My favorite haunting feminine Tamil melodies

௧.  காதோடுதான் நான் பேசுவேன்

௨.  என் காதலா என்னை உயிர் வரைக்கும்  தீண்டாதே 

௩. எவனோ ஒருவன் வாசிக்கிறான்

௪. ஒரு நாள்  யாரோ 

௫. ஒன்றா இரெண்டா ஆசைகள் 

௬. அம்மம்மா கேளடி தோழி 

௭. தூரத்தில் நான் கண்ட உன் முகம் 

௮. தத்தித்தோம்

௯. ஒரு தெய்வம் தந்த பூவே 

௧௦. பொன்மேனி தழுவாமல்

Top 10 movies on personality disorder

10. The clockwork orange.

Anti Social personality disorder



9.   The taxi driver.

Schizotypal personality disorder



8.   Knetter

Cyclothymic personality disorder



7.    Assassination of Richard Nixon

Paranoid personality disorder



6.    Gone with the wind

Histrionic personality disorder




5.    Play misty for me

Borderline personality disorder



4.    Lars and the real girl

Schizoid personality disorder



3.     Elling

Anxious avoidant personality disorder



2.     Sunset  Boulevard

Narcissistic personality disorder



1.    The aviator

Anankastik personality disorder  

The Snake Pit.

The Snake pit [ 1948 ] directed by Anatole Litvak was screened as the movie of the month in the Institute of Mental Health by the Psyche Cine Club on 5-3-2011.

The movie was about a woman named Virginia Cunningham's descent into a psychotic episode and her doctor Kik's attempt to cure her in the backdrop of the state asylum.

Many of the post graduates watching the movie could relate to the movie, as the proceeding of the mental institution portrayed in the movie reflected the institution they are working in.

Dr.Kik is so eager to find the root cause of the Virginia's illness, but the much guarded Virginia's psyche is making it difficult for him to establish the rapport. His colleagues and his superiors are so eager in discharging the patients prematurely to reduce the  burden [ they have much more patients than the beds, much less mattresses then the extra patients, what could they do?]. So he is forced to use ECT to establish rapport soon and succeeds to a certain extent. After much mental sweating(!) he could actually come close to the root conflict that had triggered her psychosis, but she was forced to attend the staff, lead by a group of alien looking committee of doctors , who virtually rags her to prove her sanity, which droves her to a point of biting a chief's finger (the accusing pointing finger). We all know what would be the fate of the patient after hurting some one really important, she was dumped to a worst possible ward, were most of the patients are roaming at the zenith of psychosis. She gets a derealized feeling as if the whole ward has turned into a snake pit. (is it a derealization or realization?).

           (The scene of derealized ward turning into a snake pit in Virginia's mind eye)

But Dr.Kik is persistent in his effort, slowly charting out the psychodynamics behind her illness and addressing it to her in the best possible way. The positive transference developed and resolved in Virginia during the therapy sessions is subtly portrayed ( and also portrayed well the reactions of 'the doctor possessive' nursing staff!).


Discussion after the movie circled around the controversies regarding the psychoanalysis. Most post graduates find it is unethical to meddle with the patient's mind to find the root cause. A good discussion ended with lots of questions than answers, anyway answers only appear after proper questioning, isn't it!

By medications we are manipulating brain's hardware, but Psychiatrists are brain's software professionals, but little they care about mental codings and its abnormalities!

But in the discussion we forgot to talk about Dr.Kik and I think lot could be learned from his portrayal of a psychiatrist, the nuances of gentle yet persistent way of handling the tenderest part of the body, the mind!

The first academy awards!

A function was going on at  'Blossom room Hollywood Roosevelt' hotel in Los Angels, on 16th may 1929!

It was just a simple dinner party attended by about 250 people!

Even the folks in next street didn't know such a function was going on!

No buzz, no media, no hype... Douglas Fairbanks,in his calm voice called out the winners (no secrets... the list was published three months before) and within ten minutes he handed out all the bronze statues!

Every body attended the party returned home,without knowing they had just started a grand movie legacy!

MGM art director Mr.Gibbons paid George Stanley 500 $,to carve out the knight with his sword standing on the film reel!

They called it 'academy award of merit'!

And the most interesting fact was the first recipient of the award,Emil Jannings (mainly for the movie 'The last command') didn't attended the ceremony!

As he preferred to go to his home in Germany,the statue was given to him personally!

Janet Gaynor won the best actress category for the movie 'Seventh heaven' a great romantic movie and also for her roles in 'Street angel' and  'Sunrise'... only time in history an actress won award for roles in different films! (another well titled movie of hers is 'Midnight kiss')

'Wings' won the best movie (and the story is no different from the latest 'pearl harbor'... two army pilots falling for same woman)

Frank Borzage won the best director award mainly for 'seventh heaven' (even 'street angel' is also of his direction')!

And another director shared the award was 'Lewis Milestone' for the movie 'Two Arabian knights... and it was produced by Howard Hughes!

I hope you won't ask who is he.. if u were blessed to watch Leo in 'The Aviator'! 

One flew over cuckoo's nest... a movie revisit!

In the history of Oscars... only three movies hold the honour for making it perfect five... winning all major categories! 

 It happened one night, Silence of the lambs and then this movie...ONE FLEW OVER CUCKOO'S NEST!

I said in one of previous post 'Oscar's Lady'  is Katherine Hepburn... like wise oscar's best friend is JACK NICHOLSON, most nominated actor...

Here he plays the role of a con named McMurphy, who seeks a place in a mental asylum, to escape imprisonment...

Slowly he develops frienship with inmate looneys... and his close one is that tall deaf and dumb(?) Indian, who everybody calls as chief... as to do some good to his new friends... he often breaches the rules of the asylum (at one point, tricking the guards, he takes all the loooneys for fishing in a stolen boat... the most enjoyable scene in the movie)                                                                      

And in no time he becomes the darling of the looneys, but... 

The strict nurse Miltred Ratched (efficiently played by Louise Fletcher) doesn't like it a bit... she wants all the looneys under her thumb's control... but McMurphy proves to be a pain in her ***! 

Not withstanding the hostile environment and those dose of unwanted ECTs (Electro convulsive therapy)  he plans to escape,  before his escape, he gives a great party to the inmates.

and the last few moments of the film is really shocking... transcending the whole movie to be a classic. The casting couldn't be more perfect...especially Christopher Loyd and Danny de Vito excels, playing as lovable looneys!

If you want to see some good realistic acting... catch hold of this DVD!

My Marks: 53 out of 100!

CINEMA PARADISO - a movie revisit

CINEMA PARADISO... Italian movie, my most favorite foreign movie among those won Oscars.

Every true lover of cinema will love this film!

There are two versions available on the DVD.... Original version (118 min) and the recent director's cut version (168 min)

I prefer the latter one... almost the all the extra footage comes at the end... It's far more complete than the original... but irrelevant scenes added, which had no effects except changing the rating of the film from PG to 15+!

The story was told in distinctive three parts.... through the eyes of Salvatore (called fondly as Toto)

The first part says about the young boy Toto (Salvatore Cascio) falling in love with the movies showed in the local village theater called 'Cinema paradiso'... and also his developing friendship with the projectionist Alfredo (Philiphe Noiret)! and the first part is the best part of the movie. To the laborers who were really having a tough time in Italy at 1940... only solace and paradise... was the movie theater! Toto, who had never seen his father, who a soldier gone to Russia, would use every opportunity to slip into the theater without the knowledge of his mother... caught often and beaten often by his mother, he couldn't curb his passion for movies! The boy, with all his wit conquers the heart of Alfredo, who allows the boy to his projection room (against his promises to his mother) and also teaches everything about projectors! one day a fire broke out in the projection room , making Alfredo blind! As no one in the village knows about projectors, little boy Toto gets the job, gets the pay to his mothers pleasure... and gets the life he longed for, always close to his beloved movies!

Second part describes about adolescent Toto's(Marco Leonardi) romance with the beautiful Elena(Agnese Nano)... a college student, who initially hesitates to reciprocate his love! Strong willed to win her heart... Toto after finishing his night show job.... would go straight and would wait in front of her window as promised, till the lights went down... this was his ritual for nearly about 100 days... at last on the eve of new year, when the clock strikes 12, he could see the shadow of Elena coming close to window... with heart beats increased, pulse electrified, he closes his eyes in excitement... when he opened them again, he could see her hands closing the window bit more tight... dejected and devastated he would come back to his world, the small projection room and would tear all her memorabillias... only to see at the end, Elena coming straight to him, he could see her hands closing him bit more tight... no better place for a great romance to bloom, than that projection room... which shows all the tender romance possible to the world! but soon he would lose her... she wouldn't turn to the projection room as promised (as told by Alfredo),after her parents ordered her to stop seeing him... gone crazy as he couldn't find her anywhere... Alfred advises him to leave the village and to leave all the nostalgia... for his own good future and never to return back to that place!

Third part describes, Toto returning almost after 30 years to his village, to attend the funeral of Alferedo... and also the funeral of 'Cinema Pardiso' which last all its business after the revolution of the TV!

In the director's cut, GUISEPPE TORNATORE tries to tie all the loose ends of the romance... Toto meets his last love... she explains why she disappeared (a bit of surprise for audience)... and he got overwhelmed to know that she really loved him... which fills the void in him.... and in us, who watched the original version!

I recommend this movie strongly to all cine lovers... this is a rare passionate movie made as a tribute to movies itself, which succeeds to leave its eternal trace on the viewers!!!

My marks: 72 out of 100

Ode to the movie freedom writers

It was 1994
I imagine myself as a student at room no 203, Woodrow Wilson school, long beach ,California...(there was already enough diversities ... africoamericans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Latinos... an Indian boy will add the spice to the multitude, I think)
As the result of tropical sun burnt skin, I had the permanent black eye due to that white rowdy gang...
At the continuous drill of humiliation, my senses has learnt to close within themselves...
I was just an another inattentive kid, with a vacant stare through the window...
The guy sat next to me always had a pistol inserted next to his cock... and guy at my back had this drooping eyes,may be the cocaine instead of saliva drool from his mouth...
And the gal in front of had this constant grudge that the jail where she were in was lot better than this class room...
And now you know how nice bunch of kids we are...
I hated Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank), at the first sight... with that all white skin, with that all that tidy dressings and with that most irritating.. all white smile!
Like those saintly angelic teachers who jumps from sky in movies to play saviour to the spoilt teen age kids..
"It's not a movie... Erin Gruwell, It's real life... don't play that stupid part of priestly teacher" I wanted to scream at her...
At one point not withstanding our collective indifference and lack of will to heed to any of her words... in an authoritative way she demanded some respect...
"Why I have to respect somebody of whom I don't know a shit about"... some one blurted out, exactly the words I wanted to ask her... she went quiet!
It all started with caricature drawn mocking Sharaud... a black guy who was the main man behind most of the commotions in the class room...
When whole class was giggling at him... nobody expected Erin would jump into his defense...
Caricature like this had lead to the gruesome holocaust.. she said....
Holocaust.... what the damn meant by holocaust?
Only that stupid blond raised his hand, when she asked those in the class who really knows the meaning of holocaust...
she funded and took us a tour to the "Museum of tolerance"...
First time I came to know, the scars all along the history caused by this double edged knife... intolerance!
I was moved... I was moved further when she gave a note book to me and all others in class and asked as to write in it about our lives...
I poured all the staked pains into the papers and submitted it to her...
next time when she addressed me... I could feel she had read every word of mine with utmost sincerity... there at last a soul to take a bit interest in my life...
At that time I didn't know every words we wrote will be published...
She put her own money funding it (to make the end meet she worked in two other part time jobs and the sad part was his husband divorced her as he felt she was no more spending enough time with him)
Now you all know the famous book named The Freedom Writers Diary – How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.
I am a hero now... but who would have thought dumb boy who was aloof constantly staring out of the window detached from all the proceedings from class would end up a hero...
If I say Erin wrote the script for me and 149 other heroes... won't you give her the Oscars blindly for the best original real life screen play ?