Nandalala (2010)
Myshkin
Tamil
Tamil auteur Myshkin’s third venture Nandalala (2010) has its opening credits rolling over an image that seems straight out of Solaris (1972): two weeds gently swayed by the water flowing over them. Likewise, in the film, Bhaskar (Myshkin) and Agilesh (Ashwath Ram) are two kindred fishes flowing upstream, possibly trying to undo their births into this brutal world, in search of their origin: their respective mothers. As is made explicit in a near-surreal night scene at the beginning, the fear of being abandoned – by mother, by the state and by God – forms the backbone of Myshkin’s film. Walking along the margin of the highway like those reptilian critters we see, the duo comes across and strikes a rapport with a number of people almost all of whom live on the fringes of society. Bhaskar and Agilesh, themselves, are misfits who’ve broken away from the establishment – the asylum and the school. Those in the mainstream, on the other hand, are seen in the safety of their houses and cars. Paranoid, hateful, hypocritical and downright barbaric, they seem distrustful of everything that might distract them from their well laid plans. (That Myshkin casts himself in a starless film that he had to struggle to get funds for makes this a story of a marginalized filmmaker struggling with the industry as well). Social integration, however, is not what Nandalala aims for. For Myshkin, as is represented in the opening shot, it is the society that is constant flux around these central characters who find meaning in their relationship with each other rather than their position in the society. (The last scene is probably a little more cynical than it appears to be). Punctuated by Fordian skylines and generally jarring bird’s eye view shots that desert the characters, Nandalala, over-scored, overacted, imprudently written and characteristically over-directed at times, nevertheless continues to refine and fortify Myshkin’s cinema of physicality with its long shot filmmaking, chopped framing, brittle cutting and Mifune-esque performances.
(Image Courtesy: Tamil Torrents)
December 6, 2010 at 10:25 am
is this a remake of “kikujiro”.
got a mail to that effect.
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December 6, 2010 at 10:30 am
To an extent, apparently. I haven’t seen Kikujiro though.
Cheers!
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December 9, 2010 at 12:20 pm
“Mifune-esque performances”
Bingo! The acting did look eerily familiar but I couldn’t place it. The only true actor in the movie was Snigdha.
I could’ve enjoyed the movie better if I hadn’t watched Kikujiro before – the latter seems to score ahead in every department. Why oh why does Mysshkin deviate to give a “message”… mentally handicapped, physically handicapped, caste wars, sex workers, rich vs poor… it started getting too much.
“The last scene is probably a little more cynical than it appears to be”
I couldn’t find anything cynical about it — are you referring to the selling out of the director to create a happy ending for the tamil-speaking nallulagam to make the movie a non-flop? Could you care to explain it for me?
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December 9, 2010 at 1:18 pm
No Sara. I meant that I do not find it to be such a happy ending at all. I mean, the guy is cured and is now effectively one of “them”. (I guess it’s something like the ending of A Clockwork Orange). The relationship between him and the kid is now strictly formal. Loss of innocence and all that stuff.
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December 10, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Myshkin – an ‘auteur’ ?
From Solaris to Kikujiro to Central Station to White Baloon To. . . ???
Why the so called Tamil auteurs – recent Venice Film Festival ‘auteur ‘ award winner Maniratnam included – happen to be committed plagiarists.
What will happen if Kitano sues this film maker ?
(He will not !!)
You can enlighten us on relationship between auteurship , idea theft and palagairism.
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December 10, 2010 at 1:34 pm
First, you tell me where the originality of a film lies. In its text? That would be a rather restricted view of cinema. Isn’t THEVAR MAGAN a rip off of THE GODFATHER, Isn’t THE SEARCHERS a rip off of the Ramayana? Isn’t every Woody Allen movie a rip off of another Woody Allen movie?
As Lucas said, there are only a handful of storylines, the rest are all variations. And the originality indeed lies in these variations.
Mind you, I’m not advocating that the text is unimportant or that originality is passe (on the contrary). Just that, as Godard said, originality depends on where you take the text to, not where you take it from. Why not consider Myshkin’s film as a remake of Kitano’s?
Yes, AUTEUR. I’m usually loathe to employ that word, but the use here is deliberate.
Cheers!
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December 10, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Thanks for letting us know your views.
So let us have a broader view of cinema.
Why bring Godard ?
What is your own opinion on reproducing another fim maker’s farames, shots,
Mise-en-scène ?
This is a bad trend.
Next time this film maker will remake some Kim ki duk’s film frame by frame in tamil claim that to be his and defintely you will praise him as an auteur.
What will you do if some one reproduce your articles as his own in another language ?
Is cinema different
What does auteur means anyway ?
Looks like Tamil films will never get out of this trend.
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December 10, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Myskin claimed this film as his own and as part of something from his brother’s life (BULL).
Now after all this noise, he may be singing a different tune.
If he had announced that it is Kitano’s then we will not be discussing this here.
It looks like auteurs can claim owneship of anything they want !
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December 10, 2010 at 4:28 pm
That’s news, because in all the interviews I saw, he kept mentioning Kitano without hesitation.
“reproducing another fim maker’s farames, shots, Mise-en-scène” – Does he actually do that here? As I have said, I haven’t seen Kikijiro and if I find that Nandalala to be highly derivative of that one, my opinion of the movie will no doubt go sour. I primarily called Myshkin an auteur not because I think his techniques are original (and they are), but because of the consistency in style between the two films I’ve seen of his, And I think this consistency overrides questions of plagiarism and derivative-ness to some extent. Myshkin does have a unique signature, to be blunt.
“What will you do if some one reproduce your articles as his own in another language ? Is cinema different”
I think it is. Remakes aren’t as much translations as they are transfers and recontextualizations. THEVAR MAGAN for example.
High five for all the debate points.
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December 10, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Nice heated discussion here. Loving it.
Having watched Kikujiro, I find the basic plot and some of the characters to be taken from the original. But unlike most other rip-offs, Myshkin manages to induce a lot of nativity into the proceedings and he does score high on that front. (And I agree with you on the over-dramatic, over-directed part)
And Anand, as far as I remember, which is a couple of years back, Myshkin was more than happy to concede that he had taken the basic plot from Kikujiro.
And also, this is not a mise-en-scene copy of the original either.
But I do agree with you that the original scores over this on a lot of fronts. There is needless melodrama added where subtlety worked brilliantly for the original.
And Shrik, this was finally one movie where I realized what one means when you say the BGM should not be used to instruct the viewer what to feel. It definitely was over-scored.
Shrik, on your point of Myshkin having achieved a certain style of his own, don’t you think the acting style is pretty repetitive. And I mean it in a negative sense. Those head tilted upwards, eyes wide open thing and the general over-acting style of the ‘hero’ which we had seen previously in both Anjaathey and Chittiram Paesudadi from Naren?
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December 10, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Fine points Kutty.
I wanted to make a note about the acting as well. I think the hamming suits both Nandalala and Myshkin’s style in general. His cinema is like a thunderbolt to the backbone. It’s all raw gestures, actions and movement. His actors are all caught in loops of words and gestures (the nearly surreal repetition of words is something I wish he wouldn’t let go in his future films). I think this particular film, at least, warrants it. (Vikram would have been as befitting in Nandalala, if not more).
Thanks and Cheers!
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December 10, 2010 at 9:44 pm
what is ‘original’ . . .
reminds me of many lines from F for Fake.
Let’s wait and see what this auteur does in his next film . .
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December 10, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Anand,
Just out of curiosity, what film is Anjaathey copied from? If it is.
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December 10, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Yes, one thing that I’d like to see is a refinement of his worldview. Cheers!
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December 10, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Srikath
I can’t tell anything since I have not seen Anjathey..
It’s good that we can exchange views without
getting flamed in this blog !
Let’s skip Myshkin for now.
Here is something I want to tell you …
This is a real nice place…
By chance I happened to find this blog just a few days back . .
Been reading and enjoying your writing ….
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December 10, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Thanks Anand. Discussions are what I like about blogging as well. It’s been quite a while since I was involved in one.
Thanks and do keep coming
Cheers!
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December 11, 2010 at 11:21 am
JAFB, I think you might have a different opinion after you watch Kikujiro. I’m sure you’d agree with me that Gajini was a poor copy of Memento, with Murugadoss ripping off the story, hollowing out its innards, and showing off the skin as his own (let’s ignore the poor ripoff from Amelie in occasional scenes). As if merely copying is not enough, he made the extra effort to rob the story of its soul. As you point out, Devar magan is on the other end of the spectrum as it’s a very good retelling of the Godfather story. On this scale, unfortunately, Nandalala is no Devar magan, but goes dangerously close to Gajini for somebody of Mysskin’s calibre.
As far as I know, Anjathey is original work (Mysskin has himself admitted that the kidnap & chase scenes were inspired from Kurosawa – I’ve seen the original movie and these scenes were a very good adaptation, I didn’t realize it till I heard him mention this in an interview). Even if it later turns out that Anjathey was plagiarized, my respect for his directorial skills wouldn’t change (as they were presented very well).
Ok let me stop my rant… I’m quite disappointed about the movie as I expected a lot from him, and your board is providing me with ample venting space :)
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December 11, 2010 at 11:35 am
Sara,
Good point about Ghajini, I believe that that one is awful even if one doesn’t know about the existence of MEMENTO.
Yes, one can find a deep influence of Kurosawa in Myshkin, especially the way he cuts violence. But reg. ANJATHEY, you mean HIGH AND LOW? I thought both were entirely different films at heart with each aiming for different kind of revelations.
Despite his craft, I find Myshkin’s view of the world to be no better than the other directors here, leave alone Kurosawa. I predict that he’ll make his masterpiece only after about three or four films.
Thanks and Cheers!
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December 11, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Exactly, “high & low” it is. They’re completely different films. One trivia I read mentioned that Kurosawa liked to present police procedures (as it probably was a big mystery in those days) and so he was attracted to that script.
Anjathey is a different beast, the only thing common with high & low is how the police zero in on the perps. The way Ponvannan handles ransom negotiations, divides the city areas, delegates responsibilities, etc. reminds you of the police procedures in the Jap movie.
This never occurred to me even though I enjoyed both movies. During some random interview Mysskin mentioned this (yes including the specific scenes) when he was talking about Kurosawa as one of his idols.
That’s why I respect the man – even in these days of directors refusing to admit to plagiarism, he went out of the way when none was suspected.
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December 11, 2010 at 1:24 pm
True that. What I gather from his interviews is that he is let down by critics. He’s made instead to talk about his work. Sad.
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December 11, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Well… I have mixed opinions about that. Giving interviews to talk about your work has become such a common promo these days, that it’s probably written in their contracts when they sign up for the film (except of course if you’re a Mani ratnam). And Mysskin would be especially grateful to Ayngaran for having fought many battles to release this film he’ll only be glad to do it for their sake. Especially when you’re against the goliaths of the marans and assorted-nidhis and their production companies.
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December 22, 2010 at 9:38 am
Greeting JAFB! Haven’t been to your blog in a while and had to play catch up.
After watching both Kikujiro and Nandalala, I have to say both movies are so different yet so alike. Kikujiro’s character was playful yet showed an insight into human frailty, with his addiction to gambling and all that. Both the characters are “rebels” to traditional society. Kikujiro’s outlet is anger: Masao’s sadness. The frequent encounters with “traditional” society was humorous and sobering at the same time. The portrayal of both these characters and the underlying subtleties was amazing to watch.
In Nandalala, both the adult and the child had the same purpose. There is also an inclusion of the sex worker character, which IMO was not necessary. The script was overly dramatic and emotional, which seems to me as overkill. The movie was very one-dimensional and the purpose is to tug at your heartstrings. In Kikujiro, there was hope: In Nandalala, even the eternal optimist becomes a cynic. One interesting aspect in the movie was the on-screen portrayal of the various sections of our society. Then again, I am so far detached from Tamil and Indian society, I don’t know whether that’s the accurate image. If Mysskin wanted to reproduce Kikujiro with a local twist, he should have stayed close to the original. When I read S. Anand’s comments, I think he feels the same too, where the movie looks like a lame attempt to detach itself from the original.
FYI, there is a Malayalam film in the works which is again inspired by Kikujiro called “Veettilekkulla Vazhi:The Way Home.”
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December 24, 2010 at 2:12 am
Hey Rocketboy. Thanks for the detailed comparison and comment.
“detached from Tamil and Indian society” – you’re not from India? In that case, it is pretty darn amazing that you’ve seen all those Indian films you’ve commented upon in this blog. Never knew all these were available on DVD with subs.
Cheers!
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December 26, 2010 at 4:50 am
I was born in Tamil Nadu, moved with my parents to the US when I was seven years old. I still speak the language and travel once in a while to India, though the last time I was there was about 10 years back.
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December 26, 2010 at 10:05 am
Nice. And good to know that you’re still into Indian films.
Cheers!
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December 30, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Are 3 films enough to call a director an auteur? I don’t think so.
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December 30, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Believe me, there are auteurists who believe one is enough.
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December 30, 2010 at 7:58 pm
When you toss a coin 5 times there is a lot of chance for 5 heads. But the same cannot be said for 50 tosses. So, leave out auteurists; statistically and commonsensically 3 films is not an acceptable lot size for inspecting any attribute of anything common to those films, say, the director.
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December 30, 2010 at 8:02 pm
But God does not play dice with the universe does he? Would you still say that Tarantino is too young to be considered an auteur?
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December 30, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I’ve read Ian Stewart’s ‘Does God play Dice?’ but not the recent, some other author’s ‘God Does not Play Dice’. But why do you want to bring that into this? :) All I’m saying is that if i’m to talk about Tarantino’s eligibility as an auteur I won’t be considering his age but the number of his films :)
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December 30, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Oh man, I was exactly afraid of this mis-communication. By “young” I did not mean his age, but his filmography. No one would have doubted his status as an auteur even after Pulp Fiction.
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December 30, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I wouldn’t have doubted but wouldn’t even have considered :)
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July 2, 2012 at 10:32 am
Another dead thread.I guess i’ll copy a Japanese or Korean bestseller in Tamil adding local variations for the local reader and a few additional characters,and guess what?me an auteur!!!!
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