On few more movies:

Love to watch good movies.

Recently went on a spree of watching three movies.

Shall I start from the last one I watched.

 ‘English Vinglish’

I am carried away by this movie.

A lucid story line. Superbly narrated.

Sashi …..[ means the chandra / moon in sanskrit!]

      What a fantastic characterization…!

I felt like sashi herself ….just perplexed…..when I started and strugled to learn English…

Sashi represents the great Indian middle class house wife.

Sashi feels lost as she realises the growing gulf between herself and her family particularly so with her growing children due to her lesser exposure to English.

The sheer lack of recognition on this count particularly with her daughter makes her life  sour.

Pushed to the limits she takes a ‘brave’ decision to learn this necessary evil….  ‘English’ which can turn the tables around and bring back her self worth in her ‘little World’ by making her ‘intelligent’ enough to be accepted.

She grabs a chance which comes her way to learn English and she religiously follows the chore of the learning process.

How beautifully she handles and snaps the french proposal !

Can any thing be said more on the value of family so succinctly than the wedding toast speech given by Sashi at her niece’s wedding party...in English!

 ….that is the punch and there is the message…

This climax turnaround, slaps the message of superiority of substance over expression…feelings over logic…humanity over material…spirit over physicality…

Sridevi…….What a sterling performance….amazing…a born actor indeed…

How she is able to defy her age……?

This film is  indeed a salutation to the simple and unassuming great many number of  Indian house wives who toil in silence with great patience to make the homes but unfortunately so often taken for granted.

I remember the words of one of my Economics professors who once told our class that the contribution of Indian house wives are left unreckoned in the country’s GDP which if taken into account would push the National Income up to multifold extent.   

Sashi’s character is said to be modeled after the director Gouri Shinde’s mother. However depiction of each character in this film in itself appears to be a poetry.

Though this film is said to be of the genre of Comedicdrama I could never feel the comedy part, as the other track is spiralling to depths so seriously.  The background music is so soft and so soothing to the heart.

The reason for your visit to the US?

 Ajith’s super-confident answer in the migration counter is, ‘ to help your country….revive by spending some dollars here…’

In a way, India it seems as I feel is akin to Sashi herself with unexplored potentials and complex inhibitions and  hurdles in it’s way. Is it not…India needs a transformation from the state of mind of Sashi to that of Ajith.

Mahakavi, Subramania Bharathi, the revolutionary poet who is the touch stone for Tamil and National values and visions advocates social emancipation of women by inculcating the self worth in them by way of educating them. He said to have started this mission after meeting Sister Nivedita, the Irish disciple of Swamy Vivekananda at a Congress session,  who adopted this country as her mother land.

Following are few sparkling lines plucked from Bharathi’s poem in praise of  Indian house wife, captioned,

 ‘ மனைத் தலைவிக்கு வாழத்து’

வாழ்க மனைவியாங் கவிதைத்தலைவி!

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மாயா சக்தியின் மகளே, மனைக்கண்

வாழ்வினை வகுப்பாய், வருடம் பலவினும்

ஓர்நாட் போலமற் றோர்நாள் தோன்றாது

பலவித வண்ணம் வீட்டிடைப் பரவ

நட்த்திடும் சக்தி நிலையமே, நன்மனைத்

தலைவீ,................

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இலௌகிக வாழ்க்கையிற் பொருளினை யிணைக்கும்

பேதைமா சக்தியின் பெண்ணே, வாழ்க.

காளியின் குமாரி, அறம் காத்திடுக!

வாழ்க! மனையகத் தலைவி வாழ்க!

On the economic front, it is pertinent to mention here that the traditional values of  frugalism and pragmatism of the Indian house hold units managed by and large by the resourceful house wives contribute to the strong saving levels prevailing in the country and infact is the major factor which shore up the Indian Economy rather than any hi-fy and far fetched ‘economic theologies’. When the consumerism driven World economy is reeling under recession, mainly sparked off by the bankruptcy of the  banking sector, the Indian banking sector shows a comfortably robust position in terms of deposits and profits. I feel the credit goes to the Indian house wives…..  

 ‘Attakkathi’ and ‘Saattai’ are the othe two films.

These two films belong to the recent genre of ‘down to the Earth pattern’ of recent Tamil movies churned out by a new wave of several young directors who have infact started changing the face of Tamil cinema.

‘Veil’,

‘Kaadhal’,

‘Chennai 60028’,

‘Vennila Kabadikkulu’,

‘Kalavaani’,

‘Mina’,

‘Muthukku Muthaha’

‘Pasanga’ and

‘Engeyum eppodum’ - are some of such films in this series setting a firm new trend.

Attakathi and Sattai both set in the sub urban / rural  backgrounds picturise their plots so vividly.

Sattai seems to be the direct answer to the issue expounded by Attakathi.

Attakathi speaks from the perspective of an average youth from this region.

Lack of role models has left the youth of this country purposeless as  like rudderless boats driven only by the impulses of infatuation. Folk expressions found in the Chennai - gana songs are fantastically woven in to this film which are infact gaining ground into the literary realms.

Saattai actually answers the question posed by Attakathi that with right example and when shown the right direction with a recipe mix of kind heart and intelligence, the abundant youth force of this society can be turned out to be the powerhouse of the Country.   

Both the films communicate their stories in a powerful manner.