Rashōmon

It must have been in the reviews of kamal hassan's "virumandi" that i first stumbled upon this movie name. Eversince i have been wondering how an obsure , old japanese movie can kindle so much interest worldwide. Naturally i wanted to watch it for a long time now. I could lay my hands on the DVD only y'day. Since then i have watched it twice in the span of 8 hours.

The plot is similar to a typical whodunit mystery movie but the treatment is what makes it so different. A samurai escorts his beautiful wife through a jungle. A bandit enamored by her beauty rapes her. Later a woodcutter finds the dead body of the samurai. The woodcutter , a priest , the bandit , the beautiful wife , the dead samurai recount the events in their perspective. All their views are in contradiction with each other leaving the audience to find their own explanation for the murder.

The movie so much reminded me of Agatha christie's "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" novel. But unlike the author of that novel who stresses on logical congruity of the plot , here the director wants us to appreciate the emotional aspects of the plot. The director also intentionally hides some of the vital clues which would pin point the murderer. Only the mystery of the missing dagger is explained by the shocked reaction of the woodcutter when the spirit of the dead samurai recounts its story in front of the magistrate. Apart from that , the movie mainly focuses on the ambivalence of a situation and relative nature of reality as seen as different persons.

The movie also displays excellent cinematography for its age and some amazing cross cuts. It is said that the film employs a great deal of symbolism for expressing itself . Rain symbolizing the murky nature of ways of humans is a good example. Seems that Kurosawa tinted the rain by pouring black ink into the tank of the rain machine to get the desired effect with his cameras. Many such interesting trivias about the movie are listed here .

The film is based on two short stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke. The translation for those stories can be found here. Have earmarked it for leisure reading. Suddenly i want to see more Rashomon effect movies like Antha naal , Basic etc.

Iruvar - Andrum , Indrum

1997 :

Was studying 12th standard then. Our gang had the habit of going to a movie on the last day of every exam. That day we had finished our Third Revision exams. The moment we came out of the exam hall , we started making plans for the movie. As all us were die-hard fans of Manirathnam and ARR , the choice was natural....Iruvar. To our utter disappointment , we found the movie to be dull ,dreary and boring ! When Aish died for the second time in the movie , all of us impulsively walked out of the theatre hall.

2005:

On a languid saturday morning , when sun was breathing down fire on the hapless Chennai residents, i chanced upon the Iruvar DVD. Thought i will watch it with no expectations whatsoever. It turned out to be such a beautiful experience. The movie was simply awesome. Excellent Screenplay , Superb Dialogues ( surprised that those were penned by Suhashini ) peppered abundantly with Vairamuthu's kavithaigal , mind boggling cinematography ( Aayirathil nan oruvan and Vennila vennila songs - a must repeatu ) , ARR's wonderful backgnd score ( ever heard that titillating kutty song when Mohanlal falls for Aish II ( JJ) after she jumps from the Jeep ??!! ) and Manirathnam's authoritarian direction.....all make this film a delightful classic.

Perhaps the best scene of the movie is when PrakashRaj shows the crowd gathered around his house to catch a glimpse of Mohanlal. PR slowly grabs the hand of the hesitant ML , prods him to wave to the crowd. ML finishes the scene with a flourish , by waving both his hands and throwing his neck towel to the crowd. Wow !! it left me totally mesmerised. Slowly but steadily , subtly but surely , the way Aish II seduces Mohanlal was another memorable sequence.

Revisiting certain things in Life after a brief span of time , will tell you how you have grown in the interim period. This film certainly told me how blind i was to the art of film making in my school days.