Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Chidambaram


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Timestamp:
Jul 17, 2012, 5:49:35 PM (12 years ago)
Author:
Trupti
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  • Chidambaram

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     1'''Chidambaram''' 
     2 
     3 
     41985 102’ col Malayalam 
     5d/sc Govindan Aravindan pc Suryakanthi 
     6Film Makers st C.V. Shriraman c Shaji N. 
     7Karun m P. Devarajan 
     8lp Gopi, Smita Patil, Srinivas, Mohan Das, 
     9Murali, Chandran Nair 
     10 
     11 
     12Unfolding in exquisitely photographed poetic 
     13rhythms and coloured landscapes, this is the 
     14simple but cynical tale of Muniyandi (Srinivas), 
     15a labourer on the Indo-Swiss Mooraru farm in 
     16Kerala. He brings a wife, Shivagami (Patil), 
     17from the temple town of Chidambaram. She 
     18befriends Shankaran (Gopi), the estate 
     19manager and amateur photographer with a 
     20shady past. Their friendship transgresses the 
     21hypocritical but deeply felt behavioural codes 
     22the local men inherited from previous social 
     23formations: i.e. that women are to be denied 
     24what men are allowed to enjoy. The tragedy 
     25that ensues (Muniyandi’s suicide, Shankaran’s 
     26descent into alcoholism and Shivagami’s 
     27withering into a worn-out old woman) 
     28condenses the tensions between socioeconomic 
     29change (as tractors and machinery 
     30invade the landscape) and people’s refusal to 
     31confront the corresponding need to change 
     32their mentality. The tension is, however, most 
     33graphically felt in the way Shivagami’s life-force 
     34is extended into the naturescape, which is shot 
     35around her with garish colour (e.g. purple 
     36flower-beds) suggesting that the very nature of 
     37Kerala’s beauty and fertility, as she represents 
     38it, has been irredeemably corrupted from 
     39within. The film then shifts to the equally 
     40oppressive cloisters of the Chidambaram 
     41temple, as Shankaran and Shivagami meet once 
     42more: he is there to purify himself through 
     43religious ritual while she is now employed to 
     44look after the footwear of devotees and 
     45tourists. The nihilist film ends with a rising 
     46crane shot as the camera can only avert its gaze 
     47and escape, tilting up along a temple wall 
     48towards an open sky. 
     49 
     50[[Film]]