Filmmakers’ favourites

Eight directors list their best ten and explain what makes the first three superior.
This article was published in the hindu for the platinum Anniversary of Tamil cinema.

Sridhar: ‘Sindhu Bairavi,’ ‘Roja,’ ‘Vedam Puthidhu,’ ‘Thillana Mohanambal,’ ‘Nayagan,’ ‘16 Vayathinile,’ ‘Udhiripookkal,’ ‘Thiruvilaiyadal,’ ; ‘Servar Sundaram’ and ‘Saraswathi Sabadam.’

‘Sindhu Bairavi’ is a masterpiece in its own way. The screenplay and the actors’ performances make it the best. I choose ‘Roja’ for its patriotism. ‘Vedam Puthidhu’ appeals because of its message that all humans are the same.

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K. Balachander: ‘Andha Naal,’ ‘Chandralekha,’ ‘Kalyana Parisu,’ ‘Thillana Mohanambal,’ ‘Pasamalar,’ ‘Ulagam Sutrum Valiban,’ ‘16 Vayathinile,’ R 16;Mullum Malarum,’ ‘Kadhal Kottai’ and ‘Kathal.’

‘Andha Naal’ was released in 1954 starring Sivaji Ganesan and Pandaribai. It was the first talkie in India without song or dance. I like the way director S. Balachander tackles this experimental film, an unusual attempt at that time. Just like ‘Sivaji’ today, people talked about ‘Chandralekha’ in the past. Produced at a cost of Rs 30 lakhs (a huge sum at that time), it has grand sets. I have seen it 12 times. ‘Kalyanaparisu,’ a love story, is the first of its kind. I became director Sridhar’s fan after watching it.

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J. Mahendran: ‘Chandralekha,’ ‘Ratha Kaneer,’ ‘Thillana Mohanambal,’ ‘Nenjil Oru Aalayam,’ ‘16 Vayathinile,’ ‘Veedu,’ ‘Kadhal,’ ‘Imsai Arasan 23r d Pulikesi,’ ‘Paruthi Veeran’ and ‘Mozhi.’

I choose ‘Chandralekha,’ a remarkable film, because of its grandeur in all departments of filmmaking. There are no graphics or special effects. If anybody tries to remake this black and white film, they will make a mockery of it. ‘Ratha Kaneer,’ made in 1954, has progressive ideas and great acting by M.R.Radha. ‘Thillana Mohanambal’ must make all Tamils proud. It not only fuses Bharatnatyam and nagaswaram, but has an outstanding screenplay and a great cast.

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Balu Mahendra: ‘Parasakthi,’ ‘Devadas,’ ‘Ratha Kaneer,’ ‘Pasamalar,’ ‘Silanerangalil Silamanidargal,’ ‘Unnaipol Oruvan,’ ‘Aval Appadithan,’ ‘ Kalyana Parisu,’ ‘Nenjil Or Aalayam,’ and ‘Thanneer Thanneer.’

‘Parasakthi’s’ heavy dialogue (written in chaste Tamil by the current Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi) coupled with a stunning performance by newcomer, Sivaji Ganesan, make it a favourite. ‘Devadas’ has superb lighting by B.S.Ranga, excellent performance by A. Nageswara Rao and Savithri and haunting music by C.R.Subbaraman. As a teenager, I saw it 40 times. As a filmmaker, I saw it for the 50th time a couple of years ago. It still captivates me now as it did, when I was a teenager.

‘Ratha Kaneer’ has brilliant dialogue and inimitable performance by M.R.Radha.

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K. Bhagyaraj: ‘Adutha Veettupenn,’ ‘Parasakthi,’ ‘Nadodi Mannan,’ ‘Uthama Puthiran,’ ‘Kalyana Parisu’ ‘Thillana Mohanambal,’ ‘Ulagam Suttrum Valiban,’ ‘Aval Oru Thodarkathai,’ ‘Mullum Malarum’ and ‘16 Vayathinile.’

I like ‘Adutha Veettupenn’ for the natural acting, ‘Parasakthi’ for its message of social awareness, reform and powerful dialogue. In ‘Nadodi Mannan’ and ‘Uthama Puthiran,’ I enjoyed the way both heroes combine acting prowess with entertainment.

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Mani Ratnam: ‘Udhiripookal,’ ‘16 Vayathinile,’ ‘Aval Oru Thodarkathai,’ ‘Andha Naal,’ ‘Mullum Malarum,’ ‘Uthama Puthiran,’ ‘Anbe Vaa,’ ‘Pitha Mag an,’ ‘Moondram Pirai’ and ‘Pasa Malar.’

I had just stepped into the industry and Mahendran’s ‘Udhiripookal’ just bowled me over. It was a breakthrough film in commercial cinema. The negative character in it and the way it ends make it outstanding. ‘16 Vayathinile’ is memorable for its script, high standard and realism. K.Balachandar has done some of the best films before and after ‘Aval Oru Thodar Kathai.’ But I choose it mainly for its storyline. It is not the plot or the story, but the character that carries the film through. Although it was released about 25 years ago, the character remains fresh in one’s memory. That is the greatness of the film.

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K.S.Ravi Kumar: ‘Pasamalar,’ ‘Nenjil Or Aalayam’, ‘Aval Oru Thodar Kathai’, ‘Kadhalikka Neramillai,’ ‘16 Vayathinile,’ ‘Mullum Malarum,’ ‘Nayagan,’  216;Deivamagan,’ ‘Ulagam Suttrum Valiban’ and ‘Puthu Vasantham.’

As a kid I saw ‘Pasamalar’ and cried. As an adult, each time I have seen it I was moved to tears. Recently when I saw it, the film left a lump in my throat. That is the power of the script and the performance of lead players. Sridhar’s ‘Nenjil Or Aalayam’ depicts the supremacy of love. Through his script and direction, Balachandar brings out the tender core of his middle-class heroine, assailed by problems, in ‘Aval Oru Thodarkathai.’

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Ameer: ‘Andha Naal,’ ‘Nenjam Marappadhillai,’ ‘Thiruvilaiyadal,’ ‘Ulagam Suttrum Valiban,’ ‘Moondru Mudichu,’ ‘Aval Appadithan,’ ‘Udhiri Pookal,’ ̵ 6;16 Vayathinile,’ ‘Moondram Pirai’ and ‘Sethu.’

‘Andha Naal’ by S. Balachander was a trendsetter. When songs were the mainstay those days, this film was a bold attempt as it did not have any. Each camera angle makes watching it worthwhile. In fact one can say that this film changed the sound concept in Tamil cinema. ‘Nenjam Marappadhillai’ not only breaks free from the formulaic screenplay but director Sridhar does something revolutionary by introducing new faces in it. Recently I read in a paper that the film has been remade in Hindi. This is the power of Sridhar’s script. Director A.P. Nagarajan’s ‘Thiruvilaiyadal’ is imaginative. It treats a mythological subject in an interesting way. It is one of the best films in the annals of Tamil cinema.

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You are doubtless aware that I am a common man.

After having known about him from sankar and after having received a thought-provoking acknowledgement from electromaniacs, i feel that my blog needs this splash of patriotism too. Major Dhyan Chand Singh (August 29, 1905 – December 3, 1979)

The title of this article are the opening words of his autobiography 'Goal'.

1. Regarded as the greatest ever hockey player of all times
2. Part of the Gold winning Indian team in three olympic games
3. Even today Dhyan Chand is to hockey what Bradman is to cricket,
Mohammed Ali to boxing and Pele to football — the unchallenged masters
of their sport and the only Indian sportsperson who can lay claim to
such an honour
4. A German newspaper carried a banner headline: 'The Olympic complex
now has a magic show too.' The next day, there were posters all over
Berlin: 'Visit the hockey stadium to watch the Indian magician Dhyan
Chand in action.'
5. Of the 584 goals the visitors scored, Dhyan Chand's personal tally
was 200. Don Bradman was so surprised by the number of goals that he
quipped: 'Were they made by a hockey player or a batsman?'
Don Bradman remarked "He scores goals like runs in Cricket".
6. They broke his hockey stick in Holland to check if there was a
magnet inside; in Japan they decided it was glue; in Germany, Adolf
Hitler even wanted to buy it.
7. Impressed by his performance, Adolf Hitler supposedly offered to
make Dhyan Chand a Field Marshal in the German army, but the latter
refused. After seeing him play at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Hitler
offered Dhyan Chand, a Major in the British Indian Army, German
citizenship and a higher army post. The prolific striker politely
turned it down.
8. In 2002, the union sports ministry of India introduced a Lifetime
Achievement Award in sports in the name of Dhyan Chand.
9. Chand however died penniless and uncared for in a hospital,
receiving a meagre pension. Dhyan Chand was very sad to see India
finish seventh at the Montreal Olympics, 1976. The Indian team
included his son, Ashok Kumar. His grand daughter Neha Singh played
for India in the 1998 World Cup.
When he was on his deathbed at All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, he reportedly told a doctor that Indian hockey was dying.He
then went into a coma and died in 1979.

If after reading this, you want to know more about this indian player, go ahead and please visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyan_chand
http://www.bharatiyahockey.org/dhyanchand/brijnath.htm
http://www.bharatiyahockey.org/patjansen/dhyanchand.htm

Thank you !

It happened on 20/01/08 at 9.30 p.m

What happened on this night is nothing frightening.
I saw this movie - 'It happened one night' just because it happened to have clark gable in it !!
But after i had seen it i could'nt contain myself grinning every now and then. The reason was not just Mr. gable and the lovely Claudette Colbert but that i had discovered what intelligent south indian film directors do in their leisure !
Kadhalan - the prabhu deva starrer, directed by shankar has unarguably taken its source from this oscar winning movie of Frank Capra. Either this or the innumerable variants that would have apparently followed from this. But its most likely got to be this one.
& now, for a decent review that i picked up from the web.

The grandparent of the screwball comedy sub-genre, and arguably Frank Capra's best film, It Happened One Night set the pattern for many Hollywood comedies featuring the escapades of madcap heiresses that followed in its footsteps. The film's trendsetting story starts when Elly Andrews (Claudette Colbert), daughter of immensely rich patriarch Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly), just as stubborn as her "old man", goes on a hunger strike after he has her abducted during her attempt to elope with playboy/aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas). Elly and King are already married when Andrews's people grab her, but the old boy is planning to have the marriage annulled because he considers the groom a lightweight fool. When push comes to shove, and Andrews in exasperation slaps his recalcitrant daughter, Elly cannot forgive his abuse. She jumps off the yacht on which she is being kept a prisoner and swims to freedom. Never before on her own, the lovely and spoiled Elly discovers working class Depression America and Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a proletarian journalist. They join forces, he to get her story and she to get his help in finding her way back to King. At first she finds neither Peter nor working class Depression America to her taste, but she discovers in both ultimately the sense of fun, capacity for loyalty, and pure guts that she has always found lacking in her own class. Warne can't help being captivated by Elly's charm, beauty, and pure guts despite his contempt for her uppity ways. After they realize they are in love, pride and misunderstanding threaten to part them, but irascible Mr. Andrews turns out to be "all right" in the end, as he clears up Elly's misconceptions about Peter's feelings about her and paves the way for true love to conquer all.

It Happened One Night revolutionized romantic comedy and men's underwear. America was captivated by its feisty heroine and the film killed the sales of men's undershirts when Gable took off his shirt to reveal an appealingly bare chest. It is full of classic scenes that have been imitated in subsequent films and television shows. Probably the most famous scene in the movie is the one in which, on their travels, Elly and Peter are forced to share a one-room motel cabin overnight and Peter, ever resourceful, hangs a blanket on a some rope to provide the debutante the privacy and respectability she demands. The by-play of Elly and Peter's reactions on the separate sides of the blanket are brilliant evocations of what lies behind the facade men and women show one another in romantic situations. The old Hollywood, black and white film stock is particularly gorgeous in this scene, as Capra uses minimal light bounced off shining eyeballs and haloed hair. (One of the most widely seen allusions to this scene was in the immensely popular Luke and Laura story on American daytime television serial General Hospital in the early '80s.) Almost as famous is the hitchhiking scene, in which macho Gable gets his comeuppance from ladylike (but naughty) Colbert. Reduced to walking the highways for a ride, Peter gives Elly a lengthy lecture on the art of hitchhiking only to be passed by a procession of automobiles staggered with brilliant comic timing by Capra. Elly then gives it a try, "and I won't use my thumb." Elly hitches up her skirt, bringing the first car to pass to a screeching halt with her lovely legs, leaving Peter with egg on his face. In a sense, the film is ahead of its time in gender definition. Elly will stand for no patriarchal control over her life. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Elly cannot follow up on her bold words and gestures. She certainly has spirit, but she needs Peter to take care of her "in the real world." She may be willing to take off on her own with nothing but the clothes she stands in (and the expensive jewelry) but she is ridiculously naive about money and cannot fend for herself. Without Peter to protect her, she is terrified, and often comes shrieking into his arms for protection, minutes after protesting her self-sufficiency. And she ultimately needs papa to tell her what she really wants.

There are also problematic class issues here. At first the film seems to be satirizing the very wealthy, criticizing their lack of social responsibility and sincerity and lauding the spirit of the average man. Indeed writer Robert Riskin in his long collaboration with Capra became known as the chronicler of the nobility and decency of the "ordinary Joe." But Riskin's reputation rings hollow now, as does the lip service given to democratic philosophy in It Happened One Night. There is much attention paid to the camaraderie of the "little people," particularly in a charming scene on a long distance bus trip in which the passengers spontaneously get involved in a communal singalong. But tellingly, the bus driver's participation causes inattentiveness to the road and the bus ends up in a ditch. Working class solidarity doesn't get anyone anywhere, however charming it may appear. In the end, only the power elite has the real drive to accomplish and hold things together. Elly is just slumming. There is nothing but relief when she is reunited with papa and consequently will never again have to face the rigors of ordinary life. Moreover, if Peter has been appealing as a proud, peripatetic, proletarian king of the road, the film nevertheless asks us to be gratified that marrying Elly bumps him up to First Class on the passenger list of life.

It Happened One Night won the Academy Award for best picture of 1934 and was immensely successful in its time, as it continues to be. The film consolidated Gable's screen image as a tough/tender independent cuss with sex appeal to spare. It rescued Colbert from typecasting as a big-eyed, half-naked vamp and led to many roles for her as a vivacious romantic comedy heroine. But the road to fame and fortune was full of twists and turns. The casting of Elly was particularly problematic. Colbert was not Capra's first choice. Many actresses had turned the role down by the time Columbia pictures turned to her. Myrna Loy, one of the stars who rejected the part, claimed when she saw the script it was not the witty, spirited romp that eventually found its way to the screen, but a badly written, forced, and unpleasant hodge podge that contained not one character that rang true to life. It is not clear who was responsible for the resuscitation of the project, but the final cut of the film is a clever and insightful example of old Hollywood's ability to speak meaningfully about the battle of the sexes, the constraints of the Production Code notwithstanding.

Crack-Jack again in Five Easy Pieces!

I can imagine this scene and how jack would have played it. Ill catch with this scene sometime anyway.

The movie's most famous scene takes place in a roadside restaurant (the Red Rooster Cafe, Duncan, British Columbia), (actually, the scene was filmed in Eugene, Oregon at a Denny's at the Glenwood Exit on Interstate 5) where Bobby tries to get a waitress (Lorna Thayer) to bring him toast with his breakfast, which is not on the menu. Despite appeals to logic and common sense, the waitress adamantly sticks to the rules of the restaurant, so Bobby comes up with a plan of his own as Rayette and their two hitchhikers (played by Toni Basil and Helena Kallianiotes) look on:

Bobby: I'd like a plain omelet. No potatoes, tomatoes instead. A cup of coffee and wheat toast.
Waitress: No substitutions.
Bobby: What do you mean? You don't have any tomatoes?
Waitress: Only what's on the menu. You can have a number two — a plain omelet. It comes with cottage fries, and rolls.
Bobby: Yea, I know what it comes with, but it's not what I want.
Waitress: Well I'll come back when you make up your mind.
Bobby: Wait a minute, I have made up my mind. I'd like a plain omelet, no potatoes on the plate. A cup of coffee and a side order of wheat toast.
Waitress: I'm sorry, we don't have any side orders of toast. I'll give you a English muffin or a coffee roll.
Bobby: What do you mean "you don't make side orders of toast"? You make sandwiches, don't you?
Waitress: Would you like to talk to the manager?
Bobby: You've got bread. And a toaster of some kind?
Waitress: I don't make the rules.
Bobby: OK, I'll make it as easy for you as I can. I'd like an omelet, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.
Waitress: A number two, chicken sal san. Hold the butter, the lettuce, the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else?
Bobby: Yeah, now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.
Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?
Bobby: I want you to hold it between your knees.

The waitress then indignantly orders them to leave, to which Nicholson knocks the drinks off the table with a sweep of his arm.

Back in the car:

Palm Apodaca: Fantastic that you could figure that all out and lie that down on her so you could come up with a way to get your toast. Fantastic.

Bobby: Yea, well I didn't get it, did I?

Palm Apodaca: No, but it was very clever. I would've just punched her out.

The scene is iconic as a metaphor for the rebellious, free spirit of the youth of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a strong theme in the film as a whole. Thirty years later Nicholson would perform a scene in the movie About Schmidt which directly drew from this scene (available as a "Deleted Scene" extra on the DVD release). Nicholson's character in About Schmidt, an emotionally downtrodden retiree, in contrast, humbly accepts the waitress' "no substitutions" rule.

& How would have this been....mmm. No guesses this time. Gotta watch this one too !

One flew over the cuckoo's nest. Thoughts and extravaganza !

One flew over the cuckoo's nest is a tragic drama in which i felt that the climax became very instinctive. one cannot avoid shedding a tear for jack's character. so cheerful was he when he came into the asylum & so much cheer that he spread everywhere, that when i saw him in the end, without any reactions on his face, so neutral that he became - so neutral that it reminded me of matt's neutrality exercises !, i was struck by grief. I cant contain myself from making this comment. Young Nicholson's face reminds me of a young R.S Manohar & WWF/E star 'The Undertaker' ! gleeee......

The movie set me thinking about the makers of munnabhai and their understanding of the importance of characterisation. Oh well, its continued even till kalloori !, the last movie in which i thought the characters carried the film.

ok & here, Strong characters, all set in a mental asylum, carry the story on their shoulders.
Jack, the most important of all, gets into this place by mistake and meets a gruelling end. Was that short enough ?

Put brilliantly by someone,
"Set in an insane asylum, the film involves the oppression of the individual, a struggle spearheaded by an ebullient Nicholson, turning in a star performance if ever there was one."

& then i came across this interesting tidbit -
"along with It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs, these are the only three films to win all four major Oscars (actor, actress, director, picture). It's still the only film to deserve it"

The title is said to have been derived from an American children's folk rhyme. [1]

Wire, briar, limber-lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew east, one flew west
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

As per the wiki - It loses the significance it had in the novel, in which the line is a part of a rhyme, Chief Bromden remembers from his childhood. This detail was not included in the film.
ah, did i forget to mention chief bromden, the burly man who does'nt need to jump to do a slam dunk ! The nice man who decides to kill jack after seeing his pathetic condition.

Finally, Ken Kesey's novel must be an awesome read.

ok. After all this gibberish, its of utmost importance that i give my poor puzzled readers atleast a proper shortened movie review? alright here you go -
(review 'adapted' !!! from rottentomatoes. )

Milos Foreman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST presents a biting and ultimately tragic satire about mental institutions and the human spirit. A disturbing, witty, and electrifying drama, the film won the 1975 Academy Award for Best Picture. R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a misbehaved con who shirks authority, finds himself in an asylum after faking insanity to get out of work detail in prison. The vivacious troublemaker soon finds himself in a worse kind of prison--one presided over by the repressed, terrifyingly quiet Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), whose set of rules and regulations are meant to suppress patients' psychotic outbursts, and their spirits. It's not long before McMurphy is reaching out to his new inmates, trying desperately to bring life to an otherwise dead atmosphere. To Ratched, however, Nicholson's free spirit is as dangerous as a schizophrenic impulse. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is brilliantly acted by an ensemble that includes Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, and Danny DeVito.

critics take things too personal, dont they ? read this -
Even granting the artist his license, America is much too big and various to be satisfactorily reduced to the dimensions of one mental ward in a movie like this.
& this -
Is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest not a great film because it is manipulative, or is it great because it is so superbly manipulative? I can see it through either filter.

Ok. off you go, forget the critics and catch this movie somewhere sometime. mmmm.. try torrentspy ! AAllrriigghhtt, stop your grins and growls & become a critic urself. WATCH THIS MOVIE FIRST !!!!!!!!!!

Dont be in a hurry, Mr khan. We expect more from you !!

before we crown you 'shehenshah' ;-)

I was watching the NDTV awards ceremony and the best entertainer of the year 2007 was given to 'superstar' Rajinikanth. Rajini was a man of few words on that day. karan johar and shahrukh 'mayur' khan were asked to put a few questions to rajini. Johar's first question was a compliment 'hidden in the garb of a question', as he claimed. The question was - 'What can rajini not do'?! His second question was the one that made me sit up and observe the happening even more keenly. Johar asked rajini whom he thought was the shehenshah of bollywood. Rajini did not hesitate to give his opinion. It was the 'angry young man' amitabh bachchan whose films rajini faithfully remade to pouch the superstar status. And then came khan's turn to question rajini. Out came the question - sir, what should i do to become 'shehenshah' (king of kings). The audience burst into laughter. But it was not to end. Rajini was asked to question anyone in the audience similarly and was prompted to question king khan. I would say that it happened accidentaly. Rajini praised khan's spirit in promoting hockey.
khan's face had a good control of its expressions, the great actor that he is. But it was very evident that he was cross with the 'careless' comments of the superstar on him.
It was king khan's turn who thanked him politely for his presence and retorted back - 'sir, you praised my sporting skills but not my acting skills. The crowd burst into laughter again. Rajini blessed khan in his own style and declared publicly that khan would be a shehenshah in the future.
"In future" - did you hear it, King Khan ?!

My first tryst with pudhumaipithan

Aartrangarai pillaiyar - This is pudhumaipithan's short story that deals with a pillaiyar idol that is troubled by 2 trees and men who pass by the place.
Pillayar punishes people who try to help him out of his troubles(bird droppings!). Pillayar steals food from a traveller who happens to take rest under the tree. Pillayar does everything what pillayar is not (theoretically) supposed to do !!
When the pillaiyar takes a vishwarupam in the end to relieve himself of the agonies the reader is confused. What was pithan trying to convey through this story ? perhaps sankar could explain.

Nalla sinthanaigalai sei... manamae..

Karuthulla varigaludan inda blogspot thudanga vendum endra endan ennam inidae niraiveriyadhu. Ambikapathy(1937) thiraipadathil varum oru bhakthi padalin varigal ido ... thalaipukku valu oottum vagaiyil..

sinthanai sei manamae...
sinthanai sei manamae...
dinamae....
sinthanai sei manamae...
seidaal..
theevinai agandridumae...
sivagami maganae, shanmuganae..
sinthanai sei manamae...