Mechilpuram

Musings Kerala Cafe: Oru Yathra, 10 Kathakal A cafe is what we would associate to - say a new beginning, an ambience that sheds a sense of familiarity to daily routines, relationships and a longing to bask in it's warmth. In the setting of Kerala Cafe however, we journey as a silent passenger. A journey through multiple stories, interwoven to leave you reflecting on how life and situations are perceived by manushyanmar, from different walks of life. Everyone has a story to tell. Intimate, no frills attached and which lends a sense of curiosity. A kind of childish kusruti if you will Stories that speak of yearning and return, of love found and lost, of choices made in haste and the quiet reckoning that follows. Carrying that familiar aroma of manushyanmar, flawed, hopeful and endlessly searching. Kerala Cafe is one journey that I'll cherish forever, for having taken.  Just raw, unfiltered stories that have their kutty cracks in them. Nothing polished, just raw storytelling. Ree...

An image of my hall, with people erased from it Here goes a tale from childhood, when Thursday meant the world for me as a kid in Dubai Skipping the morning ritual of going to school, we would be back by 2:30 pm or so back home. Stowing the schoolbag away under the desk-table - never to be seen until Saturday morning was written in the story, though Amma never approved of that The best part of the day at school, would be having Art or Music classes, where we would be engrossed in drawing a line or two or singing out of tune to leave my music teacher Mr.Tully red-faced. The art teacher Mr. Geoffrey, was a strict person - so there would be no way out of this, though art was'nt my forte. Huddling together to fill in the dotted lines or coloring the pre-drawn picture never meant much. We had to take Faber Castell coloring sets to school! Losing one of them color pencils would be unthinkable After having a rice lunch consisting of Thursday-special chicken curry (courtesy of Amma). The n...

Musings  One of my recent pet peeves has been taking a track that I've been grooving on and focusing on the coordination and steps put forward by the background dancers in them Growing up, they were like invisible - there, but not there. We must remember that this was an occupation in a field that fed thousands. One misstep, and you could be costing immeasurable amounts in production costs to retake the dance scene As a general observation, Malayalam Cinema eventually weaned off background dancers by the late 2000's. This is to say that Ensemble dances sort of lost their charm in the calm wave of Malayalam Cinema - with character centric plots and performance trumping visual treats. Looking back, those were some memorable times. Two tracks that come to mind at this time, are Ente Ulludukum and Kadamizhiyil . Both choreographed dances are a contrast in visual treats to each other, while retaining the same setting , which makes us think how much thought goes into make the dance ...