Keep it simple silly!

People are celebrating the Ulaga Nayagan's birthday in their own ways. So I thought to myself, "Why not watch one of his best works again?" On any other day, I would have preferred either "Michael Madana Kamarajan" or his other equally hilarious "Pammal K Sambandam". But having sat through several classes of psychoanalysis, I decided on "Anbe Sivam" instead. It's been thirteen years since it released, and I remember watching it several times during the summer of that year as a child. As someone who merely watched movies for entertainment and couldn't understand subtleties or notions of communism, even if it was blatantly obvious. So this time around, I paid attention to all of it. The street play song, the direct and indirect references to the bourgeoisie, the suffering of the proletariats, the painting and the domination of the color red throughout the movie. It's no coincidence that Madhavan is an ad film maker in the movie (...

I see people in the malls taking a million selfies. Pictures of food items get taken till the person wielding the phone is satisfied with them, even if that means letting the food go cold. "Eating", "sleeping" and even "feeling happy" are no longer emotions felt intrinsically but ones that are advertised to the whole digital world through social media. Gone are the days when relatives/friends would wait for postcards from loved ones living abroad, WhatsApp is so much faster even if it means letting go of that personal touch which pings can never give. Skype calls or hangout calls can never be the same as sharing physical space with a person, even if it means merely sharing comfortable silences in the other's presence. Traveling has merely become an excuse to bombard one's followers with photos of the trip instead of penning down their thoughts or maintaining a travelogue. When I look around and notice all this, I feel bad for my generation. W...

I don't remember the last time I walked out of a theater zoned out. I don't remember the last time I was at a loss for words. I don't remember ever thinking of S J Surya as a good actor, let alone a great one. I don't remember the last time I had difficulty terming a movie as a good one merely because it was too hard-hitting for me to say so. The guy who gave us "Pizza" and "Jigarthanda" is back, this time with a tale of three men and how their decisions (mostly bad ones) affect the women in their lives. The plot starts off with Arul (SJ Surya) drowning his sorrows in alcohol because his movie is shelved by a sadistic producer. His wife (Kamalinee Mukherjee) keeps giving him more chances than he deserves, hoping he will get over his alcohol addiction once things settle down. Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) is a typical loyal-to-the-boss sort of person who does just about anything to help Arul and his younger brother (Bobby Simha). But this sense of...

Utter chaos. I turned around, sighing and was shocked to see Lokeswari’s head bleeding. I found out that two of the boys were fighting and this poor girl was caught between and hurt, as a result. I probably couldn’t have survived that day without a co-fellow who was kind enough to accompany us to the hospital where I held the girl’s hand while she was getting stitches on her head. It had been just a few months since I started teaching at this school and those 4th grade kids were not becoming any easier to handle. Monsters they all were. Impish, cute, innocent, troubled monsters. I remember how, while growing up, I used to feel bad for the kids who went to Government schools because they didn’t enjoy the luxuries I did at that stage. If only I knew that such luxuries were the least of their concerns! Looking back at all my times in the classroom, I can’t help but smile. Those seven months taught me so much. Not just about kids, but even about myself. From being someone...

Media. From our crawling, shrieking days to our now cynical and mostly-busy days, we have been exposed to different forms of it all our lives. Books, sitcoms and movies are an integral part of just about everyone's life. Have you ever stopped to think about how most of the stories in all these are portrayed? How many times have we heard the phrase "happy ending"? Almost every other book or movie you come across will have this happy ending. The hero and the heroine get together, family feuds are resolved, the protagonist kills the antagonist and peace prevails. That about sums up most books or movies. Their endings at least.  Why is it that humans are attracted to such "happy endings"? Once you reach your mid-20s at least, you realize that such perfect endings are a farce for most part at least.  Maybe it is because most humans are delusional. We crave utopia in our ways and since we are unable to find it in reality, we crave it elsewhere - in ...

I looked at my friend chatting with me A fake smile on my face in that wee hour. My mind was elsewhere, Eyes filled with unshed tears. 'Why me?', I wondered God's direction of thoughts left me bewildered. A chauffeur waiting for me outside, A palatial house to go to. And yet, my heart was empty as a hole. Two days. They changed my life for the worse. He said he had other commitments Success, was the only thing he was after. Stunned, I looked at him silently, Had insanity struck me?  Four years of hearing his silken voice, Laughing away my fears with him, Crying into his shoulder And walking silently beside him. He gave me reassurances, Believed in me when I myself didn't. Words of encouragement, Used to fill me with courage. A smile from him Was all it took to brighten my day. Times when he was away Filled me with longing Which all vanished At one sight of him. I won't lie and say, Our love ...

Time and again, we keep complaining about how Indian cinema gives us no-brainer movies which are mindless. Sujoy Ghosh shuts us up with this 14-minute short film, once and for all. Ahalya , Sujoy’s mastermind, starts off with a policeman, Indra Sen (Tota Roy Chowdhary) entering Ahalya’s house (Radhika Apte) to question her husband Goutam Sadu, an artist (Soumitra Chatterjee) in connection with the disappearance of a young man. The plot takes a twist when a doll falls down from a side table in the hall as soon as Indra enters the house and Ahalya exclaims how strange it is that the dolls fall whenever someone new enters the house. What is spooky is the fact that the doll is precisely modeled on the man who is missing. From thereon, Sujoy takes you for a ride in this wonderful thriller where there are twists and turns every other minute, leaving you no time to even dissect or comprehend what is happening. The climax is quite shocking and involves some amount of thinking (at lea...

Fury filled my every core, A frustrated look my face wore. Life isn't always fair, And sometimes it hurts a lot to care. Silver linings can't always be found, And you end up getting wound. Is there even a tiny hope? In the dark for it I groped. Hope, which evaded me. The light, which didn't shine on me. In the end I realized that some days just aren't mine, And dwelling on it I just cannot whine. 

It was love at first sight The view in front of me was just so bright Oh! Such a beauty she was! Looking at her, I was so lost Swathed in white, she was nothing but grace To explain her beauty, I couldn't think of a phrase She was resplendent and ethereal, Just looking at her felt surreal letting her beauty engulf my every pore I was but a tiny speck Seemed like she gave me a peck In awe I was of the Creator! A million profound thoughts running through my head The Ocean sure was majestic And just looking at her made me feel ecstatic. 

Broken. Shattered. Incomplete. Some of the many adjectives people use to describe me. Why? What made me the way I am? Is it because of all the downs I've been through in life? Or a culmination of all the people who didn't treat me right over the ages? Perhaps it's for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps I'll never actually find out why. I am not alone, however. I see others just like me. Broken, imperfect. They had issues as well. Maybe not the same ones like me. But issues nonetheless.  I have lost count of the number of days I've spent in self-pity. "Why me?", a question whose answer evaded me. But not today. Today was not one of those days. I hardly have such days anymore. Because realization had recently hit me. An epiphany perhaps?  True, I was broken in my own way. But that's what helps me reflect so many colors when I am hit by just a single ray of light. I'm broken, yet strong. Incomplete, yet useful. Shattered, yet ...