Swa. Le. - some unexposed truths about the exposed class

From Blogger Pictures

Swa. le tells us a tale that makes us laugh and think at the same time.It takes us through the life of a staff report back in those nostalgic 90's when mobiles and internet were mere fictions.Novelty in the theme and the beautiful picturization makes the movie stand apart. Leaving all the usual stereotype journalist-characters, swa. le has attempted to say the true story to a great extent with the icing of humor. In fact.,the makers have succeeded in maintaining the humorous mood right from the first to last frame.

The most remarkable thing about the movie is its core theme. Movie has opened a slit-view to the private lives of the journalist who strives to make everything public. It has also become a timely thought to the society that celebrates the 'exclusives' and 'sensations'. A viewer will surely identify with himself when characters inquires about holiday , when hearing a news of death.Though many movies have been made on the press, swa. le has given a different angle to the media. May be journalism days of the writer have helped in giving an inner view to the story

From Blogger Pictures

Another higlight of the movie is its spectacular picturisation. the back drop of Thodupuzha have been beautifully portrayed. Also close shots are cleverly utilized.
Both the songs are good. hats off 2 Panachuran for setting back the poetic standards. However the songs were untimely and had not sink to the flow of the story. same is the case with some comedy sequences. they seems to be squeezed into and would have better off without that.

kudos to Dileep and gopika, both has done gd job. it is good to see that dileep has tried to change from his usual style and gopika has made a gd return.In fact , movie was a team effort. All has done their part quite well. salim kumar and innocent requires special mention.

In fact both in the simple narrative style and realistic acting, swa. le reminds of those evergreen sathyan anthikad-sreenivasan movies. However at times, the story seems to be bit dragging, especially after the interval. Also , as mentioned, song timing were bit odd and some comedy sequences could have been avoided.But the way film ended is quite a pleasant surprise.

P.Sukumar as debutant director do give hopes. the bottom line is that through its humorous treatment and timely plot, movie do give every viewer a chance for interospection, which is hopeful change in this era of "use-and-throw movies"

From Blogger Pictures

Just For You !!!

Your face flashed through my mind many a times today. Your smiling face. I don’t know why it reminds me of breaking waves with all its white salty sprays. It may be because sea has been very special place for both of us. Have I not told you about my weird fantasies . I know I have bored you with a lot of stupid ideas. But alas, you have heard all of them patiently, smiling. Did I ever tell you how much I love your smile. Ya, I have.! I think its for nth time. Still I love it more dearly each time you smile. May be that’s why I turn up with more silly ideas and insist in telling you all those just to see your crooked smile again. So I’ll tell you my latest dreams. I just want to sleep in a beach for a night. With the cool sand forming the bed and star lit sky my canopy, listening to the breaking waves and take in all those salty breeze, of course you should be beside. We could just lay there for the whole night never wanting the dawn to crack up. I’ll tell you more stupid things and we could built as many sand castles as we like. We could play hide and seek with the crawling beam of lonely light house. We could hide ourselves in those dark corners and finally when morning comes, we could part like stranger!!!!

Rithu- changing seasons of malayalam cinema

Shyama Prasad is one of the few talents who has made his presence felt with handful of movies. Rithu is the most recent addition to the list.It was a divergence from all his earlier works and dedicated to the youth.Even before hitting silver screen, Rithu has created a little more curiosity,owing to its brilliant trailers and refreshing sound tracks and new faces. Being the first film distributed by Play House, it added the hue. Despite all the initial fuss, when it was finally released on the eve of Independence day, it seems to cater a lot to the viewer's expectation.



The movie is all about three child hood friends- Sarath, Sunny and Varsha and change in their relations like the seasons. The movie begins when Sarath(Nishan) returns from US to start a new job with his old friends.He is all set to go back to their childhood dreams, but it didn't took him long to understand both his friends are lost in their own world where he is no more a part. The rest of the story is all about how this relationships turns out. The whole thing is set in the back drop of IT industry and all its paraphenilias. While the main plot revolves around these three characters, there are also instances about "lifeless life" of the industry through their boss's life, tears of the evicted population, sighs of those revolutionists etc.



Most attractive part of the movie is its Visualisation.Hatss off 2 all behind it.Fine choice of location has done half the trick. Use of lots of close-shots have kept the audience akin to the story.Also there were many shadow shots that indeed conveyed the moods very aptly. Many a times we will be reminded of a Bollywood multiplex movies.






Another factor is the songs. Rahul raj has done pretty good job.All the tracks are refreshing, but the song timing seems to be bit akward; sort of distinct from the story line. Also kudoos to Cuckoo Parameswaran as costume designer, it is the main thing that has given the whole movie a freshness. She has really dressed up the characters meeting the total mood of the movie. Again Bollywood was reminded at times, especially like in "Life in Metro" - type.




And all the actors have made good effort. Nishan and Rima Kallingal never felt like debutant , but Asif would do with little more mending. But the core trait of malayalam cinema -realistic acting seems to be have disregarded. Dialog delivery could bit more natural. Though there is an intial drag , the visuals and background score make the whole thing better.

the bottom line- 30 bucks is not wasted!!!

Your Valley

I came to the Valley,

Your valley ,I know

The breeze brought your lavender

And the skies shed your dreams

The sand grains showed me your shadow

And the red rose, your kiss.

Never I reached for you in the valley,

Your valley, I know.

Never do I waited thou.

Like a dew drop, I fell to the charade of time

And they buried me in the cold bosom of the valley,

Your valley , I know.

But never did I wept for thee,

Because I know all these time you were safe in my heart

even when it forgot to beat.

SOme random Thoughts

"Thinkers" says that man is turning into machine. But i feel we are making machines more humane. Neither the PCs nor mobiles are mere electronic gadgets. We attach some or other emotions with it. I have observed my little bro taking caring system as if it is his dog,worrying about expiring anti-virus or getting all-through excited when microsoft decides to release yet another version of OS. Same was the case with my pal with her mobile, always clutching it anxiously. We used to tease her, saying to take care of her oxygen cylinder. Well i think this is not a recent phenomenon. My mom is obsessed with her old portable radio which she claims to give better clarity than those digital ones. Well, it can be anything from sewing machines(my grandma's pet) to i-pods, from old cycle to these days flashy cars( don't ask me to name it).

Coming to think of it, I do attach myself to my antique LG laptop. Though it is reluctant to work at all right times and hang at all wrong times, I still feel it is the best. You could find a part of me in it-my favorite songs,movies, memorable snaps, my dreams , my career hopes (also worries,as i store all rejection letters of internships i have received), in fact a bit of everything in me. I know it may seem crazy to name the drives after dad ,mom and bro-well that's me. Right from the desktop to customized themes, i identify another me which makes my system as personal as my diary.

My Mobile is yet another thing i got tied to. Being a hostler,mob is a connecting vein to my home. And all those miss calls and forward messages that keeps you bonded with the friends. It taught me an untold yet understandable language. My dad was rolling his eyes at the frequent miss calls while i'm home According to dad's theory is that if you want to call a person, give him a straight call then, why all these miss call 'tamasha'. Well i found myself arguing with him saying that it means a lot,it tells me that though they doesn't have balance, they still think of me and do take pain 2 stay in touch. Whatever, i can't stop myself from smiling when i see a miscall of my friend. Further when i check my in box( mostly when it threatens to be filled up), i see my life rolling by. Those 'miss u' messages from my old friends when i entered college, those introductory messages from my new friends, 'get well soons' when i was laid up with chicken pox, then best wishes when we went to Delhi 4 d moot and of course , those consoling ones when we lost it- really i literally had a walk down the memory lane.

Well. i seem to be lost. Infact, that reminds me of something. This very blog is a sort of special place for me , where i feel i can go on with my random thoughts and never have to bother what others may think and all that....I think I
should put the final full stop.

The Soap Factory

My mom and her siblings seems to be blessed in proportion by God in case of the offspring ( May be the Statistics gene running through the family may have contributed to it.). Anyway each have a sweet and lovely elder daughters and naughty little sons. So in total ,I have got 6 great maternal cousins.Just imagine 3 cousins of my age and three of my brother's. It is a gift in many way especially you won't be having an intriguing and inquisitive brother with a left-alone attitude.

In short the vacations at maternal home were a blast. Whenever we comes together it used to be a non-stop fun. Most important thing in these vacation despite the small fights and late night chats were our special projects. Most probably our genius-gal Sree would turn up with some idea. She and her bro, Vishnu are never at loss of any ideas. and indeed the whole crew including the elder sis, short-tempered George(inspired by Famous Five), creative Sithu, our naughty brothers sethu, kannan,aru and myself, would be at their service.

I remember the trips we made to paddy field with packed samosas when we were all greatly inspired by Famous Five. Then other time, we tried to sell old amarchitra katha and jamun pickle. However as we couldn't find any buyers other than our unlucky grandfather, we had to sell it to each other. Then there was the comedy shows. Being ardent cricket fans no other name than "TENDULKAR COMEDY SHOW" was given to it. anyway i think it was better than gulf-shows these days. With the stage up in the hall and complete with punched ticket, oh god,it was real fun. Since we had very patient audience( moms r good in these matter) , we used to do all skits, dance , fashion shows and what not.....Another thing i recall was our ammama's (uncle) story-telling sessions. He loves tarzan and sherlocke holmes stories. But once when stock is over, he will remake the Mahabharatha and Ramyana. Talking about stories, i recall our own ghost-story masterpiece.

It will be usually sithu who comes up with idea. We all will join. However the funniest part is that these proud authors of blood-chilling ghost story would be too terrified to go anywhere alone not even to restroom. It was really fun to walk like train all around the place, clutching each other nervously.

However I think most memorable thing amongst us is the "Soap Factory event".I don't know whether to classify it as a comedy or tragedy. As usual, it was Sree who turned up with the idea- To make soap. We were all ready and busily added all those smelly things. So churning the final mixture in an aluminium vessel , we left it to set overnight. We were so proud at our work that we were boasting that we don't need to buy soap for a year and so. The whole night was spend debating on a name for the soap. Finally we settled on the Intials of all. So we went to sleep with the sweet dreams about our soap( A little exaggeration of course)

Well the next morning came with the cries of Sree (side-effects of being a sweet, senstive person). We all wake up instantly and sree couldn't tell anything other than just soap. so we all went out. The sight we had there, i still don't know whether to laugh or cry. The place where we left the soap mixture, only the handle of the vessel remained.

If it was a movie i think the nice end would have been wonder-struck me and a slight breeze. Well it then will bring the paper containing instructions to my hand and there i could read the most important instruction written boldly stating " NEVER USE PLASTIC OR ALUMINIUM VESSEL AS THE SODIUM MIXTURE COULD DISSOLVE IT!!!"

Well as it was not a movie, i just stood there wondering whether to laugh or not.

Travel across my fantansies

i love traveling, however short or long it may be. i recall the bike rides with my dad across the town, especially when the whole town is about 2 sleep. Each time he took thrugh different roads and when it rains, we never cared. The pleasure in finding new roads, our own little chats, secrets v shared (mom never approves that cold coffee is most tasty when you hav during in a heavy downpour). it was my childhood pride....oh hw i miss it!!

Another thing that i recall is the occasional trips 2 our cousin's home. Years back, when we were free from career tensions and xam worries, it had been trip for week. I still remember the last minute rush and run behind the bus. though it was a mere two and half journey, for me, it was journey around the earth. I used to watch with wonder-struck eyes how paddy fields ran past me and slowly the flat land turns into rough and hilly terrains and how slowly green carpets of paddy gave way 2 darkness filled rubber plantations. Mind would be then filled with plans for blasting the vaction with my cousins.It was a memorable journey. But the jouney back home was miserable especially with the thoughts of re-opening of school and also worried about many a things i forgot 2 share with my cousin.

I started traveling alone only when i was in 10th. ( disadvantages of having a very anxious mother and very little guts). though it was short trip to-and-fro school, i liked it. all bus stop chatter and all. but moreover it was the sense of freedom that i loved most.

For last three years I hav been shuttling from ernakulam to allepey. Home sickness made me a frequent commuter, so frequent that sometimes i need not tell the destination, because an alleppey ticket would be in my hand before i know. Bus travel gave me so many memorable things. I think i could write a book on that....mention not the time i had took the wrong bus and had a free trip across the town, the fights made 4 seats on monday mornings, the time when the bus was taken to police station and had a chat with friendly SI, the time when bus has to stopped since the poor conductor had to attend to the call of nature, the time when i snored over my old professor's shoulder (it was rly embarrassing), the time when i accidently met my friend's best friend about whom v used to talk a lot, but have never met, and what not. At first, one of my frnd used to accompany me back home.. the bus jouney was a time for sharing the gossips of the whole week. but now it is time for my solitary pleasure. I won't usually listen to music, but like to sit in the first window seat and lose myself in dreams. Seriously i never know , how the one-and-half hour passes. Nowadays I have found a stretch of road which as dreamy as anything. it is hardly of a kilometre, without a single building in sight, the road winds on like a black ribbon with green marshy land on one side and silvery blue backwater on the other lined with green shurbs. in between there are some palms reminding of old gulf postcards. its truly seems magical, especially today with all rainclouds. in fact i love traveling in bus when it rains, (though not favouring the leaking bus tops). It is a sort of dream -this travel, truly i feel like waking up after a long sleep when i reaches the bus stand.

Coming to think of it, there are many jouneys in my life that stays alive-like excursions from school, little family trips and pligrimage and most recently our clas trip 2 wayanad. I think i could write a separate blog on that.

Coming to think of it i remember our delhi trip last january. I usually despise train. I don;t know y. May i hate the commotions in stations or well feel suffocated by the walls of train. But the three day trip was amazing. Lots of new friends. travel across the dry terrains of andhra, then through chambal and finally the soothing views of Up's mustard fields. I recall a foreign photographer who indeed was traveling the whole trip just for taking snaps.i too was having a thousands of snaps in my heart. Finally we all parted, without even exchanging a phone number. As i took my luggaes to metro station, i just recited an old poem in mind "Like strangers v met, like strangers v part".

In fact as some wise man has said, this life is a journey from birth to death. v meet many through the course. But had to part to with all some point of time. V may not be aware of it until we reach our final destination. In fact , i love this jouney....

A lady who lived.....

As every media space is filling with the tribute and memories of Kamala das, I'm know I'm not the right person to write about her with my limited knowledge.

Yet I want to make a personal tribute to her. Let me admit at first instance itself that I know her just only through her 5 books. But still the Madhavikutty I felt and understand was the most mesmerizing personality.

The first work of her I came across was " Nashtapetta Neelambari" - a short story collection. It left me amazed like a day-old child looking aghast into the new world. In fact, it was a new world- one in vivid colors in darker shades. Her words were so alive that I felt sure that even after years,when anyone turns over the page, they could smell the wetness of her ink.

Her "Ente katha" (My story) was the most precious Birthday gift I have ever got. Then there was her "Neermathalangal Poothapol" and "Balyakalasmaranakal" which takes us back to our childhood. But the most striking work of her for me was "Chandanamarangal", which portrayed the relationship between women in a every beautiful way.

Though her works were highly criticized , I felt it to be one with filled with passion and truth. The way she narrates without polishing it with hypocrisies captures my heart. I too wished to stay awake and know the smell of the nights with all its jasmines and 'gandharajans'....

Leaving the cloak of writer apart, I felt she is one of the beautiful women I have seen. Morevoer she was a woman of passion. May it has added to her beauty. To quote herself a woman would be most beautiful when she is in love or is being loved. She was indeed beautiful until the last moment.

During her last days, she repended that she had written in malayalam. but i felt it to be our luck to be able to read her in the language of her heart. nothing could be as intense as that.

As the first drop of monsoon pelts down the earth, she lays there dead beneath the mahagony tree. But still stay alive in many a heart reminding us the tale of a lady who really lived...

An evening

I stood there silently watching the setting sun. It is better to say that something has silenced me from within. I gazed on the golden waves, breaking into the silvery froth erasing the footprints just like the hands of time that sweeps away memories. The sand castles lay abandoned like broken dreams. I don't know the reason why even a single grain of sand churns me within.

I love these evenings... more than the freshness of mornings, the tiring ache of the evenings fondles me. With a sleepy eyes, I like to watch the sunsets while my naked legs are washed cold by the waves. I like the way salty breeze plays with my hair.

Sometimes a mad feeling takes over my tired body. I wish to wall straight into the bossom of the sea. I wish to be a part of its depth, want to be a drop of blue.... a tiny droplet that can fly up to the sky when the sun shines hot. Then I'll be a part of that beautiful sky , floats away like a puffy cloud.....far away to unknown land. The setting sun has painted those clouds violet and rose. I just laughed away my crazy thought.

Slowly i sank to the cooling sand. As the coolness of the ice cream melted down my throat, I looked up the sky again. Stars has started popping in. I imagined myself in a Planetarium, all set for the show. My ears longed for the cold booming voice of the commentator. But the rustling of kites wake me up from the half-dream. Only a few remains floating against the darkening sky. A few hours back, the blue sky seems to be exploding with colours. tiny dots of blue,green,rose, violet, gold, silver were drawn by the numerous kites. But now, like an old lady, beach is deserted except 4 few dreamers like myself.

yes, i just sat there, filled with an unknown melancholy , but yet happy to be alive

Theory of Independence

Why do we work for? It is a question that I asked myself many a times. But never, as usual I reached a conclusion. Yet another question to the bundle. I just want an answer to hold on as truth.

Truth…. I know is very relative term(it is one of the most valuable lesson law school has taught me). There is nothing called truth for all time. What is truth today will be a lie some other time. Or even can be true and false at the same time. There is nothing much truer than the relativity of truth. The very fact that I’m alive is only true for this moment. Who is sure about the next second.

I seem to be be confused. Rite? So as I was talking about, I was just searching for an answer. Leaving all economic theories , what is the real reason for the years of hardwork. This question pops up especially when I have to wash the dishes ( something I really hates to do) when our maid-servant fails to turn up. I simply wondered if the motive of working is same for everyone, why should I have to spend years of studies and exam. The theological reasoning of karma is hard to digest

Is it the common answer of earning bread? The pages of history clearly shows that in fact the whole system of law and society emerged from ancient man’s desire to be agriculturists. However the human race has moved a great farther. So something more should be a part of the life.

Thinking for an alternative, is it the thirst for independence that have ruled the evolution. Early men born independent were masters of themselves. They were however forced to settle and cultivate by many factors like paucity of resources. Even then he tried to preserve his sense of freedom by trying to protect the piece of land near him. He never let anyone to evade to his privacy and discrepancy to its were dealt with. This in fact was the beginning of the legal system. However evolution of society resulted in the suppression of a certain people who may be having or not having certain attributes which let them retain their freedom. It can be economical, social or political. But the basic instinct of freedom was still alive which still lead to further evolution. Henry Maine, an eminent jurist has opined that society has evolved from status to contract. Now a reverse trend , though not in same spectrum is taking place. Status means nothing other than the rights derived by a person owing to his position or status in society. The change from status to contract, the stage where any person can derive his right on the basis of contract was in fact result of thirst of independence.

In such a stage in fact to derive rights, to have independence, a person need to be individually equipped. In the present scenario, since money and qualifications are significant factors to be independent in the society, we are working. Hence though my maid servant and myself are having similar life, the sense of freedom I possess is infact the reward of my education.

My theory seems really weird, Rite? Well, tht’s all folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!