The Other Banana

The year for Tamil cinema hasn't been all that great so far but then comes along a film like Vinayak Chandrasekaran's Good Night.

A superb character study and exploration of dynamics, the film-also written by Vinayak-stars Manikandan, Ramesh Thilak, Meetha Raghunath, Balaji Sakthivel, Raichel Rebecca among others.

It also stars stand up comedian, actor, writer Jagan Krishnan who joined us for this episode to talk about the experience of auditioning, working in the film and what he thought about the various character dynamics in the film. He also shared some anecdotes while at it. Listen on.

We are back with an episode on literature.

As part of The Other Banana's efforts to bring in more technicians to the forefront, we have a special episode with a special guest now that Ponniyin Selvan Part 2 is out and the saga is complete. An effort that's achieved great success and more importantly, provided immense satisfaction and joy to experience on screen. Starring Karthi, Aishwarya Rai, Vikram, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sarath Kumar, Parthiban, Prakash Raj, Rahman and Sobhita among others, the film has music by AR Rahman, cinematography by Ravi Varman, editing by Sreekar Prasad and art direction by Thota Tharani.

We return with a Telugu film, a massive hit from 2022. Just when we thought only male star driven, machismo action films could do well in theatres, we had films based on romance with author backed pairs work their charm at the box office. One was Thiruchitrambalam. The other was Sita Ramam directed by Hani Raghavapudi.

One of our listeners think it would be a good idea for us to talk about the 2006 Chimbu Deven's historic-fiction "Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi".

We too think this is a great idea. 23am Pulikesi is one of the best comedies of Tamil cinema in the last 20 years featuring Vadivelu, Nassar, Ilavarasu, Sriman, Thambi Ramaiah, Manobala and many others.

Almost everybody agrees Lijo Jose Pellissery's Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam that released mid January of 2023 and on Netflix at the end of February is going to be the Indian film of the year? Why? We thought we'll dig in. 

Aditya watched it twice in theatres. Deepauk watched it a day before recording of this podcast. And our special guest critic, programmer, author Srikanth Srinivasan watched it thrice in theatres and a couple of more times on Netflix. With a screenplay by S Hareesh and directed by Pellissery, the film stars Mammootty, Ramya Pandian, Ashokan, Ramya Suvi, Poo Ramu among others.

The three of them gather to discuss what makes this film so interesting, the seamless Tamil-Malayalam intermingling, the filmmaking ideas and cinematography, the almost exclusive Tamil cinema soundtrack throughout the film, and the film's philosophical interventions. Listen on.

Participants:

Hello, we are back!

At The Other Banana podcast, we are aware that we haven't been paying attention to our Kannada roster as much as the others. In an attempt to address that, we got together some folks who were excited to talk about one of the finest comedies from Kannada cinema.

Among all the epic star vehicles and action extravaganzas like Pushpa: The Rise, RRR, KGF and Vikram, we had a seemingly little film that became a box office hit. It's not a little film by any means. It has Dhanush, Nithya Menen, Prakash Raj, Bharathiraja in the lead and directed by Mithran Jawahar. The film, Thiruchitrambalam, is just more grounded and subtle, the opposite of what people have come to expect from theatrical films. And yet, this romantic comedy, a genre that's hard to come by in Tamil cinema, is not just a wonderful film but also found its audience.

Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 released a little over a week ago and has taken the box office by storm. A critical and commercial success, the film has attracted a wide demographic to the theatres. Largely due to its source - Kalki R. Krishnamurthy's serialized novel Ponniyin Selvan published in the 1950s, a historical fiction based on the Cholas and the conflicts within and outside the kingdom for the throne. The film, like most Mani Ratnam films, is also an example of technical mastery which is one of the attractions for widespread theatre viewing with almost no one choosing to wait for the streaming release like it is the norm of late.

The film is star studded - Karthi, Aishwarya Rai, Vikram, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Jayaram, Sobhita Dhulipala, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sarath Kumar, Parthiban, Prabhu, Lal, Prakash Raj and more. There are stars behind the camera as well apart from the director and writing team (Mani Ratnam, Jeyamohan and Elango Kumaravel). It is edited by Sreekar Prasad, art direction by Thotta Tharani with cinematography by Ravi Varman. Music is by A.R Rahman and sound design by Anand Krishnamoorthi. Foley Artist is Prathap and re-recording mix by Craig Mann.

In this episode, we talk about one aspect of the technical mastery - sound design. Sound Designer/Engineer/Editor Anand Krishnamoorthi joins Aditya and Ashoka to talk about the sound of Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 and the nuances in the art of sound design. We talk about sound design in general in cinema as well as the work that has gone into Ponniyin Selvan. Anand gives both eli5 explanations for some aspects of his work and also some nerdy and deeply technical things that go into a film's sound. Listen on.

Definitions of a few technical terms that will help in enjoying the conversation better

Thallumaala is one of a kind cinema to come out of India this year. A complex screenplay (or storyboard?) structure, a filmmaking style that takes giant leaps of faith and a great rhythmic sense to the narrative coupled with its music make it an immense watch. You watch it and you want to watch it again all over again. The film is written by Muhsin Parari and Ashraf Hamza and stars Tovino Thomas, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Shine Tom Chacko, Lukman, Swathi Das Prabhu who all form a part of a whole winning ensemble.

To talk about Thallumaala we have special guest Uday Bhatia, writer and film critic at Mint Lounge. Joining him are Aditya and Deepauk. 

In this episode we dive into Raaja’s most ambitious album - Thiruvasagam in Symphony. We discuss the historical origins and similarities between the 2 schools of music that Raaja consciously combines, breakdown elements in each of the songs, and address the need for humility when engaging in the critique of such attempts.

Topics Covered:

Initial listening experience and how it has evolved over time

What is an oratorio and how did the form evolve?

What is the form of the Thevaram tradition and what does it bring to the album?

How Raaja combines the two forms as part of the album

Bouquets, brickbats, and the hollowness of both when it comes to TiS

Participants:

Today is August 15th and on this day in 1992 Mani Ratnam's Roja released. Along with the film arrived a new sound that awed one and all throughout the country. In the next thirty years, this music will unite India the way only cricket often does. Today marks 30 years since AR Rahman broke out. His growth was tremendous and quick, he transcended borders within India first and then made a mark internationally as well earning two Academy awards in the process.

We at The Other Banana thought that this calls for a special episode on growing up with AR Rahman. We have two special guests joining us for the episode.

Vivek Athreya's Ante Sundaraniki released in June to mixed reviews. Telugu cinema is where romantic comedy is thriving and this film was Vivek Athreya's follow up to the immensely popular, hilarious Brochevarevarura. This also had great leads in Nani and Nazriya. While the film failed to click in the box office its Netflix release renewed the debate and the film was received warmly compared to how it did theatrically.

To restore parity after discussing an old Kamal Haasan film we thought we must do a Rajinikanth film. Ok, that's not the reason but we felt this Rajinikanth film must be discussed.

This is 1978 and Rajinikanth's early years in Tamil cinema. It's the year he stamped his authority and signaled the coming of a legend of Indian cinema. Mullum Malarum, directed by Mahendran with cinematography by Balu Mahendra and music by Ilaiyaraaja had Rajinikanth, Shoba, Sarath Babu and Jayalaxmi. The film was based on a novel by Uma Chandran. A seminal film in not just the crew's and Rajinikanth's careers but to Tamil cinema itself, the film informed the direction Tamil cinema took from there on and also colored the future characters played by the superstar.

Lokesh Kanagaraj's Vikram is just a week away and the expectations are immense for the film starring Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil. The furor began in late 2020 when they released a teaser revealing the title accompanied by a sampling of one of the greatest title tracks by Ilaiyaraaja - Vikram from the film of the same name that released in 1986. The 1986 film was a mammoth effort in terms of scripting and production. A screenplay written by Kamal Haasan and writer/novelist Sujatha adapted from the latter's serialized story and directed by Rajashekar the making of Vikram is as much of a lore as its aftermath, influences and the new film it has spawned (though not a sequel).

Vikram has Kamal Haasan as an intelligence agent playing the closest James Bond could come to Indian cinema back till that point (and after Jai Shankar in Tamil cinema). It also had Sathyaraj as the villain with Lissy, Dimple Kapadia, Amjad Khan and Charuhasan completing a role call of who's who from different language industries.

A film like Chennai 600028 needs no introduction but here is an attempt anyway - a small gang of first timers and amateurs, however privileged by their industry backgrounds, came together to make a movie on amateur cricket - street cricket to be precise - and male friendship. Venkat Prabhu bandied together Shiva, Premji, Nithin Sathya, Aravind Akash, Sampath, Jai, Vijay Vasanth, Ajay Raj and of course, Yuvan Shankar Raja to create a film whose infection charm and fun might have been felt during the set but with a few jitters as SP Balasubrahmanyam and his son SPB Charan put their money into it.

In the latest episode of the podcast, we discuss the recent Bollywood  movie 83 – which retells the story of India’s miraculous victory in the  1983 World Cup.

Talking Points:

• A missed opportunity to recreate the cricketing miracle that was 1983
• The conspicuous absence of India’s victory over West Indies at Berbice
• The complete erasure of Mohinder Amarnath’s golden season
• Ranveer Singh and Jiiva – and their game attempt to approximate Kapil Dev and Krishnamachari Srikkanth
• The film not setting the context for the 1983 World Cup
• The lack of a genuine bad guy – which makes the movie search for antagonists
• The factual inaccuracies in the movie – including a big faux pas in the final scene
• The movie explaining scenes way more than showing them through storytelling
• The cinematographic techniques – long-shots combined with close-ups and highlight reels
• The nationalistic tone that runs through the movie
• The Malayalam movie 1983, which takes a completely different approach to recreating the miracle of 1983
• The Indian cricket ecosystem’s inability to create cultural value and works of art

Participants:

The recent big announcement in Tamil cinema is the collaboration of director Nelson (Kolamaavu Kokila, Doctor, yet to release Beast with Vijay) with Rajinikanth. Since the time Rajinikanth collaborated twice with Pa. Ranjith and once with Karthik Subbaraj, there have always been calls for the biggest stars - meaning male actors who guarantee huge weekend openings at box office - to work with young, promising filmmakers making a different kind of cinema, themselves a coterie that came into being around 2008 in Tamil cinema. The list of filmmakers has only grown since then and it's been a great decade. From calls for Kamal Haasan at his height of stardom and experimentation to work with some of them to Rajini working with them and Vijay collaborating with Lokesh Kanagaraj, and Ajith with H. Vinoth (and we've had more than a decade of Dhanush-Vetrimaaran), fans believe this is a treat. Currently we have upcoming films like Lokesh Kanagaraj's Vikram with Kamal Haasan, Vijay's Beast with Nelson, Vetrimaaran's Vaadivaasal with Suriya and Pa Ranjith's film with Vikram to name a few.

At The Other Banana, we wondered how healthy these pairings are for Tamil cinema? An industry notorious for the way it manages production and budgets, do the numbers make sense and does the quality suffer? What is the equation between the star actor and the filmmaker? What do they get out of each other and are they satisfied? Who are the biggest stars today, who were the stars we thought could take Tamil cinema to great heights in 2005 and where are they today? What do distributors feel about this subject? Do the filmmakers matter to them the way they do for fans?

After a long break, we return to our Director Series on Mysskin. In this episode we talk about Mysskin's 2014 film Pisaasu starring Naga, Prayaga Martin, Radha Ravi et al. The film broadly falls under the horror genre but with its filmmaking and inherent philosophy subverts the genre in many different ways. Add to this, Mysskin's next film is a sequel to Pisaasu starring Andrea.

As the title suggests, Raj B. Shetty's latest Kannada film Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana contains its share of mythological undertones. But the film is more than just that almost reinventing the gangster drama at an epic scale with very curious passage of character developments. Set in Mangaluru, it tells the story of Hari (Rishab Shetty) and Shiva (Raj B. Shetty), the backstory of how they climb up the ladder of crime in the city and the eventual souring of the relationship. The film's conspicous homo-eroticism was noticed by many and how well it does what it does with it and the film's complete disregard for women in its universe has been topics of debate.

Its a full house for the last pod of the year; all 4 of us talk about movies/series of 2021: what we watched, what we liked, what we didn't and what we hope to see more of in the coming year. It is a freewheeling chat covering regional content from South India and a lit bit from around the world.  

...oh and a Happy 2022 from the crew! 

Participants:

This episode is brought to you by MUBI, a curated streaming service showing exceptional films from around the globe. Every day, MUBI premieres a new film, each one thoughtfully hand-picked. From new directors to award-winners. Beautiful, interesting, incredible movies—there is always something new to discover.

In this episode, we talk about Vijay Kumar's 2016 film Uriyadi. A debut film as actor, writer and director for Vijay Kumar the film had several debutantes in its cast along with Mime Gopi, Citizen Sivakumar among others. The film, set in and around an engineering college outside Trichy, touched upon many issues like caste outfits, caste violence, clashing ideologies and transformation of such outfits into political politics. The film is visceral in its depiction of violence and though it does not name names, Tamil Nadu has a storied history for us to join the dots and talk about the various topics associated with the theme of the film.

Comedy and romantic comedy is thriving in Telugu cinema. It's not the case with other industries of similar size. This year, cinema theatres briefly opened before the second wave of the pandemic in India and a small film that no one saw coming made a huge splash. It became one of the biggest hits critically and commercially. Maybe it was the timing, maybe it was the nature of the film or the absolute abandon with which it was made, the audiences couldn't have enough of it. It is indeed Anudeep KV's Jathi Ratnalu, a comedy that pushes the genre in every fashion, may it be the dark part of it or the silly. Jathi Ratnalu is streaming on Amazon Prime.

We made it to 100. Thanks to all our listeners, no matter if you've listened to one episode or stuck with us this long since 2018 for every one of them! We've enjoyed doing this for the last 3 years and wish to continue the rewarding endeavor.

At The Other Banana Podcast, we felt that the writing and editing of Pa. Ranjith's latest feature Sarpatta Parambarai (streaming on Amazon Prime) were two of its strongest suits. While every department of the film has worked in wondrous ways in this once in a generation film, we thought it will be fun to get Tamil Prabha (we discussed his novel Pettai in an earlier episode), who collaborated with Pa. Ranjith on the script and editor Selva RK to talk about the technical aspects of editing, how they all worked together in terms of writing, filmmaking, shot making, dialogues to deliver the film we see today.

Starring Arya, Pasupathy, John Kokken, Dushara Vijayan, John Vijay, Kalaiyarasan, Shabeer Kallarakkal, the film tracks the boxing clans (parambarais) of the mid to late 70s, their history and landscape and the larger politics that surrounded and impacted their personal lives.

Please use headphones/earphones!

Show notes:

We return to our Mysskin series with his 2013 film - Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum or The Wolf and the Lamb starring Sri, Mysskin, Shaji Chen, Adithya, Baby Chaitanya, Angel Glady et al. The film is a truckload of Mysskin goodies, the Madras after dark shining through as the entire film is events over the course of a single night. It throws up and answers a lot of questions - what is right and what is wrong, good and evil with everything in between, how situations and decisions contextualized to the events determine more about oneself than we might assume. The film is ripe for both mining Mysskin's aesthetics and his philosophical musings. It might just be Mysskin's best film so far.

In this episode we dive into one of the first true fusions of Carnatic and western classical music to come out of India - Ilaiyaraaja's 1986 independent album How To Name It. We discuss the context for the album and what may have been Raaja's artistic intent in attempting this album. Additionally we dive deep in to 2-3 specific pieces and what Raaja has been able to achieve in terms of composition there.

Topics Covered:

What was perceived as fusion at the time How To Name It was released?

A detailed breakdown of the title track and what it achieves in terms of melding the Carnatic and Western classical forms

What is fugue and why did Raaja choose this form for a piece in the album?

What was Raaja's artistic intent in pursuing this effort? How has the album panned out in an overall evaluation and would it be different if done now?

Participants:

At The Other Banana Podcast, we begin another series on Director Mysskin. Unlike the earlier director series we'll be delving into a handful of what we consider important or landmark films of the director, not all of them.

The series starts with Mysskin's 2011 thriller Yuddham Sei starring Cheran, Dipa Shah, Jayaprakash, YG Mahendran, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan et al. It has music and score by K, who had joined us in our podcast for one of his films, Annayum Rasoolum. A lot of ideas Mysskin's films would grapple with found a winning combination here and therefore the decision to start with Yuddham Sei.

In this episode we dive into the various forms of western classical music explored by Ilaiyaraaja, especially in his independent non-film albums. We focus specifically on the concerto form and how the Nothing But Wind album utilizes this form to highlight the virtuoso flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia.

Topics Covered:

What are forms and how do we talk about them when discussing music?

What is the historical context of Indian music being fused with western forms?

The concerto, its various components and how the great composers of the west have utilized this form

How does the concerto get used in Ilaiyaraaja's Nothing But Wind?

Participants:

This episode continues to explore how Raaja uses frameworks from western classical music - particularly harmony. We discuss the form and function of harmony and explore, through varied examples and genres, how Raaja deploys them to create his musical experiences.

Topics Covered:

What is harmony?

What do we mean when we talk about tone, note, and timbre?

Using Harmony to set the tonal center, create tension, dissonance, and resolution

Examples of the usage in Ilaiyaraaja's music

Participants:

Once again, an early contender for one of the best films of the year comes from Malayalam cinema. The Great Indian Kitchen, written and directed by Jeo Baby, filmed by Salu K Thomas and edited by Francies Louis hit the exclusive Malayalam OTT platform Neestream last month. Starring Nimisha Sajayan and Suraj Venjaramoodu, a film rich in visual flourish, edited with finesse that uses pure imagery to convey its story, theme and politics, The Great Indian Kitchen hits right where it hurts. 

Long before JD and Bhavani of Lokesh Kanagaraj's Master, there were Shiva and Bhavani (and a JD on the sidelines) in a college setting in Ram Gopal Varma's directorial debut Shiva. Combining student politics along with a ruthless gangster played memorably by Raghuvaran, Shiva set new standards for filmmaking and South Indian mass cinema. It was the arrival of Ram Gopal Varma as a reckoning and cult sequences featuring Nagarjuna, paired with Amala.

Hello and we are back with our final part in the Michael Madana Kama Rajan series. In this episode, we talk about form and technique, the filmmaking that has gone behind the making of this brilliant, everlasting film and how a lot of the methods used are so inconspicuous that they rarely come to the fore when discussing the film.

And we are back with the part two of the series on Singeetam Srinivasa Rao's Michael Madana Kama Rajan. 

One never tires of watching or talking about this landmark film in Tamil Cinema starring four Kamal Haasans, Nagesh, Khushboo, Urvashi, Nassar, Roopini, SN Lakshmi, Delhi Ganesh, Manorama et al. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao directed film of a Kamal Haasan screenplay with dialogues by Crazy Mohan, a truly collaborative mammoth effort - Michael Madana Kama Rajan - came into being in 1990 and has been etched in Tamil cinema lore forever. It's a film that merits more than one episode and we are approaching each part focusing on one detail around the film.

This episode begins to pull back the curtain on how Raaja uses his training in Western Classical Music. What do the frameworks he learnt there provide him? How does he employ them in his music? We go western classical in this episode!

Topics covered:

Melody and its key structural features

Why grasp of melodic structure is critical to constructing a countrapuntal texture

Contrapuntal theory and use in Ilaiyaraaja's music

Instrumentation and the classical guitar

What it means to really use classical guitar (Tremolo/Arpeggio/Polyphonic Texture) and manifestations in Ilaiyaraaja songs

Participants:

While the anniversaries  - 10th, 25th or 30th - of many films were celebrated this year, one title probably got ignored by a large section of the media. Balu Mahendra's Sathi Leelavathi released 25 years ago. It had Kalpana, Ramesh Arvind and Heera Rajagopal in the lead with cameos  - more like star attractions - from Kamal Haasan and Kovai Sarala.

We are back with a new director series! For a long time, we've been mulling about a series on acclaimed director Padmarajan, who's made some of the best Malayalam films of the 1980s and remains an important name in Malayalam cinema of that era. 

We asked actress Kani Kusruti, the recent winner of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Biriyaani, what is a Malayalam classic that she'd love to revisit and talk about in our podcast. Padmarajan's Kallan Pavithran (1981), she said. And that was reason enough for us to begin a Director Series on Padmarajan. Kallan Pavithran starring Nedumudi Venu, Bharath Gopi, Subhashini, Beena and Adoor Bhasi is one of Padmarajan's early films based on a short story by the director. The film is about a petty thief Pavithran (Venu) and his nouveau riche status that has the town wondering what could be the reason behind his economic prosperity, especially Damayanthi (Beena), Bhama (Subhashini) and Mamachan (Bharath Gopi). 

Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi starring Dhritiman Chatterjee, the first of his Calcutta Trilogy, released in October 1970. K Balachander's Varumayin Niram Sivappu released almost exactly ten years later, in November 1980, and starred Kamal Haasan and Sridevi. The two films bookend an important decade in Indian history. Pratidwandi came at the height of the Naxalite movement in West Bengal and Varumayin Niram Sivappu was made in the immediate aftermath of Emergency and the Lok Sabha elections of 1980. A tumultuous decade for India, Congress and Indira Gandhi, possibly casting a long shadow in the political landscape of today.

With the macro context set in the first three episodes of the series we shift focus into musical details - specifically Raaja's use of folk music. This episode focuses on Raaja's use of folk rhythms, the forms he employs, and touches briefly upon what Carnatic music provides to a composer like him.

Topics covered:

The need for analysis beyond personal aesthetic preferences

Folk rhythms and their use in everyday life vs. in celebration

Formalized folk elements and their impact in Raaja's compositions

Santham and the use / placement of lyrics

The personality of a Carnatic Raga and what it provides a composer

Participants:

Ten years ago Selvaraghavan came up with a film that had nothing in common with the films he had directed up until then. It was a mix of historic fiction and fantasy, with elements like prophecy, "chosen one", deliverance, revenge and black magic. Aayirathil Oruvan starring Karthi, Andrea Jeremiah, Reema Sen and Parthiban received mixed reviews upon its arrival but the film has found an intense following over the last decade. It's nuances are studied with care, subtexts of Eelam and Sri Lankan civil war all too obvious now, along with the most entertaining, confounding and fantastical latter progressions in a Tamil film in recent times.