Vasu Ramanujam's Blog

The past two days, the big headlines in the Indian news circuit is all about the sad and tragic demise of the Andra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y Rajasekhar Reddy..

This is what struck me when I glanced through the news papers/ flipped through the news channels –> The urge to cover everything about YSR was so great that nobody bothered to mention about the “four other folks” ( Yes, that’s how the media is writing about them) who accompanied him in the ill-fated chopper…Why this apathy? I mean, don’t these folks also have families mourning for them? Is their lives any less important than the Chief Minister? Not even a passing mention in any of the major dailies, not one photo flash of the Security Officer, the chief secretary, the pilot and the co-pilot…. I had to google to find their names… and the official PR release also did not care to mention them by name…

NDTV’s headline reads ” YSR, 4 others killed in Chopper crash”… Well, fair enough… But does’nt the public ( and more importantly the family of the deceased) deserve a bit more than this in the body of the message?

Small consolation that they atleast mentioned the names –> The chief minister was accompanied by special secretary P Subramaniam and chief security officer A S C Wesley in the chopper piloted by Group Capt S K Bhatia and Capt M S Reddy.

My heart goes out to the families of these folks, whose loved near and dear ones…May their souls ALSO rest in peace!

So, I have my folks who are visiting us from Hyderabad. They are here on a purpose. As a devout Iyengar, Maama, as I call him, is a prolific authority on all things Ramayana. He had told me that he wanted to do a “Sundara Kanda Parayanam” at our place and we gladly agreed. I consider myself an agnostic , however have been ‘habituated and conditioned ‘ from childhood days to enjoy the traditional festivals and poojas.

I have heard Ramayana, like any other kid of my age, from my grand parents. Circa 1980′s, television had not taken the center place as much as it has now in a middle class home. Those days ( gosh, i feel old already!), there was only Doordarshan with its own “Krushi darshan” ( or Vayalum Vaazhvum – Kadalai saagupadi saivadhu eppadi ) programs and this was clearly not on the high priority for  kids @ home. We all felt we were better off listening to our Grandmas’ – Yes, there were  minimum two or three in a joint family, so we had to call them based on their seniority – (Patti amma, Chinna Paatti, Rukkamma Paatti). So, we all used to sit on the verandah and slowly, the paatti ammas will begin narrating the accomplishments of  Rama in small, digestable and infinetely enjoyable story lines. They knew all the tricks of a good story teller, pausing at appropriate juncture just to gauge our attention span, repeating certain nice characteristics that they would want us to follow in our daily lives and had the right answers to all the irreverent questions from their young audience…

Sundarakanda Parayanam @ Vasu's place

Cut Flashback….Present time…..These days, we are experiencing horrible power cuts in Bangalore. Every night, prime time television has gone for a toss, as parts of the city is engulfed in darkness and people suddenly are finding themselves clueless…. My Maama is also part of the same junta who are addicted to mindless, numb and dumb mega serials ( his latest favorite is towards the COLORS channel – Note to advertisers –> target this age group or the kids, you are bound to see good ROI).

Sriramajayam@Vasu's place

Anyways, coming back to the present. So, no power, no TV. what to do? Well….What began as a simple question from my wife to Maama -”Why don’t you start narrating Ramayana”, has now grown into a full fledged hour long katha kalakshepa, a moment of discovery for both us and Maama. Every night, Maama engages in an hour long story telling session, in his own inimitable style ( We offered to record these conversations, but he was kinda reluctant and so we gave in). Maama, as I said earlier, has this complete conviction and unassialable faith in Lord Rama and it shows in the way he narrates the story. He also makes it easy on the listener as this is no more a Bhaashan, but something that everyone, especially, folks from this generation can relate to. So, his description of  Rama/ Lakshmana’s meeting with Sugreeva ( Kishkintha Kandam) to help them find Sita is peppered with the protocols between “heads of state and presidents”… what’s the connection you ask, well, you had to listen to the story then .

And that, is an entirely different story…. I am signing off now, as we are eager to hear Sundara Kandam today…

Ever wondered being called into a meeting where you had absolutelty nothing to contribute ? Or have you been to a meeting wherre there is some guy who is showing you a presentation packed with zillion lines on the company template, with his back to you and reading through those lines as if you ( or others in the room) never existed?

Well, IBM seems to have wondered about such meetings. A little too much. So much that, they have “figured” it all out and are claiming a patent..haa! who knew ? and how… They have put some cute screenshots from, i guess, Lotus Notes ( IBM does NOT use Outlook) and are proclaiming that well, if you schedule a meeting for one hour, you end up finding enough issues to keep you occupied for that one hour… Solution? oh well… Keep the meetings short….. Brrrrrrillliant, i say and yes, definetely patentable….

No wonder, they keep shattering the “patent records”. maybe, they need to file another patent for shattering existing patent records…

Here’s the link for your viewing pleasure… http://ipwatchdog.com/patents/US_20090119148.pdf

*phew* managed to send in my application to the Chennai International screenwriting workshop. As usual, procrastinated till the last moment ( today is the last day, you see ). 

This is a great initiative by the industry stalwarts and veterans who are willing to share their experience and expertise with wannabe movie aspirants.  The eligibility criteria is pretty straightforward – a. Resume b. 200 word synopsis of your favorite movie c. list of 5 favorite movies d. passport size photograph. 

It is a difficult choice to pick only 5 of one’s favorite movies. But it had to be done, so the methodology I adopted was simple – any movie that was on top of my mind, 2. it had to cover one specific geographic location/ genre 3. it had universal appeal 4. it should be “zara hatke” kind of a movie ( i know, it contradicts #3 ),… Well, here’s the list I came up with

• Agantuk aka “The Stranger” – by Satyajit Ray
• Dr. StrangeLove – by Stanley Kubrick
• Cinema Paradiso – by Giuseppe Tornatore
• Amores perros -  by Alejandro González Iñárritu
• Bacheha-Ye aseman aka “ Children of Heaven” – by Majid Majid

As for the synopsis of a favorite movie, here’s what I wrote on PI- the movie…

What do you get when you juxtapose Chaos Theory,Wall Street greediness, a maverick genius in search of a formula and a fringe cult which believes in God’s ultimate equation for the Universe…Well, You get Pi, by Aaron Sarforsky.In these days where Twitter reigns supreme,one could summarise it as follows - 

“Original, Brilliant, Clever, Exhilirating and Diabolic (in that order)… “

 Shot entirely in Black and White, you are hooked onto the movie, right from the word “Go”.You get to experience the “mind’s eye” of Max cohen, a brilliant mathematician, albeit on the fringes of insanity.He is in pursuit of cracking open the Wall Street madness, working in solitude in his cramped NYC apartment, on his self built super computer.His passion to find a solution to PI is accentuated by the splitting migraine headaches that hurt him so much that he blacks out often. He trusts no one, except Sol, his professor, with whom he plays “Go”. Sol warns him of his affliction, but is unable get him out of his mad pursuit. Wall Street vultures get a hang of what Max is upto and are after him. So is a religious cult which believes Max holds the key to their tryst with God.

 As Max progresses with his solution, you are sucked into a vortex, leading to a thrilling journey, with a heady cocktail of suspense and intrigue. Does Max succeed? Who gets to have his formula? – The answers to these make up the rest of the story.

 For a directorial debut, Sarforsky shows mastery over the art of movie making.He is infinetely helped by the phsychedelic techno- fusion music, amazing cinematography, clever editing and ofcourse a brilliant cast.

 For any aspiring film maker/ screenwriter/ reviewer or just a movie fan like myself, PI would definetely make for an intellectually stimulating and satisfying watch.

You remember, there was this movie called Cinema Paradiso, which revolved around an old man and his grandson trying to revive an old theater in a non descript italian town.

Last time I visited coimbatore, i felt little bit like Alfredo, when I walked past the Shanmuga Theatre on Mettupalayam road, near Poo market ( Flower market)… This was pretty close to home and my mom tells me that it was pretty famous once upon a time, circa 1970′s.

My first movie theater experience, as far as i can remember, was in Rainbow theater. I distinctly remember this, because, my dad was a great fan of English/Western movies and movie outing was an event in itself.For a movie that would start at 6:30 PM, my mom would get all worked up even by 3:30 pm. Also, there would be three bottles of  Trinka , different flavours( yes, true, there was a brand called Trinka at that time, similar to Rasna) all refrigerated and waiting to be sipped. I always remember my dad wearing a white kurtha/pyjama and like a little zamindar or sthing, he would wave for an auto which would stop by at our place. For a middle class family, the Auto was a luxury and with much fanfare, we would embark on the journey towards the theater. 

“Gods must be Crazy” was the movie, i think. All I remember was laughing hysterically at the native african waiting for the coca-cola bottle….and ofcourse, me waiting for Trinka to be served in small steel cups that my mom packed, along with Sri Krishna Sweets… I don’t remember Mysorepa being famous then.

Anyways, back to movie/theaters..

Being  in R.S.puram meant that we had easy access to atleast 4 to 5 theaters. From the top of my head, I remember

1. Shanmuga Theater – used to be a super duper theater once, but in the late 90′s degenerated to screening soft porn/ x rated movies… I distinctly remember watching “kulebagavali” starring MGR and “Maya bazaar”, one of my all time favorites in this theater. I did watch, along with some of my friends, some other movies that will not find a mention here . 

2. Archana/ Darsana – > All the latest movies with big star names/cast used to screen here… predominantly Rajini movies with huge banners/rasigar manrams jamming the entire area. I probably frequented this theater more than anything else, as it was maintained pretty neat, and ofcourse, because of its proximity to my home. I remember watching Mudhal Mariyadhai ( which ran for an eternity), Nayakan, Thalapathi , Guna and countless other movies..

3. Central/ Kanakadhara –> Central, the bigger of the two, was the favorite theater to screen the latest English flicks. Kanakadhara focused on screening Hindi movies. Some of my most memorable movies here include Quamat se Quamat tak ( which I believe was the first movie in Kanakadhara or was it Fast Forward), Hercules, Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles dare, countless Bond movies…. The other thing i remember about Central was its canteen which was unenviably placed near the men’s bathroom, but nevertheless served tasty “keerai vadai/paruppu vadai”. 

4. Maruthi Theater  - It was competing with Central but their focus area was mainly B- grade English flicks. I remember watching a few Jackie chan movies here.

5. Kennedy Theater – It used to be famous, but I don’t remember seeing any movies in this theater.

6. Apsara Theater – Located near the central bus stand in Gandhipuram, this one also used to screen Hindi movies. but later degenerated into screening what in the local parlance was called the “bit” movies…movies interspesed with mallu sleazy scenes. Initially, they used to screen Jackie Chan movies, who probably had a huge following even then, what with his Protector running for more than 100+ days, i think..

7. Carnatic Theater – I dont even remember where this is located now…

8. Kavitha Theater - I may have got this wrong, but this one was close to the Gandhipuram bus stand. All I remember is that Ramarajan/Murali/Vijaykanth movies used to be screened here.. I guess, he knew his market profile very well

9. Shanti (?) Theater - Near the railway station…

Apart from these, there were others within the city, the most famous of them being KG complex  on Race Course road with 4 screens (10 -14. Ragam/Thanam/Pallavi/ Anupallavi) and the Karpagam Complex with three screens ( 15-17 Ganga/Yamuna/Kaveri) which screened predominantly tamil movies. Anupallavi was a small screen theater, pretty much like what we see in today’s multiplexes..

18/19. GP Geetham/Preetham – These were in Ganapathy, but this theater was owned by my dad’s friend, so I was privy to some of the prescreenings of some movies. I even ventured into the operators room once.I even ventured into the operators room once and viewed the movie through the projector screen/lens. It was an awesome experience.

20. Sivasakthi theater – Located in the heart of Saibaba colony, this finds mention for the sole reason that it had exclusive “sofa sets” in the balcony -much like your PVR cinemas- Gold class. Not to mention its “world class  audio  system” ( I would like to believe it was Bose) which was so unique that people outside, on the street, or people residing in nearby homes ( like my friend), could hear the dialogues much better than the folks who were inside . Mostly, this theater used to screen re-runs on ‘second’ screenings of hit movies. 

oh well…now I feel like Cheran, and I should start singing “Nybagam varudhe, Nyabagam varudhe“……

So, we just finished watching The Graduate starring the inimitable Dustin Hoffman in one of his stellar roles as a young graduate in love with an older woman ( and her daughter ). 

I knew Kamal was ( and is) greatly influenced by this actor ( who would’nt be? Not just Kamal, even the directors seem to find his movies fascinating). However, what struck me was the entire set of Dustin Hoffman’s  emotions that Kamal seem to have taken a liking to… Not that there is anything wrong with it, per se… Kamal probably felt like “Ekalavya”  to Dustin “Dronacharya” Hoffman.

I still remember seeing Tootsie long  before it morphed into Mrs.Doubtfire which was an inspiration to Kamal’s own Avvai Shanmugi. I thought I was the only one who figured out Kamal’s love for Dustin. well..I stand corrected… Kamal himself has this to say 

“The closest I feel to is Dustin Hoffman who shares many of my paradoxes. Physical appearance to begin with.”

Hmm….I, for one, completely agree… Just check out Kamal’s characterisation in Aboorva Ragangal  and Dustin’s portrayal in The Graduate…. you’ll know what i mean…