3 Movie Reviews in 1: Nanpakal..., Romancham, and Pranaya Vilasam

1. Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (Siesta)

Lijo Jose Pellissery's movies are an acquired taste. Each movie is different and probably appeal to different temperaments. So when it came to Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, I was not sure what to expect. One weekend, DH and I gave up our own siesta to watch it.

A group of Malayalis return from their pilgrimage from Velankanni in Tamil Nadu. The group leader James (Mammootty) is an irritable man who has no regard for punctuality. He eats very little lunch because he hates the native cuisine. The onward journey on the interminably straight roads in Tamil Nadu lulls everyone into sleep, including the driver who narrowly misses crashing the van. So when James suggests a stop for what seems to be a toilet break, the driver gratefully parks the van amid green fields and takes the time to refresh himself. Meanwhile, James walks out of the van, crosses the fields, and walks through a village that seems familiar to him. Within minutes, he has doffed his own clothes for a lungi and shirt hanging outside a house, is feeding the cow, handing over paan to a blind old woman, talking in fluent Tamil, and upbraiding the lady of the house for not keeping provisions stocked.

The pilgrims are astounded. James doesn't recognize anyone including his wife and son. They chase James around the unknown village in an attempt to catch him as he goes around doing his daily chores. Finally, the villagers and the pilgrims discuss the problem and decide to wait around to see if the seeming personality displacement resolves itself.

The story is straightforward, as is the climax. But in the interim, the director presents several themes that touch the heart even as we wonder how the story will resolve itself. The close community where everyone helps out each other vs. the unloving brother-in-law who scoots before any solution has been found; the misconceptions and prejudices that the  Tamilians and Malayalis have about each other; the haplessness of Sundaram's wife; the short-lived rage of his teenage daughter; the placid acceptance of the blind mother; the way Sundaram's dog follows James around and finally runs off after the van... There is a lot of food for thought that is presented with the background of dialogues and songs from old Tamil movies. There are very few close up shots of the protagonists, very few single-character shots as well except for James/Sundaram.

It is difficult to say whether I liked the movie in the sense that I would watch it again...probably not. But even a week after watching it, it has stayed with us and we are still discussing its various facets.

2. Romancham (Horripilation)

I don't like horror movies. My kids dragged me to The Nun a few years ago. I spent the time clutching DH's hand on one side, Ani's hand on the other, and opened my eyes for tiny increments when I felt that nothing horrendous was happening on-screen. 

So when DH invited me to watch Romancham touted as a horror comedy, I planned to buy a bucket of popcorn and bury my face in it when the movie became overwhelming.

When the very average group of young men sharing a bachelors' pad frolicked their way across the screen and invited the supernatural into their lives as a pastime (probably had lousy data packages), I found that I was gazing avidly at the screen, rather than hiding behind my popcorn bucket. The laughs made the scares bearable and the scares were palpable even though there were no figures with extra-long canine teeth, coals for eyes or melting visages. Phew!!! Jithu Madhavan, I thank you for making a horror movie that I can actually watch without flinching. 5 stars!!!

3. Pranaya Vilasam (Love Cottage ?)

The kids booked tickets to watch Quantumania. Rather than while away two hours wandering around the mall buying up non-essentials, DH and I opted to watch Pranaya Vilasam, knowing nothing about it other than its name. 

It's the kind of movie that makes you smile, giggle, laugh out loud occasionally, weep, and sigh in sympathy. Rajeevan, a middle-aged Village Officer, is in the throes of rekindling his old flame. His singer son Sooraj, who is stuck studying the wrong course, is not on speaking terms with Rajeevan. Sooraj appears to be an accomplished flirt who even ogles his father's erstwhile girlfriend. Anu, Rajeevan's wife is a colourless hausfrau who protests when eating dinner with her son encroaches on her 7–10 pm serial-watching time. 

A typical Malayali dysfunctional family, one would think. But from that point, the movie takes off into a story arc that is all the more colourful due to the judicious use of the local culture and landscape. The talented cast does justice to the script. Manoj KU, the amazing find from the phenomenally successful Thinkalazhcha Nischayam seemed set to reprise the same kind of role, but metamorphosed into a surprisingly nuanced character. Arjun, Mamitha, and Anaswara carry off their characters with ease and aplomb. Hakkim Shah is the surprise package in this movie about romantic love of various kinds and their consequences.

On the way back, DH sniffed and grumbled, "Where did they find that cat? Just to make people sentimental..." Five stars again!

Retirement of a favourite blogger...

Rhonda Hetzel, author and long-time blogger decided to stop blogging for good this week. Over the years, her blog Down to Earth has been a source of great inspiration, archive of wholesome reading, gateway to more wholesome internet content, and a model on how to lead a satisfied and productive domestic life. The announcement made me very sad and it led to thinking about my own blog.

Back when I started in 2010, this blog was a way to make me stop procrastinating about writing. Over the years, it became a journal of sorts as I blogged about our travels, daily life, and special events. I still love reading over the early posts, especially those starring my kids and furry friends. But then real life and COVID intervened. Yes, I was still writing, but I found blogging to be a chore. I kept thinking, "What's the point?" and opened the blog only when I had something I really wanted to say. But the more I waited for such opportunities to come, the longer I had to wait, till I was blogging next to nothing. 

But not any more! Hetzel's retirement and a dear friend's inquiry about why I am not blogging any more has made me rethink my 'waiting to be inspired' strategy. So here I go again...

Let me start with Karthi, our home. Over the years, her exterior had grown grungy and marred with cracks, fissures, and algae abstract art...

 

So we decided to get her painted again with new-fangled moisture-blocking undercoats and to freshen the damp proofing of the roof. The first step was pressure-washing the whole exterior, which took a whole day, around 3000-3500 litres of water, and presented us with a whopping electricity bill in February. It was good that we had decided to damp-proof Karthi's roof back in 2011, because it stood up wonderfully to the pressure washing. The contractor and the painter said that when they had done on the same on a house younger than Karthi, the plastering had broken up into cement chunks and sand and they had had to re-plaster the roof.

Within three weeks in January, Karthi was utterly transformed. The tired faux wood work of the porch gleamed again...

The front door took a well-deserved day off its hinges, got a sanding and a spray coat and was back at its post by the evening...

 

and the whole house got the look of a demure Malayali maiden decked out in a mundu and neryathu set with a tamarind-leaf green border. It makes me hum "Puliyilakkarayolum pudava chutti" whenever I return home from a jaunt and see Karthi peeking through the trees...

 

As you can see, the cats were actively involved in supervising the painting process, as in barging in on the painters at meal times and begging for food. The painters deemed Pirate and Akrami very well-mannered because they didn't grab and run like other feral cats, but made polite requests and waited patiently to be served! 

Now that Karthi is looking spiffy on the outside, the interior looks dingy!!! We have plans, yes, we have plans. But some cannot be put into practice for six months because the exterior moisture barrier will drive the remaining moisture in the walls to the interiors in the coming months, and will be safe for painting only by June. Already we are seeing bubbling and flaking off in several ground floor rooms, likely to grow worse in the coming months. 

That's it for today. The past one and a half months have been unusually hectic and discombobulating for a new year. More on that next week!

Movie Review: Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey

It has been a long time since I have been transported enough to write about a movie. Last Saturday, we caught  Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey, directed by rookie Vipin Das. But boy, has he shown himself to be a master of the craft!

 

The main factors that drew us as a family to watch the movie were the positive reviews on FM channels and the star cast. As I waited in front of the theater, DH drew my attention to the poster, "Is that a foot in the last letter???" That was when I noticed the last letter and the negative space shaped like a kicking foot in it... curious.

When the movie started, I was drawn to the parallel it drew to the movie Rani Padmini, which had Rima Kallingal and Manju Warrier in the title roles. The character of Jayabharathi, played by the inimitable Darsana Rajendran (who is fast becoming one of my all-time favourite heroines) reminded me of the character Padmini played by Manju Warrier in that movie, down to the ubiquitous petticoat the character wears as a young child. The first part was depressing for me. Even though the treatment was comical, I DID NOT feel like laughing and was actually squirming in my seat, wondering when the torture would end.  My parents used to regale everyone with the tale of 6-year old me reacting wildly to the villainous character played by Balan K. Nair in the movie Oppol as he tortured the character played by Menaka. Apparently, I jumped off the seat, shaking with rage, and asked my father to finish off the villain. (Clearly, even then, I loved to delegate all the dirty jobs!). Even though I was seething, the younger part of the audience was laughing all the way.

Then came the twist, and the turn. And it was a woohoo ride thenceforth. Each scene was riveting due to its unpredictability as the screen pair, Rajesh and Jaya tried to navigate the shark-infested waters of their marriage. Basil Joseph is an inspired choice for the role of a 'traditional' husband and reveals a new facet in this movie. His comic facial expressions are completely in character and he matches up to Darsana perfectly in each scene. The novice actors who play their close relatives have done a superb job as well. Rajesh's cousin played by Azeez Nedumangad is another memorable character. Manju Pillai's cameo at the end of the movie had every one ROTFLing. Aju Varghese is clinical in the execution of his short-lived character. 

We watched Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey last Saturday. I am still going through the scenes of the movie in my head at odd moments of the day and have so far urged several of my friends and relatives to watch the movie. There are several moments in the story when the privileges accorded to the male population are shown up as ridiculous, which I recognized as passing unquestioned in several households that I know.

All in all, Jaya x4 Hey follows the footsteps of Rani Padmini and The Great Indian Kitchen, but with much more humour, which is somehow still effective in delivering scathing criticism of male hegemony. Kudos to the whole team who have supported each other very well to bring out their collective vision. If I have a complaint, it is only this, the title is a mouthful and is a pain to type out!!!

Covid finally caught us...and taught me a new craft!

We put up all the fortification we could and took all evasive action as dictated by health officials and common sense, alas, only to have the virus invade our family after two and a half years of pursuit. Starting with DH, we fell ill one by one at the end of July. The kids bounced back to normal routine after a week. Us elders however, found it very hard to make a quick comeback. 

One week after the virus attack, I couldn't read, I couldn't work on the computer, I couldn't do any housework or gardening. My hands simply itched for something to do, something new, something not strenuous. "Learn tatting!" burst into my mind. What, that old thing? Starting in 2004, how many times had I tried to teach myself the same thing? After failing to learn to tat with shuttles, I put them away and got tatting needles. It was so easy to tat on needles, but all the patterns were for tatting with shuttles. Another dead end.

Not one to ignore my intuition, though, I dragged myself up the stairs to my craft room and searched high and low for the shuttles. I searched all the cupboards and shelves. Na-ah. Before giving up, I opened an old carry-on case in which some odds and ends were stashed, and there they were! They were safely put away in a pouch carefully labelled "tatting shuttles" on the outside. 

Now what? I dragged out the tome I had started out with...

I found the rudimentary instructions in the Lacework section and wound the shuttle thread around my fingers and started... only to give up once again because the "flipping" was not working. That's when my intuition shouted, "Check YouTube, you..." (My intuition is usually a well-mannered entity. But sometimes I try her patience.)

So I went to YouTube. I checked out 5 beginners' videos and learned several things from all of them... One showed me the most efficient way to hold and move the shuttle, one showed me exactly how to slack the left hand for the 'flip' to occur smoothly, one showed me the whole process in close up... I bowed to all those teachers in my mind and started tatting. The end results of three and a half weeks of tatting almost half an hour on weekdays looks thus...

Yes, that is most of the "work" that I have created in the past month. As I was in the process of mastering the all-important flip and creating the muscle memory to keep it smooth, it resulted in plenty of mishaps. For example, the one below shows one perfectly executed ring. When I started the other, the fifth stitch refused to flip and I had to stop because of the tight knot.

Then I started making rings and connecting picots, but sometimes got the counting all wrong resulting rings of various sizes...

Then I noticed that sometimes I would get the picot connecting wrong - not collecting the proper thread through the loop or pulling the thread in backwards, resulting in more knots...

Then I managed a string of rings, attached with loops of varying and untidy lengths. I then tried my hand at tatting with size 40 thread, resulting in the teeny little blue ring that you see in the picture below. I found that I would need magnifying glasses to make those. So I desisted, mercilessly unwinding all that thread from the shuttle and throwing it away. Seriously, what had I been thinking when I bought size 40 thread, with my high-myopic eyes? Nope, nothing but no. 10 thread for me!

Then I went back to the RD Book of Needlework and tried out a tiny pattern that required me to reverse my work after each ring and connect the rings in a double row. By this time, I had learned to keep tugging at my shuttle thread to see if was gliding smoothly and caught mistakes long before they spoiled my whole ring. By taking off my specs and squinting at the offending stitches, I also learned to unpick them, correct my mistake, and go on my merry way.

Last week, I tried a shuttle and ball affair, changing between shuttle thread and ball thread and learning to keep them separate. I winged the pattern and created the motif below. I first made the outer circle and then went mad and created a hodgepodge in the inner circle. Just for fun...

But yesterday, I created a motif with two shuttles, again on my own, again unpicking several knots along the way... completely imperfect, but beautiful still...

The picots are not equal-sized. I've created quite a few unintentional tiny picots along the chains, but it is still a recognizable tatted motif. As I've moved along, I've learned to not look at the piece, but my counting needs to improve. It is so easy to transport as well. So now a couple of shuttles, thread, and a small pair of blunt scissors travel in a Ziploc bag with me wherever I go. 

I've just learned the basics and there are a lot of things that I have to learn before I can use tatting in projects. But it is a start. And it is so heartening to finally have got through the difficulty of mastering the "flip". Now looking forward to creating things from these patiently waiting books in my collection...

Meanwhile, I have gained enough energy to get the housework done and have started taking care of the garden for half an hour every day. Small bursts of work are okay. But I tried cooking for 4 hours straight last Saturday for DH's birthday, and couldn't move at all on Sunday. But that is how it rolls. 

Journey to Craft World aka The Craft Village at Vellar

It has been flu fortnight here at Karthi, with DH succumbing first, then Ani, then Kunju and finally the nursemaid who was running around with thermometer, oxymeter, meds, hot water, and tissues. DH was tested for Covid twice and the results were negative, even though we have all the symptoms. Karthi is currently like an echo-cave. The cough starting in one room will set off an echo in several other rooms and go on awhile. But enough of that, let us look at something bright and cheery.

Forever on the lookout out for new attractions in this area, I heard a lot about a craft village on the way to Kovalam. A few years ago we did look in, but the place was still under construction and there wasn't much to see. We thought, "Oh, just another 'government undertaking' to waste public resources." I mean, have you been to any of those state craft emporiums that are horribly designed, where items are displayed haphazardly, and where the staff is so demoralized that they barely open their mouth to talk? And the same products: wooden elephants, plaster Kathakali faces, snake boat replicas, and the metal cornered ornament boxes lined with flimsy red velvet ad nauseam. 

Last year, I saw an article about the Craft Village in the newspaper and got good reviews from my sister who went there once. So we went there on Christmas morning in 2021...

Well, well... this looked nothing like the place I remembered! We got there slightly before the opening time – 10 am – and got parking inside the campus. Waiting for the artisans to arrive and open their stalls, we took a little walk and found this wonderful square to relax in...

 

It was only later that I came to know that the stalls are built around this pretty place. Let me show you just a sample of the things we saw. Starting from Nettippattams of different sizes...

Then chendas and maddalams of different sizes starting from miniature ones that are made with the same materials as those of the original.

Isn't this Kathakali painting beautiful? It's life-size too. Now what if I tell you that it is all made of quilled paper???

You don't believe me? Let us take a closer look...

Just take a look at that detail!!! It took the "quiller" duo of husband and wife around a month to finish this masterpiece!

 

These stalls are also the workshops of these artists and crafters. According to the space required, there might or might not be separate spaces available for the workshop. For example, the ceramic artist who made these...

has a huge workshop behind the showroom, complete with a potter's wheel. They even hold classes there! Of course, there were the traditional crafts if you have a hankering for elephants and snake boats. Cane furniture and handloom textiles are available as well. But then there are also these...

 

and these...

These are beautiful miniature replicas of the uru made in Beypore, the ancient ship-building art, brought to life by one of the traditional artisans. 

Going into the workshop of a wood craft stall, we were awed by a sculpture in progress that was eight feet tall...

This is a depiction of the Viswaroopa commissioned by a well-known actor and with the addition of a final piece above it, will attain a total height of 11–12 feet. I wandered around the piece and caught sight of Sree Krishna blowing the Panchajanya...

 

There are scenes from the Mahabharata worked all over the piece. Just look at this Dasavathara  necklace! Start from the left top and you can see all ten!

I prised myself away from the wonderful piece of art and craft because there was a lot more to see. Here is a stall of metal craft...

 

An example of papier mache combined with bamboo...

Macrame hammocks and swings...

I could go on, but then this post would be too long, and I still have to show you the Emporium.

which housed a two-storey tromp l'oeil painting...

Look at how the railing of the top floor balcony is blended into and continued in the painting. We had to have some fun with it, so here is Kunju stepping into the market...

 

And here is DH waiting patiently for the cobbler to finish his current job...

The Emporium was a veritable Aladdin's cave filled with treasure...

The floor above the emporium houses a painting gallery, of which I will not post photos, but leave you to discover for yourself.

The Art and Craft Village is still expanding with more facilities and attractions to be added soon. The layout of the buildings reminded me of Technopark and the facilities provided are Technopark-standard too—which is excellent for a any institution. There is plenty of space for kids to run around and exhaust themselves while the adults browse through the stalls. It is also elderly-friendly as the stalls are accessible on one floor and there are plenty of places to rest if need be. There is a restaurant on the premises and we would have tried it if we hadn't made lunch plans for the day. All in all, the Village is worth spending at least half a day. 

The life of the place are the crafters whose passion fills the spaces that they work in. If you go there, make sure to talk to them about their work, it is simply heartwarming. I have shown a mere fraction of the items available. There are products for pockets of all sizes.

The cost of admission is Rs.100 for adults and half that for kids. Separate fee for parking.

If only that Village was within commutable distance, I would have taken a teeny, tiny stall for crochet and spent the whole day crocheting and nattering with the other crafters!!!

New dawn... new day... And the return of a prodigal!!!

My life in the new year has been like the comic video of Jagathy Sreekumar that was doing the rounds during the first five days of 2022...

I have a planner, I have a habit checklist printed out on an excel sheet, I have reminders on my phone, but when it is time produce something creative, such as a post on this blog, I fall back down, slouch, and then mutter, "I'll do it tomorrow."

Which is not to say that I have been completely idle: being a homemaker and a busy freelance copy editor precludes that.

So let me tell you that one of our new year gifts was not quite apparent at all. As you know, the itinerant cat population at Karthi fluctuates almost everyday (Please check my posts with the label 'Cats' to learn about the ongoing saga). As the local cats know, there is always a bowl full of food left out on our porch, not in plain sight, mind you, but behind a jaali, where a cat in the know can access it if they are courageous enough to climb our front steps. Many a time we have surprised strange cats who, according to the level of phlegm in their nature, have either sped away or casually strolled away after flicking a disdainful tail at our inquiries. Our current, somewhat regular cats, are Pirate and her children from several births, Tukey, Topi, and their elder brother Ellesmere (my original name for this cat was actually Ella, until I discovered, ahem, that he wasn't a she, so I borrowed a name from the Outlander series!)

In the second week of January, we noted a new, disreputable-looking tom cat that came in Tukey's company. Tukey is a half-grown tom cat and we wondered how he could have established a relationship with a strange tom cat. One thing we noticed was that this new cat was not at all afraid of us. He shared Tukey's food and lay placidly on our door mat. We tried shooing him away as we felt he would challenge Ellesmere (who is a fluffy, cuddly, darling who barely tolerates our going silly over him). But the new yellow and white cat didn't scare easily. Two days later, Ani called me to the porch, 

"Amma, I think this is Akrami!" 

I reached the porch to see the strange cat ensconced in his lap, making no effort to get down. 

"Ani!!! You should know better than to cuddle strange cats like that!!!" 

"But that's what I meant, Amma! I think it is Akrami. He didn't object at all when I put him on my lap. Would a strange cat let me do that? And look at his front feet, see, those marks look like the injuries he had when the dog attacked him!"

I took a closer look at the cat. He was marked all over with scars of battle and had patches of skin showing through his fur at different places. Especially notable was a slanting slash over one eye that acted as a single eyebrow giving him a sardonic expression. 

"I don't think it is Akrami. He has the same coloring, but it can't be him!"

The child who was the closest among us to Akrami wasn't so easily convinced. This is a picture of them taken back in 2016 or so...

He took pictures of the cat on my phone and brought them to me. 

"Amma, let us check Akrami's old pictures."

I delved into the Pictures folder on my computer and found old photos and videos, and there it was! The markings were uncannily the same!! The yellow on the new cat was a bit darker and he had clicked pictures of the new cat from only one side. So I asked him to click more to make a thorough check...

 

As you can see, he was pretty thorough this time, clicked from almost all angles! So we presented our findings in the family council. The council decided that he would have to undergo a battery of tests to see if it was indeed the old Akrami. Till he passed those tests, DH gave him a provisional name: Akrala. The 'la' stood for 'look-alike'. 

First we administered the Pirate test. We observed closely when Pirate came. She slapped him within the first five minutes! Akrala thus passed test number one. 

We got hot ulli vada from our favorite tea shop. We gave him pieces from a lukewarm one at first. He was not very interested. DH put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and tried again. This time, the cat eagerly fell on the vada and finished off all the pieces! Test number two was passed with flying colors!

He started lording it on our doormat, curling up on it comfortably. That was his favorite pose in his heydays and when Raj came up the front steps, he didn't even open his eyes... Akrala passed yet another test!

He started demanding food from us first thing in the morning, and no cat has been as importunate as that from us except Akrami. Voila, yet another test passed.

Yesterday, I was making dosas when I took a fresh one to the porch and dropped a piece in front of him. He ate it up, looked up at me and mewed. Just like he used to do while asking me for food! I dropped more pieces while DH took care of making the next few dosas. In my heart, I changed Akrala to Akrami in that instant!

Today, while we had our breakfast after giving him his, Akrami was lying on the doormat, pretending that he was lord of all he surveyed. On a whim, I called out, "Akramiiii". He turned his head majestically towards us. I repeated it when he turned away, and he again looked back at us. 

Yet another confirmation came this evening. We had saved chicken scraps from lunch for him. Ani gave them to him and we heard him going, "Nomm nomm nomm"!!!!! The very enjoying sounds he used to make when we gave him his favorite food!!!

No doubt there will be more tests and more confirmations. He has changed a lot. He isn't as chatty as he used to be. He is tougher. Then he used to cringe and go away when he was beaten by Pirate, but now, he growls back at her, and she seems to be in awe of her sire, not impudent as of old. He drove off Ellesmere when he came to visit us two days ago, but we are not complaining. DH scolded Pirate when she batted him on the head today because she didn't want to share breakfast with him!!! Just like old times! 

To think that if Ani had not been observant like he is... we would have missed our New Year gift!!!

Today, I heard DH making up the story of where Akrami has been for the past two years. It started with "Having eaten two pieces of chicken on Christmas day in 2019 and chatting with my family, I decided to sleep it off on the undercarriage of a lorry." To summarize, the next time Akrami opened his eyes, he was in the border town of Punalur and it took him two years and occasional glimpses and near misses till he made his way back to our home! I must tell DH to write it down some time. Might be a bestseller!