There is NO Fargo in MG. Would be disappointed if Equa said so..
There is NO Fargo in MG. Would be disappointed if Equa said so..
There's no Fargo in Kahaani either, you have something of Coenesque semblances in plot & characters of MG more than Kahaani, but these are very superficial & doesn't matter. However, I seem to remember Jai's comment in BR blog and now here as well, alluding towards Coen. Would like to know in what way, other than glacial inspirations?
avar solluvArA. kooda pEsittu irundhavar konjam 'adhulErndhu dhaan idhu vandhudhu' type.
ivar maRuththu pEsikittu irundhaar. Link kidaikka mAttikki. avarE vandhu eduththu tharuvaar.
Equa said the same (no Fargo) IIRCQuote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
Ah okay. The way Venki put it across, I thought Equa linked it..
Btw, following Naan, Mounaguru... Attakathi tonight. Manja boots tomorrow. GoW day after..
Illa illa.. I felt Equa was the lone crusader fighting the cause.Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
Since I didn't observe Fargo deep enough, I couldn't argue loudly. Illeenna dhum kattirukalaam.
Knowing P_R's love for Fargo, I was anticipating him.
Having watched both the films, I'm astounded how it's even compared beyond the superficial parallel(s). Kahaani, even worse. If we ever use an investigative pregnant woman, it gets compared to Fargo, however meaningless.
But you can't deny that the makers of mounaguru had Fargo in mind while casting the investigative officer as a pregnant woman. It should not be compared, we can just take it as kind of a tribute, like how Vetrimaaran paid tribute to cache for that slitting the throat scene.
not just that, plot point similarities like a 'group' trying to take advantage of an accident leading to 'consequences' beyond their control and things spiralling into a FUBAR - I can only think of Coen brothersQuote:
Originally Posted by Nerd
who have done that repeatedly and consistently well on the screen. Here the antagonist's plans derail not due to regular 'hero' standing up to a cause, but by pure 'chance' and whimsical collaborators. From that regard there are
some tangential and derivative nods to the duo's work. The other track that tracks hero's life is nothing coen about it...
also why 'uma riaz' if not for the striking facial similarity to 'Frances McDormand' - having said that, she was 199% apt for the role than any other female in kozhi kattai.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nerd
Thanks guys, but these are all broad similarities, right?
That pregnancy detail actually didn't matter at all, on any level. But it does seem like the extra bit of detail was merely added to help create some kind of investment in that character being in charge of investigation. But again, it doesn't rise beyond the cosmetic touch because Uma isn't involved directly here and she's not going to be under danger. There's also the dialogue where Vijay Anthony warns Selvam how she's quite good at picking up the scent and to be wary of her..
I get the comparison with things FUBAR, but this is all generic to films of this genre. The lack of trust, incompetence and in-fights.
Again, it's about "how" it breaks out and how things go balls up. With the writer/filmmaker necessarily wanting to explore the thematic and dramatic possibilities.
Take up that dinner sequence in Fargo, that's a hugely important sequence. Here, the closest to that pivotal moment is with Selvam's trepidation that arouses her to suspect and she immediately follows up with coffee shop despite having chartered it to Selvam. But again, here lies the difference in doing it more plot based, while Fargo is more intimately tied to its gender politics. There were much more of parallels with different characters, all with thematic weight, right? Here, I believe it's the bleakness of the truth from truly ever breaking out, or being made in to a readily accessible entity, as if this is ever possible.. Nihilistic muteness of 'truth', therefore the protagonist truly deserving of being the 'hero', made it work. Now, if we were to dig out gender-based Coenesque study, we have to stretch to contrast the male characters here, & link the call girl and the pregnant cop, especially when these characters are less defined & their situations not particularly underlined in the visual/narrative level. Unlike Fargo, with both Mcdormand and William Macy's relationships etched, here we don't even know Uma's familial background. Also, we only have Vijay Anthony's manchild here. Male characters in Fargo(or BAR) are all spectral variations of the male, with inherent weakness of the gender. There's no such study in MG.
maRupadiyum
(Balu Mahendra / Revathy / nizhaLgaL Ravi / Aravindasamy / Rohini, rAsA music)
:thumbsup:
One of my great regrets is to have watched it in unimpressionable age. BR's PP with Revathi-Pandian wasn't ideal either. In fact, the period (mid-80's to early 90's with Nizhalgaal ravi, Raghuvaran and so on) got little too populated with husband stereotypes.
Years later, I got to see Arth and was impressed. Might want to revisit Marupadiyum again.
That மௌனகுரு-Fargo discussion (started off with @orupakkam and @venkiraja and I kinda barged in) was quite long. The last 3 twitlonger posts are the ones referred to here, but they may not make sense without some of the earlier tweets, so reproducing them (after putting together disjointed tweets) too here...
@orupakkam: They tried making it in Tamil as மௌனகுரு which is decent attempt. But it lacks the nuances of orig.
@venkiraja: Mounaguru has nuances of its own. Uma Riaz's character paid some tribute. Nothing more.
@equanimus: [If I may barge in] Yeah, nothing at all borrowed from Fargo. Very unfair to even say they tried making it.
@orupakkam: >Nothing at all< I beg to disagree. Lets move on :-) It is definitely not a scene-by-scene attempt. But the inspiration is glaring to ignore. If you had read Thi Ja's 'Akbar Sasthri', then you may feel Sujatha's 'Vimanam' has a striking resembl. to former
@equanimus: There's an obvious nod to Fargo with Uma Riyaz's pregnant police woman character. But what is borrowed? Mounaguru is serious throughout with a Kireedam type story with the hero's situation spiraling from bad to worse. Tonally very different from Fargo which is much more dry and deadpan. Honestly, I don't see any similarity.
@orupakkam: The parallel thread where the group of police met with the road acc. and got hold of huge cash, which triggers a series of crime and the prostitute link helps the investigation to track down shares the same pattern of story telling from the former. Though, discussing about Fargo made me think about Mounaguru, I did not mean it was a complete remake. :-)
@equanimus: But these aren't common plot points in any sense! The road accident is the start point here, the prostitute's role is much more important (in Fargo it's a mere detail!) and so on. The premise of a stash of cash, parallel threads connected etc. are Hollywood/indie cinema influences no doubt but there's no Fargo IMO.
@orupakkam: http://t.co/EsqBQSSC
@equanimus: http://t.co/QtXLc6LP
@orupakkam: http://t.co/EEupLe9H
Thanks equa. Orupakkam's reductive views are what I deeply resist.
indha discussion epdi pOyirukkunnA....
@orupakkan: Fargo remake fail #mounaguru (watches over left and right - Ahn evanum vevaram therinjavan illai. post paNNiralAm
@venkiraja: Eh? epdi?
@orupakkan:Ahn adhellAm apdi thAn ivanai samALichuralAm
@equa: may i Come in
@orupakkan: (AhA! vandhuttAnyA vandhuttAnyA ivanai samALikka mudiyAdhu surrender dhAn)
he he Let's move on...
@equa: dei, namma innum pEsavE ArambikkalaidA idhai paththi, dhukkuLLa enna move-on?
Clear case of vethu vEttu speaking above station in the firm belief that there is nobody around to question them or evne if there are, those real vevaram therinjavans are polite enough for these vetis to obfuscate and make it seem like they are talking equally to the vevarma therinjavan.
oneside is a hubber by any chance?
Plum, அப்படில்லாம் நடக்கல. Please do not presume things, and he's not around to respond to you. And in any case, I was the one who entered into the conversation (as I am generally curious about how such things gets formulated and propagated). He was just talking to someone on twitter about something.
Equa - I just foun dthe "Lets move on" even before the discussion started in real terms ,funny. And that too, the moment you entered. It seemed like throwing in the towel right away to me. Even now, reading it in sequence, it seems to me that he was making it up as he went. I can recognise the symptoms.
VantaaryA map pOduravaru :lol2: enakkum sErththu pOduyyA.
Plum,
Firstly (I wanted to emphasize this in the first post itself but thought I shouldn't take myself too seriously!), it's just some of the tweets that I've put together (i.e. combined) here just to give the right context for the twitlonger posts. In the process, I've also strung together tweets that were in reply to different tweets. "Let's move on" was in reply to my tweet and the subsequent line was actually in reply to @venkiraja who had then (after he said, "I beg to disagree.") asked if he could elaborate further on the traces of similarity. I've put together some of them. Time illai-nnA "let's move on"-nu dhAn solluvAnga.
idhukku pEsAma nAn as usual verbatim quote-E paNNirukkalAm (with links). konjam relevance pAththu ippadi Ayiruchchu.
Someone has to do it. :noteeth:Quote:
Originally Posted by P_R
Flu,
:clap: :lol:
Equa, cler me about this - appuRam badhil solREn
That "Let's move on" came immediately after you said "May I come in" - correct or wrong?
summAvE naan kaattu kaattu nu kaattuvEn...Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
நேற்று மறுபடியும் பார்த்தேன்...
இன்று பாலு மகேந்திரா பிளாக் பார்த்தேன்...
Attakathi
- Seamless performances & well controlled mood/tone makes it one of the rare functioning plot-less 'hang out' flicks in TFI..
- Nice musical choices to get 'attakathi' tone without a pitch high or less
- Got the changeover of youth of that period well. The early Alaipayuthey/Ajith-Vijay, then the brief interlude of Gilli/Mounam Pesudhey 'geththu' attempts, then once again, undoing it back to that.
- The film is concious of its tribute(s) to Vijay from predominant 'lous' phase to Gilli, with lyrics, posters or what have you. The ending however is the kind of swipe at 'Shahjahan' I would gladly welcome.. About time too.
- For once, woman not functioning for the male protagonist. Nor is it reduced in to a Mounam PesiyadhE. One of life's big mystery is how post-2000 TFI reward characters like Surya's, rugged behaviour where they're quick to insult and look down.. behave like they're 'so geththu' (without being truly challenged or punctured, with convenience by filmmakers).. behave in a 'arrogant' way.. More likely to turn off women for meaningful relationships.
- A consensual fling in the bus sets a false guilt trap, without having to sermonize or censure that heavily, public indecency aside, it doesn't really make or break things
- For most part, nice set-ups of the period.. except Share Auto (was it a concept of 2000-02 Chennai/Kancheepuram/Chengalpet villages)
- The detailing of the early 00 phase with no Cell phones or head phones, when people actually had to look up, see each other, hear each other out, crack jokes, the songs to get through the elaborate journey and general mundaneness of life. from having to be forced into watching TV shows when women get to swear at the conniving Male twunts. Then the college phase, share auto & then cell phones were OK. (2002 still early, but we had that Reliance 500 offer break out on a mass scale)
- They've been careful to turn on its head, the domestic violence of Kalavaani (which might be more honest but was it right, I'll leave it you), they get the mother of the girl to lash out the broomstick, and the male lead's mother here is pretty much the head of the household. Btw the husband's a riot without being out of ordinary.
Nettrikann again on TV. Our station seem to love this movie.
Alasavendiyathu alasiyAchu. By the by, there was actually one disturbing scene. In the college. Professor would be lecturing, look at Rajini. He'd stare at him like he wants to rape the professor. And when the girl shows her palm to him, showing her interest in him, he glowers at her. What does that suggest to you eh?
Is the professor he or she?
He, Anumanthu I think.
Acting went wrong. Supposed to be "paying attention".
18.50 onwards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a8Q5...-button&wide=1
So Rajini is a sex predator like Michael Fassbender in Shame, animalistic enough to look past the type of sex. Not to be confused with bi.
He won't even touch her when he had the opportunity. His father is a chronic womaniser; imagine what it does to his childhood, and how subsequently it affected his own sexual preference and the need to conform to the social norms where he accepts her but never touches her. KB/Visu, what are you trying to say man?
"Oorukku ubadhesam" paathirukkela? pona vaaram sila kaatchigal paathen. Enna puratchi, Enna liberation. What ya climax :clap: :lol2:Quote:
Originally Posted by groucho070
Young time pArthathu. Can't remember. But Visu movies always welcome.
maru vesathula vanthu post panrengala kg_2?Quote:
Originally Posted by kid-glove
I didn't see the clip. So it's young Rajini involved in this sequence, not the dad, the sex predator.
Btw, that aspect of womanizing dad-traumatized son being rendered confused or asexual in a way, yet to stand for monogamy and chastity, didn't seem well explored there. SPM not quite cut out for that.
Groucho,
Saw the clip. That's Rajini trying hard to look like studious. As a drop out, I'm assuming Rajini must have dreaded the part of being a good student more than part of being a womanizer.
Neenga vera... professor'a rape panra madhiri ellam illai.. Naan vEra ennanavO karpanai pannikuttu irundhEn. Eppo Father RAjini professor + woman opening her palm sequence'lam varum'nu.
Have tol watch it next time it's on TV.
Haha, enakku appadi tonichi.
Well, education fetish is involved, father sleeps with his violin teacher. Yeah, you got to watch it. Love to know your take on Daddy Rajini's performance.
Groucho,
Woman opening palm is Menaka, right? No wonder in Rajni not interested.
:lol: Yeah, it's her.