Randamoozham- Tale of the so called Fat Dumbo

It was really long since I read a Malayalam Book, so grabbed ‘Randamoozham’ as soon as my eyes landed on it. For the unknown, Randamoozham is a book written by M.T depicting Mahabharatam from Bheeman’s perspective. I am no one to judge which version is the truth, but loved the view from a different angle. Having heard mahabharatham and Ramayanam a zillion times from Apoopan, I thought I knew them well enough. Of course it was about 20 years ago that I used to fall asleep in amoomas bed listening to these epics. Similar to the song 4 u shows that we see around, i could choose which part of the story i wanted to hear and he would narrate it in great detail. Arjunan emerged as the superstar in all those stories and I adored him. The part where prince Utharan goes for war with Duryodanan, but gets scared when he reaches there and Arjunan who was in disguise as Brahanala fights for him and wins the war was my favorite. I would ask apoopan for that story again and again, he would describe it every time patiently with the same enthusiasm. Its been about 10 years since his demise. I miss him.
Yet, I had forgotten many parts of the story and when I read the book it gave me this peculiar pleasure of reviving some faded childhood memories. I had read in one of Amir Khans interview that he thinks Mahabharatam has the potential similar to The LOTR. Im not commenting on that as yours truly is yet to watch LOTR [embarrassed]. But this is one hell of a story. Last week if someone had asked what its about I wouldve told .. there lived some bros and they all wanted the country and they fought for it. Random stuff i remember from the book follows. < Spoiler alert >

Jeernavastrangal - Liked this particular chapter more where Krishnan during the war tells the brothers that human bodies are clothes for the soul and it is just these clothes which get destroyed. The soul remains. It chooses new clothes. Hence death doesnt matter. Krishnan is shown as a normal human being with flaws just like anyone else, and not as Lord Krishna. Nor has the author mentioned anything about Gita. Even though Krishnan gives this valuable advice, his nephews death saddens him. Bheeman realizes that preaching and practicing are different things.

Droupadi swayamvaram – Arjunan wins her. When they bring her home, Kunti [ without coming out of the house] asks them to share what they got. I knew this already. Then comes the twist. The brothers laugh off Kuntis “accidental” inappropriate words. But then yudishtiran doesnt let it go that easily. He claims that its a sin to disobey mother’s words. Realizing Yudishtirans secret desire, Bheemans outraged. Later Kunti confides that she told that on purpose and that it was essential for the brothers to stay united.

Family – Most of them have more than a wife. For Bheeman there is Hidumbi and Balandhara apart from Droupadi. Husbands donot keep track of their wives or kids. Most of their kids come to join them in the war and that is when fathers and sons meet for the first time. Bheeman feels guilty about all this.

Droupadis partiality-The Kalyanasougandikam saga’s quite famous. Bheeman finds the flowers discarded at a lake side after gifts her those [he undergoes quite some trouble to get them]. She loved Arjunan and Arjunan alone. She makes Bheeman promise that he wont let Arjunan face Jarasandhan for the inevitable fight. She comes crying to Bheeman when keechakan misbehaves with her, when her other husbands discard her concerns. Bheeman loves her and anticipates his turn for her, only to hear her let out Arjunans name in her sleep. At the end when all of them leaves for Vanaprastham [or Swargavasam] after a while of travel she collapses. Bheeman tells everyone, but they all leave her behind. Yudistiran replies that she doesnt deserve Swargam as her eyes were always on Arjunan even when she was being his Pattamaharshi for Rajasooyam. She has only Bheeman by her side during her last hours.

Dronacharyar- Another one who was favorably inclined towards Arjunan. He discourages Bheeman from practicing Asthra vidhya even though he was good at it , disagrees to teach Ekalavyan and demands his thumb when he fears Ekalavyan may become a threat to Arjunan. He doesnt allow Karnan to display his abilities for Abhyasaprakadanam as he is Soothaputhran.

Yudishtiran – is shown more as a loser than as The Dharma Raja. He is someone who believes in peace even if someone slaps him. He’s the reason pandavar loses their kingdom, he shamelessly bets even when droupadi is at stake. His brothers obey him throughout. But then finally arjunan blasts him well, thats the part where I started loving Arjunan again :D. Kurukshetra yudham is won mainly with Bheemans power and Arjunans excellence. At the end when only Duryodanan is left, yudishtiran challenges duryodanan to fight with any of the 5 brothers to win back his kingdom. The brothers are left speechless and Krishnan rolls his eyes.

Pitrthvam- Yet another shock.Like Bheeman I also believed that indran is arjunans father, vayudevan bheemans and so on. But at the end of the story there are some shocking revelations regarding the paternity. Yudishtiran confides in Bheeman that Vidurar is his biological father!

Karnan – He is better than Arjunan in archery. But he is denied opportunity at abhyasa prakadanam and at droupadi swayamvaram as he is soothaputhran [turns out that this is true biologically too]. Bheeman when he is about to kill Karnan during the war finds out the truth from his saradhi [I know.. too filmy]. Later on Karnan is killed by Arjunan in a non-Tendulkar way [err..I cant find the proper word..You know the wheel getting stuck on the mud story]

Khadolkachans death – Karnan had got special weapons from Gods and he had reserved it for Arjunan. But hes finally forced to use it against Khadolkachan. When Bheeman is overcome with fatherly grief, Krishnan calls for a celebration as the divyastram has got used up.

Kunthi- Shes quite chalaak, she understands kauravars tactics better than her sons. Shes partial towrds arjunan and even towards yudistiran upto some extent. You get a feeling that she has a heart of stone when you read the part where she tactfully made a tribal mother and 5 sons to stay in arakillam.. so that Duryodanan thinks that the Pandavar is dead. Yudistiran asks Bheeman to become the king, but Vidurar and Kunthi opposes this. By the end of the book youll be able to guess that this was due to Vidurars love for his son.

Abhimanyu- You will be able to identify this guy in every movie made on war. Someone who is young and charming, someone whom you love, but will be killed for sure in a heroic way. I guess all those characters were inspired from this little master. All other heroes are overshadowed by this boys charm. Bheeman is enthralled by his charisma and humility [so is yours truly]. He fights till his last breath and takes down many of his opponents before the merciless knowledgeable so called acharyas along with hundreds of soldiers attack the poor unarmed boy :-(

Now waiting eagerly for the Secret of the Nagas [Second book in the Shiva trilogy]. Ill get it tomorrow <:-P

Thirakatha(might contain spoilers)

Saw a movie after a long while with friends. Some aspects that i liked about the movie.

Priyamani-When we were entering the theatre none of us liked her much. By the time the movie was over,everyone agreed that she did a fabulous job.

This dialogue of Prithviraj(who plays a director) when the superstar gives him a date out of the blue. He says he doesnt believe in getting a superstars date somehow and then create a story accordingly. I guess if all directors believed in this principle many of the waste films couldve been avoided.

The effect created by the fact that its a real story. Some stories make you laugh and you forget about them the next instant( like OSO), some make you cry and are made only to make people cry(like akashadoothu), some make you think(like swades). This one generated a strange feeling in me. Maria was crying next to me, I so badly wanted to cry,but I couldn't. I felt a sharp sting,but tears wouldnt come out. It took several minutes to break the silence after the movie was over.No,Im not being overdramatic.This is what I felt,doesnt mean you would feel the same. People differ drastically and you may fall asleep during the film.

The way in which Love was portrayed in the movie. It was different. None of the stereotyped teenage romance and living together 24*7*365 as soulmates. It showed that Love could be as intense even if you are miles apart,living different lives,pretending not caring,being egotistic. I dunno to describe it. See it to feel it.

The short life spanned character of Praveena whose dialogues are just the opposite of what you expect from a typical movie character under such circumstances.

I loved this scene where Priyamani wants and expects to see her love in her deathbed. She,being a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy isnot looking at her best. In this scene you see her wearing a pottu(bindya) unusual to her character.When she knows that hes not gonna turn up she slowly removes it. I dunno if others even noticed it, but my heart just went out to her seeing that scene.

It depicts the hardships underwent by others so well that it makes people like me who panics on a hiccup feel ashamed

The fact that a movie with such a humble casting could create such an effect that the viewer has been thinking about it for the past 8 hours.

P.S-I thought i maybe hyping it,but maria just told me shes been thinking about it as well. So its for sure that there's something about it that touches your heart.

Posting for the sake of posting!

Series exams this week and so im back to blogging..was watching Swades with CHD notebook on my lap, have seen the movie before in theatre..still it’s the days before the xam afterall…had only DD earlier and I get soo desperate the days before the xams that I used to watch even shaktimaan before my 10th public xam..sigh.
But this is one of the movies I liked. Yeah,I agree that it wasn’t a major hit. Mainly because Ashutosh Gawarikar after Lagaan +SRK, the hype generated was huge! It wasn’t a complete commercial movie …but I would sit through this one a 100 times rather than watch Veer Zara once more. I was dumbfounded when they gave the best actor award to SRK for Veer Zara over Swades. Cmeon, this was one movie where he dint seem like he’s suffering from parkinson’s disease. The movie is too realistic. I was surprised to find out that there are still villages where there is no electricity in India,when I first saw the movie. And was moved by a scene in which a boy sells water for 25 ps. in the railway station. Why do people prefer lovey-dovey stuff over such materiality? k3g is going on in another channel-8-..to tell u the truth ,the only thing I am interested in these type is the costumes and watching the luxorious ambience maybe. The movie(Swades) did better in south I guess. ARR’s music is marvelous (as usual). A review for the movie isn’t what I intended to write..but ended up like this. Maybe I would add a picture too. Back to my “studies”then..Adieu.

Sooo much for..'The End'

Guys..cheer up..i am back…long time since I blogged..have been thinking about it…but u can never ever imagine how lazy I can get(nope yaar,u cant)and made up the excuse of lack of topix..i know its my page and I can even write about how peaceful a sleep I had this noon. So thot of boring you again.
2 days before..
I was watching tv…yeah..since I got the net,I haven’t been much into tv..and was surfing through the channels and the star parivaar came up…and guess what guys…I actually did see an ‘ENDING’ episode of one of those ektha soap opera’s …and I remember seeing the same things first episode too..this is a real once in a life time opportunity…thought my great grand children’s would get to see the last episode..and don’t get the misconception that I am a fan of the soaps..the only thing I notice sometimes is the costumes,or ‘accessories’ as one of my friends term it…and the names are soo damn funny..kehta hai dil kyu hota hai pyaar, kyu chalti hai hawa,kyu hota hai dadkan,kuch tho hai, koi hai…. Kkkkkkk… gimme a break!!!
Well..i was in 10th when this one started…u cant blame me .. even shaktiman seemed appealing during the sslc xams.. I will describe to u wht I saw in this soap here and there during channel swapping in 4 years
Stage 1- This Sarvagunasambana Sarvamsaha heroine (let us call her X),gets married to Y..and there is a damn big family of Y in which the only one I rem is Z, Y’s younger brother who considers X as mom or even more...and thus she remains the ideal bahu…then there comes the villainess which is my mom who cuts the cable as she thought I am not using it at all.
Stage 2-( after a lot of crying and stamping my foot,I get the conn back)Y is dead and the mourning X(fcrse she is pregnant ,as usual) appears in this white saree(no color costumes ..so switched channels)
Stage 3-X and Z,the kaliyug laxman are happily married(me :O:O:O…where the hell is the remot???)
Stage 4-A new character who is identical to X exists in sme village(X’) and X and X’
gets interchanged somehow….phewwww
Stage 5-X’ dies and everyone thinks it was X who died and total chaos…and finally X proves that she is X by DNA test (kill meeeeeee)
Stage 6-X is having brain tumor(yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…I had springs attached on my legs at the thought of getting rid of X finally)
Stage 7-(which was the day before yesterday)X and Y having twins(she seems to have transplanted her brain…or as it is an ektha soap..it is also possible that the tumor disappeared just by praying) and they lived happily ever after(showing Kodak moments as usual)
This is the summary I got from the 10-15 episodes I have seen,(fcrse..all the while throughout the 4 yrs there were a whole lots of villains and villainess who has their own background music and who just finds bliss in destroying X’s peace of mind)and I am finally happy that it ended.
And guess what I saw the first thing switching on the TV today?..The sequel is coming..with X and Y and their 3 children(all 5of them seems to be of the same age).’K’ queen Ki Kahaniyaa Kabhi Khatham Nahii Hothiiii…..

U cant change the direction of the wind...But u sure can adjust ur sails

I never thought I would write this soon again. The day before yesterday was republic day and I went to see the rakeysh om prakash mehra’s 'Rang de Basanti' with my friends…being in the theatre before the show began,I felt like being in my college meet bcoz a very good ratio of my college was there . I went for the first day first show for the first time and was amused to find the bouncy crowd . After seeing ‘Mangal Pandey’ ,I had decided not to keep high expectations of anything…not that I dint like the movie…but the hype generated was high. Aamir khan’s movie releasing after almost 3 years and that too after ‘The Lagaan’ and 'DCH'..may be I was just eccentric..i liked the movie..but wasn’t upto my expectations( just coz my expectations were too high). So I was apprehensive about ‘rang de’. But the movie just rocked . The theme of a generation awakening is shown in a fabulous way. The theme reminded me of the ‘mallu ‘ blockbuster ‘4 the people’( which would have been great with better dubbing ). But I couldn’t find anything out of place for RDB . The camera work is commendable too. At the beginning of the movie,I had the same attitude as that of the characters in the movie and by the end of the movie , I was surprised to find that my opinions too changed. The first half of the movie is humorous and the second half makes us think ( and made some of my friends cry :D )…it’s more like a fusion of ‘Dil chahta hai’ and ‘Mangal Pandey’. All other characters are given as importance as Aamir. Hats off to A R Rahman’s music..I just loved 'paathshala' and the proposalwaali calm song . So if u are planning to go for the movie…don’t hesitate… and get ready for goose bumps.