The Godfather Trilogy

I had read the novel years back, and the first part of the movie as well. But I didnt quite remember much of the movie. So I got the 3 in 1 dvd and immersed myself in the world created by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. I read about it, watched the three parts and watched the documentary.

Most people told me they did not like the third part of the movie, except one person. Surprisingly I thought the third part was quite nice. I really liked it. I loved the way it reached the crescendo. How each character evolved and came face to face with a set of realisations, confessions, emotions and coming to terms with their lives. And I also think making a tough character emote inner conflicts and feelings is more difficult than get him to play the tough guy.

I enjoyed each part in its own sense. Totally.

Between reality and dream

Haruki Murakami's novel 'After Dark' takes place between reality and dream. A series of characters grapple with their little deep dark secrets and worries. They are all running away from some problem or the other. They all seek comfort in the hours after dark. They find peace at night in different ways. Each one is in their little island of loneliness. Alienated. Far away from the people in their lives.

Murakami's 'After the Quake' also dealt with people who were struggling with the effects of the Kobe earthquake and how they each felt alienated and troubled in their own ways. His novels are simple, too simple, but deep and almost morbid.

The Age of Reason

Jean Paul Sartre's novel, The Age of Reason, leaves you numb.

Through a simple sequence of events and actions that take place during three days wherein a man tries to gather money to pay for an abortion for his mistress, he brings out the inane motives of people, and the insane pointlessness of life in general. The meaning of freedom is explored in various ways, and the fact that the more one tries to be free one gets pulled back into the trap of conforming, is drilled into the reader's minds.

There is a moving speech by the protagonist's brother, where he is told that for all practical purposes he is just another man in the conformist society, though he tries to believe otherwise. That everyone has his or her ideals in youth, but sooner or later, they have to give them up, because there is no real choice, because there are responsibilities, because there are needs, and it is just a matter of time before we all accept that we have attained the age of reason. Whether we like it or not, we attain the age of reason!

Traveling Wilburys

We traveled quite a bit in February.

Mysore.
H.D. Kote on our field trip.
Nagarhole Forest... jeep ride that I would not want to do again.
Kabini... crossed the river. beautiful coracle ride.
Wayanad... lovely food. very very short trip to the border.
Somnathpur... Hoysala temple architecture.
Bylakuppe... Golden Temple, monastery, Tangka paintings, Buddhist flags.
Bangalore... stop over to catch my breath.

Back to Chennai.

Colour Thandava Part II- Seminar & Panel Discussion on Colours

We, Good Earth and DakshinaChitra Arts Management Interns, organised a seminar and panel discussion on Colours on 13th March, 2010.

The morning session had the speakers give a short lecture on colour in their respective fields.

The speakers were:

Mr. G. Venketram (reknowned photographer) on Photography
Mr. K. Hariharan (national award winning director & head of L.V. Prasad film academy) on Cinema
Mr. Prakash Dharmarajan (President, Ogilvy & Mather, Chennai) on Advertising
Ms. Yamuna N.S. (reknowned theatre personality) on Theatre
Ms. Sharan Apparao (Owner, Apparao Gallery & Art dealer)on Art
Ms. Rehane (Fashion Designer) on Fashion
Ms. Visalakshi Ramaswamy (Textiles expert) on Tradition Textiles
Ms. Vasantha Muthiah (Faculty, NIFT, Chennai) on Textile Design
Ms. Leela Samson (Dancer & Director, Kalakshetra) on Dance

The afternoon session was a Panel Discussion moderated by Mr. Sadanand Menon, journalist and cultural critic.

Piet Mondrain

During the class on Design Movements, we came across Piet Mondrain and the De Stijl design movement. I found Mondrain's work truly amazing.

He believed in geometric shapes and line, only horizontals and verticals- which signified the female principle and the male principle. He used bold bright colours, mostly the primary colours- blue, yellow and red- which stood for ether, sky and earth. The manner in which he distributes the colorus and the shapes gives a strange sense of balance.

The Schroder house is one house that he designed during his career and it has all the elements of the De Stijl movement and his own characteristic style.

He also designed furniture and this chair above is a classic example of how the design has evolved from the De Stijl elements.

Some interesting people I came across

The Pelican Man and The Elephant Man

Two people I happened to meet while in H.D. Kote...

Manu, who calls himself 'the pelican man', is a naturalist. He has been involved in saving the endangered pelican species in India, and many other such endangered animal and plant species. When I met him he was involved in bringing theatre to the Jenu Kuruba children's school. We even watched a skit that was put up by these kids after a workshop they had with 'the pelican man' and his group.

Surendra Varma, is a person who I call 'the elephant man'. He works in the Ecology Dept. of IISc, Bangalore. He has been studying elephants and human interaction for the past two decades or so. On the last day that we were there, when we were all dead tired after an all nighter, he managed to keep us all glued to his powerpoint presentation till late night... where he shared a lot of information about elephants, the whys and whats of their behaviour, some statistical analyses about them and many anecdotes and trivia about elephants.

:)