'Black Swan' & The Legends of Tennis

Have you guys ever felt that two seemingly unrelated things have much more in common? Sometimes more than you can imagine and all you need to do is probe a level deeper. Well, being a weirdo of sorts I do get this feeling most of the times and I try to find a connection between two altogether different things. Another day I was just sitting idly doing nothing and suddenly a thought came into my mind. What’s similar between the movie ‘Black Swan’ and Tennis. Funny, isn’t it!! But when I tried to understand the different characters in that film, especially Nina(Natalie Portman- in her Oscar winning role) and Lily(Mila Kunis), the two perfect prospective equals came from the world of Tennis. Yup, I’am talking about Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, that part must be sorta obvious.

Well, how do these fictional characters relate to Fedex and Rafa. Lets see.

Nina & Federer:

For anyone who has seen the movie, the character Nina is someone who eats, drinks & breathes ballet and she is technically perfect in that dance. She was the perfect ‘White Swan’ with elegance, poise, beauty and perfection. She is so perfect, she couldn’t perform badly even if she wishes to. Doesn’t it sound like Fedex at his best? As per my opinion ‘Playing against Fedex at his best is like playing Chess against a super computer’ (flattery intended :P) and we have rarely seen him show his emotions on the court(at least a couple of years back). But I also feel that his brilliance is something that should be admired from a distance and he has a sort of emotional detachment from everything else when he is deep into the game, just like Nina, who cannot think there is a life beyond ballet and when she comes to contact with that life her whole world crumbles around her. Is that what is happening with Fedex now, I dunno, but who am I to comment on the greatest tennis player of current generation.

Lily & Nadal:

In the movie, Lily is the perfect ‘black swan’(though Nina gets the part, its at the cost of her life), she might not have the technical brilliance of Nina but she is more sensual and can ‘let it go’ and completely transform into the role she performs. Nadal also has the same qualities and he portrays his human side many a time on court and the level of passion and enthusiasm he brings into the game is contagious. A punch in the air, a jump, a VAMOS after every well played point puts a fan in the player’s shoes. We tend to feel his emotions when he is smiling with joy or grimacing with pain. That kind of human quality will stop him from being too perfect but will make him more adorable on court. You can get up-close and personal with a guy like him. Sometimes, showing too much maturity is just plain dull. We need to show anger, joy, love and pain when we feel it. That’s what Lily and Nadal are capable of.

All that said & done, there’s no ‘Swan Lake’ without Lily and Nina and for Tennis to be thoroughly enjoyable, we need both these great players.

Antithesis

What a weird heading to give for a blog? Don't u think guys.. well, the reason is that unlike the guy who started blogging a couple of years back(and yet found time to write only a half-dozen blogs) the one who's writing this is a lot more serious and that's perfect 'antithesis' to my blog name.. but in my case i couldn't attribute my seriousness to becoming more mature.. well sometimes, for one reason or the other, u stop being funny, u turn inward and even though u wanna let loose and enjoy a bit, a sense of guilt comes over u and u start seeking for justifications to ur 'act'.. that's when u get serious(eureka.. find of the century)..

this kind of a sudden change in behavior leads to an 'identity crisis' where you are not able to move along wit any1 peacefully, get cynical and skeptical about everything and start 'reading between the lines' more than necessary.. even an unreturned call or an unreplied SMS will raise 1000 questions in your mind.. u'll tend to get disappointed and offended too soon and u'll take a long time to come out of it.. u'll always rue over why people never understand u but u'll never ever give a chance for them to know you better.. u'll always be a lost soul(u dont need a dementor to kiss u) among thousands, who neither want to be identified nor be disturbed.. good bye.. o funny guy.. atleast for now..

Ko-Movie Review

"Warning!!! Contains spoilers"

‘KO’ is the latest movie from ace cinematographer & director K.V.Anand. For all those who wanna know the meaning of the title ‘Ko’ represents government or a leader. In ancient tamil literature the term ‘Komagan’ or ‘Komaan’ usually represents a King. Ever since his stupendous success with ‘Ayan’ (the director should be commended for making fun of this movie in a scene in ‘Ko’) there had been huge expectations for his next venture and the slick and stylish trailer of ‘Ko’ just increased those expectations. The director meets all those expectations and even exceeds them in a few places. In a movie industry where nowadays a dozen movies are made about Madurai and with all those movie have an incessant & unnecessary flow of blood and gore in them, it takes a brilliant director like K.V.Anand to brake those stereotypes. With the right mix of commercial & intelligent cinema (took this line from Behindwoods review) he delivers big time.

From the intelligent choice of title and really brilliant opening credit sequence the viewer is all set to be taken for a different ride & the director and his crew keep the tempo till the end. Jiiva as a photo-journalist is handsome, stylish and excels in his role and proves yet again why he’s one of the rarest breed of perfectionists in Tamil film industry. Karthika emotes well and has a dream debut as a serious journalist. Move aside glam dolls. Here’s an actress who can really act & it’s no surprise as she’s the daughter of one of the finest actresses from yesteryear, Radha. Piaa is sexy, bubbly and a treat to watch. Her sad demise before interval will leave a lump in your throat. But the most important & extraordinary role in the movie goes to Ajmal who has breathed life into his character, though I feel he could’ve emoted well in a few sequences. Prakash Raj & Kota Srinivasa rao, do justice to their small roles and Bose Venkat comes as a surprise in the end.

All that said about actors the technical crew have excelled in almost every frame. From the stylish yet realistic stunts to the excellent cinematography during the song sequences, you are in for a treat. Especially the locations and camera work in ‘Yennamo Yedho’, ‘Amali Thumili’ & ‘Venpaniye’ songs will make one craving for more. Story wise there are ample twists to keep the viewers engaged till the end and it is commendable that the director has touched a lot of contemporary issues like ‘cash for vote’, ‘naxalism’, ‘journalist ethics’ without being overtly preachy. They just go well with the flow.

When the movie opened with the ‘bank heist’ sequence (one of the best choreographed stunt sequences in recent times, kudos to Peter Hein) I felt that there is some inspiration from ‘The dark Knight’ and the climax and ending just confirmed it. One couldn’t help but be awed by the director’s brilliance in these ‘inspired’ sequences. They are so logical and really inevitable. Dialogue is another strong aspect of the movie which is witty and intelligent. Suba has done a great job. On the downside the opening song with cameos by many big actors fails to make an impact, the placement of ‘Venpaniye’ song is just wrong, there are a couple of loose ends and the climax was a tad too lengthy and might test your patience. Also the connection between Jiiva & Ajmal looks a bit half-baked with a botched up flashback. But all that said & done, this has all the commercial elements of a blockbuster and also can serve as an eye opener for the younger generation. Go for it. I’m planning to watch it once again.

Verdict: 3.5/5

Hey Ram & Freedom at Midnight

After my ‘comeback’ I wanted my first post to be an ‘intellectual’ one.

Ever since I became passionate (more like fanatical) about movies and insisted on viewing even Tamil movies with subtitles (after watching lot of world movies, this is an unfortunate side effect) I have come to recognise that Tamil movies are no inferior to world films and one of the pioneers of Tamil movies and one of its greatest sons is of course- Padmashree Kamal Hassan.

Speaking about Kamal, all fellow movie lovers will agree that one of his more ambitious and really great piece of work is ‘Hey Ram’. This multilingual movie about India during independence is, in every sense, the most complete piece of cinema. But a lot of those lovers won’t be aware what the movie is all about until and unless they know about another great piece of work. This one is a book, which is said to be the best historical account of India during Independence. It is “Freedom at Midnight” by Dominique La Pierre and Larry Collins. Anyone who has read the book will come to understand how authentic a film ‘Hey Ram’ really is. I have watched the movie a couple of times and can give a few examples about how far the movie stays truthful to the book.

Casual dialogues in the film, about historical events and figures, which come for just a few seconds are all discussed in detail as chapters in the book. I noticed atleast half a dozen such instances...

- Before kamal is about to marry Vasundhara, he, Y G Mahendra and Vyapuri discuss about Radcliffe- the person who drew the partition line b/w India and Pakistan- I haven’t heard about him before I saw the film. Radcliffe and how he partitioned the country are discussed in detail in Freedom at Midnight.
- When Kamal goes to Culcutta after independence, he sees Gandhi and Surawardhy (governor of Bengal) speaking to the crowd. This meeting is discussed in detail in the Freedom at Midnight. Also they discuss in detail about the need to place Gandhi in Bengal during independence and the consequences.
- When Kamal goes to Maharashtra to meet the Maharaja, in a scene Maharaja casually remarks that (while waiting in a railway gate) ‘Whats the use of opening this one gate, all the other gates have been closed to Maharaja like me’. There’s a separate chapter in Freedom at Midnight dedicated to the Maharajas and their life and how they lost all their powers and luxuries after the independence.
- In the same scene, Kamal meets Lalwani, who tells about losing his family in Karachi in communal riots after partition. A major part of the Book is dedicated to his riots.
- When Kamal meets Shah Rukh in delhi, he asks all muslims to go to ‘Jinnah’s Pakistan’. Shah Rukh casually remarks that Jinnah’s own daughter decided to stay in India after independence. This is mentioned in Freedom at Midnight.

- And in my opinion the greatest is the scene after Gandhi’s assassination. When Mountbatten is asked about who killed Gandhi he says “It was a Hindu who killed Gandhi, not a Muslim” and when his aide asks how he knew it, he mentions “I didn’t, was it a Hindu, thank god for that, or else the country would’ve been torn into pieces”. This dialogue is taken straight out of the book.

These are a few things which I noticed, I’m sure there’ll be more in the movie which will come into the open only after a few more viewings. Kamal proves why a perfectionist beyond doubt. Pity the movie went underappreciated. This surely is a masterpiece.

After a long time.....

Well, after a long time, I’m writing my first post. When I first started my blog, I thought I’ll update it regularly about what is happening in my life. But there were a few events in the last year which I wish never happened to me, so I put off blogging for a little while. 'Little while' eventually became a long while and now I’m back after more than a year to continue from where I left (to tell the truth, to start afresh).

This time I hope I’ll be able to blog as often as I think I can and I feel I must. there are a lot of thoughts to share, lot of issues to discuss and I desperately need an outlet to pour whatever comes to my mind and people who know me well will agree with me when I say 'at a given time, I have a lot of things -many totally trivial- running through my head'. Be it the movies I watch, the books I read, the people I meet (not much at the moment, but that'll change) I want to pour my thoughts about them. So, after giving it a lot of thought I’ve decided to give life to my blog hoping that the 'best days of my life are yet to come'...