Reply: O I wish you could SEE Reader!

Posted by Lada Singh (202.177.154.26) on November 15, 2006 at 07:23:53:

In Reply to: Review of Sringaram posted by Reader on November 12, 2006 at 15:01:04:

Dear Reader,
Let me reflect on your comments, point by point:

READER: "Madhura's flight for freedom is as much a yearning of an artiste to blur the societal (in this case fiercely patriarchal) boundaries as it is an extension of female bonding of four women (of Madhura, her friend Kama, her mother Ponammal and her Patron Mirasu's wife) who find their fates entwined with each other like an umbilical cord where cutting one would bleed the other."

You got all that from the movie??? Hats off to you!
LADA: Yes, I did get all of that from the movie and there are enough hints in the movie to support so, be it Madhura's susccesful circumvention of the system she finds herself in and the related liberation of Kama ( having a temple in wild, where rules and heirarchy cease to exist, since it is wild, is a STRONG HINT); The decision by Madhura to leave her "defined space" ( And SHE ACTUALLY DOES THAT Through her acting, dialogues or call what you may- NO HINTS NEEDED FOR THAT) and her Mother's seeking of land for Madhura from Mirasu ( WHICH AGAIN IS SPOKEN BY PONNAMMAL IN AS MANY WORDS) and the final point where Madura's chhild is delivered by Mirasu's wife ( AGAIN NO HINT! ACTUAL ACT), all point to what I said in my opening para.

Per Chance, did you take a short nap during the movie? :)

READER: "The second reason [why the movie grows on you]is the movie's cinematography and art direction."
Yeah, true, the art direction and the visulas were great. Exotic. Cliched: the long shot you described. Sappy poetry: most of the movie. Visually beautiful.

READER: "The movie takes you into an era which is disconnected from the world we inhabit. The period-drama is alive and real, with no stress to romanticize the actual conditions."
Wrong. Do you really call the Saroj-Khan-choregraphed lone night dances by the tormented lead actress real? Looked like tiring Bollywood to me. Unreal. Escapist.

ME: While, you are entitled to your opinion and I am not saying its WRONG, like you have done so concerning mine, I hope you understand the way dances are performed for Camera, which is "slightly" different than procesnium performance. If the performance by Kama and Madhura, during God/ Mirasu's procession, filmy to you, than I don't know what does Classical or for that matter Bollywood mean.

READER: To make my evening fruitful, I *tried* to see all that you managed to see. I tried. But it was not there to see. I am sure the director had all these ideas that she was trying to explore. But the movie did not imbibe those ideas.

ME: Well, may be, but as I said, you are entitled to your opinion, which does not make my opinion wrong. I found all of it there. I think Sringaram is a bold movie that questions the issue of a woman's right to her life and how while still being surrounded by the conditions that the patriarchy forces on her, she carries the gut to scrape through all.

READER:Just as being beautiful does not make for a good actress (an idea that is lost on Indian filmmakers, mostly), being beautiful does not make for a good film.

ME: Aditi Rao is a good dancer, having watched her a number of times on stage and to say she is bad, I think, our parameters are different.

READER: Story telling was high-school-ish. Blunt and obvious "metaphors". Madhura's daughter looks eactly like her, yet so different! What a cliche.

ME: Your above comment makes it easy for me to understand that you couldn't understand that in having madhura's daughter look exactly like her, the director wanted to talk about the same spirit of the character which Madura embodied and this comes out most profoundly in the last scene when Madhura burial ground is lit up by the temple fire which her daughter takes out of the sanctum. So, in that very act, Madura's wish of being cremated by temple fire is fulfilled, after 20 years and with her daughter who looks like her, doing that, there is continuation of Madhura's spirit.

If that is not being metaphorical, I really doubt if I have understood the meaning of metaphor.

READER: Last of all the lead actress, although beautiful, a very incompetent dancer and actress. The supporting lead actress, who was supposed to be an inferior dancer, was actually a better dancer and a more interesting face.Movies like these with beautiful costumes, excellent visuals, victimized women, and caste system agonies help keep the illusion of the exotic third-world India.

ME: Pl watch the movie again, but not with eyes wide shut!!!! Its a feminist movie and let's not even get into how it is, because if after knowing the Ramayana you ask who Sita is, then perhaps you haven't known who Rama was!