Kayamkulam Kochunni

 

This was one of those rare weeks when I watched two movies. In theatres. In the same week. After having damaged my eyes permanently watching First Man, I needed something..err…soothing. Something completely in the opposite end of the spectrum to negate the..er…negative effects. My news feed told me that this Malayalam movie was breaking all records, so I looked it up. No chance I could watch it in Melbourne, I thought. No way they would be showing it in the first week of its release here.

Dead wrong.

Turns out, Mallus take their movies wherever they go. From the facebook page of the movie, I found that they where showing the movie to a small audience in a few small theatres across Australia. The closes one to me, a place called Backlot studios, near Southbank !

 

And so we went. Onnum parayenda, puttaakee, it was a day of surprises. Mallus ! They move in herds ! They do move in herds !

In a small 70-something seater theatre in the back, which looked more like a shady production company, they were showing this movie.  It was as if one was invited to an exclusive party. Luxrious seats. Air-con.

The movie was ..well, what I was expecting. A glorified re-telling of the fable of the famous robber who lived  150 years ago, with the modern treatment of slow-motion scenes and chorographed action scenes. For a while now, directors have found this format to be the safest. It had everything one would expect from a contemporary movie. Everything was checked.

Flash back scenes to his childhood  ? Check.

Superstar cameo ? Check

Two heroines ? Check.

A rocky-style training sequence for the hero ? Check !!

British baddies ? Check.

An item number ? No really ? No one was expecting this, but check.

The hero, is a thief, but he is not really a baddie. So he escapes in the end. Check.

A theme discussed throughout the movie is the caste system prevalent during the time in Kerala, which was different from the rest of the country. The system was carefully orchestrated to oppress the poor and hard working, while the rich and influential enjoyed luxuries. Rules of untouchability was severe, but that did not stop the higher caste males from having ‘relationships’ with the lower caste females. Then there was the very high level of taxation on the poor, levied by the king and landlords.

Of course, this was all part of the Hindu religion, and Kochunni, being a Muslim, had an oustsider’s perspective. As the legend is told, he becomes a saviour to the lower caste and the poor, and steals from the rich to provide for the needy.

This is what Vivekenanda said when he visited Kerala during the late 19th century.

 

I got carried away. Back to the movie, its a good one time watch. Despite the artificiality and macho heroism, they have really worked hard on this one. Of course many things could have been improved.

 

‘First Man’ destroyed my eyes

 

Man, I was really looking forward to this movie. Its a subject matter I am close to, and had high expectations from the director and studio. But all that was destroyed last week, when I watched this movie on the big screen at Hoyts.

I hated it. I hated it so bad that I walked out half way through it. The reason was not the story, or the acting. It was the cinematrography. Shaky camera. Too much shaky camera. WTF , Damien ? Its as if you just discovered the shaky camera effect. The idiotic director and cinemtagrapher chose to shoot every scene on two legs, right in the actor’s faces ! One could see the hair in their nostrills. And with the camera constanly shaking and moving, I was soon overcome with dizziness. Specially in the lauch sequences, I shrill music and shakes almost made me throw up.

I walked out just after Neil was chosen to the Apollo program.

I will catch this movie on torrents when it becomes available, because I really wanted to see his walk on the moon. But I plan to use some kind of image stabilizer software at that time.

I understand this was the perspective of Neil Armstrong, who took such a big risk for a mission guided by the cold-war politics of the time. But I didn’t want to see the actors noses all the time. I wanted to see the rest of the world too.

Space. And everyting else.

Summer’s back !

 

Something funny happened this week. It got hot. Temperature went about 20 degrees ! That means, summer is back ! Also rained ! Through the night. Just the way it should be.

I am still getting used to reverse climate trend here in Australia. Its like an exclusive club, the rest of the world are missing out on .

So here’s to summer holiday !

 

Word’s largest recruitment drive !?

 

Quick question, where could the word’s largest recruitment drive be ? No points for guessing: India. But where specifically in India. It is at Indian Railways. 23.7 million candidates applied for 120 thousand jobs. Thats a selection percentage of 0.5 !

 

 

 

I was reading this fascinating and depressing article which made me sigh and crackup simultaneously about a day at one of the exam centres. As I have mentione earlier, a job in the government, otherwise public sector, is the one thing that attracts everybody in India. It is the peak of aspirations. But actually landing the job is a tedious task , with mulitple levels of exams, eligibility criteria, further complicated by reservations and age limits. The article documents a day in front of one of the exam centres in Delhi, where youngsters have been arriving upto 12 hours before the start of the 90 minute online computer based exam. Most of them have repeatedly applied and tried earlier, and it has become something of a routine to prepare and appear for such an exam.

They come prepared.

 

Tests are held online in three shifts every day (9 am to 10.30 am; 12.30 pm to 2 pm; 4 pm to 5.30 pm). In every shift at this Noida centre, 3,450 have been taking the test — a 90-minute, multiple-choice paper, covering Maths, General Intelligence and Reasoning, Science and Current Affairs — since September 17, and will do so till December.

This has indirectly created jobs for others feeding on the exam queue. An enterprising younster has setup shop to safely store the bags of the candidate for the price of 50 rupees. Another young boy from a neighbouring slum has hit upon the idea of selling gum/glue to the candidates, five rupees for a single application ! And then there are the usual suspects, the auto driver who ferry candidates up and down the centre. Those who run the nearby cybercafes and instant photo booths. Hawkers selling food, meals , snacks and cigarettes. If it starts raining, there will be hawkers selling umbrellas.

Theres also a snippet about the kind of questions the government of India expects the candidates to know about current affairs. They actually expect them to know who the brand ambassador of makeup brand L’Oreal is in India !

The bleak picture being painted here is the harsh reality of the world’s largest democracy. For most of the candidates, landing a government job is the last hope of emancipation, of a chance of a better life. They actually believe that it is one of the responsibilities of the government to take care of them. Such a job would provide them stability, because such jobs don’t have the same requirements of on job performance evaluation, and retirement being years away. But the numbers clearly are not in their favour. With a half-percentage of success, which further decreases every year, the vast majority of applicants won’t get through to their last hope.

To wait, or not to wait

Actually, this is not such a difficult question. Those who can’t wait, should go ahead. And those who are willing to wait, well, can wait as long they want.

But should not convince others to do so.