An Absolute Beauty!

What do you call a game of chess that ends with the following board-position....?

...an absolute beauty!. The best short chess game ever.
http://www.worldchessacademy.com/Lasker-Thomas.htm

This really inspired me, enlightened me, awakened me... I don't know how!

PICK-POCKET

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and punishment, the protagonist proclaims that the "superior human beings", the "geniuses" can act outside the boundaries of moral life. And that whatever "crime" that they do ultimately leads to the upliftment/benefit of the society. The protagonist, Raskolnikov goes ahead and commits a crime, a twin murder, to feel true to himself and his ideology.

Robert Bresson's fantastic movie, "Pick Pocket" is said to be inspired by Dostoyevsky's novel. But here the protagonist Michel indulges in pick-pocketing rather than murder. Raskolnikov does one crime and then spends rest of his life(till he is caught) contemplating, suffering from what he did. Here Michel grows in confidence, learns new skills, and finds himself part of a brilliant team of skilled pick-pocketer's, who run amok among the streets and Metros of Paris. But soon their luck runs out.

The movie is one of the most beautiful that I came along among the ones screened by Collective Chaos. The guilt, the self-destructiveness, the inferiority complex which he tries to mask with his superior person theory, all are portrayed so beautifully. And like Crime and Punishment's Porfiry, there is a police inspector here too who suspects Michel, and uses psychological methods to make him confess, take his just punishment and get reformed. And like Sonia there is the beautiful Jeanne, who is fond of Michel, and the love and wanting for whom is Michel's final suffering and his redemption.

The skills of Michel an his friends are shot so beautifully. There is the scene in which they get into a train, keep picking passengers, exchanging the wallets between them, and finally replacing the empty purses to where they belonged. While returning home, in a crowded bus, I also got that tickling sensation, trembling of hands... I controlled!. It was that kind of a movie, a joy to watch. I should confess here that reading Crime and Punishment was hardly a joyous experience, it was full of tension. I got ill after I completed the novel... :)

Robert Breeson says,"My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected onto a screen, come to life again like flowers on water". Another must watch.

AR-GEN-TINA

I felt so tired after the Argentina match. So tired that I couldn't enjoy much of the Holland-Ivory game, eventhough it was a very lively one. Like you don't want to watch anything else after seeing a great movie. You just want to go home, lie down and relive what you have just seen... breathtaking, thrilling exhibition of the most beautiful game in the planet.
What is thrill?... thrill is when Esteban Cambiasso finds the top left corner after a string of two dozen precision perfect passes, thrill is when you see Lionel Messi on the touchline 170 minutes into a world-cup which is supposed to be his, thrill is when you see Diego Maradona shouting, screaming, waving in the stands.... also, thrill is when a red car comes out of the pit, put some scorching sectors and leave a hapless Kimi behind. But, is thrill when a Lara takes 200 balls for a century or a Dravid stands behind quietly waiting for a wicket to fall??... no way. Cricket will never be anywhere near Football, when it comes to the thrills,spills and ecstasy that one watches a game for.

Once upon a time there was a country...

... on the banks of Danube called Yugoslavia, a leader called Marshal Tito who showed the world how to remain non-aligned at the height of cold war, and a director called Emir Kusturica who gave us a wonderful movie called "Underground" - winner Palm D'Or, Cannes 95.

Collective Chaos promised to bring Cannes to Bangalore last weekend, showing five of the previous Cannes winners. For an annual subscription fee of just Rs 400 (they promise to screen atleast 100 movies a year), it can't come any cheaper than this. But with cranky seats atop Sona Towers (off Cunningham Road) and (although they promise to promptly throw out anybody found using a mobile inside the hall) with some female patrons hell-bent on "checking" time on their flashy mobiles every other minute, it wasn't such an enjoyable experience watching movies. I watched three out of the five shown. And while Kagemusha and Taste of Cherry were descent, it was Underground which really made my weekend.

Underground spans the entire life-span of Yugoslavia. Starting from the Nazi bombing of Belgrade, to the comrades fighting from underground, through the days of Tito and finally the break-up and bloodshed of 1990's. Story of two friends and their passion for one woman, story of a group of people who are put in a cellar underground to avoid Nazi bomb's, and who even 20 years after the war was over, were still made to believe that there was a war happening outside and the Germans were still in power, and weren't allowed to come out. Exhilarating comedy and satire, a brilliant sound track, passionate and sexually explicit at times... this is one gem of a movie you can't miss.

Just last week, the last remains of the erstwhile Yugoslavia decided to split again. After the worst blood-bath that Europe had seen since WW2, there are now seven different chunks, one for each ethnic group. And like the chunks from the erstwhile Soviet Union, they are all queuing up infront of the NATO HQ in Brussels. All that will remain will be memories of Tito and NAM and ofcourse, the movies of great men like Emir Kusturica.

JALEEEEEEL!

So many beautiful things happened in this election ...like Murali and "DICK" getting wiped out, opportunists like Pilla and Jacob being blown away, BJP's dreams remaining "unfulfilled".... but for the most beautiful moment of this entire election festival we should thank one man ... KT Jaleel.

Did anyone think our dear "puli" could lose in Kuttipuram? . Remember the posters at the height of the sex-scandal, "Jana manasukkalil ninnu ee "puliye" purathakkan oru shakthikkum kazhiyilla"... phew!. This is a double whammy for Kunjali, he has probably spent a considerable amount of the fortune he amassed in this election.

Jaleel made the impossible possible. He proved that no amount of money and power can alter people's desire. He has probably changed the election pattern of Malappuram forever. Victory... and that too with a margin of more than 8000 votes, in a constitueny which hasn't elected anyone other than a League candidate from its inception! un-thinkable...

League probably can only go down from here. They have only themselves to blame. Jaleel and Muneer was the future onto which it should have grown. Instead, they sacrificed Muneer, threw out Jaleel and provided CPM with a golden "ladder" into the Muslim heartland.

I guess, this is probably "the moment" that CPM was waiting all these years. A significant reason why CPM couldn't assert itself as much in Kerala as compared to Bengal is the lack of support it has among the religious minorities. In Bengal, minorities vote en-masse to left. But with the Jaleel -factor (and Raheem factor, and yes the PDP -factor too) this can change and the magic number of 50% vote share is not so far. Then we will have a very different coalition landscape in Kerala. The CPM then can, and will try to do away with all the "eerkil" parties (they tried to some extent this time too).

May be I am dreaming so far... the next time UDF and League will storm back to power like it happens every time here. But that doesn't take the shine out of Jaleel. Atleast for now, three cheers for a job well done!. Ivanaanu PuPuli!!.

MUNICH

Home Is Everything!.
If tomorrow someone comes up to you and tells you that the home you are living, where your parents lived and their parents lived, was (supposed to be )promised to him and his fellow followers some ten centuries ago. And that he has the support of the entire "international community". Will you just pack up and leave?. I won't. I will fight till my death, I'll kill if need be... because home is everything.

Finally Munich got released in Bangalore. I gave Mr. Balram the ditch, but since I couldn't ditch Schumi and the European GP, morning show was the only option. So early morning wake-up (on a sunday morning!), empty stomach, three long hours... if this was Aviator I would have happily slept through. But this was Spielberg not Scorcese, the master in keeping one's interest alive all through the movie.

It was debated whether this was a pro-Jewish or a pro-Palestinian movie. I found it being neither. Although the entire narration is through a set of Jewish eyes, Avner (Eric Bana) is not one of those radical Jews. He is more concerned about his wife, her imminent delivery and then the child, than the job at hand of eliminating the eleven Palestinians which the Mossad think were related to the Munich massacre. And again it is the Palestinian view which rings out more loudly when Ali says, "Home is everything" and that "My father didn't gas any Jews".

I won't divulge any further into the story. Eric Bana is superb as the confused and distressed Avner. After Hector of Troy another memorable tragic hero role. The movie has some awesome scenes. Like the shot were blood slowly spreads over milk spilled on the floor. And the flashback shots of Munich massacre through Avner's eyes. Those will rank among some of Spielberg's finest... remember the tank gun slowly going up aiming the tower in Saving Private Ryan, or Richard Attenborough being timed making "hinges" in a Nazi work-shop in Schindler's List.

There is no climax as such. It ends with the confused state that Avner finds himself in. From the hunter to the one being hunted. To find that, in places of all the seemingly liberal Palestinians he assassinated the more radical replacements taking charge. To some extent it is the same predicament as that of Israel. From having to deal with someone like Arafat and PLO, they now have to deal with a Hamas. Today's Hindu(May 8) had a news piece on the eviction of illegal Jewish settlers from Hebron. It says, "Hebron, a city holy to Jews and Muslims, is home to about 160,000 Palestinians and some 500 ultranationalist Jewish settlers who live in heavily fortified enclaves". How much security can save 500 from 160,000?. How far can a policy of confrontation and brutal assassinations take a country?.

RASATANTRAM

Vishaya dharidryam... even Sathyan Anthikkad is facing that. All through the movie I sat there confused, trying to make out what our dear Sathyan Anthikkad was trying to convey through this movie. And finally after three long hours I am still confused. Was it the plight of old parents, old age homes... but then you already had all this in Manasinakkare. Or was it the old cliched, money vs ideology, rich son vs poor son (who has the dad in his side)?? Other than that I can't think of any, what was it?. So many characters so many stories... aakepade oru aviyal paruvam.

And all through there was this un-mistakable smell of a Tanmatra. After all, if you look carefully there is a TANMATRA hiding in RASATANTRAM --> RAS-ATANTRAM --> SAR -(ithu)-TANMATRA (thanne)!! :). There is this scene of a son's devotion to his father, of Mohanlal giving an oil massage to Bharath Gopi. Haven't we seen the same with Nedumudi. Well, after his successful(?) achar and restaurant business is Lal venturing into Thailam business??. Definitely a conscious attempt to gain mileage from Tanmatra's success. Making Lal give all those lofty statements about anything and everything around, from taking a dig at Malayali's penchant for building posh mansions, to Newton's first law... although he does it remarkably well, Laline oru upadeshi aakan aano bhavam?. Mohalalinte oru gathikedu nokkane... once a character clicks, an umpteen number of clones will be made, till each and every one is totaly fed up and disgusted. I am not saying Rasatantram will click, but another one like this... it is done. Why can't our poor Lal get the kind of characters that Big B is so easily getting in Bollywood, a khakee, a sarkar... Mammukka is so lucky in this regard.

Coming back to the movie, there are these umpteen number of characters. Aarkku vendi enthinu vendi??. Some totally useless. Why do you have to waste a Jagathi , a Mukesh and even a TG Ravi (only in two frames!), for completely useless and un-important characters? Sad to say for the first time ever I got irritated with a Jagathi character!. Again sad to say, with due respect, Innocentinteyum Mammukoyayudeyum phalitham onnum pande pole phalikkunilla !!

Given all these, Rasathantram is still a very much watchable movie. Lal does well (the comic timing is slowly coming back?), so too is Bharath Gopi, there is a nice "rasathantram" between them. Meera is as beautiful and as refreshing as always. There are some very nice songs. And Thodupuzha and surroundings make a beautiful background for the story. But Sathyan Anthikkad and Mohanlal after so many years- expected a lot and got very little in return- so disappointing.