Neelathamara, a Malayalam movie…

Today I almost had a day off. Picked up a pint and came back home to my village, after having a couple, I decided that I will make a visit to the local cinema. Taking a big detour reached the movie hall, the movie running was Neelathamara meaning Blue Lotus. It was touted to be a masterpiece of work by the best minds in the Malayalam cinema, but except for the music I could not appreciate anything in the movie. And of course, the lead actress was very seductive in a very rural way.

The movie revolves around a very small family, which itself is a rarity for that period; a village pond; a temple adjacent to the pond; a servant girl; a seemingly mad seer; a paralyzed classical singer whose voice is heard throughout the movie, but the person is never shown in the movie; a unmarried beautiful maid, due to a skewed horoscope; and an aspiring lawyer.

A girl comes as a replacement to the household maid, the house itself is a huge one and the only inhabitant is an ageless old lady, who never seems to age till the end of movie that means a period of at least 25 years. After the initiation to the household and a period of lull the aspiring lawyer comes home for a vacation and immediately he takes a fancy for this maid, like a rabid dog. He goes around trying to seduce her in a pretentiously sophisticated way, the girl had done some background check on this guy while cleaning the room and she has high regards towards to this guy. The usual sickening Indian way of seduction goes on for some time that is when the village deity or guarding spirit comes in. It is a belief that if someone in prays to the deity with all their heart and gives a bribe, a blue lotus would pop up in the pond.

The girl is in a confused state and prays to deity to or not to fall to this creep’s seduction and the lotus pops up the next day. And they both end up in the bed later in the evening.

Again the deity is bribed and the aspiring lawyer passes his exams with distinction and goes off to the town to work as a lawyer in some firm. In the meanwhile some godfather who had provided the board and tuition for this creep comes over to the village and offers his sophisticated daughter in marriage to this creep. And it is decided they would get married at the earliest and the marriage happens with the maid in absolute distress, but goes about with composure and maintaining her poise and status.

The sickening first night concept is shown and the life goes on in a languid pace. That is when the new bride decides to give the maid some of her discarded clothes and does not find her in her usual places. She goes to the room and finds all the signs of an affair in the belongings of this poor maid girl and confronts her husband and in the usual Indian way the wife gets beaten up and then it is decided that the maid has to leave the household.

The next day a body floats in the pond and it is thought the maid has committed suicide, but it was that girl with the skewed horoscope who had committed suicide because she could not take it any longer being a maiden so long. The girl leaves the household in a sort of disgraced way and with her long coveting relative (another sickening Indian way of relations).

By the way this is all a flashback as we call it here in our films. The movie starts with a video journalist making a documentary on the village and the way of life here who happens to be the daughter of the creep and the wife is now remarried after the death of the creep due to brain tumor and the maid comes to visit the household as the ageless old lady is supposed to be in her last stage.

I could conclude two things from this entire crap, that if two women have shared a man and they know that fact, they develop a special sort of bond and creeps exist in every place and take advantage of innocent girls (or maids) and later dump them.

I am sure M.T. Vasudevan Nair who has seen a lot in his lifetime and knew about the prevailing caste system has really taken advantage of these happenings and has taken advantage of these facts and with the gift of his whatever education has come up with these short stories. He can never hold a candle to Somerset Maugham, Oscar Wilde, Anton Chekov, Balzac or many other original writers who have ridiculed the humankind, but still made an effort to uplift the humankind with human feelings with simple and practical thoughts, not with some supernatural deities and superstitions.

There was something amiss, the incandescent bulbs in the movie seemed to burn very brightly, where at that time in period we could only see the filament.

Shivarathri Celebrations in our village…

Shivarathri Celebrations in our village…

This was the first time that I have witnessed the Shivarathri celebration in our village. It was a truly a beautiful experience. It surely had to do with the low scale and the simplicity of the function.

A procession of the Nataraja idol on a kid elephant was taken out and going all around the main roads of the village. The procession reached the temple at around 6:30 p.m. and after the usual circumambulation of the temple with the Panchavadaym, the idol was taken inside and all the lamps around the temple were lit by the kids and the women folk and the Deeparadana was shown. A retired Air Force Master Warrant Officer and I witnessed the entire proceedings. I later on took the rt. Officer back to his house and came home to have dinner and a couple of drinks.

The last of the celebrations was the Thayambaka (Keralite Percussion). I had to almost run about a kilometre to witness this assemble, as the show had started, and it was worth the run. The lead artist is my neighbour Mr. Chandran. The setting was just perfect to the last word. The temple is in the midst of rubber trees, banyan trees and open fields. The entire orchestra consisted of about six people and they rocked, and I was exhilarated.

I think it was a perfect way to end the day, by watching a live performance. I will never forget that evening and hope to witness more and more of such exuberant and simple festivities in the future. There were about 25 to 30 people in the audience and someone commented about the better audience this time around and he seemed to be happy about it. I think it is a sign of better times to come.

A festival in my village…

Last Thursday, December 10th was the annual festival of the Lord Ayyappa Temple in our village. This is an ongoing function for the past 35-40 years. The peculiarity of this temple is that the Ayyappan deity is in the form of the Lord riding on a tiger… as the folklore goes. This is quite a unique temple in the whole of Kerala for none has this kind of Ayyappan form.

I had to go to work that day and returned earlier than usual to attend this festival. As I came home the procession with caparisoned elephants had started. It was a grand spectacle with three elephants decorated with the traditional headgear and with people on the top with the complete assembles as you can see in the much grander Thrissur Pooram. There was a complete Keralite orchestra called the panchavadyam and accompanied by frequent bursts of fireworks.

This ultimately ended in the temple with women and girls leading the caparisoned elephants to the sanctum sanctorum with the orchestra in full blast… this was a great spectacle to watch and there was a great sense of reverence to the local guardian of thoughts and the beacon to lead them to the next year without any hassles and praying for a bountiful crop.

The air was quite electrifying and the entire village assembled around the temple, with a lot of hawkers selling their wares and women dressed up for the occasion. There was a small makeshift temple built entirely with the layers of the banana tree and tender leaves of coconut trees. It was an amazing piece of art amplified by electrical lights…but all these shows of grandeur soon ended as most of the people had left and with a great deal of programs still pending.

The Thayambaga or percussion with the traditional Keralite drums and cymbals started after a break of half an hour, the sad part was the entire orchestra was for just three people… a drunk, a deaf and me. Still the performers did a great job and I enjoyed the masterful percussion show. Normally this program last for more than an hour, but they stopped within 30 minutes. The reason is there was hardly anyone to encourage them for more. I could see the disappointment in their eyes and kind of defiance that can be seen in seasoned performers. That defiance conveyed the art form would die if they get only such a meager support and enthusiasm. I actually felt sad and could not help reflect then and there that TV, mobile phones and the modern crass consumerism has made a slow and steady back door entry into our village. Most of villagers had left by then and back to their TVs and mobiles within the comforts of their homes. Later on there was a drama performed in a makeshift stage and I came to know there were hardly 10 people watching the theatre performance. I was not able to stay longer because of my poor night vision and was apprehensive of how I would manage in a huge crowd, but that was not the case to be.

I really feel that if this trend continues many local festivals and art forms will disappear and we can listen to the sick sounds created in a mobile phone or orchestrated reality shows in future. But again what can be done to reverse this… if you ask me that question, I really cannot come out with a concrete answer and I think you reading this would feel quite helpless if you are a person to care about preserving the traditional arts and culture.

Life in the God’s Own Country.

It has been a longtime since I posted anything on this space… Some technical issues…

A lot of water has flown down the bridge… but it hasn’t made any difference in my life… except that I got myself a new comp and a new mobile (my first)

After leaving Chennai I have had a great deal of disappointments and was not able to settle and get to the rhythm of life here in Kerala, but gone are the days of loneliness, desperation and the feeling of being miserable. I think the weather and the nature plays a vital role in one’s well being. It was like hot, humid, polluted and filthy all around in Chennai, the moment I came back to Kerala and my village I felt I was in paradise… No doubt that Kerala is the God’s Own Country. I don’t know how crossing the border at Walayar the whole scenery changes. I keep wondering how such a transformation happens in a matter of ten kilometers into Kerala. It is not that I am complaining about the lack of civic sense in other parts of India, but Kerala stands apart in cleanliness and sense of hygiene that prevails.

Actually the Environment Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh rightly commented that if there was a ‘Nobel Prize for Filth,’ India would get it and I am in full agreement to this statement, the statement could have been modified a little… okay, I know he not the Minister of Kerala. Anyways, that was a true comment come out of a seasoned politician and I am in awe of this guy to actually defy the holy cows in India. I think the media and the govt. of India should come up with some real hard measures to instill a sense of cleanliness and hygiene in this country… I know it is a hard task to achieve, but I feel strongly that we as the proud citizens of this timeless country should take up some drastic steps to clean this country of the filth and dirt for posterity sake at least. Or else more of the Boyles around the world would keep on continuing to exploit the underbelly of this great land.

And a serious thought has to be given to how Kerala and its people are able to keep their surroundings clean; and try to understand why it is recognized as one of the best place to visit in one’s lifetime.

To comment on the state of politics it better said when we say nothing about it.

Anyway, this post of mine has brought me back to where I like be the most and doing the the job I like the most...writing...