Alamar ( Mexico - 2009 )

Alamar, roughly translated in English “To The Sea”, it’s a Spanish language film from Mexico, which tells the story (Well there isn't one) of the relationship between a father and son. 

Film Trailer__

The film opens in black-and-white mode, taken with a handy cam. We see Jorge (Father) and his wife (who is filming), the both are in a car, driving through Rome. Then there is a series of photographs with the voice-over by Jorge, narrating how he met his wife and their life till his son, Natan born. 

Once the photo-show is done, Jorge takes Natan to his fishing village. The rest of the film is set in the village, with Jorge, the kid and his grandfather. 

The film depicts the daily activities of the fishermen, their deep sea fishing, catching big fishes, birds, seagulls, crocodiles, et al. In all these activities listed above we see Jorge teaching Natan and Jorge getting advice and pointers from his father. 

The day comes when Natan has to leave his father, so he draws his experiences in the village (Father, boats, Fishes, birds…), put the paper in a bottle and throws it in the sea. The film ends with Natan playing with bubbles along with his mother in a city park. 

There is not much narrative part in the film, so I assume that both Jorge and his wife got divorced and Natan is staying with his mother. The part on the fishing village was Natan’s last chance to live with his father. 

What can we take from the film- 

The first thing to get noticed is the photography. The sea is always a treat to cinematographer’s and this film uses it intelligently in capturing the immensity of the sea. 

The next is the simple and joyful life of the fish folks.

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Critics of Viswaroopam

...mix their personal feelings with their objective analysis.                                                                   .

Much is said and written about this film. What is there to say ?, well there is a lot to say, one- there is a second and presumable third part coming soon, the second is the criticism the movie has earned, good and bad. 

Praising Critics- 

A section of critics who are ardent Kamal followers. 

These people finds a meaning in everything in the movie, even if Kamal or other character sneezes they will find a reason and say there is a “metaphor” to it. 

For example, the scene when Rahul Bose (Omar) takes something from his mouth (possibly a speck of meat) and feeds it to a pigeon. This scene was praised by these kind of critics by adding a metaphor tag to it, oh Kamal portrayed how filth\bad Omar’ character is !, but actual in the recent interview Rahul said “feeding the pigeon” was not even in the script and he did it spontaneously as he had nothing to do in the scene. 

Venom-ic Critics- 

These people are anti-Kamal fans or anti-US fans. Preferable later, because these people liked earlier Kamal films such as Anbe Sivam (which had a communist ideologies). So you don’t like the subject, you criticize the film with a butcher’ knife!. 

These people with their “enormous” knowledge chop the film, scene-by-scene. They forget that this is not a “documentary” film to have historic accuracies and the filmmaker has to have dramatic sequences to thrill the audience. So if Kamal’s protagonist is pro-US, let him be one, it’s a bloody character he played.

In most of the Tamil films, our hero is a Rowdy-Gangster, doesn’t mean they are a gangster in real life? 

Both these critics mix their personal feelings with their objective analysis. I would like to quote, Chuck Klosterman (Who is he- an American Columnist!!), 

It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good. If you're reviewing a film and you decide "This is a movie I don't like," basically you can take every element of the film and find the obvious flaw, or argue that it seems ridiculous, or like a parody of itself, or that it's not as good as something similar that was done in a previous film. What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive.

Being Tamilian

To start with I like to give a short repertoire of my genealogy. There was a letter “D” to my initials, which my mom decided to discard it when I went to school. The “D” means “Desampettai”, which is supposed to be in Andhra Pradesh (I didn't find it online). It is believed that my great grandfather had come from Desampettai to Krishnagiri. 

It is very typical of the places in the border of Tamil Nadu (or any state) to have family ties with the nearby state. The Tamil which is spoken there is distinct as always, because of sharing the border between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This is the only district ( Krishnagiri ) in Tamil Nadu to share border between two states ( Niligiri- Shares border between Kerala and Karnataka ). The dialects and words used will have origins in Kannada and Telugu. My first language is Kannada. 

Let us come to the subject, we all know who the Dravidians are, loosely presumed to be people living in south of India. Let me ask “Who Tamilian is and what makes one a Tamilian”. ? 

Few questions I have, 

1. People who live (proof of address\ration card) in Tamil Nadu are Tamilians? [Very naïve question] 
2. People who speak Tamil are Tamilians? 
3. People who speak different First Language, but born and live in Tamil Nadu are Tamilians? 
4. People who speak Tamil, but are not in Tamil Nadu now are Tamilians? 
5. People who speak Tamil, live outside India- who got ancestral roots to Tamil Nadu are Tamilians? 

The more I probe into these questions the more it alienates my selves from the secular concept of being Indian.

**To be Continued** PART II READ HERE

Maria Full Of Grace ( Colombia, 2004 )

Language: Spanish
Country: Colombia\USA
Year: 2004
Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Johanna Andrea Mora
Director: Joshua Marston
Genre: Drama

This is the first time FilmBulb is writing about a movie from Colombia (Of course this film includes US companies in its production). To know more about Colombia, click here. 

The movie is set in Spanish language. Maria, a young-teen girl works in a flower plantation near Bogota. Her family, especially her elder sister is depended on her salary. She becomes pregnant,  meantime she quits her job owing to a spat with her manager. While on her way to Bogota to find a job, she meets her friend Franklin who proposes her for a drug-mule job (For Indian readers- Remember the Tamil movie Ayan). He promises for big money and takes her to a drug-dealer. There she gets acquainted with Lucy, who had done the mule job twice before. Lucy prepares Maria on how to swallow the pellets using grapes. 

The day arrives to leave, their destination is New York. Maria finds Lucy and her friend Blanca on the plane as mules. Did they get past the US customs, what was their fate is the rest of the story.

Maria, Lucy and Blanca on the plane to New York

The presence of Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria is well-matched. She embodies the hesitant nature of Maria very well. Even though she emits the doubtfulness- she takes a right-move (I have to say bold move). No wonder she got nominated for Best Actress Academy Award. 

With the initial viewing, one will see this movie as a drug-trafficking film, I thought the same, but the vein of the story is people’ appetite for prosperity and freedom, which is Maria won’t get in Columbia, but she thinks she will get those in America. It is simple yet gripping tale of survival.

Youtube Trailer