Oru cheru punchiri

I found my new favorite Malayalam movie. Oru cheru punchiri (One small smile). When Amma told me there is a movie like this, I was all eager to see it. Today Doordarsan played it without any warning so I missed the first half an hour. But what a beautiful movie. What beautiful dialogues. What beautiful characters. The title is just so apt – the movie moves like a beautiful smile. So so – ok I am going to use an adjective I don’t approve of cause of its over-use – sweet. It is simply sweet.

Line by line, scene by scene I just wanted to sit there and enjoy every bit of it. Just take in every minute. I am not exaggerating.

We have a lovely old couple. Oduvil Unnikrishnan is our hero and now he is my hero as well. What a man, what an actor. Why didn’t our directors explore his talent more? The lady is a new face to me but she did a great job.

I did my research and found my guess true. The man behind the movie is none other than M T Vasudevan Nair. He not only wrote the screenplay, he directed it as well. MT really should have directed more movies. What beauty. The man is a hmm, he is a hmmm, (thinking of adjectives that have not been used on him till date) hero! My hero! I will forgive him for not replying to my letters in the past.

I will not be able to do a good review if I try to go into the details of the movie. It has to be seen. People think I cant appreciate romance since I am anti-marriage. But this is the kind of love that I believe in – the one I saw in this movie. I thought it would exist only in minds that loved and didn’t get a chance to come together. I thought togetherness could actually destroy the meaning and depth of love. But if there really are people like this old couple, I might as well believe that love and togetherness can actually co-exist 🙂

Partner in depression

I was never that fond of Sidney Sheldon. I had read 4 or 5 books and decided he was not my type. But now I have decided I really like this guy. I have just read his autobiography ‘The Other Side Of Me’. And I am an instant convert. He is my type. Definitely so.

When his Dad told him at 17 “Life is like a novel. You have no idea what is going to happen until you turn the page” he had no idea Sidney’s life was one of the best novels you could read. He wrote this book at 88 and I don’t think there has been a single day in his life that was not worth talking about. Things were always happening. There is not a single page in this book you get bored about. He must have had a hard time fitting it all in here.

The best thing I like is, he started writing novels after 60. Woah that is definitely an inspiration. I was worried that I was getting too old to start.

But that is trivial. Other things – I cant really explain the book. I will end up using too many adjectives. From the really tough, no-penny days to where he is now (I cant believe he is not there anymore) – Sidney’s journey is more touching than amazing. The ups and downs keep coming. He calls it the elevator – up at times, down a lot more.

The back problem, the manic depression (hmm I claim I have it too) it is all just – it just makes me feel this was a guy I really knew. In fact now I can only picture him as the young fellow who went to New York to try his luck in song writing and then to Hollywood, struggling to make ends meet. I love him.

I didn’t feel sad when I read about his death. But now, two years later, I mourn. I wish I read this when he was alive. Although what I could have done about it, I don’t know. Maybe write to him? I don’t mind it that celebrities may often be too busy to actually read their fan mail. I have the satisfaction of writing to them. That is good enough for me. But now I am left with no address, email or postal, to write to. Hoping these words would travel back in time and be taken to his ears: Sidney, we’ve got to meet some day. After all we are both suffering from manic depression (one of us a self-proclaimed case). And we both got a writing problem and we both are starting penniless (in my case though this status may last longer). Too many connections if you ask me Sidney. Don’t you think it is vital that we meet?

(On Feb 26, 2010, my blog turned 4 years old. Time doth fly!)

Tonight, a night

I spend tonight…

Some time with the smell of opening new books that you know you cant buy but still love to imagine a room full of, to fall into

Some time with the forgotten times, faces, places, stairs, classrooms… smelling the air I used to breath once…

Some time reliving those days, hand in hand with the same friend I used to walk aimlessly into the dark clutches of night

Some time at the window of a night bus that blew in fresh soothing air to the face, as I looked up at the one star that came to say hello

Some time, some day, I hope to run into her again… this beautiful night. My best date ever. Sometimes it feels great to know some things never change.