The Man Who Lost His Magic Midwife, Handling Complicated Cases
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Community 6 Wednesday, February 6, 2013 CINEMA lies through fire, and Arjun’s Berchmans nursing a grudge against Samuel tries to destroy the priest. And what better way can there be than setting up the community against Samuel, who is battered, driven away from the village and defrocked. But the story strays from what it had initially set out to tell — about good and evil, retribution and forgiving — to accommodate a romance between Thomas Kadal (Sea) directed by Mani Ratnam (right) stars Gautham Karthik and Thulasi Nair in the lead. (Gautham Karthik) and Beatrice (Nair). A trifle forced, even silly it appears. We * are foxed when we find that Beatrice despite having the IQ of a two-year old (or something to that effect) is adept as a The man who lost his magic midwife, handling complicated cases. She also falls in love with Thomas and sings a couple of songs (one in an exotic costume), Once revered for his filmmaking, has Mani Ratnam lost that is when she is not playing hop-scotch. There are other holes in the script, like, for instance, why does Berchmans wait for control over his art, wonders Gautaman Bhaskaran years to take his revenge against Samuel — and that too after an accidental meeting. Unfortunately, Kadal disappoints. recent book on Tamil director really in awe of him, and they included interestingly had debuted together in Ratnam is yet to come with a classic Mani Ratnam by Baradwaj men like director Gautham Vasudev Menon Bharathi Raja’s Alaigal Oivathillai/Waves as great as the 1987 Nayagan or the Rangan has telling words in (Neethaane En Ponvasantham, Nadunisi Never Cease, set in a Christian village, wonderfully touching and intimate Mouna its blurb on the cover. “Mani Naaygal). much like Kadal. Raagam (1986). His latest offering has Ratnam’s Nayagan is among He says also in Rangan’s book, We were also told that a trimmer Aravind nothing really new, and A R Rahman’s ATime’s ‘100 Best Movies Ever’”. Indeed it Conversations with Mani Ratnam, how he Swamy (once a Mani Ratnam favourite) was score is nothing to hum by. His Roja still is. But one cannot rest on one’s past laurels was once unable to “look at him (Ratnam) facing the camera after a hiatus of 12 years. remains his best. Kadal ultimately trickles alone. A reader writes in the Firstpost news ... I mean, how can you? He’s the man who There was also cinematographer Rajiv down to some awesome visuals, shot in website after watching the helmer’s latest made Nayagan”. Menon’s statement on how challenging it some of the most beautiful coastal regions Tamil work, Kadal or Sea, that Mani is no But Nayagan came a long time ago in the had been to shoot a scene during an actual of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Menon uses the longer the director or master story-teller mid-1980s, and Ratnam has not been able storm off the Chennai coast, Cyclone sea as a brilliant metaphor to convey the he was construed to be. Another reader to better that. His later movies have swung Nilam. mood of the village as it goes about fishing laments that the magic of Mani is over. between two points: not bad and bad. And Though the storm sequence pales in sometimes on a placid ocean, and at other As A R Rahman (who shot to fame with those not bad were not really good. comparison to the one we saw in Ang Lee’s times, on an angry one. some haunting music in the Ratnam’s Last week, Ratnam’s Kadal opened Life of Pi (which was of course simulated in Yes, Arjun as the “Satan” is riveting, and 1992 film Roja) avers in his foreword to the bang in the midst of Kamal Hassan’s a gigantic tank in Taiwan), Menon’s camera Swamy as the epitome of goodness holds book “When you are in the movies, people Viswaroopam controversy, and will work is extraordinary, often setting the our attention in parts. But the lead pair respect you so much. Even your family can probably enjoy additional mileage. For, mood for a story which is swept in sorrow. fails to sparkle, unable to evoke the kind of start regarding you differently. You can get had superstar Hassan’s film opened now, it Even in those few moments when the chemistry needed to take the plot across the it all, and you could lose it. Suddenly the could have kept many away from Kadal. narrative manages to pop above the waves, waters. The business of fishing recedes to ground beneath your feet could disappear This time around, Ratnam played a low there is a sense of melancholy, which the background or, at best, provides fodder and you could fall, and the people could key, unlike during his earlier bilingual Ratnam in his classic style tries to dispel for a song and dance, of which there is quite move away...” Raavanan/Raavan, which disappointed with exuberantly costumed dance numbers. a few, some positively sticking out of the Of course Rahman says that Mani is not fans and the box-office. Against months The narrative begins depressingly with narrative. What is worse, often dialogues one among such people. “Even if you fall of run up to Raavanan/Raavan, including the death of a prostitute in a fishing village are drowned in the intrusive background out of favour with the box-office, he sees a much publicised campaign at the Cannes and the travails of her young son, who goes music, and this gets compounded by the you for what and who you are, and respects Film Festival (where we were told among through hunger, humiliation and ostracism dialect, peculiar to some fishing groups in you...” other things how difficult the actual shoot before he is taken under the wings of a southern India. But presumably many people do not had been in hostile terrain), Kadal arrived Christian priest, Samuel (Swamy). One expected more from Mani. think or behave like Mani, and his recent without much of a roar. Samuel does more; he not only gets the films have not only disappointed his Yes, we knew that two new actors had village church into shape, but also evokes (Gautaman Bhaskaran has been writing admirers and critics, but also angered them. been taken on, Gautham Karthik and a sense of faith in a community which on Indian and world cinema for over We see this from the tone of the above Thulasi Nair — both children of yesteryear drinks, swears and kills at will. But as the three decades, and may be contacted at comments. And mind you Mani’s fans were Tamil artists, Karthik and Radha, who movie conveys, the path to true salvation [email protected]).