Film Impressions

LIST: Asha Bhosle's Rarest Gems

Asha Bhosle has just entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the most single studio recordings. In a tribute to the versatile songstress, our guest contributor Rajiv Lele list 10 of her lesser-known gems. Each one an exquisite rendition by an artist of unmatched vocal prowess.

1) Naina hain pyase mere | Aavishkar (1973) | Kanu Roy | Kapil Kumar

An absolute stunner. The way Asha glides effortlessly through the intricacies of this song—coiling, twisting and uncoiling like smoke rings from a scented stick—has to be experienced. It just cannot be expressed in words. 

Naina Hain Pyase Mere | Aavishkar

ESSAY: Why Helen is my Idol

Our guest contributor, Canadian drag queen Muffy St Bernard writes about the Helen who’s her idol. The article originally appeared in Bombay Dost magazine.

I DON’T know who Helen is. I have only seen a few of her films. I've never read Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb. I don't follow gossip columns here in Canada or abroad. I couldn't see her documentary before this article was due, and even if I could have, I don't think I would have wanted to because I hate doing research. But I don't need any of that information to explain why Helen is one of my idols.

Muffy St Bernard appears courtesy of DMent. Outfit is by Lydia Bellenie of Delirium Clothing, based on the one worn by Helen during the "Baithe hain kya" number in Navketan’s Jewel Thief (1967). Hair by Melissa Baumunk  of Brown Salon  (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada). Photography by Jenn Wilson

ESSAY: The Korean Quest for Revenge

THE TRADITIONS BEHIND TWO FILMS

Joyojeet Pal on East Asian Cinema in the 2000s

Two of the biggest Korean blockbusters in the past year were Man from Nowhere and I Saw the Devil. Man from Nowhere is somewhat of an Asian version of Leon the Professional, about a brooding introverted pawnbroker who takes an unexpectedly violent turn when his schoolgirl neigbour and her heroin-addicted mother are kidnapped by a drug-running gang. The story is standard, the execution unerringly vicious, replete with up-close stabbings, eye-gougings, and dismemberment.

I Saw the Devil is about a police detective obsessively chasing after the man who killed his fiancée. There is no suspense in who committed the act, nor any serious plot development around the detective’s search for the culprit. Instead, within the first 30 minutes, the film turns into a relentless cat-and-mouse game, in which the rest of the plot is mainly driven by next element of savagery to be committed on one or the other character.

Posters for the two films...

ESSAY: The Paradox of K Balachander

MELODRAMA FOR THE CLASSES

Joyojeet Pal writes on the legacy of Dada Saheb Phalke awardee, K Balachander.

The opening sequence of the 1970 film Ethiroli remains an apt introduction into K. Balachander as a filmmaker. The title cards appear with no sound other than the crackling of moving film, against the black and white backdrop of a courtroom. There is a Noir-ish expectant tension as the camera pans to lawyer Sivaji Ganesan, readying himself to cross examine a witness. The camera focuses on Sivaji for several seconds as he stares down the witness. The exchange between the two of them is wordless with the focus being the intensity of Sivaji’s histrionic gaze as he taps his spectacles against his face. The camera switches back and forth between Sivaji and the increasingly nervous witness. Without a word spoken, with the witness caves and confesses. “That is all your honour", finishes Sivaji.

ESSAY: Enthiran

GOD OF ALL THINGS

By Joyojeet Pal

During the release of Sivaji in 2007, I dutifully showed up for the first day first show outside San Francisco. The tickets for the first show had been sold out within ten minutes of the day they were open for purchase. I gratefully made an underhand deal with the theatre owner for a folding chair in to be placed in front of the first row of seats for $20. At the theatre, I realized I wasn’t the only joker willing to do this, there was a long line flush with Veshtis and already screaming fans, on one side of the box office waiting for their portable chairs. Worse, I signed up my fiancée, who spoke no word of Tamil, and was clearly disconcerted by the ominous signs of what seemed likely to follow. Further, the film was late, with all of us waiting in line. The wait gave me no sense of disgust or irritation at the prospect of my likely neck-craning experience, rather increased the excitement of anticipation. 

ESSAY: Women Who Have Jobs And Other Troublesome Pursuits (Part 3)

THE WOMAN WHO WANTS TO BE A MAN

by Joyojeet Pal

Read Part 1, Part 2

One look at the depiction of women driving car and two-wheeler drivers in Tamil cinema, and one needs little further evidence that a woman ought not to cross into a man’s domain. The office secretary is a traditionally gendered occupation and easy to depict sexually and trivialize. In fact, the secretary poses no serious threat to the supremacy of a man in the workplace, since, at least in office scenarios, the secretary reports to a man. An area of greater contestation is jobs where women replace men. Here, the focus is not only on the sexual complexity of a woman in the male domain of offices, but also on her neglect of her feminine duties through holding a job.

REVIEW: Dabangg

DA-BANG SPLIT MY PERSONALITY!

SANITY SAYS:

You've seen this before in Bachchan/Mithun/Vikram/Mahesh Babu/action movies, you've heard the music refrain in spaghetti westerns, you've seen the fight scenes in movies like The Transporter...

SalmanFanINSANITY SAYS:

Seee! It's Salman! Have you seen such style? Such attitude!

SANITY SAYS:

The plot is wafer thin. Story is not new.

SalmanfanINSANITY SAYS:

(Seetis!) Look he just put the RayBans behind his shirt collar! Look He's dancing! Doesn't he have the sexiest walk? Doesn't he have the sexiest upper thighs? Only Salman can do this! What if he looked at you like that? What if someone wooed you like that? (Melt! Melt! Melt now!)

ESSAY: Women Who Have Jobs And Other Troublesome Pursuits (Part 2)

VAMPITUDE

by Joyojeet Pal

Read Part 1

Vampitude here is defined as the desire of a woman to undermine the rectitude of a man, usually with her sexuality as her primary weapon. The mythological nymph Menaka who helped trip over the sage Vishwamitra with her wiles is our exemplar. The classic though unwitting vamp of Tamil literature is Madhavi, the dancer who Kovalan, the husband of the virtuous Kannagi moves in with in Silappatikaram. In the epic, the dancer is herself an intellectual, and a deeply complex character who eventually gives up her life for monkhood, though RS Mani’s popular pre-independence screen adaptation (Kannagi, 1942) of Madhavi was that of a seductress, and the bête noire of Kannagi, the iconic heroine in waiting. In short, Madhavi is the starting point Kodambakkam vampitude.

ESSAY: Women Who Have Jobs And Other Troublesome Pursuits (Part 1)

By Joyojeet Pal

In 1973, K Balachander made Arangetram. In the film, the eldest daughter of a rural orthodox Brahmin family moves to the city to get a job. She is forced by circumstances to earn a living as a prostitute, but works her family out of poverty. In 2000, Rajiv Menon made Kandukondain Kandukondain. A rural Brahmin family is likewise impoverished, and the eldest daughter must negotiate life in a city to earn a living. She gets a job as a software engineer, and works her family out of poverty. 

REVIEW: We Are Family

KABHI KAJOL KABHI KAREENA

Karan Johar bought the rights to Stepmom so he wouldn't have to say, 'Eh, mujhe cheater mat kaho, okay?'

Kajol is good, in spite of the suddenlystrickenwithcancer type situations she's made to act out (which means, hero/heroine look and act normal until doctor says, 'You have cancer', then suddenly, dark circles appear, they start coughing blood, tiredness happens, fainting adds to drama. Ugh!). But it was Kareena who managed to bring a lump in the throat (when she tells Kajol at the hospital, 'You shouldn't be dying, dammit!'; when the grown up daughter tells Kareena that she misses her mom at her wedding; when Kareena takes pictures of the family). This side of Bebo is wow!

My biggest fear was Kajol materialising at Aalia's wedding waving her hand a la Tina and giving that thumbs up sign before vanishing.