Before Santosh Pandit, After Santosh Pandit and being Santosh Pandit

No other name in the recent time has ruffled the conscience of the movie loving malayali populace (mallus) as has Santosh Pandit. A name, not even a mallu sounding one (he says there’s a UP touch to it), has taken the print, television and radio waves by storm and for better or for worse has made everyone to sit up and take notice. If we go the way of the World Wide Web, his name has created such an audience that commoners like SRK and AB would beg and steal to be in his shoes. Let alone SRK, any person who wants to be famous on the internet, be it on FB or on TT, would wish his/her name was Santosh Pandit. So much so that at one time he stood second only to FB in the most searched keyword on Google, after his videos went viral on YouTube, owing to the curiosity that it generated among mallus; more so from in our homelands - UAE, Qatar and Kuwait.

So what did Santosh Pandit do to gain such a fan following or infamy, if I may call it that? Actually he did many things and now stands on the verge of making it into the Guinness Book, if you think Limca Book is too native. In the beginning there was a video, on you tube, this one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udHd86T1Tas&feature=player_detailpage. Spend a minute here, if you have not done it already. So we have had seen music videos in the past, but what got the goat of netizens was not his two size larger and grandfather style suits, nor his dance, which at best was aerobics and at worst a march-past, or the worst lip syncing ever, because his lips were busy covering his buck tooth, and if at all we could ignore the grisly voice. But what irked people the most was his audacity to grasp around a girl the age of his elder sister’s daughter and croon about what his wedding night will be like. But people didn’t start hitting on the above link because they were angry, rather they wanted to see who this fellow was, who had the misled self-confidence (or if I may use the mallu word for it - ‘touli katti’, translated as ‘thick skinned’), to bring on himself this kind of infamy in front onf the whole world.

But all of this would only make sense if we look at it in the right perspective; the perspective of a mallu man or being a mallu man (for once I am sure the ladies will be happy). Like how our state is tucked at the southernmost tip, the mallu man is a back bencher, if not a recluse. He doesn’t like, or hates to be the ‘center of attention’ and would run for cover if there is a slight chance of that happening. Compare that to a panju man and you will see someone who would steal at the opportunity to dance at a complete stranger’s wedding, often wish the newbies or sometimes even shares a toast with the bride’s father. I am not talking about chutzpa here, or the lack of it but about a thought process which grabs your balls and doesn’t let you make any moves if there is a an ounce of a chance that you might get in the eyes of people and lose your image. His IMAGE is like his second self, and he is proud of it, as if it being gilt edged, whom he cares like a new born and caries it around cautiously, never letting anybody touch it, lest it gets sullied, but makes every effort to feed it and make it grow. He is very careful that his IMAGE stands the test of his friends too, especially those from the same southernmost tip, because they all have their own babies to take care of. But his group of friends would never lose an opportunity to make other’s babies’ cry. He is also very careful around his colleagues, relatives and neighbours for the same reason and every action or word that one does or speaks is weighed and cautiously put across. Now that we know the psyche of the mallu being, it would not be hard to understand that Santosh Pandit did a complete somersault of the mallu persona and this is what drove millions of mallus to youtube to get glimpse of what their antithesis would look like. And once they liked what the saw there was no stopping. At least this explains why Santosh Pandit got the kind of eyeballs that the Lalettans and Mammukas never got. This still doesn’t explain why Santosh Pandit, who used to rent out suits for a living, one fine day decided to wear one and act out in front of the camera

After the song went viral there was the news that it was actually part of a movie and the fact was that Santosh Pandit had done everything in the movie from acting to being director, script-writer, editor, music director, lyric writer, editor and playback singer, leaving only the cameraman to see and record all his buffoonery. Then came the promo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1bhNeTjHKA and the hype just got quadrupled. Those who were living by bread alone (read: Raatri Subha Raatri song) now started dreaming of a three course meal, with dialogues and fights. The movie - Krishnanum Radhayum – had the grandfathered script of inter faith marriage, with the only consolation that the lady love gets killed before the end. But then who gives a dime about the script if you can laugh your lungs out on songs and fights. When the movie released it brought out people in hordes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QvCpfRHpBo&feature=related, especially students and youngsters, who got an opportunity to let out pent up frustration, in form of abuses and cuss words, which was simmering within for weeks through comments on youtube, when the first video had appeared. Such was the scene inside theatres that much of what was happening was on the screen was subdued by the cacophony that the audience created. The movie ran houseful for the first day, though it was screened in only three theatres in Kerala, and with many who could not get their hands on a ticket. Mainstream Malayalam film industry shouted sour grapes though acclaimed director like Lal Jose very rightly said that the hit of Krishnanum Radhayum shows Malayali's taste for sarcastic pleasure. Santosh Pandit hit back saying when mainstream producers are not even able to recover their cost nowadays, he made a movie for a lowly five lakhs and generated a good profit too. Once the tide settled, Santosh Pandit started appearing on various talk shows and discussions on television and it was hard to understand if Santosh Pandit was enjoying all the attention or if he had just moved his character from the movie to small screen and was continuing with his antics- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTHcx3a96fU. Even now Santosh Pandit appears on sundry shows and is rumored that he charges a hefty fees for it. After all is said and done, Santosh Pandit is an riddle for us mallus, because even after the audience vilified his first movie he has started shooting for his next film, -‘Jithu Bhai Enna Chocolate Bhai aka Superstar Santosh Pandit’. He makes our skin itch but we do not want to squash him like a fly rather just scratch the surface and let him be, because he is who we would never want to be and it’s good to have somebody to point to if somebody did ask us that. The most dim-witted comment of his was, “From here on malayalam cinema would be split into two eras, one ‘before Santosh Pandit’ and the other as ‘after Santosh Pandit’”.

But I disagree, before Santosh Pandit it was Silsila hai Silsila - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpKOp7yuXWo  and this too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0pAEme5dfg , after Santosh Pandit it will be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti2D9259N6U&feature=related and being Santosh Pandit is still an enigma, who we love to loathe.

P.S. The new ‘alien’ star hit Bangalore too but I missed it. But then, there is always you tube.

Avatar: Let there be Earth

Watched, what everybody around is calling a revelation in movie making, ‘Avatar’ yesterday. I am not good at reviewing movies so I am just going to throw a few points that come to my mind. It definitely is a Cameron/Spielberg type of movie and that was evident in the storyline and cinematography and it also had the larger than life kind of feel to it. I am a great fan of gadgets and weaponry so could not stop my mind from racing to year 2154 and imagining what the world would be like then. Kudos to the creative team who made floating islands and luminous flowers and bugs. The animals did not attract me much because post Jurassic Park nothing makes me sit and say ‘wow’. I am a great fan of colours so could not stop admiring the shades of flowers and animals especially the mighty Pterosaur. The Na’vis looked cute and ugly at the same time and I guess they thought the same about humans too. It’s amazing how we design a new world from our imagination. The Hallelujah Island is an envious creative output and it’s amazing to recapitulate its evolution in the mind of its creator. But I was irritated, though mildly, by the preponderance of the creative world around us, that any planet however light years away from us, would have the same basic setup like ours. The Na’vi’s looked very much like humans with four limbs; the tail was a bonus, though we cannot discount the fact that our ancestors also had one. The trees, plants and grasses looked similar to ours. The flying birds looked like raptors and the heavy duty dinosaur was in the end - a dinosaur. If left to me, I would try to create a world which is completely different from ours, nothing human like, nothing plant like. That is where the challenge lies and I am sure that’s how it exists even now, light years from us, nothing like earth, not even like Pandora.

But again nothing in the island or anything picturized was purposeless and that’s what I liked about the script. It perhaps was the best lesson to us that nothing in this world living or non-living is purposeless and we all do connect. Though the synaptic connection of nerve endings seemed strange and made me wish I had a tail to plug to the grass or at least to the hostile beings around. The language of Na’ vi’s in the movie was developed by a linguist and it has 1000 words and is closely related to an Ethiopian tribal dialect. Also the plants were researched and designed by plant physiologists and it is scientifically explainable as to how they connect to humans. The movie did not fail to convey what it intended. I would not say the message was completely new. In the midst of the just concluded Copenhagen summit nothing else could have subtly touched upon the messy state of our environment and man’s apathy and callousness towards it. When on one side Pandora’s natives respected animals and trees and mourned over their loss, we were shown how callous humans were. In fact after destroying our own habitat we did not learn lessons adequate and plundered into others territory. It might sound politically incorrect, but I have a great urge here to draw parallels with what humans did in Pandora with what U. S of America did in Iraq. Just try replacing the unobtanium rock in Pandora with oil in Iraq and the similarities in the movie and what happened in Iraq is hard to miss. This by default is an exquisite human behavior. This reminds me of something I read from Erich Fromm’s “Art of destruction”. Man is the only animal who could kill or destroy without an immediate motive. Animals also kill each other but either in danger or when hungry. No animal ever remembers old vengeance and attacks; neither do they calculate the loss another species could cause to them in near future. You see zebras and lions, monkeys and flamingoes grazing around in the same territory; they do not contemplate on counter evacuation to protect resources for their next generations. Least of all lions don’t fight lions worrying some might finish the food that others can eat for generations. Sadly, man thinks differently. And as seen in the movie rocks worth 20 million dollars are more lucrative than protecting the forest which balances the whole colony of the Na’vi’s.

As I walked out of the theatre I wondered, what the audience would take away from the movie. One group would be mesmerized by the gadgets. There would soon be toy models of the tankers, helicopters, gunships and maybe aliens too. You would soon have blue coloured soft drinks and maybe burger patties shaped like the animals in the movie, alluring kids at eat out joints. And not to forget video games with a fantasy Pandora land and floating islands. To some maybe the creativity would be more appealing. There would also be philosophical discussions on the movie. I have heard there were discussions on philosophy of Matrix after the movie released. So now it could be philosophy of Avtaar for the intellectuals. I am worried if some foolish corporation would begin the hunt for some Pandora like land and exploit some peaceful planets. I hope the scientist learn their lessons from the movie and don’t fall for big bucks. As for environmentalists who have been harping on sustainability this could be a new mantra.

But I fear the most for people who would not see any of the above and would just walk out mesmerized by the 3D effect, oblivious of the world dying today. To whom mother earth is a woman who comes dressed only on earth day, on google. I am afraid many would miss out on what the movie had to really say. Somewhere in there I felt I travelled through time and saw what we would make out of our planet because of our indifference and greed and then stand at the gates of another civilization with impunity and brazenness asking for more. How lucky are we to look into the future but how shortsighted that we just see it as a movie. Avatar is not about conquering or protecting Pandora but about preserving and nurturing Earth.

Colour of Paradise

Its true that cinema does not need language to communicate. That's what i felt when i watched Majid Majidi's " The Colour of Paradise". The movie centers around a blind boy Mohammed who attends a blind school in the city. The movie starts with sounds of different tapes and the warden asking whose tape each was . students identify it as theirs and explains whose voice is taped. This is a practice perhaps where the parents tape conversations instead of writing letters to their blind children. Mohammed identifies his tape which had songs sung by his grandmother. The bond Mohammed has with his granny is revealed right from the beginning.

As all pack their stuff , Mohammed is seen taking out and displaying few gifts like a hairclip, few stickers which he tries to feel and make sure is beautiful enough.

Next day when every children wait eagerly for their parents , Mohammed is left behind with all his friends leaving for home. Finally when Mohammed's father arrives he begs the warden to keep Mohammed back as he cant manage him home, but the manager explains its a boarding school and not an orphanage , while Mohammed hugs his father and cries saying " i thought you would never come". All the way back home , Mohammed's father is seen grim faced while Mohammed is excited to meet his granny and sisters.

Mohammed's father buys two gold bangles on the way home. Mohammed is greeted by his sisters who take him to the field and he meets his granny.He gifts them what he had saved for the past few months surprising his granny with a colourful hair clip she feels is too fancy for her and later agrees to clip to her dress.

Colours of Paradise is the story of innocence, its the story of colours in a blind boy's world. Though blind what makes Mohammed different from others is his perceptive nature. There is a shot in the movie where Mohammed waiting for his father hears a bird crying and a cat moving nearby and he realises a nestling is in danger and must have fallen of the nest , the shot captures how beautifully a blind boy gets the bird and climbs a tree to put it in the nest something even people with eyes ignore.

Perhaps a quality acquired from his own grandmother. When Mohammed's grandmother leaves home after a fight with her son she is shown helping a fish which had flown in the rain to a less filled area and is struggling to breath , she lifts the fish and puts into a pond with more water.

Both the scene somehow connects the feelings of how the weak, the marginalised , the voiceless nurture those around them even in their adversity. Mohammed and granny respects the right of the weak , gives them an opportunity to life .

Mohammed's father feels lonely and wants to marry a young woman but he feels his son is an obstruction as noone would want to take care of a blind boy he slowly tries to get rid of him by taking him to a blind carpenter hoping his son will learn a trade. But Mohanmmed's grandmothers sees this as her son's selfish motive to marry getting rid of his son because of which she leaves home and gets drenched in rain, though she is brought back home she doesnt live for long and dies without seeing Mohammed.

The marriage that was fixed is called of considering marrying to such a house as ominous. Mohammed's father realises his mistake and goes back to bring Mohammed home but on their way back Mohammed falls of a bridge.

In the last sequence of the movie we see Mohammed's father struggling to save his son and hitting the shore helpless. But when he wakes he sees Mohammed lying adjacent to him and as the shot closes Mohammed is shown to be moving his fingers.

In the whole story the unhappy father considers Mohammed as a burden to his life while Mohammed qualifies every parameter perhaps one step beyond normal people. He reads in his Sister's school correcting students who pronounced wrongly, he perceives sound and is resourceful. When left to learn carpentry he proves he is capable contrasting many normal children who with sight cannot do these things deftly.
Mohammed's life is a question to the normal world as to who is blind and who should be ostracized. Is what's handicap to the majority a handicap to the affected ? Are they not more than normal with their skills honed to cope their disability?

Colours of paradise ends with many such haunting thoughts that would make us rethink how much we utilise with fuller potentials.

After all How much do we really see with a fuller sight? Can we really see the colours of paradise?