Interstellar - A letter to my future self

To my future self,

How’re you feeling now, my little ghost? On 8^th Nov 2014, you’d watched Interstellar, the latest baby of Nolan brothers. It’s one of the memorable day in your life. You can very well ask,

‘Did you understand each and every aspect of the film?’ No.

‘Do you give a righteous fuck and have the IQ to dissect and explain the scientific accuracy in the film?’ No, you idiot, you flunked in the high school physics test that involved escape velocity and Kip Thorne’s theories, you remember.

Since its first trailer release, you’ve waited a year for this day and went through random wiki pages and blogs on time dilation, light years, wormhole, singularity, theory of relativity, five dimensional space, black hole, quantum physics and even attempted reading Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’ etc... And ended up confused like the time when you failed to understand Binary to Hexadecimal conversion in 7^th grade computer class or when your 9^th grade math teacher, that arrogant bastard, explained cos^2 θ + sin^2 θ = 1. You felt that there is no point in even trying to understand all these concepts in one read. So, you went and watched/ re watched your favorite sci-fi and time travel films like films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Contact, Solaris, Gravity, Moon, Blade Runner, Sunshine, Inception, 12 Monkeys, Time crimes, Back to the future, Dark City, Another Earth etc...You even watched that 3 hour long ‘The Right stuff’ that Nolan had mentioned as one of his biggest inspiration for making this film. You did all this for no reason but for the profound love of films, especially the Nolan ones.  Remember how you were feeling so happy and proud while watching and grasping even the tiniest bit from Nolan’s earlier films.

During the movie’s release, you have thought about it quite often, even in your dreams. You heard it OST underwater, during your melancholic long swims. You geared up for the weekend with a few buddies, entered the theatre and found your favorite S.P.O.T. in the dark screen, yes, that same old middle row middle seat of yours. You’d always felt a movie experience so complete, while you sat there and watched a film without hearing any lewd comments, mobile flashes and the never ending cries of small babies. Those little rowdies, where do their parents get the faintest idea of bringing them to theatres? Morons.

The frame opened, there was a flash of light in your eyes. It prevailed and remained undisturbed for the entire runtime, except when it’s clouded with the occasional tears. The earth and dusty apocalypse scenes scared you. You felt that it’s not that far, while the images of Beijing Air pollution scenes flashed in your mind. There were even some scenes where people talk about their life and holocaust, like the interviews from the 8 hour epic Shoah, which you were procrastinating to watch it in a stretch, for ages, you lazy idiot.

The space scenes not just took your breath away but left you dumbfounded. Like the Alfonso Cuaron fellow from ‘Gravity’, our Nolan didn’t just showed the vast space from the top angle or aerial shots. Can I call it aerial shot when it’s shot altogether in space? What about Supreme aerial or aura shots? Something similar to the god-camera that Terrence Mallick uses? You see, Nolan could’ve very well blow you away by showing the vast space, all the time, but he rather treated his IMAX and the regular camera like a GoPro camera and captured the haunting emptiness with tight, intense, close-up shots. When the crew in film left earth and reaches space, looks at how lone the earth is and starts hearing the sounds of nature in space, you related it to how everyone wants to explore life outside their comfort zone, reach a point, feel lonely and try hard to remember and admire their own roots. How ironic, no?

People are drawing comparisons and conclusions to do their best at showing off their IQ and knowledge. They’re stereotyping the father-daughter relationship from Contact and the limbo, aging, locked up state from Inception and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even they are drawing references from Nolan’s earlier films on how the Spacecraft looked like a Batmobile, the spherical cooper station, like the ones from Inception universe. Well, Nolan has prepared himself and his audience all these years for this one film. Inception, The Prestige, Memento and other films of his now looks like a decade long foreplay for Interstellar. He has even said it in an interview on how close the film is to him. Most of them are giving loads of reasons to hate the film and they fail to harbor the beauty of it. The same approach to life and existence, no? We worry, suffer, complain and quarrel loads and miserably fail to understand life, its reality and that it’s a gigantic puzzle which we can never fit all of its parts cohesively at any given instance of time. You seriously felt bad when someone debated about this movie by consuming so little inside and try to learn/ know more to hate it better. Oh, you poor humans.  

You always tried and understood art in your own personal way, my ghost. To you, the perception and conclusion on an art or science or technology is an ever changing phenomenon, but the only advantage of art is, today, one will enjoy it in one view, tomorrow an another one altogether. You might love it or even hate it more in any given day, but still, it will definitely stay closer to you in a more personal way than the ever debated science, with its never ending accuracy or anomaly. Art can never be quantified or equated. Oh dear, to you, science is always like this ‘hot girlfriend’ material that always fights, quarrels and tries hard to fool itself and advance its presence, but art, on the other hand, is like a ‘wife material’, the  last oasis resort to your soul and well-being. This Nolan here has pushed his bounds and limits, did his best and converted his ‘GF material to wife material’. It’s such a beautiful marriage, you see. How could one not see this, but picture the 'art and science' marriage like Mal and Cobb’s marriage from Inception?  

Now you’ll go back and try reading all the blogs and dissection posts that will be up online by geeks, nerds and also assholes. Don’t worry, read it. Unlike many, you are not going to dislike this movie ever in your life. You need to understand more and love it loads. Each and every time, you are going to cherish watching it and think about how it moved you, shocked you, jolted your emotions, left you with a heavy heart and made you cry in many moments, especially the final 20 minutes. Holy!

Do you still feel lost, after finding and reading this? Don’t be. You’ve loads of moments engraved in your mind that you can think and feel lively all over again.  As a fellow Twitterati says ‘If you didn't enjoy Interstellar, the loss is entirely yours. We are lucky that way’. We truly are, my adorable ghost. I don’t know if there could be a next time, but until then, adios.

P.S. Don’t ever knock the window glass ever again. It scares the shit outta me, you dumbfuck.  

Anjaan - A passionate LGBT revenge saga that none understood

In these recent years, lot of genre breaking Tamil cinema has been released, right from Soodhu Kaavum to the most recent Jigarthanda. Young filmmakers are on a roll and mission to change the system which has been polluted, populated, pissed, puked, corrupted, drugged, seduced, BDSMd by assholes with money and cinema background. Young filmmakers, and the awareness that they’d created, are a potential threat to mainstream filmmakers and star actors who are making desperate attempts to make a brainless, commercial, money making film.

I watched Anjaan in a European city where very few Tamil films gets released. The last release was Irandam Ulagam. The tamil distributor at my place become almost homeless after releasing the movie it seems. After that disaster, he tried to release Anjaan but poor fellow, I guess, is homeless now.

Anjaan is a revelation in tamil cinema. No, in Indian cinema. No, in world cinema. I guess the audience didn't understood the story and plot line exactly. We don’t have an innovative, knowledgeable tamil crowd, you see. Let me break down the story for you.

Raju bhai and Chandru are a passionate, homosexual gangsta couple. They’d fallen in love after moving to Mumbai, even before turning as gangsters. They workout, go to male salon, do whole body waxing, pedicure, manicure, eye brow threading, lip job, nose job, blo… and everything together. Raju bhai is greatly feared by the entire city but loved passionately by Chandru. Raju bhai, Chandru and his gangster aren’t like the typical Mumbai gangsters or India or Pandora or Mars planet gangsters. They are cool, hi-fi dudes, successful modelling stars and Gold gym platinum card members who drive Range Rover, Mini cooper and use Apple Mac laptop, iPhone, do roof top barbecue, use GRE vocabulary and all in their regular conversation (clumsy crowd).

Raju bhai come across Jeeva, the heroine, who resists and avoids marriage as she is not sure about her own gender, sexuality and existence. This 10^th grade, bikini, barbie girl from Mean girls movie hits on our Raju bhai without realizing that he is gay. Raju bhai gets confused of his own sexual orientation, after the heroine’s encounter and approach towards him. He plans to turn straight or bisexual or whatever.

The villain, the CEO gangster of the city, dislikes the popularity and attention that these gay gangsters had got themselves. He despises them and uses a P word (Panni meaning pig, which is even worse than N word nigga) on Chandru. As his gay partner was cursed, Raju bhai kidnaps the villain and strips him in front of Chandru for a pole/ lap dance. Chandru gets deeply touched, not physically but emotionally, because of this act. There was almost a close, up tight sexual encounter and a steamy lip lock in a scene where Chandru gifts Raju, his boyfriend/ husband (or whatever role play they are into) a Mini Cooper. I told you know, they were hi-fi gangsters bitches! I guess the sex scene was censored or trimmed for U certificate. The villain gets irritated and kills both Chandru and Raju.

BANG BANG BANG!! Intermission. A Short break for taking the guy/ girl next to your movie seat to loo and BANG BANG BANG!!

Raju escapes the shootout and comes back to find the villain and the traitors of his gang who were responsible for the death of his Juliet, Chandru. Raju disguises himself as Krishna and claims himself as brother of Raju, with a clean shave, spectacles and a walk stick. This makeover is something similar to the twin or negative double in MGR movies where a character wears a small mole or lungi or mud/ black make up and performs the role of the hero’s twin. The changeover from Raju to Krishna is remarkable. Screw these make-up artists from Cloud Atlas, Hobbit and The curious case of Benjamin Button, I say. The make up man who had made a Photoshop make up to the kid version of Surya in Aadhavan might've done this film. 

Later, we were shown a flashback where the heroine finds the homo stuff between Chandru and Raju and asks them about it. She even tries for a threesome, but, as Raju bhai and Chandru gets intimate and avoids her in their conversation and sexual act, she leaves the scene with despair and broken heart. She even acknowledges Raju bhai's love for Chandru and blesses them to live happily ever after. As she couldn’t change Raju’s sexual orientation, she converts her religion and wears a Purdha. Please don’t ask me why.

Krishna finds the killers and traitors by roaming from Bar to club, pub, Whore house, Real estate office, Merriot hotel, Car parking etc.. He almost kills the villain by shooting at the holographic projection of villain., Remember the one made for Tupac and NaMo?. Yeah, Science bitch!! After missing the chance he finally kills the villain and settles with heroine. This is Anjaan’s real story.

I guess the director, editor, musician, actor, producer and everybody associated with the project were either high with weed and marijuana, the whole time, or simply wanted to make fun of the audience and society. No sane or conscious person can pull off a script (not sure if they’d one) or a movie like this. This is a benchmark in Indian cinema and a LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) awareness film that nobody has had the patience, guts, passion, ambition and knowledge to create and understand in our society. The makers must consider sending this to Cannes or Busan or Toronto or Tribeca film festival. They celebrate movies with homosexual context and it wins so many awards at lot of International film festivals. Sex sells in film festivals, man, and only that intellectual crowd can decode and dissect the inner meanings of films of these sorts.

The entire movie is so unreal. The story happens in a whole different universe. You’ll never come across any of these characters in any world. May be, there is a less possibility to find them in Irandam or Moondram ulagam. I was surprised to know that the marketing team of Chennai express movie is still promoting and advertising their movie, even after a year from its release. Pepsi, Apple, CAT boots, Rayban, Range Rover, BIG Cinemas were also sponsors of the film, it seems. The second half of the movie gives a big tribute/ ode to Hans Zimmer, Slumdog Millionaire OST Dreams on fire, 70s exploitation and Blaxploitation films, their music, Hologram etc.. I guess this is the spoof comedy movie Azhuguni Kumar directed by Karthik (Siddarrth) in Jigarthanda, starring Bobby Simha.

Rather than Anjaan, they should’ve titled this film rhyming something similar to Blue is the Warmest color or Strangers by the Lake, two great films about the topics on homosexuality and love, that I’d watched recently. How about renaming the title to Mumbai is the warmest city or G(h)ay by the Shore? Oh, poor me, English title means no tax exemption, right? But boobs, cleavage, booty, brothel, violence, bloodshed and vulgarity are allowed for U Certificate? Whatever man.

I wonder why no one yet had found out or made a claim that this violent, gay, gangster, revenge saga is copied from the 2012 South Korean film Ambalaingalin Gajagajavo by Jing-Jangke Jhuk. Drop me a message for torrent link of this Korean film, if you need. I am also looking forward a success party by the makers, titled "'Firstu girl from Pammal to wear bikini: SUCCESS MEET" (Courtesy: @WothaDei).

If you still haven’t seen Ahhhhhhhhhhnnnnjhhhaaaaannnnnn, go watch this masterpiece, a fine work of art from director marijuana funded by modern day corporate #$%#$^!$^!$^!$^%^&$#!@!#~#.

P.S. The next time, if you enter a gay bar and find a tattoo or entry stamp sealed ‘Raju Bhai’, Please don’t be surprised, and a guy with toothpick basically passes you an erotic signal for giving you a blo… *BEEEEEEP*

There goes my €10 down the drain. 

Thoughts on 'Boyhood' and the films of Richard Linklater

Before Sunrise introduced Richard Linklater to me. I watched it 8 years back by the time I started to break free from mainstream movies and delved into foreign films, period films, Art and Independent cinema. Actually, Mr. IMDB recommended it to me (People who liked Notting Hill also like Before Sunrise and Before Sunset). It was unlike any other films that I’d seen. Yes, I’d seen our Woody Allen’s films where he always talk and talk and blabber and talk right from psychology to nature to religion to relationship to ‘men are from mars and women are from venus’ to communism to world war to dating to French women to Italian artistry to film making to smoking to claustrophobia to kids to anarchism to narcissism to nihilism to New York to Manhattan till life. Either Woody or his lead actor/ actress will be dominant on-screen and make the other party numb/ dumb/ weak in the conversation. Here, in Linklater’s films, two lives talk their heart and soul out. This is what makes his movies (Linklater’s artistic works aren’t just movies, but yeah, I don’t have a term to suit up for this argument) a special one. A man and a woman just don’t talk about love and relationship. They talk life itself.

Now, my fellow movie buffs will wage a war against me for leaving out the films of Jean Luc Godard where the male-female conversation has always had a huge part. The conversation between the Hero and Heroine, right from the road to her apartment room in Breathless (1960), the silent stands scene of the trio from Bande à part (1964) and Post-sex/ sleepover conversation between the writer and his girlfriend in Le mépris (1963) are classic without a doubt. On a deeper perspective, the dialogues, conversation and the theme of their speech would be way too abstract, sketched, impulsive, highly cerebral, Kafkaesque or tough to connect. I feel, maybe, the French-to-English subtitle translation of Godard films might’ve lost/ added a different context to the narration. Isn’t it? But we all owe a big time to these French folks for many things. The Inception of subtitling, Coffee& Cigarettes combination, new cinematic frames, wonderful filmmakers and last but not least their film noir.

Back to Linklater, from his popular Before series, I moved to Dazed and Confused. It came to me as surprise package in a period where I was watching classic coming-of-age films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, The 400 Blows, Stand by me,  Rushmore, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Dead Poets Society etc.. The life lessons that one can take from the coming-of-age films, man, it’s unexplained. They must be termed as a coming-of-life films, I say. This is applicable to Boyhood too.

And then his Tape, a typical high school reunion of three friends that builds up to heated, traumatic conversation and drastic actions. It’s similar to the type of domestic trauma, tension and heat that develops amongst the characters from Asghar Farhadi’s films like A Separation, About Elly, Fireworks Wednesday and The Past.

Next comes School of Rock, which I’d seen on HBO and thoroughly enjoyed. It made me to watch Linklater and Jack Black combo again in Bernie, a wonderful ‘based on a true story’, black comedy about a charming criminal and a murderer. Bernie is Linklater’s take on black comedy at its best. I progressed to Waking life, next. Even though it was thematically, philosophically, morally inclined at heights beyond my consciousness and understanding, the grasp and sniff of it, like a dope, made me go high and elated. Must re watch it again, someday.

All this led to my 5-year hunt for a good print of Slacker (1991), the film that mapped Linklater at Sundance and the film world, which was unavailable for years, until our dear, beloved, doer of good deeds, grand Uncle Mr. Criterion Collection restored it in a gorgeous Blu-ray. Sudden encounters, hookup, walk by, pop-in, drop-in, checking up, going-out etc…happen amidst the Texan population and the characters discuss right from poop to weed to accident to love to death to science to Scooby Doo to Meta physics to mattress to burglary to world war to what not. Slacker is a full course meal which will make your stomach and mind full for months.

Coming to Boyhood, 12 years in the making, it traces the life of a boy from age 6 to 18. We witness not just this boy, but his father, guardian, mother, friend, sister, grandma, grandpa and various important folks in the boy’s life, for the entire 12 years. Like us, he experiences everything that one needs to experience in their 6 to 18s. Right from pestering elder sister, childhood friend, new school, shifting homes, first crush, mom-dad fights, first porn, kiss, night out, party, inspiring school teacher, finding the true calling and passion, junior school, senior school and college etc... Linklater loves to play with them.

Unlike the movies where we witness characters unfolding over time (In films like Cameron Crowe’s Almost famous, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, Anurag Kashypa’s Gangs of Wasseypur, Jim Carrey’s Truman Show, to name a few) in Linklater’s films we see time unfolding the characters. Time revolves at the apex of his narrative content and everything / everyone ( including the plot / story ) around it. All his films are such a piece of art.

One might say that Boyhood doesn't have a proper story, but yo!, the movie unfolding right in front of your eyes and trailing these characters life itself is a one helluva story, I say. Right from the Coldplay track, Beatles reference, life lessons from father Hawke, emotional outburst of busy/ working mom, Gameboy, Nintendo, Wii, Big ass desktop computer, flip mobile phones, long hair style, retro t-shirts, film roll camera, faded denims, art obsession, the traces from his life’s early 2000 till 2013 were aesthetically captured.

Being a late 80s kid, I would already feel nostalgic with 90s reference, but Linklater made me even more sad and nostalgic by showing early 2000s and 2010s as a flash of sweet memory and dejavu. This make me wonder, yell and ask myself ‘Man, Am I getting fucking old and aged?’ Dammit. Fuck You Linklater. I am in my prime 25s and your films makes me to feel old already and think like mid-30s. Fuck you, seriously.

One must see Boyhood as the gateway to Linklater’s films. Watch it first and then move on to his other films. As discussed above, Linklater has a foot print in coming of a̶g̶e̶ life, romance, Life philosophy, dark comedy, animation (A Scanner darkly & Waking life) and what not. So enter Boyhood and pick your favorite department/ DVD later on.  I would like to discuss more and more about Boyhood and the profound impact it had on me, but at the same time I don’t want to spoil your movie watching experience.

Boyhood is a new landmark and a remarkable achievement, not just in film making, but on the whole cinematic process itself. There is a little piece of life in every poem, art, essay, music and movies. And there is Richard Linklater's Boyhood as the collective sum. Experience this delicatessen that will serve you the real meaning of existence with a cocktail blend of time, life and emotions, unveiling right in front of your very eyes and get lost in its serenity and gargantuan beauty.

Not really, but miiiiiiiiild mild plot spoiler alert, in the following lines. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt your morale so read on.

Now that I’d seen Boyhood from 6 to 18 and the frames ceased out right when he enters the college, 2 decades from now I would love to sit in front of my home theatre and watch Boyhood sequel that traces his life from college to adult to relationship to marriage to kids. Oh wait. I’d already seen that in his Before Sunrise, Sunset & Midnight Trilogy. Holy, You fucking Linklater. What, man? Is this a prequel to Before trilogy?

And Hey, the only thing that I’d missed witnessing or I would’ve loved watching in Boyhood is his pet and a death of his closed one. Had Linklater touched upon the Pet and human/animal loss, would that have been even better or worse or Clichéd?... And that’s how I start/ strike a random conversation, with you, my stranger/friend/reader, like a character from Linklater’s films.

Kochadaiiyaan - My thoughts

So Kochadaiyaan has been watched, Finally. 

If you’re the guy who yells “Dei, this is the first epic novel attempt in the Indian cinema of the Tamil cinema with Rajinikanth and this is a Marana mass, theri story of the motion capture blah blah blah.. How dare you talk about Thalaivar, Dei ne oru….” Please kindly stop reading this post further and move the F on. If you want some fun, pun and jolly post about Kochadaiiyaan. Go on. HEAVY PLOT SPOILER ALERT.

Ever since they started the project, so many had double and triple face palm moments. Cheers, me too bro. When the first teaser poster of Kochadaiiyaan was released with ruthra thandavam looks resembling the book cover of The Immortals of Meluha, my mindvoice was exactly the same as George Clooney's from Gravity. Remember his opening dialogue in the film ? “Houston in the blind, Houston in the blind, I have a bad feeling about this mission”.

Here goes the plot. Kochadaiiyaan is a successful, much loved warrior of Naseer's county. His popularity and fame makes the king Naseer to go jealous and evil on him. Kochadaiiyaan and team has been tactically attacked and captivated as slaves. Our poor Kochadaiiyaan fellow is left cornered and helpless. Naseer sentences him to death calling a traitor and betrayer. Kochadaiiyaan is beheaded (Hum Game of Thrones sad theme). (2^nd Half) 

His son Rana escapes to the enemy’s city, grows up there, becomes the Thalapthi (captain) of opposite army. Frees the slave who are his own country men, makes them to join in the army and takes them back to their own county to avenge Naseer for killing his father. He gets caught red handed by Plastic Padukone while he attempts to kill Naseer, her father. Rana is sent to jail for this. (1^st Half)

(Climax) HAHAHAHAHAH. LOLOLOLOLOL. (Ok, stops laughing). Thalaivar Rana escapes Jail, killing not some poor animated security guards but few leopards, tigers, cheetah or some dog fucked wolf face creature (Not sure if that creature has been animated by Irandam Ulagam animators). Whatever. He returns to the battlefield, kills Naseer and JOCKEY Shroff. While he attempts to kiss our Plastic Padukone and grope her improvised anime butt, douche bag bro Sena, comes outta nowhere, whose sworn duty is to protect Naseer, arrives to the scene like the delayed Policeman entry to crime scene in Tamil movies. We get a Thodarum (To be continued…) card there.

“WTF, Dei, Adanga…!!” Is that what you feel. Cheers. Same feeling mate.

I thought that the crisp run-time of 2 hours was really good. But again, that crisp run-time was ruined with frequent, useless songs like the ones from Thiagaraja Bagavathar films. Hero arrives. Song1. Countrymen claps. Song 2. Hero, Heroine looks at each other. Song 3. Marriage. Song 4. Past story sequence. Song 5. Sad feeling. Song 6. Happy comeback feelings. Song 7. DEEII. Songs has been misused and Rahman’s craft hasn’t used properly. Paavam poor ARR. 

Many of them were raving that KS Ravikumar has done justice to the screenplay. I was like, Dude WTF. Even Hanuman or Chotta Bheem or some Tamil Aesop fable has the same shit. To me, it seemed like this current plot of Kochadaiiyaan is the least script writing work one could do, just for the heck of it. If you are really into fantasy stories of dynasty, do watch Game of Thrones. Being a big fan of Game of Thrones series, I can’t stop myself connecting and noticing the similarities, I am not saying that it’s inspired and intentional, I just found it so funny. Imagine Kochadaiiyaan (Ned Stark) – Beheaded by the Mad King (Joffrey). Rana (Arya Stark & Daenerys Targaryen)  sees his father’s beheading, runs to JOCKEY Shroff's county to free the unsullied slaves and he makes them to join the army. Only nudity, wine and blood shed of GOT series missing. Guess they spared it for procuring a 'U' Certificate from Indian censor board.

They’d reincarnated the legendary Tamil comedian Nagesh in the movie. Yes, I did loved it. One big positive note in this overly ambitious stupidosaus project. The guy who had given voice and typical Nageshesque gestures had really done well. Ho! Did Sarath Kumar was also a part of the cast, I thought he just gave voice for Naseer’s son’s character, as the animated figure looked like the face of actor Prem from Krodham (Remember the one who looks like a cross between our Gaptun VijayaKanth and yesteryear Thillu Mullu Rajinikanth) or Suresh Babu of Annamalai fame. One of my friend told that "Idha Sarath Kumar na appo Raadhika va kalyanam pannadhu yaaru!"

Naatiya Peroli Rukimini (Kana Kangiren Kana Kangiren Kannalaney..) is casted Kocha's daughter and Nadana Thaaragai Shobana as Kocha’s wife. Well that some what makes sense, No?. Similar facial looks, both of them are dancers, easy to animate, one inflated figure and another one deflated figure. Deepika Plastic Padukone animation was like the strip down minion version of Kim Kardarshian and by any chance, was Shobana animation is inspired from Savitha Bhabhi comics?. Boo.               

Kochadaiiyaan's character animation looked like a topless, angry Toshiro Mifune, a mandai with a big kondai and a dark skin texture. He is an ardent follower of Lord Shiva, intro with Ruthra Thandavam dance and all. Edit that dark skin to white color palette, apply smiles, rajini’s grace, change hairstyle. Boom. We get Rana. WoW. Now magnetic lasso cut the face, add a beard and long hair. Boom. We get his bro Sena. Yo!

Rajini’s grace and facial looks, being both the save face and decoy for bringing in the audience crowd, the makers of Kochadaiiyaan tried their best in getting the graphics right in Rajini’s face as real as possible. Compared to the worst menial, mediocre, shitty graphics throughout the whole movie, Rajini’s face (Rana) was somewhat saved and spared, I would say.

Why use a (Loose or lost) Motion capture picture in the first place when you can’t capture neither the motion nor the emotion of characters? The big lecture on motion capture during the start and ending of the film is even more nauseating and irritating than the typical “Naan thaan Mukesh..” Hey foreign folks, check this "Naan thaan Mukesh." video. It’s fucking hilarious and creepy as well.  Statutory warning ad played before each and every film in Indian theater, as a government and film chamber’s rule.

The lecture on the technology, to me, felt like a gentle disclaimer card that goes like “Yo Homies, we wanted to do some serious pioneer, motion capture animation stuff with big actors. We neither had prior experience nor huge budget like Hollywood films but did our best, which is shitty and worst. So please shut the fuck up, pay Rs. 120 or 150 (If you’re in Chennai, Pune or Hyderabad) Rs. 500 – Rs. 700 or One Kidney ( If you’re in Banglore or Mumbai) and watch this 2D, 3D piece of shit and walk off home praising and singing the hymns of Thalaivar. Rajini IN DA HOUSE” (Try and read this again with Hiphop, rap style song)            

Being a big fan of animation films and the recent motion capture technology, I can’t stop watching the film and getting my cornea ruptured. The makers could have done justice by making it as a good Animation film and adding the voice overs of Rajini, Nagesh, Naseer and others. Remember how Robin Williams voiced for Genie character in Aladdin, Tom Hanks voiced for Woody in Toy story, Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway voiced for Rio 1 & Rio 2 etc..

Indian animation films, though very less, few like Arjun: The warrior Prince, Kashyap’s Return of Hanuman, Hanuman and even Fantastic Mr. Fox styled Roadside Romeo had some good animation. Again, I know the budget constraints for an Indian movie and I am not comparing Kochadaiiyaan with Avatar, Tintin, Planet of the Apes or Gravity but.. Man.. rather than making a shitty motion capture with hard work and big budget, why not make an excellent animation film with the same budget and work. Even Soundarya Rajinikanth, the director, has a good experience on animation works, I guess. In another case take Selvaraghavan’s Aayirathil oruvan or Kamal’s Dasavatharam for example. They attempted to narrate a Tamil mythological fiction, best used the graphics wherever necessary and made their best they could. (Don’t expect me to talk about Selva’s Irandam ulagam. I ordered a MIB Style Neuralyser to forget the gory moment and movie experience).

To the fellows who make mokka Chuck Norris jokes on Rajinikanth (without even knowing the reference), you can laugh your ass off during the animation fight scenes saying “Abhe Yaar Rajinikanth beats 5 villains at a time and make them fly both in animation and real feature films. Hilarious LOL ROFL”.  Poda dei, you accept the same if Salmon Bhai, SWAG Rukh Khan, Jr. NTR, Nagorjuna and Ravi Taja does the same in Hindi and Telugu movies, No?. Same KOMMERCIAL formula for us. Yeah, racial and linguistic pun in-un-intended. English pesnaalum tamizhan da. Ada Poda!

Having said all this, let me confess. I somewhat liked and enjoyed this movie. Yes, you read that right. I know it will sound sarcastic but its not. I liked it as guilty pleasure of sorts, obviously, for watching Thalaivar Rajini's gestures, moves and hearing some of his trademark punch-packed one liners, after long time. And yes, in a bomma padam which could've still been enjoyable even if it has been done by perfect voice impersonation artists or mimics like Robo Shankar, Siva Karthikeyan or Lollu Sabha Jeeva. There, I said it.

Thalaivar rocks. Period. This time it’s just an experimental, high jump slip between his over enthusiastic daughter and an unexpected commercial slaughter. Baba type legacy, it seems. He He.

Her - Love & emotions of the faceless & voiceless

Can you fall in love with someone whom you might not have known fully? Well, Yes, It depends.

Can you fall in love with someone whom you might not have seen? Oh..!! Yeah, may be.

Can you fall in love with someone who might not even be real or alive? Huh!! Oh Wait. WHAT?

"Falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It's like a socially acceptable form of insanity" – This is Director Spike Jonze’s response to the previous question via his character Amy played by Amy Adams in the film ‘HER’.

Plot spoiler alert: Set in the futuristic Los Angeles, HER is the romantic tale of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix)  who works for BeautifulHandWrittenLetters.com as letter writer #612 (Satire for identify & existential crisis in a corporate, capitalized environment). He is a loner, antisocial and has an only friend/ neighbor Amy who wants be a documentary film-maker but struck in a game developer job. Theodore struggles on his divorce with his wife Catherine (Rooney Mara) and ends up falling in love with his new, highly intuitive, advanced, Artificial Intelligent Operating System OS1 Samantha (Voiced by Scarlett Johnson).

Unlike Robin William’s 'Bicentennial Man', Steven Spielberg’s 'Artificial Intelligence', Minority Report or any other Sci-fi films, the Human-Computer interaction in HER doesn’t seem plastic, unreal and unnatural. OS1 Samantha doesn’t act/ voice like a robot/slave rather she extends herself and keep on learning, growing, evolving more and more during her perpetual existence which most of our human kind fails to address or achieve. It can be well observed when she voices down about her experiences, wishes and expectations to Theodore. ‘I want to know everything about everything’, she says. Spike Jonze trolls the entire humanity and mankind with the rhetoric questions, deductions and conclusions, as the voice of Samantha. Those Cliché Philosophical annotations, existential questions asked by Samantha to Theodore doesn't seem like the questions that a stupid AI device ask the humans in the most silly, rhetoric and childish way. Samantha sounds humanly rich and very much alive like  complex homo sapiens.

Spike Jonze’s touch and stroke to the characters and the aura that entire movie has in itself is remarkable. Theodore as a letter writer in a futuristic world seems like a straight ode/ tribute to the professional letter writers/ messengers who used to sit in common places, transport service stations and help people with writing letters, passing written messages etc... Remember the old lady from Walter Salles Central Station movie? One might come across similar characters in Italian Neo-realism films, historic and World war films.

Being a Sci-fi, fantasy film the beauty of HER lies in the way it connects with its audience. Just like how the OS1 Samantha seduces Joaquin Phoenix in a particular conversation, Spike Jonze seduces us, draws us close, soaks deep down into the film and makes us to fall in love with HER, irrecoverably. The conversations between Joaquin Phoenix and OS Samantha has been penned really well. Plenty of dialogues strike a deep chord in heart.

It’s truly heartwarming and thought provoking to hear the characters uttering dialogues like ‘The Past is the story we tell ourselves’, ‘What it feels like to share your life with someone’, ‘This beautiful piece of music is our photograph together’, ‘You’re beautiful’, ‘I wish I could touch you’, ‘ I feel like I can be anything with you’. The scene where Catherine finds out that Theodore is in a relationship with his computer OS and says "You're dating your computer? ...You always wanted to have a wife without the challenges of actually dealing with anything real”, it is definitely a slap on face for many. The Moon song that Scarlet Johnson sings to the music of Theodore is such a sweet melody/ lullaby that you would ever hear since your childhood. The scene where Theodore searches to find Samantha will shake you upside down, like a father trying to find a lost child or a soul searching for his lost love.

During the climax, when the screen fades out to black, brace yourself, you will definitely start weeping and beware, you might hallucinate the closest electronic device to you (Your laptop or TV or Smartphone) trying to console you and pass a napkin or Hanky to wipe your tears.

HER wrenches your heart, makes you weep and you’ll keep on searching within yourself, probing loads of questions with a daunting feel that Theodore gets when he loses Samantha all of a sudden. Spike Jonze, just like in his previous films ‘Adaptation’, ‘Where the Wild things are’ and ‘Being John Malkovich’, has created a dystopian world within HER where one would long and dare to go, live and love.

Having said that, HER has a heart, soul, an aura, an ambiance, a silence, a sheer touch of sense and sensibility within itself that most of the Sci-fi or Romance drama films lacked big time. To my knowledge, the last time that a Sci-fi, fantasy films had so much of heart and romance was in ‘Wall-E’, ‘Robert & Frank’ and Michael Gondry's ‘Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind’. Though the OSCAR panel failed to recognize Joaquin Phoenix’s acting skills, I am happy that HER is nominated for Best Picture, Best screenplay, Best original song, Best original score and Best production design. I wish it fetches and deserves more and more awards and accolades. HER releases by February 14^th Valentine’s Day, in most parts of the world. Go watch it in theaters and it would be the best Valentine’s Day that you could gift someone or in a better state to yourself.

After all, if you want to know/ feel the love and pain of being with someone remotely, emotionally, virtually, verbally conversing with someone who doesn't exist near/ next to you, the one whom you miss in the best and worst of your times… Go talk to someone true in a long distance relationship for years. You’ll almost hear and feel the same story.

P.S. Don’t forget to check this intense discussion post about HER’s gorgeous production design and parody videos, spoof skits of HER.