RIP Lohithadas

Malayalam cinema lost one of its finest today. Lohithadas passed away due to a massive heart attack in Kochi at around 10:50AM. Lohithadas, who pennned many masterpieces  was also one of the last links between our cinema and its past glory.  He was also our last hopes to regain lost glory.

His scripts created some of the best movies and finest characters in Malayalam cinema. Script writer, director, song writer … Lohitha Das shone is all these roles. Thaniyavathanam, Kireedom, His Highness Abdulla, Amaram, Sallapam … a long list of movies having well etched characters.

In an era where movies flood theatres, cashing on collective amnesia of viewers and disappear into oblivion faster, Lohi’s characters have stood the test of time. In a career spanning 22 years, Lohithadas wrote 44 scripts and directed 11 movies.

Here is Sibi Malayail and Lohithadas talking about Kireedam and other movies.

PS:  On a personal note - Last year this time we were fortunate spend few weeks  with Lohithadas. A gentleman, a caring person and nice sense of humour. What stood apart was his deep knowledge on various subjects.

Tags: Lohithadas

In this clip, MG Sreekumar explains the story behind the song Devasabhathalam. The original take was done by Yesudas, Sreekumar and Sharath. According to Sreekumar, he kept up with Yesudas, prompting the music director Raveendran to  remind him that he is singing for a losing singer in the movie (played by Kaithapram) that he had to tone it down. Apparently Sreekumar’s friends advised him against it and so he opted out of the song. So in the movie, Kaithapram’s portion was sung by Raveendran while the casette had Sreekumar’s version.

There is a kind of similar story from 1968 when Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey had to sing in a competitive song called Ek Chatur Naar in which Manna Dey had to lose.

Wikipedia has the story of the song

Reportedly the song ‘Ek Chatur Naar’ (a duet by Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey) was partly improvised by Kishore Kumar at the time of recording and Manna Day, determined to show Kishore Kumar how he would sing the duet better (since Kishore had not been trained classically), got into the mood of the song and immortalized ‘Ek Chatur Naar’. Legend also has it that Manna Dey was upset by the fact that in the picturisation of the song, the singing competition between the two heroes (Dutt and Mehmood) was won by Dutt, for whom the background singing was done by Kishore. Dey didn’t like the fact that a classically trained singer like himself would have to lose, though only on-screen, to an un-trained singer (Kishore).[Padosan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

What both Manna Dey and Sreekumar have not realized is that film song is situational and the singing is meant for the scene and not every duet recording is meant to be a competition for the singers. Due to those songs no one finds Sreekumar or Manna Dey bad singers and in fact viewers understand the logic for the recording.

But Sreekumar seems to have become wiser as he is seen singing for a losing candidate in this competition.

Tags: His Highness Abdulla, Padosan, Yodha

Adoor’s new movie Oru Pennum Randanum has a straight forward narration compared to his previous movies like Anantharam.

The film consists of four segments  The Thief, The Police, Two Men and a Woman and One Woman, Two Men. The first story is about a thief who, by force of circumstances, is unable to renounce his only means of livelihood and is punished by his disgrace more than by law; he loses courage to face his proud son. In the second story, two corrupt and wily police men – the ‘grassroots’ representatives of the state, systematically rob an honest rickshaw puller of his savings and also freedom. In the third story we find a youngster wavering between ‘obligations’ to his family and society, and the love he feels for his servant whom he impregnates. It is the ‘law’ of what he is expected to
do versus the ‘justice’ of what his being yearns for. The fourth story, the most sensuous among the four, has a beautiful woman at the centre inviting lovers and inciting stories. Panki Amma is an enigmatic woman to whom men are attracted; she rejects none and seems to offer love to all, may be of different kinds. [The work of a master]

The Kerala State Film Jury thought this was the best film of 2008, better than TV Chandran’s Vilapangalkkapuram. TV Chandran meanwhile thinks Adoor’s film is a TV serial.

“This time the award for the best film has been given to a TV serial and not a film. Last year his film was not given an award because the then jury felt his film was a serial,” Chandran told reporters here. [Adoor's film is a TV serial: T. V. Chandran]

Adoor meanwhile thought that since the accuser was ‘TV’ Chandran, he would know something about ‘TV’ serials.

Commenting on the same Adoor said that those who think his film is a television serial is “ignorant of what a TV serial is and what a film is”.[Adoor's film is a TV serial: T. V. Chandran]

We understand TV Chandran’s frustration. He tried to make an award movie with Dileep as the hero - Kathavaseshan - which was equivalent to making a dragon fly lift Sai Kumar. It did not win any awards. But when Adoor was not in the picture Chandran’s movies have won national acclaim, like the brilliant Padom Onnu, Oru Vilapam.

Both these two are great directors and it becomes a problem when both have movies together. To resolve this, we should change laws so that they alternate each year. When Adoor makes a movie, TV Chandran takes a break and vice versa. If they don’t listen, we think, whatever movie Vinayan makes that year should be given the best picture award. That should teach everyone a lesson.

Tags: Adoo

Kerala State Film Awards for 2008 has been announced by a jury with Kannada Director Girish Kasaravally as the chairman.

Trivia

• MJ Radhakrishnan(Cinematography), M Jayachandran(Music Direction), T. Krishnanunni(Sound Recording), Vrinda(Choreography) won the Kerala state award in 2007 too in their respective fields.
• Jury Chairman Girish Kasaravalli commented that no short film, documentary or Children’s film made the mark.
• Jury Chairman also commented that there was no confusion this time on selection of awards and he also stated the obvious - that the quality of Malayalam movies have gone down.
• Lal has the unique distinction of being a succesful director, producer and now best actor.
• This year none of the super stars, minor stars , wannabe stars, meteors, comets or asteroids were anywhere near the awards.
  

Update(4th June, 2009):  Looks like it’s tough times at India Glitz, they have decided to ‘outsource’  HTML development.

Tags: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Kerala State Awards 2008, Kerala State Film Awards - 2008, Lal, Thalappavu, Vilapangalkkapuram

It seems we have to pause our Malayalam Cinema Death Watch due to the new director Ranjith Shankar. At a time of Red Chillies, Sagar alias Jackie and Love in Singapore, this new director has managed to create a movie which has fascinated people. (Reviews: 1, 2, 3).

What’s more important to the survival of the industry are the lessons from Passenger, which are not difficult to emulate.

Just when we thought the running battle between Reviewers and Bhagwan was won by former, Bhagvan strikes back.

Bhagawan, the Mohanlal-starrer directed by Prashanth Mambully is all set to be re-made in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi too.

The film, which made news on account of being a full-fledged commercial movie shot in a single day (17 hours to be more precise), has already been released, on May 15. Prashanth Mambully, who made his directorial debut with ‘Bhagawan’, will himself be directing the re-make versions. While it’s Arjun who will be acting in the Tamil version, Shivaraj Kumar will be the hero in the Kannada version and Sunny Deol will play the lead in the Hindi version[Bhagwan to be remade in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada].

The director, after psychologically scarring thousands of movie goers, delivers the final blow:

He clarified that the Tamil version will be shot in 5 days, since the film has got to match up to the standards there, on all terms. Prashanth said that Shivaraj Kumar has expressed his wish that the Kannada version may be shot in just one day, like the original Malayalam version. Discussions are going on about the same, said Prashanth. The Hindi version will be shot in ten days[Bhagwan to be remade in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada].

Director implies that Kannada has same standards as Malayalam, Tamil is 5 times better and Hindi is 10 times better - even with Sunny Deol as hero. That’s pretty damning.

In case you escaped the torture, but fancy self mutilation or doing a penance to please the Bhagwan, read the review here.

Tags: Bhagvan, Bhagvan review, Bhagwan, Bhagwan review

Mammootty, who landed in JFK airport was held for two hours by US Homeland security. The Indian consulate intervened and he was released. Moviebuzz is all angry .

For some bizzare reasons, Mammootty was briefly “Separated for questioning and grilled” by US Homeland security. In his passport Mammootys name is Mohammad Kutty Ismail Paniparambil. The buzz is that those who land in US with the name Mohammed Ismail are detained, and questioned at length, though no official reasons are given for it.

Anyone who follows buzz would know why this happened. Post 9/11, the passenger list is scanned for suspicious looking names — names which sound like Islamic terrorists — and they are taken for secondary questioning. This is quite normal and not bizarre. Moviebuzz says no official reason is given for it, which is sad because there is an official reason for it and it was disclosed by the FBI itself long time back.

After displaying his ignorance, Moviebuzz goes to new lows.

Remember Mammootty has a huge fan following in US, and is perhaps the best known Malayalee in the world.

The statement that Mammootty has a huge fan following in the US is totally misleading. One would think that all 306,367,000 Americans are fans of Mammootty. Maybe we understood it wrongly. Maybe he meant Indians. Indians form about 2,765,815 in number which 0.9% of the population. Assuming that most fans are Malayalis and their allegiances are divided between Mohanlal and him, the huge fan following would a minuscule number. This is why you have to be careful when indulging in hyperbole.

Now the second part of the sentence: “is perhaps the best known Malayalee in the world.” Probably yes. Probably Mohanlal is the best known Malayali in the world. Who knows. Or maybe the late Adi Shankara is the best known Malayali in the world.

The irony of it is that E.Ahamed a Malayalee is currently the Minister of State for External Affairs Government of India!

For the love of God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, we could not find the logic in this statement. Since Mammotty is a Malayali and E Ahamed is a Malayali, this should not have happened? Or should E Ahamed have intervened? Or the Homeland security officials in United States should have known about this relation and let Mammotty go?

What Moviebuzz should realize that it does not matter who Mammootty is or how many people know him or who the Minister of State is. If they have to detain and question someone, the pedigree does not matter. It does not matter even if you are a US Senator.

U.S. Sen. Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy said yesterday that he was stopped and questioned at airports on the East Coast five times in March because his name appeared on the government’s secret “no-fly” list.[Sen. Kennedy flagged by no-fly list ]

Finally, and ironically Mammotty does not share Moviebuzz’s anger.

“Every country has its
laws and systems. We too have it. We should obey those laws. I did not
feel discriminated or harrassed when I was questioned at the airport,”
he told rediff India Abroad. “This
is not something that happened to me alone. So there is no point taking
it seriously,” he added. Even US Senator Edward Kennedy has been
stopped at airports, the star pointed out.[When Mammootty became a suspect in New York ]

Or it could be true, as MovieBuzz suggested, Mammootty is really world famous. So world famous that Department of Homeland Security  folks saw Love in Singapore and they really wanted to tell him what they thought about it.

Tags: Mammootty in JFK, Mammootty in US