is perfect in this instance, and it is appropriately gaudy without being garish.  It was also a huge relief to see this classic and find that the reputation is more than deserved, and to actually love it. As soon as we mention we love Telugu films, one of the first recommendations  of a “must-see” film is always Mayabazar , and we are grateful to all the people who kept bringing this to our attention.

Although the story itself is entirely fictional, it is based on characters from the Mahabharata.

Sasirekha and Abhimanyu have been meant for each other since their childhood. Each family understands this, and the children grow up secure in knowing who their future life partner is. While they are separated, Sasirekha is given a beautiful gold box and told to open it when she is alone.  When she does this, she sees her Abhimanyu and they warble their love in a pretty song.

A discordant note emerges when Revathi looks into the mirror and sees not a loved one, but only jewels and riches. This weakness and greed creates a fissure in the happiness of this family and allows Revathi to be exploited by those who do not want to see the Pandavas regain their ascendancy.  This sequence was beautifully filmed and served to show the audience the inner desires of each character who looked into the mirror in a pointed yet aesthetic way – years ahead in time and light years ahead in style from Harry Potter!

Savitri is a joy to watch as Sasirekha – a sassy princess indeed, who knows what she wants. When Sasirekha is spirited away, and impersonated by jovial demon Ghatotkacha (S.V Ranga Rao) who has vowed to stop her forced marriage, Savitri’s performance is a delight.  Her body language reflects the much heavier build and demeanour of the demon, and she toys with the unsuspecting family and servants.

S.V. Ranga Rao is wonderfully theatrical and hammy, and amuses along with his army of loony rakshasas.  Allu Ramalingaiah does a great line in slapstick. The comedy track is actually funny and integrated with the narrative.  A highlight would have to be Ghatotkacha’s merry song as he scoffs down the entire wedding feast.

And how about those special effects?  The dire (but kind of awesome) Hindi film Ajooba  ( reviewed by the excellent Beth) is one of our guilty pleasures, mainly because of the appallingly not-very-special effects. It should seriously embarrass some modern film makers to see the quality of visuals in this 1957 masterpiece.   The tricks played by the magician and the Rakshas demons on Shastri and Sharma did appear really magical and would have been amazing for cinema audiences in the fifties.

And as befits a film involving Krishna, love is in the air everywhere you look around!  Couples romance, fight, scheme and gossip all under the watchful and understanding eye of the gently amused Krishna. He even gets to watch a dance based on his own childhood, enjoying the scenes with all the tolerance and affection he shows for his loved ones.  His kindness and strength underpin the romance and squabbling, as he teaches a lesson to wrongdoers, and supports the Pandavas who are being unfairly treated.

And he’s funny. We don’t get a lot of humour from God in Christian literature and film and it was surprising and touching to see a much more personal relationship with the deities.

Krishna is a participant as well as an observer during the lovely romantic scenes where all three couples take to the lake on a beautiful moonlit night.  Although Temple, as a former rower, was rather concerned for their welfare as the boat did appear to get lower and lower in the water.

Another delight in Mayabazar is seeing the forefathers of so many of today’s stars.  N.T.Rama Rao is charismatic and appealing as Krishna. He exudes calm amusement, drops a few excellent oneliners, and generally conveys a mischievous but essentially good persona.  ANR is suitably heroic as Abhimanyu. Allu Ramalingaiah is clearly very comfortable with his comic turn, and makes the most of his time on screen.

The music is beautiful, the jokes are funny, the acting is brilliant and charismatic, and it is so light hearted – not what we expected from a story woven around the Mahabharata.

Heather says: A true classic.  I can see why this is such a loved film.  It features all the Telugu film industry greats of the time and it was a privilege to be able to watch an evenly paced movie with incredible performances by all the actors.  Such a classic story and with all the magical twists it seemed totally new and very special.  It was also a real plus to be able to see actors such as NTR Rao, ANR,   etc and relate them to their children and grandchildren who are setting screens alight today.    I will definitely keep an eye out for more from these actors and hunt down more Telugu ‘classics’ to watch.  The colourisation added another dimension, although the black and white version is just as watchable.  A full five stars for this timeless classic.

Temple says: I can see why this film is so well loved by generations of movie audiences. The production values and the performances are  just amazing, and the songs are beautiful and melodic. Its quite a privilege to be able to watch so many of the greats of an era appear in a work of this calibre.  I had a preconception that the mythological genre might be a bit heavy going or ponderous, but this film just sparkles in so many ways. The colourisation is quite deft in my opinion, and highlights the richness of the costumes and sets, creating a truly opulent and fantastical look to the film. NTR was a revelation as Krishna, Savitri steals every scene she is in, and S.V. Ranga Rao is hilarious. The DVD re-release comes in a 2 DVD pack, and includes both the colourised version and the original B&W. I highly recommend it! This gets 5 stars!

Vedam

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After weeks of reading about the latest Allu Arjun film, we booked tickets to see it at a local cinema.  Booking tickets was an experience in itself.  The lovely Rama was baffled at our interest, and after speaking to us both on the phone offered his services post film to explain anything we didn’t understand as the print (he repeatedly warned us) had no subtitles.

So off we went to watch the opening night – our first Telugu movie on the big screen! Yay!

The cinema was fairly full, not totally packed,  but we were still happy to have got there early enough to be able to find good seats. We did notice quite a few sideways glances as we took our seats, since we were obviously the only non-Telugu speakers in the entire cinema. Then the lights went down, the movie started rolling and the audience started to cheer – awesome! Haven’t heard an audience reaction like this in Australia since Chak De India! Much more like going to see a movie in India, since the Bollywood viewing audiences have been very tame recently.  The cheers and whistles resurfaced every time one of the main characters was introduced, or when they did something fairly spectacular – which for Bunny, Manoj and Anushka was fairly often!

The movie follows five storylines

– Nagayya as the old man Ramulu, a weaver, whose grandson is taken away to work in a brick factory after he cannot pay the moneylender.


– Manoj Manchu plays an up and coming rock star, going against the wishes of his mother who wants him to join the army like his deceased father – a war hero

– Anushka plays Saroja, a prostitute who wants to set up her own business

-Allu Arjun is Cable Raju, a guy from the slums who is trying get enough money to buy tickets to a party to further his chances of marrying his rich girlfriend – his ticket out of poverty. Raju is a social chameleon, switching from slum to country club regular Raj at the flick of a hairband and the donning of a designer fake t-shirt. (Temple – OK maybe it was just me obsessing about the manband but it really was almost a character by itself.)

 

Raju

 

 

Raj

– Manoj Bajpai plays a Muslim, Raheemuddin Qureishi, trying to leave India after his wife has miscarried following an incident at a Hindu celebration in the streets.

By the interval the main characters were all on their way to Hyderabad for the final interweaving of their stories.  As the lights went up we had to answer a number of questions from people sitting near us: Why were we there? Did we understand Telugu?  Did we understand what was happening? Did we know who the actors were? And finding out that we did know the names and previous movies of a number of the actors seemed to totally amaze everyone!

In fact we were coping with the lack of subtitles pretty well – Krish managed to get his message across so that even without the dialogue it was pretty clear what was happening.  The only thing I guess we were missing was the comedy, but we knew to laugh as soon as Brahmi’s bald spot appeared!

So overall this was just such an excellent experience, the crowd were really behind the movie; yelling and whistling pretty much the whole way through.  The stories were all easy to follow at least in a broad sense without subtitles, and the actors all did a great job.  Manoj was arrogant enough to be a rock star, Anushka was believable as a prostitute particularly in looking beautiful, affordable and not overly glamorised, the plight of Nagaya’s family tugged at the heart strings, and of course Manoj Bajpai and Allu Arjun drew our attention every time they were on screen.

Bunny was fantastic as the guy trying to get the money (and being spectacularly inept in his efforts at turning to crime) and in the second half he was just so believable as he battled with his conflicting emotions. (Heather -OK – so I’m a big Bunny fan – of course I’m going to pay more attention to his scenes!!) The scene where Raju struggled with Ramulu, holding back his strength, trying to win without physically hurting the old man, was so intense.  Bunny managed to show the conflict his character felt and we all felt his despair at what he had done. Contrast this with the joyful peek-a-boo scene after his redemption, and the range of emotions and engagement was just exhilarating.

We enjoyed it so much that a week later when there were some extra showings ‘by public demand’ we went back to do it all over again.

The second time round, because we knew the story, we didn’t have to concentrate so much on what was happening.  We could focus more on the performances of the actors  and totally enjoy the songs and the dancing.  Saroja’s song in the brothel was a perfect filmi moment – it felt random, spontaneous, a bit ragged round the edges, and full of life.

There was still no hint of an explanation as to why Bunny was wearing a t-shirt as a shrug in his poolside cavorting, but some things don’t really need a reason. They just are.

(Shrug alert at 30 sec)

Vedam was just brilliant – an excellent choice for our first Telugu film on the big screen.  Having such a great time ensures that we will be back to watch more and more new Tollywood releases,  with or without subtitles!

Heather says: Fantastic direction by Krish – this was a really wonderful watch.  All five storylines were well developed and it was a real delight to be able to watch each character’s evolution in their journey through the film.  Allu Arjun just gets better and better as an actor – he really was the stand out for me in this film – the portrayal of his confusion as his desires fought against his basic good morals was riveting – an impressive performance!   Also have to mention first-rate portrayals by Nikki as Saroja’s friend Kapuram, and Ravi Prakash as the corrupt cop.  Manoj Bajpai’s story was perhaps the hardest to fully follow and appreciate all the nuances without subtitles, but the power behind his emotions was very clear, particularly in the last scenes in the hospital.  In summary, Vedam is an excellent interweaving of five storylines with an impressive conclusion, fabulous performances by all the actors and brilliant work by the cinematographer.  And I think I’ve managed to use every superlative there is in that sentence!  I cannot wait for the DVD release to fill in a few of the missing details and to finally understand the dialogues I see quoted everywhere online!  A full 5 stars from me!

Temple says: Without rehashing the whole plot, it is enough to say that Krish took 5 pretty typical narrative arcs and wove them together in a way that made these stories seem fresh and novel. The ending is certainly darker than most mass crowd pleasers would normally allow. In hindsight there are some beautiful little pieces of foreshadowing scattered through the early scenes – and I think its the mark of a really good filmmaker that you walk out almost replaying the whole film and saying “A-ha! That’s what that was all about”. We haven’t mentioned the supporting cast but they were uniformly good, and looked like real people. The extras casting is a strength of this film I think, as well as the bigger budget names. I am an Allu Arjun fan, I happily confess, but I was pleasantly surprised by his ability to take what could be the weakest of the plot threads and make it seem real and engaging. His comic timing and spontaneity worked to great effect in the role of Raju. I am  really looking forward to seeing this on DVD so I can pick up more of  the subtleties of dialogue. Maybe it will seem like a different film? Who knows! For now, I give this 4 and a half stars ( I am deducting points for the manband. I am taking a stand.Heather points out that anyone who can wear a manband and NOT look like Abhishek should be applauded. I remain unconvinced.)