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Last year I had been to “Madras to Chennai” a fine play by Shraddha group. Impressed by the show I became an annual paid member. This new year 2012, there first production is a historical play – Vadavooran (வாதவூரன்). It is about Manickavachagar (மாணிக்கவாசகர்) who gave the great Tamil work Thiruvasagam (திருவாசகம்). The play starts from the point where Vadavooran who was the Chief Minister to Pandya King, sets out to buy fine Roman horses for the king. On the way while at the depleted temple at Tiruperunturai Avudiyar Koil, he realizes the Supreme Being (Lord Siva) and instantly decides to renovate and rebuild the temple. The king imprisons Vadavooran and punishes him severely for disobeying his orders. The play ends with great floods in Vaigai river and the King realizes his folly and Vadavooran becoming the enlightened Manickavachagar. Of course we all know what happened later (Thanks to Sivaji Ganesan’s Thiruvilayadal movie) – Lord Siva coming as a labourer carrying sand for a handful of a traditional snack of sweetened millet flour (புட்டு).
The play is presented in kind of Opera format. To make mortals like me understand the songs from Thiruvasagam, the organizers gave out free booklet with all the songs and meanings – thanks to them I could follow the 4 lines songs, which were not many. The songs were pre-recorded but rendered and enacted superbly. The lead actor is Swaminathan Ganesan, who has done a brilliant job of bringing the character to life. Especially the scenes where he is in inner turmoil between his royal duties and divine calling, Swaminathan brings Vadavooran before our eyes. The little girl who came as Vadavooran’s daughter performed well, kudos to her.
The sets were done nicely, I could not help comparing it to the astonishing set and special effects done decades earlier in R.S.Manohar’s plays that my father took me during my school days, Vadavooran certainly is not in that league but nevertheless it is a great effort for recent times considering the effort and costs. They showed a dragon fly (தும்பி) flying in the stage by suspending it from a rope above, the engineer in me wondered why they didn’t use one of those miniature remote helicopters and then cover it with a costume. The audience were taken for a treat when they showed a real horse on the stage – that should have been difficult managing it and controlling with the changing light effects, great show.
What impressed me most is the on time start of the play, in fact they started the brief introduction a few before 7:00PM. Thanks.
Shraddha doesn’t repeat its plays. So catch ‘Vaadhavooran’ tomorrow.
Review of the play is in the The Hindu here, Behind the scenes work and photos here.
Videos: In Tamil (முன்னோட்டம்), In English (Trailer)
Since I heard about this movie early this year I have been wanting to see this “Midnight in Paris” directed by Woody Allen. Today I watched it in the flight to London.
The movie is about Gil (played by Owen Wilson), who is a successful Hollywood screenwriter and his fiancée, Inez (played by Rachel McAdams) who are visiting Paris. Gil is obsessed with Paris and finishing his first novel which is about what he thinks are the magical times in 1920 Paris. One of the night he is magically transported to 1920 era in Paris where he gets to meet and mix with all legendary writers of that time including Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. 1920 Paris was a melting pot for many of the legendary American Artists and writers to come down (kind of a reverse travel from Americas to Europe). Gil is obsessed with that era and falls in love with a girl of that era but then returns to present, breaks with his fiancée and lives in Paris.
A nicely scripted and directed movie by Woody Allen. A must watch.
My friend shared the DVD of this movie, with two questions – are you a movie lover and do you see animated movies?. I was puzzled a little with the questions, anyways being a true Indian & someone who never turns down the opportunity to get (borrow) something free, I said “YES” and came home with two DVDs in my hand. One of them was “Grave of the Fireflies”, at that time I never realized the impact this movie will leave in me.
Grave of the Fireflies is a 1988 Japanese animated war film written and directed by Isao Takahata. Taking place toward the end of World War II in Japan, the story is about the tale of two orphaned children, pre-teen Seita and his young sister Setsuko. Their father is in the Japanese navy, and they live comfortably in Kobe despite rationing, but when their mother dies from burns due to an American bombing raid, a distant aunt takes them in — and conflict eventually forces the children to try to survive on their own. The movie is all about their struggle in a war-torn town with no roof to their head or income; their little joyous moments in beach and with fireflies.
The movie was amazing, as one of the reviews had said “a must in every list of anti-war movies”. Due to the the storyline and brilliance of the Director you hardly feel it was an animated work with the two main characters especially the young girl portrayed so beautifully. In the last 15 minutes I couldn’t control water rolling over my eyes.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 96% is less and 8.4 rating in IMDB are both less, the movie deserves 10/10. A must watch movie.
I saw this movie today, The King’s Speech out of curiosity that it got nominated for Oscar under 12 categories.
The movie is about King George VI (before he became the king), to overcome his stammering is introduced to an unorthodox speech therapist Lionel Logue. Rest of the story is on how they work together and the King was made to deliver comfortably the Radio message on World War II. The movie is not about politics, war or about monarchy but mainly about the struggle of a man to overcome his weakness. The movie is very nicely scripted and acted. A must see and a worthy contestant for the Oscars.
After I watched the movie, reading on Wikipedia, I learned that King George VI was the father of present British Monarch – Queen Elizabeth II, and it was during King George VI reign that India got its independence.
This movie shows why British Comedy is the best when it comes to Political satires. After “Yes Prime Minister” I enjoyed this thoroughly. I don’t remember how I came across this movie this week, but immediately I got it in Amazon VOD service for $10. Yes, you need a US Credit Card and US IP address to download the VOD movies.
The movie “In the Loop” is a British Comedy movie that leads up to the decision in UN to invade IRAQ. We are lead to understand the British Prime Minister and the US President want to embark on a war in the Middle East. Simon Foster, a British Minister for International Development, states off the cuff in a radio interview that "war is unforeseeable". He later tries to correct it with another statement: "to walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict". Both these remarks start a series of manoeuvrings on both sides of the Atlantic by both the pro- and anti-war factions in both governments.
What makes the movie enjoyable and not come out as a documentary is the fact the movie names no particular president or prime minister. The movie leads you to believe that whoever is in administration they are likely to be incompetent and ripe with internal politics. Lot of nice little things are in the movie like "Simon Foster being just a meat in the room”, When not able to influence a decision the idea to leak the information against the war, Simon Foster while waiting outside US Asst. Secy of State office not knowing whether the meeting is over or not, a local voter from Simon Foster constituency keep pestering on a wall about to collapse and so on.
I will rate this movie to be must watch if you enjoy this genre.
This is one movie that anyone using FaceBook or any other social sites should certainly not miss out. It shows how a great idea coupled with a fine execution results in a runaway success, along the way you are sure to earn enemies. I have been waiting for the release of this movie “The Social Networking”. It is good to have the movie released in India after its US release last month. Having decided suddenly we couldn’t get tickets in INOX or Satyam, so we went for this movie with our friends at Mayajaal. The movie showed in the new Screen 12 at Mayajaal which has a bigger screen than their other screens. I was not sure whether my wife will like the movie if it becomes documentary like or too technical, but the movie was enjoyed by all of us.
The movie is about the founding years of FaceBook.com. What makes the movie interesting is the way the story is told. Instead of telling the sequence of events, the Director throughout the film shows Mark Zuckerberg testifying in depositions in two lawsuits: one filed by the Winklevoss twins (his seniors in Harvard who claimed to have come with the idea first), and the other filed by Eduardo (his friend at Harvard and co-founder). This technique of showing the present-day lawsuit and flash-back scenes make the movie fast-paced and captivating. All the actors in the film have done a great job in portraying the living characters they have taken, especially Jesse Eisenberg who portrays Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield who plays Eduardo Saverin and Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (Founder of Napster) have done a superb job.
After seeing the movie I was reminded of the book I read last year (Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good). Immediately I went back to my library and read again the chapter on FaceBook – I was able to enjoy it now more than the first time.
The advertisements for this movie “Madrasapattinam” were brilliant – the 1947 days scenes shown in TV Ads, titbits about that period in Radio Ads and so on. It created good amount of buzz around the movie and the curiosity to watch it. Last weekend, I went for this movie in Mayajaal. I took a (big) risk by taking my 7 year old son to this movie, which I haven’t done earlier (other than Children movies/cartoons), surprisingly he enjoyed this movie especially seeing the old Madras and he was thrilled.
Director “Vijay” has told interestingly an otherwise usual love story, the old Madras theme has helped him a lot in the effort. The story as such feels greatly inspired by a combination of Titanic and Lagaan. Throughout the movie the pace, scenes, dialog are all well done. At many of the places, you can guess what is likely to happen but nowhere you feel bored.
The Art Director “V.Selvakumar” and Cinematographer “Nirav Shah” have done a superb work by recreating the Old Madras in front of us. For example the olden day “Spencer Plaza”, “Tram” are all realistic recreations of the gone era. To a large extend this has helped to transport the audience to that time – you can feel the pace of the life in those days. Both Arya and Amy Jackson have done their respective roles well, Arya comes out well in the Kusti fight scene – his hardwork is clearly visible.
The Director has left his touches in places – like in the scenes of a man sleeping all the time, but suddenly getting up in the crucial fight scene; In the scene (which happens in the height of independence struggle) where the labourers are meeting to decide their course after the British Governor orders the removal, voices are heard saying let us avoid confrontation. There are misses as well – like in the midnight of 14th August when independence was got, why will the police keep going after 2 lovers, I am sure they had bigger problems on that day especially who they are answerable to?
Overall, a fine work, don’t miss.
After reading my blog on the movies I have covered in it, my fellow INFITT member Mr.Jean-Luc Chevillard from Paris recommended that I see this German Movie “Good Bye Lenin”. Title alone was enough to make me interested. Today I got a chance to see this movie.
The movie’s story happens in East Berlin from October 1989 to just after German unification a year later. Alex lives with his sister, and his mother. His father fled to the West abandoning the family. Alex’s mother single headedly raises the kids and becomes an idealist and supporter of ruling Socialist Party. Later, she suffers a near-fatal heart attack and falls into a coma. When she comes out of Coma, Doctors advice Alex not to give any exciting news to her mother. So he recreates a make-believe communist era inside their house to make his mother thinking that all his well in Berlin outside. This happens till his mother dies peacefully having lived in a Communist Berlin which didn’t exist.
The director does a fine job of bringing out the difference in life in East Berlin before fall of Berlin Wall and just months after it, by showing simple things like a selection of Pickles in a Super Market to the hoardings and fashion.
I read about this movie after its eight category nomination to Oscar Awards along with The Hurt Locker and Avatar, immediately bought the movie. Managed to watch it today. Inglourious Basterds is a Historic Fiction war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and others. The story is set in the time of Nazi Hitler’s occupation of France, kind of an alternate history story.
The story starts with a scene in 1941, SS Colonel Hans Landa played by “Christoph Waltz” arrives at a dairy farm in France to interrogate the farmer their about rumors he is hiding the Jewish family. From that moment till the end of the movie SS Colonel character establishes clearly as the villain of the movie.Waltz is an Austrian Actor and no doubt he has been awarded the “Academy Award for Best Support Actor” for his brilliant performance in the movie. Though brief scenes are shown, the director doesn’t fail to make an emotional impact on the viewer on the plight of Jews under Nazi occupation.
The movie gets its curious name due to Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) in 1944 recruiting a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers in Italy for a mission to get behind enemy lines and bring fear to all German servicemen. Though Lt.Aldo Raine exhibits comical behaviour, the team succeeds on creating fear amongst Nazis and the Germans begin calling this team as “Basterds”, hence the title for movie.
If you like Historic movies with a bit of comedy, then don’t miss this one.
As general public we read & think more of big tragic events like 9/11 or Mumbai 26/11. But due to their near-common, frequent nature we hardly think about everyday tragedies that Security Forces in War Zones like IRAQ or Afghanistan undergo. “The Hurt Locker” movie is an attempt to address that awareness creation. It is about a US Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq War. I came to know about the movie due to its nomination to this year awards. The story sounded interesting and I believe there have been very few movies about the ongoing IRAQ or Afghanistan War (many documentaries exist, but rarely many movies). The movie is directed by Kathryn Bigelow and story by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded with a bomb squad.
After watching the movie today, I should say the movie seems to be a honest attempt at telling the story as it is on ground. The scene were a local man strapped with timer explosives around him, all of them secured with steel bars and locks that prevent removal in time was a very moving one. Doesn’t seem to have lot of “Hollywood” effects added normally for better story telling. Doesn’t go into flash back of characters and tries hard to stick to the factual line as closely as possible. A must watch for any Movie Buff and for anyone remotely interested in understanding the modern day warfare against terrorism in our world.
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