Piravi Review

Cinema’s modus operandi can be capsulized in three basic steps – concocting a ship of emotions, warping us within them and then scupper itself. So, as a medium, I believe cinema has been inherently blessed with the ability to educe a reaction or the another from the audience, even if just the shock of the shattering of the world it encapsulates us in.

But there are exceptions, and what this piece emanated from is a duly fascination with coming across one. ‘Piravi’ is the first movie in a long time to leave me speechless. I firmly believe the tone has something to do with it. That to choose nature over plot and characters in the exordium to acclimatize me to the pace of the film (which is of life itself) had something pivotal to do with the hanging feeling of a very non-absence of a cinematic world to play these characters in.

I also feel the actors had something to do with it as well. The way Premji conducts himself throughout the movie makes it impossible to think that he exists outside it, as if his body and this role are as inscrutably bound to each other as destiny to life.

The settings are the final nail in the coffin. I don’t remember the last time where pretendedly, a movie had a cultural identity of its own, which made it feel like it belonged to the place from where it tells the tale. The cut-off locale in Piravi makes everything seem complete and everyone to have an obstinate, sure and self-sufficient place. The brute routines give the appearance of a place which exists beyond the realms of time and space, only bound by peerless ennui.

It was William Wordsworth who put it as succinctly as anyone can, that the child is the father of the man. What Piravi is about at its crux, is the loss of that man. Towards the denouement, there is a scene in a boat which is moving for a multiplicity of reasons, one of which being is that Chakyar is no different from the baby which clings to his mother. His mind has resorted itself to the only comfort that babies know of, which is the stability of love and the least care of who they get it from.

In a recent conversation I had, the question of the importance of art came up. My answer was ‘Every passing day, we look at the harsh realities of life materializing all around us. We see our worst nightmares being the living reality of most. And what do we do ? We look away. Away from all that causes us malaise. And after that, we return back to our bearing of common place individuals in sepulchral cities trying to filch a little more money from each other. This is where art comes in. It forces us to look at the truth, into ourselves, shows us how our morality is nothing but a mere farce, exploits our conscience and aims to change our very nature, to makes us into individuals who sympathize with all and hate none. As Jean Luc-Godard said ‘Cinema is truth 24 frames per second’. Piravi is truth

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Copyright : All written content on this site, unless otherwise noted, has been created by the website owner. As such, the content is the property of the website owner. This content is protected by Indian and international copyright laws. If you wish to reproduce, re-post, or display any of our content on your own site please only do so if you also provide a link back to the source page on this website and properly attribute authorship. Our preference is that you seek our permission before doing so. If you see anything on this website that has not been properly attributed to its originator please contact me. In response, I will attempt to correct the attribution of the offending material or remove and/or replace it. All material on this website is posted in accordance with the limitations set forward by the Information Technology Act, 2000. If a documented copyright owner so requests, their material will be removed from published display, although the author reserves the right to provide linkage to that material or to a source for that material. As a website devoted to discussing and reviewing movies and television I will at times, for illustrative purposes, present copyrighted material, the use of which might not always be specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for purposes such as criticism, comment, and research. The website owner believes that this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material because the articles published on this website are distributed for entertainment purposes

 

Do The Right Thing Review

Dear friend Roger,

Since it is my summer vacations, I have been going over many titles that you have recommended as ‘great’. And almost all of them are, such as Hoop Dreams, Casablanca, Goodfellas and many and I profusely thank you for them. However, this letter is in regard to the Spike Lee movie titled ‘Do The Right Thing’ about which mine and your opinion seem to diverge.

As you might remember, it takes place on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn where Salvatore “Sal” Fragione owns a pizza shop which has a Wall Of Fame with photos of Italian-American legends. A neighborhood local Bugging Out finds it racist because there is not single African-American up there. And eventually, on the hottest day in Brooklyn, violence breaks out.

Spike Lee meticulously traces the various events unfolding the day and molds characters with distinctive personalities. The whole movie is structured like a Stephen King novel, where 3/4th of the plot is just a build up to the explosion set to unfold in the 1/4th of it.

However, this work looks disoriented to me. There are too many characters Lee is playing with at once. He intends to bring racism and bigotry at the center, but all he ends up doing is creating a work which seems to uphold violence, by illustrating an aftermath scene which shows that nothing of grave consequence ever transpires of it.

In its way, Do The Right Thing reminds me of Fight Club, where the eventual hate builds up to such an extent that it erupts eventually in volcanic proportions. I admire such movies, because they incite strong feelings from the viewer. He either loves it very much or hates very much. There is no middle ground.

But I, unfortunately, seem to belong to the latter group. The characters seem to be telling a different story, and the film-maker a different one. It is a plethora of emotions culminating into a final mess, and as much I admire the craft, the less I care about its message.

However, I agree with your views that Danny Aiello should have won the Oscar. For me, he was the only bright spark in this otherwise doomed experiment. He stands out in every scene he is featured and the raw emotions that materialize on his face are the only ones that seem to be worthy of any empathy.

Do The Right Thing is a noble experiment gone very wrong and although Lee’s intentions were pure, I have to admit, I would have smashed that radio of Radio Raheem myself if I had the chance. That song gets on the nerves and that is the absolute truth, Ruth.

Yours faithfully,

Anand Nair.

             Rating : 4.2 / 10

THANKS FOR READING. IF YOU HAVE LIKED/HAVE DIFFERENT VIEWS / HAVE ANY  DOUBTS, PLEASE SHARE. I WILL RESPOND TO IT AS SOON AS I CAN. AND PLEASE SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE. YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE TOO https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011549616628 YOU CAN ALSO E-MAIL ME ON castlebang786@gmail.com OR favebook2011@rediffmail.com

Photo Rights : Google Images, Wikipedia

Copyright : All written content on this site, unless otherwise noted, has been created by the website owner. As such, the content is the property of the website owner. This content is protected by Indian and international copyright laws. If you wish to reproduce, re-post, or display any of our content on your own site please only do so if you also provide a link back to the source page on this website and properly attribute authorship. Our preference is that you seek our permission before doing so. If you see anything on this website that has not been properly attributed to its originator please contact me. In response, I will attempt to correct the attribution of the offending material or remove and/or replace it. All material on this website is posted in accordance with the limitations set forward by the Information Technology Act, 2000. If a documented copyright owner so requests, their material will be removed from published display, although the author reserves the right to provide linkage to that material or to a source for that material. As a website devoted to discussing and reviewing movies and television I will at times, for illustrative purposes, present copyrighted material, the use of which might not always be specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available  for purposes such as criticism, comment, and research. The website owner believes that this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material because the articles published on this website are distributed for entertainment purposes.