An accident occurs in a busy traffic signal at Ernakulum. A young man is critically wounded. At the hospital, the doctors proclaim that there is no chance for him to escape. At the same time, a 13 year old girl, is lying critically wounded at a hospital in Palghat. She needs a heart transplant. The question comes to the parent’s of the boy – shall we take his heart out while he is still alive to save the girl? The film does very well there to pose this dilemma and Saikumar as the boy’s father gives a heart warming performance. But then the director kills the plot by not showing us how and why the father finally gave in to the pressure. Over telephone the news comes across that he agreed. That change would have been nice, if I could see it. Ok.. the plot’s done and now we come to the major part of the movie – how do we transport this heart to Palghat from Ernakulum within 1 ½ hours? The stage is set for a thriller and from then on… the film falls flat. There is nothing thrilling and no hair rising moments to culminate. Each and every situation after that is so contrived to make the whole fascinating thrill look like a stroll in the park. At the end of the film, all you would want to ask – hey! What was the big deal?
I have some very serious questions to pose… I don’t know whom I am asking this and I don’t know who will answer it… yet…
• Why didn’t the heart be transported in an ambulance with an escort police vehicle?
• Why do we need someone like Sreenivasan to drive that Scorpio… just to make him a hero?
• When Joseprakash, a senior doctor and the chairman of Lakeshore hospital, tells the police commissioner that, if the police are not taking the responsibility, there are “chunakkutty (smart boys) ambulance drivers around” why only tell - why not use them?
• If there are ways inside Puthukad forest, or bylanes through which one can cover the distance between Ernakulam and palghat in 1 hour and 15 minutes, then why are we really complaining about bad roads and traffic congestions?
I feel the only thing we didn’t do in the travel here, is to stop the vehicle and sing a song… that was only thing left.
Now, in cinema you shouldn’t be asking logical questions… but I want to understand that this is serious cinema and there is life and death involved and if the rest of the crowd including police officers and doctors feel the whole thing logical then these questions need to be answered. Ofcoruse, also edach and every review that I read have heaped praise on the film… I am really disappointed to know that film criticism in Malayalam cinema is really lacking and that in turn makes for really lackluster cinema too.
The whole plot of Dr Abel and his sister and the problems from there on, is so much forced that we are asked to believe and empathize for characters. I thought may be the other way round, the heart coming for the boy would’ve made more interesting as we didn’t see anything of the girl to feel and empathize for her life. I felt for Saikumar, his wife and son… the only properly written characters.
As a film reviewer, one is not supposed to give away the plot points and story... but please don't mind this... there are no spoilers... everyone knows how its going to end... there is no suspense... you can watch it even after you read this. Its my point of view.
I was extremely disappointed with the film, because I heard quite a lot of good things about it and I wanted to see it, enjoy it… but I was really disappointed.
Every year, on the first day of the Malayalam calendar month of Makaram (capricon), the hills at Sabarimala and its premises are blessed with a view of a celestial golden light. In Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, people still believe that God comes to earth then. According to legends there, that vision is supposed to cleanse all sins and everything else. Year after year, the crowd around the temple increases and the danger of a stampede or a bigger accident happening keeps looming large. This year an accident occurred… a stampede happened and yet in its aftermath, of all paper reports and comments, there is really no mention anywhere in any press or any news item for this whole act to be completely stopped.
There are news reports of scams about everything… lot of news reporters and tv channels are hell bent on trying to expose wrong doings. Then, why can’t someone really stand up and stop this ‘government sponsored’ and ‘government run’ scam? Sabarimala is a tribal hillock… with all the money pouring in, the whole area has been transformed into a concrete jungle. A place filled with filth and terribly designed buildings. The money is not used to improve the facilities. I am not sure, that place can withstand this crowd for long. In the greed to make money, people are forgetting that there is an element of human beings involved. I will put down a small example...
I lived most of my student life at Vizag and near my house we had the dhobi, who used to also iron the clothes. His family consists of three children two girls and one boy. Every year he saves all the money that he is earning and makes the pilgrimage to see makarajyoti. He believes that if he is not true to his 41 day ritual, he will be eaten by tigers. All that money that he saves around the year, he comes and deposits at the temple, returns and continues work. He lives in a small hut, and for the all the 4 years that I knew him he has lived there. That is just a single story and likewise there would be many out there. Isn’t it time we stopped this cruelty? Every town in Kerala waits the coming of “ayyapas” from Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh so that this state can make money. From transport to lodging to food… tourism is not what gets Kerala its highest revenue but its from its own tribal god.
An accident was waiting to happen and by the look of it its only going to get worse… nobody is interested in the welfare of people… greed takes prominence. How can we make more money? After all the money we are making is long time ago, a simple tribal warlord called Ayyapan did a brave thing in fighting the poachers and robbers who were looting the forests of Sabarimala and surroundings. That young tribal warlord is now seated as the second richest god in India, second only to Tirupathi. (a point to note is Sabarimala opens only for a total of approximately 160-170 days a year, compared to Tirupati which runs the whole year through).
In my personal opinion, its high time we stop this reality show.
In all the newspaper reports that I read, some people have suggested solutions - ‘to increase the time of the “jyoti” and to make it visible from more places…’
Oh my god! … Are we really living in a sane world?
Many economists believe that Globalisation has helped most of the developing countries industrially, financially and economically. It has had various after effects on those economies, both positive and negative. Similar to how it affected all other sectors it had affected the film production industry as well.
Though international tourism contributes to cultural exchange, an effect of Globalisation, it is cinema that plays the most major role in altering the living styles of a society. The impact that cinema could bring about in any society is massive. A football world cup might be a bigger event than a cinema where people from all over meet and exchange cultures, but as cinema portrays the feelings, living style and culture of a society, the impact it has over other media is massively huge.
Effects of Globalisation on film production industries
The most important effect of Globalisation on film industries was that it enabled a bigger market for films worldwide. It was after the 1990’s that films started to get released worldwide. This increased the size of the film market and massive growth of revenue in result. The gross profit that Hollywood generated in the year 1997 was $30 billion, where Titanic alone contributing more $1.8 billion. (Technology in Indian culture and effects of Globalisation of Technology and media, no date) According to the IMDB (2010), the blockbuster film Avatar had collected $500 million by January 31st 2010, whereas its worldwide collection a week before had crossed $2billion. It was almost the same with Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Prince. It grossed around $990 million worldwide and $301 million in U.S.A (IMDB, 2009). It can be observed from this that a worldwide release definitely increases the revenue by four to five times.
According to Taylor (1995, p. 414), co-productions were initially perceived to enhance collaboration between countries with small production industries which would be able to pool resources and compete in an international market. The increase in the number of co-productions, an effect of Globalisation, was seen in the film production industry as well. This divide in budget naturally resulted in an increase of the same. Increase in budget helped the producers in that region to produce better films. Baltruschat (2002) believes that co-productions have the potential to hybridise cultures and their diversifications.
Globalisation has really helped ‘Third cinema’ or ‘Third World Cinema’. (http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Romantic-Comedy-Yugoslavia/Third-Cinema.html, no date)The release of Latin American and Iranian films worldwide was a big support for them commercially. The London Iranian Film Festival and the London Latin-American Film Festivals are proof’s for that. Such film festivals prove that the love for such films in the developed world has increased a lot. Certain group of people raised another opinion that co-producers turn into dictators and therefore film-makers lose their freedom for expression. This group believes that globalisation has turned cinema into a commodity and has highly affected its artistic value.
Indian Film Industry
Indian film industry is a leading Industry where films are produced in 24 languages. Most number of films is produced in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. The first Indian feature film was produced in the year 1913. Indian film industry had worked just like the Hollywood until the 1960’s. Artists had worked on contractual basis for particular studio. It was after the 1900’s that artists started to work on a freelance basis. (http://www.indiaonestop.com/film.htm, no date)
It is a fact that, India is the world’s largest producer of films. (Screen Australia, 2010) According to Screen Australia, India had produced 1288 films in 2009, which was around 24% of the films produced worldwide. The amount of films produced in India was almost the double than that production in the United Stated (677 films in 2009, which is around 12% of the world share). Whereas the cost of production of films in India is much lower than many other developed countries. When developed countries produce films for billions of dollars, India does it in millions. According to Screen Australia (2010) the total production cost of Indian films in 2010 was just $195 million, whereas that in U.S.A was $13,289 million.
Effects of globalisation on the Indian film production Industry.
Formation of international joint- ventured production houses was one of the main effects of Globalisation. Mostly the ventures were between Hollywood an Indian production houses. ‘Studio 18’ is an example for that
It is a joint venture between ‘Viacom’ a U.S. based communication company and ‘Network 18’, an India based media conglomerate. Studio18 has produced a total of 15 films and have released it worldwide.
Another effect of globalisation was the absorption of small Indian studios by large International production houses. This has acted both in positive ways and negative. The positive factor is that many artists get to work with an international company. But, unfortunately the negative side is that that is not what happens most of the time. An example of such absorption was the Sony Pictures taking over the Chennai based animation studio ‘Imageworks’.
It was definitely for the good of the company because later it had largely contributed to films like Spiderman 3 and I am Legend.
In the recent years a lot of international producers have put in money directly into single films. Sony Pictures in 2007 associated with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, directly entered into the market producing a Hindi film named Saawariya. Though Saawariya was not a commercial success in India, the film grossed $805,054 in U.S.A alone (I.M.D.B, 2007). Later in 2009 Warner Brothers produced a film associating with Ramesh Sippy Entertainment named Chandini Chowk to China. The film grossed around $1 million from U.S.A alone (I.M.D.B, 2009).
Exchange of talent
Globalisation has helped the film production companies to share the international pool of talent. The rate of usage of international talent increased tremendously after the 1990’s. Later, many artists from international cinema have worked for Indian cinema and vice versa.
Some of the international artists who worked for Indian film are:
Danny Pierce: Stunt coordinator Danny Pierce (films like: The Pirates of the Caribbean) had recently worked for an Indian film ‘Kites’. Snoop Dog: Hip-hop artist Snoop Dog had worked on the sound track of a Hindi film named Singh is King. The film is considered to be a hit in the U.K. A studio that recently worked for an Indian film was the Stan Winston Studios for Enthiran. They had worked on the animatronics. According to Indo Asian News service (2010), Enthiran is the most expensively produced film among Indian films. The film which spent around $38 million was produced in two different languages, Hindi and Tamil.
Some of the Indian artists who worked for international films:
A.R.Rahman who composed and produced music for the film Slumdog Millionaire and Resul Pookutty who mixed the sound for the same film are one of the main examples. A major studio that contributed and is still contributing to international films is the Ramoji film city in Hyderabad, India. It is in fact the world’s largest integrated film studio complex. It provides locations, lights, grip equipment, camera, production crew, set designs, props & costumes and post production (Processing, editing, mixing, printing & duplicating). More than 15 international projects have been worked in Ramoji Film city so far.
As described in their Credo Ramoji believes that film-makers can, “walk in with a script and walk out with a canned film.”(Ramoji Film City, no date)
Future
In November 2010 a pact was signed in the Paramount Pictures Studio between the Hollywood and the Bollywood. According to Martinez and Narayan (2010), the pact mainly aims to strengthen the motion picture production, distribution, technology, content protection and commercial cooperation. Many companies from Motion Picture association India had signed the pact including UTV Motions Pictures and Reliance BIG Pictures. Los Angeles Mayor welcomed more Indian filmmakers to shoot in like last years films, ' My name is Khan' and 'Kites'.
“Steven Spielberg in Indian deal as LA moguls fall for Bollywood charms” This was title of an article in Sunday times. Blakely (2008) reports that Anil Ambani of the Reliance BIG Pictures had invested $550 million into Steven Spielbergs Dreamworks productions. Dreamworks is an independent company which is separated from Paramount and Reliance has nearly taken half of its shares. Dreamworks will now be working on 5-6 films every year (Wells, 2009)
Conclusion
When taking an analysis of the Indian film Production industry from 1990 to 2010, the following can be observed.
·Increase in the number of worldwide releases of films.
·Increase in the total budget of films.
·Increase in number of local, international and joint production houses
·Increase in local investment on International studios
·Increase in individual co-productions with direct investments
·Increase in the sharing of the talent pool.
So, just as like how globalisation has helped in the development of any other sector of a developing country, it has helped the Indian Film Production Industry as well. The Indian control over the international film arena has started to increase. India has had no restriction in the number of foreign releases, unlike China, which restricts foreign films to an amount of 20. This had made a slight impact last year. The number of international releases had gone up in India. But still, India continued to be the largest producer Films. We shall expect India to produce a larger amount of films for the international audience in the coming years.
Taylor, P.W. (1995). ‘Co-productionsóContent and Change: International Television in the Americas’. Canadian Journal of Communication, 20 (2): p.411-416.
In 1882, a satirical obituary appeared in The Sporting Times, a British newspaper. It happened after a cricket match at The Oval, London, where Australia beat England at home for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia as a quest to regain "The Ashes".
Everyone knows this... after today morning, it just might be stated that Australian Cricket is dead and those ashes are now firmly with England. By the way its going, Australian cricket seems to be lost. They do not have a captain, they do not have 6 batsmen... ofcourse, Spinners were, anyway, not found since a certain Shane Warne retired four years ago.
When a mighty fall, the rest of the cricket world can rejoice and many of them would be looking at a prospect of touring Australia and returning victorious rather than 'the vanquished' as was the case for a long time. I don't know whether it will go the way West Indies cricket went, but for the near future Australia is not seeing light at the end of a dark tunnel. One can never say, with Australia though...
I am not a great fan of English cricket. but, this series, I enjoyed watching them go about the process of really beating Australia and letting them know it verbally and also in the press and commentary. They have been taking a beating for such a long time, that when it came as a chance to give it back, they gave it back with high spirits. This team looks good, there are some nice players and most of them young.
All over the world, Cricket, I feel, is losing the charm... there are very few natural cricketers coming out of the ranks. The academy system all over is taking a toll and making cricket too sophisticated and controlled to really get the charm. The last of the Mohicans are probabaly - Lakshman, Tendulkar and to some extent Dravid. After this, at this moment, there is no one, whom I, personally, would want to pay and watch. Brain Lara was the last one where I really spent a lot of time, losing my sleep, watching and many a times really feeling sad that he didn't go on and bat longer.
for the moment... let the world take happiness in Australia bashing.
It’s that time of the year, people, the world over, are making lists. Resolutions… good and bad… good deeds done, good deeds to do… dreams… hopes… do’s and don’ts… the list goes on.
It’s that time of the year, people, in movie industry as well start making lists. Top 10 films of 2010… top 5.... All over the web, there are various lists – from critics, to regular readers… to also, most importantly the financiers. Which films made money… which didn’t… the lists goes in varied forms - top films of 2010 from Hollywood… top films of 2010 from World Cinema... top animated films from around the world, top box office grosser, etc., Here in India too… lists of top hits of Bollywood, critics choice of the best of them… also the list of worst movies… worst flops… the list goes on. After all, it’s that time of the year...
So, I am also not going to sit back… I am getting into the bandwagon too. My own favorite films list. I do make my choice and write it down every year, but this time, there was a difference - being in Trivandrum, the choices that I had, was limited, especially for movies from Hollywood and also films from India that didn’t have big theatrical releases. Among the top films suggested by most critics around the world, there is Kings Speech, Black Swann etc. of course; I cannot blame Trivandrum for not seeing those films, as even in Bombay I wouldn’t have seen those. They are not released in India yet. Yet there are few other films that I was not able to see, which otherwise in Bombay or madras I would’ve. For example – Despicable me, Alice in Wonderland,… those films and many others did not release here at Trivandrum. So, as is the case should be, my list is of films that I have seen from those released last year.
But, on the brighter side, being in Trivandrum, I had the good fortune to see few films which haven’t released otherwise – through the International film festival of Kerala 2010 (IFFK 2010) – like – “Buitiful” the latest film of Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu and the new film from Sofia Coppola called “Somewhere”… so it is a mixed bag in terms of cinema viewing… anyway, coming to my favourite films…
I am keeping a single list, where it’s taken from all languages and also it will be both live action and animation.
Inception – (English) – Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan,
Nolan created a maze and put us in there. It seems he took 10 years to write this script and if we thought Momento was confusing, then as Roger Ebert told in his review that was just a warm up.
The story is simple – Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) is a man whose job is to steal people’s ideas from their sub conscious, from their state of dream. That is the time when a man is at its most vulnerable and thus the time to steal ideas. But here, he is given a task even tougher… not to steal an idea, but to plant one… Inception.
It has CG that will shake up your mind. It has great performances and it has some stunning music… I really need not write much, but I would say watch it and then there will be so much to talk. Since Avatar, this is a film that will be talked about for years to come and this is for me, this year’s best.
Toy Story 3 – English – Animation – Written by Michael Arndt and Directed by Lee Unkrich
May be because I have a son now and I also sit with him and play with his toys that I valued this film so much. i have very rarely cried while watching movies, even here, I didn’t, but this is a film that got me close to tears during the last 15 minutes. You forget after a point hat you are watching animated cartoon characters, you become part of them and that for me was the success. Pixar, has made better films in the past (Finding Nemo, Wall E and ‘Up’ comes to mind), but Toy Story 3 will remain for me, the best film, after Inception last year.
My list of other favorite films last year, mostly in the same order is…
I am not going to write summaries of my reviews for the next films, will just put the name and few words in here…
Buitiful’ – (Spanish) – Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu – Innaritu leaves behind his favourite kind of story telling – the multiple storylines – and tells a straightforward story in chronological time frame and with Javier Bardem in one of his finest performances, this is a remarkable film.
The Social Network – (English) – David Fincher (Competing with Inception and King’s Speech, a real big chance that this might take the best picture oscar) to tell a story of a computer programmer and make it interesting to almost thriller quality is just remarkable and David Fincher, after a small disappointment with “The curious case of Benjamin Button, returns in great style.
Somewhere – (English) – Sofia Coppola – with a simplicity, that she brought across in one of her earlier films, Lost in translation, Sofia Coppola brings across simplicity and a certain maturity in narrating the mundane life of a Hollywood superstar.
Unstoppable – (English) – Tony Scott - Unstoppable is one that gave me immense satisfaction after watching something that is in real definition terms a delightful edge of the seat thriller,
Tuan yuan – (Chinese) – the English title is ‘Apart Together’ – directed by Quan'an Wang – an incredibly touching story of a man returning to his native Shanghai after spending 50 years in Taiwan in the army. He comes back home to his wife, who is married and has a big family. Its how family members react and decisions they make.
Angadi theru – (Tamil) – Director – Vasantabalan – a beautiful film about a retail outlest in Ranganathan street, looking very much like the Saravana stores. A heartfelt story narrated, acted and cast exceptionally well.
I liked Sherlock Holmes and Iron man 2, not great cinema, but very enjoyable.
There were two hindi films that I liked a lot – Love, sex aur Dhoka by dibankar banarjee and Ishqiya by Abhsihek Chaubey.
I didn’t see Dabang, last year’s biggest hit and alos didn’t see last year’s 3 big flops – Kites, Guzaarish and Action Replayy… I didn’t like anything in Malayalam… ofcourse, I can say, closest to something that gave me some satisfaction was “pranchiyettan and the Saint”, directed by Ranjith.
So, that sums up my movie list this last year. I think I have covered all I could remember… This year, ahead, I have lot to look forward to…
I wish PVR will open its operations in lulu mall at Cochin very soon and then will get to watch lot more better movies. Ofcourse, I have to travel to cochin… but that is just a small part.
Movies to Look forward to
Animation:
Rango (GoreVerbinski, first full length animation feature film from ILM)
Kungfu Panda 2 (from DreamWorks, directed by Jennifer yhu)
Cars 2 (from Pixar, directed by Joh Lassetter)
Rio (from Bluesky, directed by Carlos Saldhana)
The adventures of Tintin (direted by speilberg – not sure of the date yet, might sometime push to next year)
Live action
Hereafter (Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon))
True Grit (Coen Brothers and again starring matt Damon and Jeff Bridges)
Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky))
Love and other durgs (Directed by Edward Zwick and starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyanhelhaal)
127 hours (directed by Danny Boyle and starring James Franco)
Kings Speech (Tom Hopper, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush)
(These above are going to be released in India in 2011 – films from 2010 –)
Hangover part 2
MI 4
Pirates of the Caribbean
Sherlock Holmes 2...
and many many more...
Some of the hindi films – No one killed Jessica, Dhobhighat, Agent Vinod, Zindagi na mile dubara, Saat Khoon Maaf… etc…
I hope we enjoy watching these and many other movies and I hope, very sincerely that the theatres improve our viewing experience…
I started this blog, and I named it Surajfilms, mainly because films are my line of work and also the name was easily available. I do not have much experience in writing or managing a blog, so please, whoever reads my posts, please, do let me know, whether the things I write here, are interesting... and also tips or suggestions to improve and make the whole process enjoyable.
I have given a title of "watching movies" to this post. I moved from Bombay to Trivandrum last February. Trivandrum is a nice town... even though, both, me and my wife, Lakshmi, were a bit apprehensive about moving over to TVM, we have now adjusted and are now enjoying our stay here. Both of us have put on weight, which is a good sign of prosperity but on the health side, not great. One of our New Year resolutions is to reduce it...
The one thing that we are not yet able to do really well is to enjoy watching movies. Both of us are big movie watchers and we do try and see atleast two films a week. We still continue that, except that our choices are limited here. I should say, I have been spoilt by the multiplexes at Chennai and Bombay and so not yet able to digest the bad projection, the terrible sound, those are technical... more than that, its the behaviour of people that I cannot yet come to terms with. There is no system of switching off the lights once the movie starts. All the theatres here take atleast 15 min into the film to do that. There is no habit of playing the end credits. A comment about the paying public... Talking on a cell phone and messaging, this is even more irritating, because the LCD display is so disturbing to the eye. Silly, irritating comments and lot of chatter. All these do make watching movies a slight boring experience.
I will not say that all across multiplexes all these above points work, but personally for me, i look forward to seeing films at Satyam or Escape at Chennai and over all the multiplexes in Bombay. Small towns across India have multiplexes, why is Kerala only denied that? Finally Ernakulam got one – Cinemax, but I don’t know whether it’s the weather here, but it’s no better than any other theatre, except for switching off lights at the beginning. Everything else is similar and you also have to pay 150 for it. It’s not worth that amount of money. I will not say that multiplex is the solution, but I have seen across other towns that Multiplex helped change the attitude of small theatres as well.
I do write reviews of all movies that I see and I hope to do it through this post. For me, the best 3 movies of last year that I watched across all languages are –
Inception
Toystory 3
Buitiful
More about the best movies and watching lists and much more, in later posts...
Even though I did name this surajfilms and I am very much interested in that, I would be really happy if we get a good deal of other topics and discussions and have fun doing it. I too will write about whatever I think fit sharing. So, like I wrote at the beginning, please feel free to let me know whether what I am putting across is enjoyable and let’s have fun...
WE are into a new year, a new decade and I repeat from my first post, I wish everyone who reads this and also for the world in general a great year full of happiness and fun.
