Cinema Connoisseur's Cave

Often, we hear, regarding a film, that the screenplay was not tidy, the story was non-existent, the pacing was slow et cetera. Why yes, the story of the film is very much the crux of any film, it is, however, possible to achieve greatness without much of a story per se.  Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s The Assassin not only makes that possible but becomes a marvel at it. It is the sheer beauty of each frame that makes you forget about the story. Each frame, in itself, is a story. You do not mind the snail’s pace of screenplay as you do not want the frame in front of your eyes to pass. You gorge them. This rare feat makes The Assassin one of the truest visual poetry. For it is poetry. Most of the time we treat the film like a novel. Films are indeed often a visual mean of storytelling. In that regard, it becomes as engrossing as a great story should be. But, films can be a mean of poetry too. Poetry need not have three acts, great characters or a fine climax. Poetry is a b...

Once, Satyajit Ray’s widely regarded masterpiece ‘Pather Panchali’ met the criticism of “Selling Poverty” to urban audience. Quite a handful of Indians criticised it citing it depicts the poor class of India to cater to sentimentalism of western audience. Even Francois Truffaut wasn’t a taker of neo­realism of peasants. However, when the rich was depicted on screen, full of arrogance and debauchery, there was hardly any uproar. In this context, popular television series Game of Thrones had a thought through one of its character which says that the only reason the poor repel us is that show us who we truly are without all earthly attachments, tangible and intangible.  Raam Reddy’s Thithi gives us a character that symbolizes the detachment I am talking about. First let’s see, what the film is about.  Thithi is a Kannada word that refers to the ritual that is performed after the death of a person, post cremation. ‘Century’ Gowda, named understandably for...