How Will I ever Forget ARR and his Concert?

I got introduced to ARR music with Leo Coffee Music which I assume he composed bringing in a fresh ring to our ears. I am fed on a staple diet of Light Music so soft and at times energetic but mostly makes one surrender to the Composer as if on a Loved lap with head submerging into his own Musical Universe. ARR brought in a refreshing stimulation to the musical environment I was brought in. If Ilayaraja is a divine sleeping pill, ARR is a digital wakeup alarm, awakening the nerve cells. This blog is not about any panchayats. I am just trying to get few things out of my System making myself light. It’s difficult to see an Artist going through tough times due to tough situations.

Even simple Yelelelo Ailesa sounded so western with ARR’s chorus in Jeans. When ARR was bringing in his genius, there were also other composers who gave us Gaanas unearthed from folks and my adolescent turned out to be musical medley of sorts, which keeps playing in my mind for long. The difference ARR provided is such that, when other Composers fed us simple and soulful Mother’s recipes, ARR opened up a Multi cuisine Restaurant dishing out different stimulating menus with each Album making me at least a dumb version of Music Student learning to understand on pushing own boundaries for the sake of my own listening goodness. Personally, I still like the formative stages of ARR in his first decade which fused up everything but still tasted Indian. Maybe as a Student I am far behind on grasping his Universe. ARR is well aware of such observations and rightly addresses such perspectives as generational gap.

There is a lot of controversy happening around the latest concert at Chennai. Though initially it looked like a poorly managed and organized Concert, it’s gettings it’s own political tones with vested interests Jumping around to achieve political milestones. This write-up is more as a Layman and not to come up with any political undertones. Let’s try to answer ourselves on Why and How of the Concert failures and why we are allowing such things to happen… always.

The Concert seemed to be poorly organized even for basics like Parking facilities with poor accessibility through just two parallel roads without any access to mass transit system. The location itself seems like a “Cheap” choice by the Organizer. Add to it the callousness of inadequate and poorly skilled “Volunteers” rather professionals to help out Audience. Even the seating Organization seemed cramped up without any regulating system like a Zoo cage. With the prior cancelled Concert, the concert goers might have noticed similar observations on inadequate arrangement. Similar mishaps have happened with their ARR Coimbatore concert too where the audience broke the barricades entering restricted areas. Maybe the Concert Organizer might have thought it’s just a matter of printing Tickets and leave everything else to ARR to mesmerize the crowd and cover up their own shortcomings.

I still don’t know how someone could oversell the ticket counts. Maybe they could have partly increased the audience count to cope up for the losses due to cancelled concert. But, the way its organized from the start, it sounds like a “money scam” by the Organizer rather an actual concert. The gender crimes mentioned around the concert makes it a complete failure and breakage of trust and confidence we have with ARR’s integrity. Ironically, ARR talks about the moment of losing trust of his listener on an Organizer’s youtube video released just before the Concert. Maybe it’s just coincidence or his instinct warning him in advance. One could sense his (edited out) frustration to get rid of the concert as its nagging with issues. ARR also talks about a shot in Maamannan where Vadivelu goes through Humiliation and looking towards his son for redemption. Hmmm…

I have personally attended ARR concert during his Baba scoring times and what a satisfying concert it was. The Sound system in the stadium was excellent and ARR and Blaze churned out lively music along with other Stalwarts and it was such a delight to the senses. I could still remember Sivamani wearing a Drum like T-Shirt and dancing around electrifying the audience. It was completely different from the Light music shows I was used to so far. All credits to ARR! The Concert sounds completely different from where you are seated. The far it gets livelier and merrier. You can check youtube live recordings of his concert and infer on your own. The tone of the concert has evolved a lot for last few decades. Now it’s more peppy with less of melody giving a Discotheque flavour. Maybe ARR is right about generational gaps and young ones breaking barricades instead of records… again.

So, ARR is quite right when he opines its 90% success form the concert execution point of view and makes himself responsible as People crowded there just for him and not for any greedy organizer guzzling money on his name. But the real question is from the organizing point of view, ARR is a GOAT for sure but whether he is a Bakra is still a question to ponder on. The entire concert is his own decision starting from the poor choice of venue till the Organizational aspects of it.

ARR being ARR has understood his faults and has initiated refunds for the people affected. Money alone could not buy peace of Mind for sure. But, from ARR’s point of view he is completely at loss from all sides due to his poor judgement and choices. More than money he has made his Concert Organizing skills doubtful. It’s quite tough time to go through, for an Artist who has given us a lot of love and IP assets for so long, ruining his reputation owing to his Management shortfalls. Let’s keep this in Mind, ARR is a genius Mastreao. But, He is not an Event Organizer. The buck should stop with his poor judgement and allowing such an inferior concert to happen under his watch and most of the blame should go to the Event Organizer.

It’s very heartbreaking to see people getting mishandled both by the Organizers and the unruly Mob leveraging the situation to their advantage. This has happened primarily due to overselling of tickets. Whatever lame reasons the Organizers produce on their behalf this is a criminal offence in First World standards. Unfortunately, we are third World like US cop explained audaciously, as our lives being just worthy of few Dollars for our petty human value. Now, why did this Cop made such a comment? Sadly, if I would have died on accident in India, I will not even be worthy of even those dollars. Ask people who suffered on Riots? Personally, there was an accident in Chennai where my Middle finger got almost cut off at GST road, organized by a criminal On-call-Driver who was giving me problems from the start that he was not interested in Driving at all. I had to drive him the whole way. He stopped the car midway and asked me to check the engine on a busy GST road and while closing the door I was hit by a Van. While I was rushing towards the Hospital on car packing my finger, the Van driver followed me and scolded me as overspeeding is not his fault. I should have filed complaint against both the Drivers. But you know how our Police works!

Let’s contrast that with western world situation, When I had hit and scratched a rear Car bumper in US, I had to follow SOP, pull my car to kerb and give my insurance details for the victim to claim and undergo any other police proceedings. We will remain third world not just on economy but in terms of Human value also as long as we don’t regard ourselves with dignity and self respect. So far how the Tamilnadu Government brushed aside such grave allegations as “normal” aberrations shows what we are…Poor Third World! It actually takes Political VIPs to get humiliated in our country to even do a harmless transfer of the people who should be answerable. Hmm… But we are proud G20 Leaders. Our pride will be restored when the US cop apologizes and the same pride will remain unwounded even if multiple molestations happen in the crowded concerts.

To understand ARR’s side we need to see how he reacted for a concert accident involving his Son AR Ameen. Let’s question ourselves who would be answerable if ARR or his Kin suffer for some Organizer’s mistake with a stage mishap? Upholding his integrity, ARR reacted to both the situations involving a possible grave accident to his Son and mismanagement of his Concert, in a similar pattern. You could see clear laments on the lack of infrastructure / people not following rules. Painfully, it sounds like ARR and Concert Audience are on the same Plane getting beaten up on Professional front for no fault of theirs, except for their decisions to organize concert or buy tickets. This is not to defend ARR, but Poor ARR could only be blamed for hiring such a greedy Organizer and everything illegal should have taken its course with the evil Concert Organizer, lawfully. But unfortunately, even the TN government is trying to hush this up as ARR is involved, rather acting on the Organizer, ending up damaging ARR even more. Overselling of tickets is a criminal offence and they have not even bothered to pay Corporation tax on Concert tickets. How can we leave such people escape unscathed when they have inflicted such miseries on us?

I do carry the risk of being insensitive and supportive to ARR. We are allowed to bark at the wrong tree just because it yields fruits, but unless otherwise, we punish the abuser who actually hit us with a cane, we will never progress further. Concerts / ARR are going to be there in future. Only our habits to question the wrong things and moving towards positive resolution will help us in the long run. Why don’t we make a video of such molesters and help identify the Culprits? Why don’t we ask right questions at the Organizer and capture their apathy. I have seen hours of concert on Youtube but why not videos on the issues to tackle it later or atleast name and shame as SM is good at that?

Let’s hope better sense prevails over our community as a whole and focus on taking the Organizer to task rather distorting ourselves with political agenda. As Public it’s our choice whether to make scapegoats out of Celebrities without root cause analysis or let proper Justice prevail over so that we have better concerts and our Kith and Kin are safe attending such concerts.

Thoughts about Ponniyin Selvan from a Son of Gun

One of the most adorable characters of Ponniyin Selvan Movie is Mani Ratnam. I have seen Mani Ratnam through a key hole from his Press interviews of the Past and very few words minced on stages. I thought he is carefully cultivating an enigmatic persona. As a motor mouth I always thought its better to be silent than sounding foolish, but in vain, including this worthless blog. But MR broke all such myths with his free flowing interviews from the start of PS1, with his sensibility and deep thoughts, opening the entire door. It was nice to understand a bit of what is going though his mind. At least now I am cleared of all doubts, that he is the actual witty dialogue writer of his Films.

The compulsions of limited time with screens, investment and social media, could have urged MR to come up with a PR blitz. But, he could have very well done that his stellar star cast to do the talking, directing events from the background. But, he came out soldiering from front with quite interesting quips and tid-bits. I still did not like the way Northern media not extracting the crew’s potential during the Launch events except for Film Companion and few others. I personally liked the warm interviews of Bharadwaj Rangan and candid questions from Sudhir Srinivasan which made him more accessible with Human connect.

Why Ponniyin Selvan should be celebrated?

Any writer would have aspired for a Film-maker who would not kill the spirit of his Novel. Sujatha has written a lot about how his stories got sabotaged by Film-makers and his hesitation in handing over his classic “Pirivom Santhippom” to them. I personally liked MR’s honesty to stay true to Kalki’s vision and core thoughts, even when the novel is open for a Free-for-all adaptation. He did not resort to theatrics and computer games like CG just to keep the audience in awe. His adaptation is more on to the emotional core, exploring them from their perspective and make us feel for them.

The epic film making happened during COVID times. It was bit disturbing to see MR in PPE kit and mask and we know he is not in pink of his health in early 60s. The way the crew worked together to bring in a believable experience is laudable. 

The technicalities were top notch. Ravivarman made the screen look golden, paint brushing all the graphics. Kalki has described many gruesome scenes starting from the First episode on the war and its ravaging effects. But MR made everything looked poetic. When Nandhini’s husband Veerapandian gets killed, he amps up the experience with just a Plain white cloth and ARR, making us understand Nandhini’s pain. Though the setting looked so foreign with a Thai hut, it’s still a memorable scene.

The star cast was the real USP of this film with characters throwing in believable surprises, enacting a drama making us retain a little smile on our lips throughout.

It’s been quite a while Tamil cinema attracted entire families, including old people when most of the Filmmakers started catering to a narrow segment of audience, playing it safe. It took a dignified maker to create a wholesome trend of very healthy filmmaking.

Why it was not received well among non-tamil audience?

The PS1 film had few fault-lines like a bit of lag where the tricky part of balancing emotions along with the storyline could have been smoother. Personally, I felt the movie rushed essential things a bit assuming the audiences are too clever to get the layers of it. It also had ten minutes of unwanted flab not contributing to the first part of the story. Consider the below scenes from an Audience who has not read the novel. A comet arises and a voiceover predicts loss of a royal one, but who cares when we have not even seen or invested in any any of them by then? Azharkadiyaan elaborating on his relationship with Nandhini when he himself a stranger from audience perspective, Kundavai luring smaller chieftains offering Arulmozhi for their daughters’ marriage when they have enough intelligence to topple the king, might have already known his affinity for Vanathi, Vanathi begging Kundhavai to wed Arulmozhi, is the great king is such a Kundhavai controlled Dummy, without illustrating the actual bond between the siblings. Veerapandian getting killed just for a pre-interval high when we don’t even get to know him nor his rivalry beforehand.

The lag is deemed by Jeyamohan as worthless observation, is not a criticism but more of observation that Film does not add up well to form a cohesive story. It’s easier to abuse like Jeyamohan does, on anyone pointing on on these anomalies, but PS2 stands as a proof that, the fair criticism got well received and corrected. Just like MR said Cinema is an economic medium and not a lavish story medium where one can scribble whatever he wants or blabber in Youtube. It just does not sell.

The PS1 story also felt fragmented with few loose ends, with the lack of establishment of a proper antagonist. MR to his defence might say on the complex names and unknown faces for its disappointing failure. Even Baahubali had unknown faces for North audience and got complex names. To me the real culprit is that, the audience could not emotionally invest on any of the characters pre-interval. Only after the interval, the movie had an organic flow. There was still a Thiruda Thiruda type Achilles heel, with the movie lingering on Tom and Jerry type chase, going nowhere in terms of objective because it was not at all defined.

The succession fight did not have any larger purpose / connect, like whats in it for the People ( the subconscious WE part ) from audience perspective. It was like nothing goes wrong if Ravana or Ram rules, with Vanthiyathevan clowning around. Overall it looked a giant scrabble Vanthiyathevan struggling to crack amidst all his distractions. As an audience, I could not empathise with him as I was also on the same boat occupied with the same distractions. He looked more like an errand boy for Cholas.

The state of Tamil Cinema

I observed Mani Ratnam talking about how a Film maker has to be selfish like getting merciless at editing table. He seem to have done the same with Kalki to save the film from possible jumpy sequences, affecting the rhythm cutting unwanted flab protruding like Nambi’s tummy. Kalki might have really enjoyed its phenomenal success, elongating the novel runtime a bit more. But the screen play has not missed any of its cinematic moments and highs. While there are murmurs that MR was not as faithful as the first part to the original text, I revere Kalki for his timeless and masterful storytelling but would also assume Kalki would have appreciated MR for elongating PS lifespan with mass outreach among the attention-deficit-generation, without killing it for the sake of theatrical highs.

As ARR made an interesting quip about how people queued up to buy Audio cassettes / CDs earlier making itself a cherishable experience which has now transformed to directly watching it on youtube for free and also dole out free criticisms with reach, Internet has made celluloid Art more democratic but also bit artless and restless, with On-Demand emotions at fingertips. Gone are the days people wait in queues to procure tickets like treasure Hunt, that they had enough patience invested already, like waiting for the reward, while watching it on screen compared to seamless online booking and Piracy. It was a national habit earlier.

Also, Cinema was much affordable those days, compared to catering only to the “rich and at the same time stressed enough by earning for it / young and impatient / Rich OTT segment” moviegoers nowadays. It’s a trade-off Indian cinema has chose to rear its own demon transferring their loyalty to the elite and rich who are quite choosy and reject things so easily, rather also considering poor and loyal masses as a viewer base. If the crew complains that people are worthless if they deem it as boring, it’s their own worthless act of worshipping their impatient fat-pocketed easily-rejecting demography, causing their own downfall and also letting down their craft, by dishing what they want. When there are no Middle class seats, there will be no middle path criticisms. The quantum of Heart a film receives is directly proportional to the allocated economy seats – 1 or 2%. So, keep yourself busy, pleasing your smallest demography with MaamaKutties / soft porn / Violence, rather admonishing audience taste.

If you think this is extrapolation and Cinema has not gone below the belt standards, savour this unpalatable stuff, a classy Kamal Haasan had to croon a Gomma Gotha song, insecure of the current movie going demography as a last minute addition for hype, to stamp he is young enough. He even made himself a further sorry figure with the explanation, breaking down the lyrics as if he has written modern Silappathigaram…. Appidiye Janaki Voicepa… The Root cause is just that they have lost their loyal base of movie goers across economic spectrum, now desperate to attract the new base. It was quite ironic KH felt heartened by the way daily wagers watched his movie ( of course, at a high price even compared to western socio economic standards ). The Visionary in him did not ask himself why such sad state prevails in the State where Cinema acted like a Cradle for future Chief Ministers? The so called Golden Age will not arrive as long as Cinema becomes affordable to middle and poor class and gets back to the masses. Nee paadu Maame! Laalaa lalalala Ley!

PS2 – How is it? Kurai Ondrum Illai Maraimurthy Kanna…

This is more of an experience for me, not a review or rant, but feel free to make it whichever way you want.

Initially, I was in Alaipayuthey mode… Intha Padam nalla irukkumaanu theriyale… Aana 250 roova poyurumonu payama irukku! Jemo can label us Chilrai types, but that’s the sad state his baby RSS has brought down to the country where even a simple recreation option is too costly to afford.

The respite is that, the PS2 screenplay is neat and simple with Plot getting established very well with Nandhini and Co scheming to kill all the Cholas at once and the rest of the movie deals with how the events unfold. The real mastery is on how all the characters make us root for them unlike the previous part. The cherry on top is the dignified-beautiful-than-Nandhini-twist about her origins. The entire plot has a crystal clear flow of raising the knots and slowly resolving it one by one, with a clear antagonist in Nandhini as woman with vengeance. This time the movie looked tailor made for Dummies (like me) with repeated visuals rather calling audience smart and leaving us in bewilderment like Nolan’s Sci-fi films where even google can’t answer our queries. You know why the totem keeps spinning in the end of Inception end, or is it really the end? And this is just a historical plot not even complex Sci-fi.

The real strength of the movie is its excellent star cast and exceptional technicalities. Aishwarya Rai who played a beautiful expressionless queen damsel in first part is in totally different and likeable avatar rocking it, piloting the entire story. Vikram gets more clarity on what he actually pines for rather being a restless wavering Prince in first Part. Jayam Ravi has too few sequences, but emerges much stronger with every scene. He has improved a lot in dubbing with a calm demeanour. Of Course, Karthi plays a faithful anchor, faultlessly. The first look of PS1 carried a fatigued Arulmozhi Varman kneeling down with his sword with a dejected look, not a nice way to introduce a Marquee character, but the climax justifies the wearniness beautifully. That’s the actual difference between the first and last part – bewilderment Vs emotional satisfaction. Just4Fun: Adi kodutha Arulmozhikke ivlo valinna adi vaangunavan….

It will be gross injustice if ARR is not mentioned along with any PS2 appreciation. He is one of the vital factor to renewed the enthusiasm with his mastery. I especially liked the fluttering of a string instrument in Chinnanchiru Kiliye. Somehow, as a layman I felt PS1 music as a bit disappointing with focus more on songs. But PS2 is another level of music. Pre-Interval BGM was like he is dancing for Devaraalan Aattam like Tropic Thunder Tom Cruise in the background. Nandhini’s hissing bgm was something else, but Iravin Nizhal chorus had much better awe factor. But you know we are getting popcornized err… westernised with muzzled BGMs.

There was a news scoop of the past that, Mani Ratnam and his Brother GV ambitiously wanted to make this movie decades back. They could not muster the funds, so GV came up with an innovative idea of collecting money from audience beforehand to finance the film in lieu of movie tickets with the release. Looks like MR is much more smarter. He offered us all a Candy wrapper with his first part and the real candy comes up only in the second part. But, he also suffered the risk of diminishing the film and subsequent expectations.

“Naan rendu vazhapazham thaane ketten… Neenga oru pazham thaan koduthu irukkeenga…. Innonnu enge?”
“Thambi! athu thaanpa Ithu!”

I could feel for him though on his little failings, but how can I complain about a person whose fighting spirit and staying relevant is something quite special. Even the kindergarten teacher branded me as an outdated Boomer Uncle at my 44 as if she just finished her KG along with my kid. But MR has immediately bounced back silently answering all the criticism by letting the movie take care of on its own. There are no comebacks in his career, just bouncing back even more to reach greater heights.

Criticisms

Happened to go through various criticisms. The press and media has been appreciative of the film. BR stated the movie is an epic poetic whisper with a flatly emotional story-line without synthetic theatrical highs. Could not agree more. Maybe, if Vairamuthu had to narrate it he would have stressed few lines by repeating it in his raspy tone. MR is also doing the same highlighting high poetic moments.

But, there are few critics like Blue Sattai Maaran accurately predicting on what I have blogged as “Muttu boys”, blindly supporting the film with generated reasons. I really enjoyed his satiric criticism but not his strong warning not to watch it. I think nuanced critics like BR would do more damage, subtly letting down the film, than Maaran who is at his usual satiric best, outstanding as a self made brand rather sounding genuine.

Looks like Jeyamohan is out as “Youtube Morattu Muttu Rowdy Boy”, providing strong criticisms against PS critics. He actually looked like “Naan idacha nee Sethuduve!” type of guy, but somehow just like scripting his arguments does not add up. The crux is that those who cannot appreciate the movie are not worthy of watching movies. Unfortunately, he is dragging himself much below the level that even mercurial Maaran looks classy, diminishing his own stature, or this is what he is. Thought JeMo is much more than any of this. I saw a nice JeMo stamp on VTK movie, but when it comes to PS it’s more of Kalki and MR’s baby missing his mosquito coil like explanations without clarity and going nowhere, just like his half baked and roundabout political views, where even Party Touring Khushboo feels as better ideologist, as if politics is not in theater popcorn or in his own political stories but only in his RSS offices he opened, nursing hatred and vengeance for decades, focused on giving it back rather bouncing back for good, exactly being the difference between him and MR. He is a strange someone in his own words, who can’t leave Jesus, just like his own RSS, but also cannot forgive people for their sins… Maybe that’s his Aram / Dharma.

Neenga Nallavaraa Kettavaraa? – Nayakan

I am not giving back here, just leveraging the situation to showup the Mirror of sad state we are in. JeMo alone is enough to get the PS PR down to dust. it’s the same kind of cheap PR with same youtube backed sources, part of the PS team did in Hyderabad claiming that most of the film was taken in Telangana / Andhra pradesh, so it should be supported by telugu people, making one wonder what those self admiring smarties will say to tamil and northern audience. When telugu audience asked for a spoonful of Mirchi high, here is an Alec Smart offering them sweet words. How about a lullaby too?

I don’t believe in recommendations and reviews, except for their spoilers, especially in this consumer centric world where every influencer has their own agenda. I am fanboy turned Fan-Uncle of MR with subconscious bias bred on maniratm-ic moments. And I saw a lot of old men and women and surrounded by mostly women audience and kids, speaking a lot about the trust on this Film crew including Kalki. Just4Fun: felt like Infant Yuva Siddharth put up in between female infants when he was just born and grew up to despise them – Intha Ponnungale ippadi thaan ejamaan! Just kidding… before you brand me something else for my rants. To me BR/MR are the first Meme inspirers of Tamil cinema with such hearty memorable scenes, the seed which feeds a lot of neurons and sticks around for long. Patha vechuttiye Parattai!

Just use your money wisely just like how the crew has kept its production values crisp. Follow your Heart. There are no perfect Films or perfect escape dens. But, personally I enjoyed the film and its treatment. Wish the filmmakers discount the tickets for their First part boring blunder, cashing on the emotional and enthusiastic high among the audience to support the crew’s passionate statement of work, maybe just as a giveback / token of gratitude at some stage of break even. But Who am I to suggest… Well, it’s a free for all Blog.

Naalu Perukku nallathuna ethuvume thappille!- Nayakan

What Next?

Cinema is more of an emotional experience with our investment offscreen on the Crew and other emotional factors outweighing on screen part. Got to admit my slight disappointment with the first part as it sounded like an empty vessel ( just like me ). But second Part does justice when combined together. The crew could have rectified the first part shortcomings with a much better OTT release, getting understandable to everyone with simple voice overs or maps, and reserve a wider reach for second part. But it was a wasted opportunity.

So, all the loose ends of the plot got tied up very well in PS2. As a commoner, I don’t have any stake on this, but more of a connect with Kalki and MR, pushing to write about it. With the cheap PR with Jemo types, don’t see any point in investing time on this, as this is becoming uncivil discourse, just like crass Vijay Ajith fights in SM. But, this movie has higher stakes for the entire Tamil movie industry. If this does well, it could do plenty of good as what Rajamouli did for Telugu cinema. As an audience we have a lot to gain with a larger canvas and better stories in future.

Decades-old studies have shown that primary care physicians sued less often are those more likely to spend time educating patients about their care, more likely to use humor and laugh with their patients and more likely to try to get their patients to talk and express their opinions. It seems that more likable physicians are less likely to have claims filed against them.

– New York Times

The movie industry has moved towards PR blitzkrieg just before their launch, just like less sued Doctors engage well with their patients. The PR was just good with an emotional appeal from its crew. Vikram declared karthi was good for Politician. Karthi sounds more impressive and righteous, but it’s actually Vikram who has got that PR pull. But the events could have been staged well, more informative and resourceful rather going through few templated stories. Let’s hope the Dream Factory ( as Sujatha would call them ) will come forward to make it a grand success, capitalize on it to secure their own future. It’s high time it goes full swing on its revival with an Anjali! Enthiri Anjali enthiri! moment.

But, unfortunately, the Tamil cinema industry lived up to its reputation of being that metaphoric Frogs in the Well.

Kabhi Kabhi…. Mere Dil Mein… Purusha Pretham

I got blessed to watch “Purusha Pretham”, on my Anniversary day, without any spoilers and reviews and what a ride it was!

Its a Police procedural on a male dead body floating in between Police Station limits and to my anguish many claim to be his better / bitter / butter half based on the story twists. Maybe… you know it.

Prasanth Alexander as Super Sebastian Cop, who gets as much as everyone else gives it to him, with only solace in bragging about his never happened adventures, completely steals the show. It is nothing but extension of Vadivelu’s Veerabaahu, who survives all hits, only to narrate to his recuperation team, bragging about his goodness when the Rowdy declared – “If this guy takes so much hurt and beatings, He must be a very good fellow” . everybody connect through this in life. I felt a similar experience when a Pawn Shop personality deemed me so good on first appearance, so as to fund my kids education. Only miscalculation was he mistook it for Graduation Course, when in reality it was for much higher studies – Kindergarten and Primary stuff. He finally advised I should have married young, maybe to remediate Inflation and other inflammations. He may be right… the real “Art of living” is about finding the right balance between those two inversely proportional entities. Maybe I will heed his advice next time… But, now I could only inflame on 360 degrees rising costs.

“According to Acharya’s analysis, this contributes to price rise in three steps:

(1) Since 2015, the Big 5 have entered many new sectors by acquiring smaller companies, and have also expanded their market share within these sectors;

(2) The Modi government has favoured Big 5 monopolists by preferentially allocating them projects, allowing predatory pricing and shielding them from international competition by raising import tariffs. In cases such as Adani, we have also seen public sector institutions like SBI and LIC being forced to provide loans and investment to them.

(3) This favourable treatment has allowed the Big 5 to charge increasingly higher prices than their competitors. Consider an item that costs Rs 100 to produce. Whereas other companies charge consumers about Rs 125 for the item, the Big 5 companies charge closer to Rs 145. Hence, Acharya finds that when monopolists increase their sales share by 10% in a sector, we also see a 2.7% increase in inflation in that sector.”

– Jairam Ramesh Quoting Financial economist Dr Viral Acharya, who served as deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2017 to 2019

Well, back to the protagonist. Maybe due to such connects, to me he delivered a measured and masterful performance, which could have become crass at some places, if overdone.

I need to give it to Darshana Rajendran. I still can’t figure out her age of this Auntie but do remember her doing some college stuff. Maybe she is Malluwood Chinni Jayanth. Don’t know which movie watcher got fooled, but I am not the Passport officer anyway and just could join the Cops’ restroom conversation on her and leave. But, I did not see her coming, when she unravelled herself layer by layer, though the music was a give-away. She was very convincing as a woman who lost her Husband and again very convincing as very happy to lose that insane guy and then… you better watch the movie as someone may hit on my head for spoilers. One thing for sure, whoever married that on-screen persona for real will be very “blessed” though with her transitioning performance…

I am not sure if the movie takes itself seriously, but almost all characters look seriously funny with their dialogues like an IPS demanding respect for a dead body ( or should I call Mr. Dead Body? ) at the expense of other living beings around who missed their duty owing to Secret mission ( I liked the secret mission though ) and Super Singer show. Maybe, they could have avoided few caricatures, but you never know what is real in the surreal world we are living in. Dileep shines when he searches for Gopalan along with all accompaniments and side-dishes. Devaki Rajendran proved to be a seamlessly sweet presence. That smile.

The music was brilliant though it gives way a lot rather lingering on suspense. The movie could have been a bit taut on its procedural as some scenes are long and redundant. Even for OTT, crispness increases the Wow quotient. Don’t know if creators get paid for running time, but if not they can always have deleted scenes at youtube for people who still did not get heat puss on their backs. Also, if OTT comes with a certain rating for Love-a$$ shows like Farzi that it may hurt your rears sorry ears, they will be blessed with a Susanna, at least till they live. The english translation looks more like AI generated. Don’t know if Keralites call Vada as sweet even if they are in Booze mode or Boss mode. Sony Liv could focus on quality translations just like their clever film choices. This Krishand, hopefully no pun in his name, is a behind the scenes Rockstar to watch out for, for seamless humour and blissful watch without any crazy twists just for the sake of it.

A movie not to miss, before you become Purushan or at least before becoming Pretham. After marriage you have better survival if you are just a Pretham, whatever life left is immaterial, especially when inflation atrocities kill whatever left in you. Life turns from colorful to sepia to grey as we journey through our age, but it only becomes meaningfully colorful when we are useful to the community on the whole in some way or other, moving from juvenile level of finding orifices and opportunities towards veteran level planting /y rewarding societal trees for future generations.

It’s my lingering angst that… We, Indians on the whole, got so busy on our own survivals nowadays, that we forgot about the bigger picture of better society and governance fought and preserved by ancestors, without bothering about being a small cog of such social and democratic movements. We are completely disconnected on what matters in our life while very much connected on social media’s useless gossips.

“As a result of growing market concentration, the average profit margin charged across all goods sectors has nearly doubled from 18% in 2015 to 36% in 2021. These rising prices directly hurt consumers. For example, the cost of one unit of electricity bought by the Gujarat government from Adani jumped from Rs 2.83 in January 2021 to Rs 8.83 in December 2022.

User fees in the Adani-owned Ahmedabad airport are scheduled to rise 12-fold in the near future while user fees in the Adani-owned Lucknow airport are proposed to rise 5 times from the current Rs 192.”

– Jairam Ramesh

Inflation is a case of sour grapes of democracy. In democracy everyone got equal rights (to grapes) as per Constitution. But, the more one tends to earn somehow to compensate for Inflation, the higher the grapes grow, always at unreachable position, ultimately helping just the grape Farm Cronies provided with a Government Ladder, who always are super powered by Government to raise prices recklessly. It’s a matter of high time decision, whether we just move off the Vines consoling ourselves the grapes will be sour sour or opt for a level playing field with grapes for all.

A fox was passing, and there were grapes, but the vine was high on a tree. She tried and tried and jumped but they were beyond her reach. So she went away saying, ‘They are not worth anything, they are not yet sweet and ripe. They are sour.’ She couldn’t reach. But it is difficult for the ego to realize, ‘I am a failure.’ Rather than recognizing, ‘I have failed, they were beyond my reach,’ the ego will say, ‘They were not worth anything.’

Your many sannyasins, so-called saints, are just like that Aesop’s fox. They have renounced the world not because they understood the futility of it but because they were failures and it was beyond their reach — and they are still filled with grudge and complaint. You go to them and they will still be against, saying, ‘Wealth is dirt; and what is a beautiful woman? — nothing but bones and blood!’ Who are they trying to convince? They are trying to convince themselves the grapes are sour and bitter. Why talk about women when you have left the world? And why talk about wealth when you are not concerned with it? A deep concern still exists. You cannot accept the failure yet and understanding has not arisen. Such Negative emptiness is useless. It is simply the absence of something. Positive emptiness is presence of something

Remember one trick of the mind: you try to convince people about something just to convince yourself, because when the other feels convinced you feel okay. If you go and tell people that sex is sin and they are convinced or they cannot refute you, you become happy. You have convinced yourself. Looking into others’ eyes, you are trying to cover your own failure.

And remember, a sublime emptiness is a positive phenomenon. One is not a failure, one simply looks at the thing and understands that dreams cannot be fulfilled. And then one never feels sad, one feels happy that one has come to this understanding that dreams cannot be fulfilled. One never feels depressed, hopeless, one feels simply happy and blissful because one has come to an understanding: Now I will not try the impossible, now I will not try the futile. And one NEVER says that the object of desire is wrong; when you are in positive sublime emptiness, you say desire is wrong, not the object of desire — this is the difference.

In negative emptiness you say the object of desire is wrong, so change the object! If it is wealth, money, power — drop it! Make the object God, liberation, heaven — change the object!

– Osho

The Fable Man

I am a generation attuned to Shock therapies in movies. It needs racy music, unexpected twists to fool me around along with shock and awe therapy to be deemed as exciting. Some movies stick around memory for long however simplistically it converses with us with a very simple screen language, making us root for the characters, making us investing with just few frames. It’s just sheer brilliance, how we were able to bind to the characters with very few shots. The Director looks more like Catch me if you can Protagonist, making all celluloid tricks working in his favour, at background, in a very simple movie for current Hollywood trends.

The Fabelmans is one such simple and fun emotional ride. After watching for forty-five minutes and pausing it, the movie made a strong invitation by itself to complete the remaining, though there was nothing like thriller stuff, except for a predictable marital issue and a budding film-maker talking to us.

Don’t know what exactly makes this movie click – A crazy Uncle who actually provides the utmost clarity on Art or a Kind Father acting innocent oblivious to what’s happening around or a selfish Mother seeking her inner call to be entertained and to entertain or a Boy looking to become a film-maker as he is clueless on studies.

I still don’t understand what exactly Ford conveyed to that little guy about Horizon or why he jumps around bringing the curtains down. Perhaps the ending could have been more satisfactory on Spielberg’s mastery as layman’s wish. Maybe the script makes the Protagonist as just a side show or Horizon and many beautiful stories told from his perspective. His enjoyable college days with Jesus as Love guru or pretty realistic bully show and consequent perspective realisations stands apart actually from the gloomy family part.

Anyways, it started out as a dumb dreamy movie, giving more highs in the middle and ended up in a bit damp manner, clueless on how a simple and cheeky interaction could give a hopeful climax. Perhaps an impactful ending could have made this brilliant and befitting film… a Masterpiece. Afterall, only rare clan like Speilberg, could make us appreciate a good childhood or teach us the necessity of good parenting in the sweetest possible way.