Lingaa: Back with a Bang, Bang, Bang

Usually, period matters little in K.S. Ravikumar's work. He could have set Muthu, or Padaiyappa anytime in the past, or set Panchatantiram any time in the future, without missing a beat. Ramya Krishnan  walking out of a posh car, in Padaiyappa is charmingly anachronistic.  I mention this because, midway through Lingaa, you see Rajinikanth being introduced in a customary action sequence set in 1939 Tamilnadu. He is shown reading Joseph Campbell's, 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces', only to be revealed that he is a district collector serving in British Indian Government.  Very appropriate, except that the book was first published ten years later in 1949. No, I am not trying to nitpick. The movie till this point was totally unengaging, that there was sufficient time to reach for the phone, search for Joseph Campbell (Thanks Sesha!) and have a quick laugh. Secondly, the makers could have easily chosen a title that is not in odds with the films timeline, but Lingaa is what you get when people who badly want to make a Rajini film are just too lazy to make it a good one. Lingaa is made with such uncharacteristic indifference, that it brings back memories of Baba, Kuruvi and post-Ramana Vijayakanth movies, every now and then.

It's sad to watch Rajinikanth reduce himself to a joke, as he labours through the dance moves in Mona Gasolina. As the film moves to the flashback, it at least seems to set up a somber period mood, but what follows is a mishmash of lazily written scenes. Rajini's performance as Lingeshwaran Sr is mostly consistent, but lacks his characteristic charm. That hurts when he is trying to portay the same honorable rich man cornered by circumstances.

You might wonder if Ravikumar is channeling is admiration for Rajinikanth through the two heroines, who can not stop wondering how awesome the hero is. Sonakshi Sinha's bumbling presence (counting thirty rendu, thirty moonu and all is somewhat funny only) is not helped by the fact that the actors who play her friend and mom (Ahem) manage to look better than her. After Iraandam Ulagam, the law of averages catches up with Anushka Shetty, who is cast in a character that would not have looked out of place in an Eastman color movie. Karunakaran is hilariously cut short in the middle of a dialogue, and that's his role in a nutshell. Santhanam walks away with the only good scene of the movie, as he calls out the Finishing Kumar. By then, it's too late.

What Padaiyappa and Muthu have, and Lingaa lacks is a powerful conflict between the hero and villian. We don't get to see set pieces like Radharavi's vintage car, menacingly drive into his sister's front yard or the simultaneous ascent/descent scene that plays between Rajinikanth and Ramya Krishnan through the curved staircases, and how Rahman's background score raised these excellent scenes to almost near perfection.  Instead we get to see, the extent to which Sonakshi Sinha's back could be bared in a U-certificate movie.  In the absence of a powerful adversary, Ravikumar unleashes an array of supporting characters; three when one would do, that they almost strangulate
the film. And with the British collector who mumbles in Tanglish, there is not much scope to portray any strong conflict

While Ravikumar's generally chaotic style works to add some flavour to his films, here it forces the movie on a clueless track. While the period part of Lingaa would independently qualifiy as a bad film by itself, Ravikumar encapsulates it with a contemporary story, that comes with its own brand of bad acting, poor staging and shoddy writing. And K Vishwanath, wearing stylish ear-rings provides the missing link! And I did not even tell you how the climax plays out with flying balloons, spy cameras and masquerading storage devices. Let's not even go there!

Bang, Bang, Bang: read here.

Kaaviya Thalivan - Epic Failure

You can make an action/masala movie around a hero and a villian confirming to archetypes, and it can still work. But when Kaaviya Thalaivan takes that route, it falls flat. Fifteen minutes into the movie, every character is delineated (except for Mansoor Ali Khan's and the British Indian cop) to its furthest. We have The Alpha - Kaliappan, a stage actor who relies on improvisation,The Beta - Gomathi Nayagam Pillai, a stage actor who relies on method and struggles from a beta complex, Vadivambal - an aspiring actress who is in love with The Alpha, and Sivadas Swamigal - the theatre producer who puts art and loyalty above all. The rest of the movie simply reinforces these archetypes, while telling a story about how Beta brings Alpha to his downfall. The net effect is that instead of evoking the period, (the film is set at a time "when stage play and theatre ruled the roost in TN"), the film evokes shoddily made films of the bygone era.

And too bad for Prithiviraj, who plays Gomathi Nayagam (I think the name somehow gives away the character. Remember Ponvannan in "Chitthi"?). No film has done a greater injustice to an actor. As a rank outsider in Arjun Kapoor's launch vehicle Aurangazeb, Prithiviraj did a neat balancing act as a man forced to choose between the bad men of his father's adopted family, and the evil men of his own family. And in home turf, all he gets to do is to become jealous of Kali and act on this jealousy, time and again! After some point, it gets too monotonous that even the not so good scenes in the second half, where Kali acts in Swadeshi plays seem like a welcome change. And the fact that Gomathi Nayagam has more screen time does not help. Gomathi's relationship with Kali, Vadivu and his own superstardom, seem to provide lot of promising raw material for the story, but Vasantha Balan paints these scenes with broad strokes, leaving no impact whatsoever.

Siddharth shines in yet another author backed role, but there is only much that Privithiraj and he can achieve with such shoddy writing. To Siddharth's credit, the stage sequences are the films strongest points. It seemed that the film almost redeemed itself when Siddharth provides an impressive impromptu epilogue to Karna Motcham, talking about Arjuna's guilt about slaying Karna. To me that's what the film is about, Kali, Gomathi and Swamigal's collective guilt about screwing each other's life. Looks like this was not the original motivation, and this seems like yet another scene establishing how Alpha's improv skills trump Beta's method acting.

I have always been confused when people trash shoddy writing in decently made films, but Kaaviya Thalivan has a poorly written sequence that serves as a good example. A painter in the troupe is shown following the troupe at a distance, after they depart under Gomathi, seemingly oblivious of Kaali or his ouster. Later, the same painter handpicks the disowned Kaali as the substitute actor. Surprise! Except that it is not. 'Establishing film logic' is the altar where creativity is slaughtered.

Privithiraj is not the only actor to be given the stick. Kishore Kumar (Anushka's friend's boy friend in Deiva Thirumagal) is a mere bystander, and does not get a single dialogue! If Swathi Reddy lost weight and went under the knife, she would probably look like Anaika Soti, who does not get the rough edges come in the way of her portrayal of (Archetype Alert!) the chirpy rich girl who falls for the poor guy (And charming, she is!). Vedika delivers a performance that is polished but lacking in impact.

The film excavates Tamil terms from a bygone era, like Raja Paat, Shree Paat, Side Paat, and a Tamil word for improvisation. Nostalgia - that's one good thing about Kaaviya Thalaivan. Another good thing is how AR Rahman's song gel well with the visuals. A strange thing is how Kaaviya Thalaivan does something exactly opposite to Kadal, in terms of keeping Rahman on a leash and having a sensible cast, and yet achieves the same result! Even Niraav Shah is not at his usual best.

There is a scene in Angaadi Theru, where a beggar cleans a stinking toilet, and unexpectedly gets paid for his services. He makes this a habit and ekes out a living. As someone fed with Tamil films that stealthily reflected the glory of their originals, I was convinced that such a brilliantly written sequence could only be a rip off. The greatest disappointment about Kaviyaa Thalaivan is that how makers of that master piece (writer Jeyamohan shares writing credits with Vasantha Balan) fail to fire. That film had just one archetype - the innocent boy hero, and around him, had an array of characters from women who suffer workplace harassment, a bad boss, an evil supervisor, love lorn couple who meet a tragic end, a long term employee who gets kicked out after an occupational disease paralyzes him and the above said beggar, in our own backyard. Kaviyaa Thalaivan, on the other hand, has only big budget.

Gone Girl: Who's cheating who?

One of the best things about Gone Girl is how riveting it is, despite its lack of style. This may not have been apparent to me, had I not been part of a discussion about film makers who are stylists, versus those that are adept story tellers. I have not watched many films where story telling singularly stood out (I could not think of any during the debate and have not seen most of the films that my friend had listed; if you want to tell a good story there are mediums other than movies for that!), only Thirteen Days and Naan Kadavul come to mind now. When watching Gone Girl, I got a feeling that other than the drama, every thing else receded to the background. I don't even recall noticing background score at any point, if there was even one.

The first half of the film is essentially a thriller, as Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) comes home to find his wife Amy missing, on the day of their fifth anniversary. He calls the police, the media duly take notice and the search unravels, all shot in a matter of fact way, without much fuss. Affleck's too cool to care husband, who is probably happier without his wife, adds to the unfussy story telling. His performance in these portions, super imposed with Amy's parallel narrative of their earlier life, ranges from disturbing to funny (especially the feigned sincerity when he claims how he misses his wife at a gathering), and provides an edge when the story changes track when the truth about Amy's disappearance finally hits him in a brilliantly staged scene.

After this point, the portion with Amy in a motel lingers for too long and almost releases the tension built up so far. The parallel plot about how the husband seeks legal aid and tries to shape public opinion, lack the matter-of-factness of the first half and there is nothing fresh about the commentary on a sensational media coverage (But the twincest joke is a gem!). If you have a scene highlighting the attorney's resourcefulness, (by correctly predicting that Nick's girl friend will speak) at the cost of being predictable to the audience, you ought to repay this debt sometime later. But Fincher conveniently forgets this! It is one thing to slowly and steadily build up Amy's character arc throughout the narration, dropping hints one at a time, and another to stage a robbery immediately after showing Amy drop a bundle of cash.


After the movie has ended, when you think back and figure out how all the pieces fall in place, it does not give you a rush like how The Usual Suspects or Vidathu Karuppu does. And it is if Gone Girl aspires to be an edgy thriller or a dark relationship comedy, and it does not seem like the film wants to be either. The ending lingers for far too long, and had the last few scenes been subtitled The Prologue I would have cared less, but having the twin sister say in agony that "she will be in his side, as they have been, even before they were born" sounds way too corny, and adds nothing to the movie.

The best thing about Gone Girl is how a viewer's perspective on Amy is masterfully shaped. The revelations of the 'rape victim' adds to the twist, and seems to foreshadow how Amy might be up to something more than punishing her cheating husband. But nothing prepares you for Amy's transformation from scheming to vicious, as she emerges out of her captivity with blood all over her hands! The tension built up with this scene carries over till the end, and that's probably why it seemed that the film was heading to an even more spectacular ending.

There is some material on Amy's 'amazing' childhood, having to cope with recession and her mother in-law's illness that could have been developed to flush out Amy's motivation, especially given this ending. Instead you are left wondering why the pet cat accompanies Nick, only in scenes where Amy is missing from the house. May be, by casting Niel Patrick Harris as the depressed boyfriend, the makers are making a statement on how Amy can stifle even Barney Stinsen under her thumb!

Mardaani

An early scene in Mardaani has Rani Mukherjee flipping through sunglasses, as a hawker compares her to present day Bollywood hunks - John Abhraham and Salmaan Khan, but only in an effort to make a quick buck. This plays out like a twist on the classic hero build up scenes that are essential to the action movie genre. In the very next scene, Rani Mukherjee get her own action hero moment, as she roughs up a hooligan, but such moments are rare in Pradeep Sarkar's Mardaani.

Mardaani plays out like a Vettaiyadu Vilayadu made with a younger, junior female cop as the protagonist, and with a straight and suave villain, with lesser investigation and more confrontation; sans a love interest and all the gore. The investigation is not milked for drama or edginess, at least early on, as the cop sits back and waits for things to happen, even though her niece does not find this to be an appropriate response. The villain is such a revelation (with a homage to Breaking Bad?), and the supporting characters chime in well. All that the cop's assistant Kabir does in investigations, is to play a good cop and follow it up immediately with a bad cop, but he does it effectively every time.


There are glimpses of the divergence from the usual action hero, when the husband interrupts a workout routine, or when Shivaani unlike an upright cop, is willing to bargain for Pyaari's release, or when she foul mouths like a boss, (what's up, Tamil censor board?). There is a little gem, when Shivaani is unable to save here husband's face, as she is kept away, not by devious plans, but just because she has dozed off after a late night investigation. There is also a role reversal of sorts, when before the interval, the husband asks the cop wife to stand up and fight it.

I was largely reliant on English sub-titles, and at times the subtleties of the dialogue were lost on me. But it was not easy to miss the plant/animal imagery that shows up, here and there. There is a chameleon view shot, that leads to the captives inside a truck. Coming after the hasty introduction (the movie's weakest bit, apart from the run up to the ending) given to Pyaari, it seemed pretentious and unconvincing. The other attempts come off really well. The film's opening scene, is a good example where Shivani uses a mouse trap to arrest a small time thug (The Mouse). There is also an imagery of a sunken bloomed flower, adorns the frame where we find Pyaari perched low after a rape. And thankfully, this not over explained (unlike Onaanum Aatukuttiyum) - Shivani references The Mouse type and The Snake type casually in one of the many one-on-one's with the villain.

The film does not show any Mumbai landmark, but creates a believable atmosphere. But for all that authentic portrayal, when the scenes move to Delhi, it leaves no opportunity to show us the landmarks, to indicate the shift in geography. And two thirds into the movie, it tries to add another eve-teasing layer to the deftly created villian's character, to re-establish this Delhiness!

While the film carefully eschews the standard action movie tropes, it could not resist manufacturing some drama and serve up a twist before the ending. I could not suppress a laugh when Shivaani plays it up to the gallery, and references the Lokpal bill.  The movie jogs to a predicable end, and the only thing that redeems the climax is that the villain is duly stomped to meet a Snake's end.

Jigarthanda

There is something about making a lot of short films that makes you grow into a better director of feature films, in an extremely short interval of time. Nothing else explains how Karthik Subburaj (like Balaji Mohan and Nalan Kumarasamy, who appears in a cameo here) keeps the audience engaged without resorting to any time tested Tamil cinema gimmick, and does it with consummate ease. Finally after 75 years of Tamil Cinema, you get to see a hero, friend zoning a heroine (who comes up with a quick reposte to restore the world order).

Subburaj takes us to his home turf of short films and weaves a story around Karthik (Siddharth) who moves to Madurai to collect material for his debut feature film, based on the life of local gangster Sethu (Bobby Simha). Quickly a bunch of supporting characters take over, from Karthik's friend Karunakaran, to the left (a booze addict), the right (a porn addict), a story teller, a saree thief, a son of an ex-don, a newbee gangster eager to lay his first kill and a strict acting coaching, major or minor - all fantastically etched. If Nan Irukka Bayamae saw Karunakaran shine in a comedic role in a horror movie, he shines in a similar prominent role in a gangster flick here.

Subburaj quickly and effectively establishes the stakes, and the gangsters loom large at the back of  your mind, even as the contours shift. As soon as Karthik breaks down the characters of the gang members, the film turns into a laugh riot. Subburaj sets up a short gag about the porn addict, with a few quick 'exchanges', goes for the money shot and just simply moves on to the next joke. The film has its gripping moment though. (Spoiler alert!) The lead up to the interval is just brilliant. The literal pause at the interval point is just as effective as the scenes that unfold before it.

After under selling himself in Chashme Baddoor and Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru, Siddharth returns to form, and holds himself ad mist an array of strong performances. He is brilliant when he breaks down under the weight of Simha's threat. And with each set back, his character turns more resolute and ruthless and few actors can exhibit this transition with a balance of conviction and subtlety. Simha is effective as the don, and like Siddharth is the only character with a varying character trajectory and does well at every point. Lakshmi Menon's saree puller starts of with much promise, but then is angle is not explored further than a heroine introduction (though Menon is very likeable as the enga ooru super figure).  Casting Vijay Sethupathi as Sethu in Karthik's reconstruction of the film scenes seems like a touch of genius! (A lot of people from the cast of Pudhupettai make an appearance here. I could count upto 4).

The best thing about Jigarthanda is how less distracting it is. You know you are completely in, when the gang makes a head count, you could second guess the next dialogue about, how if things had turned out differently they would be celebrating a half-century. Despite the tightness, Subburaj reuses the pause artifact at more than one places, especially towards the end, and it is no good if you can half second guess a change of heart in either of the lead characters, and lesser actors may not have held up till the end, [Spoiler alert!] so much that I was worried about the relative demerits of engaging in a long conversation with petrol all over your body. But by this time, Subburaj has left me with an impression that this is a great film, and hedging for a safe ending would not have made me change it. That's probably why he even lets Karunakaran question the lack wisdom in venturing from the hideout and ends the scene with a rationalizationz (and yet another joke)! The epilogue is a bonus! [Mega Spoiler alert!] Simha as a struggling actor in a film's epilogue? How many times!

 The cinematography stands out in one scene as Karthik contemplates before the conversation with the Kuruvamma story teller. And so does the music, at the start of Pradeep's vocal during a theme song. In a movie as engaging as this one, they just flicker brightly, whereas in a drab act like Thalaivaa, the cinematography is distracting because how it is so good, compared to the other aspects of the film. Apart from these moments, music and cinematography jell perfectly with the rest of the film. Songs cut in so seemlessly (kudos, Santosh Narayanan!) that I can not recollect the order of the songs. And when Subburaj wanders briefly, it is sheer Tarantino like brilliance, like when a self aware Karunakaran waves at his hallucination of Sivanesan!

Except for the gripping gangster build up scenes and Karthik's edginess, Jigarthanda is more a comedy film like "Boss Engira Baskaran" than a gangster flick like "Nayakan" or "Thalapathy". To me Jigarthanda works well both as a comedy and as a gangster film. [Spoiler alert] But I suspect there is more than one Karthik tricking us into believing that we are in for a gangster flick!

Vaayai Moodi Pesavum (Speak With Your Mouth Shut)

A young woman, who resents her step mother and her controlling boyfriend, starts liking a do-gooder orphan, who pours all his earnings into an orphanage on the verge of being uprooted, due to a landlord with a heart of stone, for whom life stopped being the same once his son eloped, though his helpless wife could not alienate herself from her estranged son and as a bonus, a politician (Pandiya Rajan in a winning role) eager to pass the buck and keep his head safe. On the surface, Balaji Mohan's Vaayai Moodi Pesavum* is replete with cliches that provide enough fodder for at least four** long drawn melodramas, but he still makes a film so good that it leaves you a bit speechless (at least just before the end).

The film is not a laugh riot, but Balaji who doubles up as a news anchor, makes sure there a lot of fun moments (Arjunan in another winning role). Don't miss the news scrolls if you can read Tamil/Malayalam. The film's best portions are in the second half, and though situations that play out might induce a yawn in a regular film, you can not but wonder how seamlessly and effectively Balaji works around the constraint that he forces himself into. The execution of these scenes is excellent, especially for an audience that typically frowns at melodrama and is so used to regular films (with regular dialogues). I have never watched a silent film***, but the experience here was so good, that the scenes engage you more keenly. The songs come as refreshing interludes, but when silence breaks slowly on the screen, you are as jolted as the stunned Madhu Bala. A cliche - but easily the best moment of the film (and my speechless moment), which in any other film would be nothing more than a cliche.

Balaji does not seem to be interested in showing how a few of these relationships get to the happy ending. A few of the sub-plots are weak and at best, mildy funny, but once you have bought in to Balaji's ambitious idea, these are minor hiccups in an engaging journey.

Note:
* Also made in Malayalam as Samsaaram Aarogyathinu Haanikaram.
** Four is the most common random Tamil number. Eg: Dress appropriately. Only then four people will respect you.
*** Pesum Padam is quite a popular silent film. But here silence is a plot point, rather than how the movie is shot.

How not to screw up summer internships

Start Early

Like after the Fall final exams. Grab a copy of Cracking the Coding Interview or look at Career Cup website and start solving problems. A google search will find you an endless stream of questions.

OCR Seminar
Go to OCR seminar, get yourself enrolled for Oncampus Placement service. You can then start using Zebranet for applying to internships. I started a bit late, and did not understand what people were talking about when they said apply through Zebranet. As a result I missed application deadlines for Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. If you see that your are not eligible for OCR in Zebranet, then it means that you have to go to the OCR seminar.

Arithmetic
Find out what percentage of companies respond positively to interview requests, and what percentage of companies provide offers after an interview. Finding the request approval rate (a), and successful conversion  rate (s) gives you the expected number of companies (N) you need to apply so that you have (O) offers at the end of the semester. Many people who did not get internships probably applied to fewer companies, which led to their (O) < 1. You can find the values of (a) and (s) from friends and seniors, from your university. While the values might vary based on experience, GPA, etc, it is good to have a number in hand, and I struggled without knowing how many companies to apply too. Matt Might mentions this in his highly informative blog post, but the link might be incorrect.

Interview Mode
Your performance in interviews influences the hiring decision, more than any thing else.  I would even claim that a person's suitability for a job does not influence any thing at all! All stories that you might have heard of some people having 6 or 7 offers by March, might be true. Interview mode, may be?

 I use the term only for a vague description of one's ability to face interview questions with fluency and confidence. When you are in the mode, you can see that you are in tune with the interviewer's expectations. It requires practice, even for people experienced in job search, it means slogging a little hard in the early phases. Answers that you gave may be incorrect, or you will discover the fact many days after giving that answer in an interview or always miss one special case or another. But keep working on it, practice a variety of questions. Being in an interview mode is also about identifying pitfalls in your thinking process and develop an ability to make progress in an interview inspite of an initial misunderstanding or mistake.

It is somewhat possible that interviewers repeat questions at many companies, and simply expect you to produce the standard correct answer. Most seem to be not bothered about repeating questions, so it does you no harm if you google and find out these questions and practice solving them. 

What's not an Interview Mode
I occcasionally got a few answers right, when casually discussing interview questions. I took it as a sign of me being in a good shape for interviews and did not invest further time. But I was nowhere near successfully solving questions during interviews. Even the easy ones. The bottom line is that delibrate practice works better. Some people have daily time slots for preparation. I worked in batches, and coded this,(which you may realize is not much at all) during my full time job search. And coded some simple interview questions for the company I was interviewing.

 And it worked this time, and I think it works only one is an Interview mode. During the internship interviews,  I was clearly not in interview mode. I struggled to recollect information about projects listed in the resume and flattered at questions that I would usually cracked.

The Effect of Bad Interviews
While good interviews serve as confidence boosters, bad interviews lower your morale. I stopped my internship search, probably because I was tried of doing badly in interviews. So if an interview goes wrong, think about how you could have done better. It's not that tough.

Luck
Getting short-listed, the questions that you get, the alertness or lack of it of your interview and several other factors outside of your control determine whether you are offered an internship. In my experience, getting not short-listed for a job that you think you can get was the most disappointing thing. But it happens to every body and let that not dampen you. I do not know, if job filters can not read PDFs. Steve Yeggie recommends plain text resumes.

Get in touch
I do not think it is enough to just prepare well for interviews. If you do not get lucky, you may not get sufficient interview invites. People who cracked the internships right at the end of the semester, did not just stop at applying to companies. They followed up with recruiters on linkedin, mailed them and almost left no stone unturned in getting an interview call.

Code repository
It is useful to have an online code repository of your projects. Some companies require people to mention their github accounts. Though interviewers typically gauge you for accuracy and speed in interview, seeing your commits might help an engineer an insight into how persistent you can be on solving problems over a longer time frame.

References
Take a look at this and this.