Wednesday 27 May 2015

No censor certificate for Tamil film on Lankan TV journalist

Gautaman Bhaskaran, Hindustan Times, Chennai
Updated: May 26, 2015 16:24 IST

K Ganeshan's Porkalathil Oru Poo chronicles the tragic life of Sri Lankan Tamil television journalist Isaipriya.

As the world, specifically Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu, celebrates the Palm d'Or victory at Cannes of French auteur Jacques Audiard's movie, Dheepan, India's Central Board of Film Certification has refused an exhibition certificate to a Tamil movie, Porkalathil Oru Poo.

K Ganeshan's Porkalathil Oru Poo (A Flower in Times of War) centres on the tragic story of television journalist Isaipriya -- who was reportedly captured by the Sri Lankan army and killed. Sadly, a few months later, the 30-year-old strife between the Sri Lankan Government and rebels, led by Vellupillai Prabhakaran's Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam fighting for a separate homeland, ended. Isaipriya was unlucky to have been 'caught' at the wrong time.

The board said that Porkalathil Oru Poo could not be cleared because the movie could strain relations between Colombo and New Delhi.

Ganeshan was upset with this decision and wondered whether India had lost the right to criticise. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu has passed a unanimous resolution in the Assembly not to consider Sri Lanka as a friendly nation.

Cinema has been a prime victim of this decision, and this has led to several films not being allowed to screen in Tamil Nadu. Inman, Madras Cafe and With You Without You are some of the recent movies that were stopped from playing in the state by student or political groups. Mind you, these films were duly certified by the board.

What is more, these movies were certainly not anti-Tamil or even pro-Sri Lanka. For instance, Prasanna Vithanage's With You Without You is a lyrical work about how an-ex Sri Lankan soldier tries to assuage feelings by marrying a Tamil girl. A film like this will go a long way in helping to heal the deep wounds caused by the bloody war on the island.

In such a scenario, will Dheepan -- about a former Tamil Tiger, who migrates to France with a woman and girl impersonating as his wife and daughter -- in mainly the Tamil language be allowed to screen in Tamil Nadu? Dheepan is a brilliant work about how three strangers come together to pick up pieces of their lives in France, and move away from even the memory of the torturous days they had to endure during the war.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/worldcinema/no-censor-certificate-for-tamil-film-on-lankan-tv-journalist/article1-1351402.aspx

Dheepan, a riveting take on the life of former Tamil Tiger

Cannes 2015: Dheepan, a riveting take on the life of former Tamil Tiger

Gautaman Bhaskaran, Hindustan Times, Cannes
Updated: May 22, 2015 15:53 IST

(From L) Sri Lankan actor Claudine Vinasithamby, French director Jacques Audiard and Sri Lankan actor Jesuthasan Antonythasan pose as they arrive for the screening of the film Dheepan at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southeastern France, on May 21, 2015. (AFP)

War fascinates cinema--sometimes even more than love and romance do. And at the ongoing 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, we saw a moving story of the Holocaust (Son of Saul), one on the 1980s Punjab militancy, and on Thursday, French director Jacques Audiard's brilliant take on the Sri Lankan ethnic strife that plunged the picturesque island nation into a 30-year bloody mess. Thousands were killed, thousands maimed and orphaned and one of them is nine-year-old Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) in Audiard's competing fictional feature, Dheepan.

For me, a Tamil-speaking Indian it was just wonderful to hear the characters in the French helmer's work speak in that language. In my 26 years at Cannes, I do not recall a movie where Tamil was the language. And mind you, made by an essentially French auteur, who has in the past, given us works such as Rust and Bone and that brilliant A Prophet.

Dheepan, like Prasanna Vithanage's haunting film, With You, Without You, is an attempt to soothe souls tortured by the war. Dheepan opens with a funeral pyre which seemingly indicates that Sri Lankans and the nation itself want to lay to rest the inglorious past -- laced with rancour and revenge. Audiard's is a story of a former Tiger -- part of the Vellupillai Prabhakaran's Liberation Tigers of Tami Eelam, which fought for a separate homeland for the Tamil-speaking minority in the country.

(From 2nd L) Sri Lankan actor Jesuthasan Antonythasan, French director Jacques Audiard, Sri Lankan actor Claudine Vinasithamby, Sri Lankan actor Kalieaswari Srinivasan, French actor Vincent Rottiers and French actor Marc Zinga pose as they arrive for the screening of the film Dheepan at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southeastern France, on May 21, 2015. (AFP)

But Dheepan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) does not want to have anything to do with even the memory of the war. He cremates his former comrades, burns his own uniform before seeking political asylum in France, and to make this look authentic, he finds a woman Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) to act as his wife and Illayaal as their daughter to make the family complete.

However, when they settle down in a Paris suburb, peace does not come easily to them. The place is infested with drug peddling, gun-totting gangs whose bullets and bravado disturb Yalini and the little girl even as they try desperately to shake off their messy past.

The movie has several riveting moments -- as we see Dheepan (after telling off a former Tiger colonel that the war for him is truly over) becoming a caretaker for the housing complex where he lives, as we see Yalini taking on the job of a carer and Ilayaal beginning her French lessons in a new school.

French director Jacques Audiard poses as he arrives for the screening of the film Dheepan at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southeastern France, on May 21, 2015. (AFP)

In a way, Audiard's film is a strong comment on immigrant experience in France, but it is also a powerful statement on war and the uphill task of those coming to terms with it -- and seeking a peaceful way out of it. The climax could not have said this in a stronger way.

Dheepan is certainly one of the best titles that I have seen in this festival, and Audiard does not disappoint. His latest offering is as power packed as A Prophet was.

(Gautaman Bhaskaran is covering the Cannes Film Festival for the 26th year.)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/cannes2015/cannes-2015-dheepan-a-riveting-take-on-the-life-of-former-tamil-tiger/article1-1349918.aspx

Thursday 7 May 2015

Tracing the Journey of Tamil Music

CHENNAI: Celebrity presenter B H Abdul Hameed, the voice of the then Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia, will be hosting the second edition of Innisai Varpugal, an annual thematic music programme. The show will trace the journey of Tamil music in the last 75 years. “In those days, in Tamil dramas, the songs used mostly Sanskrit words. I remember meeting S V Venkatraman, who was the first to become a music director in Tamil, in 1993. He said that in those times, everyone wanted to copy Hindi music. Most do not know that MS Subbulakshmi’s famous song Kaatrinile Varum Geetham was copied from a Hindi song,” he says.

The trend changed after music composers like M S Viswanathan and KV Mahadevan came to the fore. “Now, singers like Kumar Sanu and Anu Malik copy Tamil tunes in Hindi songs. Also the North has now accepted A R Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja,” he says. The show will focus on the popular songs, the melodies of which most people do not know, whether it came from the South or North. “I am not tarnishing anyone’s image. I am just going to show the audience which songs were copied 100 per cent, and which borrowed portions of it from the other,” says the host of the popular TV show Rasigan.

Sri Lanka-based Hameed, who has over eight decades of experience in broadcasting, would have done over 5,000 shows, including interviews, quiz programmes, game shows and so on, but the most important lesson in his profession came from the meeting with the Superstar in the early 1980s, he says. “It was an unforgettable interview. He had come to Sri Lanka for the movie Thee. Producer K Balaji arranged for an interview with Rajini. The recording system was set and the technicians were ready,” he recalls, laughing a bit. “I greeted him and asked my first question. Rajini looked this way and that, scratched his hair, and said just one word - ‘Yes’, the same thing continued for the following questions. And all the while, for nearly 40 minutes, the tape was rolling!” he recalls.

Hameed was never able to broadcast the interview as, he says, there was absolutely no content in it. “Later, I introspected and realised that for the questions I asked one could give answers like what Rajini did. I learnt that one should induce the other person to speak,” he says, breaking into a laugh.

Among the other interviews that remain evergreen in his mind is the one with Sivaji Ganesan, whom he had idolised right from his childhood. “He had come to Sri Lanka for a fund raising programme after a flood in TN. He was so tired that his manager refused all media people except me, on Sivaji’s request. I still remember, he was standing in the terrace, it was a full moon night. Even as I was deciding whether to call him anna or ayya, he said, ‘Vango captain Sambasivam’. That was my character’s name in the famous radio play Komaligal. I realised that the legend had listened to my play. It was shocking!” recalls Hameed, who has several radio dramas to his credit.

Hameed’s interview with a young A R Rahman in 1994 remains one of the iconic interviews till date. “There was lot of criticism against Rahman at that point of time. This was after he won the National Award. Many said that the credit should go to the technology he used and not his voice. It was an ugly situation. I wanted to clear it. That was the first interview Rahman gave for a Tamil channel. That programme created a better understanding of him and explored the secret of his success,” he says.

The New Indian Express is partnering with Gala events, which is organising Innisai Varpugal 2015 on May 23 at The Music Academy.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Tracing-the-Journey-of-Tamil-Music/2015/04/30/article2789533.ece