Well, today I shall for sure keep up my words and write just about the interesting things that happened over the weekend. The tamil movie 'Azhagiya Theeyae' was playing in one of the mediocre theatres in my locality. You need not stand in a queue to get tickets, search for seat numbers in this theatre. It is under your discretion to sit wherever you want to, under the fan, on the floor, wherever you want to. Though you cannot expect high quality seating arrangements and sound effects, there are always advantages such as not having to wait to get the tickets, a fairly decent picture quality, choose the seating that suits you best. All these are absolute welcome breaks when compared to the disappointment of not getting the tickets or the uncertainty in getting the tickets when you make a hasty decision of watching a movie that runs in a posh theatre.

The movie as such was good. But I am not going to write about the movie, but about the things that I found interesting right from the minute I entered the theatre till the minute the actual movie started.

The screen was kept busy right from the fifth minute I entered the theatre. Our standard FILM DIVISION presents title came up. Unlike the usual faded visual with thousand and one dots on it and the distorted voice in the background of a documentary, this was quite engaging right from the start. You should be surprised if I say that there were a few plaudits for the documentary, considering the fact that there were only a handful in the theatre!!

Well it shows a potter, who makes clay pots and utensils. The frame encloses his house in the background. Guess what the potter and the surrounding is made of? Clay. And how does the director differentiate between the clay utensils and the potter himself? Well till the time the untamed clay is on his wheel, both he and the clay are in a wet grayish green color. Once the puppet potter shapes the clay, it turns into a dry and hard textured red colored object. The potter makes utensils, sells them and makes a living out of it.

One fine day, he decides to make something different. He makes a face. He removes it from the wheel and keeps it aside. And there stands a girl. That’s his daughter. His clay daughter is engaged in the household work all through the day: sweeping and mopping the floor, cooking food, transferring water from the well to the water pots that are nothing but their very own dry and hard textured red colored objects. After a while, in the background, emerges the chorus of students reading out the basics of any language - the ABCs. After our clayey girl is done with the chores, she stands by the window, and mimes the pattern of the letters.

This happens daily. One day, our argillaceous potter, who is seated at the door, takes a break from his routine, looks into the house and happens to notice this. He then turns his head to the right of his wheel and notices a sheet of newspaper. Can you guess what he sees on the sheet? You will not be able to, unless you have seen the picture yourself!! KALPANA CHAVALA. I went, ohhhh cmonnn. Didn’t the director find any person, other than her. Agreed it is a very good concept, and people would readily relate it to the resurging flower power, but somehow it seemed very ugly to see a smiling kalpana chavala attired in a blue suit amongst her other gray haired colleagues.

As long as the director reaches the audience in the right sense it is fine. I suppose the director has a clear understanding of the audience for his documentary. Neither are they a set of MBA aspirants waiting for their turn in a group discussion panel nor are they the censor committee who oppose brain drain.

The unexpected happens next. The potter imagines his daughter in the place of KC. The next minute, he calls his daughter. Takes up some clay and guess what he makes out of his magic wheel? A slate! That’s creativity! - and don’t you ask Who is creative? - it could be both the director and the potter. Slate out of a clay wheel!! Ok fine. Enough of mockery. He hands it over to his daughter and sends her to the school.

I forgot to mention the high point of patriotism. The potter's clayey daughter marches towards the school with pride. The school bears our national flag. Atttttaaaaention!!! Please interpret it as 'attention', but with a tinge patriotic fervency. At the end of it comes the slogan and then the titles.

OK. I am done with blogging for today. Seems like blogging occupies too much of my time space. I suppose it will be so, until I am well versed with the art of writing with minimal thinking, or rather develop the art of writing a final draft as I think. I know that’s a long way to go. By the way, there is one more interesting thing that I wanted to share. I shall write about it the next time I blog. Till then... auf wiedersehen!!