Kerala youth get inspired by Naxalite Movement

Kerala cinema is currently witnessing a deluge of naxalite/maoist inspired movies with some of them even going on to become blockbusters.

Thallappavu and Gulmohar are just two of the most recent ones with a naxalite theme..

Com Varghese it seems did not shout his last slogan in vain... almost four decades after
his death "Inquilab Zindabad" is once again reverberating throughout Kerala .

You can know more about these movies in the below posts.

Thallappavu -A Movie on Com Varghese

As some of you may know we have previously published
articles on Com Varghese on this blog
which you can read here , here and here.

A picture of the real Com Varghese taken in his college days.

Com Varghese.

Trailor of Thallappavu - English/Malayalam

Link to Video

Review of Movie Thallappavu

Onam comes every year, but “Thalappavu” comes once a decade. There couldn’t be a better Onam gift for Malayalis and Malayalam cinema than “Thalappavu”. Watched the movie today, First day, at SreePadmanabha and I’m still searching for a fault line. This one goes right up there - An All time Classic.

Madhupal makes a dream debut as a director, Prithviraj and Lal give their best performances till date, Babu Janardanan delivers a world class script which will stand its ground in any film festival ,and Azhagappan mesmerises with the Camera. “Thalappavu” is one movie which puts to rest any doubts about the class and scope of malayalam movies. We rank right up there!

“Thalappavu” is a gripping movie, immensely watchable, it doesn’t drag a bit, there is no suspense (starts with the death of the central character), no violence, no comedy, no love lines. Its almost like a Rohinton Mistry novel with tragedy heaped over tragedy, and finally topped with some very sad tragedy. I hate sad movies, and this is not one of them. Its a classic.

In a recent article from the Rupesh Paul-Amal Neerad junta, Rupesh had pointed out that “Story” is not an important part of a movie. While nobody liked his movie, the point remains that, if Cinema is for telling a story then you could as well publish a short story. Making a movie for telling a story is as good as using Google for searching for porn alone, or using your Blackberry for incoming calls alone. Cinema as a medium has immense potential which needs to be tapped. “Thalappavu”, kudos to Madhupal, does exactly that. It uses the medium’s untapped potentials for handing down a classic.

A still from the movie Thallappavu

Story: Thalappavu is a movie about Naxal Varghese who was killed in one of the state’s most controversial police encounters, and P Ramachandran Nair the police constable who shot him (and after 3 decades brought to book his superiors Laxmana and Vijayan who ordered the murder). Lal plays Ravindran Pillai, the constable, who carries with him the burden of the crime for three decades and along the way loses his family, his home and his sanity. Prithvi plays Naxal Joseph and his ghost, which keeps Ravindran Pillai company. The story moves in multi dimension with threads falling in line at their own pace, with every character getting their own space and piece of the tragedy, with recurring and repeating scenes shot from varying perspectives. Dhanya Mary is a find, and she must be here to stay.

Excerpt from the film website,

‘Thalappavu’ (headgear or turban) is a symbol of authority. In many societies, those in the upper social strata wear the turban as a symbol of power and authority. For the working class it provides shade from the hot sun and pelting rain.

The relationship between a hardcore revolutionary and the masses is usually distressing as far as governments are concerned. Everywhere in the world, it is a common practice for the ruling class to fetter one who is ready to sacrifice his life for social causes. The basis of a constitution is that whatever the crime, it is the law of the land that has the right to mete out punishment. The Malayalam movie ‘Thalappavu’ tries to portray that it is the very watchdogs of law who shamelessly violate the rules that they bound to defined.

Good:

1. Script, Screenplay & Direction: “Vasthavam” flopping is one thing I hold against the malayalam audience, then “Thaniyavarthanam” flopped too. Babu Janardanan of “Vasthavam” and “Achanurangatha Veedu”, delivers a water tight script. One can see the effort that has gone into writing this marvel. Madhupal, as a director delivers the script with finesse, but ends up delivering more than the screenplay. It is an exceptional “Director’s movie”, which I guess would catapault Madhupal to Blessy’s seat, now that the latter has started making trash. The story line is spoon fed to the audience multiple times in the first half that we are ready with the details when the movie speeds up in the second half. The delivery is subtle, forceful and passionate. If you look close enough you could even see a Jesus thread hanging around.

Gulmohar - Malayalam movie on Naxalite Maoist Movement in Kerala

Trailor of the movie Gulmohar in English/Malayalam

Link to video

Review of Malayalam Movie Gulmohar

Once a revolutionary, always a revolutionary' should have been the tagline of Jayaraj's much talked about new Malayalam film Gulmohar. The acting debut of writer-director Ranjith has added to the curiosity value of this endeavour.

Scripted by Didi Damodaran (daughter of T Damodaran, the hit script writer of yesteryears) Gulmohar tells the story of a group of friends who were revolutionaries in their younger days. The tale is told from the point of view of Induchoodan (Ranjith), who now is settled as school teacher with his wife, two kids and mother-in-law.

Induchoodan - The protagonist of the movie

As Induchoodan jogs down the memory lane, we get glimpse of their adventurous existence mostly lived on the edge as they took on the establishment and fought for the voiceless.

The script as such is packed with lot of layering. The current generation ridicules the suffering and the sacrifices their elders made to make the world a better place. Their relatives never empathised or appreciated the zeal with which they followed their heart's calling or even their sense of justice.

Still from the movie

Induchoodan was an orphan (maybe it is used as a tool to justify why he is moved by the plight of others, as conveyed in a scene in the beginning where he tackles a complaint against an orphaned boy in the school) with only an elder sister to call his own. A person with a creative bent of mind, he uses his writing skills to propagate his ideas on revolution.

We fear that Induchoodan's character may go overboard any moment as any conventional multi-talented hero's would. But it is discreetly held back at the script level itself.

The narrative moves from the past to the present, giving us the story of Induchoodan's past and how his present is made.

Ranjith's performance does not look like he was the last minute replacement for the role of Induchoodan (Suresh Gopi [Images] was to play the role). He makes us feel that the part was written with him in the mind. He gives the impression that he has rehearsed well for the part.

Debutant Neenu Mathew is the other performance that impresses us.

Technically too, Gulmohar is in a league of its own, helping Jayaraj to bounce back in form.

Rediff.com

Ahem...

This is getting a little embarrassing... considering the number of times I have vowed to stop posting on this blog..... but what to do... came across something that had to be cross posted here..

Read the next post..

A poem by Com Saketh Rajan on the late nigerian journalist,poet and non violent activist Ken Saro Wiwa

The below quoted poem was written by Prem alias Saketh Rajan, the poem was a reaction to the judicial murder of Ken Wiva in the year 1995.

Ken Wiwa,poet Playwright, Fist against Shell oil’s might.

Oil of Ogoniland
Oozes and drains
Rows of cocoa, cassava yam.
Slain hero
Okonko’s hoe
Again lies in vain.

From Lagos to London and Holland
Dollars decorate the road
Like a miracle from an oracle’s wand
Pound and Gilder
Girdle Africa’s ankles and hands.

Torso of Ogoniland
Is riddled by the junta
Flames leap up from the rigs
Fly-ash fills the sky.

Ken,
You were killed
On a cloudy night.

Heavy,
The sky
Wept acid-rain
In the streets and the slums
Courtyards of Prisons
A torrent of tears flooded Nigeria’s terrain.
Ken, sorrow of Agonyland.

Niger,
Deep in your delta there’s oil
It boils;
Fresh in your heart there’s blood
It curdles;
Full in your eyes there’s water
It wells.

Nigeria,
Across your beautiful body
Pipelines crisis cross like veins
Blood circulates as oil.

Ken,
You were courageous
Like Okonko
But not keen.

Poet Playwright
Fist against
Hell’s might.

Like the shattered Okonko
You faltered.
Your fist
Was not clenched
In the fight.

Poems and plays–
They’re fine.
They too are weapons
Landmines
In the pathways of the enemy’s mind.

But Abacha
Was a confirmed butcher
Backed by a John Major
And a no-regret Thatcher.
They rule as not by penning sonnets
But by piercing wombs with bayonets.

When they hung Okonko
Perhaps they did not know.
When the Ogonis were shot
It didn’t register a spot.
Anger, you gulped and swallowed
As you walked up the gallows.

But,
It was a lesson
You learned too late.

Your pen
Playwright
Should’ve been backed
By the gun, alright.

Viva Ken,
Poet,
playwright
Wake up
Its past night
Your corpse sleeps in the coffin
Your spirit fills the air.
Stab the heart
That pumps out oil,
Shell the brain
That causes the drain,
Avenge the Saros of humankind.

This poem was written in memory of Ken Saro Wiva, who was a poet playwright and an environmental activist from Nigeria, Africa.

Ken Saro Wiwa(October 10, 1941 – November 10, 1995)

Ken was born in Nigeria in 1941 and he studied in the University of Ibadan. He was hanged by the regime of Nigeria lead by Abacha in the year 1995 (10th of November) though he was not proved guilty of being responsible for the death of four people during the march taken on the eve of world labor day that year.

Ken was an environmental activist who fought for the cause of Ogoni people in Nigeria who were being affected by the multinational Shell Oil Company who had set up their business in Nigeria with the help of the Nigerian regime.

Ken Viva had authored A Forest of Flowers (1987) which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English (1985), Basi and Company: A Modern African Folktale (1987) and Prisoner of Jebs (1988). His collection of poems is titled Songs in a Time of War (1985) His play Basi and Company became a long running television comedy series of eighty episodes.

In January 1993 MOSOP(a organisation Ken headed) organized peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people – more than half of the Ogoni population – through four Ogoni centers, drawing international attention to his people's plight. The same year, Shell ceased operations in the Ogoni region, while the Nigerian government occupied the region militarily.

Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month. In May 1994, he was arrested and accused of incitement to murder following the deaths of four Ogoni elders. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal, during which nearly all of the defendants' lawyers resigned in protest to the trial's cynical rigging by the Abacha regime.

The resignation of the legal teams left the defendants to their own means against the tribunal, which continued to bring witnesses to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his peers, only for many of these supposed witnesses to later admit they had been bribed by the Nigerian government to support the criminal allegations. The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations and half a year later, Ken Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award for his courage as well as the Goldman Environmental Prize

Very few observers were surprised when the tribunal declared a "guilty" verdict, but most were shocked that the penalty would be death by hanging for all nine defendants. However, many were skeptical that the executions would actually occur, as the Nigerian government would face international outrage and possible sanctions and other legal action should the penalties be carried out.

But on 10 November 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders (the "Ogoni Nine") were executed by hanging at the hands of military personnel. According to most accounts, Ken was the last person to be hanged and thus forced to watch the death of his colleagues. Information on the circumstances of Saro-Wiwa's own death are unclear, but it is generally agreed that multiple attempts were required before the hanging finally brought Saro-Wiwa to his end.

Via Crazymindseye


Strange..

Both were journalists,writers and took very different paths yet both of them are dead today.

Moral of the Story - ????