"Behind every average film, there is a good story which was spoilt during screenplay writing"

Before couple of days, I watched this film called '47 Ronin'. I had already watched a bit of its trailer earlier, but I didn't get any interest in it, since it looked like a mix of unrelated elements like Samurai, Mythology and Keanu Reeves. But, a good print was available and I watched the movie because of my boredom. Since I liked the story and not the movie, this blogpost will be about the true story behind this film.

"Sometimes truth is more interesting than the fiction"

The real story behind this film happened in 18th century (1703 to be precise). Due to the heavy censorship during that time, the first written copy of this story was said to be written after 50 years only. So there are some controversies about some events of this story. Also, Since I do not know Japanese I have written this blogpost based only on the wikipedia.

In 18th century beginning, the lord of the Ako domain was Lord Asano. He and another domain lord was given the duty for arranging the reception for emperor envoys in Edo(now Tokyo). The arrangements were overseen by a powerful Edo official called Kira. It is said that Kira was not happy with gifts given to him by the domain lords and he was upset. So he insulted them in every way. Finally one day, Lord Asano could not tolerate anymore and attacked Kira in Edo castle ie Shogun's residence. (Shogun is the hereditary military governor or Emperor). The first strike made a scar in Kira's face. The second attack was missed. As per their law, even drawing out a weapon inside the castle is serious offence; but Asano had attacked a Shogun's official. So he was given death sentence. But due to his services, he was offered an honourable death of samurai by committing seppuku (committing ritual suicide). 

Memorial stone marking the site of theMatsu no Ōrōka (Great Corridor of Pines) in Edo Castle, where Asano attacked Kira

After Asano's death, all his wealth was confiscated. And his followers were made Ronin ie lordless. They were also prohibited from seeking vengeance as per their Bushido code (Samurai's way of living). But Asano's principal counsellor, Oishi decided otherwise.

The ronin took a secret oath to avenge Asano's death on the leadership of Oishi, eventhough they knew that the punishment for doing that would be death. To accomplish the oath, the ronin started to live like outcasts by working as normal labourers. Afraid of ronin, Kira fortified his place and lived very securely. He also planted many spies to watch the ronin, especially Oishi.

To fool Kira's spies, Oishi sacrificed his whole life and dignity itself. He divorced his wife so that no harm would come to her because of his actions. But his first son, Chikara stayed with Oishi. Oishi started to drink in daytime also and frequently visited geisha houses. Once he got over drunk, fell on the road and slept there itself . Disgusted by his actions, a person who went on that way kicked on his face and spat on him. (Even to touch a face of a samurai is considered as great insult to him). People used to laugh at Oishi for his behaviours. 

Kira's spies noted all these and informed Kira. Not wanting to spend more of his retirement money on watching Oishi, Kira stopped worrying about ronin and let down his guard. 

But all this time ronin were infiltrating in many work fields to gather information about Kira. It is said that one of the ronin went to marry the daughter of the builder of Kira's house, just to gain access to the floor plans. So after two years, the ronin got the right time to execute their plan.

As per the Japanese Calendar, On the early morning of 14th December, the ronin reached Kira's mansion in Edo. Half of them attacked in front under Oishi and the other half attacked from back under Chikara (he was 15 years old that time). Oishi already alerted the neighbours that their target was only Kira and they would not harm them. The neighbours also hated Kira so no one made any attempt to sound alert. The signal between the ronin were to beat a drum when attack is started and use a whistle when they found Kira.

During the attack, Kira's men tried to send messengers for help, but Oishi's men on roofs of neighbouring buildings taken care of that. After capturing the mansion, they found Kira in a secret courtyard. They confirmed it was indeed Kira by the scar on his face left by Asano. Oishi asked Kira to have a honourable death by committing seppuku. But Kira was not ready to do it. So Oishi cut his head with the same dagger Asano committed suicide and taken his head to his master's tomb in Sengakuji temple.

Grave of Asano Naganori at Sengaku-ji temple, Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

On the way, people gathered to see the ronin and they praised their bravery. People also offered refreshments for the ronin.  It is said that one of the ronin was sent back to Ako domain to inform the news. Some say that he was afraid and left even before the attack. However the remaining 46 ronin turned themselves in. Even though they violated the law, they were acting under the Bushido. So they were offered the honourable death by seppuku and be buried beside their master.

After some time the guy who insulted Oishi on the street by spitting on his face came to Oishi's grave and begged for forgiveness. He then committed suicide and he was also buried in the same place. The 47th ronin was also buried there after he died on his 87th age. The clothes, arms, drum and whistle used by ronin are still preserved in the temple till this day. Each year on December 14, the temple holds a festival to commemorate the 47-ronin event.

Graves of the 47 Ronin at Sengaku-ji temple

So the Americans have taken this story and looked like this was not enough for them. So they added a shape shifting female dragon on Kira's side and a boy with special powers (Keanu Reeves) who was raised by demons on Oishi's side. Because of this needless addition, instead of becoming on par with Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai', it is worth now only to be dubbed in Tamil by Thenandal films as ' 47 Kathi Veerakalum Urumaarum Dragon Arakkiyum' !

So finally using the strategy that ghosts/witches don't roam outside during the sunny afternoons (they don't, right ?! ) I have finished watching 'Ek Thi Daayan'.. Really it was one of the scariest movies I have seen recently, since it has what I fear most as the main evil thing.. No No not the Daayan ! I meant the Chipkali !!!

This is what I posted in fb after watching the film and it perfectly comprises what I felt about the film. But since this is a blog post I have to debrief it into three or four more paragraphs.

So what intrigued me to watch this film ? Three things. 1. Huma Qureshi 2. the 'Yaaram' song 3. and Konkana's long braid which swayed like a king cobra in the trailer. So let's go through these one by one. The foremost reason I watched this movie and the biggest disappointment of the movie is Huma Qureshi. Why are you so fat ?!!!! In 'Gangs of Wasseypur' you were gorgeous ! in 'Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana' you were bubbly !! But now you are just fat !!! 

Second, the songs.. Even though I skipped through most of the songs (Oops ! Now you know that I didn't watch this movie in theater :P ) It's not because it sounds anything like how the Dayaan's scream (or what ever you want to call it )make your head spinning. Acutally I would say music is the only thing in the movie that doesn't disappoint you much because even Emran Hashmi disappoints us with no hot song or a hot kiss. Well, actually there was a song in the beginning which looked like it's gonna be hot but I skipped through most of it not being able to watch the fatty Huma.

And then the last one. The long braid of the Daayan ! As per the story the power of the Daayan is in its long braid.  So whenever she's gonna do something it sways like a snake. I don't know how you feel when you are reading it, But when I watched it in the trailer, I thought it might be scary and kept one of my hand near to face to hide my eyes if something scary happens whenever they show Konkana in the first half. But when they showed that Huma is the Daayan in the second half (Oops ! Spoiler Alert !!.. like you were planning to watch this movie :P ) my reaction changed into something like.. "what ever.. :|" 

And if you were hoping that I'm gonna say anything about the Chipkali, I googled it just to check whether I'm using the correct name or not and I know I'm gonna regret what I saw for at least another couple of days. So no comments about it :|

So to conclude, the plus points of the movies are its music, Konkana Sen Sharma and our cute little Sara (Deiva Thirumagal fame). And the negative points are.. well.. the rest of all..

Still counting how many Tom Hankses, Halle Berr(y)ies, Jim Broadbents, Hugo Weavings, Jim Sturgesses, etc., are in this film !!!

But after watching the film I have to praise myself for two things..
One: Foreseeing that I would need subtitles to understand at least half of what they are speaking in the film, within the first few minutes itself..
Two: Choosing the film instead of the book..

And the best part is, my downloaded copy of the movie suddenly changed its audio from English to Russian, but I didn't even notice it.. How Awesome !!

I don't know why the author chose particularly six stories for this novel; If he had chosen seven, then we could have said that he believed in Hindu mythology of rebirths and seven births for everyone. Or if he had added another four stories to it, at least we could have named the Hindi version of this movies as 'Dus Dasavathars' !!

However I didn't want to recollect all the events in this movie to find the connection between all those, because I had a small fear that I would end up in a Mental Care Hospital next day. So with the help of internet I found this picture. Hope it will also save you from going mad after watching this film..

In my recent self evaluation I found out that, I always have a soft corner for Ajith. So even though I have not accepted ever me as a Ajith fan, if you put Ajith and Vijay in balance I will always slide towards Ajith. But recently I have decided that I shouldn't criticize too much Vijay since his movies are also getting better. So when I heard Thuppakki is good one, I changed my mind about downloading it in torrents and watched it in Brookefields. And I am happy that the money I spent for it didn't go in vain.

Thuppakki - another good wholesome entertainment from Vijay.. Kavalan - Nanban - Thuppakki.. Vijay is adding the masala in his films little by little and I think this is the perfect compound.. I found only two minor flaws in the film..

Kajal Agarwal - So Artificial as 'Boxer' Nisha !! and the voice doesn't suite her at all ! She looked way better in 'Arya 2' and 'Brindavanam'..

Harris Jayaraj - Murugadoss wanted to show Vidyut Jamwal as a cool smart villain but Harris spoilt those scenes with a background music like some male opera singer singing in his high pitch !!

Other than these, Thuppakki Rocks !! And my mom said this is the best vijay film ever :)

I thought these mental illness occurs to only our southern heroes like Dhanush and Vikram.. But Just like chikungunya and Bird Flu these diseases also now slowly spreading to Bollywood.. Fortunately this time it was just a small amnesia.. I hope it will stop just with that..

If I wasn't a fan of Sharukh, I would have said

slow.. lengthy.. First half is like a musical with songs continuously coming one after another.. Katrina Kaif looks like she's in a funeral for most of the scenes.. Sharukh's flashback as a young guy doesn't have that energy..

Unless someone tell you that the music composer for this film is A. R. Rahman, it is little difficult to find it by ourselves. Right now only two or three songs of this film are in my playlist, and soon it will be reduced also. Nothing sticks to the mind much.. 

In one line: The film is about how a girl makes a silly promise to God and how she tortured the life of h

ero for 10 years and the life of audience for 3 hours !!

But, Since I'm a fan of Sharukh Khan, I'm saying

Sharukh looks handsome as a Major.. Anushka is sexy and lovable than Katrina in the film.. Second half is better than first.. Sharukh tried his best to dance like a young guy in 'Ishq shava' which should be appreciated..

In one line: A movie directed by a guy who was in his 80s, acted by a guy in his 40s, for the guys in their 20s.. and SRK ROCKS as ever !!

Hi Friends,

Since my official mail id is blocked for not finishing my goal settings and my client mail id is showing some syntax error(!) when I accessed it via webmail, I am sending this farewell mail from my gmail account.

As most of you don't know, writing is second favorite hobby after day dreaming. So, this is going to be a long mail and if you don't have enough time to go through the complete mail, you can simply skip to the last paragraph. I won't take it as rude :)

21st August, 2012.. Monday morning..7.00 AM.. As usual the bus I came from Coimbatore is late enough to skip my small morning nap and not enough to skip the morning session in office.. 8.00 AM.. I plugged my laptop and mobile to the broadband and checked all my social connections like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, Zedge, Google Play updates, Whatsapp, etc… 9.00 AM.. power gone.. I started to get ready for the office.. 9.30 PM.. Started from home and got struck in the traffic jam of Kuduvancheri.. 10.15 AM.. Reached office and went to my cubicle hoping that Kayal won't have noticed my absence till now.. 11.00 AM.. I started writing this mail which would turn this usual day of mine to an unusual day which I will remember to the rest of my life.

Whenever some one ask me what is my favorite past time either in Infosys or my whole life, I always say that it was my internship time in Mysore DC. I will never forget the pleasant days I had inside the campus during week days and the places We used to roam in and out of Mysore during the weekend days. Most of my college friends were with me all this time even after my college days were over and I have never felt alone. My Friends, You are the best thing ever happened to me in my life! ( Till now I'm Single; So I can say it frankly without expecting any after effects :P )

But it doesn't mean that I had hard moments after I left Mysore and joined here in Chennai. I was in bench here also for three or four months and got into an very easy project (comparatively with other projects in my apple ODC) and an easy part in it with just java, xml and sql. But I wouldn't say it was just a cakewalk for me; For many days when I switch on my mac system, I would be praying to god that my project should be running properly without any error.

******(Sorry.. Confidential !) ! This name will certainly send a chillness through my spine whenever I hear it, because most of the time it won't be working and I would be spending half of my 9.15 hours explaining others that it is not because of my code. But it doesn't mean that my code was always right and never caused a problem. I have certainly crashed the whole client server few times and after a thorough self analysis I found that the reason is, I can't concentrate on coding after the sun sets. So if you have found me always leaving early from office, This is the reason. I didn't want to make things more complicated than it was already!

And If you think I always come late to office, I have a reason for that too. During my initial days I used to come very early in the morning and leave after 7 pm only; Not because of project work, of course. Because I would be using the laundromat in the morning time and had french classes in the evening. I was sitting near Mehar that time, and If you have any doubts about how active I was, you can ask her. But later the laundromat was closed and I couldn't continue my french classes due to some evening calls I had to attend that time. But I would be always thankful to Infosys for these two things. Because without these two, I would have never able to check the top speed of my bike in early morning rides and approach a french girl in Pondicherry confidently and ask " Bonjour ! je m'appelle Tamilnambi ! vous vous appelez comment ?" (Don't get jealous.. I don't know anything else in French! )

And other question I was asked is, When I wear contact lenses and is there a pattern in it. The answer is Yes. Whenever I feel energetic, very eager to wake up early and come to office, that day I would be wearing the contact lens. If you found me wearing those, then that means I was very happy that day. Now you can calculate how many days you have seen me in specs and in contact lens.

And the final question, Why do I always busy with my mobile. Well, the answer is not because I have a girl friend; but I have a huge friends circle Whom I always keep in touch via Twitter and whatsapp. Even if I don't post anything, I love to read their posts and what they are discussing in group chats. And I love to try new mobile games and social networking apps too.

Now to thanking session. Mainly I want to thank three gangs of people.

First, My project mates: Anish, Maha, Raji, Vinoth, Malar, Raja and Vinodha; Thanks for making my work environment a pleasant one. Without you guys I can't even imagine how I would have worked here.(It doesn't mean all other people in my ODC are cruel !)

Then My lunch gang: TK, Kitty, Bannu, Renil, Pavi, Rash, Parthi, Sindhu, Indu, Suman and Sandy; You guys are the reason why I never felt homesick till now. You guys were always with me since my college days, training days and the working days here. I hope we will have time in future also to meet at least one day in a year and have lunch together.

Then to my evening tea and snacks time gang: I think I have spent most of the time in your cubicles than mine. Thanks for always having an extra chair in your cubicles for me. And let me clarify you now also, that the last four in the APL Season 1 was just an accident :P I am like Sharukh Khan in 'Chak De India' and I will definitely return one day for a rematch with you guys :)

Then last but not least, to my PM, Kayal, for giving all the freedom. Without you, I wouldn't even get the confidence to write this long mail. It would have been simply "Thanks for everything" :)

And Finally to Infosys, For turning me from one Indian in 1.21 billion to one Infoscion in 1.5 lakh.

If I have missed you in the thanks section or didn't send this mail to you and you are reading this in your neighbor's screen, it doesn't mean I ignored you; I just wanted to share the happy news of me getting my dream job later than I am resigning this job now.

If you want to know more about my experience here in Infy, You can check my blog. I already posted a couple of posts and I wish to continue it since it would be helpful for my 'essay writing' paper also. And you can contact me in my mobile no whenever you want and I assure you I won't change my no ever, since that's the first unique id I have ever got. You can follow me in Twitter; I'm a big addict of Twitter and I will be online there nearly 24x7. You can send your friend requests also to my Facebook id, I won't have any issues in accepting it since all of you are my ex colleagues now ;)

In a brief note, If you have no idea why I suddenly send this mail to you today and thanking all, The reason is I left my job in Infosys yesterday and going to start preparing for Civil Service Exams from tomorrow and today I thank all of my friends and colleagues (that is you!) for the wonderful time you shared with me.

Have you ever thought that films are more than a thing which is used for killing some time when u feel boring?

Have you ever thought that films are not only for spending some quality time with your friends by cracking jokes on the film and having popcorn and coke with them?

Have you ever thought that films are a medium where the director tries to tell you something more than how two people fell in love or how a hero defeats a villain?

Have you ever pondered after watching a movie why the director chose this story for his film and how well he convinced you that it was worth all of the hard work and money they put in this film?

If you have watched such kind of film then there is an another film for you in theaters this weekend. 'Aravaan'.

Prologue : 

If you are only interested in reading about the movie, then you can skip the next five paragraphs.

During my school days, I have read the prose versions of Mahabharata and Ramayana from my father's library. I chose these books because other books would be discussing about something like Marxism, Socialism which was beyond my reach that time. I have even read 'Animal Farm' that time, but it took me a long time to know the real meaning of that story. But these mythological stories were very interesting, easily understandable and had everything a boy needs in a story; Heroes, Villains, Romance and a big climax war where finally the good defeats the evil. These books were more interesting than the Doordharshan's sunday version of 'Mahabaratham'.

As the years passed by, My memory storage became full with Syllabus books like Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, etc., and moved these stories to the Recycle Bin. So when my parents proudly say to someone that I have read all the parts of Mahabharata and Ramayana already, I will simply smile sheepishly and pray to god that they should not ask any questions from these stories. So when I heard the movie name 'Aravaan', all I could remember was that he was one of the sons of Arjuna( I think even Vyasa didn't count how many sons Arjuna had !), he was killed in the great Mahabharata war and he is worshiped as Koothaandavar in Tamil Nadu. So when my mom mentioned that Aravaan was the human sacrifice for Pandavas in the war, I was little confused. I thought of clearing this doubt by watching the movie, but later came to know that the film's story is only based on the 'Aravaan' character but set in 18th century. So I had no other option than to ask the question 'Who is Aravaan ?' to the only person in Earth who knows answer to all the questions, the 'Google'. As expected, he forwarded me and my question to the person who's in second place, the 'Wikipedia'.

So if you want to know the whole story of Aravaan and Mahabharata you can also visit the wikipedia page; But if you are lazy to search in another website or like my writing very much (!) and want to continue reading here itself, then here is the shorter version:

There are many versions of Mahabharata in India, each one differs in a way. So I will try my best to cover all of it without confusing you much. So basically Aravaan was born to Arjuna and a Naga princess Ulupi when Arjuna was on an one year exile. Even though he was a prince, the others never treated him as their equal in his tribe. So he went to meet his father Arjuna and joined with Pandavas for the Kuruchethra war. From here each version differs about Aravaan's story. The Original version simply states that he was defeated on the war by Alambusan. But the south indian version states that when Pandavas and Krishna decided, that they need a human sacrifice to win this war and Aravaan would be the perfect choice for that, he accepted that with three boons. The stories differ about how many boons he asked and what were they also. The first boon he asked was that he wanted a warrior death in hands of a great warrior. The story states that's why he came back alive after the sacrifice and killed by Alambusan on the war. But the second boon contradicts the first boon by asking that he wanted to watch the war even if he dies before the war. So they arranged to hang his head on a pole on the war field during the Kuruchethra war so he can watch all of it. But the story also says his head was alive and watched all the events ! The third boon was that he didn't want die as a virgin and wanted to marry a girl before his sacrifice. Since no one was ready to marry someone who will be sacrificed the next day, Krishna himself took the female form Mohini and married Aravaan. I think now you can guess why the transgenders are called Aravaanis in Tamil and why they Aravaan as their god.

Even though I know that this story doesn't have more sense and logic than a Vijay's film, I don't want to linger upon it more and offend those people who believe that these characters are gods who came to earth in human form( Oh God ! Suppose if you are really there somewhere and watching me typing this, please forgive me ;) ). Now that you have an idea about the character let's discuss about the movie.   

The movie starts with Pasupathi and his tribal gang going for a theft (Kalavu) to a wealthy person's home. The first fifteen minutes show how they do the theft, how they came to know the house plan and how they escape from the guards when they get caught; and I would say that these are the best scenes in the film. From this initial theft scene, the movie moves in a superb speed till intermission that I didn't even mind the minor flaws like the slang they speak is more like our village Tamil than the one spoken on 18th century and the poor CG sequence that comes in the scene where Adhi rescues Pasupathi from Kottaiyur guards. The suspense about Adhi's identity is well maintained in the first half, that I was eagerly waiting for the second half. But to my little disappointment the second half was not enough pace as the first half. Even though I compromised myself that the second half was slow because it has to describe all the flashbacks it would have been much better if it had the same pace as the first half. Even the special appearances of Barath, Anjali, Swetha Menon and Sruthi Prakash doesn't help the pace. Since I know that all Vasantha Balan's movies have sad endings the excitement I had when the film started slowly reduced. So when the movie ends  , one part of my brain argued that its not fair and it should have had a different climax. But the other part of brain which deals with logic told me that whether it's fair or not, this is probably what would have happen if the story is real.

In the end, Vasantha Balan finishes the movie with a message saying that British government banned the human sacrifice but it is still in many countries including India, in the name of Death sentence and it should be stopped. Even though I accept that death sentence should be stopped, I don't think human sacrifice and death sentence are same. In death sentence the accused might be an innocent or criminal, but in human sacrifice it's always an innocent who lost his life. Whether the stories of Aravaan and Chinna(Adhi's character) are real or imaginary, they show this point only. 

There is a saying in Tamil 'Kalavum katru mara'('களவும் கற்று மற'). I would say that you may forget how to thieve but don't forget this movie which is about the life story of ancient Tamil thieves and guards.