Folks stealing the monies

In recent times, two movies caught a lot of attention generally, for me, one of them was a repeat watch multiple times, out of many reasons — Pride( Malalayam movie made well (as usual I would say!)), a lot of mystery, childhood stories repurposed (Yakshi stories, which we so poorly depicted in old movies, here there was a fresh take on it).

The movies in question are — Lokah: Chapter 1: Chandra and Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1. Loved the fact that these are just chapter 1, the same anticipation of holding on to an Amar Chitra Katha, which still had many more volumes to go back to.

What is it with Myths or Folks, I ain’t sure! In Kerala and other southern states, it is intertwined with our lives. Sad to know that I might belong to the last generation of people who might have read them and have fantasised about them. When I turned to AI bots to help me know which fantasies the young turn to, they were all from Western cultures, which actually didn’t have an identified native people as such, but migrants. So how native they are, and it is for sure not something your grandma might have told you to make you wonder — Really is that so!!!! With eyes fully open. Or are they just taradiddles! Never got the hang of why they enticed, but seeing them getting unveiled on the big screen was amazing.

To get all the aspects of it, in the case of Chandra: Kalliyankattu Neeli, I watched it multiple times. Glad the makers have put a lot of puzzles and clues for the next chapter in this and the Insightful onlooker in me had goosebumps in scenes when the Yakshi is revealed and when her O postive obssesiveness and how without words she gets attracted to the male lead, but never want to hurt him, as she had better purpose which her mother had bestowed upon her. Not just seduce and pounce on the next man she finds, which was how she was depicted in older movies. Glad to see the female perspective being depicted in many aspects in this movie, a fresh one at that. Thanks to the involvement of all, but the credit should go to @santhybee.

Kantara, the 2022 film, was a great watch too, with its depiction of Kolams, which are very prevalent in Coastal Karnataka and North Kerala. Otherwise, they would appear just in religious depictions. Here is how they depicted mythology with rural life and land conflict. While the latest Kantara took the same story to another level , it gives a perspective of spirit worship. This also needs repeated watching to get all aspects. The swift storytelling in the initial frames needs a lot more attentive watching, and production is on a huge scale and magnificent. It needs to be appreciated on a big screen.

Amar Chitra Katha devouring the small girl in me was super glad to see those kinds of stories coming alive.

created with AI

Take notice all other industries, stories are the heros, so getting to the roots always helps.