In these dark, cold winter days on the East Coast, what can be better than closeting yourself inside a warm room with a bottle of gin and club soda by your side and some nice music playing on the PC.
Nirvana, eh? Yeah, baby. Yeah.
And of course buying some music tracks now and then.
Here are some songs we’ve acquired lately (mostly from iTunes but some from our CDs that we’ve now imported into iTunes):
* Baby Elephant Walk (Western) – We purchased this wonderful Henry Mancini composition for the John Wayne film Hatari a few hours back. Of course, we’ve been familiar with this charmer for a long time. You can read more about Baby Elephant Walk here.
* Nilavakku En Mael Ennadi Kobam (Tamil) – Is this the best P.B.Srinivas song ever? The song is from the movie Policekaran Magal.
* Kannale Pesi Pesi (Tamil) – Again, a P.B.Srinivas classic. Beautiful lyrics as with Nilavukku En Mael. This time, the movie is Adutha Veetu Penn.
* Achcha To Hum Chalta Hai (Hindi) – An evergreen favorite of ours from the Rajesh Khanna-Asha Parekh film Aan Milo Sajna. You can watch Kaka and Asha here in this video. Say what you will but Rajesh Khanna was a million times better than that Amitabh Bachcha.
Veteran Kannada film actor Vishnuvardhan, who shot to fame with his memorable portrayal of the character Ramachari in the 1972 classic Nagarahaavu, died today of cardiac arrest in Mysore.
He was 59.
Although Vishnuvardhan acted in dozens of films in a 37-year career, he was best known for his role of the embittered young man Ramachari in the late director Puttana Kanagal’s Naagarahavu.
Even his name Vishnuvardhan owes to Naagarahaavu since that was the name Puttana Kanagal anointed him with around the time the movie was made (the actor’s original name was Sampath Kumar).
Some of Vishnuvardhan’s other prominent films include Sahasa Simha, Muthina Haara, Bhootayyana Maga Ayyu, Bandhana, Naagara Hole, Hombisilu and Apthamitra.
But for us and surely for millions of others, it’s Naagarahaavu that brings to mind Vishnuvardhan angrily marching on the ruins of the old Chitradurga fort as he whips out the song Haavina Dvesha.
Here’s an excerpt from SearchIndia.com’s review of Nagarahaavu.
Not merely a beautiful tragedy, Naagarahaavu (1972) is also a Kannada Cinemada Habba (a celebration of Kannada films).
A classic on many levels, Naagarahaavu ranks among the finest Indian movies made in the 1970s.
It’s that rare regional movie from India’s hinterlands where the acting, music and story jell, and join in unison to deliver an unforgettable masterpiece.
A rara avis, folks.
…..Set amidst the rocks of Chitradurga (a small town, about 200km north of Bangalore), Naagarahaavu is the story of a young man Ramachari (Vishnuvardhan) filled with hata, rosha, dvesha and pratikaara (stubbornness, anger, hatred and vengeance).
In these cold winter days, we’ve more time than we know what to do with.
So we do what we know best – watch movies or read books.
These are some of the movies we’ve watched recently:
* Au Revoir, les enfants (French) – A charming movie we watched last night on Netflix Instant Play.
Based on a real life incident in the early 1940s (the Nazi era for all ye schmucks), the French movie is a well-crafted story of life at a Catholic boarding school in occupied France and of budding friendship between two young boys – a Christian and a Jew, who’s in hiding.
The two young boys Gaspard Manesse and Raphael Fejto who play Julien Quentin and Jean Bonnet respectively play their parts very well and are a delight to watch. Way better than your Bollywood Amitabh Bachchans and Akshay Kumars. You have a foreboding the movie won’t end well for the boys and sadly, it doesn’t.
* For a Few Dollars More – We’ll do a full review of this Clint Eastwood spaghetti western later. All we’d like to say here is that this second film in the Dollar trilogy is a beautiful film with solid performances by both Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef.
Ennio Morricone’s score for the movie is for the ages (a mere 99-cents on iTunes).
Music, as we’ve said often, is the solace of our autumn years.
Here are some of the songs we’ve purchased from Apple iTunes over the last few months:
* Dil to Pagal Hai, Dil Diwana Hai (Hindi) – Yes, one of our favorite songs from the Akshay Kumar, Sharukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit film Dil to Pagal Hai.
As we wrote a few years back:
Like with most Bollywood blockbusters, fine music contributed to Dil To Pagal Hai’s success. The songs are a delight. Our favorites were Are Re Are, Koi Ladki Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai and Le Gayi Le Gayi.
* Ae Bhai Zara Daek Ke Chalo (Hindi) – This one is from Raj Kapoor’s most famous flop Mera Naam Joker.
The singer is Manna Dey. A lovely number that we first heard several decades back. By the way, we recollect the movie having two intervals.
* Tom Sawyer – From the Canadian band Rush.
A modern day warrior
Mean mean stride,
Today’s Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride.Though his mind is not for rent
Don’t put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet …..
* Naalai Namathe (Tamil) – From the eponymous Tamil film (a remake of the Hindi blockbuster Yaadon Ki Baraat).
Here are some of the Bollywood, Kollywood and Sandalwood tracks we purchased on iTunes lately.
99-cents each.
Made in India (Hindi) – Our favorite Alisha Chinai track.
Intaha Ho Gai Intezar Ki (Hindi) – Superb song (Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle et al) from the 1984 Amitabh Bachchan-Jayapradha film Sharaabi.
Vizhiyile Malarndhadhu (Tamil) – Sung by S.P. Balasubramaniam (thanks, mihi_rex), this is from the old Rajni film Bhuvana Oru Kelvikuri.
Purple Haze (English) – Our first Jimi Hendrix purchase.
Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don’t seem the same
Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why
‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky….
Oruvan Oruvan (Tamil) – Yes, Muthu is the film. S.P.Balasubramaniam is the singer.
Recommended by halfMonkHalfHitman and rakeshbaba
We’ve watched few Kannada movies in our life.
As most SI readers know by now, Hindi, Tamil, English and now foreign language films have been the mainstay of our filmi entertaiment.
So, when SI readers repeatedly brought up the Kannada film Mungaru Male, we were intrigued as to what could be unique about this film.
We headed to Wiki and were surprised to learn that Mungaru Male featuring a relatively unknown fella by the name Ganesh was a blockbuster hit with boxoffice earning surpassing Rs 75 crore ($1=Rs 48).
That’s a lot of money for a regional language film, particularly Kannada, which has been overshadowed for decades by Hindi, Tamil and Telugu language films even in Karnataka, the South Indian state where Kannada is widely spoken.
During our travels south (no, not South India, we meant Virginia) recently, we purchased the Mungaru Male DVD.
But after a recent traumatic incident (we watched Wanted, Dil Bole Hadippa and Unnaipol Oruvan over the weekend), we were desperate for a change.
Also, we’re mighty curious as to how a Kannada film could gross Rs 75 crore, making it one of the biggest hits in Indian movies in recent years.
A Love Story, What Else
So we’ve been watching Mungaru Male for the last 20 minutes or so.
This one is a love story.
And director Yograj Bhat wastes no time in getting down to the romantic business because ‘love’ happens literally (no kidding) in the opening scene.
The kid Ganesh is a natural in front of the camera. We found him endearing so far.
But the heroine Sanjana Gandhi is pretty mediocre (btw, pretty is not an adjective for mediocre here…we mean pretty and mediocre).
Mungaru Male also features Anant Nag, Sudha Belwadi, Padmaja Rao and Diganth. Except for Anant Nag (who has made forays into Bollywood), the other names are foreign to us.
The dialogs have zing in them. Kinda tongue-in-cheek and hilarious, most of the time.
We’ve already gone past two songs. Onde Onde Sari and Mungaru Male. a short song.
OMG, Anant Nag (who plays the girl Nandhini’s father) just broke a bombshell. Doesn’t augur well for our Pritam (Ganesh).
We’ll update this post after watching the rest of Mungaru Male.
Update:
The Mungaru Male story is nothing to write home about.
A very mundane, boy sees girl, falls in love instantly, follows girl around, girl ignores him at first, boy is persistent, girl comes around, Mills & Boonish love story.
Some readers have commented on the picturesque setting as a key factor in the movie’s success.
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