Conscientious Reflections
Saturday, April 30, 2022
മകൾക്കെന്തു പറ്റി..?
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Decades in Black and White- Karuppum Veluppum by Dee Cee Kizhakkemuri
This is a selection of Dee Cee's newspaper column Karuppum Veluppum published in different newspapers for many decades. It is supposedly the first of its kind in Malayalam. In these Dee Cee presents his humorous and critical comments for news headlines.
Anyone interested in history will have a great time going through this collection. I loved the picture presented by the author about several major political personalities of past. The present depiction of old leaders as political giants gets a major blow when we go through these. It is interesting to watch them through the lens of contemporaries of the time, without the baggage of greatness thrusted by their followers. Nehru, Patel, Mannam, Pattom, EMS and several leaders are dissected mercilessly in these columns.
The columns started at 1949 and continued till 1990s. Initial comments were direct, crude, rude and blatantly personal in nature. But by the end of 1950s, the tone turned more satirical. Instead of commenting on direct news headlines, author started trying to use unrelated headlines to make striking associations about then current events. These, I feel were more interesting and effective.
But I was not able to find references to many major events of those times, about which I was eager to read about. Historical events like the first Communist Government elected by ballot, Vimochana Samaram, Land reformation, rise and fall of Naxalism, wars with China and Pakistan, rise of Indira Gandhi, golden temple fiasco are totally ignored or are given just a fleeting mention. Most of the comments are about cheap political statements and infightings within political parties of the time. Unfortunately most of them are totally irrelevant when seen in a contemporary perspective. This was a major let down.
If you are interested in a humorous dose of history, this book is available for free in DC books website.
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Final Portrait
Final portrait, directed by Stanly Tucci, is an incredible true story of an off beat relationship between a rude, selfish and indulgent artist and his patient and passive model. If you are watching a movie and you are more interested in its plot, then I would not recommend this one. Instead there is a four minute video in YouTube that beautifully summarizes the whole thing. But if you are interested in a movie for something more than just a story, you long for an emotional experience, I would love to introduce Final Portrait.
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Alberto Giacometti |
Playing perfect foil to our artist is his model. Lord understands and even empathize with the struggle of Giacometti. He has a pressing need to go back to New York, yet has to postpone his tickets as he doesn't have any idea when his adventure will be ultimately over. He is surprised by the attitude and actions of the painter and feels apprehensive, but shows restraint on every occasion. He is passive and is herded many times by the more aggressive and dominant Giacometti. Yet he doesn't protest and takes it all with an all knowing smile.
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The Portrait of James Lord |