Existence...

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Guru - Movie Review

So yesterday night was Manduka's turn to go with a group of 30-40 friends to the opening of Mani Ratnam's much awaited Guru, especially what with the upcoming wedding rumors and all that. Here is the point of view from Manduka's well.

Acting:

Abhishek - An out and out Abhishek movie. I think this is probably his best movie to date. Going beyond the multistarrers where due credit is not given to his acting skills, he shows what he is made of. The role is well fleshed out and he does great justice to it. You can see some of the flashes of the father that made him what he is – angry young man, arresting voice and dialogue delivery, timing of funny lines. Loved him in this movie more than any other.

Aishwarya – after Kandukondein, I think this is one where she has actually acted, and seemed natural rather than most of her other eminently forgettable recent roles.

Mithun-da – what can one say? I am glad finally someone of Mani Ratnam’s calibre actually picked him up for a great role in a mainstream movie. Hope such roles keep coming his way, because sure enough he can do justice to them.

Madhavan/Vidya Balan – well delivered roles, albeit small ones. Mainstream actors continue their new found interest in on-screen liplocks. The movie was a bit busy to actually give due justice to these two characters and they were not fleshed out well enough.

Mallika – item number girl, and man, did she do it justice! Received the maximum hoots and whistles during opening credits, so its clear who the most popular actor in the movie was J

Supporting cast:

As expected, great performances from stalwarts like Rajendra Gupta and Sudhir Pandey. Can’t remember the name of the actor who played Ghanshyam-bhai, but he is good in a lot of his recent movies, and did not fail this time either. Arya Babbar – who was that? I didn’t know either, until I looked it up. Other than the last name, I don’t think he shares any other talents with his father. Hope he tries other things with his career rather than expecting us to tolerate him. Overall, pretty strong supporting cast.

Cinematography:

Was great! Rajiv Menon of Bombay and Kandukondein fame, does not fail to deliver. I think one expects a certain exceptional quality of cinematography from Mani Ratnam movies, given the magicians who have worked with him like Ravi K. Chandran, PC Sriram and Santosh Sivan, and its amazing how they live up to the expectations each time.

Art direction, Production design, costumes, locales:

Quite a lot of attention to detail and period in sets and costumes, and wonderful and picturesque locales for the cinematographers to weave their magic. What disappointed me was the ill-thought out juxtaposition of South India in the songs and the story set in Gujarat. Mani Ratnam should stop making dual-language movies and ruin the experience. It is good to either see the monsoon rain and waterfalls in Kerala or Tamil Nadu, or a story set in Gujarat. Something that is made based out of Tirunelveli and Gujarat does not gel well, and it definitely seems forced.
Checked up and saw the names of Sabu Cyril for Art Direction (Virasat, Kala Pani, Amaram, Hey Ram) and Samir Chanda for Production Design (Omkara, Iruvar, Rang de Basanti, Krrish, Zubeidaa and a host of others). Now I know why I liked those aspects so much J

Editing:

Was disappointed by the totally linear storytelling. I checked it up and see that Sreekar Prasad has done movies like Yuva and Kannathil Muthamittal before. Definitely not one of his best attempts I would say. There were sections of dialogue, especially in the second half, that were best left on the cutting floor. That time could have been used to do some more justice to the continuity of the film.

Music:

I know I will get lynched for saying this, but songs were a bit too ARRahman-ish. The chorales with their harmonies, the standard ballads, the typical Rahman song. But then again, I am a fan, so I am not complaining J. A movie like this could have done with music that didn’t have the standard signature of the composer, which did not happen. Bappi-da was good in his song though the music for it was a bit dissonant to my ears. Loved Jaage Hain, which is what Rahman does best – the big instrumental and vocal crescendos and elevate one’s spirit. The music by itself is great, don’t get me wrong. But takes away from the movie when one sees the great hand behind each song writ large. Mayya, Ay Hairathe, and Tere Bina are my other favorites in the movie. Mayya for a change sounds Middle Eastern as it is supposed to, thanks to Maryam Tollar, unlike Rahman’s attempt in Rang de Basanti. Other than her, I liked Hariharan, Shreya, Rahman in that order. I think Udit was wasted on an average song., and Chitra didn’t have much to do in the best song in the soundtrack.

The songs definitely grow on you, like a lot of Rahman offerings. Don’t know if people would still be listening to them a decade later, like they do with Roja or Bombay.

Lyrics:

Gulzar-saab – so quality of lyrics is good by default. But the bhaang song (ek lo ek muft) could have been done without. In general some lyrics sounded forced into the music rather than usual collaborations one expects like Akhtar/Rahman classics like Lagaan and Swades.

Choreography:

Item number was the best choreographed for me. Then Ash’s rain song. The group dances were all so-so, and the supporting dancers nowhere as good as Dhoom2 for example, but then the steps here were a lot more basic and slow compared to Dhoom2. But the costumes, music and the wonderful locales keep your eyes busy anyways.

Dialogue:

Was quite good. Looked it up and Anurag Kashyap has done other cool movies like Satya and Kaun, but also other eminently forgettable ones like the 2004 disaster called Deewar. Well, I guess this one worked for him

Story, screenplay and direction:

Average story and screenplay. Too many jolts from one period to another that were not handled well. This was supposed to be a biopic, and should not have felt like a bad play with scenes jumping from one year to another. Too many years to cover in a short span of time given all the gyrations take up an hour, so supporting cast is wasted in roles not well fleshed out. To his credit, Mani Ratnam managed to paint the lead pair in well fleshed out roles and interesting shades of grey. But what destroyed the whole thing for me was the ending. To reduce the entire movie to a blind hagiography of someone who has genuinely used questionable methods on his way up seems like such a cop out, especially from someone who claims to make serious movies. But if you look at how the serious problem of terrorism was wasted in Dil Se, or that of adpotion wasted in Kannathil, he has managed to stay consistent to those low expectations of him to do justice to a socially relevant topic. I guess Yuva was a notable exception in the recent past for me, among his other failures in story.

Direction – well it IS Mani Ratnam, so what more can one say? Well done, sir! Except, please please stop making dual-language movies and confusing the heck out of us by jumping from rural Kerala/Tamil Nadu to Gujarat.
Overall, the first half was awesome, though it had a tad too many songs. The film completely changed tone for the worse in the second half, lost its way and tried its best to make up for it towards the end, but just didnt make up for the first hour after intermission when you're yawning away at the usual heartwringer and tearjerker moments. And then he comes out with the most unkindest cut of all - in terms of how he ended it in a literal on screen pooja of winning at all costs as long as you can speak well and navigate your way around it..

Corollary...

(Got to read this first)...

On a related (or unrelated) note, remembered this verse.
Recently heard Salman Ahmad and Fariz Ayaz Qawwal sing this together during a great performance by Salman Ahmad and Junooni at Stanford.

It has been attributed to Bulleh Shah and there is a short bio of him here.

Masjid dha de, mandir dha de, dha de jo kucch dainda
Par kisi da dil na dhain, Rab dilan vich rehnda.

[Tear down the mosque and the temple; break everything in sight
But do not break a person’s heart, it is there that God resides.]

The Manohar

Learnt this in school a while ago.
Randomly remembered it today, found the verse here.

It is from Arun Kolatkar's Jejuri.

The door was open.
Manohar thought
it was one more temple.

He looked inside.
Wondering
which god he was going to find.

He quickly turned away
when a wide eyed calf
looked back at him.

It isn't another temple,
he said,
it's just a cowshed.

South Indian restaurant names you may not get to see

Andipetti Apitakuchalambal's Adda
Balaramapuram Balatripurasundari's Brasserie
Choolaimedu Chandrachoodan's Corner
Dindigul Dandapani's Diner
Ettaiyapuram Ezhumalai's Eatery
Fortkochi Fatima's Fast Food
Gummidipoondi Goundamani's Grill
Heggadadevanakote Heganna's Hut
Irinjalakuda Idichandy's Inn
Jolarpettai Janakiraman's Joint
Kancheepuram Kamakshiamma's Kitchen
Lakshmipuram Lakshminarasimhan's Lunch Counter
Machilipatnam Machiraju's Machilis (Guess what their specialty is..)
Nedumangadu Nedumudi's Nightery
Ottapalam Omana's Outlet
Palayamkottai Palanichami's Place
Quilon Quilandi's Q-seen (As said by a Mallu)
Rayalaseema Rajasekhararayudu's Restaurant
Singarayakonda Singarapandian's Stand
Tiruchirappali Thamizharasan's Tavern
Usilampatti Ulagamuthu's Universe
Velachery Vedavalli's Vault
Whitefield Walter's Watering Hole
Xavier's (Didn’t think there was a place in India starting with an X, did you now?)
Yelahanka Yajnavalkya's Yeatery (Ask Ulagamuthu to pronounce that..)
Zahirabad Zaheerabbas' Zoint (Has to be from Andhra)

P.S. Thanks to A for some last minute help..

Manduka and the Art of Indian Restaurant Nomenclature in the US

Naming an Indian restaurant in the US is an art in itself. Here is a set of possible routes to take, based on different sets of variables:

1. If it is South Indian, name it as "X Bhavan", where X could be your favorite God (Ganesh, Saravana, Krishna, Balaji and Venkateshwara come to mind), your own name or the name of your son or father (Anand, Ashok etc.) or, more infrequently, the name of your wife or mother or daughter. (Arya Bhavan seems to be the only one I can recall, though can could refer to the Aryans just as well)

2. Continuing with South Indian restaurant names, my guess is that women prefer not to associate their names with a Bhavan at the end. So you have an array of standalone named-after-women restaurants, like Annapurna, Annalakshmi or Sujatha.

3. Name it after an Indian city that people have heard of - Bombay, Madras, New Delhi, Jaipur etc. Throw in a Garden or a Cuisine at the end to add variety.

4. If you offer chaat, make sure to have it in your name. And suffix it appropriately with a House or a Cafe or a Paradise.

5. Name it after items on your menu, or cooking utensils, or spices used. This could lead one to a Chutney, Dosa, Roti, Masala, Naan & Curry, Tasty Curry or a Tandoor.

6. Surprisingly the above mentioned category seems to be the one typically using most modern suffixes like a Bistro, Hut, Grill or Brasserie, instead of the more commonplace Oven or Garden or Cuisine. So we have Chutney Grill, Tandoor Bistro, Dosa Hut or any other combination thereof.

7. Name it after a type of cuisine. This seems to happen more with South Indian cuisines. So we have a Malabar, or an Udupi, or a Chettinad. With the appropriate chic or commonplace suffix of course, based on where you are located and what you charge for your food.

8. Then there are those that are supposedly reminiscient of the glorious days of the Raj. We have a Viceroy or Gaylords, or Maharaja, or just Raja, and of course the ubiquitous Passage to India.

9. Name it after some famous person, phrase or place in Indian history which people can remember. This leads to the Taj Mahal, Gandhi, Moghul, Nirvana, Monsoon, Ashoka the Great, Vermillion, Sher-e-Punjab, Lal Qila etc.

10. The more recent phenomenon that is catching on - name it after one of the gods-in-human-form. So we have Amma's Restaurant or Hotel Sai or Hotel Amritha.

11. Literally name it as somebody's kitchen - Hema's kitchen or Sue's Kitchen. Strangely naming it as this seems to appear as higher prices on the menu as well.

12. Then we have the dhaba varieties. Something or someone (da or ka) Dhaba. So we have The Dhaba, Lucky Dhaba, Punjabi Dhaba, Delhi Dhaba, Ambala Dhaba, Maya da Dhaba, Rajinder da Dhaba. Or, to reflect a successful partnership one could even have a "x ka y dhaba" as made famous in Swades - Melaram ka Mohan Dhaba, or Mohan ka Melaram Dhaba. Then of course there is just the plain and simple Desi Dhaba.

13. Reference to priceless gems or stars. These give rise to the "Jewel of India", or the "Hotel Shalimar", or the Koh-i-Noor. And the more generic "Star of India".

I am sure this leaves out some types as well, but these seem to cover most of the Indian restaurants I have been to in the US. Comments?

What if....

...the well had broadband internet access, a satellite dish with 10,000 high-def television channels, a phone with unlimited talk time and perfect signal, a personal butler, and free concierge services ?

... umm, the small pleasures in life ...

what else would one need?

"I'm nobody! Who are you?"

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

- Emily Dickinson

Kupamanduka

"The kupamanduka is a frog that lives its whole life within a well, knows nothing else, and is suspicious of everything outside it. It talks to no one, and argues with no one on anything.

"It merely harbours the deepest suspicion of the outside world. The scientific, cultural and economic history of the world would have been very limited indeed had we lived like well-frogs."
- Amartya Sen