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An effort recognised
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A Tamil film made by Bangaloreans has bagged Tamil Nadu State award
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PHOTO: AFP
BANAL Ramgopal Verma’s film Aag has sunk badly.
Kaadhale En Kaadhale” a triangular love story made by a few young and enthusiastic Bangaloreans has won a special jury award given by the Tamil Nadu State. The citation says it’s for portraying womanhood in good light. PC Shekar, the director and Naveen both hailing from Bangalore are elated. “KEK” was a competently made film but sunk purely because of lack of publicity. It’s not enough to make a good film and wait for the public to flock the theatres, especially when your cast and crew is full of newcomers. Arousing curiosity among cine-goers is an art and the only way of generating positive word of mouth. Anyway, Shekar and Naveen have moved on and having learnt their lessons, they are launching “Karma”. It’s about what excess power and pelf can do to a human being. Naveen again plays the hero. A slightly elder female protagonist has a powerful role and Shekar is hopeful of signing either Nandita Das or Shobana. ‘Karma’ could change the destiny of this Bangalore duo.
Nagathihalli Chandrashekar is elated at the response his film has evoked. Everyone, he says is talking about ‘Mathad Mathad Mallige’. A rally was organised by activists to protest the land grabbing of nearly 3,000 acres of forest land for the Chamalapura thermal project. I asked the director if there was a Hooviah in Mysore akin to the protagonist in his film. “Incidentally, I asked them the same question,” laughed Nagathihalli. “I guess this was organised by like-minded activists. In fact, some youngsters have made a documentary called ‘Swargadhamele Smashana’ and are using footage from my film.” Has he got negative feelers from the Government? “No they are mum but some MNCs were keen on buying the film with the sole purpose of destroying it. We really didn’t bother,” says the director. “What I’m happy about is that it’s evoked a sort of movement and a debate. Religious heads all over the State are recommending the film to farmers.” Nagathihalli is in Chennai sub-titling the film to be shown at the international film festival. What next? “I wish I could tell you. I’m exhausted,” sighed Nagathihalli.
Ramgopal Verma’s humble hallelujah to “Sholay” has sunk and rightly so. Not because he dared to try the unthinkable but because he cooked up something banal. You can’t even update “Sholay” technically because the film was way ahead of it’s times and Ramu has missed the emotional crux of the film. “Sholay” is one film that can be watched repeatedly which can be said of very few films. It was inspired by the Kurosawa classic,
‘The Seven Samurai’ and adapted beautifully. It’s a film that just happens once in a while because even Ramesh Sippy could not churn out anything close to the classic after that. It was a film with superbly etched characters and a near flawless screenplay including the insertion of the songs. In fact, it’s one of those rare films that’ll never look dated. Ramu, I’m sure has enough creative juices flowing to make a few more classics like “Company”. If it’s your favourite film watch it. It’s blasphemous trying to match it.
sshivu@yahoo.com
S. SHIVA KUMAR
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
