Pallavi Anupallavi

In my days of watching Mani Ratnam movies back to back, I somehow had skipped his very first movie - Pallavi Anupallavi - a Kannada movie starring Anil Kapoor, Lakshmi and Kiran.

The fact that he has chosen a complex and mature theme that probably would have not gone down well with the traditional audiences, shows that he was a director who would change the way movies were. The title is perfectly apt for the the plot involving one uncomplicated relationship, and one complicated relationship that could have been avoided.

He has joined hands with some of the best in the industry - Ilaiyaraja, Balu Mahendra and B. Lenin, to produce a movie that is intense, deep, beautiful and at the same time extremely soothing, like a great song. 

Widows in the eyes of Bapsi Sidhwa/ Deepa Mehta

Read Bapsi Sidhwa's Water.
It takes you back to another era, and you wonder how different things were.

One of the few occasions where you notice that the book is based on the movie (in this case Water, by Deepa Mehta), and not the other way around. A simple and quick read but quite moving. This is the last in the Trilogy - Earth, Fire, Water. Somehow it seems like the entire premise would seem more appealing to non-Indians. A bunch of widows in an ashram ranging from 6 to 70, a eunuch, a society believing in traditions and rituals, the advent of Gandhi and the nationalist movement - all intriguing, especially to the foreign audiences.

A book that makes you ponder about the bygone era.