New Yorker

I am stunned at the revamp New Yorker has undergone. I don't know when they did it. But this is fantastic. You got to go there. Now. There's a Summer Fiction special issue waiting for you too!

(The cover in pic is obviously old).

Smoking and the superstar

I started smoking when I was 14. I quit today. Or rather, I will quit today. In other words, I am going to quit today. You see, as plainly as light is day, that I have problems believing this. That I am going to quit today.

A few days after I quit, Rajnikanth will be back on the screen. Hopefully, he will be puffing away as usual. I think millions of fans must have been really impressed with the way Rajnikanth smokes. It was then a sort of coincidence that I first got caught smoking at home after watching Annamalai at a theatre in my hometown. And, what was worse for me, was that I hadn't even smoked that day.

Even though I didn't quite learn to smoke the way Rajnikanth does, smoking and the superstar are forever connected in my mind. My grandmom made sure of that the day I got caught. I used to smoke back then, but because of the rush at the theatre I didn't quite get the time to buy cigarettes. But the guys who sat in the row in front of me kept smoking beedis and because I was clean I went home with a clear conscience. When I got caught I could not reveal I had gone to the movie, and that too a night show! So unable to say that I didn't smoke, but had only gone for a movie, I invented something I don't remember now. I lied. It was easy. But no one really believed me though for my sake they all pretended to.

That brings us to the superstar again. Back in 1987, Nayagan, which many consider to be the greatest film ever made in Tamil, was released. During that time a Kamal film was alway released simultaneously with a Rajnikanth starrer. My dad took my mother, brother and me to both the movies one day after the other, the first time I ever went to the movies two days in a row. Nayagan was the first one. I remember being somewhat dazed during the interval, when my brother, then only six, started making fun of the movie. We laughed through the rest of the movie and were shooed out for ice creams. My mother was a huge fan of the movie and the scene in which Naazer meets Kamal in the jail was the definitive moment in the movie for her. My brother and I though never quite understood until years later what that movie was about.

But in sharp contrast we both enjoyed Manithan. Towards the climax of the movie, which I recently saw again during a bus ride to Nagercoil, Rajnikanth starts to catch and throw bombs - made of nothing less than shining aluminium - back at the goons. For weeks afterwards all our games at home included bombing sessions where we threw pebbles at each other and laughed with gusto. Rajnikanth could thrill you that way. It would have been hard to get Kamal to throw bombs. He just was too morose and pretentious for it.

Obviously the connections between smoking and superstar is not just in my mind. It's there in yours too, albeit in a different sort of way. Will I watch Sivaji? You bet I will even though I don't expect I will like it. But I do like Rajnikanth and always will.

****
Here's a link to a Hindu story.

New York, New York

They are showing Martin Scorcese movies on Sony Pix this month. I saw New York, New York a few days back. I hate musicals, even the funny ones. But this is one of the few musicals I have liked apart from Moulin Rouge. Robert De Niro plays a jazz music composer running a band in which his wife played by Liza Minelli is the lead singer. He has a nasty temper and is, as one character puts it, "a top pain in the ass." But he has enormous talent. There isn't much of a plot or a story, but the screenplay is gripping. The song sequences are excellent and so is the acting, not just by De Niro who is great in every movie he does, but also by the other actors. Admittedly, De Niro's acting is a bit over the top at times. But I wasn't very irritated by that. I suggest you catch this movie on DVD.

Unnale Unnale

Unnale Unnale has all the trappings of a good movie. An attractive lead pair, good camera work, nice costumes and catchy songs. It also has that polished look that audiences increasingly seek.

Perhaps Tamil cinema is swinging between two polar opposites : the rustic, stark, vulgar at one end and the urbane, sophisticated and sleek at the other end. Paruthiveeran belonged to the former category. Every shot in the movie screamed out the words "We made a a rustic movie". There is such a term as Hollywood reality - this consists of attempts to make things more real than they actually are. To me Paruthiveeran was an attempt to show our own rural culture as exotic to us. It's bloody irritating. Not that the film lacked seriousness or genuine moments. It certainly had some great moments.

But Unnale Unnale belongs to the category of the sleek movie. Directors making such movies do not care about rural centres. 50 days in theatres like Satyam is about enough. Audiences want to come with their families in a secure environment, see the movie, and get the hell out. Any attempt to disturb them through "art" usually meets with failure. So directors like Jeeva when they get a cash cow like Oscar Films, milk it to feed their own reputation as sleek directors with finesse and sensitivity.

At the centre of Unnale Unnale lies a fundamental problem. There is no story per say. This wouldn't be such a fault in the hands of a great director. Except that after choosing to helm a project with no story, Jeeva relies on plot intricacies too much. Jeeva would have you believe that every man and every woman are the similar. They are gender stereotypes. Men flirt, laze and take life easy, while women doubt their men. Has Jeeva heard of bra burners?

Actors if they were Greek gods would not be able to save this movie. Vinay with his peculiar pauses and hand movements is nevertheless charming. So are the women, though neither of them have any scope to perform.

Harris Jayaraj has composed some great songs, but some of his background music is lifted. I thought I heard Jon Bon Jovi at one point.

I think movies like this, which seem benign, that do the worst damage when it comes to reinforcing gender stereotypes. It's the average patriarchal movie, which states its claims clearly at the outset, that is actually harmless.

The climax was different. When everyone thinks that Sada would get the guy, the director does a ulta. But is the gender conflict between the prime characters resolved? I think not.

Does candy floss entertainer mean hare-brained film?