Movie Review : some adult comedy

The other day, I was travelling by bus from Hyderabad to Mangaluru. To my utter surprise, they played an adult comedy movie during the journey. I wasn't sure whether they were allowed to show movie with 'A'(Adults only) certificate in public places. I would think it should be restricted because of its sexist and patriarchal nature (penis pride). But I don't think I've good examples to distinguish between a sex comedy and a sexist comedy.

Many of the scenes in the movie appeared to have lifted from similar sexist comedies from Hollywood.  But there were few differences between those Hollywood films and this Hindi film.

- No subtlety. This is really an embarrassing feature about  most of the Hindi movies. Those vulgar dialogues were cringe worthy.

- When there was supposedly a slapstick humour, we had to endure a running commentary of the proceedings (common feature I guess. On TV, a children's animated comedy, Oggy and the Cockroaches, comes with over the top dialogues in India instead of original visual comedy). That visual comedy was clearly lifted from a Hollywood movie but creativity was spent on increasing the absurdity levels and quantity.

- Repeated double entendre. It was quite exasperating to watch them trying to milk a word with double meaning, that too borrowed from English, so many times .

Am I repeating the common grouse or snobbishly expecting class in sex comedies?

Russians are coming

The daily readership of this blog is 0-5. However, some days I find 20-30 visits from Russia. It makes me little nervous.

Balancing Act

It's little unusual for him to watch a classical dance performance. He had watched few performances before as they were part of wider programs. However, watching an exclusive performance was a rarity and it was one of those days.

What is dance? He defined it for himself. A synchronized movement of body parts that gives either meaningful or meaningless postures in series with a visually pleasing equilibrium while maintaining the body balance.

The show started with men dancing. In fact two grown men and few young boys. Their attire was a throwback to the classical times when men covered only their loins. Certainly the dancers didn't give much confidence that the classical dance was a good exercise. He liked the way they flexed their ankles and made quicksteps. But apart from that he was all at sea about the context. That was the first and last dance show with all men. Women dominated the shows afterwards. It felt as if since the Kuchipudi was standardized and performed by men initially, they were given the first chance as a token of acknowledgment.

The next show was a witness of the times. With so many atrocities against women becoming commonplace, classical dance couldn't remain immune to it. So this show was a compendium of atrocities against women in myth and in reality. It had the abduction of Seetha, disrobing of Droupadi, abusive husband and female infanticide. He somehow felt, classical dance with their careful steps might not be a good medium to express deep sadness or exuberant happiness. Over the top background music also didn't help the cause much.

Then all of a sudden atmosphere changed. There was a swarm of young girls trying to balance themselves standing on an inverted copper vessel, with a smaller vessel on the head and lamps on the palms. The whole point appeared to be just balancing and nothing else. He felt his job was to watch who stood in that position for the shortest time and who the longest, who dropped what and how many different ways they lost their balance. His definition of dance appeared to have no meaning in this particular context as only the last part was true even though not for long with many girls. He felt, acrobatics had no meaning in a classical dance context. It was a completely different genre. He remembered the bottle dance from Fiddler on the Roof with their aesthetically pleasing movements and balancing acts. Maybe they should remove it completely as it had no meaning in the overall context, he thought.

The next act was a Yakshagana. He was all excited. There was something he could identify with. But his spirits were sunk when that turned out to be a dance drama or as they would call it 'classical' Yakshagana without any dialogues in difference to his 'semi-classical' Yakshagana with higher emphasis on dialogues. He remembered late Shivarama Karanta trying to turn semi-classical Yakshagana into classical one by removing the dialogues. He was happy that that experiment was a failure. 

Two OBCs

Non descriptive was the day they met
Those two Malayalis who knew the
Long journey of their ancestors
Born to lower castes though
Skimmed away they remembered
The pain
Ashamed at their castemen's
Delusion to win a  game of
Self-styled winners
Their historical knowledge and
Analysis of the system
Converged and matched
Was there a dream of charting a
New path with these two buddies?
To break the system one has to marry
Outside but the upper or lower
That's the tricky part
I know about that and
Found no answer to that
Conundrum
I would marry a girl of my caste
There doesn't exist dilemma
of any sort
Listen to your instincts
Gives you an unadulterated
Choice
But we carry so many prejudices
That can overwhelm the instincts
The prejudices need not be caste specific
I like girls with hair bob cut
You like newsreader type of girls
All stiff and expressionless
He detected a grimace on his face
And disgust in the voice
Taken aback tried to give respect
To his choice
I liked the bob cut girl in the ad I forgot
Who when trapped in a lift
Danced to a tune in free spirit
Or that bob cut girl in that VIP ad
Who gavotted with a suitcase
Defending himself he knew
It was stupid
But there was no looking back
For the other had made up his
Mind
There was never going to be
Two buddies
Changing the course

Movie Review: pk

I was forced to watch this movie as I travelled to Mangaluru from Hyderabad by a video coach bus. It was a mix of watered down rationalism, stupid and tame dialogues, numerous cringe-worthy moments, woman only wants to marry a man sexism (maybe watered down for patriarchy), confused genre as it uncomfortably vacillated among comedy, fantasy and drama. Clueless acting by all making it painful to watch at times(most notably by Boman Irani but again mainly because the genre of the movie itself wasn't clear).

And it still managed to rile so many Hindutvites! 

Movie Review: I Am Love (Italian: Io sono l'amore)

All I could get from this modern day retelling of Madame Bovary is way to a woman's heart is through her stomach.

Overriding stereotypes

I keep listening to these stereotypes that Indians are cheap. They bargain for everything. They are nosy. etc... But I believe such stereotypes kill regional stereotypes. For example, my native place, Mangaluru(Mangalore), has exactly opposite stereotypes.

1. Mangalureans don't bargain
When I was young, I heard one of our neighbours complaining about their relatives who were staying with them. They went shopping and to this Mangalurean's utter mortification, started bargaining with the shop keeper. And the humiliation was complete when the shop keeper -who guessed their region based on their accent- contemptuously said, "This isn't Bengaluru. Nobody bargains here in Mangaluru".

2. Mangalureans always go dutch
I visited the home town after spending few years in Mysore for my studies. I met some of my friends there and we went to a restaurant. I took the bill. One of my friends immediately admonished me, "Is that Mysore style? We always split the bill here. There is no sponsoring business".

3. Mangalureans have stiff upper lip
I think this was said by a non-Managlorean Kannadiga and corroborated by a non-Mangalorean Tuluva. We supposedly don't mingle with others or make friends easily.

Tattoo

[I'm in general indifferent to tattoos so I wonder why I dreamt about them]

It was day time and I was in an open land. There were a tree and a concrete bench. The chair next to that gave the impression of an open air barber's shop. The tattoo artist asked me to sit in the chair. I don't remember what I was wearing. But I thought of tattooing the lower legs. They appeared shaven and lighter toned instead of the actual hairy dark legs. I don't remember seeing the artist or their tools. I suppose I was asked whether I would like to have something. I said I'd have a sandwich from Subway.

Then I woke up.

Tasting customer

[Hawker]: These oranges are good. Ten for fifty rupees. Please taste this. It's sweet and fresh.
[Peels off an orange and gives me a slice(?). It's bitter or sour or whatever but not at all sweet]
[Hawker]: Shall I pack you some?
[I]: Okay.