Films, September 2022

Philadelphia

Wonderful film. Great direction. The opera scene and Tom Hanks' performance!  

By May be found at the following website: http://www.impawards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8005206

Ardh Satya

Beautiful film about an honest cop in Bombay. Om Puri's performance is to die for. The dialogues are great, especially the ones by Smita Patil. The casting of Sadashiv Amrapurkar was just perfect!

By https://mobile.twitter.com/DilawarLakhara/status/1063875240030334976, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24583407

I skip watched the acclaimed series 'Chernobyl'. Didn't like the direction - which is why i skipped portions. The history was fascinating and remains a testimony to how ideologies such as communism of USSR can be life threatening. 

Tried watching The Boys - series and failed because i thought it was crap. So many people had recommended the series. I found the acting, script, direction all of it to be pathetic and decided not to subject myself to it after watching two episodes. I will never suggest this as reference to anyone who wishes to write a superhero film. 

The Verdict

It was underwhelming for me. Especially when compared to other Lumet films i watched years ago. It was interesting to note how the medical thriller genre is still hung up on anesthesia problems. It was okay and must have been thrilling in 1982 but i found the same thing in Charlatans by Robin Cook. 

By www.impawards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6756815

Medical Thrillers: Charlatans and The Final Diagnosis

    After having written a medical thriller script myself, i decided to watch a few films in the genre, to see if there was something worth copying. There wasn't. I didn't even like Side Effects. So i decided to read a few books. Started with 'Charlatans' by Robin Cook. Hated it. So i decided not to read his famous 'Coma'. Might watch the film later. 

    However, lending Charlatans, i realised something. My earlier deduction about the number of library goers dwindling over the years was wrong. Between 2019 and 22, 6 readers, including myself had lent the book. So it was only Asimov readers that had dwindled. Crap fiction still had readers in libraries. 

    Cook's craft is horrible. His story highly predictable. 

    I next lent Arthur Hailey's 'The Final Diagnosis'. Interesting statistics there. Nobody but me had lent the book since 2008. I was the first person to lend the book since 2008 and 38 people had lent it between 1989 and 2008. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that old writers have fewer readers today. 

    Hailey's craft was far superior than Cook's. That was a relief. But that was it. Terrible story. Nothing to look forward to. Charlatans at least had something to look forward to, the resolution of a mystery, however predictable the resolution might have been.  

Charlatans - statistics

        There was a reason why i had decided against lending this one the first time i went to the library. It was a sentence in the blurb which read 'At Three Counties Hospital one proud, brilliant physician holds the terrible verdict of life and death each time he makes the final diagnosis in a desperate case while passions, professional obsessions, and rapacious desires create a battleground between young doctors and old, and between two beautiful women fighting for the love of the same powerful man.' [Emphasis mine]

    The blurb also had reviews, one of which said, 'Done with skill and absolute fidelity...The best medical novel since Not as a Stranger'. I made a mental note to watch the film based on the book. I am pretty sure the book is going to be similar and my reading of the summary of the book confirmed it. 'Powerful novel about a young doctor who lives for medicine and sacrifices everything for his career. Describes his years at medical school, his practice in a small town and his devoted self-sacrificing wife who works to make their marriage a success.' [Emphasis mine.]

    I am really so done with this male world where beautiful women are always fighting for the love of the same powerful man. It is either that, or some woman is sacrificing for the ambitious male's career. It's infuriating that the trope still finds place in today's films and literature. 

    The only good thing to have come out of reading these books is that i got a taste of what it was like then, the genre, and what it is like, now. Highly male dominated and concentrating on women's breasts. There were descriptions of female bodies in both the books and both really liked describing breasts. Well, even Asimov liked that, to be fair but Asimov was at least brilliant in his stories and had a vision. So i forgave him, because i am partial to good writers.

    I noticed the use of 'negro' and 'negress' in The Final Diagnosis. Googled to learn that the words went out of use only in the late 60s. I think it might have something to do with the Civil Rights Movement. 

    I have decided to go back to reading Asimov. Want to finish of all of him available in the library. Have put in a request to buy more too. Don't know if they will do it. 

   

This is not a Book Review: The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov

 As chosen by the SF grand master himself

said the book's cover. So it was sort of irresistible for me, after having read The Robots of Dawn. Once again, i set the goal of reading 40 pages a day. Noticed some interesting statistics from the book's record in Deshaposhini Public Library, Kuthiravattam, where i lent it from. Between 1988 and 1999, 30 people lent the book. Between 99 and 2022, only one person (me) lent it. I deduced that the total number of readers of Asimov or science fiction has dwindled and also that the total number of library goers has dwindled. I think the latter would be the more plausible explanation. I myself, was venturing out to a public library after a hiatus of over ten years. 

 

I enjoyed most of the stories, though i think i prefer his long fiction. Novels. I am yet to read his non-fiction. What i loved the most about this collection is the author's brief note before each story explaining why he decided to include it in the collection. They are all witty and notable for its lack of modesty - both characteristics i love in artists. 

Multivac is a recurring entity in a lot of stories. I love multivac and it is amazing how, all those years ago, he thought of this super computer. As far as i know, such a thing doesn't exist even today but it also does, in various forms. There are computers which collect our data and give intelligent predictions. We have Aadhaar now. We have states with biometric information of each and every adult citizen of a nation. If India has it, the US has the most advanced form of it. We have intelligent advertisements flooding us in every single site we use. We have google. Facebook. 

I really liked the story in which multivac is repeatedly sending out commands to kill itself. Some day, i wish to make it into a film. It might have already been made. I don't watch enough films. Anyway, i would like to make one of my own, in Malayalam. 

I also liked the one about Doors. We have the same concept in other literature called portals but i liked Doors better. The process reminded me of Dr. Manhattan. There is a psychiatrist who wonders what might happen if the Door got stuck in between the process of transporting one person to another place. I felt it would end up in entities such as Dr. Manhattan, which came in SF later, anyway. 

I will quote the brief introductions by the author that i really loved and made me laugh and smile. That's what this makes this collection so valuable. We get a glimpse of Asimov's projection as a SF writer. 

He likes teasing the reader in all of his wordplay stories. In A Loint of Paw, he says, in the introduction, 

If, on the other hand, you like wordplay, the way to play the game is to cover the last line or two in the story and when you get there (assuming  you haven't already read the story) see if you c an guess what I am going to say before I say it. I'll be terribly disappointed if you do. 

In The Dead Past, he lets us in to his writing process. I find it very similar to my own and it gave me confidence.

I don't labor over the details of a story in advance. Once I have a vague notion of the idea behind it, and a clear notion of the ending, I just begin and make it up as I go along. Occasionally, I throw something in with no particular idea of having it contribute to the working out of the plot. I may put it in just because it is an interesting sidelight or because it gives an air of verisimilitude to the social background. 

 

The wit in this one really got me. In the introduction to Dreaming Is a Private Thing, he says, 

I suppose that every story someone writes is a bit autobiographical. There has to be a personal tinge in it somewhere. After all you can only think with your own brain, you can only remember your own memories, you can only be influenced deeply and subliminally by the events in your own life. 

    Sherman Hillary, the Dreamer in this story, is reminiscent of me in a way. I was vaguely aware of it but I foolishly thought no one would notice. I was quite wrong. No sooner did the story appear than I got letters quite clear they knew what I was doing. 

    Heinlein said I was coining money out of my neurosis. Well, whose neurosis should I coin money out of?

 

I have the same question to the world. Whose neurosis? Your dad's? Why, so you can sue the shit out of me? 

I found comfort in this fact about the author that he shared in the introduction to It's Such a Beautiful Day. 

 

...    For instance, I'm an indoors person. I'm not afraid of the outdoors and I penetrate it easily and cheerfully. However, I must admit I like Central Park better than the wilderness, and I like the canyons of Manhattan better than Central Park, and I like the interior of my apartment better than the canyons of Manhattan, and I like my two rooms better with the shades down at all times than with the shades up. I'm not an agoraphobe at all, but I am a claustrophile, if you see the distinction. 

There is a comment on Eastern philosophy in The Last Answer to which, i said, in annotations, 'Hey! Not all Eastern Philosophy!'. 

Murray said, "That sounds like a bit of Eastern philosophy - something that sounds profound precisely because it has no meaning."

I don't know anything about Eastern philosophy but i don't like the West always calling us spiritual and crap especially when we have an ancient tradition of rationalism in India. 

I liked the introduction to the last story in the collection, Unto the Fourth Generation the best because i am a hopeless romantic and it is the only one in which Asimov talks about his love life. 

    When I sat at the same table with Janet Jeppson (who is now my dear wife) for the first time-it was at the annual banquet of the Mystery Writers of America in 1959-this story had just been published. Janet had read it and she pointed out a literary flaw in it. (Here i smiled to myself and said, typical!) I saw her point and introduced the necessary correction, and that's another reason it means so much to me. 

Just look at them, the love birds! She was so beautiful! Another author i need to read.  

By Jay Kay Klein - Original publication: 1994Immediate source: From the illustration pages in I. Asimov: A Memoir (Bantam Books, 1995) between pages 292-293 (originally published by Doubleday, 1994)., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60533618

This is not a book review: The Robots of Dawn, Isaac Asimov

    While reading O.V. Vijayan, whom i now adore for his non-fiction more than his fiction, i was intrigued by his mention of Asimov's I, Robot. I wanted to read it immediately. Checked for the e-book, found it was too expensive for me at the moment. But it had been long since i wanted to get my hands on science fiction and thanks to my bi-polar disorder, i was always looking for tasks to add to my to-do list. So it was that i visited Deshaposhini Public Library, Kuthiravattam (yeah), Calicut after more than 12 or so years. 

    Deshaposhini used to be my favourite place at one point of time. The last memory i have of it, however, is that of a book i lent and never gave back. This time, when i went there, the staff had changed. Nobody recognised me. I took a new membership and looked for  Asimov. I didn't find I, Robot so i took a title with 'robot' in it and that was The Robots of Dawn. 

    I did google the book before lending it so i knew it was last of the trilogy. Usually, my OCD kicks in when i go out of order - in anything. Even toothpaste. I have to press it from bottom up and never from in between, like some lesser mortals do. I wrote down a request for I, Robot, and lent the third of the trilogy. 

    I made a plan. I am always making plans. I read 40 pages every day. I did. Finished the book before the assigned two weeks. What a fantabulous read it was! I had tried reading H.G. Wells before this and had failed, even though he was one of Appachan's favourites. Appachan would have loved Asimov. Too many books to read before i die and he died before he read Asimov. 

To the book. The concepts amazing. See here. 

What was troubling the robot was what the roboticists called an equipotential of contradiction on the second level. Obedience was the Second Law and R. Geronimo was now suffering from two roughtly equal and contradictory orders. Robot-block was what the general population called it or, more frequently, roblock for short.

The three laws are an important concept, central to the book, and i suppose it would be, to any book involving robots. I will find out when i read the second in the trilogy. 

I noticed that Asimov too, notices a woman's breasts when he sits down to write.

What gave her away immediately were her breasts, the prominence of which she made no attempt to hide. 

But to be just, Asimov was far more gender sensitive and respected women greatly. Female sexuality is a major concept in this book. 

I particularly liked a legend that is recounted by Fastolfe about the robot that could read minds and gave all the pleasing answers to all the questions by humans. The robots inconsistency in answers resulted in much embarrassment to its creator, a woman roboticist. The narration ends with the line that i found very interesting.

The legend goes on to say that Calvin's last word to the destroyed robot was "Liar!"' 

Old butterflies. I put this flower down on this page while in Kochi, completing my daily forty pages while attending an Amazon meeting. Look at it now. Look at it then

I liked his humour too. 

'Why on Earth - or Aurora, rather - why on Aurora should you undo this work?'

We are dealing with a lot of words here, Asimov constantly reminds us. 

    What i loved the most about Asimov is his logic and reasoning. It is just perfect and that makes it a feast for any rationalist. The best part is that, that is the norm on Earth and all the other worlds, in the time that these stories are happening. Anyone speaking irrationally or without reason, would be considered dysfunctional, there, i suppose. At the same time, feelings are important. Like i said, female sexuality, feelings that robots don't have and humans do - these are vital concepts in the book. What pure bliss!

    But what i remember the most, every day, is that i have, like the title of the sketch above, 'too many books to read before i die'.  I return this book today.

An Old Wedding Invitation

I can't live without the past. Its fragrance and stench. This is an old wedding invitation card. From almost 50 years ago. Don't know whose or how we are related. It's so beautiful! 

This series is called 'nostalgia'. I hope you like it. 

v for vendetta - revisiting

Started re-reading v for vendetta. Kavithesh Kovalam - KK, calls it v for വേണ്ടാട്ട and he finds it funny 🙄

FDeep gifted me this book many years ago - the only graphic novel in my collection. With the recent graphic novels reading spree i had, thought of revisiting this one. It's not that great. Maybe it was, when it came out. Not that great today. Especially when we have Orwell's 1985. 

SRFTI Sexual Harassment NEVER Ends

This is a letter i sent to the ministry of I&B, SRFTI (Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute) some time ago.  

Hello,

I am kunjila mascillamani and an alumnus. Kindly google me before asking me more questions about who i am, after 8 years of injustice from the part of SRFTI. I hope you are aware that the name on records of sexual harassment complainants cannot be made public in the country and even if it could, you do not have my permission to do so with me. I was one of the complainants in the cases mentioned in the subject line. I have copied the other two complainants as well. Recently, we got to know from a lawyer we appointed for ourselves through an NGO in Calcutta - because SRFTI students and administration and even some of the professors were violent and hostile towards us complainants - that the honourable court has given a ruling pointing out procedural errors from the part of SRFTI, and in favour of the professors who sexually harassed us. The lawyer informed us that the court has asked for our complaints to be looked into, once again by the current ICC of SRFTI. We would like to ask the following questions to all at SRFTI and the Ministry of I&B.

0. Why was there a procedural error from the part of SRFTI in a case of such importance? Why were the GC members, the then Chairperson Partha Ghosh (also copied in this mail) not aware of this? If they were aware, given how hostile SRFTI and Partha Ghosh himself were to us, what evidence exists to prove the procedural error was not deliberate? Evidence regarding Partha Ghosh's bias and hostile behaviour towards me have been documented and reported.

1. Why did the institute not inform us complainants of this important development?

2. Who argued the case? Who were the lawyers, and how were they appointed - for SRFTI?

3. What was the argument of the said lawyers against the professors?

4. Is the institute going to challenge the court order?

4.5. If yes, are the same lawyers going to fight the case? If no, why?

5. Who gets to decide who the lawyers who fight for SRFTI would be, in court cases?

6. I got to know from my current admirer students in SRFTI that the current ICC is chaired by Oindrilla Hazra and that one Ms. Srijani Lahiri whom i know as Srijani Dey - surname change presumably after a wedlock - is a member of the ICC. Is this information correct? In that case, i would like to refresh the institute's memory on the history of both these individuals.

Srijani Dey, while being my batchmate had, along with other students like Modhura Palit, made malicious complains against me for calling out her HoD's sexual harassment and advances. I am adding a screenshot of one of the posts she made after ToI reported the matter. I have more where this came from. The complaints i made against Oindrilla Hazra might still be available in the SRFTI dusty archives - assuming nothing has been digitized, yet.

 

I have more videos on YouTube. Like this one. jaake suna dena apne behan ke laudi ko To refresh your memory, I also have images of how the ex- director, Debamitra Mitra and Syamal Sengupta shared the same address during the ICC enquiry. Wasn’t Partha Ghosh one of the two people who later appointed her as Director? 

7. What is the status of the inquiry that was done upon my complaint against Debamitra Mitra’s conflict of interest in our case? Is there a report? Where is it? Is SRFTI waiting for me to file an RTI in the midst of my busy schedule to get this report, if it exists? 

8. Would you have done this to ANY male student who passed out of your institute and is now a filmmaker with a film playing on SonyLiv, one whose film was part of Indian Panorama in IFFI and whose various SRFTI projects have won an obscene number of awards? 

I have more questions that i shall keep for another letter.

If my language is coming off as rude and angry, it might be because i am both. I expect you not to tone police me, like you always did when i was a student there. I expect you to answer my questions. I demand answers. Oh! and justice too.

To remind you of the good old days, i will also be making this letter public on my blog.

WCC Writes to the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy in Support of Director Kunjila Mascillamani

 To 

The Chairman, Secretary 

Kerala State Chalachitra Academy,

Dear Sir/Ma'am,

We are quite appalled by the unfortunate incident that took place at the Opening Event of the 3rd Women’s International Film Festival, Kozhikode.

 

Kunjila Mascillamani is an SRFTI alum and an independent filmmaker based out of Kozhikode, who has previously won an award at the IDSFFK. She has, as an Independent filmmaker, made short films against great odds.  Her last short film ASANGHADITAR,  was part of the anthology, Freedom Fight and was released in theatres. Her film is an uncompromising docu-fiction that portrays the terribly backward situations in which women in Kerala have to work.

 

We understand that this film was not included as part of your programme in the Women’s International Film Festival and that the filmmaker was not given an explanation for the same. While we understand that every organisation is within its rights to make their choices and to stand by those decisions – a public organisation like the Kerala Chalachitra Academy shouldn’t shy away from explaining to the people how they came by their decisions. 

 

However one views it, it is impossible to look away from the fact that a woman filmmaker was treated with utmost contempt and police violence on the premises of a Chalachitra Academy event meant for women filmmakers. This cannot have happened without the tacit support of the Academy. That is disappointing. We feel it is the Academy’s responsibility to have had a dialogue with the filmmaker instead of creating the kind of spectacle which we all saw. We hope you will understand the implications of such decisions and take some corrective measures immediately and engage the filmmaker in a dialogue or at the very least give her a reasonable explanation as to why her film was not included in the festival.

 

The Chalachitra Academy is mandated with the task of countering the gross commoditization of the film medium and to bring a rightful recognition of the contribution of cinema to the cultural enlightenment of society. Kunjila’s film does just that - brings enlightenment about the state of women workers in Kerala. As part of your mandate, it behoves you to engage in meaningful dialogue with all kinds of filmmakers – not just the powerful or the favoured. Kunjila deserves an explanation, not contemptuous dismissal.

Such festivals are conducted to encourage more women filmmakers. Any young woman watching the events of the last days, are not likely to be filled with confidence in the Academy. This is a bad consequence both for the Academy and for future Malayali women filmmakers. Hence we request you to live up to your mandate to respect and set forth equal opportunity to all filmmakers and to engage in meaningful dialogue with them. We would also like to recommend a more transparent approach to the selection of films - with a process that is open to the scrutiny of all.

WCC would like to place on record it's strong protest against this disrespectful treatment of women filmmakers.

MC

                                                                              

Women in Cinema Collective 

e q u a l   s p a c e      e q u a l   o p p o r t u n i t i e s

www.wccollective.org

Disclaimer: If you are not the intended recipient of this email you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. The Issuer of this email accepts no liability for the content of this email and/or attachments thereto - or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided to the Addressees and/or other users – unless expressly agreed to in writing by the Issuer to the particular user.

Hope Everyone Dies

I have returned to mallu land after ten years of living outside it. Broke up with my partner of 6.5 years, had an affair or something less than that (for him, not me), got my goddamn heart broken in it, at the verge of self harming again, made a film. 

It was five years ago, that i landed in Bombay with all my stuff from Calcutta. In LTT (Lokmanya Tilak Terminus). Vai Vow, my ex partner, was already in Bombay, waiting for me. He had been house hunting and had almost finalized a flat. Like all new comers in their first week there, i stayed in a friend's friend's place in D.N. Nagar. It had three females, one of whom was pretty rude to me, for no reason. 

I went to see the flats that vai vow had seen and decided all of them were crappy, including the one he had almost finalized. We started house hunting together and i finalized our first flat. Again, as is the case with most new comers in Bombay, it was a MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority) building. 

I was reminded of all these when i headed to LTT a day back, to return to mallu land. Vai Vow came to see me off. 

I haven't got over the 'may-be-less-than-an-affair' and can't stop crying when i am not doing something else, like binge watching shows, writing or reading or playing wordle. Oh wordle happened in between, didn't it? It is one of my fondest memories with Appachan, this game which just got popular. Yes, we used to play it more than a decade ago. My sister had picked it up from school and passed it on to Appachan and me, who pretty much got addicted. 

I wish for appachan's smell, touch, love. I wish i could have had the life i promised to have, with Vai Vow. I wish i was loved by Dee, my may-be-less-than-an-affair. Most of all, i wish for everyone to be dead.