Instant Inspiration

Of multiple personality disorders and the fight against injustice

Of late, I had been on a spree of movies with the theme of schizophrenia, each one shadier than the other.Probably I should have seen Me, myself and Irene for some comic relief.The Tamil concept is far too unbelievable (confusing actually)for me.

For starters, I watched(re-watched actually) the malayalam classic "Manichitrathazhu" , a Fazil movie released in 1993 which won Shobhana the national award for best actress.A very well directed movie with excellent casting and a narration which was precise, it did seem preposterous in a few scenes but was far-far more realistic than the tamil version of it.Chandramukhi, the Tamil version of the movie, was flashy and strayed away from the plot quite often to display the "histronics" (antics would have been a better word but I dare not insult the superstar of TamilNadu for whom even I have a lot of respect) of Rajnikanth.There were too many incongrous scenes which made me wonder if the director of the movie even understood the plot himself or not(What's the deal with that giant Anaconda for Pete's sake!)Nevertheless, I had fun watching it although I had to freeze my grey cells for a coupla hours to avoid any severe damage.My sister and I did have our share of fun screaming each time Rajni made an outlandish entry which gave me a high.Its something that I dearly miss in the US theatres.The audience never exhibits any kind of mania for any star or movie barring the release of Starwars for which I heard people actually camp outside the theatres for tickets!

Anniyan on the other hand was quite a weirdly directed movie.The hero's clothes kept changing as if it were magic each time a different person possessed him.So much to the point where the audience didnt even understand the plot of the movie. Even the message it gives out is ridiculous. One man trying to judge other people and taking law into his own hands is not in any way an example to follow."Change must come from within" as the Zen saying goes.Plus, the music score wasn't complementing the plot either.Rumor has it that Shankar had an ego clash with Rehman as he was taking away all the credit for his movies with his music although thats a point I cannot agree with.Anyways, I would give the movie credit for a novel concept of a mixture of a multiple personality disorder and the "Indian" concept of the fight for justice.Way to go, Shankar..and of course Vikram for a brilliant potrayal of a seriously messed up character of Ambi!

posted by Supraja @ 12:10 PM