Dharma of Eklavya

It is bit late to write anything on Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s movie Eklavya, but I could not resist myself from expressing my views on it, as this movie has left a great impact on me with its cinematic excellence and I think this is the best movie of the year so far. Vidhu is one of those directors who know the language of celluloid very well and can very ably transform human emotions into picture perfect frames. Cinematography has been at its peak in all of his movies. Whether it is Parinda, 1942 – A love story, Kareeb, Mission Kashmir or his latest offering Eklavya, camera work is near to perfection. This holds true even for the Munnabhai series and Parineeta – the films produced by his production company.

Eklavya is a dramatic thriller telling the story of a royal guard Eklavya (Amitabh Bachchan) whose family has been protecting the royal dynasty of Devigarh for the past nine generations. Guarding the family of Rana Jayavardhan (Boman Irani) is the dharma of Eklavya and it is the matter of utmost importance for him. Prince Harshavardhan (Saif Ali Khan) who was in London returns to the kingdom for the funeral of Queen mother Suhasini Devi (Sharmila Tagore). His sister Nandini (Raima Sen) and his childhood love Rajjo (Vidya Balan) are very happy to see him back. As the funeral rituals come to an end, Rajjo hands over a secret letter written by the late Queen to the prince which reveals a secret of the royal family. As to the letter says, after the prince’s parents got married, the Queen had been to the Ganges for a yagna (the holy ritual) as the king’s impotency has left the family with no heir. The prince who was born later was believed to be the god-gift of the yagna. But the truth was different. Eklavya was the real father of Prince Harshavardhan and it was kept under secrecy as per the yagna dharma. Eklavya and the Queen had taken oath to keep this truth between them till the grave. For Eklavya keeping his promise was dharma. The queen mother follows her heart and tells the truth to the prince in that letter as she thought this is her dharma.

The matter becomes more serious because of the conspiracy created by Rana, his brother Jyothiwardhan (Jackie Shroff) , and Jyothiwardhan’s son Udaywardhan (Jimmy Shergil). These conspiracies were aimed to the murder the royal guard, but eventualy leads to the killings of Jyothiwardhan and Udaywardhan. With all the villains dead the focus of the story shifts towards the main theme of the film –  the relations and the concept of dharma. When Eklavya learns that the murder of Rana was a planned act by the prince, he decides to do his duty by killing the prince – his own son. Now the prince says it was his dharma to murder Rana and Dharma according to him is that thing which is originated from ones mind, soul and heart.

The story mainly revolves around the relationship between Eklavya and the prince. The royal family, which has lost all its powers post independence, is left with only the sobriquets and the palace.  Pannalal Chohaar (Sanjay Dutt) resembles that feudal downtrodden class who have been opressed by the royal family in Rana’s regime and are using democracy to come up in life, as well as to take revenge on the royal family. Inspite of his hatredness towards the Ranas, Chohaar has a great deal of respect for Eklavya. This charecter gives a different dimension to the whole plot and is a very contemporery character unlike Rana who lives in past.

This is actually Vidhu’s take on the mythological episode of Eklavya and he has tried to say that sacrificing Eklavya’s finger was nor right in that story. I wonder how wonderfully this film talks about dharma and at the same time makes a edge-of-the-seat thriller. If you have noticed carefully you can see that Vidhu has taken utmost care in the developing the story. Unlike other hindi movies, the murders dont take place simply here. He has given very strong motivation to the charecters to do so. The painting which shows Rana killing the queen makes the prince murder him. To Rana, it was the fact that his guard is the real father of his son which prompts to kill the Queen. The charecters of Jyothiwardhan and his son resemble the charecters of Shakesperean novels and the whole film has the looks of a Shakesperean tragedy.

It is very difficult task to tell a mythological story in the modern point of view, as the value sysytem keeps on changing with time. Moreover, when we try to give modern treatment to the mythological charecters it should not look cliched. I want to mention the play ‘Yayaathi’ by Girish Karnad here, where a whole new meaning was given to the sacrifice of Puru. Eklavya is that type of work which tries to give justice to those charecters whom the epics have taken for granted.

Coming to the technical things, the Cinematography by Nataraja Subramanian is excellent. this man who showed the magic of his camera in Parineeta has gone few steps further in creating the royal setup for the film. Music by Shantanu Moitra is good and makes it a melodious track. Superb Editing work by Ravirafu is very brisk and does not drag at all. Had it not been the skillful editing, the cinematography and well choreographed action sequences would have been a disaster in this movie.

Vidhu, who was once nominated for the Academy awards for his short film ‘An Encounter with the faces’, has once again given an ahead of the time movie and I should say these are the movies which will set a benchmark for the future international movies from India.

The Metamorphosis, Kafka and Life

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

I have read many articles about this German writer Franz Kafka. It was quite confusing to see how different people interpreted his work in different ways. Some articles say Kafka was a communist, some find an absurd writer in him and others consider him as a great philosopher. The other day I was searching the net for some information on a kannada playwright Samsa. The search took me to some other page which contained the excerpts of the Franz Kafka’s novel The Metamorphosis. Since the protogonist’s name in this novel is Samsa, the search engine brought this page. Now, it became quite intutive for me to read this novel. Few minutes later I got a free downloadable ( and legal) copy of this novel. I usually dont read e-books as I love feeling the book rather than straining my eyes reading virtual pages on screen. But this one was special and it took me only few hours to finish this novella. (There is a link to download this novel at the bottom of this article.)

This is a short novel which keeps you glued till the end. The novel has a very unusual kind of plot. This is a story of a bachelor travel excecutive who gets up from a deep sleep one fine day only to discover that he has been transformed into a vermin (perhaps a roach). Though his thinking capacities are still intact, his new body makes it extremely difficult for him to move around.
Samsa Gregor – whose body is mutated – was a very hard working man and a family person who loved spending spare time with his old parents and listening his teenage sister play violin. His work had made him busiest man who spent most of his time roaming from one place to another. His hardwork makes it possible to pay back the debts his father had taken. Now he was planning to send his sister to some institution to specialise violin. But the metamorphosis took place all of sudden, literally overnight.
Initially his plight leaves his family in a deep sorrow. His parents are shocked to see him crawl in his room. The chief clerk of his office who comes to ask about Samsa’s absence returns after talking to Samsa who is locked himself in his room. They have a kind of heated arguments. Later, It is Samsa’s sister who takes courage to come into his room and give him food. It becomes a routine for her to come and keep food for him.They never talk to each other now. Samsa thinks it may scare her. Whenever she enters the room he runs under the couch thinking that his looks may make her feel embarassed. Gradually, Samsa is treated like an animal. The dark room becomes his world. Most of the time either he sleeping or crawling the walls and ceiling of his room and sometimes listening to the murmering of hes fellow family members.
The family responsibility is slowly shifted to Samsa’s sister now. His father who is retired, now thinks about working again. His mother also takes up new work. The family to earn their bread give a portion of their flat on rent to the tenants, who are very rude. Samsa witnesses all these changes with a grave silence.
This abstract story hides a very deep philosophical truth in it. Kafka narrates everything in the language of metaphors. From the concept of metamorphosis to the the charecters everything has a great resemblance to the philosophy of our life. With our experiences of life the story unveils its new meanings.
What actually is the metamorphosis? The one which we see in Gregor is a physical one. What about the one which takes place in the lives of Samsa’s sister and even his parents? The relatonships play vital role in this novel, especially the relationship the sibblings share. We can see the change in the attitude of Grete ( Samsa’s sister) towards Samsa. The metamorphosis is actually about the transformation of Grete from a childish girl to a woman. Initially it was her who shed tears for Samsa; and it was her who brought food into his room. But finally we see her saying that Samsa is mere an animal and in order to bring peace to their family they should get rid of it ( Samsa). This shows the completion of the metamorphosis in Grete.
As I said earlier this story can be interpreted into many themes. Many themes like Loneliness, the attitudes towards those who are different, Materialistic attitude or Freudian pshychological themes can be derived from this novella. It is our indivisual experience of life which derives different themes.
This novella makes you think about your life; most importantly about the goal of your life. People recognise you and treat you well for the works you do. What will happen if you were to become a monsterous vermin one day? Think think think!!!!

(Here is a free ebook of ‘The Metamorphosis’ – courtesy Project Gutenberg. Click on the image to download the novel. This is the image of the original novel in german.)

Mangalore: A Phoenix City

My home town of Mangalore is making news for all the developments taking place in the heart of the city. Silently but rapidly a new modern city is emerging from the historical town. Beside all the main roads we see new buildings being constructed in place of old tiled shopping complexes. In some places there is no usual noise of traffic, as these roads are getting upgraded. Even the outskirts of Mangalore is not spared. These are targeted for building townships, IT campuses and recreation spots.
As soon as an old building gets demolished, the stories start to cook up among the people, as to what the new building is going to be. Some construction companies are kind enough to show a blue print on a hoarding. But most of the big projects never give the final sketch until the real one is built. If skeletal structure resembles other usual building, people think it will be another appartment or some shopping complex. If it is too weird, then they say it will be a Mall or multiplex.
Besides Bangalore and Mangalore there is hardly any sky scrapering city in Karnataka. Bangalore after the phenomenal IT & BT boom, has almost reached a saturation point. I had heard a lot about Bangalore being air-conditioned city and less polluted mega-city in my school days. But What I witnessed in Bangalore is quite opposite. Bangalore based companies are now planning to come out of the hustle bustle of our capital and move to less crowded cities. Cochin, Mangalore, Mysore, Pune and Coimbatore are the much talked about cities which may soon start a race with Bangalore.
Keeping these possibilities in mind, lot of projects are progressing in the coastal town. Mangalorean buildings were always famous for its architectural excellence. To continue this tradition there are many projects coming up in the city.
I thought I would share some details about some of these projects, Some of them are already built, some on the process of construction and some still on the paper.
Pot hole filled roads are the mark of Mangalore. From Suratkal to Talapady all the roads including National highways are in bad shape. I pity on the drivers and vehicle owners. Slowly the authority has shown its presence by initiating the upgradation of these roads. Highways will soon be converted into four lane roads. The main roads are also getting new looks with concrete work, deviders, street light and hopefully footpaths.
For more than a decade Saibeen complex was the only one shopping mall in the city. It has the credit of being the pioneer of Malls in south india.

        

Recently, Bharath Mall and Empire Mall have started operating in the city. The list of new malls planned in the city is big. This includes Excell Mall, Mischief Mega mall, Mohtisham City Centre Mall, (all three in K.S.Rao Road) Time Square (Kadri) and Pio Mall (Kodailbail/Karangalpady). Besides this, 300 crores project of 625,000 sq feet mall near AB Shetty Circle by Prestige group is also on paper. There will be a grand new mall erected on the barren land opposite to the TMA Pai International convention centre on MG Road very soon. M.G.Road will see another mall The Forum in due course of time.
Nilgiris supermarket, Ameoba, Amazon, Coffee Day, Pizza Corner, Yo-China and Dollar store are in Empire Mall. Bharath Mall has Adlabs Multiplex, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Depot, PlanetM, Pizza hut, Pantaloons, Coffee Day, Adidas, Reebok, Provogue, Planet Fashion in it. “Mohtisham City Centre Mall” will be one of the biggest malls of South India. It has a retail space of half a million square feet. It will house many international brands including Spencers and McDonalds. A 5 screen multiplex called ‘Fun Cinemas’ will be opened in this mall. With these malls night life in Mangalore is also going to be more colourful. People need not stick to only Liquid Lounge, Zero degree, Froth on top or Pegasus any more. There are more to come.

TMA Pai International Convention Hall is one of the biggest in Asia. This state of the art building with other shopping malls will give a whole new look to the MG Road. Other malls mentioned above will make K S Rao Road even more crowded.

There are many big names planning to start their office in mangalore. Infosys which has a beautiful office in Kottara, is building a big campus near Konaje. Wipro and other companies will join this line soon.

Mangalore is definitely growing very fast. But it should not forget its own culture. With the rapid fast developments Mangaloreans sadly have to accept the bitter truth of western culture aswell.

Remembering Tejaswi

 

ಪೂರ್ಣಚಂದ್ರ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ

Today afternoon when I got up from sleep, the clock was showing two thirty. I usually rise bit late after working whole night in the office. But today I dont know why I got up this early. I started surfing the TV channels for next few minutes. In an hour or so, I happened to see an interview of Poornachandra Tejaswi in E-tv. I threw the remote aside and started watching my favourite writer speak. As most of the people know, Tejaswi never come out and give interview to media. He loves being reserved. So it was a surprise sight. It was a repeat telecast from TV archives. A wonderful interview of Tejaswi by Jayanth Kaykini – who is also my favourite writer.

In the middle of the interview a flash news bar appeared saying that Tejaswi passed away in Mudigere due to heart attack. I could not believe my eyes. The person who was shown discussing his works, life and world on TV is not there with us any more.

I turned to other kannada channels TV9 , Udaya news and Chandana to confirm the news. It was true. The news came as a nightmare to me. Kannada writers, politicians and eminent personalities shared their words in all the TV channels. Tejaswi’s death is certainly a big loss to Kannada literature.

He has always been my favourite writer. I remember my school days, when I read his book about flying saucers. I was so fascinated by his writing that I started an extensive search for the books and details on extra terrestrial life.  Then I read his book ‘Karvalo’, which became my all time favourite. His novel ‘Jugari cross’ is a superb thriller depicting the invisible chains of underworld mafia surrounding the tranquil forest area of wesern ghats. ‘Chidambara Rahasya’ is also loveable for its depiction of normal social life of emergency time.

Tejaswi’s short stories are trend setters. They bacame a bench mark for the future writers in Kannada. ‘Abachurina post office’, ‘ Tabarana kathe’ ‘Kirigoorina gayyaligalu’ and ‘ Kubi maththu iyaala’ are remembered for its cinematic narration. I remember a kannada lecturer of mine, who while explaining the charecter of  Tabara could not resist himself from shedding tears. That is the depth of charecterisation mastered by Tejaswi. Some of his works were adapted for cinema and recieved many awards.

His love for nature is very evident in his works. Whether it is bird-photography or his writings on wild life,  we can see his extensive research and decades of experience. He loved the silence of the jungles. As he said in his interview, jungle becomes alive when we surrender to it by our silence. May be this is the reason he loved silence. Ku.Vem.Pu is also a nature loving poet. In his writings we see jungle as a godly thing which protects the human being. But in his son’s writing the reality was somewhat different.Tejaswi showed these jungles in the need of protection by man. The truth had changed with the passage of time. His writings on wildlife is more than just ‘a wondering look at the jungle’. It goes beyond that, with a scientific temper, it  touches the most fundamental issues and gives a whole new look to the nature. I some times wonder, whether his writings on wildlife and human evolution are really non-fictions. because his writings were very rich in discriptive style and language.

There are some other fields in which tejaswi worked. Painting, Sitar, agriculture, ornithology-cum-photography  and environment studies and activities. As he said, he is a better painter  than a writer. But his writings made him more popular. Achieving a celebrity status in kannada literature is a tough task. Kannada literature has seen many writers and a variety of writing styles. We have many Jnana peeta awardees. Amidst these many writers  creating  a distinguished place is really a difficult job. Tejaswi was successfull in achieving this status in those days of Karanth, Ku.Vem.Pu and Bendre.

I always wanted to meet Tejaswi. I wanted to tell him how beautifully and effectively he has created the imaginary world for the readers. I wanted to thank him for providing us a window to the world of international literature, history, science and wildlife in those days when ‘internet’ was a word never heard.

I know my dream of meeting my favourite writer is shatterd forever.  I can see him only in his writings. His thoughts and ideas are immortal as his writings. I ask all the people who like  kannada literature to pick up and read the treasure Tejaswi has left behind for us.

Before I end this article I wanted to add one more thing. My wall clock stopped working at 2.30pm exactly  at the time of Tejaswi’s death. Perhaps indicating the end of an era.

( This is a vedio tribute to Tejaswi posted by churumuri.com which is very meaningful.)

Talath Mahmood: King of gazals

One of my lecturers used to say that the soul of vintage music can only be felt when you close your eyes while listening to it; as melody doesn’t require any celluloid visuals to prove its worth. You will realise this when you listen to the songs of Talat Mahmood.
His songs can create a new world inside you. As you listen to his songs, the melodious voice takes you into a magical world, where you get to see different people with different emotions. You may see an emotionally wounded lover, a teenage fun loving guy, a depresed drunkard, a painter or a ramantic prince. As you go on listening to Talat’s voice, you start relating to their emotions as I did. This is when you will realise that music does not realy need a vedio to showcase itself; rather it will create virtual imges in the back of our minds when we listen to it.
The voice of Talat Mahmood is very unique for the fact that it gently grows inside you. You will be surrounded by the sheer moods of these songs. I think no other singer can sing light romantic songs, sad songs and gazals the way Talat saab did. His expressive style and emotional naunces are hardly found in any other singer.

‘bechain nazar betaab jigar, ye dil hai kisi ka diwana haye diwana’

This light romantic song says the feelings of a lover boy with utter simplicity and Talat conveys the lyrics in much more simple way yet touching our hearts. There are hundreds of such master peices sung by Talat.

‘mera qaraar le jaa mujhe beqaraar karjaa dam bhar tho pyaar kar jaa’

‘ye hawa ye raat ye chaandni’

‘ankhon me masthi sharaab ki kaali zulfo me aanhe shabaab ki’

and

‘mein dil hu ek armaan bharaa tu aake mujhe pehchaan zaraa’

Songs like these represent the same mood yet retaining its uniqueness. Talat has worked with many eminent music directors. Naushad, S D Burman, Anil Biswas, Madan Mohan, Shankar Jaikishan and O P Nayyar to name few of them.
I find a very strong relation between Talat saab’s songs and the beautiful evenings. His songs are enjoyed better in the evening. Perhaps, this is why he has sung many songs on the theme ’shaam’.

’shaam-e-gham ki kasam’

‘phir wohi shaam wohi gham wohi thanhaayi hai’

When it comes to Urdu lyrics, who else can sing the poetic lines of Ghalib – with that kind of passion – other than Talat Mahmood?

‘dil-e-naadaan tuje hua kya hai?’

I love the duets talat sang with Shamshad begam, Suraiyya, Lata Mangaeshkar, Asha Bhosale and Geeta Dutt. They are too melodious and will haunt you forever.

‘milte hi aankhe dil hua diwaana kisi ka’

‘mohabbath me eise zamaane bhi aaye’

’samaa ke dil me hamaare zara khayaal rahe’

‘chaahe naina churaao chaahe daaman bachaao pyaar hoke rahega’

‘pyaar par bas to nahi hai’

‘itna na mujhse tu pyaar badaa’

I can’t think of any songs by other singers which can match up to the calibre of these romantic songs. Romantic songs come out very beautifully in the velvet voice of Talat.

The one genre of songs which Talat Mahmood was famous for was the sad songs.

‘hai sab se madhur woh geet jinhe hum dard ke sur me gaathe hai’

‘andhe jahaan ke andhe raasthe jaaye tho jaaye kahaan?’

‘aansu samajh ke kyo na mujhe aankh se tune gira diya’

‘ei dil mujhe eisi jagah le chal jahaan koi na ho’

‘ei game dil kya karu Ai vahshate dil kya karu’

‘ei mere dil kahi aur chal gham ki duniya se dil bhar gaya’

‘chal diya karvan lut gaye hum yahaan’

‘dekh li teri khudaayi bas mera dil bhar gaya’

He has sung folk-based songs also. I wonder the way he balances the variety of light romantic, folk and gazals and manages to carry the ‘trade mark of talat’. In urdu songs he emphasises the royal richness of zaban-e-urdu and in folk songs he maintains the utter simplicity of rural life.

‘chali kaun si des gujariyaa tu sajh dhaj ke’

‘jaa jaa re sub na jaa re kahee de sajanwa se’

Talat was born in Lucknow in 1924. He began his music career at the age of 16. Initially he used to sing gazals of Galib, Mir and Jigar for AIR. HMV was the first recording company to recognise his singing talent. HMV did the honours of bringing out his first gazal album. This made him a star and he was soon welcomed in Bombay film industry. His first few songs made him the king of film romantic songs and rest is a history as we know today.

He passed away in 1998. But his songs and his memories will be always cherished by his fans all over the world.

When I am too depressed and want to get rid of my daily tensions I switch on to Talat’s songs. Talat’s voice is more of a meditation to me.