First Film Screening in Mumbai

Anand Patwardhan and i go a long way back in time, you know, of him being unaware of my existence and me being a faithful fan. Yesterday, two things happened. I talked to him. I realised that as of now, Bombay is my home. So i am overwhelmed.

I think i watched 'Ram Ke Naam' when my sister was preparing for her entance exams to various media schools. I was a child. I realised from the conversations she and my mother had that the film was a milestone. Babri Masjid was India. Like in a film, i now see myself in flashback in the drawing room of what once used to be my home in Calicut, Kerala.

Later, i started making films. I started attending VIBGYOR film festival and that's where i saw Patwardhan for the first time. 'Who would've thought' is the underlying emotion here. His white hair was connected to the disturbing visuals from 'Ram ke Naam' in my head. By then i knew a bit more of India and Babri Masjid. Not very much just a bit more.

I must have been in late teens when i won this John Abraham award at SIGNS film festival. The award ceremony was in Palakkad, Kerala and my jaw dropped when i learned that it was Patwardhan who was going to give me the award. I had by then realised that i had severe social awkwardness problems. But i made up my mind to hug him when he handed me the award. But when the time came, my heart was in my mouth i barely managed a smile, let alone a hug. But i got to sit a few seats away from him on stage. Prakash Bare was sitting next to me and was making small talk and i was like 'can i make them switch places using my head?'

Then i went to film school where a lot of things happened (and where i did most of them). But once, in Main Theatre, my most favourite place in the world, i watched 'Jai Bhim Comrade' and wept and wept. I picked fights with idiots to whom i usually don't talk when they called the film 'propaganda'.
Years later i moved to Bombay. Bombay and Pune were the two options in front of me and my partner who were starting a life together. I got a full time job in Bombay and in we moved to that dingy flat where all Bombay stories start. In real life and in films.

I hated Bombay. Still do. Never had a city been so hostile and unwelcoming to me. I lost my job, found odd ones, lost them, found them and lost them again. In one such, i had to shoot the massive farmers' march to Bombay. I had to stay at Azad Maidan overnight, alone, because i was doing the camera too and there in the early hours of morning was Patwardhan. He was operating his own camera and shooting the farmers. I made whatsapp jokes to the three people i talk to, saying Patwardhan is copying my shots. That's how i compensated for not going up to him and speaking, like others were. And yes, i clicked his pictures as if that is saying 'hello'. Friends rolled eyes on WhatsApp.

Again, a couple of years later, yesterday, they screened 'Gi' a short film i directed in Prithvi theatre, Bombay. First screening in Bombay. Forgetful and absent minded as crazy, i almost forgot the event, didn't know that Anand Patwardhan, Simantini Dhuru and Chandni Parek were curating it. Imagine my poor heart when i lost my way to the venue and ended up in a book store where this white haired man was looking at titles. I ran elsewhere to ask for directions, of course.

When i got in and sat down in the hall it was dark. When the lights went on after the first film, there he was. Then before i knew it, he was talking to me. From behind the hall, he was looking at me and was asking something about introducing the film. I don't quite remember what words came out and in which language but must have been a 'no' because they switched off the lights and started playing the film.

After the screening, again, he was talking to me! Asking me to go to the front of the hall and answer questions. As usual, i fumbled through my answers and said ridiculous things and then, Patwardhan asked me a question! About the film i directed. My mind went 'this is the chance. You finally get to make him understand that there is a person shaped like you in the world and that you talk.' My mouth went something like 'yeah, what you asked is very nice but since i am an idiot i am going to give you the stupidest answer ever because hey, first impressions!'

After that disaster, we spoke about SRFTI and laughed.

Then the evening was over and everyone went home. I started replaying the words i spoke and editing it in my head to give sensible answers and not stupidities. My rickshaw got into a fight with a taxi car. The car driver said 'if i didn't have a passenger, i would have got out and showed you'. My rickshaw driver said 'yeah, motherfucker, i would have liked to see that.' I went home, forgot to turn off the water supply to the tank and woke up in a flooded flat. Balance was restored to the world.

March 2019: Films

Peruvazhiyambalam - P Padmarajan

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32000911

Padmarajan's debut as director. Also Asokan's debut. Watched an extremely bad print but really liked it. About a rapist rowdy returning after serving his term. The film starts with him coming back - people gather around etc. He beats up the person who gave testimony against him. He also intimidates Asokan's sisters. (Wikipedia says he rapes one of them but the print i watched didn't seem to have that part. Also couldn't spot Geeta anywhere even though Wikipedia names her in the cast list) The movie picks up speed when Asokan murders this rowdy. He is lean and only 16 or so. He is forced to run away. Various people offer him shelter. In the end he reaches Gopi and he takes him to a sex worker. Played beautifully by K P A C Lalitha. This could be why she gets sex worker roles from time to time. But this one will remain the best. So lovingly written. So nice. The more i watch Padmarajan, the more i love him. You know after talking to Kani yesterday this is what i am wondering. The script is really good. The dialogues are EXCELLENT. But it is not written in spoken malayalam. Realistic as they are called these days. How is that done? Will i be able to do it? Let's see. Because films should have a language of their own right?

Shalini Ente Koottukaari

Script is by Padmarajan. Based on one of his short stories. Directed by Mohan. The title sequence itself attracted me. I have not seen any other title sequence in Malayalam films where pictures of women are shown in this manner. In Bachelor Party i remember the comics appearing etc. But these title cards are JUST the faces of the women with titles written on them. That sets the mood first.

The opening shot is that of that old fan turning its head. All of our houses have one such fan. It also strangely reminded me of the opening scene of an Antonioni film. Will have to check which. Monica Vitti of course. And her husband having one of those Antonioni problems.

It was shot in Calicut. I remember seeing Alakapuri premises. The college was Guruvaayurappan college.

Frame starting and ending a bit unusual. Starts with the fan, sweeps the entire room, goes to Jalaja as seen below and then zooms in on her face. Not something i liked but it is different for sure.

Salini is introduced as singing 'maadapraave vaa' in the bathroom. Intertextuality.
So Shalini comes from a troubled family. Ummer is her father and Sugumari is her step mother. She has a brother, Venu Nagavalli. Ummer is pissed that Venu doesn't have a job. He wants to send him to gulf. The character of Sugumari is well written and she has done it well too. The step mother is supposed to be a villain but the film makes it clear that she loves all the children. Ummer tries to get Shalini married off to someone much older than her - an alliance she doesn't like. She expects her brother to stop her father but Ummer is adament. He beats Venu Nagavalli up when he intervenes. He commits suicide the next day - his death stops all marriage talks immediately. Shalini becomes depressed after this. The onset of depression and the change in her behaviour is depicted really well. Jalaja and Venu Nagavalli have a small love story going on with Jalaja singing his poem, meeting him under the banyan tree near the temple etc. The song 'Himashaila Saikatha' is when Jalaja sings his poem. It's sweet.



The new professor in her college, Sukumaran is attracted to Shalini. (Just felt that Aruvi is a bit similar to this. Especially the character) They fall in love. After Jalaja gets married, Shalini becomes even more depressed. There is a scene in which Jalaja is leaving for her husband's house after the wedding and seeing the vacant space under the banyan tree. Absence is a very important tool. But i will have to say that Mohan the director completely messed up the script. His storytelling falls flat in many places and is redundant.

Something to copy: the sequence with Jalaja and Shalini on the swing. A narration, we go back to the swing and it is now empty. Shalini gets a disease - the doctor says it is cancer Wikipedia says it is brain tumour. The research is evidently poor. But they did attempt to show a brain surgery with prosthetic brain. Horrible but they tried and thought it necessary to be shown.



However, more than all this, the film introduced me to actor Sobha. She has done a brilliant job in this film. When i looked her up, i was shocked to learn that she was only 17 at the time and committed suicide at the same age. Apparently this film was running successfully when she killed herself. I WhatsApped my mother 'why did Sobha kill herself' because she would know anything that happened to heroines from her time. 'Balu Mahendra killed her' was her immediate reply. This was just the beginning.

I was unaware of these facts and rumours till then so the only thing i remembered about Balu Mahendra was how crappy i felt his film Sadma was. The one with Sridevi and Kamalhasan. People loved it. I felt it was verging on sexual abuse. So imagine my shock when i learned that he made the film as a sort of reply to those who said he was involved in Sobha's suicide! I could not make head or tail of this. Sobha was 17 when she died and married to Balu Mahendra. How can a person have more than one wife? How can a woman get married before the age of 18? I also learned that the K G George film 'Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback' was based on Sobha's suicide. I had watched this film on TV when i was way too little but still remember Nedumudi Venu and a scene with something to do with sex. I need to check it. I also want to find out how K G George handled it as a student of cinema.

Sobha's mother was also a mallu actress. Read that she too committed suicide. She was the one who wrote to the President saying her daughter was murdered. That is when they ordered a probe and found out that Balu Mahendra had faked documents to be an Indian citizen. I found a list of irregularities associated with her suicide. Like the body showing no signs of death by hanging, her body found on the floor and not hanging etc. This was way too much information for me to handle. I got very affected because first, i loved the actor because of her character and performance in a film and then learned that she ended her life. It pains me whenever successful women end their lives. It tells me that people wronged them. I intend to find out all i can about this blessed actor who bagged a National Award at the age of 17. Just look at her face. Just look at her expressions in just this film.

Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback

Watched it as part of research for the Shobha film that's brewing in my mind. I didn't like it as much as the other K G George films. He will have to be interviewed before he dies. It's not a great film. I liked Gopi's acting, as always. And yes, my memory was right. I saw the scene in which Nedumudi Venu asks her to undress. Also remembered another scene in which Shobha says 'temper' instead of temperature. Mammootty was good in the first bit. He forgot his style by the time the porn watching telephone conversation was shot. The film says that Balu Mahendra refusing to leave his wife and child is the reason behind her suicide. It gives Shobha's mother a typical money eating agent of nubile actress role. I don't understand why K G George did not stick to real life and make her an actress. The subservient father all fit into the same tropes. End titles roll on close-up of a photo of Lekha. 

Why on earth is the material on this suicide and actor so scarce!

"The most tragic in this series was the death of Shoba, in 1980, the girl who set a new trend in realistic portrayals through memorable performances in ``Nizhal Nijamakirathu'', ``Pasi,'' (which got her the `Oorvasi' award for acting), ``Enippadigal," ``Moodupani,'' ``Azhiyatha Kolangal'' and so on. The career graph of this promising star was rudely cut short. She was found hanging. Again the police closed the file as a case of suicide. The death actually inspired a Malayalam director to make a film based on this situation but it didn't achieve anything."

says the Hindu report cited in Wikipedia. The report in India Today  gives the irregularities pointed out at the time.

The police's finding of a suicide note only the day after the death has spurred further speculation. Can a fabric like chiffon - a chiffon georgette saree was the instrument of death - snap easily? If she hanged herself, who loosened the noose? What about the Shobha-Mahendra quarrels that took place? Why weren't the eyeballs swollen and the tongue hanging out as normally happens?

The age stated in this report is 19. Balu Mahendra was 45 at the time.

In this interview Jalaja speaks of how Shobha and she watched the film Madanolsavam together. (Yes, John Brittas shall be murdered.) This is supposedly footage of the funeral procession etc. I think the user has inserted shots from films in it. Not sure. This article again from India Today reports a fresh probe that commenced. Balu Mahendra's driver who drove him to and from Shobha's house before and after her death disappeared at this time, it says. The language is deliberately sensational which makes me suspicious about the credibility of the report. But it has some very disturbing details.

Balu Mahendra secured an anticipatory bail in the case
The suicide was staged again for the investigation. When Shobha's weight was hung on the saree, it did not snap. It was concluded that the ligature did not snap but was cut.
Wasn't clear why Shobha used the saree she was wearing for the attempt
The position in which her body was lying did not match with the position it should have been in had it been a suicide by hanging.
Shobha's mother Prema called the relationship between Balu Mahendra and Shobha 'incest' according to the report.

"How could he do it? He kept on telling everyone that Shoba was like his daughter."

She also accused Balu Mahendra of drugging Shobha
According to the report Mahendra said that it was true that he gave her pills and it was 'ovrol' birth control pills.

Thakara

Script by Padmarajan directed by Bharatan. Liked the opening sequence and its craft. Rest is not much. Except when the fishing net prank is done by Subhashini. She reminds me of my college mate Arya and also Archana Padmini. Learned from Wikipedia that it was K P A C Lalitha who dubbed for Subhashini actor. I had indeed felt so while watching. Ha ha.

I didn't like Bharatan much. He was definitely better than Mohan in working on a Padmarajan script but even then he did not have a signature style that was mesmerising. This film, like Rathinirvedam, focuses too much on the female body. I don't know how that works. How is it helping your story when you show men getting aroused by cleavage and bare thighs.

One of the scenes in which Chellappanaasaari eggs Thakara on to have sex with Subhashini

Even then, Thakara is really about consent, love and rules of sex. Chellappanaasaari played by Nedumudi Venu eggs Thakara on to have sex with Subhashini. Both the carpenter and his assistant boy want to have sex with her but thinks humiliating Thakara by egging him on will be a nice idea. Subhashini will shun him, definitely. Why? Because she shunned both of them earlier. Made it clear that she does not want to sleep with them. So these two idiots are shocked when they find out that Thakara and Subhashini are in love and more importantly (for them) they are sleeping with each other. They just don't understand how a woman can say yes to Thakara and no to them.

Thakara on the other hand, is in love. It's clear. Chellappanaasaari tells her father that they are sleeping together, he beats Thakara up, almost kills him. Thakara is rescued by people from the other shore (where Subhashini's mother stays, separated from her father). He vows to kill Subhashini's father as soon as he has money to buy a knife. He will then marry Subhashini - that's his plan.

In love

However after he stabs her father to death, Subhashini refuses to marry him or go with him. Thakara then commits suicide. The suicide is filmed by juxtaposing train shot over Thakara's face but in that case why did Bharatan show the blood on the tracks and the knife with which he killed?

Bharatan's style is not consistent. That, i felt is the biggest problem. Like in between he gets lazy. The opening sequence is good. Thakara sleeping under the bridge, from under the bridge we see the train - the same train that will kill Thakara in the end - things like that. This portion in between when Subhashini pulls a prank on sleeping Thakara - he shows both of them through the fishing net.

The strained relationship between her parents. Mother played by Santadevi. So when they leave four of them are in the frame and we cut to the counter shot of that as well.

People who share a relationship in a frame

And the counter frame to that

Cleo From 9-5

Because Agnes Varda died. Only recently had i watched her 'Gleaners and I'. The card reading sequence is the beginning and it's strange because the cards are in colour and the rest is in black and white.

A woman taxi driver. The year is 1962.

She goes on to narrate how difficult it is for women. People refusing to pay up. But she is not the type who gets scared, she says. In the car, singer Edith Piaf is mentioned. Since the name sounded familiar i looked her up and realised it was that beautiful woman who sang one of my favourites. Life of a Rose film that won the Oscar for best actor, first time best actor went to a French film, i had watched. It should be in one of my notes. Anyway the news was reporting the war in Algiers and also Piaf's operation for some medical condition.

I didn't think the film was great but it's language is so fresh and hard hitting even now. The singer who is awaiting the result of her medical test - that is the time that is shown in the film. She thinks she has cancer. No one takes her seriously because hey, she is a drama queen. The only relief she gets is in the end when a soldier in the war strikes a conversation with her. He goes on to accompany her to the doctor and she promises to see him off to Algiers.

The doctor confirms that she has cancer. In a matter of fact way. It should be alright in two chemotherapy sessions, he says. Before she meets the doctor there is an interesting sequence where the people in the reception say that the doctor is not in. She decides to phone the doctor later at night. That is when he comes driving his car and tells her the news. After knowing that, she says she is finally free.

There is one aspect of the film. This woman is under the impression that her beauty is her strength. She feels everyone looking at her. Many shots of people looking at her. Repulsive things - those that she might consider ugly - like a man swallowing frogs and running a knife through his arm etc. She also feels contempt for the taxi woman and her own friend who poses for nudes for art students. The jump cut of Godard is famous. Wonder if they even noticed it in her film. She uses many. Remember one when is climbing down the stairs. Also - there are cute kittens and a cat mom in her house. It's nice.

There is a sequence in which she sings the tune given to her by her composer. A single shot in which we go closer and closer to her face. It becomes intense. This never fails, i have noticed. He he.

I also learned about the 'Left Bank' of French New Wave that she belonged to. Wikipedia says

The Left Bank, or Rive Gauche, group is a contingent of filmmakers associated with the French New Wave, first identified as such by Richard Roud.^[18] The corresponding "right bank" group is constituted of the more famous and financially successful New Wave directors associated with Cahiers du cinéma (Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard).^[18] Unlike the Cahiers group, these directors were older and less movie-crazed. They tended to see cinema akin to other arts, such as literature. However they were similar to the New Wave directors in that they practiced cinematic modernism. Their emergence also came in the 1950s and they also benefited from the youthful audience.^[19] The two groups, however, were not in opposition; Cahiers du cinéma advocated for Left Bank cinema.^[20]
Left Bank directors include Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, and Agnès Varda.^[18] Roud described a distinctive "fondness for a kind of Bohemian life and an impatience with the conformity of the Right Bank, a high degree of involvement in literature and the plastic arts, and a consequent interest in experimental filmmaking", as well as an identification with the political left.^[18] The filmmakers tended to collaborate with one another.^[20] Jean-Pierre Melville, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Marguerite Duras are also associated with the group.^[21] The nouveau roman movement in literature was also a strong element of the Left Bank style, with authors contributing to many of the films.
Left Bank films include La Pointe Courte, Hiroshima mon amour, La jetée, Last Year at Marienbad, and Trans-Europ-Express.

Roger Ebert review has some interesting observations including sexism in the industry - even in the new wave.  

Varda is sometimes referred to as the godmother of the French New Wave. I have been guilty of that myself. Nothing could be more unfair. Varda is its very soul, and only the fact that she is a woman, I fear, prevented her from being routinely included with Godard, Truffaut, Resnais, Chabrol, Rivette, Rohmer and for that matter her husband Jacques Demy. The passage of time has been kinder to her films than some of theirs, and "Cléo from 5 to 7" plays today as startlingly modern. Released in 1962, it seems as innovative and influential as any New Wave film.