Having been homebound for sometime now and with enough clutter in the TV channels,watching movies suddenly has became very appealing. But I have to confess that am no longer in the rampant watch-any-movie age where I could digest anything from a Saajan to a Hero No 1 but clearly not also yet there to enjoy a Satyajit Ray or Pedro Almodvar movie.Anyways its regional cinema that I am talking here.
All this movie watching started with me giving company to my mom and she restricts her staple of movies to only Tamil and Malayalam films. After a point of time comparison was just bound to follow...
Best things first - Malayalam films are quite a revelation. From being funny,melancholic, enchanting, tragic, uplifting to plainly being entertaining the range and depth of malayalam films has simply awed me. And am not even talking here of the well-known, superhit mad capers of Mohanlal or Mamooty that the outside world knows of. Let me confess I dont even understand the language completely.
Here are a few movies that caught my attention - "Gaja Kesari Yogum" has
Innocent starring as an ex-mahout who passionately dreams of owning an elephant one day. Taking a loan from a local bank he unwittingly buys a circus elephant that has been trained in Hindi. The rest of the film is about the troubles the entire family take in learning hindi, their hilarious trials in re-training their elephant and on being unable to repay the loan their efforts in retaining the pachyderm with them. Its one superb entertainer of a film with no big names to boast of.
There was this movie (I dont seem to recollect the name) that had Srinivasan as the lazy, good-for-nothing son of a village ayurvedic doctor played by Thilakan. When his younger brother (who is an MBBS doctor) is preferred over him in marriage to his cousin, by his own uncle he is utterly dejected. He revolts and runs away from home only to return as a fake Siddha swamiji who dupes & lures all his brothers clients by mixing allopathic medicines with few harmless herbs in the name of Ayurveda. Another complete laugh riot.
Then there was this fantastic movie - Perumthachan
based on folklore of kerala's legendary master carpenter. As already said I am no fan of "art movies" but this movie had me rivetted and I dont think it can also be classified under the category of art.
And despite not being any kind of movie expert I have to say that this movie is classic stuff. Should be on the must-watch list of every movie-goer.
[Pic courtesy: Cinema of Malayalam]
The list hardly stops here and I have not even made it to the commercially well
done films of reputed stars such as Jayaram, Dileep, Mukesh, Mohanlal etc.
Most of the Malayalam movies are made on a shoe string budget - No foreign
locales, no expensive or elaborate costumes (c'mon how much can a mundu/dhoti
cost?), simple sets but amazingly different & refreshing storylines. The dialogues are simple, funny with lots of pun and very enjoyable. And they best of all is the portrayal of their leading ladies. When they could manage to make Ramba also look beautiful and graceful, need I say more?
Sadly their audience is very niche and limited.
And then there is the bizzare world of Tamil movies.
I picked up the much hyped Madhavan movie Aarya on reading reviews that it was a
thorough entertainer. To say the least my stomach churned to think that there are
people who enjoy this nonsense in the name of cinema and even more worse post
reviews that goes like this -"When an irresistible Arya ignores deepika's angry
shrieks and refuses to salute her, she goes ballistic, destroys his bike, kidnaps
his sister and is out for his blood. Predictably, since Arya stays cool and pays
her back in a fitting manner, she falls for him, his valour, his manliness..."
"Madhavan is simply superb. As a suave student of Medical college, he even holds
his stethoscope and apron with panache!" ..Hehehe God save us!
This is no biased blah blah against Tamil movies nor is it the case of citing one bad egg. Actually Aarya even seems better when compared to others. While am not
denying that for every Nee Venunda Chellum, there are films such as Mozhi,
Paruthiveeran and Vettiyadu Villayadu. But they are more an exception than the
rule. 98% of Tamil movies are still run-of-the-mill love stories with the usual all-powerful hero, his comic sidekick, the virtuous heroine and hamming villians.
'Sivaji' sucked big time and to hear that it is being considered for the state award makes one snort 'n snigger.
I don't understand this at all. While there isn't much of a difference in the
demographics of Kerala and Tamilnadu why does the taste in movies differ so vastly?
All this movie watching started with me giving company to my mom and she restricts her staple of movies to only Tamil and Malayalam films. After a point of time comparison was just bound to follow...
Best things first - Malayalam films are quite a revelation. From being funny,melancholic, enchanting, tragic, uplifting to plainly being entertaining the range and depth of malayalam films has simply awed me. And am not even talking here of the well-known, superhit mad capers of Mohanlal or Mamooty that the outside world knows of. Let me confess I dont even understand the language completely.
Here are a few movies that caught my attention - "Gaja Kesari Yogum" has
Innocent starring as an ex-mahout who passionately dreams of owning an elephant one day. Taking a loan from a local bank he unwittingly buys a circus elephant that has been trained in Hindi. The rest of the film is about the troubles the entire family take in learning hindi, their hilarious trials in re-training their elephant and on being unable to repay the loan their efforts in retaining the pachyderm with them. Its one superb entertainer of a film with no big names to boast of.
There was this movie (I dont seem to recollect the name) that had Srinivasan as the lazy, good-for-nothing son of a village ayurvedic doctor played by Thilakan. When his younger brother (who is an MBBS doctor) is preferred over him in marriage to his cousin, by his own uncle he is utterly dejected. He revolts and runs away from home only to return as a fake Siddha swamiji who dupes & lures all his brothers clients by mixing allopathic medicines with few harmless herbs in the name of Ayurveda. Another complete laugh riot.
Then there was this fantastic movie - Perumthachan
based on folklore of kerala's legendary master carpenter. As already said I am no fan of "art movies" but this movie had me rivetted and I dont think it can also be classified under the category of art.
And despite not being any kind of movie expert I have to say that this movie is classic stuff. Should be on the must-watch list of every movie-goer.
[Pic courtesy: Cinema of Malayalam]
The list hardly stops here and I have not even made it to the commercially well
done films of reputed stars such as Jayaram, Dileep, Mukesh, Mohanlal etc.
Most of the Malayalam movies are made on a shoe string budget - No foreign
locales, no expensive or elaborate costumes (c'mon how much can a mundu/dhoti
cost?), simple sets but amazingly different & refreshing storylines. The dialogues are simple, funny with lots of pun and very enjoyable. And they best of all is the portrayal of their leading ladies. When they could manage to make Ramba also look beautiful and graceful, need I say more?
Sadly their audience is very niche and limited.
And then there is the bizzare world of Tamil movies.
I picked up the much hyped Madhavan movie Aarya on reading reviews that it was a
thorough entertainer. To say the least my stomach churned to think that there are
people who enjoy this nonsense in the name of cinema and even more worse post
reviews that goes like this -"When an irresistible Arya ignores deepika's angry
shrieks and refuses to salute her, she goes ballistic, destroys his bike, kidnaps
his sister and is out for his blood. Predictably, since Arya stays cool and pays
her back in a fitting manner, she falls for him, his valour, his manliness..."
"Madhavan is simply superb. As a suave student of Medical college, he even holds
his stethoscope and apron with panache!" ..Hehehe God save us!
This is no biased blah blah against Tamil movies nor is it the case of citing one bad egg. Actually Aarya even seems better when compared to others. While am not
denying that for every Nee Venunda Chellum, there are films such as Mozhi,
Paruthiveeran and Vettiyadu Villayadu. But they are more an exception than the
rule. 98% of Tamil movies are still run-of-the-mill love stories with the usual all-powerful hero, his comic sidekick, the virtuous heroine and hamming villians.
'Sivaji' sucked big time and to hear that it is being considered for the state award makes one snort 'n snigger.
I don't understand this at all. While there isn't much of a difference in the
demographics of Kerala and Tamilnadu why does the taste in movies differ so vastly?