Month: June 2020

Morgiana



After hearing that their father gave most of his fortunes to his younger sister Klára (Iva Janzurová), Viktorie (same actress) planned to kill her. She poisoned Klara’s tea with a slow-acting fatal substance. But the poison turned out to be not so harmful. Instead of dying, her younger sister started hallucinating dreams. What happened next? Watch it to know more about it. If I may call it, this film is one of the best melodramatic films I have ever seen. Everything from the costumes and makeup is so over the top that at times one might forget that both the characters are played by the same actor. The excessive usage of color gives the film almost a fairy-tale vibe. Music plays a big part in creating a haunting atmosphere. It seems that the story takes place during the late 19th century in a remote Czech town. There is no attempt at social commentary here. If one tries to find out their inner meaning through a Gothic fairy-tale, they are going to be disappointed. Barring the lead, the performances are theatrical, which does suit the mood of the film. The title of the film “Morgiana” is the name of Klára’s cat.  She was the one who knew about Viktorie’s plans from the beginning itself.  She offers another perspective to the story

Tabarana Kathe




The film starts with Tabara Shetty looking at the sky and telling herself” I wonder… Is the sun rising or setting? “.  Tabara Shetty has gone mad and most of her neighbors see it as a relief. They feel that since he has gone mad, he will go to the asylum, and therefore he is not going to cause any further disturbance. Tabara used to work as a guard in the coffee depot. Tabara was an honest, dedicated person. Some workers wanted tax exemption but, according to the rule, Tabara denied their appeal. From that incident, authorities have seen him as a threat. Tabara worked honestly till her retirement. Problems did arise when he started looking for his pension.  Matters got worse when his wife and only companion fell sick with diabetes. A politician offered to help him in return for Tabara’s aid in getting him votes from his area. Slowly Tabara started to lose her sanity. Tabara did hold the view that the system was better under the British Raj. The director didn’t want to justify Tabara’s point of view, but he wanted to show that for many ordinary people, independence didn’t make much sense. Also, for some people like Tabara, situations get worse in a post-independent government. His case became a mere file number in a bureaucratic office. Kasaravalli’s film attacked the indifferent attitude of bureaucracy. The lead actor, Charu Hasan (splendid acting) as Tabara, is a personification of a typical common person. When Tabara failed to manage his wife’s operation, he went to a local butcher and asked if he would amputate his wife’s leg. That was a very intense scene.