Avatar - An IMAX 3D Experience - Out of the Planet

James Cameron's Pandora makes every other film makers' perception of the limits of the visual medium of cinema short sighted. You know for a fact that the visuals of the locations are "virtual" - yet the first shot of Pandora flatters you and you are pushed to a state of disbelief.



Where Avatar scores over every other motion picture made in the history of World Cinema is in stretching the visual medium to the farthest extent to make every other person believe in something, which only a pair of eyes could visualize and a lone soul could conceptualize for over a decade.

The dreams of Cameron projected on screen last close to 3 hours and all along it rides on a plot which is just a little fat than being categorized as wafer thin. The reason I say this is because the story narrated was simple, linear, straight forward and predictable at times too. You can clearly see a definitive lack of interesting sub plots and there were just a handful of characters who had a significant part to play. Hence, this cannot join the league of epics like Lord of The Rings.However, it is written to such a good extent that even if visuals were just one tenth as good as they actually were, the movie would still end up being good. Without a proper story to narrate, it is almost impossible to make a movie interesting and Cameron definitely seemed to be somone who believed every word of that.

Avatar is all about Pandora - her people, her flaura & fauna and her inhabitants' way of life. We discover everything about this distant planet along with Jake Sully's Avatar and the more we learn about Pandora, the more we get attached to the Na'vis, the natives of the place. The first hour is a tour of the space craft, the researchers and their technology to transport the human soul into the genetically built native featured bodies - controllable Avatars, Colonel Quaritch's team and their mission of unearthing 'unobtanium', a highly sought after mineral in Earth. The rest of the movie is about Jake's first entry to Pandora, his encounters, adventures, lessons, love, leadership and triumph in the battle against the invaders - the irony being accomplishing the exact diametric opposite of his chosen mission. As one may expect, a lot is said in the first hour and a lot happens in the rest. The tale of Pandora narrated to Jake keeps you engrossed and you are excited & anxious to step into it. Once Jake steps into it through his Avatar, the spell is cast on you and our avatars are now totally linked to the visual splendour all through the magic fable.

Experiencing Avatar is about standing testimony to the greatness of Cameron's vision and feeling the joy of witnessing a rare spectacle. There has never been a better visual portrayal of dreams before.

The journey of Pandora ends up being the ultimate experience. Celebrate it in the 3rd Dimension.

Inglourious Basterds - First Reactions

Quentin Tarantino's new brain child, Inglourious Basterds, got to see the US of A today. I got her date today as well. Touted to be a revenge fantasy drama, the film is set in an imaginary alternate universe, where Hitler and his Third Reich are being targeted upon for a massacre by different groups of like minded people, when the Fuhrer & Co. gather for a movie premiere in Paris. More than a review, this is about my first reactions to Inglourious Basterds after watching this movie.

She is true to her genes and we get to see Tarantino written all over her. Every frame in the movie worked for me. He promised us a chance for vengeance and he stayed true to his word. This is where it gets tricky and your take on this is pretty much going to decide if she will work for you. The question really is, 'Was he manipulative by using the hatred prevalent against the Nazis among the majority, in favor of him?'

The Anti Nazi sentiment prevalent among the majority Americans, Britishers, Jews and among a large number of people from across the globe is well known and that will definitely work in favor of this film. So, was the idea just to use this sentiment, make a movie over it and make some quick bucks while you are at it? Hell NO!

I see a whole new dimension to this issue and to visualize that D we need to step into this fantasy world of Tarantino. In this world, films are events and these events are inter related. Often, one film will inspire a bunch. Tarantino goes one level above and 'responds' through Inglourious Basterds to various events that happened over time in this world - Schindler's List, The Pianist, Life is Beautiful and the likes. The world would have seen 100s of such events which talk about the Holocaust. Apart from acknowledgement, honor and pity, these events deserve Vengeance in this world, in terms of a stylish response as in giving them a taste of their own medicine and they have been crying out loud for that. QT heard them. The point is, to appreciate the movie better, we've got to leave our judgmental hats on the Nazi/Jew issue at home and step into the vengeance bandwagon in this fantasy world. If you keep your real world hats on, you will either fall in love or despise her depending on your prejudice. Either way, you'd be too biased and bias affects judgement :) That's precisely what the various personalities in me have concluded upon after enough deliberations.

Tarantino takes us back to the good old days right from the opening credits card. The title card and the cast list roll without much drama and the color tones used are reminiscent of the 'Gone with the Wind' days. How's that for a first impression? The opening frame reads 'Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France' and we get to see the shot of a dairy farm, a pretty unexcited and frustrated average WW II times Frenchman, his not so happy looking daughters. Great color tones back to back and you get to see them aplenty. The Nazis are given one last screen space chance for their exploits and Tarantino decides that they've had enough. The tale is about how the plans of various vested vengeance seeking groups' plans unfold in this fantasy world.

Brad Pitt, Waltz and the rest of the cast have done an excellent job with Waltz being the pick of the lot and rightly honored by Cannes. As one can expect from a QT film, the dialogs are a big asset and keeps you all the more interested. He sets the ball rolling right from the opening interaction between Waltz and the Frenchman. But, more than dialogs, Tarantino has relied heavily on his fantasy script and screenplay in Inglourious Basterds, which has redefined gripping. There are no distractions, no 'could have been better/avoided' moments - absolutely. And yet again, QT excels in the depiction of violence and action sequences.

Honestly, she deserves a more zoomed in, focused and detailed analysis. But, the idea behind this post was to get my first reactions in black and white. I thoroughly enjoyed this fun filled fantasy ride of vengeance. Taraantino has carried this movie on his shoulders all along and this movie is another milestone in mainstream commercial cinema. The announcement to his fellow makers is 'Guys, be it art house or commercial - Innovation is the Key'. The man has delivered, yet again. The Verdict has success written all over it. Hats off!

HAIL The LEGEND !!!

FIFTY years and Counting! Still Unmatched.

Fifty years before today, a generation saw the arrival of this 5 year young wonder kid, who walked into the Silver Screen with the innocent of faces and walked out with the Silver Lotus. A Dream Debut.

FIFTY YEARS - Is he done and passed over? You got to be the dumbest person in the world to even think about it. As Fit and Daring as fuckin' ever. The ever increasing Zeal and Passion for the Art. The Commitment. The Dream. The VISION. Here's a man who almost broke thrice 'for the art'. He has given it all. I've never loved anything the way he loves Cinema.

The Dwarf, The Lady.

The Blind Violinist, The Ventriloquist, The Serial Killer. The Psychotic, The Autistic Romeo.

The Communist. The Patriot. The Politician. The Reformer. The Angry Young Man. The DON.

He has LIVED them all!

The Experiment with Truth. The Dual Narrative. The Village Godfather. The Laugh Riot. Love and God.

He has SCULPTED them all!!!

The Prodigy. The Master. The Artist. The LEGEND!!!

Here's wishing THE God of Cinema, Kamal Haasan, on his Golden Jubilee year in Indian Cinema. Proud to be part of your generation, Sir. Hats OFF to you !!!

The Gadget Garage

Welcome to my Gadget Garage. I'll release the code for all and any gadgets created by me here. Feel free to post your suggestions and feedback on my gadgets. Requests for new custom gadgets can be posted as well and will be addressed based on the simplicity :)

Official Releases

none as yet

Under Construction...

The movie marquee (works best in IE & Chrome)
A scrolling list of recently watched movies, with a one-liner review and rating.

My first shot. Check it out on the right side of the page. Have made decent progress. Currently, works best in IE and does decently in Chrome. Gotta find a fix for Firefox.

Beta Release
<table border="1" bordercolor="#F5F5F5" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><tr bordercolor="white" bgcolor="336699"><td align="center"><font color="#FFFFFF" family="Arial">Recently watched</font></td></tr><tr><td><marquee onmouseout="this.start()" direction="up" align="center" title="Movies" scrollamount="1" onmouseover="this.stop()" height="200" scrolldelay="1" width="100%"> <table border="0" bordercolor="white" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="9" bgcolor="#E6E6E6"><b><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Kanchivaram</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Carlito's Way</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Cinderella Man</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Yavarum Nalam</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Siva Manasula Sakthi</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Naan Kadavul</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Luck By Chance</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Dev D</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>City of God</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Amorres Perros</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Million Dollar Baby</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Scarface</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Stranger than Fiction</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Aloo Chat</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Mystic River</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Milk</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Wrestler</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Gran Torino</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#EDEDED"><td>Doubt</td></tr><tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td>Frost/Nixon</td></tr></b></table></marquee></td></tr></table>

Demystifying Naan Kadavul

Naan Kadavul, written and directed by Bala, will go down as one of the boldest films made in the Tamil cine industry. It is based on the novel, 'Ezham Ulagam' (Seventh World), written by Tamil writer Jeyamohan. Naan Kadavul is an honest attempt at showcasing 'ezham ulagam' - the 'Dark World' of beggars and aghori sadhus *as is* - a movie in its true ART form - a movie sans melodrama and fairy tales. I happened to watch the movie recently and like most people I felt a sense of incompleteness, which can be attributed to the lack of complete understanding of the film's true intentions. Hence, I set out to explore the rather unknown terrain of Bala's seventh world. Luckily, I stumbled upon on an excellent 'Naan Kadavul for Dummies' type write-up from Jeyamohan, who had apparently directed the article at the half-baked questions raised by pseudo-intellectual critics. It helped me understand a lot of otherwise-unknown (to me) aspects of the movie. The intention of this post is to provide an insight into Naan Kadavul and is part of my journey to understand the film better.

Naan Kadavul is a guided tour of the largely unknown world of aghori sadhus and beggars. From a bird's eye view, the two tales would appear largely disjoint and one might get an impression that there is not much in common between the two groups. But, there is actually a strong connection between beggars and aghori sadhus - only that Bala has played it subtle. Both aghoris and beggars belong to the same fictional seventh world. In a way, aghoris are beggars too, only that they chose their destiny. Bala has scripted a few scenes to convey this - the scene where a police constable mistakes Rudran for a beggar when he gets cocaine crazy. There are also sequences where the 'poli-samiyargal' talk about Rudran in the same breadth as beggars. While beggars are depicted as slave workers, Aghoris consider themselves to be super natural - next only to 'Kal Bhairav'. Naan Kadavul is a tale of two extreme groups belonging to the same dark world. It serves as a meeting point of the contrasting lives of Rudran and Hamsavalli.

Naan Kadavul believes that there is No God in the Seventh World. Bala has emphazized this belief throughout the tour in the form of various scenes and dialogues with a tinge of dark humour. A lot of the explicit content has been censored. Jesus and Buddha were supposed to be present as spectators in the scenes where the beggars get beaten up by Rudran & Co. The Gods of the world were supposed to be present when Hamsavalli begs Rudran for death. The objective was to take a dig at ALL religions. However, the censor board had other thoughts. To stress the point further, the physically disabled beggars were in the costumes of Lord Sivan, Parvathi and Murugan. This is a subtle way of saying that the gods of the world that we are in, are nothing more than handicapped helpless people in the seventh world. This is brilliant character sketching and symbolism from Bala. The beggars who never go inside the temple, however, consider the 'Mangandi Saami', who is a beggar himself, as their God. Another way of saying that if there is any God in the seventh world, he has to be a beggar too. The character of Hamasavali is sketched in a way to convey that in the dark world, even the people who initially believe in god would eventually be forced by their situation to give up their belief. She surrenders to a nun and gets converted to christianity but eventually Thandavan manages to *buy* her. This puts her in a miserable situation and she loses her faith in god and believes that only Rudran can relieve her from this world of misery. She conveys this to Rudran when she gets to meet him and her belief (or the lack of it) is conveyed to us by the dialogue where she accuses that no god cared for her miseries.

Naan Kadavul begins the tour from Kasi and all-about-aghoris is narrated by a sage to Rudran's father. The two main duties of aghoris - to punish the baddies and to give direct salvation to people whose lives are more miserable than death by killing them - are preached to Rudran by his guru. He asks Rudran to go along with hs father and also tells him to come back during the right time. An aghori can attain complete aghori-ness only after he renounces all his inner desires. Hence Bala has scripted the film in a way where Rudran begins to have some subtle feelings for Hamsavalli and goes on to show how Rudran denounces his feelings for her and attains aghori-ness. Rudran's emotions and feelings for Hamsavalli remain very subtle. He realises his feelings for her the first time he meets her in the cave and understands the actual reason for which his Guru has sent him down here. He understands that he needs to renounce his affection for her immediately and goes to the graveyard the same night, where we actually renounce her in a 'Kal -Bhairav' pose. During his stay at his hometown, Rudran accompishes the two main duties for aghoris as well by killing Thandavan (the skin cut in Rudran's forehead is symbolic of Sivaperuman) and by helping Hamsavalli attain direct salvation. Thus, Hamsavalli plays a great part in helping Rudran attain aghori-ness and goes to show the *strong connection* between the otherwise contrasting characters.

Naan Kadavul, for the most part, revolves around the life of beggars - the citizens of the seventh world. One may get a feeling that the film spends way too much time here. But, this is where the film remains honest to its intentions. The dark world is symbolically represented by the underground facility of Thandavan. The first few scenes in their story provide enough detail on their miseries and establishes the various characters. Once we get acquainted with them, we get to see their lighter side as well and enjoy the dark humour. There are a lot of small sub plots scripted as well. The objective behind the detail is to drive the message that the beggars, in spite of not having much control on their life, still manage to lead a happy life . In spite of their own miseries, they care for each other's sufferings and live like a happy family. And Bala wanted to clear the general misconception that the beggars have a soft corner for people who give alms to them. Beyond a point, they are not concerned much about the money and as shown in various sequences, they derive their humor by mocking at the people who visit the temple. The characters dressed like gods, mocking and laughing loud at the people visiting the temple is symbolic to Gods mocking at their superstitious beliefs.

Naan Kadavul is anything but judgmental. It doesn't preach atheism nor does it say that it is better to die than to lead a miserable life. It leaves the judgmental part to its audience. As a movie in its true ART form, Naan Kadavul chooses to show the lives of two contrasting groups of people * as is*, goes one step higher by establishing a strong connection between the groups symbolically and stops there - true to its intent.