Female Indian Villan

I read a post on another blog (that I cant remember now and when I do I will link it) about female villains of how Glenn Close is an awesome female villain.

Usually being a female villain is no fun, especially on TV, and even in some movies. You have to wear terrible make up and plot all day about how to make life more difficult for your bahu, adopted daughter, step daughter having to create torture devices with items like tea, jhaadu, etc. Their male villain companions are also disappointing and fickle, always ditching the female villain while trying to escape or the male villains turn righteous in the end and give long homilies about women and their place.

(I know I know some of the ladies above may actually be the ‘good guys’ but they look villainous to me)

The female villains usually don't get armies of flunkies, or tanks of liquid oxygen, or other diabolical torture devices involving electricity and glittering button panels. Those belong to the male villains alone. The female villains are allowed to dress as eccentrically and as ridiculously as the male villains though. Remember Rohini hattangadi Chaalbaaz?

There other kind of female villain to be- is the super hot one- the one who is either a. oversexed narcissist b. over sexed ball breaker c. over sexed manipulator (kaikeyi/macbeth-take your pick). This villain has a little bit more fun than the make up caked domestic trouble maker above- cos she gets around, she sleeps around. She is everywhere- in the office, in her skimpy clothes, trying to get that young fellow to sleep with her. She is sunning in the islands in her bikini plotting to bump off her rich husband. She is obsessive crazy and has only one thing on her mind- Evil (why what did you think I was going to say?)

What I like about female villains is that they are ruled completely by their villainous desires. There is no grey, no difficult childhood, no trauma of watching father getting murdered that turned them into psycho revenge seekers, no political power play happening.
In her intent to do evil, the female villain of today is somewhat like the male villain of long ago like Mogambo and Gabbar who were probably born plotting who they'd rape and which village to terrorize. However Gabbar and Mogambo's had armies and mansions and private nations they ruled, while our female villains have to just do all the bad work themselves- and on a much smaller scale too- no nations to blow up just marriages to break.

This not to say that there have not been regular people female villains treading the line between the super ridiculous and super hot. They are just regular people, who just happen to be villany- like - there is Kajol in Gupt, Tabu in Maqbool . However, they are too few and too far in between.

The male villain seems to be getting more complicated and less stereo typically evil -like John Abraham in Dhoom and Hritik Roshan in Dhoom- 2, Saif as Cyrus in Being Cyrus, and as Langda Tyagi in Omkara. Akshay Kumar, Emraan Hashmi have also started playign a new brand of villain who is evil all right but has 'layers'. So, its upto to the ladies to hold up the flag for being Evil for the sake of Evil. I would love to see Mad Scientist Evil Female Villain, or just evil evil corrupt politician female villain.

Ladies- you can be good or bad- you just cant be complicated.

PS: I actually started this post wantign to blog about my all time favorite female villain- Ramya- as Nilambri in Padayappa but got sidetracked. Next post- on Nilambri.

:(

Hindu newspaper article: Random attacks on young women- Bangalore.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/26/stories/2009022658410300.htm

Story of one such Attack -
http://www.babajob.com/person.htm?user=10041

Blogpost doing the rounds via emails about attack in resthouse road-
http://vishshanker.sulekha.com/blog/post/2009/02/this-happened-in-bangalore-bengaluru-shocking.htm

and what to do?-
Maybe some answers here

How

is it that this mobile phone survives being swallowed and shat out by a buffalo while mine dies in shallow fake pond/pool?

silly 6

Ponderings:


- is masakali a dove or a pigeon- she(he?) looks like a dove, but have heard it was supposed to be a pigeon edited to add: I have been told masakali is dove- but what i want to know is what masakali is in movie- is it dove playing pigeon? or is it dove playing dove? I cant remember -but i think someone called masakali kabootar in movie

- why patti waheeda rahman has no relatives/siblings/cousins in delhi? only nosy neighbors

- why sonam kapoor, is so annoying despite being very pretty. Is it the 'feather' haircut?

- why abhishek bachan has been cast as roshan, despite being so annoying?

- which monkey gave better performance- abhishek in gems type button monkey suit or camera on steroids jumping to crazy janga wanga woiza toiza music?

- abhishek bachan/roshan fellow has no job? He can take long undefined leave at moments notice...never has to call back boss, check work mails nothing. Maybe he is student?

- why abhishek bachan/roshan fellow keeps going round and round chandini chowk and not hanging out pubbing and clubbing in CP- which I think he'll like better.

- why abhishek bachan/roshan fellow could not ditch that stupid phone and get a proper digi cam, now that they are quite affordable.

- why abhishek roshan would fall in love with Bittu/sonam, why would sonam/bittu fall in love with abhishek/roshan

-why wahedda rahman patti is lighting a lamp when abhishek/roshan is being beaten to death in monkey suit

- isnt is nice that nobody actually dies, despite so much talk of dying peoples.

Kancheepuram shines and fab india fades

I finally did it. I accompanied amma to a carnatic music concert.

A brief trip with her to madras during the music season had left me somewhat scarred. While all the concerts were superb - my impressionable soul was scarred by the appearance of previously unknown extend clan members such as chinna thatha's mudal ponnu,* T nagar pattu teacher**, Kotturpuram mele veedu mami***, periama's US naathnaar**** - all kancheepuram saree clad and immediately appraised of my age, my gothram, my ability to cook (or not cook- depending if she felt close enough to the person in question to admit my deficiencies), my inability to sing but ability to appreciate music. This would be followed by an interrogation by kancheepuram maamis- skillfully ranging from - which ragaam did I most appreciate, -what I thought of the singer, -if i could adjust to life abroad, -whether I planned to let my hair grow,- did I notice the singer falter in her second composition? All of which I has no response for - the degree and intensity of the swaying of some music academy type ancient person's head in the audience was my measure for whether something was good or bad.

It was very traumatic and filed away to be revived to cheer myself up after particularly bad vivas or RCC interviews. They were a piece of cake compared to music season kancheepuram maamis.

So I went with some trepidation to Good shepherd's auditorium in Bangalore to hear Nithyashree sing. We dint run into one acquaintance and while the regular mamas and and maamis were there, they seemed somewhat disprited, the kancheepurams a we bit less shiny, and the kancheepurams looked anxiously around them at the long haired boys and girls in fab india faded kutras jute bags and digital cameras. I even saw a girl in a business suit- pants shirt a blazer -in plaid. I saw some short skirts and someone in something that resembled a fur jacket. It was very disconcerting - watching the energetic and eager fab india kurta clad music listeners or office wear clad music listeners who turned up apparently simply to listen to music and did not have on their agenda to find their long lost yet very close family friends and pounce on unsuspecting your girls and boys and size up their potential. I unconsciously found myself checking to see if my pottu was in place and gave a loud sniff when a knee length cargo clad bald boy hurried to find his seat- reaffirming my kinship to kanjeepuram maamis.

(I promise not to turn into one of them tho)

post about actual concert coming up.

*chinna thatha's mudal ponnu, - grandfather's younger brothers eldest daughter
**T nagar pattu teacher- music teacher from T Nagar
*** Kotturpuram mele veedu mami- the lady who lives on the top floor in Kotturpuram
****periama's US naathnaar - mother's sister's sister in law who now lives in the US.

Cross Posting

go see my post on riffcafe

http://riffcafe.blogspot.com/

.

Angst

Had a conversation with the a friend today who remarked in a rather conversational manner how all of us were so interchangeable. Well you know who the "us" my friend is referring to don't you? Well, its us -the ones who want to take up travel journalism, or work with children, or take up designing and give up our high paying jobs. To be wealthy and to do be good at whatever is making you wealthy just does not cut it. The us- the ones who are jaded, who laugh when somebody says that a long chat later they discovered they were in love, the ones who also moan about how we will never find that love we laugh at precisely because we laugh at it. The ones who just have too much work but are too numbed by it for it to be enjoyable. The ones whose idea of socialization means a drink and certain kind of music and maybe certain kinds of movies. The us who cannot have any other activities besides our jobs in our life- not even families, and are constantly vaguely unhappy knowing there is something more out there.

Well I think its all bollocks. Well not ALL bollocks but some bollocks. I think that this angst/discontent is a sort of social visiting card. Something that you hand out to other people you meet that says - hi i am a young working professional, working at[insert law firm name/financial institution name/consulting firm name], and (in most cases) live by myself in [insert big city] and (in some cases- ok few cases) lets do each other or (as in most other cases) lets go get a drink and hang out.

I agree most of the set may in fact be sad or discontent or angsty or frustrated - but not this homogeneously angsty or discontent. I am sure beneath the required amount of angst to classify one's social set there are genuinely happy or sad or excited or childish or mature people who are uniquely unhappy or discontent

To quote Big Feet (who in turn quoted Tolstoy) : every sad story is different. every happy story is the same