Monday, April 13, 2009

My Musings

My Musings

But wat?????
Its true that I agreed to pen down something for this month’s Walgreens newsletter, but when the noose started to tighten , I was all at seas.
I mean I am supposed to write about the most boring movie I watched or best book I have read or something along that line. To be frank, I don’t want to relive those moments of watching a terrible movie nor do I want to strangle people with the reviews of some crazy book I read.
So there pops the inevitable question, then wat???

These thoughts were buzzing my grey cells as we gathered at Mother’s kitchen for our daily evening tea .(Don’t worry folks, it’s just a reastaurant inside the tehnopark campus and not really my mother’s kitchen. “J)
So as usual me being a non stop, nonchalant irritable tattler I was yakking on what to write ,when my tea buddy casually remarked.
“Why don’t you write about your favourite movie?”
Aaaha bells rang, ideas clicked and there I was with a hot steaming tea cup visualizing the scenes of my favourite movie, aka the movie I have watched the most number of times .
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what u will get…”
“Stupid is what stupid does” (This is actually a stupid quote, but somehow I seem to like it . J)
“I am ……………”


“I think Shaw shank is a much better movie. You should write about it rather waste time on ….”
My trance was broken by that statement from my Body builder friend.
“What???? Shawshank better than ….aaaghhhh ”
Anyways, you folks know how conversation on such topics ends, right? So as to avert the consequence of a prolonged debate on such an issue, I decided to put forward the question to the most sensible guy in our group.
“Editor, you have the prints of ‘Shaw shank and Forrest before you but can select only one .Which one would you prefer?”
My confidence, my beliefs were all shattered in that particular moment when he replied “Shawshank any time”

Actually I am not against Shaw shank by any means. In fact I consider it as one amongst the 10 best ‘Hollywood ’ movies ever made and am of the opinion that it would have bagged the best picture and the best actor Oscars if the year was not ‘1994’.
Oh before I forget, I have said the same stuff about Pulp fiction also to some guys. By the way I like pulp fiction more than Shawshank. What a raw movie!!!!!

Okay coming back to the point, the year 1994 was all to blame. The ‘best of OSCARS’ year brought together three of the best Hollywood movies ever made , the gentle and inspiring Forrest Gump, the inventive and the brilliant Pulp Fiction, the simple and smart Shawshank Redemption into the limelight .
Each were a masterpiece on its accord and were well augmented by superb acting ,great screen plays ,innovative cinematography, amazing visuals and moreover masterful direction. In the end, red carpet was all Rober Zemerick’s, his Forrest Gump bagged six Oscars including best picture, actor, director and visuals. Shawshank and pulp were sidelined with just one Oscar for the ‘Tarantino’ thriller (best original screen play) and Shawshank returned empty handed. It sure created uproar as Pulp Fiction was considered as a big competitor for the Oscars and just one Oscar was like a disgrace for the trend setter of future action thrillers.



I started jotting all these down with the intention of coming up with ‘My take’ on my favourite movie “Forrest Gump”. But now on second thoughts I think I should not dare to do that . You would be well treated by a good movie review site rather than my incoherent ways of reviewing a movie and I definitely don’t want nyone to hate the movie because I favorably reviewed (read killed) it. J
So instead I would just put forward an outstanding scene/dialogue/qoute from each movie.

Forrest GUMP : the running scene
Scenario: Forrest is running across America and people start following him thinking he was running for a greater cause. The reporters swarm around him and push possible reasons down his throat.
: “Are you doing it for world peace?” “Are you doing it to fight hunger?” “Are you doing it for animals?”
Forrest’s response is at once the most simple one. “I just feel like running.”


Shawshank redemption . Morgan Freeman’s dialogue towards the fag end of the movie.
“I find I am so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain... I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope…...”


Pulp Fiction quote :Samuel L Jackson at his best

“If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions.”


………………….
If you have not watched any of these three cult movies…My sincere request to you folks would be
.Run to the nearest shop.
Get the Cassetes/CDs/DVDs of these movies or download from ‘U know where’ and watch it . Please don’t miss some of the best movies of our generation.
Run, Forrest, Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

ChayaMukhi


ChayaMukhi – An ode to Prasanth Narayanan


Nobody watches dramas any more these days .Most people consider it as monotonous ,slow ,no gimmicks ,no innovation old stuff and hence in the process miss out some of the most beautiful works ever produced in any medium.
Chayamukhi is one such a gem. Written and directed by Prasanth Narayanan ,a versatile artist with an ever probing intellect ,a talented writer and a crazy director,Chayamukhi takes the viewer to the realms and thoughts never traversed before. I am a big admirer of this great artist and its not just because he was my neighbor or because he was my Guru who taught me the basics of drama but because of the sheer brilliance of his literary skill.


The play is a fusion of the Mahabharata and the present world and the entire story is told and viewed through the eyes of three petty thieves who venture into the forest and witness certain events depicted in Mahabharata.


The story starts with Hidumbi seeing the second Pandava prince Bheeman in te forest and falling in love with him .After some intimate days with Bheeman whom she loves no ends ,presents him with a mirror. ChayaMukhi, the magic mirror which shows the person you love the most when u looks at it. It was Hidumbi’s prized possession and all she could see in it was Bheemans face. Expecting to see hers on it when bheemasenan looks at it, she hands him over the mirror as a gift. But to her dismay, it was Panchali’s face that filled the mirror when Bheeman gazed at it and she resigns to the fate that Bheeman never loved her as much as Panchali.
On returning to the Pandavas, Bhemaan hands over ChayaMukhi to panchali for safekeeping and asks her never to look at it. As days passed, Bheeman became more and more curious to know whether his face would appear if panchali looks at it .So one day he asks panchali to have a look at Chayamukhi and glistened the beautiful picture of the warrior prince Arjun. It shook him no bounds to learn that even while being with him, its Arjun whom Panchali always love and never him.
As with the vanavsam, Pandavas always move him from one place to another and finally they come up in the VIrad kingdom. There Draupathi disguises herself and becomes the first mad to the queen of the Virad .One fine day, the queen sees Draupadi gazing at Chayamukhi. Intrigued by the mirror, she gets the mirror from Draupadi and looks at it. Instead of seeing the wrinkled, old and tired face of the king of Virad in the mirror, there appears the picture of a young man in the army.


Time went by and entered Keechakan .He got fascinated with draupathi the moment he set eyes on her and decided to make her his wife. One day draupadi shows the mirror to keechakan and he sees a blank image on it .Confused, he realizes that he ahs never loved anybody In his life even though he have had many affairs. He realizes the biggest loss in life and changes instantly, he started loving draupadi with all his heart. As his love for draupadi grew ,she got afraid and tells bheemasensan about keechahan and they decided to kill him .Under some false pretext,Draupadi invites keehakan to her room where Bheeman was hiding. Severe fight ensues and meanwhile keechakan gets hold of the mirror and looks at it while getting beaten by Bheeman . The mirror displays the face of Panchali and bheeman gets stunned seeing it . He realizes that there is no difference between him and keechakan . They both are in love with Panchali and are ready to die for her while she is in love with some else . It seems to him that there fight is meaningless because whoever wins or whatever happens ,panchali is never going to love any of them . Nevertheless Bheeman somehow manages to kill Keechakan and finally crying throws the mirror to the ground,

Chayamukhi shatters ……….