I was glad to receive a mail from Prasad Naik of Thatskannada.com telling me that they've published the story I sent them.
Here's the link : Pandu
This is just a one-off story, never aspired to write stories. So, keep in mind when you throw bricks at me!
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Two Great Films
I think I take films seriously. Films have been a great teacher, and at times, in real life, relate many times to scenes(guess lot of us do).
I haven't watched a lot of English movies, even as I hear them being the best-in-class. Nevertheless, I have treasured some of them like Forest Gump, The Terminal, Cast Away, Sound of Music, Basic Instinct, Life is beautiful...there are a few more. I shall soon compile a list of my all-time favourite movies; seems like showing off, its okay.
A colleague of mine(He is from Kerala) recently asked me why kannadigas dont watch kannada movies. Though he got a suitable reply, the real answer to the question was just not limited to the movies, it pertained to the basic mentality of *we the people*.
Our Kannada film industry has seen a big spurt in activity recently mainly gathering steam from films like Jogi and Amrutadhaare. People flocked like anything to watch them. There was a time when somebody had not watched Jogi, people would stare at him/her in disbelief. Such was the craze! Personally it left me wanting for the lack of thought that was put in it. Yana Gupta dancing out of a cart was almost nonsense. Killing brutally with machchu again and again coupled with foolishness of Jogi does not put it in good stead.
Oops, I started with telling about two great films which almost went unnoticed amidst the above noise just like they did in the theatres.
1) Haseena : Directed by Girish Kasarvalli, which won Tara the National award for the best actress this year. But, I still hear some movie-watching-kannadiga-public reacting as if its unheard of. A story of a oppressed muslim woman and her kids fighting her way in a rigid society, told in a touching manner; it is a great experience everytime I watch it.
2) Beru( The root) :
Metaphor at its best! Its director P.Sheshadri shows that he is a genious in getting a message across with a simple example of the root of a big tree destroying its owner itself. Adding subtle comedy, it won the National Award for the best Regional film this year.
Atleast getting awards makes us watch them, who cares for the rest of them! I wont talk about much about their content nor the experience for two reasons. One, my vocabulary is not strong enough to convey such strong experiences and two, its always good to look forward to a movie without knowing much about it.
Films like these wont run on PVR,Inox, or any big-banner theatres for long. I guess some popular theatres try to save themselves from the wrath of KRV by screening them in the afternoons. Another commercial reason is that the theatres are not guaranteed profits by such movies, more often they should end up in losses. Its not their fault, they are a reflection of the society which is gasping in darkness(and even in theatres). The carriers of social messages is ignored by the society itself.
But still, a brave plaudable effort was done by ellaKAVI group in Benglur. Last month they organized a show in a Preview theatre screening Beru. With proper propaganda, originally planned for two shows, they were forced to do three shows on that day. There is one more such occasion soon, talk to me or ellaKAVI group before 13th Dec if you are really interested.
All of us might wonder why we blog : Is it due to play the me-too game? Is it to create a personal virtual world? Is it to show how smart we are? Is it because we are too shy to speak out(well, there's no audience by the way to listen to you)? Is it due to utter boredom? Can be many.
But the reason for this post is a willingness to share two wonderful experiences which I hope you too would explore.
I haven't watched a lot of English movies, even as I hear them being the best-in-class. Nevertheless, I have treasured some of them like Forest Gump, The Terminal, Cast Away, Sound of Music, Basic Instinct, Life is beautiful...there are a few more. I shall soon compile a list of my all-time favourite movies; seems like showing off, its okay.
A colleague of mine(He is from Kerala) recently asked me why kannadigas dont watch kannada movies. Though he got a suitable reply, the real answer to the question was just not limited to the movies, it pertained to the basic mentality of *we the people*.
Our Kannada film industry has seen a big spurt in activity recently mainly gathering steam from films like Jogi and Amrutadhaare. People flocked like anything to watch them. There was a time when somebody had not watched Jogi, people would stare at him/her in disbelief. Such was the craze! Personally it left me wanting for the lack of thought that was put in it. Yana Gupta dancing out of a cart was almost nonsense. Killing brutally with machchu again and again coupled with foolishness of Jogi does not put it in good stead.
Oops, I started with telling about two great films which almost went unnoticed amidst the above noise just like they did in the theatres.
1) Haseena : Directed by Girish Kasarvalli, which won Tara the National award for the best actress this year. But, I still hear some movie-watching-kannadiga-public reacting as if its unheard of. A story of a oppressed muslim woman and her kids fighting her way in a rigid society, told in a touching manner; it is a great experience everytime I watch it.
2) Beru( The root) :
Metaphor at its best! Its director P.Sheshadri shows that he is a genious in getting a message across with a simple example of the root of a big tree destroying its owner itself. Adding subtle comedy, it won the National Award for the best Regional film this year.
Atleast getting awards makes us watch them, who cares for the rest of them! I wont talk about much about their content nor the experience for two reasons. One, my vocabulary is not strong enough to convey such strong experiences and two, its always good to look forward to a movie without knowing much about it.
Films like these wont run on PVR,Inox, or any big-banner theatres for long. I guess some popular theatres try to save themselves from the wrath of KRV by screening them in the afternoons. Another commercial reason is that the theatres are not guaranteed profits by such movies, more often they should end up in losses. Its not their fault, they are a reflection of the society which is gasping in darkness(and even in theatres). The carriers of social messages is ignored by the society itself.
But still, a brave plaudable effort was done by ellaKAVI group in Benglur. Last month they organized a show in a Preview theatre screening Beru. With proper propaganda, originally planned for two shows, they were forced to do three shows on that day. There is one more such occasion soon, talk to me or ellaKAVI group before 13th Dec if you are really interested.
All of us might wonder why we blog : Is it due to play the me-too game? Is it to create a personal virtual world? Is it to show how smart we are? Is it because we are too shy to speak out(well, there's no audience by the way to listen to you)? Is it due to utter boredom? Can be many.
But the reason for this post is a willingness to share two wonderful experiences which I hope you too would explore.
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