Milarepa ( Tibetan, 2006 )

Poster from iMDB

This is the first time FilmBulb is reviewing a Tibetan language film. Milarepa is a biopic directed by Neten Chokling from Bhutan. It’s a film about the life of a Tibetan Buddhist saint and poet, who lived in 11th century Tibet. 

The mountains of Tibet

Born in a wealthy family, when he is a kid, Milarepa losses his father owing to an ill-health. In his death bed, his father asks his brother and sister to take care of his family and his wealth. Milarepa and his mother are duped by his relatives who take away their wealth. 

Milarepa getting trained in sorcery

Dejected by the loss of everything Milarepa is sent faraway by his mother to learn sorcery in order to take revenge on his relatives, else she will kill herself. Back from learning sorcery, Milarepa by super-natural powers creates a storm which kills most of his relatives and destroys the village. This event immerses him with a sense of guilt and learns that revenge is not a solution to a problem, but it creates more problems. The film ends when he starts his quest to seek the enlightenment. 

Creating a storm to destroy the village

Most of the cast is not professional, so one can feel some sloppy in their acting. The story is linear and straightforward, one can get the “what next”, but there is a sense of authenticity in the making, which makes it a good film. 

Quest to enlightenment

The visuals are breathtaking, after all its Tibet, land of mountains, but most part of the filming is done in Himachal Pradesh, India. Some levels of CG is used, but it is not overdone. As always watch it to explore a tradition.

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Some Strange Characters - Part 2

Few weeks before, TeaShop Talks wrote about strange characters in Tamil Nadu, , it talks about characters in general and doesn't indicate any particular person – Disclaimer L. This week Ananda Vikakan there was an article somewhat similar to my post.

The following few from the magazine with my list,

• Most people are obsessed with Kattai Bag, especially ladies.
• After or while eating biriyani definitely a coke\pepsi is must, geeranathuku romba nalladu- pati sonangee.

• Talk about prohibiting pirated CD/DVD’s, but will be ready to watch movies in the thirutudvd.com\torrent or pirated disk. They will “proudly” say .. “I downloaded it” as if they solved a Ramanujam’ Math problem.

•  Constant honking while driving. There are some geniuses who tail behind the speeding ambulances.

Note: This pic is not from Tamil Nadu, it looks like Delhi

• In departmental stores, they don’t use plastic bags for consumers  because corporation has banned it, but the products are packed using plastic materials!. One rule for manufacture\distributor and one rule for customer-ra (Typical Tamil to English translation).

Endnote: After doing all the listed above, they will write an article. Not strange !!

Being Tamilian - 2

Concept taken from a cover pic of Time, but this is done by the blogger itself.. :-)

Without going in details of the questions raised in Part I article, let’s see how the world is (let’s compare) linguistically divided. 

Hindi is predominantly spoken in India, especially in the North. But as Tamilian (Telugu, Malayali, Kanadaigas, Maratha..) there is no specific set of nomenclature for Hindi ( like Hindi-an). USA, England, Canada and Australia are the countries were English is spoken largely, when they mean “Englishmen”, they mean people from “England”. The Americans, Aussies and Canadians has their own diverse features and they don’t brand themselves as “Englishmen”. Another apt comparison will be Spanish, who are on par with English, in fact more than English speaking countries.

Pre & Post Independence

Some people might argue that Tamilian (Tamils) is a “feeling” and cannot be compared in the linguistic-lines of English, Hindi or Spanish. Yes, of course it is correct- the Tamilian is a feeling, which was grown from British-India. In the independence movement India became a parent-set, created by different sub-sets from the regional entities, one such entity is Tamils. (It is ironic that the champions of Tamils then said Independence of India is a sad event, read Periyar).

Post-Independence the feeling "Tamils" were used to demand for a separate country for Tamils, this is the period when CN Annadurai’ DMK came to power in TN (I assume some people would have voted for the separate state ideology). Now the cause of the separate state is dead, but the feeling (Tamils or Tamilian) is still there, which is used by self-interested groups.

As for my understanding in reading Thirukural, which is the oldest literary work in Tamil, there is no mention of the word “Tamil” or “Tamilian” in any verse ( Kural ) or Thiruvaluvar didn't brag about being Tamilian anywhere.

EndNote

There are close to 200 sovereign states in the world, they are separated not by language, not by religion, not by economic lines, not by social ideas, but by a thin line, it might be a Derby Line or 49th Parallel- Separates Canada & US, it might be a Radcliffe line- Separates India & Pakistan. So being a sovereign state I root for being Indian who speak Tamil and live in TN.

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Booze Ban

A 57 year old man, Sasi Perumal is on fast (31st day) demanding total prohibition of liquor in Tamil Nadu, familiarly known as booze\Saraku. Read more here by an article in Indian Express.

Check this for a debate in Pudiya Thalaimurai. 

Some of my friends might take this lightly and laughing at this, I understand that you are a 25K+ salaried cap,  some will have a disposable income and you dispose it in the booze, but these Satyagrahi is mostly concerned about the people who drink in the money which is meant for basic survival of their family and he is also concerned about the fast addiction from the school going kids.

Earlier people used to drink for special occasions, but now the booze is such an integral part of the system and so the special occasion is when you don’t drink, I have seen FB status’- I didn't drink this weekend, feeling so fresh.

I know you will think, “OK, what about you”, I was briefly part of this whirlpool, not any more.