Thursday, September 17, 2009

Fall of the Idiyappam Western: Quick Gun Murugan - A Review

Design education in early nineties was as western as it was before with most of the masters, inspirations and innovations borrowed from video tapes and books. While we were confused, MTV invented very pop vernacular kitschy look and really did not take it further. In 1994 Quick Gun Murugan (QGM) arrived as a short promo in Channel V as a part of the new look. This promo was the most refreshing piece of creative yet. For us young creative bunch Channel V was suddenly the font of exciting ideas. They hired most of my friends who specialized in video.


Quick Gun Murugan, for a Tamilian, was a proud moment then. We knew the origin of these ideas and could educate the far removed of movies from 70s. Altogether the expectation on a QGM, the feature film was big. Ages back when I was hired to act in a Channel V promo Rajesh Devraj shared the initial script and I loved it. The script did change since then and the movie was late to ride on the initial wave too.





QGM the movie is a bunch of one minute shorts loosely strung together with a weak narrative thread. Some of these are hilarious and most, downright sad. I think this could have been a brilliant movie if everything was not so over the top, particularly yamalok.


Grown up on Jaishankar idiayappam westerns, I am appalled by the inferior technical detailing in QGM. Overall reminds me of a Calvin strip where he wonders whether enlarging a popular art comic will ever make it high art.


I would have been happier with some fifty one minute shorts than one big movie. Taxes my threshold!


Disappointing! But little flower is worth it, is worth it!


Friday, August 14, 2009

Call Back: A visit to a place I consider alma mater

A few months back  there was a regroup vacation of a bunch of schoolmates who mattered in a place, considering that most of us have lived away for more than fifteen years, we would still call home. The meeting was a blur of stories of wonder, success, suffering and survival well-doused with malt liquor. I went back again to imbibe the city, awake and thirsty. These are some glimpses of that trip.

Narasimhan aka Naresh A typical street Shankwala Bhavan The North Tower Temple ceiling

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Monday, April 20, 2009

A new way to blog

I am excited about this new app that I have got on my iPhone that lets me post entries. This makes blogging more immediate with instant gratification. This will make me more regular as a blogger I guess.

And this post should include a photograph too. Let me shoot my office at lunch.






Posted from iPhone