The art of buying a sari

Bargaining an art about which much has been written about .Arab traders are supposed to get offended if one doesn’t bargain enough. For an Indian woman the experience of buying a sari cannot be complete without the ritual of bargaining. I belong to Surat which is the Mecca of sari trade in India. The textile industry is the heart of all the business in Surat , the diamond industry is also well documented but it probably does not have the same kind of presence in the middle class mind of Indian society as the textile industry does.

The nerve centre of textile trade in Surat is the area near the Railway station. There are many huge complexes, each having hundreds of shops selling just saris, the most famous of them undoubtedly are, the aptly named Textile Market and the not so aptly named Bombay market. These are the places where traders from all over India come to buy saris. If you are buying a synthetic sari anywhere in India or world, chances are very high that it was made in Surat.

How do I know all this because my mom is a champion sari buyer she knows these places very well. Of course Bombay market is her favorite place to buy saris. This is a ritual which is played out every time we are planning a journey to Kerala or we have visitors interested in buying saris. She will mobilize her resources and lead them to charge the markets in pursuit of buying the sari, which is both good looking and easy on the pocket. More often than not she is successful, but then she is a master bargainer.

The shopkeepers at these complexes will be mighty pissed if you don’t bargain with them. They have made every effort to make sure that you bargain. They have these luxurious mattresses with white cover on which the customer sits when buying the clothes. They have master salesmen, yes, all of them are men, you would be hard pressed to find a saleswoman, these men have mastered the elusive art of tying a sari, they model it for you, they argue with you, they talk in whichever language you want. And from what I have seen, they also seem to have infinite patience, they seem to be happy enough to show tens of hundreds of  saris and model them for you until you find the one you are looking for. Now, if you don’t like any of them, they don’t hold grudges and bid you goodbye and move on to the next customer.

The process of bargaining

Once you have locked in on a sari or saris the ritual of bargaining starts, it starts with the salesmen naming a price. Of course, you laugh off the price; you counter with an equally ridiculous low price (at least 50% of percent of the above quoted price). Now it is the salesman’s turn, more often than not, at this point he will nod his head side to side , indicating his refusal  and quote a price slightly lower than the one originally stated At this point you have 2 routes, one is to add another sari to the mix or walk away from the deal. But there is third option, and that is emotional blackmail, you could say that the visitors that you have bought with you have come from far, for example that they have come from Kerala, how can you let them walk away empty handed.

Depending on how badly he wants to make a sale, the salesman may decide to reduce the price a little bit. It still may not be the price that you are willing to pay, now you turn up the dramatics, you say you are not happy with the price and the final price you are willing to pay is say 60% of the quoted price and if the shop is not happy you will take the business elsewhere. For added benefit, it would be a great idea to make show of getting up or asking your friends to start making the move.

At this point, the salesman will start lamenting the labour costs, he will give you a rundown of the costs, cite the electricity bill, the labour cost, the raw material cost, the general state of the economy and for added measure to show his honesty will give you a figure (as ridiculous as 5% of the total sale) as his profit from the sale. But still he says, he does not want to lose your business, so he will reduce the price a little more. At this point, again you have 2 options, one is to quote the final price or actually get up and start proceeding towards the exit. The chances are quite high that the salesman will also quote his final price at this time or at least ask you for a round figure. And then finally you will have a successful bargain. The ideal price would be somewhere between 60-70% of the price originally quoted.

Unfortunately, I have not inherited the gene which make you a successful bargainer; I go looking for books/dvds/clothes in places but am not able to bargain. I generally look for a bargain as in, in a year-end sale or just buy cheap stuff which are not that durable.If you have any tips to be successful bargainer please let me know. Or I could just take my mom with me everywhere.

Aam Aadmi from Kerala – Sreenivasan

‘Aam Aadmi’ is the focus of the present UPA administration in India. At least that’s how they spin it. In the Malayalam film industry, you had a man who imbibed this spirit a long time ago.

Sreenivasan, writer, director , actor and lately producer, is the person I am talking about. He has always portrayed a common man in his movies. He has always written and directed movies about them.

He has portrayed,

- how a person suffers from mental illness because of jealousy, jealous because his wife is fair and he is dark

- how a person breaks up his loving joint family due to pressures from his wife

- how a lazy grown man , with wife and kids, can undo his life because of his fear of taking any responsibilities

- how a communist worker who follows communism ideals blindly and has to pay a big price for it

- how a politically minded son forgets all about his responsibilities in his pursuit of a career in politics

Do all the things I listed above sound serious to you? You will be surprised to know all the movies above are well regarded comedies in Malayalam with amazing repeat value. Most of them also have their stories, screenplay and dialogues written by Sreenivasan.

Why Sreenivasan is popular?

Sreenivasan has a great sense of humour. I would define sense of humour as a person’s ability to laugh at himself before laughing at others. Sreenivasan excels in that. Before making fun of any situation or any person, I think he imagines himself to be in their position. That is the strength of his writing, his characters. He understands the mind set of a middle class person and is able to see humour in the situation.

In none of his movies (which he has directed or written) are the characters extravagantly rich. They seem to be school teachers, barbers, unemployed youths, and small business owners (with a clear definition of what business). All of them are characters that the audiences can identify with. And that’s precisely what happened, Sreenivasan is a well respected figure in the Malayalam film industry; he is respected not just by his peers but also by his audiences.

Sreenivasan as a story, script and screenplay writer

Sreenivasan has been going strong for the last 25-30 years in the Malayalam film industry. In this time, among his contemporaries were world renowned writer directors like Padmarajan, Bharathan, M.T.Vasudevan Nair. But amazingly, inspite of such wonderfully talented competition, Sreenivasan has been able to carve a niche for himself in the hearts and minds of Malayalam film audience.

In part it is due to the comedic nature of his writings and movies, though he has portrayed a lot of serious characters in movies from directors like Adoor Gopalakrishnan , Aravindan , K.G.George etc, I don’t think he has ever written a character devoid of humour from himself or others.And in part due to the relevance of his movies, they may be comedies, but the audience can identify with each and every character in his movies. They may be like that or known somebody like that or vaguely heard of somebody like that.

As an example, I would like to present 4  synopsis(synposii?) of stories, screenplays or script that he has written. Check for yourself if you have known somebody like that, ( Please note all the title translations from malayalam are loose, may be off the mark, In case it is way too off, please let me know and i will be happy to change it)

Vellannagalude Naadu (Land of White Elephants):

A movie about socio-economic conditions of a small time civic contractor, played brilliantly as always by Mohanlal, the movie is a critique of an Indian bureaucracy, of how civil servants collude with private contractors to siphon money of various development schemes announced by the government. The movie, directed by Priyadarshan,(wondering how this has not been made into Hindi till now), had a host of characters, including a serious and honest Panchayat President portrayed by Sreenivasan who loses his life in the process, prompting Mohanlal’s character to become honest and bring the culprits to justice. The movie also had Shobana portraying a tehsildar.

The movie had a whole lot of comedic sequences , the most remembered might be the sequence where a road roller being pulled by an elephant goes out of control and rams into a house.

Sanmasilluvarke Samadhanam( People with goodness in their hearts are most satisfied) :

Remade into Hindi by Priyadarshan as ‘Yeh Tera Ghar Yeh Mera Ghar’ starring Sunil Shetty and Mahima Chaudhary, the remake was a poor imitation of the original. I wonder how Priyadarshan thought that Sunil Shetty can match up to Mohanlal from any angle. The movie follows a down on luck landlord trying to evict long time tenants from his house in the city. A sweet movie made memorable by superb performances by the lead pair of Mohanlal and Karthika and supporting performances by KPAC Lalitha, Sreenivasan and Thilakan.

Veravelppu (Welcome on arrival):

A brilliant movie by Sreenivasan-Sathyan Anthikad combination the movie follows a gulf returned malayalee ( Mohanlal) and his attempts to start a business in Kerala in face of rampant trade unionism. The movie was/still is a chilling comment on the negative aspects of trade unionism in Kerala.

Thalayanmantram:

How many times have you heard this story? A family very happy together was broken up because the girl he married did not like anyone in the family.A wife (brilliant Urvashi) wants better life for herself and her family consisting of husband Sreenivasan and a daughter. She feels she is not appreciated in the joint family set up of Sreenivasan’s family with his brother (Jayaram) and brother’s wife(Parvati) being more appreciated. Slowly her plan seems to work and Sreenivasan’s character breaks up his joint family and tries to lead a better life elsewhere. The movie also serves as a commentary on consumerism when the now nuclear family spends a lot of money on buying fridge, tv and car and other luxury items and end up with high debts which lead them back into the arms of the joint family.

Whatever your personal take on the story may be, you couldn’t deny that these things happen and many families have broken up due to these kinds of ego hassles. A well made movie with brilliant performances by every one but most notably Urvashi as the wife aspiring for a better future and Sreenivasan as the hen pecked husband.

A common thread in all these movies is, all the characters are common middle class people. The movie tends to put them in extraordinary situations and makes them react to the situations as humanly as possible. For example, in Vellannagalude Naadu , Mohanlal’s character being a practical person knows that bribing and flattering civil servants can get his bills passed. In ‘Sanmasilluvarku Samadham’ the landlord chances upon an old friend who is now a police inspector and tries selfishly use him to try and intimidate the stubborn tenants. In ‘Veravellupu’, Mohanlal’s character is easily misled by others, especially his family whom he supported by toiling the gulf.Imagine yourself in each of the characters above, I bet that you would also respond in the same way as the characters in the movie did.

Sreenivsan as a director:

Sreenivasan has directed only 2 movies. All these movies have been successful at the box office and are still remembered for unique messages in each of the movies

Vadakanokiya Yanthram (Machine that looks north (Compass)):

Sreenivasan’s directorial debut, the movie starred himself and Parvati. The movie starts off with Sreenivasan’s character writing a letter to a agony aunt/uncle column complaining that the girl he is going to marry is much fairer than him and what should he do to make his skin color fair.

This inferiority complex even after marriage sees Sreenivasan’s character going from bad to worse mentally, he loses all logic in his ever consuming jealousy and ends up alienating his family and wife.He finally goes to a psychiatrist and gets proper treatment.This must be probably one of the few mainstream movies in India to treat mental illness with the maturity they deserve.

A thread of movie is common day occurance, you wouldn’t have to look far to find a husband jealous of his wife in your daily life. Do all them lead to such situations as depicted in the movie, probably not, but then the movie acts as a cautionary tale on how it can end up.

Chintavristhaya Shyamala (Shyamala, who does not have any worries)

Sreenivasan’s character a school teacher who has a wife ‘Shyamala’ and 2 kids has been on a long leave from the school that he teaches in. He is a drifter who does not like any kind of responsibility and wants to achieve big things in life without knowing his limitations. At the start of the movie he absconds from his house to direct a commercial without understanding the basics of directing. The central character of the movie is his long suffering wife ‘Shyamala’ who runs the house with the help of Sreenivasan’s parents. After each of his escapades, lasting maximum of 3 days, he comes back with a set of excuses and tries to lead a normal life for a period of time before the itch to abscond starts again. After each of the escapade, Shyamala forgives her husband. At last he absconds for good, tries to become a swami by joining an ashram. Shymala gives up all hopes of his returning and tries and succeeds in becoming the bread winner of the house.

The movie ends with Sreenivasan’s character being thrown out of the ashram by the swami-in-charge for neglecting his family duties and his returning to his home to realise that everything runs smoothly in his absence and that unless he mends his ways he is in danger of losing out on everything that he has.

A lazy man, how familiar are you with one, I know I am, because I am one. The movie shows the dangers of abdicating ones responsibility to oneself, towards one’s family and to the society at large.

Why am I writing about Sreenivasan

Whenever people talk about malaylam cinema they talk about offbeat/artistic movies by Aravindan , Adoor Gopalakrishnan, they don’t talk a lot of the mainstream commercial movies expect for a few names like Padmarajan, a respected writer director who made some memorable movies in his short life. They talk about Mohanlal and Mammooty , brilliant actors, who have portrayed myriad of characters written by Sreenivasan. They talk about movies which have won awards, still do every year at the national awards, which may/may not be good.

They don’t talk about Sreenivasan. They don’t talk about the range of movies that he has done. They don’t talk about the characters he has written or directed which are still in the minds of the Malayalam cinema audiences. Sreenivasan made his mainstream career keeping within the parameters that define mainstream cinema. He wrote/directed successful movies which are still remembered for their humour and message. Malayalam cinema audience knows what to expect from a Sreenivasan movie, for them it is enough that it was written by Sreenivasan.

I am writing this because I believe Sreenivasan is a great talent who is one of the very few in India who can do writing, directing and acting with equal ease. Unfortunately he is unknown outside Kerala. His work might be known to Hindi cinema audiences through butchered scenes in Priyadarshan remake factory movies. I hope my writing this compels you to see a Sreenivasan movie next time you hear his name, or see him while changing channels. You may not understand the language, but I am sure you will understand the gist.

First published on PassionForCinema here .. http://passionforcinema.com/sreenivasan-–-aam-aadmi-from-kerala/

Rail Gaadi – Part 2

(See the first part here)

So, we got in and took our allotted seats. In between came the ritual of tucking in of luggage, with no luggage restrictions of any kind, Indian Railways lets people bring in as many suitcases, bags as they want. All of these have to be confined in a small place, there are fights , there are adjustments during the ritual.There also an obligatory fight with my sister about the right to occupy the window seat.Of course,being the elder brother i would have to sacrifice the window seat, which i still think was legitimately mine, since i allowed her the window seat the last time around.

Thus, the journey began. A long 3 day journey to the ‘native place’ or ‘gaon’. The most remarkable thing about the journey happened in the first 30 minutes, at this point the train had not gained much speed and you could still see Surat on the horizon, you became friends with all your co-passengers. It was difficult to believe that just 5 minutes ago they were complete strangers and at each others throats for an inch of space. It began with a smile , a simple ‘where are you from?’, ‘can i have the magazine please?’.

My greatest thrill was opportunity to eat junk food. A procession of hawkers would have started as soon as the train started, and i would not mind any of it. I would leave out the hawkers selling fruits, milk, juices or any healthy stuff. The prized ones where the guys selling ‘bhajiya’, ‘bhelpuri’ , ‘bonda’ basically all items scooped out of boiling oil preferably in crispy state. An Indian Railways catering employee also came around in between asking for dinner orders, he would be carrying a chit of paper on which he would write down the berth numbers of the people who order. That was the sophisticated technology used for recording lunch and dinner orders of the entire train. I do not know about the prestigious trains, but the cooks on our route were not hired for their culinary skills. They did come up with some basics, a watery dal, a chewy roti, half boiled rice and something vaguely resembling a subji. Later i realized that all of them were hired from engineering college canteens. Campus placement, i believe. But i must confess, i enjoyed the food, i had no reason to but i did.

A journey spanning 2 nights and 3 days , taking you through 5 states, covering Maharashtra during the first night, second day alternating between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh , reaching Bangalore late in the evening and covering TN on the second night and reaching the shores of Kerala on the third day morning. Looks good on paper , doesn’t it, but sadly it never played out like that. All the Kerala trains were supposed to arrive at Palghat ( a major junction at the entrance of Kerala from TN) , between 3 -5 in the morning. In all my years of travelling ( at least 10),i cannot remember it happening more than twice.Why was this important, because we had to get down at Palghat and catch a different train to reach our ‘gaon’. Now if we reached early enough in the morning, we had a couple of options, and could be home by 9 or 10 in the morning, but if we missed that range of time, we were looking at spending 3-4 hours waiting at Palghat station waiting for the next train going in that direction.Oh, i could load you up with jargons about connecting trains and bogies being detached and attached, but the long and short of it is , more often than not, we ended up spending the first day of our visit to Kerala on Palghat station.

But , hey, we were in Kerala, I would get excited seeing the latest Mohanlal movie posters, people talking in Malayalam all around me ( Now i wonder why, i do not particularly love mallus, Mohanlal , yes, but others not so much).Around 10 in the morning at Palghat station , came what was called the ‘Link Express’ , as the name makes it amply clear , it was a train linking those forsaken mallus going to North Kerala ( towards Calicut, Kannur) whom the mother train offloaded here. Trains coming from all over India to Kerala had to pass through Palghat during those days, all the trains were timed to arrive at around the same range of time, between 3-6 in the morning, the bogies meant for North Kerala were offloaded in Palghat and joined up to form a new train which left at 10 in the morning. The meticulous indian bureaucratic planning.

In the end,  we reached, we reached at 3 in the evening to my dad’s village, to his beautiful ancestral house, which was always our first pit stop during the vacation. Being the first-born grandson meant that i was treated like a prince especially by my grandmother and generally by the rest of the extended family, i could do no wrong. The best food and sweets were prepared for the prince, as also were  plans made to get videos and show him all the movies that he must have missed in the past year.

Then one of best engineering feats of modern India, creation of Konkan Railways, which drastically cut the time travel between Gujarat and Kerala. Now it takes just 24 hours to reach Kerala from Surat and it takes you through a picturesque route passing through Konkan Region, Goa and the ghats. I too had grown up by that time to enjoy a train travel anymore, travelling by air became much more practical. But i miss the old route, the summer heat, the laziness of the train, the glimpses of the country from the window bars of those trains, the uncomfortable berths of the trains. How else would i have known about places like , Mantralayam Road, Guntakal, Guntur, Gulbarga, Krishnarajpuram, Whitefield,Gooty, Wadi? Places that are etched in my memory only because my train stopped there every year without fail.

Me Pakiya Talking– Letter from a henchman

Dear Sirs and Madams,

Boss is always ordering me to go collect hafta, beat up the hero, rape the heroine/hero’s sister. I do that for I am the ever loyal henchman. Of course, you seeing me in countless movies, television episodes getting shot, beaten up in the first few seconds of the fight scene. Have you ever wondering what goes through my mind when I am doing so bad things? After all I am human being too I also have dreams. May be I want to be the boss one day, or at least the right hand henchman who stays till the second last reel of the movie. I also having dreams of a high paying high flying carrier.

At last all of us, henchmen of dons, politicians, businessmen deciding to unite.We forming the All India Henchmen’s Association – (AIHA). The association progressing very well, thank you. We aiming to be the number 1 henchmen association in India. An example for the world I say, We had our first Annual General Body meeting last week.

I, as the secretary, hiring an outside consultant to come up with our list of demands. Mr. H. R. Mannan, the consultant coming up with following list which I cutting and pasting here.

Membership drive:

All the henchmen have to be registered with AIHA. Only registered members will be allowed to operate.

Career prospects:

Every employer has to provide a well defined career path for a prospective henchman.The following is an indication of how AIHA want this to be,

Post Name	Experience (in years)
Associate Henchman	Entry Level
Assistant Henchman	2
Senior Assistant Henchman	4
Senior Henchman	>6
Assistant to the RH Henchman	>8
Senior Assistant to the RH Henchman	>10
Right Hand henchman	>10
Boss	any

Standard Salary :

Salaries of all the henchmen at all the positions have to standardized we would like to provide recommendation in this matter, it is upto the organization to adopt this. The figures provided are the minimum required , anything less will not be acceptable

Death incentive:

It is widely acknowledged and proven that this is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world , we would like the organizations to adopt a life insurance policy for all the henchmen. Plus, there should be also be a lumpsum payment of 10 times the last month’s salary to the henchman’s immediate family.

Promotion:

A henchman may spend upto 3 years in a position. This can be relaxed for up to 5 years in case of ‘Senior Assistant to RH Henchman’ and ‘Right Hand Henchman’ posts (Please see the table above for more details.).

Firing or Quitting a job:

A henchman who has completed 2 years in the service of a boss is free to leave the organization without any hard feelings or fear or retribution giving at least 1 month’s notice. The organization is free fire a henchman at any time during his service for a notice period of at least 1 month.If they fire, as in literally fire him, then the above death incentive clause applies.

Risk Allowance:

An organization is bound to pay a risk allowance to a henchman for the type of service provided.

The allowances are detailed in the table below,

Type of Risk	Allowance(in Indian Rupees)	Remarks
Killing a low level righteous man( the kind who are in the movie to get killed)	2500
Fighting a middle level righteous man	5000 – 10000	Highest amount to be paid only if the murder provides motive to the hero.
Killing the immediate family members of the hero	15000
Kidnapping the immediate family members of the hero	20000	Plus expenses can be claimed based on actuals if bills are provided
Raping the hero’s sister	30000
Raping the heroine	50000
A hit to the face	1000
A gunshot which does not kill the henchman	10000	Plus medical bills must be reimbursed on the actuals

These are our humble demands, please considering them otherwise further actions might be pursued.

If you not understanding any of the above, please let us know we will come back to you.

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely,

Pakiya

Rail Yatra- Part 1

Indian Railways , the nervous system of India. They transport millions of people every day. Each train in India is a mini-India in itself. There are all kinds of trains, passenger trains, express trains, super fast express ,Rajdhani, Shatbadi now there are Durontos which are non stop super fast trains between metro cities.

Each city/town/village has a favorite train of its own. R.K.Narayan, the master novelist, realized this when he made 27UP and 27 DOWN pass through Malgudi each day. Of course Malgudi was a small town thus did not have the luxury of having a whole lot of trains passing through. But Surat, the place that I belong to is different. Surat lies midway between Mumbai and Ahmedabad (an 8 hour journey give or take) and the first major stop after Mumbai towards Delhi, possibly the busiest train route in India.

Surat, of course, had trains connecting to Ahmedabad and Mumbai with great frequency. The  favorites were ‘Flying Ranee’ ( one of the oldest trains in India ) , which started from Surat at 5 in the morning and reached Mumbai at 10 and the ‘Gujarat Queen’ which starts in Valsad, city 1 hour east of Surat, but gets filled up in Surat at 5:30 in the morning and reaches A’bad at 10:30 in the morning. Both these trains start their return journeys at 6 from Mumbai and Ahmedabad respectively and reach Surat around 10:30 and 11 in the night. This cycle has been continuing for many decades now.’Flying Ranee’ is one of the few trains in India to have double-decker compartments.

During my formative years, trains used to take a special significance only during summer vacation. My parents ,dutifully, used to book the tickets after much struggle, every year to Kerala. It was a long 3-day journey which I am sure felt like hell at that time but now I recall fondly.

It generally started on the first Saturday after the schools shut down for the summer. The train used to reach Surat at 2:35 in the afternoon. We would have been packing for at least 3 days prior to that. In between there would be fights between me and my sister, me and my mom on what to take and what not to take. On the d- day, my mother would be up early to prepare food for the journey. We would take food to last us until breakfast next day. After much preparation, at last it was time to go the station.

An auto would be fetched to take us till the station. The railway stations, as most of them are, give out a stench which is a mixture of garbage, tea, beggars, and food. For any journey involving my dad we have to reach the station at least an hour in advance, he was preparing us for our current life of waiting for airport security checks. This was before the omnipresence of telephones, so it was usually when we reached the station that we came to know that the train is late.

Wearing new clothes, in anticipation of the journey, we were reduced to languishing on the platform. For anybody who knows Surat Railway station, the south bound trains always come on platform 2. I distinctly remember years when the trains were at least 4-5 hours late, so there we were on platform number 2 waiting for the Kerala train to arrive. And arrive it did, finally rumbling along onto the platform. As soon as it arrived there was a mad rush to get in, though the train stopped for 5 minutes at the station, all of us assumed that it would go away as fast as it came, hence the mad rush to get in at any cost.

The mad rush always led to fights, it was mish-mash of porters balancing suitcases on their heads, bags on their arms, families with babies, me holding my sister’s hand trying to wedge our way into the compartment. If my memory serves me right, S-6 and S-7 was Surat quota. Which meant that these compartments were meant to filled up in Surat, but which also meant free loaders, short distance travelers had monopolized the compartment on the way to Surat, and all of them are trying to get down and we are all (at least 72 of us + people who have come see off people + porters), trying to get in before the damn train started ambling again.   ( To be continued..)

Political Satire and Indian Movies

‘Bahut Politics Hai’, a line we frequently use in our daily conversation. This could be in reference to situations in office, in a housing colony, in an industry. We, as a country love our politics, but there is a sense of weariness with the politicians. We may love or hate our politicians, but we do not seem to be making enough fun of them

There have been very few movies in India either on the big screen or television, which have tried to satirize the rich and diverse field of Indian politics. The Indian politics and politicians can be a rich source of comic material.

For example, elections, a fascinating display of India’s democracy, each time leads to a lot of comedy. Party hopping, that the politicians engage in, you had a politician in UP who changed his parties thrice in a day, is ready made comedy requiring no effort on the writers part.

Of course, there have been movies which have seriously touched upon the politics, ‘Aandhi’ , ‘Maachis’ , ‘Hu Tu Tu’, ‘Satta’, ‘Gulal’ , Mani Ratnam’s loose trilogy of Indian politics ‘Roja’, ‘Bombay’ and ‘Dil Se’ come to mind. But these movies tackled politics

seriously and had something serious to say. Gulal may be classified as tragicomic but was by no means a satire.

Television has thrown some really good examples for political satire, i remember Kakkaji Kahin , in which Om Puri represented the UP-Bihar politicians beautifully much before Laloo Yadav came to limelight as a funny man. ‘Ji Mantriji’ , an official remake of ‘Yes Minister’ was also good. ‘Office Office’ ran successfully for years, though it does not address politics directly, we can all agree that bureaucracy is a close relative of democracy.

Kerala and movies on politics:

Of all the people in India, Keralites and Bengalis are undoubtedly the most political. I cannot talk about Bengalis, but in Kerala it is due to the communists and the high literacy rate. But the primary reason is the number of people who read newspapers. ‘Malayala Manorama’, a daily from Kerala, has  the highest circulations for a regional language newspaper.

In the Malayalam film industry, predictably, there have been a lot of movies about politics. They have been like ‘Lal Salaam’, ‘Advaitham’ or ‘Rakhtasazhigal Zindabad’ about the communism and its rise. But the best of the lot have been movies which have been satirical in nature. I would like to present 2 of them,

Panchavati Palam (1983) ( Loose Translation : Bridge on Panchavati River) :

Set in a small village in Kerala, the movie introduces a Panchayat President ( ‘Bharat’ Gopi) who has been ruling for the past 10 years or so, the president is totally hen pecked , wife (Sri Vidya) rules by proxy with the help of a cunning fixer and panchayat member ( Nedumudi Venu). The president wants to leave a lasting legacy to the village that he has ruled for years and is persuaded to build a bridge.

The move goes on to show how the opposition party (led by Thilakan) and the ruling party collude with each other to take the innocent villagers for a ride and make money in the process. The village represents the country in the movie.  The politics that the movie shows/ridicules is still practiced.

K.G.George, who is otherwise known for his serious movies, directed this gem of a movie. Well acted and well presented, this movie is one of those forgotten gems which people do not get to see these days.

Sandesham ( 1992) ( Loose Translation : Messages) :

Sreenivasan and Sathayan Anthikad have given some wonderful movies to the Malayalam film audiences. ‘Sandesham’ surely is one of their best offerings, with ‘Nadodikattu’ being the best movie ever.

‘Sandesham’ is a story of a retired station master (Thilakan), his wife ( Kavioor Ponnamma) and their 2 sons (Sreenivasan and Jayaram) . The parents have spent all their lives caring for their children , educating them and even spending time apart so that the kids studies would not be disturb

ed because of the frequent transfers that entail a government job. The sons grow up to join different political parties , Sreenivasan joining the communists and Jayaram joining the Congress. Both of them are committed activists and are willing to do anything for their respective parties even at the cost of their parents happiness and more importantly money that their parents had saved for their future. The movie remarkably shows the hypocrisy involved in the politics of both the parties and how both the political activists remain immune to the mistakes of the parties until it is too late for both of them.

Along the way, it makes fun of the hard-line ideologies of both the parties, like the intellectuals of the communist parties, how congress does not have any ideology at all.There is a wonderful scene where Sreenivasan and Jayaram argue on the breakfast table, they argue about the happenings in Nicaragua, remember the movie was made in 1992, and US had just propped up another dictator in Nicaragua and the Iran-Contra affair had happened. The scene is good because it shows the insularity of the politicians , they do not seem to care about the happenings in the their surroundings but are more concerned about the happenings around the world.

Extra :

Hun Hunshi Hunshilal (1992) ( English Title : Love in the time of Malaria)

I am a mallu born and bought up in Gujarat, with no active/vibrant Gujarati movie industry to speak of,  it is remarkable how I remember I a small Gujarati movie which I saw at least 15 years ago which again was a political satire, I remember the name quite clearly. Searching on the net does not yield a whole lot of information other than that it was directed by Sanjiv Shah and starred the wonderful actor-who-died-young Mohan Gokhale and was another in the long line of good but forgotten movies produced by NFDC.

I think the movie was set in the future but had some telling comments to make about the present. I don’t know if anybody else has seen the movie or possesses a vcd or dvd of the movie.The synopsis presented in the site ( see references below ) does not ring a bell. But i am sure that is the movie which i remember from my childhood.

References :

Panchavadi Palam:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchavadi_Palam

Sandesham :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0353975/

Hun Hunshi Hunshilal:

http://www.geocities.com/curlybraces/movies/hindimovies.htm ( Scroll down to see movies starting with ‘H’)

 

First published on Passion For Cinema on Oct 25th, http://passionforcinema.com/political-satire-and-indian-movies/

Middle Class Hero

A question for you, what would you call a man who has the following qualities,

1. Dances well

2. Fights well

3. Can ride a horse

4. Cries at the drop of a hat

5. has no insecurities about himself,

6. Can make the most beautiful girl fall in love with him

7. Is the perfect son/brother/father/husband

8. Is the most honest person you will ever meet?

9. Has 6-pack abs, a perfectly toned body

10. has no vices what so ever.

The answer is a Hindi film hero. It has been a long time since we had a leading man who does not have the qualities mentioned above. Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, John Abraham are dream merchants who represent the above ideas.

The question is when did we, the audience, change the definition? We have always had handsome hulk heroes. Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor were among the most handsome men you will ever meet. Then you had Rajesh Khanna, Dharamendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatughan Sinha defining the quintessential machismo, romance, fights required by our films.

But in all these eras, there always were leading men who did not match the standard idea of male beauty. Balraj Sahni, Bharat Bhushan, though not very handsome, achieved a certain amount of success.

The best of the lot of these leading men and the most successful, undoubtedly, was Amol Palekar. A very competent actor, he made a name for himself doing comedies and dramas some of which have become cult classics. ‘Golmaal’, ‘Baaton Baaton Main’, ‘Gharonda’, ‘Naram Garam’, ’Chitchor’ and countless other movies gave the audiences a leading man who was miles away from any other actors that they saw on the screen in those times.

Why Amol Palekar was famous?

Amol Palekar filled a void on the screen. May be people did not want to keep looking at tall handsome men always. Here was a man, with a pencil thin moustache, doing roles which were meant for him. They couldn’t be portrayed by AB, Dharamendra, Jeetendra or anybody else. Amol Palekar played those roles with a certain poise and control. The acting did not dissolve into a slap stick routine.

Amol Palekar did what nobody else did before him or has done it even today. He had a mass appeal. His movies at least during a certain period of time were super hits. He was a certified star. For a film industry rooted in Bombay/Mumbai, he probably was the only ‘Marathi Manoos’ who could legitimately be called a Hindi movie star. His movies commanded a certain initial and were released all over.

Current stars who can match up to him:

Which brings me to question of this post, who do you think is the ‘Amol Palekar’ of this generation? I don’t think we have any at present. This generation wants to see a leading man do all sorts of things. ‘Dance’ being a precondition for being a leading man.

One contender might be Vinay Pathak, but he surely does not command a market as Amol Palekar did in his time. Also, he is dangerously close to being labeled a character actor. Ranvir Shorey is a little too westernized in my opinion but he could evolve into something similar. Shreyas Talpade, another ‘Marathi Manoos’ has a decent chance of filling the void, should he get the right roles.

Reasons for absence of an average-looking leading man:

The main reason for the absence is the death of middle class movies. We hardly see movies today in which the hero is a clerk, a teacher or works as a laborer. These are things of past, nowadays leading men are businessmen (no idea, what business), software engineers, call center executives or idle sons of rich fathers. All these professions or roles require a higher standard of living.

Another notable thing is influx of actors (or non-actors) from the world of fashion and due to nepotism. None of them (except may be John Abraham or Hrithik Roshan) have achieved any degree of success. The quality common to all of them is ability to look fabulous in front of a camera.

Nepotism, which plays a big role in our country’s professional and government fields, has also led to a whole lot of actors coming in to the industry. All of them undergo a tough regime which includes horse riding, dancing and some hardcore body building. One could notice this from reading the interviews given by the new guys. They do not talk about acting in plays or about taking up challenging roles. Instead, they talk about their gym regimes and the work they put into training for dance sequences.

The only legitimate movie about the Indian middle class in the last 5-10 years was ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ . The leading man of that movie was an IT professional.  The audience has always defined the requirements for a leading man, and in the present times they need to have the following conditions. They should have a chiseled body, should be clean shaven, and should be pleasing to the eye.

Conclusion:

The gist of this article is request the audience to accept people based on their acting abilities, not on their looks. If we remove beauty as the only criteria for a leading man, I think we would have more movies addressing the middle class. This is not to say that middle class means ugly, it is just that upper class is , unfortunately, associated with glamour, so when they cast for a movie which has rich characters, the actors they look for have to be glamorous. The film makers do not make a market, they respond to what the market wants. So unless we decide on refining the requirements for leading man, the change is not going to happen.

Here’s hoping that the current changes in the Indian movie industry lead to an emergence of a leading man who does not belong to any definition of a hero, who can act very well, who is not afraid to portray a middle class man.

Note

First published on PFC on Oct 25th, http://passionforcinema.com/middle-class-hero/