Dasanum Vijayanum: Veendum Oru Varavelpu??

Picture Courtsey: www.indiamovieclub.com

When the names Mohanlal and Sreenivasan are spoken in unison, the first images that come to the mind of a Malayalam film lover are the scenes from the film “Nadodikattu”. In the genre of comedy films, no two characters have given us funnier moments than Ramdas and Vijayan.

Recently a few websites (like this one) claimed that Director Rosshan Andrews (of Udhayananu Tharam fame) had decided to direct the fourth part of this acclaimed series after initial rumors that the director duo Rafi-Mecartin had planned to do the same. But even in a recent interview by Rediff regarding his latest flick “Kadha Parayumbol”, scriptwriter Sreenivasan had denied any plans on making a fourth part.


“Nadodikattu”, the film released in 1987 was scripted by Sreenivasan and directed by Sathyan Anthikkad. It was succeeded by two sequels “Pattanapravesham” and “Akkare Akkare Akkare”. But it was Nadodikattu which gave life to the two characters and ensured a permanent place for them in the mind of the Malayalam film lovers.

Nadodikattu explored the trials and tribulations faced by two unemployed youths Ramdas and Vijayan and how fate finally reverses their fortunes through a series of humorous and bizarre incidents. The film has characters made memorable through actors like Thilakan (as Ananthan Nambiar) and Captain Raju (as the killer Pavanai). Though this film was a huge success, its sequels didn’t succeed commercially as much as the original. More than just highlighting the twist and turns in the life of two youths the film showcased the different shades of character in a Malayali living in Madras (now Chennai). The miserly business man Ananthan Nambiar, the taxi driver Balan (Innocent) struggling to meet his livelihood, the single woman living with her mother (Shobhana), the cunning politician (played by Janardhanan), the honest police officer are all testimony to this fact.

Of the two sequels, Pattanapravseham churned out better box office results compared to “Akkare..”. The reasons as to why the latter didn’t perform too well at the box office could be attributed to the following reasons:

• Released during the 2nd half of the golden era of Malayalam cinema (early 1990’s). Therefore was released during a period in which the quality of Malayalam films was so high that such films were hardly recognized.
• Removal of characters like Ananthan Nambiar and Gafoorka from the script, thus making the film devoid of some aspects critical to the success of its first two parts.
• Absence of the realistic factor by setting the story in a country like United States.

• The villain being an American instead of an Indian, thus limiting the comic situation with him, unlike the duels with the character “Prabhakaran” in Pattanapravesham.
  
• The very CID theme was made just to bring in the sequels, whereas, Nadodikattu was based on the difficulties faced by two unemployed graduates in managing their life. Therefore, the sympathy the viewers felt for the two characters in the first part was considerably reduced in the 2nd part and almost absent in the third part.
  
  
  So, that brings us to some interesting questions:
  
  · What story can we expect if Sreenivasan decides to pen the sequel?
  One has to take into consideration that both Mohanlal and Sreeni are in their 50’s.
  
  · Will we get any new characters like the ones played by Mukesh and Raju in the third part?
  · Will the setting of the story again be in a foreign country, with the current trend in all films being so? (In the Orkut community of Dasan and Vijayan one member suggested that the title of the film should be kept as “Ikkare Ikkare Ikkare”)

· Will a legendary comedian like Jagathy get a role in the film?

Many people have stated in various internet forums that a fourth part should not be made since it could spoil the “brand value” of the two characters. I am not sure whether that statement is true, since, the quality of average present day Malayalam films being the way we know it is, the film would do really well at the box-office if it at least matches up to the levels of “Akkare..” That would be the consensus, I suspect, even with Sreenivasan.

Comedy films need to have more of situation comedy rather than pure slap-stick comedy. Pattanapravesham was also a film which took a dig at politicians and even other detective films through a few dialogues. But it was very neatly done rather than scenes being introduced just for the sake of it. As to who was the target of the jokes in those scenes is anyone’s guess ;-).


I, personally, don’t prefer to see a fourth part. Lal and Sreeni would find it a real challenge to recreate the magic of the first two parts and I would rather see Sreeni script a story like ‘Kadha Parayumbol’, than a half-baked sequel of the CID series. What do all of you feel? Would love to hear your comments!

Before I wind up, I am leaving behind some memorable (and humorous) dialogues from the three films.

V – Vijayan
D- Dasan
AN- Ananthan Nambiar
I- Inspector
P - Pavanai
Pr – Prabhakaran (AN’s ‘partner in crime’ and friend)


Nadodikattu

V: Aishwaryathinte siren muzhangunnnathu pole ondu

V: Pre-Degree athrakku moshamaya degree alla



AN: A.N. Traders avihitha margathil onnum sambhadikunnilla
D : Sir..Saare..Nammal company-ile employees-a
AN : Thalkalam employees-inte roopathil ennu parayam
V : Bavathilum anagane thanneya saar


I: Arengilum Jamyam tharathe ningale release cheyyan pattilla
V: Saar thanne nammale Jamyathil irakkikude

P: I am Pavanai
V: Daasa..ithu etha ee alavalathi?

V: Sasi sir ippo evide kaanum
Seema: Sasiyettan ippo Bharaniyila
V: Bharaniyilo ! ?

AN: Angane pavanai shavamayi..enthokke bahulyamayirunnu..malappuram katthi, machine gun, olakkeda moodu..

Pattanapravesham

Pr: ee kallakadothokke kazhinjittu venam onnu guruvayoor vare pokan

D: Ivide dummy onnum ille.
I : saar..ithu oru kutthu kondulla kolayalle..mukalil ninnu veenathalla
D: Enthengilum akatte..Oru dummy enthayalaum venam

Guess all of you would have understood which politician and actor were made fun of :-)

AN: Prabahakara..Kallakadatthum kolapathakam okke engane pokunnu?

AN: Prabhakara..nee enganeyenkilum oru kalla passport oppichu tha..njan evideyengilum poyi samadhanamayi kallakadathu cheythu jeevicholam.

I: Sir..Kola cheytha alude shirt-ile button kittiyitundu..athoru thumballe
D: Thumbano thumbiyano ennu namakku pinne nokkam

V: nalla ugran biriyani..nalla vishappu
D: athu puthiya sambhavan allallo
V: Daasa..ippo nallapole kazhichillangil vayasu kalathu diabetes varumbo dukhikendi varum
D: Ingane kazhichal vaikathe dukhikendi varum


Pr: Kolapathakam cheythavare kandupidiccho?
D: Manyathayude mughammoodi aninjirikunna palarum ithil pinnilanennu namakku manasilayi sir..avare vaikathe akathakkum

It was really amusing to see a scared Karamana Janardhanan’s expression in this scene and the CID’s not realising that they were actually talking to the culprit.

Akkare Akkare Akkare

Mukesh..Da Gopi..ini gopi varachha mathi

American villains: Tell me the truth ..Aren’t u the CID’s from India?
Raju : No..I am gopi from Sasthamangalam

Drug Dealers: Give us the heroin
V : Hair oil-o?

D: Nammale Krishnan nair saar-a ivide ayachathu
Nedumudi: Aaah..athinte phalam-a ayal avide anubhavikkunathu
Soman is shown being beaten up by the villains.

The A-Z of Punjabi times at Dilli!!!

The following article appeared in the Delhi edition of the Times of India newspaper and is a humorous take on the Punjabi community in Delhi. Found it to be quite good. Reminded me of the Jaspal Bhatti serials aired on Doordarshan a long time back. No offences meant to anyone. :-)
________________________________________________________________

A is for Adjust, Punjabis will always ask you to adjust whenever they want to push you around.

B is for Backside, and it has nothing to do with your bum, it is an instruction to go to the rear of a building, or block, or shop or whatever.

C is for cloney and its first name is not George nor is it a process for replicating sheep – it is an area where people live eg. Dfence cloney.

D is for Saddi Dilli

E is for expanditure – and believe me Punjabis are not scared of spending money – the latest cars, marble floors, their ambitions are always expanding.

F is for fackade, and even though it sounds like a bad word it is actually just the front of a building (with backside being the back, of course).

G is for Gaddi and the way a Punjabi can pilot a car puts any F1 driver to shame, if the Grand Prix does come to Delhi there’s no way Hamilton, Alonso or Kimi can overtake Balvinder, Jasvinder and Sukhvinder.

H is for Ho Jayega, the moment you hear that, you have to be very careful because you can be reasonably sure it’s not going to happen.

I is for Intezaar… to know more about it see P.

J is for Jindagi and if there’s one person who knows how to live life to the full it’s a Punjabi.

K is for Khanna, Khurana, etc – the Punjabi equivalent of the Johnses ie, keeping up with the Khuranas.

L is for Lovely but she never is.

M is for Mrooti – the car that moved an entire Punjabi generation.

N is for No problem ji - to find out how that works see H.

O is for Oye which can be surprise (oyye!), a hailing (oyy), anger (OYY) or pain (oy oy oy).

P is for Panch minit and no matter how near (1 km) or far a Punjabi is from you (100 km) they usually say they’ll reach you in panch minit.

Q is for Queue for which there’s really no word in Punjabi.

R is for Riks and a Punjabi is always prepared to take one, even if the odds are against them.

S is for Sweetie, Bunty, Pappu and Sonu who seem to own half the cars in Delhi.

T is for the official bird of Punjab – Tandoori chicken.

U is for when U lose your sex appeal and become ‘Uncle’.

V is for VIP phone numbers @ Rs 15 lakh and counting.

W is War – on the roads.

X is x-rated words they flow freely in casual conversations on the street.

Y is ‘You nonsense’, anger replacing vocabulary in a shouting match.

And Z is for Zig zag for which you should see G, M and P.

Reference: Author: Shivjeet Kullar; Delhi Times; The Times of India; Dated 07-Aug-2007

Raking in the HOTS to call the Shots

A news item on CNN-IBN today stated that the CBSE Board has decided to implement H.O.T.S. For the 10th standard Board exam this year, they stated that very subject would be based on this new design in which the question papers include 10% of very short answer questions and 20% of questions to assess H.O.T.S. Also read it here.

H.O.T.S according to this official website is Higher Order Thinking Skills. It is a complete general thinking skills program for helping students in grades 4-8 who are disadvantaged in learning (a euphemism for the actual term "Low grade students"). The approach, they say, combines software with a sophisticated curriculum and Socratic dialogue (i.e. teacher asking questions rather than telling the student what to do) in small group settings. For example, instead of making the student answer a question in one word, they "encourage" him to elaborate his/her answer and thus gradually enable him/her to improve the thinking process.

The HOTS software is described as a state-of-the-art interactive application. The teaching is through simple interactive games. Some of these games, like say, "Hangman" is something I have seen (and even played!!) in the computer labs at N.I.T. Trichy during the tenure of my M.B.A course. I must say that i found it to be interesting and even addictive. It involves guessing the letters in a word based on clues, and every wrong guess brings a man pictured in the game nearer to his execution. On guessing the entire word correctly he goes scot-free. This link in the website shows the entire list of games, all of which are interactive and quickly gets the attention of the student, much like the Hangman game.

Through such games, curriculum, training and support H.O.T.S is said to develop the following thinking skills:
Metacognition
Generalization
Information from Context (Reminds you of the CAT exam, eh? ;-) )
Information Synthesis

The organization itself admits that though the Socratic dialogue method is effective, it is also very difficult at first. Therefore, rightly as they say, the teacher should be organized, flexible, energetic and excited at getting students to talk. I guess they missed one point: Loads of Patience. Considering the fact they are dealing with students who are "disadvantaged in learning" and therefore such students need to be given both time and encouragement. This system of education has been implemented in many schools in U.S. and the results are said to be encouraging.

Now coming back to the situation in India, there is one reason why i posted such an article. It was ironic, to say the least, that this news item in CNN-IBN was preceded by a news item in N.D.T.V which should put our education reformers to shame. It was reported that at a primary school in Maharashtra, 50% of the class 7 students had failed a very basic test to gauge their competency in the English Language and General knowledge. Some even could not correctly write even their own names in English!!! And the school authorities say in the usual lackadaisical manner "Hum iske baare mein charcha karenge". Arre kya charcha karenge aap? These are students from the 7th grade for heavens sake!!!

The state of the primary schools in India is abysmal. No proper infrastructure (Remember the gruesome fire tragedy at the Govt. school in Kumbakonam around 2-3 years back?) , lack of teachers, pathetic text books and an indifferent management which professes by the laws of the babudom (Best depicted in the Malayalam film "Doore Doore Oru Koodum.. Starring Mohanlal). The situation needs urgent remedial measures.

How do you expect such students to become employable when the basic foundation of knowledge is not built properly at such schools? Teachers, especially at Government schools take leave requests at their liking without even paying the slightest attention to their job. The senior examiners even at established boards like the I.S.C and I.C.S.E are sometimes found wanting in the knowledge of the subject they teach. The syllabus in books remains the same even after a decade with no changes appearing in the pipeline (which seems to get longer and longer). Compare this with the education system in U.S. where in the 1960’s the content and syllabus of the entire school science text books were reviewed by greats like the Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman.

The Indian education system, which owes it origins to the Britsh Educational System, has not been upgraded unlike the latter. While we still brood over our pathetic primary education system, the West seems to be on the other side of progress with the same. While HOTS seems to be a pradigm shift in the teaching methodology of students in the higher grade/class what is needed in India right now is to call the shots on the basic needs of the Primary and Secondary School education system. Then we can bring in the HOTS.

Profound words

Was going through a few blogs on the net. And then i picked this one post. What words!!! As i prepare to leave for lunch, I wonder "If this is not keeping faith in God, then what is?".

Arthur Ashe - R.I.P.

Life's Truths and Humour

A few months back a random browsing through Google brought to my notice a book written by Malayalam film actor Mukesh titled "Mukesh Kathakal - Jeevithathile Nerum Narmavum". Primarily based on his memoirs of his college life at S.N.College, Kollam , it was released at a function held at S.N.College where the State Minister M.A.Baby (also an alumni of S.N. College) was the Chief Guest. The sales of the book following its release were according to Mukesh "Unexpectedly high". Curious to know as to what made many read the book, I ordered for a copy. The book is published by Olive Publications.


The book is written in a very lucid manner with the incidents being narrated with a tinge of mischief at times and often interlaced with humour. When Mukesh writes we get to know his character which when it comes to oneself many would like to feel good about but few would like to reveal. Mukesh displays no airs of being an established cine artiste and recounts his former days with no qualms on what the readers would perceive of him. Perhaps this is the very reason why many readers, including me, enjoyed this book right to the very end.

The book takes off, as i said earlier, with many incidents from Mukesh's student stint at S.N.College. Probably people who have studied at Govt. colleges in Kerala would be able to identify more with the characters and incidents mentioned in these chapters. The incidents are narrated in a very natural manner with the "Kollam accent" being distinct in most dialogues.

Though i am tempted to narrate many of the incidents mentioned in the book, I am stopping myself from doing that since i feel that reading the book is the best way to enjoy these. The incidents involving the character "Annamma" are described in such a straightforward manner so much so that we feel that the reader is currently a college student. The incidents involving the Botany teacher and the Principal are also those which i found to be very humorous and life-like in reading. We would sometimes be tempted to feel that the "Poovalan" characters of Mukesh we saw in films like "In Harihar Nagar" and to an extent in "GodFather" are the real Mukesh itself and not an actor.

Apart from his life at S.N.College the author has also described certain humorus moments with his friends in the cine field like Jayaram, Mammootty, Sreenivasan, the Late Ratheesh etc. The one incident i really enjoyed reading was his experience with director Priyadarshan when shooting for the Srenivasan scripted film "Odaruthe Ammava Aalariyam". It depicted the quintessential street-smart and quick thinking side of Mukesh's character.
As i finished reading the book I felt that the book is much more than just a mere recollection of some humorous events from the author's life. It is a statement to one and all that life is not all about the mad rush for money and status. It is such moments that one can really treasure and remember about for a life time.

I feel Mukesh silently shows us that even now there is a child in every one of us. That should never be shelved away by us. One passage what i liked was when Mukesh described a scene when he and his wife Sarita where starting to travel somewhere by car. At that moment he saw a girl from his college days walking by that same place and at once he called here by her college nickname and made some comment or the sake of fun. At that moment Mukesh says Sarita chided him by saying "Nanamillallo manushya. ee vayasilum comment adikkan." But Mukesh tells us readers "Ee vayasilum enikku oorjassum unmeshavum tharunnathu ee comment adi thanne..".. :-)


Oru pakshe Mukeshettan parayunnathu pole ithokkeyalle suhurthukkale jevithathile nerum narmavum.


P.S: I recommend this book to any person who has enjoyed the films in which Mukesh has acted or any person who loves to experience a little humour in life.