Anecdotal Evidence

"Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti" said my cousin. And with that I will pause to set up context. I am told interruption is the thing, these days.  I am told that, you dear reader, are not likely to be interested in what I tell you, unless I tell you why I am telling you what I am telling you. I shan't  - been a while since I said that (which is smugger than last season’s 'always wanted to say that') – protest, saying the context is invariably such a flimsy apology. You know that. And a concise explanation of context does not do justice to my usually cosmic intent. Now, having anti-sold well enough, I will appear to yield. One of the many reasons why I liked Manu Joseph's 'The Illict Happiness of Other People ' is the depiction of the anguish of the weak and not-so-smart Thoma, who desires, among other things, appreciation. He nurses the ambition of being a writer, but is terrified by the problem that 'even writers need to know facts...

The vital law governing Hindu poetics is that it does not seek to represent life and character primarily or for their own sake; its aim is fundamentally aesthetic: by the delicate and harmonious rendering to awaken the aesthetic sense of the onlooker and gratify it by moving and subtly observed pictures of human feeling; it did not attempt to seize a man's spirit by the hair and drag it out into a storm of horror and pity and fear and return it to him drenched, beaten and shuddering. ..... Certainly poetry was regarded as a force for elevation as well as for charm, but as it reaches these objects through aesthetic beauty, aesthetic gratification must be the whole basis of dramatic composition, all other super-structural objects are secondary. The Hindu mind therefore shrank not only from violence, horror and physical tragedy, the Elizabethan stock-in-trade, but even from the tragic in moral problems which attracted the Greek mind; still less could it have consented to occupy its...

Hassar has this thing for metaphors. It's not exactly mixing metaphors , but more like how his default mode of speaking seems to be jumping from one metaphor to another, taking a metaphor literally and swinging to the next. And sometimes you see him compose frames that mean 'something larger'. In atleast one interview, he referred to the puddle he throws pebbles into in AnbE Sivam as என் நினைவுக் குட்டை... Sometimes he would just scream in your face for the sake of it. Like here That was just a no-brainer to ensure it gets across by showing how it is to be received. It had nothing more to it, other than perhaps to say I have to scream thus to get it across . Quite unlike when he did it earlier.... 

வாதாம் பலகலை கற்றுவந் தாலுமிவ் வையகத்தில் ஏதாம் புனைநலம் இல்லான் எழில்? நல் லிடமுந்தந்து பீதாம் பரற்கொரு பெண்தந்த பாற்கடல் பின்புவந்த வேதாந்த வித்தெனும் வானாம் பரற்கு விடந்தந்ததே விளக்கம்: ஒன்றோடொன்று மாறும்படியான பல கலைகளை கற்று வந்தாலும் (கற்று உவந்தாலும்) இவ்வுலகத்தில் ஆடையணிகளால் நிறைந்து விளங்கும் தோற்றம் இல்லாதவற்கு அமைந்த அழகால் என்ன பயனாம்? பீதாம்பரத்தை தரித்து வந்த திருமாலுக்கு பாயல் கொள்ள நல்லதோர் இடத்தோடு திருமகளையும் தந்த பாற்கடலானது , பின்பு (பாம்பணிந்து, புலியதளாடை தரித்து வந்த) வேதாந்தத்திற்கு முதல்வன் என்னும், வானத்தை ஆடையாகத் தரித்த சிவபெருமானுக்கு விஷத்தை அல்லவோ தந்தது! - தனிப்பாடற்றிரட்டு தஞ்சை சரசுவதி மகால் நூலகம்

நாளை கிருஷ்ண ஜெயந்தி. அதை முன்னிட்டு ஒரு சிற்றுரை: குறிப்பிட்ட பாடல்கள்: தாய்முலைப் பாலில்  அமுதிருக்கத் தவழ்ந்து தளர்நடை இட்டுச்சென்று பேய்முலை வாய்வைத்து நஞ்சையுண்டு பித்தனென்றே பிறர் ஏசநின்றாய் ஆய்மிகு காதலோடு யானிருப்ப யான்விட வந்த என் தூதியோடே நீமிகு போகத்தை நன்குகந்தாய் அதுவும் உன் கோரம்புக்கு ஏற்குமன்றே (701)

I was watching Inception yesterday. Easily the most affecting love-story I have watched in a while, is that of Mal-Cobb. A love, whose intensity excludes the whole world, which is fraught with fickle uncertainties. A love that instead builds an infinite and eternal universe, so as to do justice to the demands of togetherness. The defining moment in the film pits the wholesome, but elusive, 'reality' of one's lover against a one's perception ('projection' to use the film's vocabulary) of the lover. Note : a projection is NOT a comfortable assemblage of attributes from a wishlist (right mix of traditional and modern, clean habits). It is a much more complex and earnest representation of all that one has taken the other person to be. Indeed, it  is borne out of the depths of one's understanding of the other person. So, if a 'projection' is everything one understands the other to be, then why would it be lesser than what 'is'...

A few days back I managed to catch Thevar Magan and, as is my wont whenever I watch it, started raving about it. This time I also managed to have a conversation about it with @kalyanasc on twitter. Following the principle of 'Have Blog. Will Archive", I thought I'd post it here. Oh, the things I do for posterity! @ dagalti How much credit would like to give the late Bharathan? It is also beautifully photographed, especially Gowthami #ThevarMagan — Kalyan Raman (@kalyanasc) June 10, 2012 @ kalyansc I know nothing of Bharathan's works actually.I don't think his only other Tamil film (Avarampoo, (cont) tl.gd/hpiuov — dagalti (@dagalti) June 10, 2012 Credit Sharing - local-flavour I know nothing of Bharathan's works actually.I don't think his only other Tamil film (Avarampoo, which is a remake of his Malayalam film based on Padmarajan's script) reflective all the nice things I hear about him. Moreover, I am very partial to writers. Par...