Mixed bag

Ok for the first time (no, its actually been twice already!) Im typing this post without knowing what the next words gonna be. Power cut. It came back. Reading Happiness Hypothesis - shall ponder on it aloud once I'm done.

Saw two films - Ore Kadal (malayalam) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - obviously english, but hell, the film's language could just as well be WHACKY and thats all I can say about it. Liked it tho - such films dont require a review. Either you like it or you dont. Simple.

On Ore Kadal - I had so badly wanted to see this tale of burning love set in the most unkindliest of scenarios. A simple, married woman, mother of two (Meera Jasmine) having an affair with a much older, cynical, no strings attached economist (Mammotty). Passion and subliminal emotions rule this film - but I have issues with the climax. Specially with Mammotty's character - because as much as anything is possible in life, a change in thought process and behaviour patterns in a grown-up man is not so easy an ending to arrive at.

Yes, top of the line performances from the lead actors, good photography and lighting and music ( Alagappan & Ouseppachan) and some good writing as well. But...is love so quick an emotion for a man whose lived all his adult life with just one philosophy - and that is to stay away from all attachments? Specially, when he has nothing in common with this housewife, whose physical beauty and innocence alone attracts his carnal desires! Will an intellectual 'social scientist' find a lifetime of happiness with a woman who is just 12th class pass and who has no idea of the E of Economics? This is a mature declaration of love or so we are shown to believe, and its not like, one discovers love by chance - this is pure give and take, when the wife of a jobless man comes to see her neighbor, the seemingly better-off economist to help her out with small loans of money for everyday life and thereafter, he even recommends her husband for a good career break. They even discuss this aspect after making love and the economist tells her that this attraction has nothing to do with what he has done for her husband.

The film has some potent moments, like when Nathan (an effective portrayal by Mammotty) comes to see a depressed (read regressed by their affair) Dipti (a stunning act from Meera) and she in a gesture of placing her head on his chest, actually bites off a piece of his skin near his heart, a scar that stays with him for life - a very visual imagery of what she actually wants from him - a place for her in his heart, his love. And till the last few minutes, Nathan is shown fighting his feelings and is always arguing with logic on the kind of man he is and how love will never find its place with him. Its more guilt that he is shown dealing with rather than genuine affections for this woman.

The last 45minutes of the film sees Dipti get rehabilitated for her depression and blankness; Nathan is shown suffering with more guilt. Dipti's husband (Naren) and Nathan's intellectual & bedside companion Bella (RamyaKrishnan) represent two sides of the audience's mind - the conservative & the liberal. Bella convinces Nathan he is in love much as he does'nt want to face the loss that arises out of this attachment (attachment, suffering of facing responsibility for another person, and when death strikes the thought of being alone etc). The film is so convincing till this point - that one would want to cheer for the filmmaker (Shyama Prasad) for this new age story (a la french cinema!). Actually he does deserve a pat on his back for the very attempt! The story thereafter moves to Dipti getting pregnant with Nathan's child and the leadscenes upto the end - where Dipti comes to see Nathan with both her kids (the son from her husband) in a fit of rage of wanting to kill him - Nathan's turnaround with her is the climax - as he holds her against him, and explains how despite his many women, none had come this far in his life and noone had ever wanted to look him up as Dipti had done now - he actually talks about her love for him (selfishly so dont you think? more than speaking of his love for her, which is what it should've been, but we are dealing with an egotist intellectual here - ahem!) thus making her realise he is actually, finally taken her as a person beyond her body - something she had been wanting to see in him all long. So her Basic Instinct blade of glass is left in a corner and as the son comes into Nathan's apartment in search of his mother, we see a teary-eyed, full of compassion & love economist hold another man's child as if he were his own.

Ok - when put like that, the climax seems deserving of a standing ovation, but hey, the neo-realism of this sort of cinema, somewhere does not give room for the fantasy climax. Atleast in my mind. I had seen the film last week, but had the 'push' to put it on this post only now. Mulling over...!

My internet connection is ON, OFF at the sametime now and I've no clue why its behaving like my day. Somewhere, I feel that these days I'm best when left alone. I've the guilt of not meeting up with my school friends, one of whom had come down from the USA, twas her birthday too - but I was in some god forsaken moment in time, somewhere else - wish I had some luxuries of space and time. Now I have it - but somewhere instead of reaching out, I just want to reach within. Have you ever felt this way before? This sudden abruptness?