Cinema, Karam, Kapi

After donning roles of a Petty Thief, a Police cop, a Teacher, a Radio Jockey and a happy go lucky homemaker, Jyothika Surya stars as a Lawyer in her most recent outing Ponmagal Vandhal and also has a brief dual role of sorts. Directed by debutant JJ Fredrick and produced by Surya’s 2D Entertainment (as he always does for his beloved), PV is essentially not a Court Drama as one would see in the film’s trailer.   Kamal Hassan’s Mahanadhi was a critically acclaimed film in 1994 when it released which was about child sex-abuse, a topic that was not so popularly discussed in public domain then. But due to 100s of cases which have occurred in India over the years and now that this has become a Living room banter across SEC households, the topic gets mainstream visibility and the Crew have chosen a much appreciable subject that could win hearts.  PV is an emotional drama about Child Rape cases and the ordeals one goes through growing up as a victim. The protagonist arg...

Two weeks back, we were watching Dharma Durai at home feat.  Superstar Rajinikanth on Raj Tv, a regional Satellite Tv channel that has remained in ”existence” for over 2 decades as a GEC. No matter which channel has innovated or grown, this one remains loyal to its user base telecasting movies of yore from the 70s, 80s and sparingly from the 90s. When Thalaivar appears in the first scene (in a negative film mode, a novel attempt by Director Rajashekar those days and repeated later by Director Suresh Krishna in Baasha!) and fights off the rowdies, I was howling, clapping and all excited in front of the TV screen much to the surprise of my kids – perhaps with almost the same enthusiasm I had when I watched First Day First Show at National Theatre, Tambaram ( a suburb of Chennai) on 14 Jan. 1991.  I was, with all glee sharing the events of that day with my  family when I witnessed lathi charge for the first time as Police was regulating the frenzied “rasigans” outside ...

The distance from Koramangala to RT Nagar in Bangalore is around 14 Kms over 25 mins at that time of the day, rather night. But the bike ride felt eternal. My skin under the full sleeves’ shirt was shivering like never before. My closest experience to something similar was during the early 1980s when I watched “My Dear Kuttichathan” at Devi Theatre in Chennai. Be it a graphically shot snake coming out of a chandelier or the evil-filled Raja Vettaiyan walking with his sticks screaming “Laka Laka Laka” or the Rajapalayam Dogs barking fiercely and of course the extraordinary eye movements of the ecstatic Chandramukhi showing off her jewels, the entire movie was a bit on the edge when I watched it for the first time on this day, 15 years back. I feel the same every time I watch this film till now – around 50+ times during the past 180 months. The scary ride was because I was returning back from PVR at Forum Mall after watching First Day Night Show and Bangalore’s lonely roads were infamous...