Colors of Onam

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

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

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

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

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.

The Thirteenth Catch Dropped Off Sreesanth

The phrase ‘lost in translation’ is usually associated with poetry. But a recent sports feature in a Malayalam daily called Kerala Kaumudi (www.keralakaumudi.com) proved that this phrase is very much valid for sports reporting also. The essence of cricket writing, as that of poetry, can be lost in translation. Or take this instance.

On February 22, 2007, Kerala Kaumudi carried a report titled “Perfect Fifteen”. It contained Indian cricket team coach Greg Chappell’s views and comments on each of the fifteen players selected in the Indian team for this year’s World Cup. It was a clever translated re-mix of Siddhartha Vaidhyanathan’s interview with Greg Chappell published on Cricinfo a few days earlier titled “This is the team India wanted” (click here to read the article).
About Sreesanth, among other things, Chappell said in that interview:

“Sree comes from a Plate team. There was one first-class game he played before he played for India where he had 12 catches dropped. Now how many people have to go through that to get into the international team? I don't think there's one bowler in the history of Australian cricket who would have had to go through something like that. Twelve catches in an innings, maybe all in a day. How many opportunities can you create? Selectors can look at the wickets column and see he's not picking but he creates opportunities. When he came into the Mumbai Test (his first series) he had some catches dropped off him. Flintoff was let off twice. We were talking about it and he said, 'I expect to have catches dropped off me when I play for Kerala but didn't expect this when I played for India.’”

The translation that appeared on the online edition (http://www.keralakaumudi.com/news/022007M/sports.html) of the newspaper is shown in the picture.

Its English translation goes something like this:

“Sree should concentrate on his fielding. In one of the first class games, he dropped 12 catches. In his first test, against England, he dropped Andrew Flintoff twice. He remarked about that match later, ‘I expect myself to drop catches when I play for Kerala, but never thought that would occur when I play for India’. And this confidence is Sreesanth’s strength.”

A person who has not read the Cricinfo interview may well think that Sreesanth did actually drop 12 catches in a first class match. But even such a reader would wonder how can Sreesanth get confidence from dropping catches. It can very well be termed as the thirteenth catch dropped off Sreesanth.

Theatre boom in Attingal

Attingal, a poor cousin of the capital city of Kerala, Trivandrum, has suddenly found itself as host of a theatre boom. So far Attingal’s only claim to fame has been a long forgotten Attingal mutiny (back in 1721), which local historians claim to be the first rebellion against the British in Kerala. In the eighties and nineties Attingal was also known as the Mecca of parallel education because of the large number of parallel colleges through which an unbelievably large number of students obtained degrees from University of Kerala.

At the beginning there was Meenambika. I mean a theatre called Meenambika, in which Sathyan and Ms. Kumari entertained the first generation film-goers in Attingal with their merry acting in black and white. Later in the eighties Meenambika would receive a facelift and would be renamed as SR. Two more theatres came in the seventies: Gowri and Hari in which Nazir, Jayan, Sheela, Jayabharathi and the likes splendidly displayed their emotions in Eastman colour much to the delight of the wide-eyed people of pre-television era. Only three theatres in Attingal survived the eighties: Gowri, SR, and a newly launched theatre called RNP. By this time Malayalam cinema field had been curiously watching a two horse race among Malayalam heroes. Mammootty and Mohanlal became heartthrobs of thousands of people in and around Attingal through their exploits on the screens of the above-mentioned theatres. But the crisis in Malayalam film industry during the late nineties badly hit these theatres. Unable to withstand the heat of mounting loss, the owners of SR and RNP fatally decided, like several other owners of B class theatres, to turn to Shakkila movies.

(Any of you who do not know Shakkila should consider yourself unlucky. She is one of the last queens among the endangered species called soft porn actresses. She is a massive collection of white flesh in the true tradition of Anuradha and Disco Shanthi. Nowadays it is hard to find actresses who do exclusively soft porn. Some do it as side business to modeling like Mallika Sherawat and Bipasha Basu, while some truly gifted ones manage to merge their soft porn acting with the acting in mainstream movies, for example Nayanthara.)


After some time Shakkila became too fat to fit into even a 70 mm screen and people who religiously watched her began to understand the virtues of dieting! Shakkila went out of favour with the audience, but the bad name her movies fetched to these theatres remained. Family audience revengefully ignored both these theatres. Slowly the functioning of these theatres reached a tragic climax.

All that seem to be matters of history now. SR has been revived and Baba Kalyani, a Mohanlal film, has been running there. The owners of Gowri theatre, who have a well-established theatre called Vasu in Varkkala, had already started a new theatre with a memorable name, Dreams, with really good facilities. (One can book movie tickets of this theatre online through the website www.ecityatl.com.) Add to that Thapasya and Paradise, a new generation theatre complex on the shore of Vamanapuram river, one might think this is more than enough for an emerging town. But encouraged both by the success of some recent movies and by the stringent measures from the part of the police to curb CD piracy, more people are coming into theatre business in Attingal. A theatre called Ganga (which is very near to Dreams theatre and to a well-known bar called Ganga) was inaugurated some days back by Varkkala Radhakrishnan MP.

A more spectacular inauguration is on cards for another theatre. Mr. Theepettiyil Rajan, a rich NRI who produced some films like Swapnkkoodu and Sathyam, has bought the old RNP theatre, renovated it, and given it a new name, Vysakh. It is going to be inaugurated on February 3. Mayavi, starring Mammootty, is scheduled to be the first film in Vysakh. The fact that Mr. Rajan himself is the producer of the movie gives credibility to this news. Also, both Mammootty and Mohanlal are rumoured to have agreed to participate in the inaugural ceremony.

Ilaiyaraja to wield baton for Pazhassiraja

Ilaiyaraja, the Tamil maestro, is all set to enthrall the Malayalee audience once again after the recent super hit songs from films such as Rasathandram and Achuvinte Amma. Pazhassiraja, a film directed by Hariharan and scripted M.T. Vasudevan Nair, is a historical film based on the life of a warrior king of Vayanad, Pazhassiraja, who valiantly fought against the British rule. The film has already created huge expectations among people. Mammootty is going to play the lead role and Tamil action star Sarath Kumar is also tipped to play a crucial role in the film. The previous film of Hariharan-M.T. team starring Mammootty, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, was a runaway success both in box office and at award-distributing ceremonies.

This will be the second time that Ilaiyaraja scores music for a historical Malayalam movie, with Kalapani being the first. It seems nowadays that the maestro is selective while taking Tamil film assignments. Or it is also possible that he may not be as sought after as he once was. Anyway, Tamil’s loss has been Malayalam’s gain.

Closet tactics of Aussie cricket

It was the fifth game of Commonwealth Bank tri-series cricket match. Australia were chasing a seemingly easy target of 211 against their continental twin New Zealand. Gilchrist got out early without scoring much. We were all expecting the warrior-like brisk walk of Ricky Ponting to the crease. But in came Michael Clarke, with his cat-like timidity. Commentators of Channel couldn’t resist the temptation of praising the Aussie strategy of grooming Michael Clarke into a future Ricky Ponting by promoting him to one-down spot. Some even wondered whether this is going to be a part of the Aussie strategy for this year’s world cup. After all not for nothing Australia’s coach John Buchanan is nicknamed ‘Pluto’ – ostensibly for manufacturing out of the world ideas. Australia won the match narrowly by two wickets thanks to a patient innings by Mike Hussey. And it was Hussey who let the cat out of the bag regarding the strategy of promoting Michael Clarke. This is an excerpt from the report on The Hindu dated 23/01/07:

“ But team mate Mike Hussey said on Monday that Ponting was meant to bat in his normal spot at the fall of the wicket, but was caught with his pants down. ‘It was a quick toilet break and he couldn’t get his gear back on quickly enough,’ Hussey said.”

Let there be hartal

In Kerala, hartal is a post-liberalization way of protest, usually initiated by political parties. All shops will be closed; all roads will be blocked; all that you need to do is sit in your room to watch TV or write blogs, like this. Keralites are so fond of hartalizing that they just need a short, one-sentence news item in a newspaper to self-declare a mental holiday. A month’s stay in Kerala is enough for a person to see a wonderful hartal. Hartal was initially intended to stop the normal functioning of the entire society. In Kerala, it has developed into a unique form of public art. Nowadays several variants of hartal are on display like medical hartal and educational hartal.

Last month, on the New Year ’s Eve, we had a lightening hartal, much like a twenty-twenty cricket match. It started at 3’o clock in the afternoon. It was in protest against the hanging of Saddam Hussein.

Some two years back, when Jayananda Saraswathy of Kanchi Kamakoty Mutt in Kanchipuram was arrested, life went normally in Kanchipuram and in Chennai, where I was working at that time, except for some peaceful protest marches. But Keralites couldn’t control the urge for having a hartal and promptly performed what can be called a ‘saffron’ hartal.

But the king of all hartals is the ones declared by CPM. It means H-A-R-T-A-L. You have to stay at home. When the art form of hartal was at its nascent state, it was CPM’s rank and file, braving both police and sleep in cold nights, who put immovable road blocks and placed threatening posters in front of shops. That hard work in the eighties and nineties is paying rich dividends now, for CPM can now act as the messiah of hartals and launch a hartal in Kerala by simply saying ‘let there be a hartal’.

“Globalisation, You have made me a priest!”

As Kerala Police continues their war against CD piracy, new behind-the-scenes stories are emerging thick and fast. One such story is that Moser Baer, the flagship CD manufacturing company of India in this era of globalisation, is behind this entire hullabaloo. Moser Baer is about to launch a new initiative of marketing CDs and DVDs of all films in future just after 15 days of their release. The company will garner the rights of all films that are going to be released in Malayalam. They do this by investing in the production of the movies. (According to some sources the company will bear 15% of the production cost of each film.) The proposed price of two CDs is Rs. 30/-. The new scenario, if everything takes place as planned, will give Moser Baer a monopoly in the million-rupee CD market. Also it will virtually ensure the closure of thousands of CD shops and libraries in Kerala. It is rumoured that Moser Baer’s influence in the higher echelons of Kerala government is the real reason behind the newly found vigour of Kerala Police to launch a massive drive against pirated CDs.

Mr. M.S. Ajaya Ghosh, a native of Varkala and a dealer of Idea mobile recharge cards, is said to have signed a deal with Moser Baer for marketing film CDs and DVDs in Chirayinkizh taluk in Kerala. The company has promised him a virtual monopoly of the market and a margin of Rs. 7 per film. He is a happy man, dreaming about the profit that he is going to make. While at the other end of the spectrum, there is Mr. G. Satheesh, who runs a video and CD library called Vinayaka Videos in a prime location in Attingal town in Kerala. He is from Brahmin community, but because of his love for films and film songs that started from his school days he ventured to start a cassette shop and library which slowly has become the number-one CD shop in Attingal, while his brothers decided to embrace their family tradition of becoming priests in temples. Then suddenly one day, the threats of police raids came along. He says that it is impossible to make profit by buying only the master CDs, which are priced at Rs. 199/-. He argues that one has to rent the CD 20 times at least to cover the expense. By that time, the CD will most probably become damaged because of rough usage. He says that either the price of original CD should come lower or pirated CDs should be allowed.

So where does the future of our moviemakers hang? After all, they claim that CD piracy is one of the reasons of people not coming to the theatre. For that question Satheesh gave me a scornful look. “If they make good films people will go to theatres. Pirated CDs had been easily available for the film Classmates. Despite that the film became a big hit. Why?” For that I didn’t have an answer. Anyway, Satheesh has decided to become a priest in a nearby temple, which incidentally is a very profitable job these days. So he can now safely declare in a Thoppil Bhasi-like manner that “Globalisation! You have made me a priest!”

Songs that do matter

It was Adoor Gopalakrishnan who said songs are unnecessary ingredients in a good film. According to him songs break the flow of the story telling and serve only the purpose of allowing the distracted spectators to go out of the movie hall to have a smoke or to use the toilet. He definitely has a point; we will all agree seeing the ease and frequency at which heroes and heroines break into singing. However, there are some songs that have an umbilical chord relation to the movie. If you take out that song, the movie will look incomplete. Here is my top ten of such songs.

1. Oru Murai Vanthu Parthayaa (Film: Manichithrathazhu; Direction: Fazil; Music: M.G. Radhakrishnan; Lyrics: Bichu Thirumala and Vaali)

It is during this song that the dual personality of Ganga (played splendidly by Shobhana) burst upon the unsuspecting audience. Perhaps the most important scenes of the movie are during and after this song.

2. Ente Khalbile (Film: Classmates; Direction: Lal Jose; Music: Alex Paul; Lyrics: Vayalar Saratchandra Varma)

This song plays a big part in unfolding the mystery behind a murder and leaves the viewers thinking ‘how on earth did I fail to notice it’.

3. Thamasamenthe Varuvan (Film: Bhargavi Nilayam; Direction: Ramu Karyattu; Music: Baburaj; Lyrics: P. Bhaskaran)

I don’t have words to describe it. You need to watch the movie to feel how important that song is.

4. Dhum dhum dhum dhum Dhundhibhi naadam (Film: Vaisali; Direction: Bharathan; Music: Bombay Ravi; Lyrics: O.N.V.)

This song is a cinematic capsule of life. One can find how the joys and mirth of the celebration gradually fade into heart-breaking agony. This song provides a fitting climax to a rare technically world-class film in Malayalam.

5. Kanneerpoovinte Kavilil (Film: Kireedam; Direction: Sibi Malayil; Music: Johnson; Lyrics: Kaithapram)

Only one thing overshadows this song in the movie: the incredible performance by Mohanlal. Still, this melancholic song conveys the essence of the movie. I think no other song can take such a credit.

6. Karmukil Varnante (Film: Nandanam; Direction: Ranjith; Music: Raveendran; Lyrics: Gireesh Puthanchery)

This is a film-song version of a Krishna bhajan. The heroine sings her heart out for the mercy of Lord Krishna who plays a very important role in this film. For those who haven’t seen the movie, let me add that this is not a kind of devotional song that heroine or hero’s mother used to sing in the Hindi films of 1970s.

7. Indulekha Kanthurannu (Film: Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha; Direction: Hariharan; Music: Bombay Ravi; Lyrics: K. Jayakumar)

This song beautifully captures Chanthu’s (played brilliantly by Mammootty for which he won the Bharath award) self-defeating love towards Unniyarcha and how he was ready to do anything to attain his forbidden love for her.


8. Poikayil Kulirpoikayil (Film: Rajasilpi; Direction: R. Sukuamran Nair; Music: Raveendran; Lyrics: ONV)

This one is easily the sexiest song in Malayalam: in terms of both visuals and lyrics. A half-naked Bhanupriya, in the role of a woman who is the incarnation of Parvathi, virtually lures Mohanlal, playing the role of a man who is the incarnation of Lord Paramasivan, into loving her.

9. Ramakatha Gaanalayam (Film: Bharatham; Direction: Sibi Malayil; Music: Raveendran; Lyrics: Kaithapram)

No other stage performance in Malayalam films is loaded with such emotion. Mohanlal, after learning that his brother whom he loves and adores is dead, sings this song on the stage on behalf of his brother.

10. Pravachakanmare Parayoo (Film: Anubhavangal Palichakal; Direction: K.S. Sethumadhavan; Music: G. Devarajan; Lyrics; Vayalar Ramavarma)

I don’t remember much about the song and the movie right now. But still I remember the ‘how true’ feeling I had when I watched the movie through Doordarshan on one of the Saturdays during my adolescence.

Tail piece: I am not a fan any of the stars. I strongly believe in the message of the film Udayananu Tharam. That is, the director is the Hitler of the movie, as the late John Abraham loved to say. So the selection of four Mohanlal films against only one of Mammootty is a mere coincidence. I haven’t seen much films made earlier than 1980s. So forgive me if I missed something.

Beema Palli: A fortress of pirated CDs

Beema Palli is a mosque in a coastal hamlet near Trivandrum. The mosque holds a powerful image of worship in the hearts of Muslims. But if you take a statistics of the visitors to Beema Palli, it will become clear quite easily that non-Muslims outnumber Muslims. It is not a symbol of secularism for which Kerala is supposed to be famous. But people from all types of community throng here to get fake electronics goods and pirated CDs. Beema Palli is also known for its underworld culture. Its inhabitants are natural ruffians, mainly belong to Muslim community, who are notorious to do anything if they feel offended.

At a time when Kerala Police has declared a red-alert war led by the IG Rishiraj Singh against CD piracy, I was curious to know how things are going in Beema Palli. Rishiraj Singh has acquired a reputation as a stern taskmaster in Kerala Police. (He might have been inspired by the police officers in Malalyalam movies about which he writes reviews in The Hindu regularly) So I decided to check out how Rishiraj Singh’s war against CD piracy fares in Beema Palli.

I reached Beema Palli around 2’o clock in the afternoon. Nothing appeared to have changed. The noisy crowd, narrow and dusty pathways, a never-ending procession of auto rickshaws and motor bikes, and the high-pitched chatter of the shop keepers welcomed me. As a silent witness to everything around it, stood the monument from which the place got its name, the mosque Beema Palli. I walked through the road, watching the shops that sell virtually everything that has an IC inside it.

After sometime, I approached a CD shop. As usual they have the latest from every composer: from Ilaiyaraaja to Himesh Reshamiya. Same in the case of movies too. CDs and DVDs of almost all recent releases in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and English are displayed prominently. It must be acknowledged that these guys have a great collection. In another part of the shop I saw a small crowd. Sensing something, I joined the gathering. There I saw a large collection of CDs and DVDs of blue films. Voluptuous naked ladies lustily look at you from the CD jackets. The accompanying captions make you laugh instantly. But I said no thanks. I asked the salesman whether Rishiraj Singh had come there for raids. He replied with a cool smile: “He comes occasionally, when he needs CDs”.

Happy New Year

The year 2006 should be marked as the year of the superpower. In mot news categories, the authoritarian reign of a single superpower stick out like a dangling modifier. No, I do not only mean United States of America. (In truth, every year in recent memory has been America’s for some time now.) Take for instance cricket, a game that has been etched to the DNA of Indians. Australia rules with ruthless efficiency. Take the case of tennis. Roger Federer with his mesmerizing authority on court is making his opponents the ‘have-nots’ of tennis. In Kerala, CPM is doing what USA is doing to the world. The CPM juggernaut is rolling over the people whom the party does not perceive to have any value in elections. So let us sincerely hope that the world will have either no superpowers or at least two superpowers in all aspects in 2007. Let us dream for the sweet days of cold war. Wish you all a super 2007.

Who is afraid of Anand?

Here I mean the Malayalam writer Anand; not the chess player Viswanathan Anand or the techie-journalist Anand Parthasarathy of The Hindu or the Hindi music director Anand in Anand-Milind duo. Also I did not certainly mean Anand Xavier P. If you are wondering who he is, check out Wikipedia article for “Malayalam writer Anand” from Google search. Here is the Wikipedia text:

"Anand Xavier P (popularly known amongst Britto students by his pen-name GURU) is a well-known writer in Malayalam whose works explore the predicament of the common students. His friends emil, allwin and johnson give the courage. He went to T.I.M.E along with Naveen. Anand is one of the most eminent intellectuals in Kerala today challenging various forms of religious fundamentalisms. He is a recipient of many awards including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award and Vayalar Award. Born in 1936 at Irinjalakuda in Trissur district of Kerala, Anand 1958 [sic] graduated in civil Engineering in 1958 [from Trivandrum Engineering College]. He worked in various government departments including short service commission in Indian army, before retiring as Planning Director from the Central Water Commission, Government of India."


The sentences shown in italics refer to Anand Xavier P. But surprisingly, follwing sentences correctly provide the details of the Malayalam writer Anand. Something has gone awry for the Wikipedia editors. Simply deleting the italics text will make the article error-free. Anand’s original name is Sachithanandan. When he started writing, there had already been a Sachithanandan established in Malayalam literature: the well-known poet who was the president of Kendra Sahithya Academy. So he chose to write in the pseudonym Anand. He was one of the many ‘finds’ of the noted critic and poet M. Govindan. Anand’s philosophical text and emotionless narration had put away many a publisher and editor. But Govindan was convinced about the talent of Anand and persuaded the editors of Mathrubhoomi weekly to publish Alkkoottam, Anand’s first novel. It was a new experience for the Malayalee readers and the book received rave reviews and pungent criticisms alike. He followed Alkkoottam with three more equally abstract novels: Maranacertificate, Abhayarthikal and Utharayanam. These books made Anand a writer with considerable standing in Malayalam. But it was in the late eighties and early nineties that Anand came up with two more novels, Marubhoomikal Undakunnathu and Govardhanante Yaathrakal, which made him an icon in Malayalam literature. He also wrote many short stories and articles, most of which deal with plight of the ordinary people who are exploited by the people in power. (I do not mean to stick a label on Anand, as I feel he is the only writer who has a broad worldview that can be compared to O.V. Vijayan’s.)

Anyway, the Wikipedia article almost justifies one its confounders’ comment that it lacks maturity. Larry Sanger, who claims to have co-founded Wikipedia with its popularly known founder Jimmi Wales, recently commented in an interview that Wikipedia lacks, among other things, maturity too. Click here to read the interview.

Anyway, Anand continues to make news in outside world also. Recently Balachandran Chullikkadu, a well-known poet in Malayalam, remarked that Anand is the messiah of NGOs (means non-gazetted officers, who form a large part of middle class of Kerala). I don’t know how many NGOs actually read Anand; very few in my experience though. What makes Anand different from the contemporary writers in Kerala, apart from his extra-ordinary originality, is his staunch decision to not indulge in verbal crossfire with other writers. While writers like Balachandran Chullikkadu waste their words in slinging mud on other writers, Anand continues to enthrall the readers through his stories and articles. One of his recent stories, Bimbangal, published in Mathrubhoomi weekly, is easily the best short story in Malayalam in 2006.

There were errors in the list of books in Wikipedia article as well. The following is taken from Wikipedia entry:
Books by Anand
• vishavithu ((Novel)
• kolapaathakakkalari (Novel)(Winner of the Bala Sahitya Akademi Award)
• Chanjo (Stories)
• Rakesh Rajan (Studies of human beings as part of nature and society)
• smarana (Studies on religious fundamentalism in India)
• killer(stories)
• crime no :13 (Stories)


In my knowledge Anand has never written these books. Let me give a list of my own:

Books by Anand

Novels

Alkkoottam
Maranacertificate
Utharayanam
Abhayarthikal
Marubhoomikal Undakunnathu
Govardhanante Yaathrakal
Vyaasanum Vighneswaranum


Short story collection

Asantham
Veedum Thadavum
Ira
Odiyunna Kurisu
Samvadam
Naalamathe Aani

Dramas

Savaghoshyathra
Mukthipadham

Other Books

Sambhashanangal (Dialogue with Sachithanandan, the poet)
Idavelakalil
Jaivamanushyan

Palunku: A mirror of our times

“When you were watching this film, an average of five minor girls would have been raped in India” This is the stunning last line of the Malayalam movie Palunku directed by Blessy, of Thanmathra and Kazhcha fame. Yes, this movie ends with a sentence, quite like the poignant novels we have read in the past. (This is almost similar to an article about Afghanistan written by the Iranian director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, titled Limbs of No Body, which starts with the sentence “If you read my article in full, It will take about an hour of your time. In this hour, 14 more people will have died in Afghanistan of war and hunger and 60 others will have become refugees in other countries. This article is intended to describe the reasons for this mortality and emigration. If this bitter subject is irrelevant to your sweet life, please don't read it.” Click here to read the article.)

Palunku is about the life of Monichan (played by Mammootty) and his family. He has a wife and two daughters aged 11 and 7. He is a hardworking farmer, though illiterate, who enjoys a very happy life with his family in a village in the eastern hills of Kerala. His life changes from its normal track when he came to know that he had to take his daughter to a school in a nearby town if he wanted to continue her education. So he started taking his children to the school in the nearby town everyday. There he meets people with cunning and other traits that he hasn’t seen before, yet fascinate him. Soman Pilla (played by Jagathi Sreekumar) is a man who has an uncanny knack of getting money in whatever thing he does. You have seen such a person in every town of Kerala. They come to you masquerading as tea shop owners, marriage brokers, autorikshaw drivers, agents of a zillion schemes, stationery shopkeepers, or lottery ticket vendors as Soman Pilla in this film. Monichan also meets a parallel college teacher (played by Nedumudi Venu) who takes him to the world of education. Gradually he decided to relocate to the town because of the lack transport facilities in their village.

So he takes a house in the town for rent and later sells his house in the village. He does not have a job and he wants to have all the facilities and consumerist pleasures of, well, his neighbor. Soman Pilla guides him to new but risky areas of money-making. He falls for those. But anyway he succeeds in getting whatever he himself, his wife and their children crave for. Slowly the happy atmosphere that had enveloped their family in the village begins to evaporate in the heat of their new life in the town. No more can they indulge in the meaningless talking that had provided so much unintended meaning to their life. They become, like most people in the cities, a fragmented island of their own.

Then Soman Pilla succeeded in persuading Monichan to deal with fake currencies. They did make a lot of money in it. But Monichan was forced to stay out of his house for some days. When he came back, he bought new gold necklace for his wife, a new washing machine, a much desired equipment for his wife, and new dresses for his daughters. But only one daughter is at home. The elder one has gone out for enquiring about him in Soman Pilla’s shop. It becomes dark. She is not back. Monichan frantically goes in search for her. But he couldn’t find her. The next morning police go to Soman Pilla’s shop and break open the lock. There they found her: brutally raped and murdered by a pervert. Monichan is heartbroken and so are the viewers.

No other director has managed to capture the state of Kerala society of these times as Blessy does through his films. Palunku is an emphatic confirmation of this. He may lack the artistic finesse and cinematic craftsmanship of some of the great Malayalam directors like Adoor and Aravindan. But he has a keen mind that captures the essence of the sickening changes in our society. The acting except for the case of heroine (a Telugu actress Lakshmi Sharma) is superb as one would expect from the likes of Mammootty, Nedumudi Venu and Jagathi. The film is studded with symbols of corruption and soullessness of our ever-changing society. Those who moan about the lack of quality films in Malayalam should watch this film. This one is for you.

For Christ’s Sake

No other birthday has created so much buzz and hype in the film worlds throughout the globe than Jesus Christ’s. Christmas is in fact a new year for film industries world wide. The energetic heroes of Christmas releases nowadays clearly overshadow that old man with a white beard. Poor old Santa. In Kerala too, four films are vying with each other to make hay while Christmas stars shine in the façade of middle class homes: Baba Kalyani, Smart City, Note Book, and Palunku. Baba Kalyani (fondly called ‘Kalyani’ by the quick-witted fans) is a Chiranjeevi or a Vijayakanth movie. A small difference though. Only that Mohanlal is acting the role that by logic should have gone to Chiranjeevi or Vijayakanth. Smart City is Suresh Gopi’s another attempt to emulate Saurav Ganguly. Like Saurav Ganguly, Suresh Gopi had also been finding it difficult to impress the viewers. He scored a movie equivalent of a half century through Bharath Chandran IPS. He is in need of bigger scores if he wants to keep buying expensive ice creams for the four kids he happened to have. (No personal affront here. He in fact had come on TV a day before the release of Bharath Chandran IPS and pleaded with audience to watch the movie so that he could do, what else keep buying expensive ice creams for his children.) Note Book is a much awaited movie for two reasons. It is the second film of Roshan Andrews who became a savior of sorts for mainstream cinema after the stupendous success of Udayananu Thaaram. Also it is the first movie that deals with love and life in, well, educational institutions after the runaway hit of the year, Classmates. Palunku is a class movie. That is what everybody I met told me when we talked about it. Nobody elaborated what is meant by a ‘class movie’.

I am no industry expert or insider to know about the collection of each of these movies and other undercurrents. But this is what I gathered from people who have seen the movies: Kalyani is OK. Die-hard Mohanlal fans will like it. Notebook is Kaththi. (Kaththi means knife. But these days it is a slang used for describing something that is awfully bad.) Palunku is, well, a class movie. And for Smart City, I am sorry. Nobody I know has seen the film. This information may be quite wrong as I gathered this from friends who, like me, do not know much about the market dynamics of film industry. So any fans who felt disappointed by the opinion, please don’t feel bad. Cheer up folks. It is Christmas time.

M. Sukumaran: A silent revolutionary

M. Sukumaran has been selected for this year’s Kendra Sahitya Academy award for literature for his short story collection title Chuvanna Chihnangal. . Sukumaran, who? If this is your natural response to this news, then you, like most others, I am sure, are badly in need of a lecture on Malayalam literature. Sukumaran has been a remarkable short story writer in Malayalam to such a degree that no discussion on the golden era of Malayalam short stories (1960s, 70s, 80s) concludes without a mention of M. Sukumaran. That was precisely the problem. He got only passing mentions of the critics. Detailed studies were reserved for others. He never got the attention that other stalwarts of the same era like O.V. Vijayan and M.T. Vasudevan Nair received. One can safely say that he never had been a poster boy of Malayalam literature. And he was in fact happy about that. His was a lone voice in Malayalam literature.

His short novels such as Janithakam, Prithru Tharppanam and Sangha Gaanam rank among the best of that genre in Malayalam. He was never at ease with journalists and coldly rejected interview-seekers. His elusiveness was so famous that once noted poet Aiyyappa Panickar quipped that the letter ‘M’ in M. Sukumaran stands for ‘mounam’. (‘Mounam’ means ‘silence’.) In his stories, he always managed with ease to convey his feeling of pain and loss over the inequalities in life and the abject heartlessness of the people in power. His sharp sarcasm blended nicely with his penchant for social criticism. Learned literature critics are of the opinion that Sukumaran was pre-occupied with communism and the fall and rise of its various avtars. Most critics hail his initial stories like Paara, Thookkumarangal Njhangalkku, Marichittillathavarude Smarakangal as his best. But I think the two stories of his second coming (Janithakam and Prithru Tharppanam) are his best works.

Geography of Cinema

Geography of Cinema

The recently concluded IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala) has brought that evergreen question into a tight close-up: Why good films are such a scarcity in India? IFFK is not a festival where films from Kerala are paraded. It is not titled “International Festival” like baseball competition between American base ball clubs is titled World Series Cup. It is truly international in the selection of films. Keralites are known for their higher per capita film aesthetics. But still good films are not coming out like one would expect seeing the enthusiasm and the number of people participating in IFFKs. One T.V. Chandran here and a Gireesh Kasaravalli there won’t make a spring of good films.

These rather unkind thoughts were sowed on my mind when I was watching Scream of the Ants by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. It is a film shot entirely in India and its theme dwells with the dilemmas and dimensions of Indian culture. Any good Indian director worth his silver salt would have made such a film. But the only film that analyzed Mahatma Gandhi in a different way as this film does in recent memory is Lagey Raho Munnabhai! Horror, isn’t it? But Scream of the Ants is no roller-coaster comedy aimed to tickle the funny bone of the lay viewer. It is a finely crafted celluloid art work that disturbs you, makes you think and occasionally makes you laugh.

What makes certain places like, say, Iran or Vietnam breeding grounds of such good films like Bride of Silence (a Vietnamese film shown in IFFK in 2005) and Off-side (an Iranian film shown in IFFK this year). Does a country need a turbulent history for its directors to create fantastic films? This is a question very difficult to answer in yes or no terms. May be academic research should help. Anyway, let us hope Indian film-makers will try to emulate Makhmalbaf and Ken Loach (who made a magnificent movie having beautiful frames and a prettier title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley).

Kerala: CPM’s Own Country

I was studying in college when K.T. Jayakrishnan (a primary school teacher and an RSS activist in Kannur) was hatched to death in 1999. He was murdered in the class room right in front of his 10-year old students. The incident was widely criticized and gained great publicity. At that time political murders were on a high in Kannur. I was a left-leaning student undergoing my post-graduation in a faraway college down south in Trivandrum district. I was geographically far away from the happenings and psychologically quite boorish to comment on that incident like this: “They that take the sword shall perish with the sword”. One of my friends even commented that there should be a daily score line in newspapers, much like stock market prices, about the number of political killings in Kannur.

Years later, now I realize the lack of sensitivity in such once-celebrated comments. What made me think of that almost-forgotten incident is the Supreme Court verdict which acquitted four of the five accused in Jayakrishnan murder case and set them free. One person, the first accused, is given life imprisonment. Three persons were released yesterday (one of the ‘innocent’ persons is undergoing a life term for another murder; so he is still in jail) and they were given a thunderous public reception that would make the Ashes winning England team envious.

This is the last of the happenings that make politically neutral (I am no longer left leaning) people to rue something they did about seven months ago: that is, voting for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led arrogantly by Communist Party of India (Marxist), better known as CPM. Three months before, CPM activists ransacked the house of college lecturer who refused to give financial contribution towards a CPM-sponsored fund-raising. Nothing happened to the culprits. Government employees owing allegiance to other unions than the CPM-affiliated unions had been transferred to distant places. Several people were arm-twisted into subscribing Deshabhimani, the newspaper owned by CPM. Kerala has become a paradise for the comrades and almost a hell for non-believers of CPM’s brand of communism. Here you can find everything except what Karl Marx dreamed of: socialism, empowerment of working class and suchlike.