A movie review

I was in Chennai last week for a day on some work. I had some time to kill in the morning and going out to explore was not something I really wanted to do (it was so hot and humid). So I was switching channels on TV and came across a Kannada movie channel (really surprising, I remember last time I was in Chennai, the hotels only had Tamil channels, a few English news channels and just one or two Hindi channels). And the movie ‘Manasasarovara’ was just starting. I had seen this 80’s movie a few years back. It had some melodious music. Not an extraordinary story, but a story told with just the right amounts of everything in it! The direction by Puttanna Kanagal was of course the clincher.

(This has spoilers)
The story is about a middle aged doctor (psychiatrist). He’s married, but his wife is not very happy with him ‘coz he doesn’t fit into her image of the ideal husband (he’s not very good looking, he’s an idealist, a poet/writer, an introvert basically). So she flirts around with some of his friends and finally goes beyond just flirting with one of them (rich, smart, loves to go out and party kinda person). This prompts him to leave her and go to his estate in a village.

A daunting task

Have you  noticed how tough it is to study after a long gap? To study when you work? To study because you need to pass something you really don’t believe in. It’s altogether another topic as to why I’m doing this if I don’t want to. But for some questions, there are no direct answers. Atleast not right now.

Attention span for some reason refuses to go beyond 10 mins at a stretch. Everything but concentrating on the book comes to your mind.

1. You suddenly remember the exact timings of your favourite TV show and realise you can maybe catch an episode of it in some time (all these days of course being blissfully unaware of it). 

2. Hunger pangs hit you more often. You especially think of restaurants you’ve never been to. This in particular never strikes when you’re in the car, starved, and you want to go to a new place. How much ever you think of it, the name of the place never comes to mind and you end up going to the same old tried-and-tested-and-found-satisfactory-restaurant.

The joy of summer holidays

Going to the village Kanive in Coorg was a tradition during my school years. Owing to the fact that my grandmother lived there (no, we’re not Coorgis though), all my Bangalore and Mysore cousins, we would all travel every summer and winter vacation to join her and another set of cousins who lived there. Those were some of my best holidays. Just eat, play and talk (make noise was more like it!) and explore the surrounding places. There is this unbridled joy at being at a grandparent’s house, especially in a village. It’s something that’s associated with chidhood, something’s that’s pure and innocent. Something that will always invoke fond memories: Of bruised knees, of stories and legends, of head massages, of hot oil baths, of eating freshly picked fruits, of playing hide n seek, of climbing trees, of diving in the river, of running behind the odd vehicle on the road, of sowing seeds in the paddy field, of making all the mischief and getting away with it, of being wild and carefree…those were the days…<sigh>

Well, after my grandmother and family moved to Mysore, I hadn’t visited Kanive. It was almost 6 years since I’d been there. So this time, since we were doing a Coorg vacation (read about that here), we also decided to visit Kanive.