I’ve been slowing down on my Malayalam posts this week because I’m catching up on American TV. Well, “TV”, the Netflix series House of Cards. I find it very soothing. Especially when I have to write about something emotional.
I watched Classmates! After getting obsessed with it once I found out I couldn’t have it (this is also why I ended up ordering Traffic on DVD. It’s a sickness!). Well, that and after hearing about it in all sorts of places as being a landmark in the evolution of the Malayalam film industry.
The Oscar nominees and potential Oscar nominees are finally available through cheap streaming and rental services! So I caught up on all the high quality American films that I missed when they were in theaters. Now, I know a regular amount about the American industry (I did get a Masters in film at an American university, I kind of couldn’t avoid it), but it’s not my main field. Plus, all of these movies were really really good, so if I was just looking at them in terms of how good they were, I wouldn’t have much to say besides “really really good”. So I’m going to go ahead and just rank them in terms of how “Indian” they were.
I watched Drishyam! Finally breaking free of my rom-com streak! But I got Classmates delivered on DVD (finally!), so I’m going to watch that next and be back to rom-coms. Although, I think I saw somewhere that Classmates has a mystery at the heart of it along with the romance?
I wanted to watch Traffic last night, because it is supposed to be really good and groundbreaking, and the director just died, and I have been watching a ton of rom-coms and I need to rinse out my system with a thriller. But, no luck! Couldn’t find Traffic anywhere. However, Mili, by the same director, was readily available, so I watched that instead.
Another Nivin Pauly movie! Premam! Which I loved, but I should probably make it my last rom-com for a bit. I’ve been spoiling myself with a string of recent rom-com hits, I need to check out a different genre/era. I wanted to watch Traffic, but no luck, it’s not available anywhere online. Which almost gives me an excuse to watch Mili instead, which is available (and also by Rajesh Pallai, so it would be a nice thing to do the week he died). But it’s another Nivin Pauly movie, and I am dangerously close to a Nivin Pauly overload. Or maybe not? Mili does look really good!
I already put up a detailed post about how Neerja in particular is doing (short answer: Spectacularly! Long answer: Spectacularly considering the complete lack of faith in it shown by distributors), but what about the non-Neerja films? How are they doing overseas?
Raghil in comments said that if I liked Ohm Shanti Oshaana, I should watch Thattathin Marayathu. So I did, and I did like it! Not as much as Ohm Shanti Oshaana, but it is definitely in the same family.
Oscar time again! And once again, I have seen basically none of the nominees. And I especially haven’t seen the foreign film nominees. And nor has anyone else. I don’t mean that they don’t play widely in America, for the most part the kind of films that get an Oscar nomination do pretty well in the art theaters around the country. But they don’t play around the world. Hollywood, Hong Kong, and India are objectively and demonstrability the most watched film industries in the world (with maybe Korea and Nigeria just barely beginning to give them a run for their money), and only one of them ever makes it to the Academy Awards. But I actually think there are some reasonable reasons for that. Not good, but reasonable.
(Mother India is, of course, the closest India has ever come to wining. Lost by a hair to Nights in Cabiria. Stupid Fellini)
So, Lisa, my Malayalam expert commentator has been pushing me for weeks and weeks and weeks to see Manichitrathazhu. And I finally did! It was a nice break from all my Neerja posts. Next I am going to watch Thattathin marayathu from my other Malayalam expert commentator. And then maybe just go through this whole list from Midukki that a friend pointed me too. By the way, if you are enjoying my Malayalam posts but wishing I knew a lot more, or had a bigger archive, or anything, you should definitely check her out. And also this blog.
I’m done! With the dozen films I randomly checked out from the library just because they had Malayalam in the description. I regret nothing! Some of them were good, some were bad, but I ended up with a fairly broad idea of Malayalam film and culture, instead of the narrow perspective I would have gotten by just watching the very newest, very highest quality, films. And for the grande finale, I got to watch a film that was actually pretty close to what I would have chosen on purpose!
I finally finished with the pile of random library movies! Thank goodness! So I can start watching the ones people have been recommending to me in the comments! These last two, though, were really important and I am so glad I watched them!
My randomly organized stack of all the Malayalam movies owned by my library has finally turned up something from the past 10 years! And it even stars a guy I have seen before, Fahadh Faasil from Bangelore Days (and apparently in real life he is married to Nazriya Nazim? Who I love forever because of Ohm Shanti Oshaana). It was good, and definitely similar to the other modern movies I had seen, but just not quite as spectacularly good as they were. And that’s actually what I wanted, to experience something not spectacularly good.
So, last night I took the next Malayalam DVD off my library stack, and there were no subtitles! Even though the box promised them! So, yay! That was easy, and I’m down to only 4 left.
And then I took the next-next DVD off the stack, and it was an artsy looking 80s movie called Aalkkoottathil Thaniye. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but the point of requesting every single Malayalam film from the library and then watching them in a random order is to make me watch a wide variety of films, even if I don’t think I will like them. So I watched it, and turns out, it was great! I finally “get” Mohan Lal!
I was going to skip this one, but then people in the comments said it was not to be missed, so I gave it a shot! I’m glad I did. It isn’t my favorite-favorite, or one that exactly hit the sweet spot of what I like, but it was definitely interesting and different. And it got me thinking about the Mahabharata and how Indian film acting builds on a classical tradition, which is always a good time!
I shouldn’t say “odd”, because I don’t have enough data to really make that judgement. Apparently, the star (picture above) is actually a big name actor who has been in a bunch of stuff. Which isn’t surprising, because he was really really good. But he is also a little person and at times that is handled in a way that felt super progressive, and at other times, not so much.
Back 10 years ago when I first started watching Hindi movies, there was all this stuff that went completely over my head. If I enjoyed a film, it was just in the most superficial way, because the hero was cute or the love story was sweet. And then I learned more and more, and all of a sudden all these plot things started making sense, and I got that the reason this character says this thing here is because it is related to some huge political movement or religious metaphor or something.
And now I am trying to get into the regional films, and I feel like I am back to square one and I am missing all sorts of things! It is very frustrating, but I know the only way to get through it is just to keep going.
So, I did something wee bit foolish. After learning a little more about Malayalam films, and watching Ohm Shanti Oshaana, I went into my library system and requested every DVD they have with the word “Malayalam” somewhere in the description. Which is 12 DVDs, and they all arrived at once, and now I have to watch 36 hours of Malayalam films in 7 days. Which may turn out to not be humanly possible and I will end up returning some unwatched. And they are definitely not all getting full reviews!
Over the weekend, I was able to finish 2, start and reject 1, and reject 2 others just based on the box (yes, I judged a DVD by its cover). So only 7 left!
Saala Khadoos! A good movie, but a short and single track movie. So not as much to say! I am actually finishing the whole thing off in 2 posts.
Read on for the second half!
I have now seen 3 Malayalam films! Tied with my 3 Telegu, but beating my 2 Tamil. But if re-watching counts, Malayalam is going to double pretty soon. Because I loooooooved this movie, and I will be watching it over and over and over again.
I already posted a spoiler-free review, but if you aren’t able to see the movie, or have seen it and want a reminder of what happened, or are just curious about my opinion in detail, here is a complete scene by scene breakdown!
I finally saw Saala Khadoos! A week after it came out! And it was definitely worth the wait. A lot to chew on, and, more importantly, a great role for Madhavan and a totally loveable new heroine!
I am having such an American weekend! Star Wars yesterday, and finally catching up on Fargo today! But, since I am still a student of Indian film, just like Star Wars yesterday, Fargo made me start thinking about what it has in common with Indian narratives, and how those narratives might actually be universal.
In this case, the Mahabharata. Or more accurately, the Mahabharata versus the Ramayana.
I finally saw Star Wars! I wanted to see Saala Khadoos, but I couldn’t make the showtimes work, so I saw Star Wars instead. It was very Indian. Or maybe Indian films are very Star Warsian? Or maybe both kinds of films come from a deeper shared origin?
A friend just sent me this super interesting link, which I encourage you all to follow! It lays out 10 things that make the Malayalam film industry special among Indian film industries.
Now, I know basically nothing about Malayalam films. I have seen Utsav Hotel and Bangelore Days, and that’s it (feel free to give me recommendations in the comments! I’m already planning to watch Ohm Shanti Oshana next, but after that I am open!). But I know a lot about Hindi film, and this list got me to thinking about why Hindi films don’t do these things, or in some cases, don’t do them any more.
dontcallitbollywood 