A poetic re-reading
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LEAFING THROUGH Some interesting reads...
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Prashnegaliruvudu Shakespearenige
G.N. Mohan
Abhinava, Rs. 50
Deconstructing a work of literature or popular culture is often a jargon-ridden academic exercise. But G.N. Mohan chooses the medium of poetry to re-read texts in “Prashnegaliruvudu Shakespearenige”.
The protagonists of the grand tragedies of the Bard, Kalidasa’s “Shakuntala” whose fate hangs by the glint of a ring, Urmila whose agonising wait for Lakshmana gets somewhere lost in the grand sweep of the epic and the folk hero Sangya who is drawn to his friend’s wife like a moth to fire… Mohan looks at all of them from a new perspective in his poems. Rather, as the title suggests, he poses new questions to the characters and their creators.
While Shakespeare, “who wove sighs into beautiful dreams”, sends Mohan on a philosophical quest, Kalidasa’s Shakuntala leaves him wondering on the inexplicable ways of love. The fawn in Kanwa’s ashrama wonders why the gentle girl abandoned all the assurances and certainty that came with the verdant forests, all her friends and father’s unconditional love for “a touch, a smile, a sigh and a song” of a stranger from an unknown land.
Mohan, who has been associated with the medium of television for many years, comes up with some particularly striking poems using the flitting images of the screen as metaphors. In “Mr and Mrs Iyer” (this reviewer’s personal favourite in the collection), he juxtaposes the relaxed and festive atmosphere of a middle class living room and the traumatic situation faced by the characters in the film playing out on the television in the same room. In “Second Take” he talks about how all the highs and lows of life are packaged for a neat presentation. In “Kodangige illi kelasavilla” he says: “Whatever the state of mind/ there are always beautiful girls to smile/ and toothpastes aplenty to keep the smiles flowing.”
Mohan’s poems sound laboured only when he insists on being too direct and in a hurry to make a point in poems such as “Ayke embudu irulli dose alla” or when he picks a theme that seems to sit uncomfortably in the format of a poem as in “Sanna saalakke namaskara”.
BAGESHREE S.
Maya Manjoosha
By H.S. Manjunatha,
Hemanta Sahitya, Rs. 65
Maya Manjoosha, H.S. Manjunath’s book on films, has the earnestness of a serious student of cinema. It has a curiosity, not only about the crew – the filmmaker, the cameraman, the screenplay writer etc. – but also about facts and stories behind the screen; the book throws up Manjunath as a sincere statistician, for who films are not just about onscreen dyamanics.
The book is a collection of articles written at various points in time for magazines and newspapers. Hence, the writings are journalistic (in terms of the size of the articles) in nature. This, in a way, also leaves them behind time; however, it is not a major impediment. What needs to be said to the credit of the writer is his unbiased attention to films of all regional and foreign languages. And therefore, you have him talking about Tamil, Assamese as well as Israeli and Greek.
There are interviews with well-known filmmakers – off the commercial map – like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Aparna Sen as well as pioneers like K. Balachander who re-defined the role of directors in commercial cinema. Interviews with these stalwarts are bound to be interesting, considering their experience and involvement. But what are the compulsions for questions to remain in the typical-film-journalist mode, redolent of a certain undergrad enthusiasm? For instance “Which is your favourite film?” that is posed to K. Balachander. The answer that emerges doesn’t in anyway enrich the interview. Many articles skim the surface (is it because of paucity of space?). One also recognises the absence of a vocabulary for film writing, in an academic sort of way. We mostly rely on tools of literature to analyse films.
The introduction to the book begins off in a warm, personal-nostalgia mode. In recreating the writer’s childhood it also speaks of a time that is never to come back. Along the way, it ropes in facts, figures, anecdotes and quotes by various film personalities, which in themselves are interesting, but leaves the structure very incoherent.
The book is useful for students of cinema, not simply because of its content but also to get glimpses of a sincere student of the visual medium; a passion that exists for its own sake.
The book has a foreword by filmmaker, Girish Kasaravalli.
DEEPA GANESH
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