Brown Country

IFFK 2011 – Day 5

2011-12-13T18:13:00.001-08:00

I missed IFFK yesterday. But today I saw three movies, all Competition Section films: The Cat Vanishes, an Argentine film directed by Carlos Sorin, Body, a Turkish film directed by Mustafa Nuri (which got rave reviews from the local press in Malayalam), and The Colours of the Mountains, a Colombian film directed by Carlos César Arbeláez.

The Cat Vanishes

It is kind of a psychological drama played out mostly in a single house. It revolves around a professor, who has just been discharged from a psychological clinic, and his wife, who has an eerie feeling that all is not well with her husband even after the rehabilitation. He had been legally forced to undergo the treatment after he had acted violently towards one of his students and his his wife, whom he suspected of stealing his research work.

All the action unfolds in the first three days after the visit. The wife's suspicion about her husband's mental health strengthens when she saw their pet cat reacting violently to him. But he is at his usual self, few words and all sarcasm. The tension grows when the cat disappears. The climax is superbly conceived and executed.

The director employs mostly close-up shots and succeeds in bring out the somewhat hidden tension between the professor and his wife. The actors played the roles of the professor and his wife, Luis Luque and Beatriz Spelzini, respectively, have given nuanced performances, without going overboard. The climax is stunning, though many viewers were seen asking the others, what was it?

Body

Mustafa Nuri, the director of the film, has become a small celebrity in the Malayalam media after his charmed speeches and the film. There were great reviews about the film in almost all newspapers and TV channels. Predictably, a huge crowd assembled in New Theatre before the screening of the movie. I somehow managed to enter the theatre, thanks to reservation and my rugby skills. But I have to say the film was a disappointment. Perhaps the high expectations are to blame.

The film narrates the story of how almost every character in the movie is affected by his or her body. The main protagonists are a 40-something ex-porn actress and her teenaged lover. There is nothing much to write about the story of the film: it's kind of boy meets an old woman. They meet at the shoot of a failed porn film, arranged by her ex-lover, who wants to make some money through porn industry. There are other characters involved too. The boy's mother and sister, both are overweight, his friend, who is a fitness fanatic, but dies at the age of 20. The porn film director emerges as the most interesting character in the movie.

The Colours of the Mountains

This yet another anti-war film from Columbia, seen through the eyes of a 10-year old boy. The movie is set in a mountainous village which is about to be wrecked by the civil war. Villagers are fearful of both the guerillas and the army.

The boy owns a football and plays in the field along with his friends. He gets a brand new football on his 10^th birthday. One of his friends kicks the ball through the slope to the valley. They are about to take the ball. Then a pig ran through the place, and sudden explosion results. The pig has stepped into a land mine. The elder people who gathered there prohibit the kids from playing there. The boy wants to take the ball and nobody allows him. The rest of the film narrates the boys attempts to take the ball while the rest of the village tries to flee the place because of the civil war.

The good thing about the movie is that it does not take sides. It provides a chillingly emotionless narrative. The pace is slow, much like the neorealistic films in Malayalam.

IFFK 2011 Day 3

2011-12-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

I saw three movies today. I had planned to watch the Competition Section films, but changed mind at the last moment. Instead, I watched Daddy, a Croatian film directed by Dalobar Matanic, Come As You Are (or Hasta la Vista), a Belgian film directed by Geoffrey Enthoven, and Two Escobars, a soccer documentary.

Daddy

Daddy is psychological drama set in a hilly village in Croatia during winter. Two daughters are going to meet their father, who left them and their mother many years ago. They are accompanied by the lover of the elder sister. They find no one in the house, but they decide to wait. The younger daughter wants to leave, but stay on as others decide to stay there for that night. They drink, eat, and sleep, but still no trace of the father. The next morning the father comes. He shows no affection to them. While the elder sister tries to ease out things, the younger one returns the compliment.

Things become complicated when the elder sister goes out with her father and tries, though in vain, to persuade him for a reunion with the family. In the meantime, the younger sister, frustrated at being neglected, tries to seduce the lover of her sister. In the night they make love. The father sees it. He cautions the young man the next morning. The young man accuses him of neglecting his family. In a sudden rage, he kills the young man in front of the sisters. The sisters run away and hide in another building. Things become more gruesome in the end.

The storyline is good, the atmosphere is isolated, yet splendid. There is mounting tension between the characters. But still the film does not have the gripping mood that great films of this genre have. Somehow, it fails to gain enough spark and come alive.

Come As You Are

This is a light comedy about three handicapped people. Two of them are confined to wheel chairs (one of them is a cancer patient too) and the third one is partially blind. But they are after what most men in the universe are after: wine and women. They plan to go for a wine trip, but the real destination of their trip is a high class brothel in Spain which they come across on the Internet. Their family members refuse the idea, but they manage to hire a driver-cum-nurse and start the journey. The film narrates the incidents in their journey. The finally make it to the brothel, leading to a poignant climax.

Two Escobars

The fist one is Andrea Escobar, the footballer who was killed for scoring an own goal in the World Cup. The second is Pablo Escobar, the notorious drug mafia lord in Columbia, who was glorified in News of Kidnapping, a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The documentary shows how the lives, and deaths, of these two were connected, and how soccer influenced their lives. The documentary has a fast-paced narrative, laced with some high voltage action from the soccer field.

Its most striking aspect is how it precisely maps the connection between the rise of Colombian soccer and the money from drug mafia. Once the drug money is out, Colombian soccer collapsed. Chillingly, soccer becomes more important than a matter of life and death, though not in the manner Bill Shankly, the Liverpool legend, imagined. It truly symbolized what Eduardo Galeano wrote in the opening of his book, Soccer in Sun and Shadow: “The history of football is a sad voyage from beauty to duty”.

IFFK 2011 - Day 2 Night

2011-12-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

The last two films I watched today were Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan in Ajantha Theatre and Faust by Aleksander Sokurov in Sree Padmanabha.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

I had become an instant fan of Nuri Ceylan after watching Three Monkeys in one of the previous IFFKs. Once Upon a Time ... is a typical Ceylan film: protagonists in deep emotional turmoil and the visual landscape somehow conspired to reflect their minds.

The film narrates the events happened in a night and the next day in Antalonia, a vast sloppy grass-field in Turkey. Police officials are taking an accused and co-accused to the fields in search of a dead body they buried in the field. The entire field looks the same and the accused cannot find the exact spot where the body was buried. Rain and a windy night cannot help things. The team includes a prosecutor, a doctor, a police superintendent, his deputy, some sergeants, and two diggers. And most of them simply hate each other. Tempers fray as the tension and frustration mounts. They still cannot identify the place.

They stop work as the storm intensifies and stay in the house of a village head nearby. In the night they learn a lot deal more about themselves and others. The accused killed his friend after he had accidentally disclosed to his friend in drunken revelry that he was the father of the other's son. The next day they identify the dead body and the body is taken to the town to conduct autopsy.

More than the storyline, it is the environment of the film that fascinates viewers. You see many of the usual Ceylan visuals in this film too: various objects loosely flying around in the night wind, paths that seem to catch fire from the vehicle headlights, and solitary trees frightened by the night around them. The narrative also includes many subplots, like the pasts of the prosecutor and the doctor and the present lives of the police officials.

One caveat to add though. The film is not as gripping as Three Monkeys or Climates. Towards the end, the tension that prevails till the end in the former films somewhat relieves in this film.

Faust

Faust, a loose adaptation of Goethe's 19th century German tragedy, is more fast paced than one would expect for an Aleksander Sokurov film. It deals with the power struggle between the good and the evil (or god and satan), where Faust, a doctor and scientist, who seeks the ultimate truth and asks honest questions to himself, becomes the rope in that tug of war.

Tomorrow I am planning to watch two Competition Section films of IFFK 2011: Black Blood, a Chinese film directed by Miaoyan Zhang, and Body, a Turkish film directed by Mustafa Noori.

IFFK 2011 - Day 2 Afternoon

2011-12-10T00:52:00.000-08:00

I watched two films so far today. First I saw L'argent (or Money) by Robert Bresson in Kalabhavan theatre. It is a brilliantly crafted film, based on a story of Leo Tolstoy. Some peices of counterfeit notes go in circulation in Paris. The notes change many hands. Finally, an innocent young man receives the notes and gets caught when he unsuspectingly tries to do transaction with these notes. The film narrates the radical changes that happen in his and others' lives.

Despite a simple story line, it is not a film that tells a simple moralistic tale. The beauty of the film lies in its shots. The camera does not focus on human beings and their faces. Instead we see all kinds of mechanical objects: metal locks, iron bars, plastic pipes, hack saw, and variety of doors and passages. You also see people's legs, their back, anything except their face. People who passes through these objects become less important than these objects. The film chillingly suggests they become less important because they are after the 'visible god' among all objects: money.

I had planned to watch Eternity and a Day by Theodoros Angelopoulos. But I learned about the change of schedule only when I reached Dhanya Theatre. After some instant research with schedule, the Festival Book, and the Daily Bulletin, I decided it best to watch the replacement movie, Of Gods and Men, a Fench film directed by Xavier Beauvois.

It is sober tale based on a real life incident happened in 1996 in Tibhirine,a hilly village of Algeria during the civil war. Nine French monks were living in a monstery which was the fulcrum by which the village functions. When the civil war broke out, the monks were asked to leave by various factions, including the French adn the Algerian governments. But they refused to leave, citing the bible verses and remembering the Sacrifice. Intially some members were reluctant. Later, after some rounds of intimidation from both the warring sides, the reluctant members too must enough courage to stay on. They stay on despite the heaping deadbodies and ruthless mass murder in their surroundings. Finally, they were abdducted and killed.

It is a slow-paced film, interspersed regularly with relegious sermons and biblical verses. It asks perhaps the most relevant question of our times: "For whom do they kill?"

Next I am going to watch one of the most anticipated movies in IFFK 2011: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia in Ajantha theatre. Hopefully there won't be any change of films.

IFFK 2011 Day 1 Night

2011-12-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

The last film I watched today is Circus Columbia, directed by Danis Tanovic. His first film, No Man's Land, was one of the trend-setting Balkan war films. This is another of that genre. It is the story of a Bosnian expat, who was forced to flee the country by the communist regime, coming back to his native village to settle some old scores: both personal and political.

Set in the back drop of a looming civil war, the film offers delightful glimpses of life in Balkan villages. It is a kind of guided tour through humor, satire, love, adolescence life, and a bit of incest. One problem with the film is that it tends to focus more on personal lives than on the bigger political picture. If you are familiar with the Balkan war films, chances are that you will not be much impressed.

Part of the reason why this film did not appear as appealing as some of the reviews suggested would be the fact that I watched this movie after the splendidly hilarious Two Half Times in Hell. Easily the best movie I have watched which has a sport as a central theme.

Tomorrow is going to be a day with the masters: L'argent by Robert Bresson, Eternity and a Day by Theodoros Angelopoulos, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and Faust by Aleksander Sokurov.

IFFK 2011 - Day 1 Afternoon

2011-12-09T01:06:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2011 started with less than expected crowd today. Theaters have not been as jam-packed as organizers said they would be. The next two days are holidays and are expected to bring in an avalanche of film lovers.

Watched two films today. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, a collection of three short films of the same theme by three directors (Kaz Cai, Wang Jing, Anocha Auwichakornpong). Each short film addresses a grand theme: women and their quest for love. It narrates a day in the life of three women. Incidentally, the day after Benazil Bhuto was asassinated. It has a grand theme. But the film fails to gel together as a great movie.

Next I saw Two Half Times in Hell - a brilliant Hungarian film, by Zoltan Fabri. It is the first film of the Kicking Soccer package in this year's IFFK. The film was released in 1963 and is in black and white. It is a black comedy set in the backdrop the Second World War and the invasion of Hungary by the Nazis. It portrays the events unfolded in a prisoner camp when a football match between Hungary and the 'official' Germany is proposed and then held. The film scathingly reveals the meaninglessness of many narrow beliefs - be it patriotism, worship of leaders, and, ironically, love of soccer.

Next I am going to watch Circus Columbia in Remya. More about it later.

IFFK 2011 Is Here

2011-11-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

The first signs of IFFK 2011 have appeared in various media today. Online registration has been started, films in competition section announced, and delegate fee hiked. It was Rs. 300/- last time around, now it is Rs. 500/-. About 66% hike. Might be due to the increase in petroleum products. This certainly will not deter many from participating in a film festival which has almost become an annual habit for filmbuffs in Kerala.

IFFK 2010 Day 6: Films from Real Life

2010-12-15T18:06:00.001-08:00

Films based on real life incidents are hit or miss affairs. Either they click and elevate to the pantheon of good films or they pale and descend to the alley of ordinary films. I watched two films today at IFFK; both are based on real incidents in 1960s. The first film, The Little Rose, a Polish film directed Jan Kidawa-Blonski, has an irresistible blend of love, passion, politics, and intrigue. The second film, My Mongolian Mother is a Chinese film, directed by Ning Cai, is the story of 3000 orphans transported to Mongolia for adoption after the heavy floods in Shanghai in the early 1960s.

The Little Rose

You can approach this film in many angles. It can be the story of a writer-professor who writes and acts against the government. Or it can be the story of a pretty woman caught up between a police officer and the professor. Or it can be a neat portrayal of Poland in 1967. The most striking angle obviously is the plight of the woman, who was asked to spy on the professor by her police man lover. The police officials desperately want to prove that the professor is a Jew, working for Zionists. The film has the Israel-Arab war in 1967 in the backdrop. But the elegant charm of the professor’s attracts the spy and soon she changes sides. This infuriates her original lover, and he becomes blind with rage and jealousy.

The person emerges strongly from the debris of emotions in the end is the woman, Little Rose, which is her code name as a spy. The film shows how she metamorphoses into a mature and strong-willed woman from a passionate damsel.

This is not a typical three-way love story, but a film in which politics, passion, and humour are expertly merged together. Certainly a hit, as far as making films from real life incidents goes.

My Mongolian Mother

The film, set in the vast Mongolian grass lands, tell the story from the angle one of the orphans, who were taken to Mongolia from China in the early 1960s. His mother brought two of the orphans, despite suffering many forms of hardships during the process. When they are ready to stand on their own, their original parents come to take them back. This provides emotional problems for both the Mongolian mother and her adopted children. But she is all poise and grace during such a crunch time.

The film has a magnificent setting and an emotionally gripping story. But somehow the film stops short of creating the magic that good films trigger in the spectators’ mind. I would rate it as a miss, as far as making films from real life incidents goes.

IFFK 2010 Day 5: The Kyrgyz Experience

2010-12-14T17:49:00.001-08:00

Breaking-up of the former USSR (Soviet Union) was big news here in Kerala back in the eighties. The political result may be good or bad (it certainly depends on how you look at it). But it has certainly a boon for the film lover. The number of good films from the former Soviet republics would emphatically vouch for that.

Today, I saw two more lovely films from Kyrgyzstan, The Light Thief, directed by Aktan Arym Kubat, who also plays the lead role, and Saratan, directed by Ernest Abdyjaparov. I had already written about The Adopted Son, directed by Aktan Abdikalikov, a delightful neorealist film about the childhood days of an adopted boy. These three directors are pioneering something like a film new wave in the country, as the sheer quality of these films indicate.

The Light Thief

This is the debut movie of the director. It deals with the life of an electrician, who is known as Mr. Light, in a remote village in Kyrgyzstan. He is extremely popular in the village, as he helps the poor by making the electric meter run in the reverse direction, so that the poor people do not need to pay the electricity bill. But soon authorities found this out and terminated his services. But he still has his innovative ideas, such as generating electric power from windmills. He has even constructed a miniature windmill in front of his house. The laidback life in the windy, mountainous village faces a challenge when an ambitious city-born politician tries to procure lands in the village.

Initially, he manages to impress the villagers with his new ideas, especially Mr. Light. But soon, our hero realizes the dangers of siding with the politician and refuses to co-operate with him. Troubles start then for him, leading to a poignant climax. The film touches different shades of human emotions and many of the contemporary issues, such as globalization, political changes, and exploitation.

Saratan

It is another film that depicts the lazy, laidback life in Kyrgyz villages. The same locations that appear in The Light Thief appear in this film too: lovely fields, mountains as backdrops, and dusty roads. This is a more like a black comedy than a realistic drama. You find a number of characters with curious habits: a Mayor, whom nobody bribes, a womanizing police man, a thief who commits suicide after losing a duel with the police man, a political rebel who still has faith in Communism, a preacher who tries to spread Christian religion, a mullah who is always late for the morning prayers, a rich man who tries to take control of the land, and a bunch of alcoholic villagers.

The film portrays the life in a village which is crippled by neglect of the state and economic crisis. The Mayor sums up the political situation of the region nicely, when he says, “Earlier people used to depend on the government for money; now government depends on the people for money”.

IFFK 2010 Day 4 – Zephyr: A Gem of a Film

2010-12-13T17:27:00.001-08:00

I could watch only one film on the fourth day of IFFK 2010. But it more made up for my day. The film was Zephyr, a Turkish film in the Competition Section, directed by Belma Bas, one of the frontrunners of the new generation Turkish filmmakers. The film has already become a strong contender for the Golden Pheasant award. Wine, an Argentine film in the competition section, too has received rave reviews from the critics and enthusiastic response from the audience.

Zephyr

The film deals with the story of a young girl, named Zephyr, who lives with her grand parents in a hilly Turkish village. Her mother is not living with them, and the girl spends most of the time looking for her mother from a cliff. But the mother does not turn up. The girl becomes more and more unemotional in her attitude towards her friends and even grand parents. Her best companion is the Mother Nature. Life goes along in the beautiful village without much noise. And one day her mother arrives. Joy erupts in their household.

Soon, she hears hushed talks about her mother’s imminent departure. This time, she is leaving for good. Zephyr predictably becomes very annoyed at this. Finally, the day of her mother’s departure arrives. She leaves in the early morning, which is just recovering from the previous night’s mist. Zephyr secretly follows her mother. But soon they meet. It leads to a stunning climax.

The film unfolds in a slow, teasing manner. Each sequence of the film is thoughtfully conceived and beautifully shot, which organically evolves into the awesome finale. A must watch.

IFFK 2010 – Day 3. A Busy Day, But Good Films

2010-12-12T20:31:00.001-08:00

It has been a busy day in which I saw four films. In the end I felt I have been punch-drunk with movies. Here are my impressions about the movies.

The Adopted Son

First I saw Beshkempir, The Adopted Son, which is a film from Kyrgyzstan, directed by Aktan Abdikalikow. I had read some good reviews about the film from the internet. But I never imagined that it would be such a remarkably good film. It portrays the childhood of an adopted son in a rustic village in Kyrgyzstan. For us, who have grown up watching Pather Paanchali, the atmosphere of the film looks pretty familiar. The difference between this and Indian neorealist is the delightful portrayal of the mischief-filled childhood of the protagonist.

Certified Copy

Next I watched the one of the most eagerly awaited films of this festival, Certified Copy, by the renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. Iranian filmmakers have been enjoying special attention in IFFK, right from its start. But this film from Koarostami is a disappointment. It was not a boring film. I expected much better from the Iranian virtuoso. The film unfolds through the conversation between a man and a woman; both are art experts. The conversation starts from the originality in art, then soon drifts to love, marriage troubles, and philosophy. Soon, we find out that they are actually husband and wife. You feel more like reading a novel or an article that watching a movie.

After that I watched two more films in the afternoon: Optical Illusions, a Competition Section film from Chile, directed by Cristian Jimenez, and Just Between Us, a Croatian film directed by Rajko Grlic. Both the films dealt delightfully with unusual subjects. Optical Illusions shows us why the urge for change is an optical illusion. Just Between Us is a celebration of unfaithfulness and sexual desires.

IFFK 2010 – Day 2

2010-12-11T17:58:00.001-08:00

I managed to watch four films in IFFK 2010 today: What You Don’t See, an Austrian film directed by Wolfgang Fischer, Irma Wep, part of the retrospective of the post New Wave French director Olivier Assayas, Domaine, a rather recent French film directed by Patric Chiha, and Songs of Love and Hate, a Swiss film directed by Katalin Godros. The last mentioned is easily the best film of the day, with its deft portrayal of the complex relationships within a family.

What You Don’t See

The films title is perhaps indicative of its content. On the surface, it appears a simple enough film about a teenaged boy coming to a resort with his mother and her lover. He meets another rash youngster and his girl companion. The mother and her lover spend most of their time together, while the boy roams with his new found friends. His mother is somewhat guilty about having an affair and seeks is permission to marry her lover. But nothing goes according to the plan, as his friend kills the beloved pet dog of his mother’s lover. Things, then, take an unexpected twist. As I said, the storyline appears simple enough. But as the film unfolds, the narrative becomes complex. I could not draw much from the film. What you don’t see is what you probably get.

Irma Wep

I decided to watch Irma Wep after seeing the lively documentary Olivier Assayas, This film was made in 1999. It is a satiric film about the pseudo intellectualism in French film industry, and provides a fly-on-the-wall narration of the events surrounding the remake of a French horror film, Irma Wep. An actress from Hong Kong, known for her performances in stunt movies, reaches Paris to take the lead role of the movie. She is confronted with an ensemble of typical film folks: busy executives, hopelessly pretentious directors, and quarrelling crew members.

The film is fun to watch, but it did not live up to my expectations, which had been fuelled rather irrationally by yesterday’s documentary. Before the screening of the movie, Beena Paul, creative director of the festival, introduced Olivier Assayas to the audience. He spoke a few words too.

Songs of Love and Hate

It is a family drama of a different kind that narrates the perils of growing up. Set in a farming village, the film deals with the story of Rico, a wine yard farmer, his wife, and their two daughters. His elder daughter, Lilly, has an affair with a neighbourhood boy. Rico’s approach towards his daughter changes when he learns about her affair (or possibly after he saw her naked body accidentally). This creates reverberations in the whole family. Lilly’s attitude towards life, especially towards her parents changes. His wife too understands the changes in him. Tension grips the relationship within the family members.

The film portrays the dark sides of human psyche and sexuality (as the director said, apologetically in fact, before the screening). But she deserves praise for the deft handling of such a delicate subject. A good movie, the best so far for me in this year’s IFFK.

IFFK Day 1: Two Films that Looked like Documentaries and a Documentary that Looked like a Film

2010-12-10T06:56:00.000-08:00

The first day at IFFK 2010 started, as is the precedent, at Kalabhavan at 9 AM. For a change, the first screening this year comprised two films: Cameroon Love Letter, directed by Khavn De La Cruz, and Unreal Forest, directed by Jakrawal Nilthamrong. Both the films are part of Forget Africa package of Rotterdam Film Festival. And both the films are bold experiments on film craft, but are unkind to a casual viewer, as the directors’ names are to the tongue. Still, each of these films is memorable in its own unique way and is worthy first screenings of the latest edition of IFFK.

Unreal Forest

The film meticulously plays the celluloid double card trick –a film within a film – that no longer amuses seasoned film watchers. But it serves the purpose for the director, as it neatly conveys the problems faced by filmmakers in Africa and the plight of the poor. The first part is the documentary-like unfolding of making of a film and the second part is the film itself.

Cameroon Love Letter

The second film of the screening was even more unconventional. The film was made from documentary footages from Cameroon. But it deals with a poignant tale of break-up and love between two metro-sexuals. There is no obvious link between the visuals and the narration. But the cocktail of haunting music, the scathing, yet lyrical parting letter written by the woman protagonist (who never comes on the screen, but her letter appears as subtitles on various parts), and the monologue by the protagonist of the movie creates an absorbingly unique ambience on the screen.

A majority of the viewers, it seemed, could not stand two stylistically path-breaking films at one go. The screening started house-full. But when it ended after more than two hours, there were only a handful of spectators.

HHH- A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Later, I watched HHH- A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, directed by Olivier Assayas, at Kalabhavan. My original idea was to see Black and White, a Turkish film that is tipped by the local media as one of the must-watch films of this festival. But a last minute change in schedule by the organizers spoiled the plan. Most people only realized it is a documentary only when they entered the cinema hall. No more, some of them pleaded, especially after the first two films. But the documentary turned out to be livelier than the films that preceded it.

This is the director’s tribute to the prominent Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The determination and strong character of the subject shone throughout the documentary. Sequences of the some of his films too are nicely weaved into the narrative. There is not even a single dull moment in the movie, thanks mainly to the documentary-maker’s craft and partly also due to the dynamic personality of its subject.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Hopefully, it will be even better than this.

IFFK 2010 Starts Tomorrow

2010-12-09T08:06:00.001-08:00

All set for a grand start to the fifteenth edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala, IFFK 2010. It has been raining heavily (cats, dogs, and other animals) in Thiruvananthapuram city over the last week. Even the rain stopped today as if to welcome the festival.

For many film lovers in Kerala, an annual trip to Thiruvananthapuram in the second week of December has become a kind of an addictive cinematic pilgrimage. This year too a number of fascinating films are on offer in the IFFK. Complete details regarding the films and schedules have been published in the official website of the festival.

A welcome change is the launch of signature film well before the first screening. It is created by some creative souls in Toonz Animation, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram. It is available in Youtube.

Online Registration Opens for IFFK

2010-11-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

Organizers of 15th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) chose the auspicious occasion of Deepavali to open the online registration facility for delegates. Visit www.iffk.in for register online. Fireworks of delightful memories have already started in the minds of film buffs.

Image courtesy IFFK website

Over the last few years, there has been no shortage of innovation from the part of IFFK openers. There won’t be any shortage this time either, judging by the changes in the website. Last year’s delegates can now register themselves easily with just three or four clicks. Details and photos of all the delegates of 14th IFFK are already there in the website. What more, you can search by your name, registration number, mobile number, or place. You can edit the details if you want. Registration fee is Rs. 300/-, can be paid in person at Kalabhavan office, through demand draft, or through online payment.

Two Malayalam films – Paleri Manikyam, Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha, by Ranjith, and TD Dasan, Std. 6B, by Mohan Raghavan, have been included in the competition section of the festival.

Onam photos and videos from a Kerala village

2010-08-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some some onam photos and videos from a village near Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram.

Happy onam to all. Click here.

Is Football More Important Than Life and Death?

2010-06-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

Malabar, or northern Kerala, is the paradise of soccer lovers in Kerala, or so the cliché goes. There is something in the air in northern Kerala that creates better writers and more ardent soccer fans than in the southern parts. You just need to travel through the region to find out how deep runs footbal fever in Malabar.

Virtually every junction in Malappuram and Kozhikkode districts is decorated with flex boards of football World Cup. Not only the boards are aesthetically designed, but these have cleverly worded captions too. Kaka is a favorite of wordsmiths, as the word “kaka” in Malayalam means crow. Many Malayalam proverbs involving crow are twisted to great comic effect. One fan of Maradona's boys wrote in a flex board: “Messikku mukalil kakkayum parakkilla”. That is, even Kaka (crow in Malayalam) would not fly over Messi.

In the very next junction, Samba fans replied stylishly: “Aayiram Messikku ara Kaka (Half a Kaka is enough for thousand Messis). Well, judging by the posters it looks like Brazil has the maximum number of fans, followed by Argentina. Other countries like Portugal, England, and even France have some loyal Malayali supporters.

On the other hand, southern Keralites seem to have kept their soccer emotions under check prior to the World Cup. However, things are hotting up, football-wise, despite the heavy rain in these parts. Yesterday's match between Argentina and Nigeria was keenly watched and discussed here. And football did become a more important matter than life and death here.

Ambu, a native of Mudapuram, near Chirayinkeezhu about 35 km from Thiruvananthapuram, succumbed to injuries sustained during a brawl with some cable TV operators yesterday. The brawl broke out after cable TV connection was lost in the area. Ambu, it is said, demanded immediate resumption of Cable TV network. But the cable TV operators were not able to repair the connection. It resulted in a quarrel and subsequent fighting between Ambu and the cable TV operators. Ambu suffered injuries, which later proved fatal.

Bill Shankly (who is know more famous for his quote, “football is not a matter of life and death. It is much more that”, than his achievements with Liverpool) must be the greatest prophet as far as football is concerned.

IFFK 2009 Final Day: Watching Films As If There Is No Tomorrow

2009-12-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

It was the last day of IFFK 2009. I watched films as if there is no tomorrow. I saw Twenty (an Iranian film directed by Abdolreza Kahani), Divine (directed by the Mexican master Arturo Ripstein), and Man by the Shore (directed by the Haitian virtuoso Raoul Peck). I opted to watch the last two films because I have not watched any of the films of the retrospectives of Arturo Ripstein and Raoul Peck. Now I realize that it was a bad mistake.

Twenty

It is a typical Iranian film, much like the films of, say, Majid Majidi. The film boasts of many familiar Iranian qualities: a simple theme, straightforward and flawless narration, and characters grappling with their inherent weaknesses and surviving with their inherent strengths.

The main character of the film is the owner of a hall, which is used for hosting marriage functions and functions related to funerals. The opening scenes establish that he is having psychiatric problems, as they are getting orders of funeral functions only. The psychiatrist advises him to sell the hall. The next day one person comes along with a real estate agent to have a look at the hall. The owner then announces the staff that he would be selling the hall within 20 days. The rest of the story is about how the decision affects the staff members, five of them, and how they react to it.

Divine

This is a black comedy by the renowned Mexican director Arturo Ripstein. He made the film to look like a celluloid spoof of epic Hollywood films. The film narrates the events in the camp of a Christian sect, called New Jerusalem. The sect is headed by a virgin who is to bear the god’s son. The present head is an old woman who has many health issues. Troubles start when she selects a young new comer as her successor. She starts to give strange orders.

The film’s objects of sarcasm are wide ranged: from Christian beliefs to Hollywood epic films. The most memorable scene of the movie is undoubtedly its climax.

Man by the Shore

This is a beautifully conceived political movie – the story is told the memories of a girl, whose parents went missing after a coup in Haiti. I have to say that this is a fitting finale to any film festival. The film has many things in common with the first film I watched in this festival: The Last Supper. Both show fights of ordinary people against the mighty.

About Elly and Jarmal Share IFFK 2009 Honors

2009-12-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

About Elly (an Iranian film directed Asghar Farhadi) and Jarmal (an Indonesian film directed by Ravi L. Bharwani and Rayya Makarim) won the Golden Crow Pheasant Award (Suvarnachakoram) in the just concluded 14th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK 2009). About Elly had won many prestigious international awards and recognition, including Oscar nomination for the best foreign film and Asia Pacific Screen Award.

Details of Winners

The Golden Crow Pheasant Award (Suvarnachakoram): About Elly and Jarmal

The Silver Crow Pheasant Award (Rajata Chakoram): My Secret Skys (a South African film directed by Madoda Ncayiyana)

The best director: Nosir Siadov (director of True Noon, a Tajikistan film)

Audience award for the best film: True Noon

FIPRESCI award for the best film: A Fly in the Ashes (an Argentine film directed by Gabriela David)

NETPAC award for the best Asian Film: Jarmal

The best debut Indian Film: Harichandra Factory (directed by Paresh Mokashi)

NETPAC award for the best Malayalam Film: Kerala Café (a film comprising 10 short films; produced by Ranjith)

FIPRESCI award for the best Malayalam Film: Patham Nilayile Theevandi (directed by Joshy Mathew)

About Elly: A Tour Gone Sour

2009-12-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2009 - Day 6

I watched three films today. I had planned to watch four films. However, I could not watch any of those four films because of a seemingly endless traffic jam in Thiruvananthapuram city. In the end, I managed to watch Ploy (an Indonesian film by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang), Once Upon A Time (an Italian film by Francesco Rosi), and About Elly (an Iranian film by Asghar Farhadi).

Ploy

Ploy is a kind of not-so-good not-so-bad film. It deals with a decaying marriage life, or what is famously knows as the seven year itch. The protagonists, a man who runs a restaurant in USA and his second wife, who had been a film actress, come to Indonesia to attend a funeral. The film starts with an aero plane landing. For most of the part, the events take place in a hotel. The husband meets a teenaged girl, named Ploy, who is waiting for her mother to arrive from Sweden later in the day, and invites her to the room. The arrival of the girl irks the wife. Slowly, the lack of love and communication between the couple unfolds.

The wife leaves the room afterwards and ends up being drugged and raped. In some separate and slightly unrelated sequences, the bartender and cleaning girl of the hotel makes love in another room. The only thing that links the detailed love-making scenes with the main plot is Ploy’s reference to a dream she had in which she sees the same people making love.

One good thing about the film is what can be called visual humor. Some unusual sequences and camera angles create subtle humor without the help of any action or any dialogues.

The film started 15 minutes late, as the director, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, could not reach the venue in time. In the end, screening started without the director making his customary introductory speech. It only helped in spoiling the film-watching plans of many delegates.

Once Upon A Time

This techni-color movie starring Omar Sharif and Sophia Loren is indisputably the worst movie I have watched in this festival. Some of the older folks may have got a feeling of déjà vu and nostalgic memories by seeing Sophia Loren. However, the response of the delegates gave the impression that most of them were plainly bored by the film.

About Elly

This is a competition section film. I won’t be surprised if it wins the award (though I pray that Soofi Paranjha Katha or Madhyavenal win the award). It is a deftly woven film which reflects many complex issues of life and human psyche by narrating some simple things.

The plot can be described as follows. A group of young couple go for a picnic in a seaside town. One odd person in the group is Elly, the nursery teacher of the daughter of one of the couples. The first half shows typical incidents of a picnic. The mood of the film changes when a young boy of the group is trapped in the waves. The grown-ups somehow rescue the boy, but then they notice that Elly is missing. They search frantically for her, but to no avail.

However, the incident slowly reveals many uncomfortable issues between the couples. Soon, the whole group gets entangled in a web of lies. What was seen in the first half of the movie as pleasant interpersonal relationships start getting bitter. Towards the end of the movie, Elly’s fiancée too enters the fray, complicating things further.

The director, Asghar Farhadi, remains impressively non-judgmental and impassive in the treatment. The viewers feel like peeling an onion called life. The outer layers seem bright and easy. However, as one goes inwards, the texture and complexion of the layers change, and the characters appear unrecognizable from the ones shown in the first half of the movie.

IFFK Blogs

The media coverage and the coverage on bloggosphere about IFFK have been subdued, compared to the previous years’. Two notable blogs about IFFK are dear cinema and passion for cinema. The writers are knowledgeable, passionate about films, and write seriously well. IFFK this time has an official blog too. Kanikonna, a Malayalam website, too publish stories occasionally. It contains many interesting posts. Delegates and guests can contribute to the blog by sending their posts to iffk.blog@gmail.com.

Jermal: A Mid-sea Fishing Platform Hosts A Strange Family Re-union

2009-12-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

IFFK Day 5

I could watch only two films today. Elevator to the Gallows by Louis Malle and Jermal, an Indonesian film directed by Ravi L. Bharwani and Rayya Makarim.

Elevator to the Gallows

This is a well-known and widely-appreciated classic, which should have used up reams of newsprint and megabytes of internet server space by now. It was vintage New Wave stuff: emptiness of urban life and wickedness of fate, all shown through a fast narrative laced with subtle humor. However, watching this film confirmed one doubt that I had for some time. French New Wave films are probably the first of the classic films that would succumb to the test of time.

Jermal

Jermal is one of the Competition Section films of IFFK 2009. The film is set on a magnificent backdrop. Almost the entire film is shot in a fishing platform (Jermal) in the middle of a sea.

The film starts with the shots of a boy (Jaya) being taken to the Jermal. There he was introduced to his father Johar, who refuses to accept him. Jaya finds the life in the Jermal difficult as the senior boys in the group subject him to cruel ragging. The back-breaking work in the Jermal too takes a toll on him.

The narrative flows through two streams. The first is the relationship between Jaya and his father. The second is how Jaya rebels against the tyranny of the leader of the boys. As the life in Jermal moves on, Jaya gets new friends, most of whom are attracted towards him because of his ability to write. His new found confidence reflects in the arrogant attitude towards his father. However, his father’s mind travels in the reverse direction. The more he sees his son, the more his stubbornness towards his son melts.

By the time Johar realizes the extent of his paternal affection, Jaya had become an entirely different personality. He even beats up the hooligan leader. It was then that Johar decides to tell his son why he abandoned his wife and why he leads a secret life of exile in the Jermal.

This is a realistically shot and well-crafted film, which for the most part, oscillates between the seriousness of a difficult father-son relationship and a more mirthful world of some rough boys and their tricks.

IFFK: International Film Festival of Kim Ki-Duc?

2009-12-14T08:52:00.001-08:00

IFFK 2009 – Day 4

I saw two films today in IFFK 2009: Anti Christ and Dream. Considering the frantic rush for these two films, watching them in itself should be considered as an achievement. Both films were good and memorable in their own unique way.

Anti Christ: Passion, Guilt and Crime

This is a gruesome, yet daring story of a couple, whose only toddler son falls down through the window and crashes to death, while they are passionately engaging in sexual intercourse. The opening sequence of the movie dramatically shows this incident. Thereafter, the movie is divided into four segments: grief, pain, despair, and three beggars.

The guilty conscious soon catches up with the wife (a later scene shows that she has actually seen the child about to fall, but has not done anything in her excited state of orgasm) and starts playing mental tricks. The husband is a therapist and soon takes the responsibility of treating her mental problems.

They move to an isolated cabin in a forest, where the entire family spent some days in the previous year. There, the activities grow more grotesque. Soon, her mental condition improves (she herself proclaims in one scene that she has come out of the problem); however, the husband starts to have problems. The animals, insects, plants, and all around him begin to frighten him.

As he tries to figure out the meaning of the notes that she wrote during their previous stay, she attacks him with a piece of wood. What happens later is … well, I am not spoiling it. It depends on whether you watch a Catholic or Protestant version of the movie. Apparently, IFFK received a protestant version. In a nut shell, she destroys the organs that were the root cause of the child’s death.

This is a difficult movie to watch. Even the dialogues (which is in English and hence no subtitles) is not very clear in some scenes. However, visuals are splendid and convey the mental turbulences of the actors. I would have watched the film again, if not for those gruesome scenes. Maybe, when or if computers take over, this might well be the only film they preserve.

A large number of people assembled at Kripa Theater to watch the movie, despite this being the second screening. Some newspaper reports about the explicit sex scenes in the movie obviously catalyzed spectator interests.

Dream: Whose Dream Is Your Life

It has been established today once and for all: Kim Ki-Duc is the best-loved and most sought-after director in IFFK. There were long queues in front of Dhanya-Remya theater complex that prompted security guards to wonder why all these people want to see this film. And when the name Kim Ki-Duc appeared on the screen, there were thunderous applause and cheers from the viewers.

The screening of the film, which was to be started on 11.45, started 15 minutes late. The fact that the previous screening at Dhanya concluded only on 11.35 complicates the matters further. After a determined effort in the heavy rush, I managed to get into the theatre. However, once the film started, all the sufferings were easily forgotten.

The film has a bewitching story line. A man sees dreams and a woman enacts the dreams in her sleepwalking self. This leads to some complex, occasionally humorous, and almost always beautiful sequences. The opening scenes establish this curious link between the protagonists. The film goes on to narrate how it changes their lives.

Verdict: A simple and bright movie that deals with some complex issues surrounding human psyche.

A Day Of Average Films

2009-12-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

IFFK Day 3

I saw two films today: Sweet Rush by the acclaimed Polish director Adrezej Wajda and Bad Day to Go Fishing by the Uruguayan director Alvaro Brechner. Both films failed to match with the standard of the movies of the previous two days.

Poor planning forced me to miss one film. The first film, Sweet Rush, at Remya theatre, started at 10 am and finished around 11.30. It left me with only one choice in the second screening time segment – Nothing Personal (a Dutch film directed by Urszula Antoniak) at the same theatre. However, there was a huge rush for this movie and I could not even enter into the theater. Rumor has it that a particularly attractive poster of Nothing Personal, with a naked lady lying in a bed, caused this unprecedented rush.

Sweet Rush

Sweet rush is a “grass-like plant growing in wet places and having cylindrical often hollow stems”. The movie is based on a novel, in which the plant is an indicator of disasters. The movie has a two-layered structure. The first narrative structure is an actress’s monologues about her lover’s disease and about the problems about making a movie called Sweet Rush by Adrezej Wajda. The second narrative shows the movie in which she is acting. At one point towards the climax, both narratives intercept.

The director has shown deft craftsmanship in intercepting the two narratives. However, there is no point in hailing the narrative skills of a master like Wajda. The whole world knows it. Despite the narrative brilliance, the movie fails to engage the viewers.

One can find some of usual themes of Wajda’s films here also: The Second World War, existential questions, and personal grief and sorrows. Still, the lengthy single frame shots of the heroine’s monologue are monotonous and painstakingly slow. One feels like listening to an audio novel at times.

Bad Day to Go Fishing

Well, this is not boring or slow-paced. This is a happy film that deals with the life of an exiled wrestler and his cunning agent. The film opens with an ambulance, taking a body of an unconscious man to a hospital. The rest of the film actually reveals who is that unconscious person and how he ends up in the hospital bed.

The agent makes a living out of taking the “world champion” to various villages in Uruguay and arranging mock fights, like WWE wrestling fights seen on sports channels. The champion always wins and opponents who fake defeat too get some money.

In this particular village, they run into problems. The arranged opponent was arrested after drunken brawl in a bar. In addition, a strong-willed woman comes on behalf of her strong-bodied fiancée to challenge the world champion. The circumstances force them to accept the challenge. Despite the determined efforts from the agent, the challenger and the fiancée refuse to accept his terms. The agent tries to flee on the previous day; however, world champion intimidates him to stay on. Eventually the fight takes place and one of them ended up in the hospital bed. Well, I am not spoiling the climax by saying who it is.

This is a well-made film, suitable more for commercial box offices than festival circuits.

No Monday morning blues

Tomorrow is going to be a big day (for once, I am eagerly waiting for a Monday). I have reserved seats for Anti Christ by Lars Von Trier and Dream by Kim Ki-Duk. I think I will have to miss Puska's Hungary (a documentary about Ferenc Puskás and his magic Magyars, the mighty Hungarian football team) as its screening clashes with that of Anti Christ.

Useful IFFK Tips For Dummies

2009-12-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

I have seen over the last two days many ardent film lovers struggling to figure out the nuances of the sms reservation option for balcony tickets in IFFK 2009. These are the same folks who can reel out anything from German Expressionism, French New Wave, et al to the titles of Golden Palm winning films in Cannes since their birth even in their sleep. As a socially committed cinephile, I decided to do something about it. And this is the result: some do-it-yourself tips to make your life (and others’ as well) in IFFK better and peaceful.

How to book balcony seats through sms

This is simple enough. You need to send an sms to 9446301234. The sms should have the following format: Reg. no.[space]password[space]date[space]theater[space]film code.

Although it looks like a programming code, it is really simple. One can get the reg. no. and password from the delegate pass. Date refers to the day (that is, 14, 15, 16 etc.). Type the exact spellings of theatre and film code from the IFFK schedule. An ideal sms would look like this: 1160 PSUB7X3 15 KAIRALI CS05

Well, this much you get from one of the umpteen sms’s sent by TM-IFFK. This is only the theory part. Practical is somewhat more difficult. Before going to the practical, one must learn a bit more theoretical aspects.

The SMS reservation facility for a particular film starts two days before the date of screening of the film. Say, if the film is to be screened on 16th, the sms reservation facility starts on – yes, you guessed it right – 14th (remember the Godard’s equation: cinema = truth x 24 frames/sec). The reservation facility starts around 10’o clock in the morning.

The early birds do not have to sit in the front row and crane their necks. Nor they have to stand in random queues as shown in the picture on the left. However, one has to be fully prepared to tackle the situation. Practice the following tips and you can walk into the balcony with your head held high when others quarrel and plead with the hapless security guards at the entrance.

Practical tips

1. Be prepared for balcony reservation two days in advance. That is, if you plan to book tickets on 16th, carry out all these activities on or before the morning of 14th.

2. Type your password and user name on the messaging window of your mobile phone. Type this number on the “To:” box: 9446301234. Then save the message as draft.

3. I assume that you have done the research about the movies (Suggested references: IFFK schedule, google, wikipedia, and all that jazz) and have finalized the films that you are going to watch on a particular day. Find the draft message you have saved in your phone and open it in the edit window. Type date, theater, and film code so that the message has this format: 1160 PSUB7X3 15 KAIRALI CS05. Save a message for each reservation that you want to make. This is easy. Change only theater and the film code of the original message and save it as a different message.

4. Around 9’o clock or a little later, you will receive a message from TM-IFFK informing that the reservation facility for a particular day (say 16th) has just been opened. Act on war footing now. You can forget any other job (including watching movies!) for some seconds. Straight away take the saved draft messages and send them one by one as soon as possible.

5. Make sure that you receive a confirmation from TM-IFFK (this may take up to 30 minutes).

6. Lastly and most importantly, make sure that you reach the venue 10-15 minutes before the screening and show your card to the security personnel. Otherwise, you will have to muscle your way through a crowd who are waiting snatch up the unoccupied seats in the balcony.

True Noon: The States and The People

2009-12-12T17:56:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2009: Day 2 Night

True Noon, a Tajikistan Film directed by Nosir Siadov, is a delightful, yet poignant film about how people’s life change by the interference of the governments. A number of films have dealt with this theme. Still, this film is fresh and beautifully shot.

The story happens in a mountainous border village between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet states, which have become independent states after the fall of communism. The film develops around Kiril, an old supervisor of the weather observatory in the town, and his beautiful apprentice, Niloufar. He wants to leave to his Moscow to be with his wife, children, and grandchildren. He wants to hand over the duties to Niloufar, but there are many hurdles. She is about to be get married. They have to persuade the husband and other relatives about sending her to work after marriage. In addition, she does not have a formal certificate.

All such problems go to backstage as the army makes its appearance on the town. The army personnel put a barbed wire fence right across the village. Schools, hospitals, and many other institutions are on one side and many people are stranded on the other. It leads to some funny scenes, where a teacher stands and teaches on the one side of the fence and students sit and learn the other side.

Kiril is forced to cut the barbed wire, when the Niloufar’s mother feels pregnancy pain (her husband is determined to get a son). However, sensing this, the army men put mines on the path. The situation becomes dangerous as the marriage date of Niloufar nears and leads to a tense climax.

True Noon reminds one of a famous short story in Malayalam: Nalam Lokam (The Fourth World) written by NS Madhavan. It deals with the problems take place in a space shuttle, jointly launched by India and the then USSR, after the fall of the Soviet Republic. But the film is not as satiric as the story.

Reservation: Official versus People’s

More people arrived at IFFK 2009 on the second day. At least in some places, tempers started to fray. People are still to come into terms with the advanced reservation facility. In most places, not all people who reserve seats in the balcony bother to turn up. This led to many vacant seats in balcony; that too, when unreserved people are sitting in the front row, craning their necks upwards to watch the movie.

People soon learnt about this aspect somehow. Today before the screening of True Noon, some people demanded entry into the balcony even though they do not have a reservation. They actually tried to force their way in. It led to some angry arguments between the staff and the delegates. Perhaps, it is a fitting introduction to a film that deals with the trouble that an official decision brings to people!

However, the problems here are absolutely not the fault of the organizers. They have done well to provide even a simple sms reservation facility. Perhaps, they should start a cancellation facility too. I think they should also ban further reservation option of those people (at least a ban of one or two days) who do not turn up after reserving a balcony seat.

Broken Embraces: A Typical Almodovar Film

2009-12-12T03:55:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2009 Day 2 Evening

Perhaps it is the high expectation. I must say that Broken Embraces does not create the same kind of magic that some of the previous films of Almodovar created in previous IFFKs. By no means is this an ordinary film. Everything that we have seen from Almodovar is there; but only those things, not anything beyond. We are becoming too familiar with the celluloid phenomena of the so-called planet Pedro.

The story revolves around a writer-director who has become blind and, in his own words, “has become his pseudonym”. As we watch the film, the gripping story of how he has become blind and his pseudonym unravels. It would be an injustice if it is reduced it to the storyline. (Interested people may check the Wikipedia article here). I have to say that the story does not have the sharpness or complexity of some his previous films. However, there are some typical Almodovar moments in the movie: beautiful frames, a natural flow of sequences that only the masters’ films possess, characters with strange and intertwined history,another film within the film, and sharp and witty dialogues.

Judging by the response of the audience, soon we may witness the formation of an Almodovar fans association in Thiruvananthapuram. There were thunderous clapping when his name appeared on the screen and when particularly spectacularly scenes appeared on the screen. Penelope Cruz too seems to have her own share of admirers as her introduction too was received in the manner usually reserved superstars in Malayalam and Tamil.

Next I am going to Kairali for watching my first Competition Section film in this year’s IFFK: True Noon, a Tajikistan film directed by Nosir Siadov.

Tales From The Golden Age: Tales of Black Humor

2009-12-12T00:39:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2009 – Day 2 Afternoon

I watched two films today so far. The Other Bank by George Ovashvili and Tales from the Golden Age by Cristian Mungiu, Loana Maria Uricaru, and Hanno Höfer.

The Other Bank is a film about a 12-year old boy, a refugee in Georgia, who goes in search of his father to forbidden territories. The film portrays his life, his journey, the incidents during the journey, and the life in the warring regions of erstwhile Soviet Union. It is an engaging film, with fantastic performance from the boy who plays the lead role.

The second film, Tales From The Golden Age, is a dig at the Communist-ruled Romania in 1980s. It is a laugh riot – satire at its best. The film comprises five short films. The best among them is the one about the official inspection in a village. Any Keralite who has seen the organizing of government official functions in Kerala can easily relate with most of the incidents in the short movie. The one about official party photographer is also hilarious. Others are too are filled with sarcastic moments about the party and life in general.

Now, I am going dash off to Kripa to watch Broken Embraces by Pedro Almodovar. I have reserved tickets. Hope I get a seat!

Land of Scarecrows Lights Up IFFK 2009

2009-12-11T09:26:00.000-08:00

There were several interesting movies in the very first day itself of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK 2009), which was officially inaugurated at Nishagandhi Open Air Auditorium a few hours back. I saw three films: The Last supper, Eastern Plays, and Land of scarecrows. The third one was my pick of the day.

I had planned to watch Adrezej Wajda’s Sweet Rush, as I always trust the old guard than the flashy new comers (as in Cricket). However, I changed my plan in the last minute and went to watch Land of Scarecrows, a South Korean film directed by Gyeong-tae Roh. It is a remarkable film in that it is a rare blend of cinematic beauty and social criticism and yet provides insights into human nature and the environmental concerns.

Most of the events take place in two places, in Philippines and Korea, which is a bit hard to figure out in the initial stages. However, the picture post card beauty of the still frames (the camera never seems to move) captivate the viewers. Slowly, the main characters emerge: Jang, who feel she has become a man after the wet land near her home was filled with soil: Rain, a Philippino girl who wanted to marry a Korean and whom Jang marries in a made to order marriage ceremony in an obscure town in Phillippines, and Loi Tan, who is in search of his adopted Philippine father.

In some comic scenes, which break the monotony of charming visuals, Rain discovers that her husband is actually a woman. Then she meets Loi and there starts a silence romance.

The story of the characters is a secondary theme in the movie. The main theme is captured in an expletive-filled sermon of a spiritual guru, whom Jang consults to find a cure for her trans-gender problem. He says the cause of all the problems these days is “putting human’s soul in monkeys’ in humans, …. Carrot’s in onion, and onion’s in carrot”. One cannot agree more.

IFFK 2009: Two films and the signature film

2009-12-10T23:56:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2009 Day Afternoon

I watched two films so far today. The Last Supper, by the Cuban director Tomas Gutierrez Alea, turned out to be a great film. It is satirical, philosophical, and even has a revolutionary flair.

The story happens in in the 18th century, in a sugar mill in Cuba. A large number African American slaves are made to work in the mill like, well, slaves. The owner of the mill, a white, pious Christian, is concerned about the religious beliefs of the slaves. He gives them a supper, much like the original Last Supper. The film is often hilarious, and clinically exposes the double standards of the so-called religious capitalists. Perhaps, a politically correct film from Cuba, but well-made one.

The second film, Eastern Plays, by the Bulgarian director, Kamen Kalev, was not so impressive. It provides a kind of strange viewing experience. Every time you tend to feel bored with the sequences the director comes up with a gem, a great dialogue, a stunning visual, or an unexpected incident.

The protagonists are a wood carver and his jobless younger brother. The film deals mainly with the insecurities and hopelessness of the elder brother. The film moves at a slow pace, sometimes, too slow. However, brilliant dialogues and visuals that capture the mood of the protagonist keep the viewers enthralled.

Signature Film

The signature film has become one of the hotly anticipated items in IFFK. This year's turns out to be cool. Perhaps the best signature film seen in recent times at IFFK. Sanju Surendran is the man who seems to have done the impossible: satisfying almost all delegates.

A Curtain Raiser To IFFK 2009

2009-12-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

If the online activity on the eve of 14th International Film Festival of Kerala 2009 (IFFK 2009) is any indication, this one should become the best IFFK so far. The online reservation facility was near spotless. Online payment system was the most striking feature. Most of the films were announced weeks ahead and the schedule was published days in advance. Add online seat reservation facility to it, one might think IFFK should be god’s own film festival in terms of preparation. But wait. There are more to come. You can reserve the balcony seats even through sms. So, what next? A Twitter reservation facility?

All these can serve only as a good appetizer. The main course starts tomorrow. The list of films is mouthwatering. Most of the usual IFFK suspects are there: Almodovar, Kim Ki-Duk, Zanussi, Godard. The Makhmalbaf family seems to be the only notable absentees.

As always, the film screening of IFFK starts at 9 am in Kalabhavan. This time the unofficial opening movie is The Last Supper by the Cuban filmmaker Tomas Gutierrez Alea. The official inaugural movie is A Step into the Darkness, a Turkish film directed by Atil Inaç, which will be shown at Nishagandhi Open Air Auditorium at 6.15 pm. In between these two films, several other films are going to be screened tomorrow.

I am finding it difficult to finalize tomorrow’s schedule. The first one is easy as there are no other shows in the 9’o clock segment. After that, I think, I will watch Eastern Plays, a Bulgarian film directed by Kamen Kalev, though there are other potentially good catches, such as 7 Years (the debut film of the French director Jean-Pascal Hattu) and Castle of Purity by the Mexican virtuoso Arturo Ripstein.

I am planning to watch Sweet Rush by Adrezej Wajda in the afternoon, who just edges out another veteran of the previous generation François Truffaut (whose Jules and Jim will be shown at the same time segment). Two other notable films in the afternoon session are the South Korean film Land of Scarecrows (by Gyeong-tae Roh) and the Iranian film Be Calm & Count to 7 (by Ramtin Lavafipour).

Enough for a curtain raiser. Caution: More to follow after watching the movies.

IFFK 2009: Count Down Begins

2009-11-09T22:16:00.000-08:00

The 14th edition of International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will begin on December 11 in Thiruvananthapuram. It is an eight-day affair, where, hopefully, some of the excellent films made in the world during the last two years will be shown along with some of all time classics.

Certain films I saw in last year’s festival are still running successfully in the box office of my memory: Three Monkeys (by Nuri Ceylan), The Photograph (by Nan T. Achnas), and Blindness (by Fernando Meirelles) as well as Ashes And Diamonds (by Andrej Wajda) and The Magician (by Ingmar Bergman).

Strangely, I have not seen a film from a cinema theatre since the last IFFK. Thought of watching some films, such as Oru Pennum Randanum (A Climate for Crime, directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan), Slum Dog Millionaire, Pazhassi Raja, and a Tamil film called Nadodikal. Adoor’s film vanished from the theatre by the time I had managed to arrange an appointment with it. Bad reviews from some of my friends encouraged me to abandon the idea of watching the other films mentioned here. Living in a village helps too in avoiding a lot of trash films (even if I miss a rare good one). I can’t imagine being able to do this if I were still living or working in Chennai or Thiruvananthapuram.

So, IFFK has become the only cinematic concubine I have. Hope they will show some good films this year as well and do not screw up my time. After all, I am about to use all my creativity to fabricate excuses for some days’ leave from my office.

SACHIN...an art !

2009-11-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

"U can do any sin when Sachin is in the crease,God will not punish u,
bcos even god wil be watching him play !! "

-a famous quote on the maestro

What makes Sachin so special ?
Is it his technical perfection, fine tuned improvisations, perseverence,commitment,humility or is it his never dying passion for the game ?No definitions can define him,no metaphors can compare him...and probably thats how an art should be !

The crowds rise,rivals perspire,and partners are inspired, when this man enters the pitch.The lone warrior who carried the team and the hopes of a million countrymen on his shoulders.The very presence of the little man spreads an aura of faith,confidence and elegance all around.

The records queue up in his footsteps waiting to get broken and rewritten.The high standards set by himself has placed him in an elite class of his own.But he has managed to handle the burden of expectations throughout his stupendous career that has spanned for almost 2 decades now !

Ofcourse there is not even a tint of doubt in his abilities as a batsman but as a finisher he has miserably failed in many an occasion.The latest being his blistering innings of 175(141 balls) in the 5th ODI against the, no longer "mighty", Australians at Hyderabad(5 nov 2009).Only to end up in the losing side, with the team falling just 3 runs short of the target.It was his 45th ODI century.He also passed another milestone in the process-17000 runs in ODI cricket.But it was nothing less than heartbreak for his "worshippers" who were craving for such an innings,to see his valiant effort go in vain.

All through the innings you could see the glimpses of his prime time.May be the last big sparks from the greatest cricketer ever,easing to the twilight of his glorious career!!

What Is DHRM and Why Do They Kill

2009-09-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Click here to read the article.

WIMBLEDON 2009- EPIC, CLASSIC or SOMETHING more

2009-07-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

FEDERER vs RODICK 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14 !!
If last year’s Wimbledon final was an epic then what was this year’s? It was yet another magnificent performance from the legendary Federer-the man who has taken men’s tennis to new horizons. And he can now sit on the throne of men’s tennis alone with a staggering 15 grand slam titles in his shelf. Each time we feel this is the best we have seen, he comes up with something more, keeping us wondering what next ? What makes him a true champion is supreme skill, graceful movement, perseverance, dedication, self confidence or may be a rare blend of all these.

In the absence of Rafael Nadal, the defending champion and world no:1 it was expected to be nothing less than a “cake-walk” for Federer at the All England tennis club this year as no one other than Nadal have come even close to the genius of Federer, especially on grass. But it was not to be, with a resurgent Rodick putting his everything for his maiden Wimbledon title. He was on command from the beginning firing on all cylinders with his huge serves above 140kms/hr . Something which reminded the body line bowling of the old legendary West Indian fast bowlers. Federer could not find the code for breaking those bazookas from Rodick which was extending the match for so long. But Federer held on for life with some neat serving sending down as many as 50 aces. Both players pushed hard as the game was turning into a marathon. Sometimes it’s too cruel a sport that, in the end, someone has to fall and this time it was to be Rodick. He was finding it hard to hide the tears of desperation at the presentation ceremony. But he can go with heads held high. With the kind of performance he put up, he has finally lived up to the expectations to be the man to represent America in the tennis world in years to come.

Its Srilanka's day out at Lords

2009-06-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Tilekaratne Dilshan once again proved his class that helped Srilanka register their first super eight victory over Pakistan. Later Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralidharan ran through the Pakistan batting line up which sealed Lanka's victory by 18 runs.
Electing to bat first the Lanka's had a flying start with Dilshan and Jayasurya on the cockpit. Sohail Thanveer really had a wrong spell with his wrong foot, his first over had as many as 11 run ups which includes 3 wides, two front foot no-balls and three boundries. Srilanka put forth a total of 150 with Dilshan topscoring with 46. The Pakistan innings crumbled in the beginning as their opener’s didn’t waste much time in the crease. Shoaib Malik came in with a handy 28 which includes 3 consecutive boundries against Mathews.Younis Khan(50)and Misbah ul Huq(21) put a partnership of 66 for the fourth wicket , which could have turned the match around.Misbah's departure was followed by an "avalanche effect" and pakistan was bundled out for 131/9.Malinga claimed three wickets and Murali had two in his pocket. Dilshan ,the top scorer in the tournament was the player of the match.

SCORES AT AGLANCE

SRILANKA - 150/7 in 20 over’s (T.Dilshan - 46, Jayasurya- 26)
PAKISTAN - 131/9 in 20 over’s (Younis Khan-50,shoaib Malik - 28, Malinga- 3/17)

SRILANKA won by 18 runs

Bravo bravo West Indies...

2009-06-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

The West Indies outclassed, outplayed and outwitted India in their crucial super eight encounter. The man who carried West Indies on his shoulders was not Chris Gayle this time. It was Dwayne Bravo, one who belongs to an “elite” class of players who have got a special sort of “liking” for India. Although it was he who led from the front with 4 wickets and a blistering 66 not out off just 36 balls, the victory was the result of some fine team work. West Indies was out there with a clear game plan. They started off applying pressure right from the start with some canny pace bowling cramping the Indian batsman from both ends. This time supported by good efforts in the field too, which was very much unlike them.

The only part of the game which belonged to India was the partnership between Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan. Yuvraj played (or had to play) the saviour role yet again with a handy 67 off 43 balls when the team was in real trouble. His most beautiful hit was a sweetly timed chip over mid wicket which went for a six! The loss will certainly raise many questions. Dhoni’s batting form (or style) being on top of it. The lack of experienced players in the team is also telling off as the team finds itself difficult to adapt to high pressure situations. It’s time for the team and management to rethink and analyze its tactics, better sooner than later. In the present scenario, team India is in a do or die situation and should come up with solid performances to keep alive their, as well as a billions’, hopes of defending the title.

South Africa sinks England, Ireland drowned by the New zealand waves

2009-06-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

Super eight matches started yesterday and as expected South Africa and New Zealand emerged victorious. South Africa romped past England by 7 wickets while the Kiwis dumped Ireland by 86 runs.

England won the toss and elected to bat first. The top order trumbled in front of the hostile bowling from Dale Steyn and W.D Parnell. Rescue operation by Owais Shah(38) helped them to put a score of 111 on board. Jacques Kallis(57*) and Hershelle Gibbs(30)steadied the innings for South Africa after an initial wobble, and they went past the chequered flag with 10 balls to spare. Jacques Kallis was named the player of the match for his allround performance.

It was demolition work undertaken by New Zealand at Trentbridge when they thrashed Ireland by 86 runs. Ireland won the toss and elected to field, a descision that gifted the match to the Kiwis. Debutant Aaron Raymond showed his class with a well made 63 of 30 balls.He reached his half century in 23 balls.Later fireworks from Martin Guptill and Scott Styris put a massive target of 198 in front of the Ireland. The Irish were bundled out for 111 by some excellent bowling by Nathan Mccullum and Kyle Mills. Aaron Reymond was adjudged as the man of the match for his memorable knock.

SCORES AT A GLANCE

Super eight Match 1

ENGLAND - 111 in 19.5 overs (O.Shah- 38, Parnell- 3/14, D.Steyn-2/19)
SOUTH AFRICA - 114/3 in 18.2 overs (J.kallis- 57, gibbs- 30)

Soth africa won by 7 wickets

Super eight match 2

New Zealand - 198/5 in 20 overs (A.Raymond- 63, M.Guptill- 45, S.Styris-42)
Ireland - 111 in 16.4 overs(N.Mccullum- 3/15)
New Zealand won by 86 runs

TEAM INDIA - good ,better or the best?

2009-06-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

This is a frequently asked question these days. I am not too ambitious or patriotic either to say that this is the best team ever. But I will have to oblige to the fact that this is in fact a very well balanced team, and this balance was something India always lacked. There was a time, not long back, when India was Sachin and Sachin was India. The burden of the whole team’s batting department was on his shoulders. He managed it pretty tidily, but time has taken its toll over him. After all, he too is a human being.

Today India can boast of having the most number of match winners, ones with the capability of turning the match in its head. The team has the classy Gambhir and the blazing Sehwag at the top, followed by talented youngsters Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina, who are in fact stars in the making, and a solid middle order of Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni. What more can u expect from a batting line up? And with the Pathan brothers to follow with their fire woks at the lower middle order , India seems to be something like a giant banyan tree with strong roots which is too hard to topple over. And having a highly inspiring and determined captain in Dhoni India just seems to have finally got that knack of winning, and winning consistently.

Dhoni follows the often said tactic in football that attack is the best form of defense. He never lets the opposition to get over and doesn’t let the momentum go down at any stage of the game. Dhoni, who started off as a dasher in his early days, is being criticized for becoming more of a nudger these days. Now, he relies more on keeping the scoreboard ticking by quick singles and gentle pushes on both sides of the wicket. According to him, and may be rightly so, there should be a person in the team who can play the anchor role, especially when there are too many stroke players around.

The bowling department is also well settled with youngsters Ishant Sharma and Ojha coming up with performances that outshine their senior counterparts. RP Singh, one of the leading wicket-takers of the IPL, having a quiet time in the dug-out itself speaks of the strength of the bowling department.

And what more? Everybody in the team seems to be enjoying their game. Everything is well and fine as long as the team keeps winning. Good luck India!

ICC T-20 World Cup – Day 5

2009-06-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Pakistan extinguish the orange revolution

In the first match of the fifth day, Pakistan batted and bowled sufficiently well to put an end to the Orange revolution that many Dutch fans and Indian fans had hoped for. Their performance was scratchy despite the win, particularly their fielding. It still remains a throwback to pre-Jonty Rhodes era.

Batting first, Pakistan scored 175 for 5 in 20 overs against a bowling, which was industrious, but not threatening enough. Kamran Akmal, the man of the match, top-scored with 41 (of 30 balls). He was well-supported by Shoaib Malik (30 of 28 balls), Younis Khan (36 of 20 balls), and Misbah-ul-Haq (31 of 20 balls).

The Dutch needed to score 151 runs to get through the super eight by virtue of a better net run rate. However, they catapulted in front of a do or die situations, much like their more famous and illustrious football teams in recent decades. They were all out for 93 runs in 17.3 overs. Shahid Afridi was the star of the Pakistan bowling by taking four wickets for just 11 runs.
The Dutch batsmen gave the impression that it was the first time they see a leg spinner bowling googlies and top spinners and appeared flummoxed by that fact.

Pakistan fielding was similar to what we see in beneficial veterans' tournaments. Pakistan fans knew that luck was on their side when they saw Salman Butt actually holding on to a simple catch, after dropping some similar and easier ones in this match and the previous one.

Score: Pakistan (175 for 5) in 20 overs beat the Netherlands (93 all out) by 82 runs.

South Africa prevails in a photo finish

It's really embarrassing that South Africa hasn’t yet won any form of the world cup, whether it is the traditional 50-50 or the recent 20-20. It’s a team with immense manpower lead by a young and dynamic captain. The Proteas has made their intentions clear with their second consecutive win in the tournament, albeit a narrow one against New Zealand. It was yet another nail-biting last ball finish with South Africa emerging victorious with the slimmest margin possible.

South Africa set a total of 128 in 20 overs with the help of some cautious batting from Graeme Smith (33 of 35 balls), Jack Kallis (34 of 23 balls), and JP Duminy (29 of 23 balls).

In reply, Brendon McCulum (57 of 54 balls) and Ross Taylor (22 of 31 balls) seemed set to take the Kiwis past the target. But some great bowling from Van der Merve sealed the fate of the match in favor of the Proteas. Jacob Oram (24 of 18 balls) made a valiant effort. But South Africa, for once, held their nerve. Van der Merve was adjudged man of the match.

Score: South Africa (128 for 7) beat New Zealand (127 for 5) by one run.

ICC T-20 World Cup – Day 4

2009-06-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

A day of upsets and early exits

The fourth day saw the tally of casualties expanding to three, when Bangladesh and Australia joined Scotland in the departure lounge. So far, seven teams have qualified for the super eight: India, South Africa, England, and West Indies in one group, and Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and Ireland in the other group. Either Pakistan or the Netherlands will join the latter. If the Netherlands qualifies, which is very much possible, one group of super eight will have New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Super eight? No way. "Modest four" might be a better label.

Match 1: Ireland hunts Bangladesh

Bangladesh needed to win this match to keep their super-eight hopes alive. However, Ireland proved a tough nut to crack. First, they bowled and fielded with good discipline to restrict Bangladesh to 137 for 8. Had it not for the pyrotechnics of Mushrafe Mortaza (33 in 16 balls) in the last over of innings, which resulted in 20 runs, they would not have reached even this score.

However, the score eventually proved inadequate as Ireland chased down the score handsomely with 10 balls and 6 wickets to spare. The O'brian brothers, Niall (40 of 25 balls) and Kevin (39 not out of 17 balls) – the lesser known brothers in the tournament amidst the Pathans, Husseys, and the McCullums – did the bulk of the scoring. Niall O'brian was chosen as the man of the match.

Scores: Ireland (138 for 4 in 18.2 overs) defeated Bangladesh (137 for 8 in 20 overs) by 6 wickets.

Good bye Australia....

2009-06-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

The 8th of January will be considered a black day in two parts of the globe. One was in Kerala where the communist party launched something called "Karidinam" (means black day) protesting against the governor's decision to grant permission for the prosecution of Pinarayi Vijayan, the Ricky Ponting of the communist party in Kerala. The second black day was experienced by "cricket Australia" when Kangaroos were outwitted by the Sri Lankans, thanks to excellent batting displays by Kumar Sangakkara and Dilshan and splendid bowling by Ajanta Mendis that left the Aussies dumbfounded.

If the same thing happened to Australia two years back, it would have brought a bit of embarrassment; but this time it was rather expected from them. One doesn't need an autopsy to find the causes of this fate (rather ill-fate), because things are quite clear as the white skies. The primary reason is that they yet don't have a perfect replacement for the "eternal three", Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, and Shane Warne. The second is their lack of team coordination. You don't expect someone like Andrew Symmonds to be court-martialed for boozing. Anyways, all eyes are now pointing to Ricky Ponting, "the punter", the king who has lost his crown.

The Australians would be glad they don't have to face their home fans quickly, as they stay in London for the ashes. The Lankans clinched the match with an over to spare, when Kumar Sangakkara played a captain's knock with a well-made 55 supported by Dilshan's 53.

Score: Sri Lanka (160 for 4 in 19 overs) beat Australia (159 for 9 in 20 overs) by 6 wickets.

Tail piece: What will be Ponting saying in the press conference today? It might be something like "ini kaavile paatumalsarathinu kaanam" (Jagathi Sreekumar challenging Mohanlal in Yodha).

ICC T-20 World Cup – Day 3

2009-06-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Minnows will be minnows

The third day' play produced two boring, one-sided games. In the first game, Scotland felt the powerlessness of minnows against the all-round efficiency of South Africa. There is nothing much to write about the match other than the scores.

Score: South Africa 212 for 5 (de Villiers 79 from 34 balls and Kallis 48 of 31 balls) beat Scotland 81 all out, by 130 runs.

England's resurgence

In the second match, Pakistan's performance in the ground mirrored the state of affairs in the country. The only thing worse than the law and order of Pakistan seems to be their cricket team's fielding. England was not complaining though. The return of Kevin Peterson provided the much needed firepower to their middle order.

England, put into bat by Younis Khan, exploited the power-pay overs better than they themselves might have imagined. Luke Wright (34 of 16 balls) provided the early impetus. Peterson (58 from 38 balls) maintained the run-scoring tempo and England finished with a decent total of 185 for 5.

The decent total soon became a formidable one when Pakistan started their innings. Wickets fell at regular intervals and run rate kept on climbing. It appeared that only Younis Khan (46 not out of 31 balls) was interested in actually chasing the total. Pakistan finished with a paltry 137 in their quota of 10 overs.

Score: England (185 for 5) beat Pakistan 137 for 7, by 48 runs.

What this means is that England has virtually ensured their super-eight berth because of their superior net run rate. Now, it is a toss-up between Pakistan and the Netherlands. Pakistan has to beat the Dutch by a big margin to qualify for the super eight. Incidentally, England will be in the same group of India and South Africa.

FRENCH OPEN 2009: THE EMPORER RETURNS ?

2009-06-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

The stage is well set for Roger Federer to ascend to the zenith of men’s tennis. If he wins today’s final he will equal Pete Sampras’ record of the most men's singles grand slam titles. He will also become only the sixth man in the history of the game to win all the four majors. The only man who had stood in between his lips and the crown for the last 3 years is not in the picture this time around. It's never easy-pickings in a grand slam final but this man seems to be in a class of his own. Such high are the standards set by himself, that even reaching the French open finals in four consecutive years appears modest or just average. However many tennis fans would really miss the grueling , yet exotic Federer-Nadal tussle that they got used to in the grand slam finals of recent times. The Swiss master has been haunted by the Spanish nightmare for more than enough now, and it seems all he had lacked was this small bit of luck.

Tail piece: The other finalist is Robin Soderling…. Robin who?

ICC T-20 World Cup – Day 2

2009-06-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

Kiwis win the cricketing sevens, Calypsos slaughter Kangaroos, and India kicks away the Bangla banana skin

The second day of the capsule cricket world cup witnessed more sixes and more brutal hitting than in the first day, but no upset of seismic proportions. Scotland failed to emulate the Dutch, though they did manage to give a scare to the Kiwis. West Indies, absurdly ranked 11 in this tournament, produced what one can call an upset, by pulverizing Australia. Finally, an efficient performance from the "rock stars of cricket" ensured that Bangladesh did not repeat their 2007 World Cup performance against India.

Scores in brief

Match 1: New Zealand (90 for 3 in 6 overs) beat Scotland (89 for 4 in seven overs) by 7 wickets
Match 2: West Indies (172 for 3 in 15.5 overs) beat Australia (169 for 7 in 20 overs) by 7 wickets
Match 4: India (180 for 5 in 20 overs) beat Bangladesh (155 for 8 in 20 overs) by 25 runs

Match 1: Kiwis wins the cricketing sevens

The first match of the second day, between Scotland and New Zealand, was reduced to a sevens match – that is, seven overs per side, and not seven players per side as in the football version of the sevens. Scotland were nursing hopes of an upset win similar to the Dutch victory over England on the first day. They raced to a backyard-cricket- or school-ground-cricket-like score of 89 for 4 in 7 overs to raise hopes for yet another upset. Gavin Hamilton is the most familiar face in the Scotland team. But he did not have to bat, as obscure cricketers like Ryan Watson (27 in 10 balls), Navdeep Poonia (27 in 15 balls), and Kyle Coetzer (33 in 15 balls) produced a slog-fest.

In reply, New Zealand were not as generous as England had been. They reached 50 in 2.4 overs, and then went on to score the required 90 runs with one over to spare. Jesse Ryder (31 from 13 balls), Ross Taylor (21 from 10 balls), and Brendon McCullum (18 from 8 balls) were the main destroyers. Despite the heavy hitting all around, the man of the match award went to Ian Butler who took 3 wickets in 2 overs by giving away "only" 19 runs. He gave away just 8 runs in the last over. In fact, the last three balls of the innings resulted in wickets. But the second wicket was a run out, so I think it will not be considered as a hat trick.

Match 2: Calypsos slaughter Kangaroos

The second match of the day, between Australia and West Indies, turned out to be a total mismatch – but not the way one would imagine. It is Australia who looked like the West Indies in recent times. West Indies in fact looked like the fearsome Windies squads of 1970s and 1980s. Jerome Taylor is no Michael Holding or Malcolm Marshal. But yesterday he was good enough to send back Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting in the first over of the match. The score of 3 for 2 soon became 15 for 3, when Fidel Edwards got rid of Michael Clarke. But Australia recovered and scored what appeared then a challenging total of 169 for 7, thanks mainly to a subdued innings from David Warner (61 of 51 balls). He was supported well by Brad Haddin (24 of 19 balls) and the Hussey brothers, David (26 of 16 balls) and Michael (28 of 15 balls).

West Indies started the innings as if they were playing against the newly formed team from Afghanistan. Before Australia knew what hit them, West Indies had reached their 50 (in 4.1 overs). At first, the runs came from an unexpected source – from Andre Fletcher (53 in 32 balls). But soon Chris Gayle (88 in 50 balls) took over. He was in a murderous mood in the fifth over of the innings bowled by Brett Lee – 27 runs including 3 sixes and 2 fours. More than the number of sixes, the manner in which they were hit must have hurt the bowler. Two of the sixes went out of the ground. In fact, Brett Lee's bowling figures resembled that of Ajit Agarkar in the recently concluded IPL: 3 overs no maiden 51 for none. Ricky Ponting tried many things and made several bowling changes. The Windies never lost their momentum and surpassed the "challenging" total with 25 balls to spare. Chris Gayle obviously was the man of the match.

Match 3: India kicks away the Bangla banana skin

The match against Bangladesh was a potential banana skin match for India, similar to the 2007 World Cup match in Port of Spain against the same side. India had lost that match, and eventually made a tragic first round exit from the tournament. Yesterday too, it appeared that they had sighted a banana skin somewhere and were cautious to avoid it. After a streaky knock from Rohit Sharma (36 of 23 balls), who partnered Gautam Gambhir in Sehwag's absence, Gambhir (50 of 46 balls) and MS Dhoni (26 of 21 balls) were too cautious and relied on singles and twos to get the scoreboard moving. Dhoni got out when he tried to accelerate the scoring. In came Yuvraj Singh and he kicked the banana skin, if there was any, emphatically out of the ground with a typically belligerent 41 of 18 balls. Irfan Pathan chipped in with 11 runs in 3 balls and India reached a respectable total of 180.

Bangladesh started the innings with their typical giant-killing ambitions. They took only 32 balls to reach the 50 and looked good for a fight. However, the introduction of Pragyan Ojha changed the course of the match. He took 4 wickets 21 runs in a man-of-the-match-winning performance. Bangladesh eventually managed 155 for 8 in 20 overs. Junaid Siddique (41 from 22 balls) was the top-scorer.

Tail Piece: Seeing the way Gayle and McCullum blazing away yesterday, one finally gets answer for this oft-repeated question: who was responsible for the debacle of Kolkata Knight Riders? Pluto, dear Pluto.

Dutch turns Lords into Waterloo

2009-06-06T00:33:00.001-07:00

It was indeed the greatest day of Dutch cricket when they outwitted host England by 4 wickets in a nailbiting last ball finish. The curtain raiser for the second edition of T-20 world cup thus ended with a big-bang. The england fans would never forgive Stuart Broad for his missed run out oppurtunity in the last ball which actually gifted the match to the Dutch.Thus the 6th of Jan would indeed become a dark day in the history of English cricket, something like "the Marackaana disaster".
The sporting world was stunned 7 years back when Senegal defeated France in the opener of the soccer world cup. One wouldn't have heard of El Hadji Diof or Henri Camara untill that day. The same thing has happened here. One could hardly remember a Dutch player, except Nannes who plays for the Delhi DD in the IPL. Stuart Broad wouldn't have expected anything worse than Yuvaraj Singh's six sixes in the previous edition of T-20 World Cup.

England did not start the match all that badly. Ravi Bopara(46) and Luke Wright (71)gave them a good start with a century partnership, which helped them set a target of 163. It was indeed a pretty decent total - or so everybody thought.

Chasing a total with a required 8.1 runs per over, the Dutch stareted briskly reaching 50 in 5 overs and 100 in 11 overs. Thanks to some bold batting from Reekers, Tn de grooth and Borren. Towards the end RN Doescate and Edgar Shiferli held their nerve to take the Dutch's "Noah's Arc" across the sea. The Dutch team burst out in jubilation after scoring, what i suppose, the first in a Cricket world cup. For them, it is no less than clinching the title.Tn de grooth was the player of the match for his hard fought 49 of 30 balls.
The Dutch have made it clear that they did not come here for the usual "fill the gap" routine. This is all about T-20, you can expect the unexpected, and you can see a high octane action every time. You see the ball dissappearing into the stands , feilders at backward point floating in the air defying Newton's laws of gravity, and some times burst of emotions like the one we saw at Lord's. Anyways there's lot of action to come in the next 2 weeks.

DECCAN CHARGERS MAKES IT TWO IN A ROW

2009-04-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

The Deccan Chargers won their second straight match in IPL season 2 with a well fought win over the Banglore Royal Challengers. The Chargers seems to have worked hard on their game after a miserable performance in first edition with only 2 wins in 16 games. With the kind of aggression they show with the bat, ball and on the field the Deccan Chargers have made it clear that they are not mere minnows this time around. If they can maintain the same momentum and intensity throughout the season it may be they who write the rags to riches story which Rajasthan Royals did last time. Adam Gilchrist, the captain led from the front with a blistering 71, with good support from the classy Rohit Sharma who scored 52. The Chargers ended their innings at 184, the highest team score recorded in this season till date. The Banglore Royal Challengers put up a good fightback led by the solid Rahul Dravid (48) and Virat Kohli (50) only to finally end up 24 runs short of the target.

Gayle powers Knight riders to 11 run victory

2009-04-22T08:17:00.001-07:00

Kolkata knight riders registered their first win in ipl season 2,in a rain interrupted match at Kingsmead,Durban which was decided by the Duckworth-Lewis rule.The curse of the rain Gods seems to be haunting the Punjab kings X11 even after putting up a pretty solid performance with the bat after, loosing their opening match to the Delhi daredevils in a similar fashion. After losing opener Karan Goel for a duck (thanks to some tight seam bowling from Ishant sharma),the Punjab kings soon gained momentum with some good strikes from Irfan Pathan who was promoted to no:3 , supported by Ravi Bopara. Then it was Kolkata’s turn as they got the much needed breakthrough through ex-captain Sourav Ganguly who sent both Irfan and Bopara to the pavilion in the same over.But Kolkata could not capitalize on this as Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh got into business and built a solid partnership with Kumar Sagakkara to take Punjab Kings to a decent total with good support from Mahela Jayawardene later on, ending the innings at 158.But misery came this time around for the Kings in the form of Chris Gayle,the big hitting West Indian who smashed 4 sixes and 2 fours in an unbeaten 44 off 26 balls to take the Knight riders to 79 in 9.2 overs, before heavy rain stopped play.

IFFK 2008 – Final Day

2008-12-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2008 is over. Parque Via directed by Enrique Rivero won the Golden Crow Pheasant award for the best film. Mariana Rondon, who directed the movie Postcards from Leningrad, was adjudged the best director.
Huseyin Karabey who directed My Marlon and Brando bagged the award for the best debutant director. Machan directed by Uberto Pasolini got the spectators’ award for the best film. You can find more details about this and other awards here.

I could not watch any films today. But anyway, I enjoyed the festival. I encountered several good movies and a few bad ones. But there are three films that stand out in my list. These are The Photograph, Half Moon, and Three Monkeys.

For me, the main problem was the Retrospective section. Although Amos Gitai and Karen Shakhnazarov are well respected, they do not have any chance against Pedro Almodovar or Kim Ki Duc. However, the 50 years ago package is an excellent addition.

So, for the next one year till December 2009, we have to contend with the acting and plots of real life. Hope we can enjoy all that just like we enjoyed the movies in IFFK.

IFFK 2008 – Day 7 – Night

2008-12-18T18:23:00.001-08:00

Remya Theatre was jam-packed for Song of the Sparrows, directed by Majid Majidi, one of IFFK’s all-time favorite directors. I was fortunate to get a balcony seat even though I had reserved a seat via the online reservation facility. There were instances, particularly during the screening of Breath by Kim Ki Duc in Kalabhavan Theatre, in which people who had reserved tickets online had to leave the hall shaking their heads because there were no seats available. Also, the DGP of Kerala Police was also present along with family members. So policemen were naturally on their toes.

Well, the film did not live up to my expectations. It is a story about a middle aged laborer who works in an ostrich farm. He is happy despite their poor financial position. One day, an ostrich runs away and as a result he loses his job. He goes to Tehran to get a hearing aid for his daughter and ends up working as motorcycle taxi-walla. His life actually flourishes and he brings a lot of scraps, like broken doors and window frames, from the city in the hope that these would help him to collect enough money to buy a hearing aid for his daughter. He in fact makes a heap of these items. His life takes a new turn as all these items fall over him and he is severely injured. The rest of the film is how he and his family cope with the new development.

As one would expect of a Majidi film, Song of the Sparrows is picturized extremely well. It provides a kind of feel good factor. But beyond that, there is not much in it, or I could not find any thing. The film does not invade your heart, or brain for that matter, like Three Monkeys, which I saw just before this one. But judging from the reaction of the audience – thunderous clapping at the slightest provocation – I think the film is well received here.

After the film, I went to see the Open Forum. The theme was IFFK 2008 feedback. There were good things said about the festival – a few negative aspects as well. The good things included online reservation, a number of good films, and sincere effort from the part of the organizers. The negative things included usual culprits such as lack of sufficient number of good films, poor scheduling, and signature film – and strangely online reservation also. The organizers said scheduling has a lot of constraints such as availability of prints, screening facilities in theatres, and specifications regarding the number of screening from distributors. Interestingly, a number of delegates chose the opportunity to criticize the mainstream Malayalam directors for lack of good films in Malayalam. One of the participants said these people should not be allowed to select films for the festival and hold any organizational positions. He was obviously referring to Kamal, the Malayalam director who was the chairman of the preview committee for competition, Indian, and Malayalam cinema.

Afterwards, I went to Kairali Theatre to watch the Turkish film My Marlon and Brando, directed by Huseyin Karabey. It tells the story about a girl trying to make a trip to the war-torn Suleimania in Northern Iraq to meet her lover during America’s war against Saddam Hussein. The first half of the movie narrates the anguish and agony of the girl waiting for the lover in Istanbul. But then she takes a brave, but dangerous, decision to go to Northern Iraq. The second half of the movie shows her journey. The Turkey-Iraq border is partially closed. One can come from Iraq, but entry to Iraq is not allowed. So, she goes to an Iranian town close to Suleimania, and waits for her lover to turn up.

My Marlon and Brando is a subtle realistic movie, not a sentimentally romantic one as the synopsis may have indicated.

IFFK 2008 – Day 7 – Afternoon

2008-12-18T01:26:00.000-08:00

I saw two movies today so far: the Japanese movie Achilles and the Tortoise by Takeshi Kitano and the Turkish film Three Monkeys by Nuri Ceylan.

Achilles and the Tortoise is a riches to rags tale of a child who was made to believe that he is a world class painter. It can be divided into two parts. The childhood of the protagonist in which picture postcard frames make a procession and his adulthood which is hilariously sarcastic. He is born to a business magnet who has all the wealth and associated power at his disposal. Because of his father’s wealth everybody praises the boy’s talent. Soon the business collapses and his father and stepmother commit suicide. For a brief while he stays with one of his uncles, who is reluctant to accept him. Then later he was sent to an orphanage.

He sticks on to painting throughout his life. But his paintings are never accepted. He works in a press, attends an art school, and in between marries. His wife is quite supportive of his painting activities. The second half of the movie is filled with a number of humorous incidents, mainly exposing the hypocrisy in the world of elitist arts. One of the characters says: “If you give a Picasso and a bowl of rice to an impoverished man in Africa, he will take the bowl… Art is one big fake.”

Three Monkeys is a tense, out and out art house movie – and a fantastic one at that. It tells, or rather makes us find out, the story of a man, his wife, and their son. The man has agreed to own a crime committed by an influential politician. He will get a large sum after his jail term. Meanwhile his wife starts an affair with the politician. The son finds out the affair. After he was released from jail, the man also becomes suspicious. The film reaches the boiling point when somebody kills the politician.

More than the story, the kind of tense atmosphere it creates is the most notable aspect. The tension between all the character – father and son, mother and son, and the man and his wife – is maintained throughout the movie. The visuals stealthily convey the inner feelings of the characters.

Next I am going to watch the Iranian film Song of the Sparrows by Majid Majidi in Remya Theatre.

IFFK 2008 – Day 6

2008-12-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Gospel According to Maradona and a Memorable Photograph

Today also I had to satisfy with just two films, or to be precise one film and one documentary. I had decided on watching Tokyo Sonata in New Theatre, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa – not just because of that famous and irresistible (to filmgoers) surname, but also because it was recommended by a number of experts. But a review in today’s Kerala Kaumudi, about the film The Photograph, convinced me to change my plans. The report stated that the film has ended the reviewer’s days long search for “the” film of IFFK 2008. So, instead of turning right from Thampannoor bus stand I turned left to Remya Theatre.

The Photograph, directed by Nan T. Achnas, is a brilliant and classy film, so far the best I have seen in the competition section. It portrays the lives of a prostitute who is struggling to find enough money to raise her daughter and to provide medical treatment to her aging mother and an old emotionless photographer. The paths of their lives meet when she becomes his tenant. He is probably the most unfortunate photographer in the world – and she the most unfortunate mother. In his youth he learns some people are killed in a train accident and starts taking picture of the dead bodies. There are only broken limbs and other body parts. After a few clicks he realizes that the dead are his own wife and children. And he was on his way after abusing and abandoning them. He lives the remaining of his life in that guilty conscious.

But it is not a tearjerker as the scale of tragedy indicates. It is a pleasant and “sunny” movie. Excellent, and non-intrusive, photography and music are the highlights of the movie. Beautiful frames bombard you in incredible frequency. The pace of the movie is also just right. The fingerprints of a person who knows the secret of filmmaking are very much evident on each frame.

After the movie I dribbled through the crowds of Overbridge to Kripa Theatre to watch Emir Kusturica’s documentary Maradona. A genius on another genius. Considering the No Smoking band background of the director, it is predictably filled with lively music as with the best of goals of Maradona. It is like 20-20 (I mean the Malayalam movie) of world politics, past and present: Fidel Castro, George Bush, Hugo Chavez, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, and Evo Morales make appearances. The documentary is mostly based on casual talks between the footballer and the director at various locations and countries.

In the documentary Maradona’s life is analyzed on various angles as a teenage prodigy, successful footballer, drug addict and an activist. Like the films of Kusturica, the documentary also provides a number of hilarious moments. There is a religion called the Church of Maradona. It has a peculiar way of baptism: by scoring a hand of god goal! Also, there is a scene in which stripping women in dance bars complain that people stop watching them when Maradona’s goals appear on television.

There are several quotable quotes with Maradona’s pungent humor. This one about the FIFA presidents is what appeared best to me: “Havalanche [former president] was an arms dealer. Blatter [current president] sells bullets”. Also, he became very emotional when he says that he is jealous of his wife because she could spend more time with the children. Also, he says that he would have been a better player if not for his habit of taking cocaine. (But how can one play better?)

The documentary also contains a number of stunning goals scored by the most famous left foot of soccer and one with the fist. Animations – in which Maradona toying with Western leaders – and scenes from several movies of Kasturica are interspersed to the narrative to enliven the documentary.

IFFK 2008 Day 5

2008-12-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

I managed to see the movie Blindness. There was frantic rush for this movie despite today’s being its second screening. The queues (there were two queues for some reason) extended to the narrow roads outside Ramya-Dhanya theatre complex. The movie was worth standing even a lengthier queue, if that can be a yardstick. I have a feeling that it is likely to be the film that we are going to mention about this festival in future.

Blindness, based on a novel with the same name by Nobel Prize winning writer Jose Saramago, is directed by Fernando Meirelles. The film is a mix of fantasy and allegory topped with merciless satire of the human nature. Its story goes like this. People in a city suddenly start losing their eyesight one by one. It is not the conventional type of blindness. But what people “see” is whiteness around, not darkness. Soon the early birds were confined to a specially created sanatorium, because of the infectious nature of the disease. A doctor is also affected by the disease. His wife is the only person who can see. But she also pretends as blind. Food will be provided from outside. The film narrates how people react to this situation. Soon a group of inmates take control of the sanatorium, very much like an armed coup. They began to enjoy the privileges like better food, woman, etc. But the inmates manage to escape from the sanatorium. What they see outside is a city devastated by the outbreak of blindness.

The film has been shot with great imagination. The first scene itself, in which a man driving a car suddenly losing his eye sight at a traffic signal, is an example. This film is a treat for those who love cinematic metaphors and symbolic narration. At certain points, the film brings to mind the novels such as Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies.

But that was all for today. I came back to the office in the afternoon.

There has been decent mainstream media coverage of IFFK 2008. Kerala Kaumudi reporters are generally disappointed with the quality of the films of this festival. A report on The Hindu focuses more on the problems and budget of organizing the festival. If you want to read decent write-ups about the films in the competition section, check out for articles in dearcinema.com and manoramaonline.

IFFK 2008 - Day 5 - Morning

2008-12-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

Today morning, I watched the film Short Sharp Shock Turk, directed by Faith Akin, part of Akin Retrospective. It is a story of three youths growing up in “dirty” streets of Hamburg. They are fun-loving blokes. Things take a serious turn when one of them decides to join a mafia group, while another decides to live a “normal” peace-loving life. To make thing worse, the person who wants to lead a normal life starts an affair with the girl friend of the mafia-going person. The film portrays how their friendship tragically and fatally breaks up. But, may be because of the fatigue of the last four days, I could not spot anything extraordinary in the film. Not my kinda movie, I guess. But the film shows us a novel way of expressing one’s love: “We just did not fuck. I love you”. That is what the girl tells the bloke when he feels guilty about making love to his best friend’s girl friend.

Next I am going to Dhanya Theatre, where Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles, is going to be screened.

IFFK 2008 Day 4

2008-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

I saw two films today. In the afternoon I returned to office to check whether I still have the job. These are the troubles of watching films during the times of recession. I think I have to follow this trend on the days to come also.

In fact the first film I saw today, a Hungarian film titled Adventurers (directed by Béla Paczolay), would inspire anybody to say goodbye to such mundane things as egotist bosses and silly deadlines. The film is about three men: grandfather, father and son (played by different people; apparently, Kamalhasan does not have much influence in Hungary.)

The film starts stylishly. A middle aged person picks up a much younger person and they are off for a trip. Later we find out that they are father and son and they are going to meet the grandfather. The father has quitted his job as a trumpeter and the son does not have any job even to quit from. After some brief adventures on the way, they find the grandfather who wants to relocate to Budapest and stay with his son. But his son is reluctant, because he does not have any house. At last the grandfather has his way. The rest of the film narrates the fun-filled account of their journey.

At last they realize that a streak of wastefulness has been genetically embedded on them. And they decide to live with it, nevertheless. The film for most of the part retains a Dil Chahta Hai like carefree atmosphere. Also the mannerisms of the “son” resemble that of Aamir Khan in the Hindi film.

The next film was also about the relationship between father and son. But it is more like an arthouse film than an entertainer. Yellow House directed by Amor Hakkar is a film in the competition section of the festival. It is set in an arid village in Algeria. A farmer learns that his son, who was working in the armed forces, has been killed in an accident. He makes a trip to the place of tragedy on his tractor and brings the dead body of the son to the village. To wash away the sorrows of his wife, he paints his house yellow, based on a pharmacist’s advice. Later he brings home a TV and video player to watch the video footage of his son.

This simple story has been narrated in the true neorealistic style. At times the film becomes very slow. But it springs back to life through incidents that show the tenacious spirit of the father. It is a serious film which offers different parallel readings such as this and this. And a person who calls himself "payyan" has this to say about the first three days of IFFK 2008. If you want more IFFK stuff, try this blog also.

IFFK 2008 Day 3 – Night

2008-12-14T09:21:00.000-08:00

The Mindset of a Terrorist

The Rider Named Death, directed by Karen Shakhnazarov, is a movie about terrorism. The fundamental question the film raises is how the political killing differs from personal killings in the context of terrorist activities in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. It is based on a book called The Pale Horse.

The protagonist of the movie is a communist terrorist (should it be naxalite or revolutionary for political correctness?), who fights against the tsars and their dukes. The whole movie is narrated from his point of view. His primary aim is to kill a duke. Along with some followers, he makes several futile attempts to kill the duke. In between they also discuss their anxieties and doubts about killing a person. Finally he does manage to kill the duke. But the question of morality of killing continues to haunt him.

The film sheds light into the psychology of terrorists. It quite rightly predicts that governments cannot contain terrorism, because terrorism is the attack of a few individuals against the government.

The film starts with a bang. A stunningly beautiful lady walks into the office of a duke (after getting permission, of course). Most of the delegates would have expected them to make love. Instead, she takes a gun and shoots him, bang bang.

Before the start of the movie, the director Karen Shakhnazarov gave an introduction to the movie. He made reference to the Mumbai terrorist attack also.

IFFK -2008- Day 3 – Evening

2008-12-14T04:27:00.000-08:00

Ashes and Diamonds of Andrej Wajda, as the whole world knows, is a class film. The film follows the familiar pattern of the Eastern European war films. It takes us through the life of a youth in Poland just the after the surrender of Germany, which marked the end of the Second World War. He is a confident, woman hunting and trigger happy (in and out of the bed) youth at the beginning. He fought against the Germans and is presently in search of enemies. He mistakenly kills two innocent young people. He gradually develops an identity crisis, probably because of the killings. Despite the heavy dose of satire and romance, one could feel the sadness that underlines the behavior the major characters. At times, you experience that distinct feeling of worthlessness of urban life that is so common in Hemingway’s novels.

Well, it was sort of a hectic day. Anyway, there is time, and energy, left for one more film. It will be The Rider Named Death in the Karen Shakhnazarov package. Hope there will not be much rush, as it is a kind of all-the-roads-lead-to-Kalabhavan situation here now, because that is where Kim Ki Duk’ Breath is going to be shown. Yes, breathless for Breath.

IFFK – Day 3 – Afternoon

2008-12-14T01:27:00.000-08:00

The film Half Moon (an Iranian film directed by Barhman Ghorbadi) is not about Saddam Hussein or post-war Iraq. It is about a roller coaster journey a musician, Mamo, and his “sons” make in their attempt to participate in a concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. The concert is going to be held to celebrate the freedom from oppression that Kurdistan music faced during Saddam’s regime. There are several hurdles. The musician himself is a very old man. They have to overcome many difficulties including some reluctant team members, rough weather and security guards. They reach a village where 1334 woman singers who have been exiled to. They smuggle their lead female singer from the village. But eventually the security personnel catch them. In the process they lose their musical instruments. Some members ran away from the journey also.

But they cleverly bribe the security personnel to bring back the singer. But the singer herself is struggling with confidence crisis. Soon she runs away from the troupe. Then they go to the village of another famous musician to get musical instruments and a singer, only to find out that the musician died immediately after they contacted him. Later the number of people in the band is reduced to five. They get a female singer, but they lost the vehicle and odds are really against them. Will they make it? (It is not clearly shown in the movie whether they make it or not. But I would like to interpret as they haven’t, which indicates the present state of Iraqi affairs.)

The film is really very fun to watch. The journey is conceptualized with imagination and comedy. Other notable aspects are good photography and music, the features by now one comes to expect from Iranian films. In short, a highly enjoyable meaningful movie.

The most widely anticipated film of IFFK 2008, Breath (directed by, who else, Kim Ki Duk) is going to be screened in Kalabhavan Theatre today evening at 6.45. The whole seats of online balcony reservation were plucked out by technologically advanced delegates by yesterday morning itself. So, some of the Kim Ki Duk fidayen, who haven’t been able to reserve via internet, are planning about going to the 3.30 show in Kalabhavan, and staying there for the prize catch. All the best for them. But I am not going to check into Kalabhavan for bread and breakfast. I am going to watch another classic, Ashes and Diamonds by Andrej Wajda.

You can read insightful reviews and reports about IFFK in dearcinema website also.

IFFK 2008 – Day 3- Morning

2008-12-13T21:41:00.000-08:00

I am planning today as a day of classics. As a beginning, I watched The Magician by Ingmar Bergman in the morning. (Ashes and Diamonds by Andrej Wajda is also there in the afternoon.) The Magician is an intriguing film that portrays the battle of wits between a quirky magician and an official doctor with scientific thinking. The latter is backed by the authorities, who are hell-bent on exposing the true face of the magician. But in the end the magician wins by performing an ultimate real-life magic trick. The black and white film provides glimpses of various shades of human psyche. Have to watch it again to experience the full impact.

Among other websites that follow the IFFK “action”, Thushar on PFC has posted another set of fine reviews. Some of the films we both watched have same name. But it appears that the movies we have watched were different!

Next I am going to watch Half Moon, directed by Barhman Ghorbadi, in Remya Theatre. I heard this film is about post-Saddam Iraq and the life there.

IFFK 2008 – Day 2 – Evening

2008-12-13T08:53:00.001-08:00

Postcards from a lost generation

Postcards from Leningrad is a brilliantly crafted film. The film deals with the plight of the guerilla fighters and their family members of Venezuela in 1960s. The situation was pretty similar across the whole of Latin America during that era, in which most of the countries were under some sort of dictatorship or military rule.

There is no structured storyline in the conventional manner in this movie. The whole film is narrated though the eyes and memories of two children. But the director, Mariana Rondon (who appeared on the stage before the screening and was extremely humble in her talk), superbly employs a zigzag narrative to portray the incidents.

The first scene after the titles itself gives an indication that you are going to watch something special. A child is lifted up from between the legs of the mother. That girl child is the narrator of the events and her cousin brother is the other kid who used to receive postcards from Leningrad (it refers to the letters children write to their jailed (or killed) parents and the letters they receive from the parents from jail). She was born to a young guerilla fighter who had fallen in love with another fighter during their battle with the military in the mountains. Their lovemaking scene when a gun battle was going on in the surroundings is a memorable one.

Footage of another documentary shot within the film and the commentary by the child are cleverly interspersed with “normal” cinematic incidents in the movie. Graphics are also used to good effect. In one particular scene, a guerilla fighter is shot and the blood comes out of his body becomes a flower.

IFFK in blogosphere

There have been an increasing number of blogs and websites providing variety accounts of IFFK (at least on the first day). The most notable among them is the post by Thushar on passion of cinema. The reviews are very detailed and excellently written. In another website, Satyaki Roy was not that much impressed with the first day and hoped for a better second day. And Haree, the famous film reviewer in Boologam (for those who don’t understand the meaning of the word, it is Malayalam blogosphere), has this report about the first day of the festival. Other blogs that I could find through a quick search on Google include tvmtalkies, varnachitram, playingwithsid, and viewfinder. Feel free to suggest any other blog or webpage that captures the spirit of IFFK.

IFFK 2008 – Day 2 – Afternoon

2008-12-13T01:09:00.000-08:00

I watched two films so far today: Boarding Gate and The Lost Empire, all in New Theatre. The first one was a Hollywood style lifeless flick. But the second one, a straight from-the-heart account of 1970s Soviet Union, more than made up for it.

I do not have nothing much to say about Boarding Gate, which is an English speaking French film directed by Olivier Assayas. I blame only myself for selecting to watch this film when other films were available.

Next I saw The Lost Empire, directed by one of the “contemporary Russian masters” (this is the official IFFK phrase describing the director), Karen Shakhnazarov. The director made an appearance at the venue and delivered a brief speech in thickly Russian-accented English. But the film spoke the universal language of cinema. It tells the story of a fatherless youth growing up in Russia in 1970s, surprisingly amidst Beatles and Rolling Stones. His romantic adventures, friendships, love failure, and coming of age are portrayed in the background of subtle political humor.

As the second day unfolded, delegates’ patience with the police frisking began to wear thin. Also, boos and claps started to make their appearance just after the signature film. Perhaps boos were provoked by a self-congratulatory article about the signature film in today’s daily bulletin. Well, the boos-and-clap affair after the signature film may become an annual event like Open Forum.

Next I am going to stay at new Theater for watching the Venezuelan film Postcards from Leningrad. It is a film in the competition section, directed by Mariana Rondon.

IFFK 2008 – Day 1 – Evening

2008-12-12T06:59:00.001-08:00

Juju Factory turned out to be a good movie as well. So that marks the end of the first day. I am not watching the opening ceremony. There were unprecedented security arrangements in Kairali Theater. There were whispers about State Police Intelligence gathering information about a bomb threat. For a brief while IFFK appeared as International Film Festival of Kashmir. But nobody except the police officials appeared to have taken it seriously.

Juju Factory is written, directed, and produced by Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda. The film weaves a complex web of subjects: history of Congo, existential struggles of a writer, issues of exile and lack of roots, and problems in relationships. One can go on and on. Perhaps this film is an ideal subject for a PhD thesis. One has to know a bit of Congolese history for feeling the full gravity of the film.

The main character of the movie is Kongo Congo who lives in Matonge, the "Congolese area" in the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium. He is writing a book about Congo (the country). He is accepted by a ruthless and egoistic publisher called Desire. The writer wants to write a poetic and nostalgic account of Congo, its assassinated leaders, and its people settled in the Belgian village. But the publisher, on the other hand, pressurizes the writer to churn out a tourist-friendly book. At last the writer gets the poetic justice.

The film has won several awards. You could see why. It is impeccably crafted. The thing I liked most is the dialogues. Excerpts from the book are imaginatively interspersed with the other dialogues. But the visuals also speak more than a thousand words.

IFFK 2008 – Day 1 –Afternoon

2008-12-12T00:43:00.000-08:00

I watched Flower in the Pocket, a Malaysian film directed by Liew Tat. The film is a decent appetizer. Initially, I had planned to watch Girl Cut in Two by Claude Chabrol. But a couple of scathing reviews about the film on Rotten Tomatoes made me rethink. But it turned out to be a good decision.

Flower in the Pocket portrays the life of two motherless kids, negligently brought up by a workaholic father. It is not a laugh riot as some of the reviews indicated. It is a kind of an informal and ultra-realistic movie. It indeed has some funny and utterly humorous sequences. One can surely call it Chaplinesque. Particularly a sequence towards the end, where the father learns swimming on the floor and later teaching the children how to swim on the playground, is a classic example of tragic-comedy.

Also, there are other scenes that are genuinely comic, especially the mischief of the children. But amidst all this, the film conveys an underlining sorrow of the motherless children, their wayward life, and their strange relationship with the father. Another feature of the film is the sparingly used background music, which sounds like computer generated. The camera functions more like a television camera. There are no spectacular long shots and stunning close-ups. But the whole film is more than the sum of its parts. Not a great movie. But a nice one.

And the signature film was not booed at. I think it is unlikely to be. But you never know. It went in a jiffy. It is almost in the tradition of the good old signature films. Perhaps those who clapped for the signature film last year may boo at this one.

On the aside, there was some off-screen comedy as well. Two people who sat nearby actually slept midway through the film. After some time one of them suddenly started to snore loudly – perhaps to make up for the lack of background music in the movie. The other sleeping person, who had comfortably rested his head on my shoulder, suddenly woke up by the loud snoring.

Next I am going to watch Juju Factory, in Kairali. From the reviews on the Internet, it looks like a good movie.

13th IFFK Comes to Life Tomorrow

2008-12-11T08:56:00.000-08:00

The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), the year-end celluloid bash at Thiruvananthapuram, gets underway tomorrow. This is its 13th edition – unknowingly and unnoticed, like a girl child, the festival has reached its first step of teenage. For a week from tomorrow, the people who throng the Thampannoor area of the city can be divided into two: those whose heads spin at 24 frames per second and those who wonder why the hell these strange people are scrambling for theaters under the hot sun.

I went to the city after a long time to collect the delegate pass. The traffic and the pollution of the city are becoming quite insufferable like Vinayan’s films. But I saw a board that is worthy as a scene in a political satire. There was a big banner of DYFI near Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium, extolling the virtues of freedom. The bearded man on the board was not Carl Marx, as one would expect. But it rather looked like Carl Marx after a weight loss program. Well, it was comrade Saddam Hussein. When I told this to a communist friend, he said Saddham was a great fan of Joseph Stalin, the Kurosawa of Kerala communists. So, it has nothing to do with the appeasement of minorities, as I foolishly thought at first.

Coming back to IFFK, the first show of tomorrow is at 11.30 AM, not at 9 AM, as was the case previously. There are some interesting films. French New Wave veteran Claude Chabrol’s The Girl Cut in Two is one. But there is also Flower in the Pocket, directed by Liew Seng Tat, whom many label as one of the main figures of the so-called Malaysian New Wave. Also, there is a documentary titled Chevolution – about the evolution of Che Guevara’s image as a poster boy of capitalist products. Other notable films going to be screened tomorrow are Music Box, Juju Factory, and Wonderful Town. Also, after the controversy surrounding it during the previous festival, the signature film also should be in the “eagerly awaited” list.

Happy viewing to all.

IFFK Screening Schedule for First Two Days

2008-12-10T20:22:00.000-08:00

The complete and modified schedule is now available here.

The schedule has been obtained from www.iffk.in. You need your ID number and password to view the schedule and book balcony tickets on the website. The ID number and password are printed on the delegate card.

Getting Home

2008-11-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

Online registration for IFFK delegate passes (www.iffk.in).

A Harthal in the Air

2008-10-20T03:46:00.000-07:00

Politicians in Kerala are often accused of lacking collective responsibility. But when it comes to conducting harthals, even the bitter rivals join hands, even if the original idea was proposed by a sworn enemy of both the parties. There is going to be yet another harthal in Kerala tomorrow (21/10/08). (You will need a Cricinfo-like database for storing details of all the harthals in Kerala.)

But this harthal has something new and innovative, even by the “high” standards of Kerala in conducting harthals. This was proposed by CPI (M), demanding a High Court Bench in the capital city, Thiruvananthapuram. Soon, the Congress (I) and BJP declared their support for harthal in a rare show of unity (or is it he first time?). It is well known that CPI (M) cannot suffer BJP, at least in Kerala. So, citing some technical reasons, the party withdrew from harthal. Even for harthals, CPI(M) cannot afford to side with BJP in Kerala.

So, what happened is that the other parties, Congress (I) and BJP took the responsibility of conducting the harthal. The original supporters have become organizers. For harthals, these parties are ready to bear the fatherhood of somebody else’s child. So much for conducting harthals. No wonder the reality show of harthal is flourishing in Kerala. But the harthal is confined to Thiruvananthapuram district. One can expect long queues in front of liquor outlets and meat stalls today evening.

The Ultimate Roadrash

2008-08-10T17:54:00.001-07:00

I was coming back from my ancestral home. There had been a slight drizzle. The pleasant smell of fresh rain was in the air. The muddy road I was walking through would meet the main tar road after a turn. When I passed the turn I saw that. A girl, may be eight or nine years old (studying in third standard, I learnt later), was talking to a person on a bike. He was wearing a helmet. Actually, he was talking to the girl. She was only looking at him. He took something from his pant pocket and began to give it to her. Then suddenly I noticed it: what he was giving was his penis! Black as sin. A sudden and loud growl escaped from me, accompanied by a long forgotten Malayalam expletive. On seeing me, he quickly wrapped up the thing and started his bike and fled. All this happened so quickly that I could not notice the registration number of the bike. I know only that it is a Hero Honda bike. The girl looked at me in bewilderment. I was also shocked. I asked her whether she knew the person. She shook her head as if saying no. I was disappointed. I could only order her to go home quickly.

Because he was wearing a helmet, I am not able to recognize him correctly. Since mine is a small village, there are not many people with Hero Hondas. But it is a link road and people of the neighbouring localities also use this road. The person on the bike had a similar build (and a similar shirt and a same kind of bike) as a particular person in our village. But I am not sure. He is married and well-respected. He does not wear helmet also. I am keeping quite about this because I don’t want to open a can of worms. Village gossip spreads faster and takes new forms quicker than any deadly virus. But still I cannot digest the fact that something like this happened in our village, that too in broad day light and on an open road.

Loan Waiver: A Harvest for Non-farmers

2008-07-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

Finally, the much awaited list of beneficiaries of the farmer’s loan waiver scheme has been out in Kerala. The scheme is initiated and sponsored by the Indian government. In fact, it was one of the proposals that applied the cosmetic of “people friendly” to the otherwise dull and unattractive budget. The beneficiaries in my area (that is, in and around Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram district) include a pharmacist in a private hospital who had attempted some spectacularly failed businesses, a local money lender, a gulf returnee who has been trying to become a local strongman ever since, an incorrigible alcoholic who is said to be in the brink of suicide and, not the one to be left behind in such matters, a local leftist politician. One thing is common among all these people: None of them are farmers. Not a single one is likely to distinguish between the seeds of beans and brinjal.

Right from the time of announcement there have been concerns and reservations about the benefits of the scheme reaching the deserving farmers. In fact, there were no clear guidelines to identify the deserving candidates. Nationalized banks like SBT and primary co-operative societies in Kerala mainly considered the ‘time’ factor for choosing the beneficiaries. Whoever had taken agriculture loan between December 1997 and December 2006 are eligible for the scheme. Only thing they should do is, err, do nothing about the loan. If any of them made the mistake of repaying a part of the loan amount or interest, thanks, but no loan waiver for them.

The problem lies in distributing agriculture loans. Most of the nationalized banks distribute gold loans under the guise of agricultural loans. Normally, the rate of interest of gold loans varies from 9% to 12%. But the rate of interest of agriculture loans is a mere 7%. So what these banks do in an inspired procedural maneuver is that they convert gold loans into agricultural loans accepting gold as security. By this way, banks can easily attain their yearly target of agriculture loans, and they have easily recoverable security in gold. The customers also will be happy as they need to pay less money as interest. Only thing they need to provide other than the gold and identity proof is a receipt of land tax payment issued by the village office. Many non-farmers who availed this kind of agriculture gold loans benefited from the so-called election gimmick of the finance minister. Millions of rupees of tax payer’s money have been given to undeserving people by the government and its agencies in the name of providing relief to farmers. It was reported in The Hindu by Mr. P. Sainath that the notorious stock broker Kethan Parekh was a beneficiary of the previous loan waiver bonanza in the 1990s. Going by the list of beneficiaries this year, it appears that no steps have been taken to prevent such incidents.

Tail piece: The central government had printed a letter to the beneficiaries of the loan waiver scheme signed by Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. It states that the farmers are the backbone of the country, the government is committed to support farmers in any crisis, and the usual blah blah. The authorities of the primary co-operative societies run by LDF-led panel cleverly dumped this letter, saying that “they [the Congress] should not get election mileage out of this.”

Hanging Cradles of Koonambai

2008-05-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Cradles of Hope

The tree is flooded with cradles, on which hang the hopes and happiness of many a family. Myth has it that childless women will be blessed with babies if they tie cradles to a tree in the temple courtyard. This photo is taken from Koonambai temple, near Kollam. Such a practice is popular in many temples in Kerala, but none as popular as Koonambai temple. (Photo credit: Subhash Chirayinkeezhu.)

Blog, blogger, bloggest … Degrees of one-upmanship

2007-12-28T06:46:00.000-08:00

“Blog” is ordinary, quite ordinary. Blogger imagine himself to be better, comparatively being in a higher state than the blog. And the “bloggest” are the comments which look superior to both the blog and the blogger. If you are wondering what is the fuzz all about, please visit the Malayalam blog of M.K. Harikumar (who is reasonably well known among the tiny circle of people who still care about Malayalam literature review) and see yourself the posts written in obscure prose and the comments they provoked.

XXY = 10+4: IFFK 2007 Retreats to Memory

2007-12-14T08:32:00.000-08:00

IFFK 2007 bids adieu as usual with a hint of anti-climax. None of the much awaited movies won the Suvarnachakoram prize. The prize was shared by XXY, an Argentinean film directed by Lucia Puenzo, and 10 + 4, an Iranian film directed by Mania Akbari. The audience award went as expected to the Chinese film Getting Home, directed by Zhang Yang. Ore Kadal, directed by Syamaprasad , was judged as the best Malayalam film by two sets of juries. The following are the rest of the awards:

NETPAC award for the best Malayalam film: Ore Kadal
Fipresci award for the best Malayalam film: Ore Kadal
NETPAC award for the best Asian film in competition: Getting Home
Fipresci award for the best film in competition: Sleepwalking Land
12th IFFK awards a special jury prize to the director: Mr. Abdullah Oguz of the Turkish film Bliss
Rajatha Chakoram and cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs for the best debut film of a director: Lucia Puenzo from Argentina for her film XXY
Rajatha chakoram and cash prize of Rs. 2 lakhs for the best director:: Mr.Mania Akbari from Iran for her film 10+4.

The jury, headed by the famous Iranian director Jafar Panahi, seems to have reached a conclusion in algebraic terms after so much thinking: XXY = 10+4. There is nothing that separates these films in terms of craft or quality, according to the jury. But the audience have no such problem as 33% of those cared to vote did in favor of Getting Home.

Vipin Vijay, the much-ridiculed director of signature film, was facilitated in the closing ceremony. I am winding up the IFFK blogging with this curious incident about the signature film: The signature film had been greeted with deafening boos consistently throughout the festival from the second day itself. In the last day, one of my friends saw a foreigner booing at the signature film. He was pleasantly surprised at the thought that the signature film managed to bring out the uncivilized face of even a foreign dignitary. After the show, he asked the foreigner the reason for his howls. The foreigner was surprised and asked: “Isn’t this the custom here to greet a movie?”
The End.

IFFK – Day 7

2007-12-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

Portrait of an Artist

I saw the Korean film Chihawaseon in New Theatre. The film is directed Im Kwon Taek. Seven of his over hundred films have been included in this retrospective. I had heard about his film Surrogate Mother, which was shown in India previously in some other name. I could not watch Surrogate Mother. But this film, Chihawaseon, gives glimpses of Im Kwon Taek’s brilliant oeuvre. This is a gripping portrayal of the eccentric life of an unconventional painter. He was born in a slum. But his immense potential with brush was spotted during his childhood and he received sufficient training to grow into a masterful painter. In the film, we can see his turbulent life, where he could not exorcise his inner ghosts. He was consumed by the same fire within him that lighted up his paintings. The film is slow in most parts, but is studded with beautiful visuals, which are cleverly used to symbolize the state of mind of the hero.

All in all, today was a good day with three satisfying films, though not as spectacular as Sunday when I watched three fantastic movies (Closely Watched Train, Talk to Her and Getting Home). I think I may not watch any more film in the festival as tomorrow will be a busy day in my office. That means I have to wait for some more years for some other festival to watch the movies like Time directed by Kim Ki Duc and the Romanian film which won high critical acclaim, Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days.

The race for the best film award is heading to an exciting climax, with nobody being sure of which film will move the heart of the jury members more. Initially Teeth of Love, a Chinese film directed by Zhuang Yuxin, and Getting Home, another Chinese film directed by Zhang Yang, were the favorites. Now Sleepwalking Land, a film from Portugal/Mozambique, directed by Teressa Puenzo, and Bliss, a Turkish film, directed Abdullah Oguz, have emerged as dark horses. But one delegate quipped that he won’t be surprised if one of the Malayalam entries to the competition section, Naalu Pennungal (Four Women) and Paradesi, will win in the end, given the standing and the canvassing skill of the directors. I sincerely hope my friend will be proved wrong, as I have great respect for Adoor.

IFFK – Day 7- Evening

2007-12-13T03:54:00.000-08:00

A Humour Fest from Menzel

I took leave from office today to watch films. The film I Served the King of England, directed by Jiri Menzel, justified my decision. This is a hilarious comedy, which explores how the tyrannical regimes – be it fascist or communist – affect the lives of a ordinary people. The film opens with an old man coming out of jail. Soon he sets the tone for laughter with this witty remark: "I always had the fortune to run into a misfortune". The film is studded with flashbacks – memories of the protagonist. He was a bar attender. The film revolves around changes in his life and in society at various historical events in Czechoslovakia, like German invasion and Communist revolution. Also the film detailedly depicts the highly imaginative sex life of the hero. I think the film is a fine mix of sexual comedy and historical satire.

Now I am going New Theatre to watch Chihawaseon, a Korean film of Im Kwon Taek retrospective. I haven’t seen any of his films and I guess today is my last chance to see one. So far this year’s festival has been conducted exceptionally well. The usual drunken arguments in Open Forums and sometimes in the theatres have been almost non-existent. The only controversy is regarding signature film of the festival. Some noted filmmakers and some in the media have demanded the withdrawal of the signature film, which is created by Vipin Vijay, an upcoming film maker whose films include Hawa Mahal and Video Game. The festival authorities are defending the signature films by criticising the audience who boo the signature film and the media which portrays the signature film in bad light.

My view, if you are interested, is that both sides are wrong. Festival authorities selected this signature film obviously after seeing some merit in this film. So no question of withdrawing the film. Also, it would be great insult to a promising director. Also the audience have the right to express their displeasure and the media have the right to criticise. So let the signature film be continued and so be the boos.

IFFK – Day 7 – Afternoon

2007-12-13T00:18:00.000-08:00

A Balkan Comedy

I saw an interestingly titled Croatian film What is a Man Without a Moustache, directed by Hrvoje Hribar, in New Theatre. The title perfectly captures the mood of the film. The film depicts the happenings in a Croatian village. The main thread of the movie is the fruitless love affair between a young widow and a good-looking priest, who is trying hard to resist his temptation to alcohol. Just as in the case of alcohol, he could not resist the feelings towards this beautiful woman. All these incidents are shown in a shade of satire. There are plenty of scenes that evoke rapturous laughter from the audience, like the affair between the general of the army and the defense minister and the actions of the alcoholic priest. If I have to give a verdict on the movie, it will be something like this: this is not a must-watch, great film, but a decent comedy.

The initial enthusiasm of most of the delegates has died down, it appears. There was not much crowd for this movie. Also, some people indulged in non-stop talking in theatre while watching the movie. My guess is that they must be some failed intellectuals or upcoming politicians. I suffered the most, as, to paraphrase a famous film dialogue, of all seats in all theatres of all this festival, they chose to sit next to mine. Next I am going to watch I Served the King of England by Jiri Menzel in Remya theatre. More satire is in cards, it seems.

IFFK – Day 6

2007-12-12T07:21:00.001-08:00

I saw the Chinese film Curse of the Golden Flower directed hang Yimou today. It had received good media reviews after its first screening. But I did not like the film. I am not to say that the film is bad. The film has most of the good ingredients: like good sets, good cinematography, well-choreographed battle scenes and excellent acting. But somewhere along the line, all those provide the film an aura of artificiality. But the film received thunderous applause from the not-so-houseful crowd.

The film is about the life and times of a king and a queen in an old Chinese dynasty. We got to see palace intrigues, conspiracies and a bit of illicit relationships. I don’t know this is a different version of an actual historical incident. But I think the film is not for those like me who prefer realistic movies. Some of the battle scenes are almost like the stunt scenes in a James Bond movie.

The signature film of the festival is making a lot of news off the screen. Yesterday, noted Malayalam director T.V. Chandran demanded withdrawal of the signature film. Today, Madhu Iravankara, an award-winning film critic, and V.K. Joseph, a higher official in the festival organizing committee, have written articles in the festival bulletin in defense of the signature film, which has been consistently booed at all the venues. They criticized the attitude of the audience who boo the signature film.

Seen Films are Great, but Those Unseen …

2007-12-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

Day 5 went without any new exciting film “finds”. By now all the competition section films have been screened. If crowd reaction can be a yard stick, Bliss, Teeth of Love, Getting Home and XXY vie for the tag of favorite to win the prize.

I think I have missed some really good movies. Heading the list of those sweeter unseen is 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days, a Romanian film directed by Cristian Mungiu. Then I missed Volver of Pedro Almodovar (Almodovar films are running into problem again. This time lack of subtitles affected the screening of the movies Flowers of My Secret and Law of Desire). Buddha Collapsed in Shame, the inaugural film directed by Hana Makhmalbaf, is another film I must have seen. My Brother is an Only Child, an Italian film directed by Dannielle Luchetti, and California Dreaming, a Romanian film directed by Christian Nemescu, are highly rated by the delegates who saw those films. I haven’t seen any of Im Kwon Taek retrospective and Balkan films. So far, I am satisfied with the ‘hits’, so not much worry about the “misses”.

A Day Damned: IFFK 2007 – Day 4

2007-12-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

Today I could not attend IFFK because of my official compulsions. I had planned to watch a movie in the evening. But after the day’s work, I was damn tired to undertake a 40 km journey and watch a movie and come back. If TV channels are to be believed, the most impressive films screened today are two films of Competition section: Bliss (a Turkish film directed by Abdullah Oguz) and Teeth of Love (a Chinese film by nZhuang Yuxin). Even yesterday, there were whispers among the supposedly learnt delegates that Teeth of Love would be this year’s winner. But my vote is for the Chinese film Getting Home.

In today’s Kerala Kaumudi, another Chinese film, Curse of the Golden Flower, received an admirer’s review. The reporter mentions that he was forced to watch this movie in Remya theatre because he could not get seats for Getting Home, which was being shown in the adjoining Dhanya theatre. But the reporter of The Hindu was luckier and he did get a seat in Dhanya theatre. He could not hide his happiness as he lavished praises on the film in his report. In blogosphere too IFFK is making more waves. A blog that gives good reviews of IFFK films is tvmtalkies. A brief general overview of the film festival can be found in other blogs too such as heartbeats and aruninteblog.

IFFK 2007 – Day 3 – Evening

2007-12-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

An Ode to Human Spirit

Today was an excellent day of festival harvest. I have already written about the first two films: Closely Watched Train and Talk to Her, the appetizer and the main course of the day, respectively. The dessert did not fall behind too. Getting Home is a delightful celluloid ode that celebrates the power of human spirit. There is not a dull moment in the film. This film is part of the competition section. But usually films that make people laugh do not win IFFK prize. It always goes to some serious films. Well, if Giri Menzel was here as the jury head, as arranged previously (but he could not come because of some minor accident), he would have been extremely happy with this film.

Getting Home is a Chinese film directed by Zhang Yang. It is the story of a man taking an arduous, but often comic, journey to a village in the farthest part of China to keep a promise he had made to his friend. He is taking his friend’s dead body to the dead man’s village. The remarkable aspect is that he is still treating the body as his friend, not a “dead body”. He makes the body sit with him in a bus, in public places, and often addresses him. His journey is so hilarious that laughter never ceased in the theatre. He encounters several charming people: a dead man coming back after his organized funeral, a truck driver who drove 300000 kilometers for his lover only to see her snubbing him later, a destitute woman whose son is studying in a prestigious university, and so on. This is really a film that may probably help you get over your worries. The spirit of the characters influences the viewers.

Media coverage of IFFK (including that in blogs like this and AEIOh!You) reminds me of the old saying about blind men describing the elephant. There is no similarity among the reports. For example, today’s Keralakaumudi (which provides the best coverage among Malayalam dailies) lists five “amazing” films, most of which are not reported in other papers (read the report here). Talking about Newspaper articles there is an interesting article about delegates in The Hindu on 8/12/2207: Birds of a Festival, imaginatively written by Geetika Sudeep.

IFFK – Day 3 – Afternoon

2007-12-09T00:33:00.001-08:00

Incredible Almodovar

Spectators in New Theatre can consider themselves wise for choosing Talk to Her to watch over Buddha Collapsed in Shame. I haven’t seen Buddha Collapsed in Shame. But I don’t see eighteen-year old Hana Makhmalbaf, the director of Buddha Collapsed in Shame, making anything half as good as this film by Pedro Almodovar. It will take years, if ever, she would make such a film. If Almodovar impressed the audience yesterday with All About My Mother, today he stunned or mesmerized ( or better, created an un-describable feeling in) the audience with Talk to Her. It is a film that cannot be fit into a single label, a sure sign of a great movie. It can be a heart-drenching love story, a sensitive portrayal of a strange incident or an artistic depiction of a few modern-day lives. A skeleton summary of the film can be given like this: A lonely man, who is a nurse by profession, fell in love with a beautiful dancer. Soon she met with an accident and was confined to coma. Our man nurses her for four years, still keeping his tender love intact. One day she became pregnant. He was charged with raping her and arrested. After giving birth to a dead baby, she miraculously came out of coma. I don’t want to spoil climax of the movie, with this clumsy synopsis.

In an unforgettable allegoric sequence, the hero sees a movie titled Shrinking Love. In that film, the protagonist drink the new medicine invented by his lover which for reducing the body weight. After drinking the medicine, the hero goes on shrinking. In a hilarious ending, the heroine carries the hero in a small chest case. Then the hero actually goes inside the vagina of the heroine and stays there forever!

Many dignitaries were present to watch the movie, including Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The delegates have found a novel use for the festival bags. In a disturbing trend, some delegates are booking the seats for their friends in advance by placing the festival bag on the chair. The blasphemy (nothing less) is that the reserved seats will remain vacant because the persons who were supposed to come will not turn up. This happens when people are sitting on floor. Anyway, hope better sense will prevail soon.

Now I am going to have lunch and then race to Dhanya theatre to watch Getting Home. I heard it is the story of a man carrying his friend’s dead body to the dead man’s house in the other end of China. The storyline appears interesting.

IFFK – Day 3 – Morning

2007-12-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

I watched Closely Watched Train of Jiri Menzel today morning. (The actual title of the film is Strictly Watched Train; also the actual title of yesterday’s Menzel film is Snow Drop Festivities, not Snow Drop Festival.) It was a much-expected film for me – and for many others as was obvious from the large number of people thronged Sree theatre, the smallest among the theatres for this festival. But I must confess that the film did not live up to my expectations; perhaps because it is an old film (made in 1966) and my expectations were contemporary. I was expecting a satirical roller-coaster like the films of Louis Bunuel and Emir Kusturica. But the film is somewhat laid-back for a large part and suddenly burst into life towards the latter part. Nevertheless, it is satirical movie, dealing with the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The film portrays the incidents in a railway station, where the protagonist comes to join as am official. He is suffering from a peculiar problem: he has not made love yet.

The mood is quite relaxed in IFFK today. The signature film was, deservedly, booed today. It is actually the butt of many jokes. My take is that it is a demonstration of symptoms of Chikungunya, a disease that affected many people recently in Kerala.

Now I am going to watch Talk to Her by Pedro Almodovar in New Theatre. Hopefully, I will get seat, as Buddha Collapsed in Shame (in Ajantha theatre) by Hana Makhmakbaf appears to be the favorite of most of the people.

IFFK 2007 – Day 2 – Evening

2007-12-08T07:57:00.001-08:00

Overall, it was a satisfying day: Menzel for breakfast, Almodovar for lunch and the film After the Wedding for a crispy evening bite, with the lunch being heavy as is usually the case in Kerala. Snow Drop Festival of Giri Menzel is a refreshing comedy set in a funny village and All About My Mother is a stunningly candid portrayal of the marginalized in Spanish society. Though After the Wedding is slightly boring towards the end, it is also a brisk-paced film that deals with the life of a Swede, who is trying to set up an orphanage in India, and a wealthy man whom he seeks for funds to realize his venture. Soon it appears that the wife of the wealthy man is his former girl friend.

Tomorrow I am going to watch again Menzel-Almodovar magic. Closely watched Trains and talk to her in the morning. I have decided to watch Mirage (Balkan package) in the evening.

IFFK 2007 - Day 2 - Afternoon

2007-12-08T00:59:00.000-08:00

Almodovar Unleashed

For once, all the hype was justified. There has been a great buzz about Pedro Almodovar retrospective in this year’s festival. All About My Mother is considered in many circles as the film through which Almodovar came of age. And today we knew why. This is easily one of the best films in the festival so far. It is a film whose beauty cannot be conveyed by the plot summary or technical explanations. Each frame is meticulously constructed and the whole frames forming the parts of a stunning film sculpture. So in that sense Almodovar has been unleashed in IFFK now.

I am disappointed with the signature film of the festival. Despite the claims in IFFK website regarding the signature film being a blend of creativity and technology, I found it rather a blend of pseudo-creativity and broken visuals. It appears like a music album gone wrong. Even the customary chakoram, designed by the late Aravindan, is missing. Now I am going to watch After the Wedding in Ajantha theatre.

IFFK 2007 - Day 2 Morning

2007-12-07T21:20:00.001-08:00

A Feast of Satire

I saw Spring Drop Festival by Giri Menzel today morning from Kalabhavan Theatre. The film started quite slowly, but in a unique way, with camera panning across a snow-clad village. The film went on eventless for the first 15 minutes or so. Just when I thought Menzel is not up to my expectation a curious incident of killing a pig changed the complexion of the film. From there on it was a feast of class satire. A nice film to begin with. Now I am going to watch All About My Mother of Pedro Almodovar. Considering the kind of publicity the director got, I think it is better to get into the theatre at least half an hour before. So I have to rush.

IFFK 2007 - Day 2 Morning

2007-12-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

Feast of Satire

I have seen Spring Drop Festival by Giri Menzel today morning form Kalabhavan Theatre. The film started quite slowly, but in a unique way, with camera panning across a snow-clad village. The film went on eventless for the first 15 minutes or so. Just when I thought Menzel is not up to my expectation a curious incident of killing a pig changed the complexion of the film. From there on it was a feast of class satire. A nice film to begin with. Now I am going to watch All About My Mother of Pedro Almodovar. Considering the kind of publicity the director got, I think it is better to get into the theatre at least half an hour before. So I have to rush.

IFFK 2007 – Day 1

2007-12-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

The festival has been formally inaugurated by Kamalhassan in a glittering ceremony in Nishaganthi Opean Air Auditorium. Many famous personalities including Mohanlal and Chilean director Miguil Littin were present on the occasion. After the ceremony Buddha Collapsed in Shame by Hana Makhmalbaf was shown. The film drew great applause from the audience. Earlier, the films of the first day were rather unspectacular. But fans of Pedro Almodóvar got an eyeful through the film Dark Habits. Another film that many people found interesting is the Greek film Brides directed by Pantelis Voulgaris.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I am planning to watch Snowdrop Festival (Kalabhavan 9 AM) of Jirí Menzel and All About My mother (Kalabhavan 11. 30 AM) of Pedro Almodóvar, and After the Wedding (Ajantha 3 PM), which has attracted good reviews in recently concluded IFFI. If I have enough time and energy for one more movie, I will watch either Night train (Kripa 6. 30 PM) (whose one-liner sounds attractive: “A prison executioner visits a matchmaking agency, mistaking the vengeful husband of an executed convict as a potential match.”) or Playing Away (6.30 Kalabhavan), which is a black comedy having the game of cricket as the backdrop.

Lights, Camera, Action, IFFK ….

2007-12-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

The wait has been over and curtains will be raised for IFFK 2007 today. Buddha Collapsed in Shame (by Hana Makhmalbaf) is the opening film of the festival. It is going to be screened in Nishaganthi Auditorium at 7 pm after the inaugural ceremony. (Mind you, the Buddha in the movie does refer to the actual Buddha and not the Buddha of Bengal and now Nandigram fame, though the latter has every reason to collapse in shame.) That is the formal part of it. But the actual screening of the films starts from 9’o clock in the morning. So let us dive into the aesthetic pool of, hopefully, remarkable celluloid art.

The following are today’s films, their timings and synopsis (Source; IMDB, Wikipedia, Yahoomovies). Apart from these, three documentaries, Nomads TX (Sree Theatre, 3 PM), A Song for Arrgyris (Kalabhavan, 9 AM), and Potosi, The Journey (Kalabhavan, 6.30 PM), are also going to be screened. Complete schedule can be downloaded from http://www.iffk.keralafilm.com/schedu.htm.

Samiya (Kairali, 11.30 AM)

it is a moving drama about Algerian girls in France, growing up
modern on the outside and miserable on the inside in a strict Muslim
household where they're little more than servants.
Comment: Samia tells an old story about a teenager who rebels against
her family values asserting her demands to be her own person. In the
case of "Samia", the teen is an Algerian girl living with a traditional
Muslim family in France. During this short film we get to see Samia
sulking, fighting with her brother, sulking, hanging out with friends,
sulking, going to the seashore, sulking, refusing to have her hymen
examined and, yeah, more sulking. The film shows some traditional and
presumably Algerian costuming, dancing, music, meals, etc.

Sopyonje (Kalabhavan, 3 PM)

One day in the early 1960’s, Dongho, a man in his thirties (Kim
Kyu-Chul) arrives at a village inn. He is absorbed in deep thought
while listening to a Pansori song by a woman of the inn. In his
childhood, Yubong, a vagabond singer of Pansori (Kim Myung-Gon), comes
to his village. Yubong falls in love with Dongho’s widowed mother. He
leaves the village with Dongho, the widow, and his adopted daughter
Songhwa (Oh Jung-Hae). However, the widow dies while delivering
Yubong’s baby. Yubong teaches Songhwa Pansori music, and teaches
Dongho the drum. Songhwa and Dongho are raised as a pair of Pansori
singer and drummer. They wander about doing Pansori for a living, but
their lives are getting harder during and after the Korean civil war.
With the influence of western culture, Pansori gradually becomes less
appreciated and favored, even despised by people. Dissatisfied with
his miserable life, Dongho leaves home after having a dispute with
Yubong. Broken hearted, Songhwa refuses to do Pansori. Yubong makes
her go blind in an attempt to complete her Pansori. Blind Songhwa
manages to lead a pitiable life after Yubong’s death. Time passes and
Dongho comes back with guilty feelings to look for Songhwa and Yubong.
He finally encounters Songhwa. Songhwa sings her Pansori at his
request with the accompaniment of his drum. After spending one night
together, they separate again. Songhwa leaves to continue her vagabond
life.

Dark Habits (New Theare, 3 PM)

Unconventional Spanish comedy set in wild-and-crazy convent.
Over-the-top sex-and-drugs subject matter, uneven pace will deter many
viewers, but fans of director Almodóvar's bitchy yet good-natured
surrealism will still enjoy. This is Almodóvar’s first film to have a
proper producer and be made for a proper film company, rather than be
made on the hoof like his previous projects. Almodóvar has since
distanced himself from the film as he felt that he had to bow to
commercial considerations.

The Father (Kairali, 3 PM)

A WWII officer returns to discover family and peacetime aren't much to
his liking in the ultra-traditional Russian meller "The Father." Pic is
based on an Andrei Platonov short story whose indictment of the
conflict's emotional toll was too strong for the postwar Russian
government, but pic's existence renders the point universal. Story's
connection to Ernest Hemingway -- he translated the long-banned seven
pages and professed influence from them -- could attract literate auds,
though stolid drama seems best for fests, regional play and niche
ancillary.En route home, Captain Alexei Ivanov (Alexei Guskov, also
co-producer) meets pregnant young soldier Masha (Svetlana Ivanova) and
pretends to be her husband so her family will reaccept her. Later, he
grows bored with his wife, Lyuba (Polina Kutepova), and two kids, and
suspicious of Lubya's faithfulness during his absence. Acting honors go
to young nonpro Vassili Prokopiev, whose stern orders to mother and
sister, honed during dad's absence, steal pic outright. Tech package is
solid, though the almost operatic decay of the production design seems
too expansive for focused drama. Pic's May 9 domestic release coincided
with Russia's commemoration of WWII's cessation, called Victory Day.

Paris, je t'aime (Sree, 11.30 AM)

Paris, je t'aime is a 2006 film starring an ensemble cast of American,
British and French movie actors. The title means "Paris, I love you".
The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films.

Meisie (Kalabhavan, 11.30 AM)
Meisie is a gentle and humane film which is set on the peripheries of
the Kalahari Desert. The film focuses on a young girl, Meisie (Abrina
Bosman) who has an astonishing talent for mathematics, but is prevented
by her father from going to the local school. Instead, she is forced to
tend goats and practices her maths with stones on the desert sand. The
arrival of an inspirational new teacher in the town results in a change
that impacts on Meisie’s life forever.

Foreigner (Kripa, 3 PM)

A teenage girl (Agustina Munoz) wanders around the desert with her
little brother, knowing her powerful father (Carlos Portaluppi) is
determined to kill her, in the belief this sacrifice will end a
terrible drought. Offering an occasional POV on the spare action is an
out-of-place foreigner (played in Polish by Maciej Robakiewicz), who
looks as puzzled as most viewers will at what's going on. Film's strong
point is its setting in a rocky, burnt-out desert whose elemental
forces, thrown onscreen in knockout Cinemascope by lenser Gerardo
Silvatici, create an atmosphere of timeless tragedy. Pacing is leaden.

Blind (Ajantha, 3 PM)
It is a story about a blind boy (may be around 20 years of age) –
played by Joren Seldeslachts - who is wild and lives with his mother in
a palatial county type house; and his care taker lady (may be around 30
years of age) – brilliantly enacted by Halina Reijn (remember
Zwartboek?) - who is suffering from albino – i.e. body does not produce
enough pigment and the a person has pale or colorless skin, eyes and
hair. Joren starts falling in love with Halina without noticing about
her albino disease because he is blind. Halina tries hard to evade
Joren's closeness – but is not able to resist her own fears, and falls
in love with Joren. Katelijne Verbeke plays the boy's mother who
notices this attraction and is against their relationship. The good
news comes when the boy is about to get his sight back and that is the
time Halina goes away – so that Joren would always remember her as a
beautiful girl. But Joren is persistent and after regaining his sight
desperately searches for Halina. Do they meet? And what happens after
that – I will not tell you and spoil your show.The backdrop is – I think Belgium or Bulgaria! The snow clad landscape
is captured with nature's ecstasy. The music is fantastic. Some scenes
are so greatly executed that without a word – just by images the
director communicates so many things, and that is the art of cinema.
Good movies bring you back to the soul – the core of our human values
and purity of love.

Monkeys in Winter (Dhanya, 3 PM)

Plots of the three strands are only glancingly related, with just
settings and minor details shared. For instance, in both of the last
two stories, characters watch a nature documentary on TV about monkeys
protecting their young during a snowstorm. These simian images not only
give pic its title but also provide ironic counterpoint to characters
here who behave in so-called "unnatural" ways.
Opening segment, pic's most straightforward, is set in 1961 and tracks
Dona (Bulgarian thrush Bonka Ilieva-Boni), a lusty woman of Gypsy
extraction, living in the suburbs outside the capital of Sofia and
raising three kids by herself. Deserted by her b.f., and with bailiffs
threatening to seize the family's meager possessions, Dona accepts an
offer from a local party official to match her with an elderly spouse.
But when her vile new husband makes a move on her young daughter, Dona
reacts with primal fury.
The story set in 1981 follows law student Lucretia (newcomer Diana
Dobreva, whose long black hair and sorrowful eyes evoke a living
Modigliani figure). In order to avoid being sent back to the sticks
upon graduation, she tries to get herself knocked up by another
student. When she really does get pregnant, however, her lack of faith
in her b.f.'s love leads her to commit the aforementioned "unnatural"
act out of fear he'll leave her.
Final strand centers round Tana (local star Angelina Slavova), the wife
of wealthy businessman Lazar, whose property development project just
happens to involve destroying Dona's now-derelict house. Happily in
love, Tana and Lazar have everything except a child. When Lazar is told
he's infertile, everything turns sour.

Brides (Remya, 3 PM)

Set in 1922, is the story of a mail order bride, one of 700, aboard the
SS KING ALEXANDER, who falls in love with an American photographer. She
is bound for her new husband, in New York; he is on his way home to a
failed marriage.
Comment: A touching yet subtle story of love, longing and desire. The
tragedy of the situation of these mail-order brides, lost without a
connection to their homeland, without money, family or hope for the
future. This was a beautifully shot and acted film. The director
Pantelis Voulgaris should be congratulated. Damian Lewis has never been
stronger, a gorgeous leading man, who gives his character Norman, such
a natural on screen presence, that there appears to be nothing
artificial about him. Niki is a fine leading female character, strong,
resolute, yet naturally human and weak. The love story, not just
amongst the principles simmered and grew, the sexual tension not forced
or faked. Wonderful.

Budha Collapsed in Shame (Nisaganthi, 7 PM)
The beauty and grief of present-day Afghanistan receives epic, poetic
treatment from Hana Makhmalbaf, the youngest member of master director
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s remarkable family. Set in Bamian, the actual town
where the Taliban’s destruction of cultural treasures sickened the
world, Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame is an exotic and frightening
journey into the minds of the children who live in that desolate area –
and children affected by violence everywhere.
Like many Iranian filmmakers, Makhmalbaf chooses a little girl as her
narrative engine. When we meet this extraordinary young creature,
Baktay (Nikbakht Noruz), all she wants to do is go to the school for
girls that has opened up across the river. But she must overcome
Herculean obstacles to attend, starting with her family’s extreme
poverty and her mother’s indifference. In one incredible sequence, she
has to negotiate the purchase of the requisite pen and paper through a
complex transaction involving stolen eggs. She must also traverse a no
man’s land populated by a band of wild boys who delight in war games.
She is “captured” by them going both ways – once as an American spy,
then as a Taliban spy – and these scenes encapsulate Makhmalbaf’s
thesis about how violent “liberation” refracts in a child’s mind.
The film feels extremely authentic, largely due to the stripped-down
neo-realist style of the Makhmalbaf family’s projects and the fact that
they cast local non-professional actors for all the roles. But this is
not a documentary. The film sneakily reveals all sorts of narrative
surprises and political critiques despite its simple exterior. And, as
custom dictates in this kind of film, the little girl is almost too
cute for words, evoking gushes of sympathy toward her numerous trials.
The film’s title comes from Hana’s father. According to her, Mohsen
meant that “even a statue can be ashamed of witnessing all this
violence and harshness happening to these innocent people and,
therefore, collapse.” Shots of the looming emptiness in the Bamian
cliff faces that once housed these serene Buddhas are indeed among the
film’s most devastating moments.

A Jump Cut to Art: Im Kwon Taek Retrospective in IFFK 2007

2007-12-05T19:16:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the tongue-twister name of the director may not be as familiar with the film-buffs as that of Almodóvar or Kim Ki Duc. But Im Kwon Taek, one of the best known and most prolific directors from South Korea, has done what most mainstream Malayalam film makers desperately crave to do: making a successful transition from commercial to art films – and remaining successful in both. Even his life resembles the rags-to-riches story of a bollywood film.
Im Kwon Taek was born in a remote village in South Korea on May 2, 1936 in an impoverished family. He went Pusan in search of a job and worked there as a laborer in a shoe factory. Later he moved to Seoul and started working as a production assistant of Jeong Chang-hwa, an active film director of that time. Soon he learned the tricks of the trade and gained enough confidence direct a movie. He made his directorial debut in 1962 with the film Farewell to the Duman River. Soon he followed it with many box-office hits of various genres. But by the end of 1970s, he realized the necessity to make more meaningful films. His second innings, as a serious film-maker, started in 1981 with the film Mandala. His most recent famous films are Sopyonje and Chunhyang, both of which are included in the retrospective here. Both the films are marked by the fantastic use of Korean classical music, Pansori, and beautiful frames. The following are the synopsis of his films included in the retrospective (Source: Wikipedia, www.koreanfilms.com).

1. Sopyonje (112 min, 1993)
One day in the early 1960’s, Dongho, a man in his thirties (Kim Kyu-Chul) arrives at a village inn. He is absorbed in deep thought while listening to a Pansori song by a woman of the inn. In his childhood, Yubong, a vagabond singer of Pansori (Kim Myung-Gon), comes to his village. Yubong falls in love with Dongho’s widowed mother. He leaves the village with Dongho, the widow, and his adopted daughter Songhwa (Oh Jung-Hae). However, the widow dies while delivering Yubong’s baby. Yubong teaches Songhwa Pansori music, and teaches Dongho the drum. Songhwa and Dongho are raised as a pair of Pansori singer and drummer. They wander about doing Pansori for a living, but their lives are getting harder during and after the Korean civil war. With the influence of western culture, Pansori gradually becomes less appreciated and favored, even despised by people. Dissatisfied with his miserable life, Dongho leaves home after having a dispute with Yubong. Broken hearted, Songhwa refuses to do Pansori. Yubong makes her go blind in an attempt to complete her Pansori. Blind Songhwa manages to lead a pitiable life after Yubong’s death. Time passes and Dongho comes back with guilty feelings to look for Songhwa and Yubong. He finally encounters Songhwa. Songhwa sings her Pansori at his request with the accompaniment of his drum. After spending one night together, they separate again. Songhwa leaves to continue her vagabond life.

2. The Tae Black Mountains (105 min, 1994)

Six years after renouncing the secular world to solve the riddle of life and death, young Buddhist monk Beob-wun (Ahn Sung-ki) is still roaming the country without coming any closer to enlightenment. While riding a bus, he sees a recreant monk placed in a predicament because he does not have his identification. He helps out the monk, named Ji-san (Jeon Mu-song), and the two begin to travel together. Ji-san, who always has a bottle of booze on hand and even carries around a suicide pill, sometimes seems like an enlightened saint and at other times like a reprobate infected by secular life. At first, Beob-wun regards Ji-san's eccentricities as mere outward show and despises him for it, but he increasingly senses an extraordinariness about his traveling companion. After repeated meetings and partings, the two monks settle down at a small temple deep in the mountains. While climbing up to the temple one day in an inebriated state, Ji-san falls asleep in the snow and freezes to death. Beob-wun burns Ji-san's remains and seeks out his own mother (Park jung-ja). He also meets Ok-sun, a woman Ji-san had never gotten over. His meetings reaffirm the futility of all secular relationships, and young Beob-wun sets off on his ascetic path once more.

3. Chunhyang (120 min, 2000)
The story of Chunhyang is a centuries-old Romeo and Juliet-like tale of young lovers. The governor's son, Mongryong (Cho Seung-woo), falls in love with the lovely Chunhyang (Lee Hyo-jung) while out on a day trip, and marries her without his father's knowledge. With his high standing, Mongryong is expected to take a test that will enable him to obtain a lofty career position. Since Chunhyang is of a lower caste, their marriage could jeopardize his career. Unfortunately, Mongryong's father gets appointed to a position in Seoul, and he is forced to move away from his new bride. Even worse, the new governor attempts to make Chunhyang a courtesan, but she refuses, staying faithful to her husband. The new governor jails her and sentences her to death.

4. The General's Son 1 (108 min, 1990) and The General's Son 2 (1991)
Kim Doo-han lost his mom at the age of eight and he survives on the streets as a singing beggar. His natural born fighting skills places him on the mean streets of Jongro with the kisaeng house Woomigwan at the center. He is soon recognized for his incredible strength and ability. He finds out through Shin Ma-jeok, the head of a student gang, that he is the son of General Kim Jwa-jin who fought against the Japanese army. Meanwhile, the Yakuzas expand their sphere of influence and try to take over the Jongro streets but Doo-han protects the Korean vendors of Jongro and wins their respect. When the head of Woomigwan, Kim Gi-hwan is arrested, Doo-han becomes the leader of the Jongro gang.

6. Surrogate Mother (95 min, 1987)

Surrogate Mother is set in the Joseon Dynasty. Shin Sang-gyu, the firstborn son in a distinguished family, and his wife Yun (Bang Hee) fail to produce an offspring. After much deliberation, his mother (Han Eun-jin) and his uncle Shin Chi-ho (Yoon Yang-ha) decide to bring in a woman to receive Sang-gyu's seed and give birth to an heir. Shin Chi-ho personally seeks out a village inhabited by women known to perform such surrogate services, and chooses Ok-nyeo (Kang Soo-yeon), the daughter of a former surrogate mother named Pil-nyeo (Kim Hyeong-ja), for his nephew. On the night of the consummation, Sang-gyu is captivated by Ok-nyeo's beauty and becomes enamored of her, to the intense jealousy of his wife Yun. When Ok-nyeo shows signs of being with child, the entire household exalts her. Even Ok-nyeo forgets her place for a while and comes genuinely to love Sang-gyu. Pil-nyeo looks back on her own past and remonstrates with her daughter, but Ok-nyeo refuses to listen. The moment Ok-nyeo gives birth to her son, he is placed in the arms of Sang-gyu's wife Yun. The Shin family rejoices, but Ok-nyeo is ordered to leave the house that very night, without ever having seen her son's face. One year later, Ok-nyeo rebels against the inhuman tradition of her time by hanging herself outside the house where her son lives.

7. Festival (103 min, 1996)

Jun Sub, a successful novelist, returns to the village of his youth for his mother’s funeral. The estranged family members bristle in each other’s company as the film compares the plot of one of Jun Sub’s novels with his own family.

8. Chihwaseon (Painted Fire) (2001)

Essentially the same movie as Julie Taymor's Frida, Chihwaseon tells the life story of a famous 19th-century Korean artist. It contains many great and beautiful passages, but the overall effect is too fast and basic. This film depicts the life of a drunken, womanizing, self-obsessed but brilliant artist. Jang Seung-Ub, also known as "Ohwon," is an outsider, a lower-class artist who teaches himself through raw perseverance and talent, while all other Korean artists rely on their upper-class upbringing. Ohwon paints with passion, while they paint with training. When a Japanese nobleman commissions a painting, he asks Ohwon how he achieved such high standing from such low beginnings. So begins the crash course in Ohwon's life. In the beginning, a man named Kim Byung-moon saves the young Ohwon from a beating in the street. The young boy draws him a picture by way of thanks, and Kim takes him on as an apprentice. In fits and starts, we see Ohwon variously working with his own young apprentice, going through women like they were toilet paper, drinking a lot, avoiding the volatile politics of the time and of course, painting.

Discrete Charm of Another Spaniard: Pedro Almodóvar Retrospective in IFFK 2007

2007-12-01T22:11:00.001-08:00

Pedro Almodóvar in all probability would be the biggest crowd puller of this year’s IFFK. Not just because he is widely regarded as a master film maker from Spain after Louis Bunuel, who is an all-time favorite in IFFKs. Judging by the reaction of people towards his film Volver last year, Almodóvar retrospective should receive a welcome like the one a Rajanikanth film gets in Chennai. Last year, Volver created such a buzz among the festival crowd that the theatre was jam-packed at least 15 minutes before the commencement of the show. But to the disappointment of the restless crowd, the film could not be shown because of some technical problems of its sound track. (Later it was learnt that the problem was not actually with the sound track, but with the projecting equipment in the theatre. The sound track was embedded in some advanced technology that the projector in the theatre could not reproduce it.) Anyway, sound track had always been a matter of innovation for Almodóvar. In his initial films as an amateur, he could not find enough money to develop sound for the movies, which he shot using a Super-8 camera. So he would bring a tape recorder and play a cassette, in which all the dialogues and music are stored, when the movie was going on the screen. Later after his metamorphosis into a cult figure among art-house film audience he was hailed for his use of popular music in the films.

Born in a remote village in Spain in 1949, Almodóvar was attracted to films while he was studying in a religious school in a nearby town. Soon he went to Madrid, where he worked as a clerk in a telephone company in the day time and tried his hand in film-making in the evenings. The almost anarchic cultural atmosphere of Madrid immediately after the end of Franco regime was ideal for his iconoclastic film-making endeavors. But his amateur films were known more for the pornographic content than the stylistic narrative (One of his earlier works was Folle, folle, fólleme, Tim or, in English, Fuck Me, Fuck Me, Fuck Me, Tim). He made his first full-length movie, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap, which was a disaster both technically and financially, in 1980. Later he remarked about the film: “[It] is a film full of defects. When a film has only one or two, it is considered an imperfect film, while when there is a profusion of technical flaws, it is called style.” But soon he came out with other films such as Labyrinth of Passions, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and All About My Mother in the next two decades to establish himself as a supreme creator of anarchic, complex, yet disturbingly powerful movies.

An interesting paradox about Almodóvar is that while he has been accused of bowing to the Hollywood pressure in some quarters, he is revered in most of the film festivals that show parallel films. Recently, his left-leaning political stance and his criticism of US invasion of Iraq have made him the darling of the left and an object of hatred for the rightwing. Coming back to films, most of his films have a complex narrative, studded with abstract symbolism and dry humor. So those seeking beautiful films with an easy-flowing storyline, look elsewhere. This is art for art’s sake.

The synopsis of his films included in the retrospective is given below (Sources: Sony pictures, IMDB, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/, wikipedia).

1. Dark habits (116 min, 1983)

Unconventional Spanish comedy set in wild-and-crazy convent. Over-the-top sex-and-drugs subject matter, uneven pace will deter many viewers, but fans of director Almodóvar's bitchy yet good-natured surrealism will still enjoy. This is Almodóvar’s first film to have a proper producer and be made for a proper film company, rather than be made on the hoof like his previous projects. Almodóvar has since distanced himself from the film as he felt that he had to bow to commercial considerations.

2. All about my mother (101 min, 1999)

A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance, becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover, and she becomes Rosa's caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.

3. Kika (114 min, 1993)

Almodóvar spins out enough frenetic material for four normal movies in this penetrating satire. Peter Coyote costars as Nicholas, an American writer living in Spain whose wife has killed herself, and whose stepson, Ramon (Alex Casanova), is obsessive and narcoleptic. Ramon's ex-girlfriend, Andrea "Scarface" Garacortada is a TV show host for a program that could be called "Spain's Most Violent Home Videos." Played by Spanish star Victoria Abril, Andrea is seductive, manipulative, and will stop at nothing to get a story, spending most of the movie with a camera strapped to the top of her head. Then there is Kika (Verónica Forqué), a flighty make-up artist in love with Nicholas but engaged to Ramon. When the sexually superhuman brother of Kika’s lesbian maid (Rossy De Palma) rapes Kika in a very bizarre scene, this somehow causes all the links to come together, as the footage of the rape ends up on Andrea's show, and sinister secrets come out from all directions. With topics ranging from motherhoood to serial killers, this is a sexy, insane work from the great Almodóvar and deserves discovery by brave-hearted American audiences.

4. Talk to her (112 min, 2002)

The film revolves around two men who become friends while taking care of the comatose women they love. Their lives flow in all directions, past, present and future, pulling them towards an unsuspected destiny. Combining elements of modern dance and silent filmmaking with a narrative that embraces coincidence and fate, Almodóvar plots the lives of his characters, thrown together by unimaginably bad luck, towards an unexpected conclusion. The film was hailed by critics and embraced by arthouse audiences. Almodóvar won numerous honors across the world for his film, including a French César for Best Film and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

5. Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (90 min, 1988)

The film, staged as a faux adaptation of a theatrical work, details a two-day period in the life of Pepa, a professional movie dubber who has been abruptly abandoned by her married lover and who frantically tries to track him down. In the course of her search she discovers some of his secrets, and realizes her true feelings. This light comedy of rapid-fire dialogue and fast-paced action remains one of Almodóvar’s most accessible films (with no drugs or sex). The film received public and critical acclaim worldwide, and brought Almodóvar to the attention of American audiences.

6. Flowers of my secret (103 min, 1995)

Flowers of my secret is the story of Leo Macias, a successful romance writer who has to confront both a professional and personal crisis. Estranged from her husband, a military officer who has volunteered for an international peacekeeping role in Bosnia to avoid her, Leo fights to hold on to a past that has already eluded her, not realizing she has already set her future path by her own creativity and by supporting the creative efforts of others. This psychological drama was hailed as Almodóvar's most mature film to date, and remains one of the director's humblest films. Leaving Almodóvar's usual choral exercises aside, the story centered on the love-torn writer.

7. To return (Volver) (121 min, 2006)

This film is set in part in La Mancha (the director’s native region). The film opens showing dozens of women furiously scrubbing the graves of their deceased, establishing the influence of the dead over the living as a key theme. The plot follows the story of three generations of women in the same family who survive wind, fire, and even death. The film is an ode to female resilience, where men are literally disposable. Many of Almodóvar's stylistic hallmarks are present: the stand-alone song (a redemption of the tango song "Volver”), references to reality TV.

8. Bad education (106 min, 2004)

Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, discover love, cinema and fear in a religious school at the start of the 1960s. Father Manolo, the school principal and their literature teacher, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three characters meet twice again. Almodóvar used elements of film noir, borrowing in particular from Double Indemnity. The film's protagonist, Juan, is a criminal without scruples, but with an adorable face that betrays nothing of his true nature. Almodóvar explains : " He also represents a classic film noir character - the femme fatale. Which means that when other characters come into contact with him, he embodies fate, in the most tragic and noir sense of the word."

9. Live flesh (1997)

Almodóvar has written all of his films, but with Live Flesh the director shared script writing credits. This was his first--and so far only--script adapted from a book, Ruth Rendell’s novel of the same name. All that remains in the film from the book is the plot line of the two male protagonists: David, a police detective, and Víctor, the man accused of wounding and paralyzing him. Upon his release, Víctor, looking for revenge, is soon entangled in the lives not only of David and his wife, but also of David’s former partner, Sancho, and Sancho’s wife. Live Flesh explores love, loss, and suffering with a sober restraint only briefly glimpsed in the director's earlier work. The film tells the story of several characters implicated in each other's fates in ways that are beyond their control.

10. High heels (112 min, 1991)

The family melodrama is built around the fractured relationship between a self-involved mother, a famous torch song singer, and the grown daughter she abandoned as a child, who works as TV newscaster. The daughter has married her mother's ex-lover and has befriended a female impersonator of her mother. Popular songs, always a key element in Almodóvar’s work, are never more present than in this film full of boleros. High Heels also contains an unexpected prison yard dance sequence.

11. Labyrinth of passion (100 min, 1982)

It is a screwball comedy about multiple identities, one of Almodóvar’s favorite subjects. The plot follows the adventures of two sex-crazy characters: Sexilia, an aptly named nymphomaniac, and Riza, the gay son of the leader of a fictional Middle Eastern country, who are meant to be together. The campy roundelay also involves Queti, Sexilia’s “biggest fan,” whose delusional father rapes her. The film caught the spirit of liberation which then ruled in Madrid and it became a cult film. Almodóvar said about the movie: " I like the film even if it could have been better made. The main problem is that the story of the two leads is much less interesting than the stories of all the secondary characters. But precisely because there are so many secondary characters, there's a lot in the film I like.”

12. What have I done to deserve this (101 min, 1984)

This film was inspired by the Spanish black comedies of the late 50s and early 60s. It is the tale of a struggling housewife and her dysfunctional family: her abusive husband, who works as a taxi driver; her oldest son, a heroin dealer; the youngest son, a hustler; and the grandmother who hates the city and just wants to return to her rural village. The theme of the downtrodden housewife coping with the travails of everyday life arises repeatedly in the director's work, as do other issues of female independence and solidarity. The film is also a critique on consumerism and patriarchal culture. In one scene, the housewife trades her own son so she doesn't have to pay a dentist bill, and in another the only witness of a crime is a lizard, aptly named “Money”.

13. Law of desire (102 min, 1986)

The film has an operatically tragic plot line and is one of Almodóvar’s richest and most disturbing movies. The narrative follows three main characters: a gay film director who embarks on a new project; his sister, an actress who used to be his brother (played by Carmen Maura), and a repressed murderously obsessive stalker (played by Antonio Banderas). The film presents a gay love triangle and drew away from most representations of homosexuals in films. These characters are neither coming out nor confront sexual guilt or homophobia; they are already liberated, like the homosexuals in Fassbinder’s films. Almodóvar said about Law of Desire : " It's the key film in my life and career. It deals with my vision of desire, something that's both very hard and very human. By this I mean the absolute necessity of being desired and the fact that in the interplay of desires it's rare that two desires meet and correspond."

Closely Watched Films: Jirí Menzel Retrospective at IFFK-2007

2007-11-27T19:16:00.001-08:00

Jirí Menzel, for those who still don’t know, is a maverick Czech director, whose film Closely Watched Trains won the Oscar award for best foreign film in 1967. He was born on February 23, 1938, in Prague. His father Josef Menzel was a writer and journalist. After having formal training in film making and working as assistant director in some films, he began his controversial journey into Eastern-European film history with Crime at a Girls' School in 1965. But it was his next film, Closely Watched Trains, a black comedy against German occupation of Czechoslovakia, which is still regarded as his masterpiece. There followed other films such as Capricious Summer and I Served the King of England, which firmly established Menzel as a modern master.

Most of his films are literary adaptations from various Czech writers, including Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he saved his career and probably life by disowning his previous films and making a lifeless propaganda film, Who Seeks the Gold Bottom. But that didn’t hamper his creativity as he found ways to make films of his ‘true’ style later. It is fitting that communists in Kerala honoring Menzel now as an act of accepting the fault of their Soviet counterparts decades ago.

There is every chance that Menzel films will cause the ‘theatre jam’ in this year’s IFFK, just like the films of Kim Ki Duc, Makhmalbaf and Bunuel had done in previous IFFKs. Menzel films have the perfect celluloid combo of those curious bedfellows that festival goers find irresistible: satire and sex. Josef Skvorecký writes in his essay about Menzel that “his entire oeuvre is one continuous eulogy of sex—a subject at best tolerated by Marxist aestheticians in Czechoslovakia”.
Here is the synopsis of the films included in the Menzel retrospective in IFFK 2007 (Courtesy: Yahoomovies, IMDB, http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/, wikipedia).

1. Larks on a String/Skrivánci na niti(Czechoslovakia/Czech/94"/1990)
A story revolving around the relationship between a male laborer and a female prison inmate, both of whom have been interred for compulsory "re-education."

2. Snowdrop Festival (83’/1984)

This movie is based on texts of Bohumil Hrabal, world-known Czech prosaic. It's a story (in a form of a mosaic of short episodes and pictures) about the sadness and happiness of inhabitants of Kersko (Kersko is a small woody area full of cottages and roods). These people are both simple and sensitive, they have their own pleasures (e.g. Leli is a collector of cheap, but inutile things) and the greatest delight of all of them is a hunting. Crude poetics of amateur hunting is screened by dreamy pictures of this area. Menzel mixes sentimental lyricism and rough (but not vulgar!) humor and the outcome is the never-ending landscape of continuous life in the proximate nearness of nature. The performances of actors are brilliant. Both Rudolf Hrusinsky as a Franz and Jaromír Hanzlik as a Leli have nonrecurring charm bottomed on a pain and inebriation. Only the music is not perfect: Jiri Sust usually assembled his film music from his older works and in this movie there are many quotations.

3 My Sweet Little Village (98"/1985)

The movie's main storyline follows the life of Otík, a mentally retarded young man, in a tight-knit village community. The sweet-tempered Otík works as an assistant truck driver with Mr. Pávek, his older colleague and practical-minded neighbor. Pávek's family takes care of Otík, whose parents are dead. However, the two coworkers become at odds over Otík's inability to perform even the simplest tasks. Pávek demands that Otík be transferred to assist another driver, who happens to be a choleric and suspicious man named Turek (Turkish in Czech). Rather than work with Turek, Otík decides to accept an offer of employment in Prague, but finds he does not fit in to the city life. After discovering that the transfer of Otík to Prague was a trick by a crooked politician to get a deal on Otík's large inherited house, Pávek agrees to give Otík a second chance and retrieves him from the city to resume their work together.
The film also follows several subplots, such as the secret romance of Turek's wife with a young vet, the tribulations of an accident-prone but respected doctor who has almost as much trouble with his pessimistic patients as he does with his car, and the desperate deeds of Pávek's teenage son, who has ardent feelings for an attractive local teacher.

4. The End of Old Time (94’/1989)

This bedroom farce takes place at a large country estate in the period between the two world wars. It has been rented by Stoklasa a somewhat uncouth but very wealthy businessman, who hopes to buy it. He and his family and staff have settled down comfortably when they are visited by a nobleman acquaintance, Duke Alexi, whose genial, boisterous ways and penchant for women sets the whole region in an uproar. The hero of this tale is Spera a young man with a similar yearning to bed women. He is constantly frustrated in his attempts by the ever-present duke, who always manages to get to the girls first. While that is going on, the businessman's daughter and the son of people from a neighboring estate have been seeing each other, and are constantly being frustrated by their inability to find a private spot to make love in.

5. Closely Guarded Train/Closely Watched Trains (93’/1966)

An Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, the film takes place almost entirely at a train station. A young platform guard (Vaclav Neckar) longs for two things -- to lose his virginity and to keep out of World War II. The movie explains to us that the young man's father and grandfather are both eccentrics who also managed to escape the service. The other train station workers are equally bizarre. One man raises birds while another continually seduces young ladies -- in one hysterical sequence, he rubber stamps one girl's naked behind. (He's later prosecuted, not for any sexual misconduct, but for improperly using the German language.) Closely Watched Trains unfolds with the rhythm of a breeze, managing to be both funny and poignant in such an understated way that it doesn't even seem to be trying.

6. Capricious Summer (74’/1968)

A year after his international hit Closely Watched Trains, Czech director Jiri Menzel returned with another lighthearted comedy, Capricious Summer (1967, Facets Video). In it, three middle-aged friends love nothing more than to drink and discuss Deep Thoughts while dangling their toes in a run-down swimming hole. When a cut-rate circus performer (Menzel himself) shows up with a beautiful blonde assistant, the friends' world gets turned upside down. The color photography only accentuates the dreariness of this overcast summer, and the end result is not quite as engaging as Closely Watched Trains, but it certainly proves that Menzel was not a one-hit wonder.

7. I Served the King of England (120’/2006)

Following a long prison sentence, Jan Díte looks back over an eventful life, which has seen him elevate himself from humble waiter to Nazi bridegroom to millionaire criminal. One of the most ambitious and expensive Czech films of all time, this historical epic is the long-awaited result of a protracted struggle for the screen rights to Bohumil Hrabal's famed novel. Jirí Menzel's adaptation is his fourth to be drawn from Hrabal's work (including the superb Closely Observed Trains). Combining sheer visual excess with sardonic commentary upon European mores in the first half of the 20th century, I Served the King of England proves worth the wait. It's a beautifully performed and designed film, shaded with irony and festooned with moments of delightful physical comedy.

The namesake – IFFK

2007-11-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

It is not clear now that Meera Nair’s film, The Namesake, is part of “World Cinema” section International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) to be held in Thiruvananthapuram from December 7 to 14. But this year, when IFFK is at its 12th avatar, it has a namesake in the parallel universe of film festivals. The first International Film Festival of Kashmir (IFFK) was held in Srinagar this year on April 28-30. The event, held in the northern most state of India, did not attract as much media attention as the other one to be held in one of the southern most states. But from its website, it can be seen that the film festival triggered off passionate debates about the role of art in times of terrorism. Also it is not a high profile festival with international juries and lucrative prizes. But it is a good beginning and hope it will carry on like its elder brother in down south, which has become an annual spiritual centre of film devotees. Let the gods, Kurosawa, Bergman, Buñuel and the like, bless the festivals. Long live IFFKs.

Here Comes IFFK

2007-10-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

The 12th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will be held in Thiruvananthapuram (which is its permanent venue) from December 7 to 14. Fourteen films have been selected for the competition section from about 450 entries. Two Malayalam films have been selected: Naalu Pennungal (Four Women), directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan and based on stories by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, and Paradesi, a Mohanlal-starrer, directed by P.T. Kunjhu Mohammed. Lord Let the Devil Steal My Soul, directed by Agnidev Chatterjee, is another Indian film in the competition section. These films will vie with 12 foreign films, whose titles are already catching attention, for the coveted prize, Suvarna Chakoram and a cash prize of Rs. 1,000,000/- . If Teeth of Love (from China) and Sleep-walking Land (from Mozambique) would stand out for the clever wordplay, 10+4 (from Iran) and XXY (from Argentina) would attract the mathematically oriented among the festival-maniacs. But the clincher for the title competition in this IFFK would be the Brazilian film, The Pope’s Toilet [Note: It appears that some technical problems prevented this film from entering IFFK. This film is not in the latest list published by the orgainzers. So Pope's Toilet is shut down for this year's IFFK.] Another attraction of the film festival is a Balkan package (details of the films are not available) and a retrospective of the Czech director Jiří Menzel, who is also the jury chairman.

Meanwhile, the process for delegation registration will start from November 9 at Kalabhavan theatre complex, Vazhuthacaud, Thiruvananthapuram. Delegate pass is available for all for Rs. 200/-. Students need to pay Rs. 150/- only. Officials say that the registration will close on November 25. But if experience of previous IFFKs is anything to go by, one can have the delegate pass until the day before the actual commencement of the festival; maybe even further for the truly smart and the influential. Anyway, don’t take a chance if you are keen on watching the festival. Register early. Please take a stamp-size photograph when you go for registration. Visit http://www.keralafilm.com/12thfilmfestivalhome.htm for downloading delegate registration form.

A possible shift in nomenclature of Kerala Congress

2007-10-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

Kerala Congress splits like ameba does. They split as they grow and grow as they split (K.M. Mani, somewhere in the eighties). Now with the nomination of Mons Joseph into the Kerala ministry by Kerala Congress (J), allegedly through draw of lots, the stage has set for another future split in Kerala Congress. When, rather than if, that happens what would be the name of the new Kerala Congress led by Mons Joseph? It cannot be Kerala Congress (M) (for Mons) or Kerala Congress (J) (for Joseph), because both forms already exist (K.M. Mani and P.J. Joseph versions). So… It could well be Kerala Congress (L) (L for lottery).

A tribute of the inner eye

2007-10-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

This one must perhaps be the greatest tribute accorded to K.J. Yesudas, whom most Keralites consider as the greatest singer in the universe. No, I am not talking about what K. Jayakumar, noted lyricist and former IAS officer said (that Yesudas is the personal pride of Keralites that every one of them loves to flaunt to the outside word). No this tribute came long ago from a blind man born in Aligarh. It is from Ravindra Jain, who tuned and wrote many charmingly melodious songs mainly in Hindi. Gori thera gauvu bada pyara, perhaps the best known Hindi song of Yesudas, is created by Ravindra Jain. But this remark even overshadows the song in its stunning originality. He once remarked that if he gets his eye-sight back, the first thing he wants to see is the face of Yesudas.

(Courtesy: information based on wikipedia page for Ravidra Jain and an article by Ravi Menon, Mathrubhoomi weekly, October 3, 2007).

Why did Shoaib Akhtar hit Mohammad Asif?

2007-09-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

Pakistan cricket: Shoaib Akhtar hit Mohammad Asif in a dressing room spat.

Thought of why? May be it is the scarcity of steroids. When only one dose of steroid remains, what else do you expect Akthar to do?

Cell Phones

An SMS Q&A on Cricket

2007-09-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

Q. On what do the whole India, irrespective of caste, creed, gender, political affiliations and social status, agree wholeheartedly?

A. Dropping Ajit Agarkar from Indian squad.

Colors of Onam

2007-08-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures of Onam celebrations in Njarakkattuvila, a small village near Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala.

An Atha pookkalam. Not a very traditional one. People are getting innovative these days. The makers dubbed this as “inverted triangles”.

A tug-of-war competition (known as vadam vali in Malayalam). Usually this is fought between the married men and the unmarried men. But here, in the absence of battle-ready married men, unmarried men formed two groups and engaged in a spirited contest.

Beginning of the tug-of-war competition.

A bamboo pole used for “Climbing on bamboo” competition (known as Mulayil kayattam in Malayalam). The bamboo pole is about five meters long and is drenched with oil, grease, and egg yolk, making it extremely slippery. One has to climb through this and reach the top to claim the cash award of Rs. 501/-. The flag shown behind is not related to this competition. The small building in the background is the “party office” (office of CPM). Hence the flag.

A man climbing on the bamboo pole.

VV Clinic: A Hospital with Some Difference

2007-08-11T05:12:00.001-07:00

V.V. Clinic is one of the oldest hospitals in Attingal (established in 1973). It is probably the oddest too, perhaps in anywhere in the world. The first thing you notice when you enter the hospital, apart from the elegant gothic doors and windows (which are said to be bought from the remains of an old, destructed castle), is a board that categorically states the conditions (impeccably written twenty-one of them) one must obey while undergoing treatment in that hospital. Here are some samples.

“Narrow-minded people who come here for treatment on their own will and then bargain to reduce the bill amount should not come to this hospital.” “Self-important people and people who had come here for treatment once or more than once should not expect any special considerations.” And the last condition would dispel any doubts an extremely positive person may have of getting a favor: “It will be very helpful if people who cannot obey the above conditions do not come here for treatment.”

You would naturally wonder who the doctor is. You look at the name board and see this name: “Dr. Mohandas. MBBS only”. My mother tells me that previously it was “Dr. Mohandas. very very old MBBS only”. Even the virus or bacteria that cause your illness would be frightened like hell.

Whether the virus is frightened or not, Dr. Mohandas is an expert in quick diagnosis and effective treatment. His method of interacting with patients is also somewhat unique in speed and his economy with words. He first asks simple questions like ‘what is the problem or where is the problem” and then asks some specific questions if he needs some more information. While asking these questions he would be checking the patient with the stethoscope simultaneously. In no time, your prescription is ready along with some other instructions regarding taking what sort of food and bathing. All the details of the disease and symptoms you may have prepared to tell the doctor would be struck in your throat. But make no mistake. The treatment is very effective. It is cost effective too. If the doctor feels the disease is too complex to be treated by him, he will immediately refer the patient for expert treatment to Medical College, Trivandrum, or somewhere else. In short, he seems to treat only those patients whose illness he is confident of treating successfully.

What I find most attractive is the taste of that syrup they give for, well, almost all diseases. It appears like diluted cough syrup. But its taste is quite remarkable. For all the bitter conditions they read when coming to the hospital, people leave with a sense of happiness after tasting that sweet syrup.

More on the viral fever that grips Kerala

2007-08-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

Pakarchapani (known as chikungunya, dengue fever or viral fever in medical parlance) is gaining further momentum in Kerala. Ever since its outbreak about three months ago, it cut a swathe across southern parts of Kerala, affecting thousands of people. In an informative article titled “The long term damage to Kerala’s health” in The Hindu dated 2/8/2007, Mr. Vinod Thomas (Senior Vice President, Independent Evaluation Group, The World Bank) wrote that that chikungunya and dengue are transmitted by a particular breed of mosquitoes. He writes: “These two diseases are transmitted by the aedes species of mosquito, which breeds in small water collections in and around the house. Furthermore, thanks to rubber plantations, parts of Kerala have become endemic to the dengue, as rain water collect in the containers used for harvesting rubber sap.” He advocates for measures to eliminate the mosquito-breeding areas in around the house and in rubber plantations. He also criticizes government for not taking adequate steps for preventing further damage and suggests private-public joint effort to improve health status of Kerala. (Who cares, one may ask. Our ministers, politicians, and media are busy deciphering the phrases uttered by a good-looking guy called Farish Aboobakar in a recent television interview. He is pitted against none other than the chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan.)

The fever affects the joints initially. One person affected by the fever recounted his experience: ‘At first, I felt pain on my right hand, near elbow. Soon it happened on left hand also. Slowly the pain goes up and reaches the shoulders. When it reached the shoulder, body temperature also went up. I felt like I have severe fever. I vomited twice while going to the hospital. There was a large crowd at the hospital. By that time, I felt pain on every joint in my body. After some thirty minutes, finally I was able to see the doctor. I had trouble even getting up and when walked, my legs began to collapse. It was a terrible experience.”

Different hospitals are offering different modes of treatment. Generally there are two types: 1. medicine through an injection (parenterally) and 2. without an injection, i.e., only oral medicine. Consensus among affected people here is that in the first method, the fever will be subdued quickly, but side effects like recurrent joint pain will remain, while in the second method, the fever will be subdued slowly, but will not have any side effects. People will take whatever the doctor prescribes because the pain drives them to a state of utter helplessness.

There are some precautionary medicines available too. One Ayurveda medicine is particularly popular: ‘Viluadi gulika” and “Indukantham kazhayam” of Kottackal Aryavaidysala. One word of caution though. These are very bitter in taste so that some people may find it hard to swallow.

www.pakarchapani.com

2007-07-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

A peculiar type of fever is spreading in Kerala. At least one person in a family is affected by this. It is in fact known as ‘Pakarcha pani’, meaning ‘the fever that spreads’. The initial symptoms are pain in the joints, headache and coughing. I have not seen a disease as endemic as this in the last two decades in Kerala. This is said to be caused by a virus, for which human beings seem to be mere hyperlinks. It is merrily clicking on one person to open the disease on another.

The effects of this fever on society are manifold. Apart from the utter discomforts that sometimes escalate to severe pain in the backbone and limbs, financial problems such as loss of the day’s work and salary (for daily laborers) and generally high hospital expenses also stare affected persons. The government claims to have taken several steps to tackle the disease. But only visible steps are increasing the staff strength (in truth only filling the existing vacancies) and issuing stern circulars to hospital administrators. But most affected people approach private hospitals, which are jam-packed. Indian Medical Association (IMA) is conducting special camps to treat this fever. Despite their efforts the disease is spreading like cell phone use in Kerala. The only people who are happy with the outbreak of fever may be the private hospital owners as this has turned out to be a windfall for them.

In Kerala, nothing goes without political ramifications. The Left Front government accuses the former United Front government for ignoring the warning of central agencies about possibilities for the outbreak of fever. The United Front is now in the opposition and they accuse government of inaction. In fact, the opposition had planned a harthal against fever, err inaction of government against fever. But for undisclosed reasons harthal was first postponed and then abandoned. This is one of the rare instances when a harthal call was abandoned in Kerala.

Copa America: Listless Brazil sinks in Mexican waves

2007-06-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

A refreshingly efficient Mexico punished a Brazilian team comprising a group of footballers flown in mainly from various parts of Europe who looked as disjointed as NDA allies during Presidential election in India. The score line does not reflect the pathetic performance put up by Brazil. Easily it could have been 3-0 or 4-0, had Mexico taken some of the easy chances in the second half. For Mexico, N Castillo scored the first goal, a well-crafted move resulting in a fine goal. R. Morales then curved a Beckhamesque free-kick into the Brazilian net some minutes later.

In another match today, Chile scored a comeback victory over Ecuador 3-2.
In yesterday’s matches, hosts Venezuela conceded a 2-2 draw to Bolivia after leading 2-1, while Peru thrashed Uruguay 3-0.