sujatha's work

This work of sujatha, just popped out of nowhere from a forum.


கோயிலுக்குப் பக்கத்தில் கார் துடைக்கக் காத்திருப்பாய்
கூட்டமுள்ள ஹோட்டலில் சாப்ட்டவுடன் ப்ளேட் எடுப்பாய்
பாயின்றிப் படுத்திருப்பாய் ப்ளாட்பாரத்தில் குளிப்பாய்
பட்டரையில் வெட்டிரும்பால் பகலிரவாய் தட்டிடுவாய்
சாயங்கால சமுத்திரத்தின் அருகில் சுண்டல் விற்பாய்
சந்துகளில் இருட்டில் பெண்களுக்காய் ஆள் பிடிப்பாய்
காஜா அடிப்பாய் கட்டடத்தில் கல் உடைப்பாய்
கார் அடியில் படுத்திருந்து கறுப்பாய் எழுந்திருப்பாய்
மேஜை துடைப்பாய் மேட்டினியில் இடிபடுவாய்
மெதுவாக என்னிடத்தில் கருப்பிலே சீட்டு விற்பாய்
கூஜா எடுத்துப்போய் குடிதண்ணீர் கொணர்வார்
கூட்டத்தில் கரைந்து பாக்கெட்டைக் கத்தரிப்பாய்
ராஜாவே உனக்கென்றே நாங்கள் இவ்வருஷம்
ராஜ்ஜியம் முழுவதுமே விழா எடுக்கப்போகின்றோம்
திரைப்படங்கள் எடுப்போம் திண்பண்டம் தந்திடுவோம்
தீவிரமாய் உன்நிலைமை உயர்த்துவது பற்றி
வரைபடங்கள் வரைந்து வாதாடிப் புகைப்பிடித்து
வருங்காலக் கனவுகளை வண்ணங்களாய்த் தருவோம்
குறைபட்டுக் கொள்ளாதே கொஞ்ச நாள் பொறுத்திரு
கூட்டங்கள் கூட்டி குளிர்சாதன அறைக்குள்
சிறைப்பட்டு சிந்தித்து சீக்கிரமே முடிவெடுப்போம்
சில்லறையாய் இல்லை போய்விட்டு அப்புறம் வா !

-Sujatha

Aananda Thaandavam - Thank God Sujatha isn't alive to see this.

There was this wonderful book, "Pirivom Santhipom" written by Sujatha. If one had read that book, please refrain from watching this shit. What a waste of time and money had it been for me and Aascar Ravichandran. Who can ever compare "Raghu" from the book to someone who always is at the verge of crying and always makes it bad by doing so. Tammana's overacting never helped even to portray the ever-innocent "Madhu". Rukmini gave me a breather with her character "name-not-in-memory". Though I never expected, the movie to be an exact adoption from the book, the movie never even tried coming near in terms the feel, which the book gave. I read the book (part 1 and 2) in 2 days. But then, I never was left with its feel for ever. People who haven't read the book, please don't watch it, as you might even start disliking Sujatha. G.V.Prakash neeeds some practice in English, as he had misunderstood the word music. And Aaskarji... please wake up.

This is the first movie, in which I saw the entire audience roar in happiness, when the intermission was announced.

Short story

Sickened by the taste of what he ate a couple of hours ago, he was desperate to be outdoors. But, the rain which was pouring, left him only with the option of sitting near the window, watching the rain. He wanted to call her. But from what she had spoken that morning, he promised himself, he would never call her until she apologized. But then, promises between one’s ego and oneself are always at the verge of being broken, only that they are not shown to others. He would take his mobile and press a button randomly, only to read, "Press Unlock and then *."

This process was repeated once every 30 seconds on an average. It was 2 PM already and if there is no relent from the rain gods, he should be expecting a call from her that day, at least to get picked from her office. He did not want to behave as if nothing had happened, but at the same time he did not want to be the first one to give up. He thought, "Let me wait for her call till evening, if the rain doesn’t stop."

The next two hours moved by simply preparing a presentation for the meeting he had the next day. He was a silent creature in his office. If there had been any award for being silent in office, he would have won it five years in a row. The only sounds he made voluntarily in his life were, honking and honking again. When people see him speak even from a close proximity, they would be forced to wonder, if they would find a volume control, which was always turned to "near-zero" somewhere under his collar.

It was 4.30 PM and he came out for a coffee. The rain had stopped. He knew he wouldn’t get a call and only thought, "I am just an umbrella in her life." But then, he had a strange feeling on his thigh. It was her. He was very happy that she had called. He had read somewhere, "only the anxiety of the wait would increase the strength of the bond." He thought, "If she really wanted to apologize, she would call again". So, he decided against answering it. He moved back to his place, expecting a call from her. In the meanwhile, he was recapping what happened earlier that day.

He realized, it was also his mistake to have forgotten the knife in the garage. He just gave a helpless look wondering as to why she was shouting when he had washed it. He knew, she would have not gone this wild if he had replaced it on the breakfast table. Even, it being found in the garage shouldn’t have raged her. But the reason he gave did make her go wild.

"You know, I wanted some sharp object to scrub off the tires."
She shouted, "Knife would be the last thing for any sane person to use as a scrubber on tires. Do you expect me to use it on the breakfast table? How did you manage to get a job in the first place?"
He was now a little raged (only little), "Wash it again if you want. Don’t ever comment on my profession."

He thought, "she must have felt really sorry for what she spoke today. Was it too grave a mistake to use a knife as a scrubber? That’s what my dad used to do and the best part was, mom never used to ask about the knife when she found it in the garage." He called his dad and asked,
"Dad, had mom ever asked about the knife in the garage?"
"No. Actually, she hadn’t asked anything about it in the past fifteen years."
"Ok." He hung up.

He didn’t want to speak much as he wanted to attend her call and didn’t want to miss it again in the process of inquiring about his dad’s asthma. He thought," ok. I would say this. You know even my mom hadn’t asked anything for the past fifteen years, about the knife that my dad used in the garage."

He was not prepared to answer her if she said, "Dumbo! Your mom is dead for fifteen years to ask your dad. And also, that knife would have been there permanently without being used on the breakfast table."

It was 6.30 PM. He once again had that strange feeling on his thighs. It was her. He knew for sure that it wasn’t raining outside. He answered. "I know you would call. I am not angry with you dear."

She asked bluntly, "Isn’t it raining there?"
He hung up after a series of pendulum like movements and searched for his car keys.

Kamal Sujatha and Madan

When I was young, I had always thought, "why not I be a police inspector, a military man etc." It was the same case with most of the boy kids then. I am not sure about the kids now and had no idea about the girl kids ever. Its the fetish we possessed then for wearing a uniform. This desire was born from the Uniformed vijaykanth and sarathkumar of those days, added to which were a few english movies which we watched then without the slightest idea of what they spoke.

Personally, I used to watch the fight scenes in the films without a wink and was taken to heights of happiness and emotion with the "Dishyum" effect. Then came the time when we had the same old "dishyum" studded hearts, but liked movies like poove unakkaga,surya vamsam, kathal kotai, kaalamellam kadhal vaazhga,thullatha manamum thullum, kannedhire thondrinal etc.

Sure these movies kind of "nenja nakkified" everybody then(including me). I even had a weeks' crush on devayani, simran et al after seeing the movie then. I have even seen some songs sung in chorus by the audience in theater. S.A.Rajkumar and Deva take the credit for that. That was the time when vikraman and a few others came out of the same room in which, they had cried together for years to come up with a story.


Then my movie habits were restrained to some big movies only, owing to the kind of school I went to. Then through the college days, the interest in english movies developed, thanks to BSNL and my external disk. Now after watching some 500 movies in 2-3 years, I have grown to like the oldies for the richness in content with minimum resources. I have grown to appreciate the logic and the intellectual interjections of the directors. I have grown to like some people and worship some.

As rightly observed by my brother sometime back, I would place three people from the film and related fields in the same class of intellectuals. They are Kamal, Sujatha and Madan.

They have made a lot of difference to the films and literature I follow. So, have they affected many across the world. When I can find Lazygeek writing from the other side of the planet about sujatha, Ram Thiruvengadam (my college super senior) giving poses like Kamalhaasan from USA, and an entire generation relishing the Madan jokes, then I knew my brother spoke no nonsense.

If I had to write about sujatha, then it would take another post. So keep watching this page.

random thoughts

For the past one week, I had nothing else to do than watching movies and reading. Though I have english movies sizing 250 GB altogether, for a change I watched the old tamil movies.

I watched Johny for the second time, Mouna Ragam for the nth time (n > 10), Mullum Malarum for the first time.

Planning to watch Bale Pandiya, Nenjam Marapathillai, Ooty varai uravu and other tamil movies.

I had reached half-way in The City of Joy by david lappiere.

Mouna Ragam is an absolute classic. If I am confined to a room with a dvd of mouna ragam alone, I would even try decoding the dvd myself even without a player. The thought process that had gone into the characterizations is awesome. A perfect drama without any over dosage. I dont like actor Mohan. But, Mani Ratnam made me believe it was not Mohan and Revathy but, Chandrakumar and Divya. I love the reasons Mohan gives for his mis-behaviour every time.

Mullum Malarum: I didn't know who was Mahendran. But I repent I didn't knew him. He has tried successfully to give his movies a rich feel even in the poorest of the poor settings. Rajini is a superstar now, but back then he should have proved his critics, he is no less to kamal in acting skills. A gripping tale told in style.

Johny: Again a Mahendran film. I simply loved Sridevi's acting in this movie. A desperate lover at the verge of being ditched by someone who she is in love. What an acting that was? Mahendran again rocks with his choice of locations and cast. Illayaraja had proved in this movie that he had something to be worshiped by people like me, for many decades to come. The BGMs are simply superb.


City of joy(book) by david lappiere: written in the late 80s. Its about Anand Nagar, a slum in calcutta where in, kovalsky a polish priest lands to be with those slum-dwellers and serve them. Though not as detailed as Shantaram in describing their life, it's ok. Its a compulsive page-turner only for someone like me, who needs some reason to read a book and kill boredom. Otherwise, its slow.

There were many times, my brother and I have watched such classics together. Discussed about Sujatha for hours togather. Miss those days bro!!!!

Whenever you feel bored.....

I wrote the following article for my college magazine. It is an attempt to make you laugh. But believe me you will smile when you read the first time, laugh the second time and roll on the floor the third time. If not so, then you must also have my condition(read to know what my condition is).



Whenever you feel bored, take a deep breath, open your eyes and close it. The next thing that should come to your mind is, you should have not closed your eyes but ears. Only then you will find that closing your ears completely would not actually mean to just close your pinna (google it out, if you don’t know what it is) with your palms, but to prevent any audible signal from entering the range of the receiver.

Now, you will be badly in need of a cotton roll. Ask your mom where the roll of cotton is, which you should have last seen when you were searching for your lost key. Thank God, because in the next two minutes you will be finding what you had searched for. Your wait of the time equivalent, not to the time you searched for cotton but the time you searched for the key is over. Yes, you will find your lost key. Though you should have found something which is lost and was never expected to be found, you should not feel happy about it, as happiness leads to complacency which makes life boring. You are doing this to come out of boredom.

Also, you should not feel happy because, there is no lock for the key to open. Yes, you should have sold the cycle the month before. Only then will this treatment take effect. The next best thing for you to do is, try losing the key again. Remember, you had once found the cotton roll while searching for the key. It’s a bit difficult to keep the key behind the books in the shelf and forget it the next second. Now, you should try the art of voluntary forgetfulness. If you find it difficult, take the key back. Now search for the key behind the books. Now you are actually pretending to have forgotten that you have taken the key back. This is your first success in the art of voluntary forgetfulness.
At this point of time you should have forgotten that you were actually searching for cotton roll. This is your first success in overcoming boredom. Going back to the hunt for the cotton roll, ask yourself this question, “What would you call a person who was seen while rolling on the floor?” The answer should be,”caught on roll”. There you are, you have got cotton roll. If you still feel bored, check yourself with a doctor. Boredom can kill people, mostly others and that’s also called madness. So, what do you call me? I call my condition, Progressive Madness.

Anjathey

I am back after watching this movie ANJATHEY.
I am back and not just back because, you know, it takes some time to watch two movies. And that too at the cost of one. Though the movie's length is 3hrs and 20 minutes, the movie was great. Not because, the movie didn't make me feel I was sitting for that long, but because the movie made me feel that sitting that long is worth it.

Coming to the movie, you get a feeling of seeing the works of people like, Quentin Tarantino, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Martin Scorscese et al. The movie even from the beginning is gripping. The best part of the movie is the one or two subtle comedies which gel along with the plot.

Cinematography is top class. But I have to say, this kind of cinematography is for the class and not the mass. Angles covered by the lens is unbelievable. First time I got to see, natural lighting used even in the dark for a tamil movie.

Background music must have been the less costly part of the movie. They have done with a single violin. But it is surely taking the movie to a higher level.

Coming to the logical mistakes, I didn't spot any except for a slight miss in the re-recording in one of the scenes. They have used pre-recorded sound for sounds like, an auto-rikshaw stopping and a car moving backwards. The driver of the auto-rickshaw switches off the engine the sound of which continues for a couple of seconds longer and then gradually dies out.


Naren needs a lot of practice to walk and run decently and that too in front of the camera. His acting skills are only fair. Ajmal has done a decent job. He is better than Naren with the emotions. Vijayalaksmi's dialogue delivery reminds me of some 12-13 yr old girl speaking.

Pandiarajan has no role. Prasanna's new looks do not fit him. In the final scene he sees his watch, it only reminds me of Anandaraj in a vijaykanth movie who used to clap his hands even while dying. Climax is superb.

On the whole, the movie is worth watching twice or more. Twice if you don't understand some scenes. More than twice if you just love the movie for no reason. I am planning to get a DVD as soon as it gets released officialy.