"Anne of Green Gables" and "The Terrorist"

Two movies I watched last week had an impact on me. One made me blubber like a baby, and the other was simply beautiful.

I don't what made me pick Anne of Green Gables from Netflix. It must have been nostalgia. I was a huge Anne fan as a child. I'd read all the Anne books by L.M.Montogomery. I thought she was charming and engaging and everything I wasn't. Witty, smart, pretty(even though she had red hair. I thought red hair was way better than unevenly sized eyes. Still do). I could lose myself in one of her books for hours. I still remember the day I bought my first Anne book. It was at Higgin Bothams (which btw, is the most exquisite name for a bookstore ever) in Chennai. I was 10 years old. Visiting Chennai during the summer vacation. I bought this book there, and finished it on the train journey back to Pune. I must have re-read that book a thousand times in the next 5-6 years. I was in love. With Anne, and Diana, and Gilbert and the whole lot of them really.

In any case, that particular love affair terminated with my entry into adulthood. I was too grown-up to read childrens' books. So Anne, and Rebecca, and Katy were relegated into the depths of my bookshelf. And then I ordered this Netflix movie. It was like an LSD trip into my childhood fantasy world. It all came rushing back in this one giant wave of long-lost memories. I realise now that Anne is rather a silly child, who has a flair for the dramatic and talks too much. And that imagination of hers. It can only be fictional. But how could I not enjoy watching The "Lake of Shining Waters", and Anne dyeing her hair green, and floating away in a boat, and nearly drowning whilst trying to enact a tragedy? I could not help laughing at this chilhood world where there were only raspberry cordials and lemon pies, no responsibilities, no leaky faucets(!), and no work. And when Matthew died, I couldn't help crying, thanking my stars that Roomie wasn't around to laugh at my silliness.

The second movie was one I'd been wanting to watch for a long time. Santosh Sivan's "The Terrorist" is a visual extravaganza. Tamil Nadu has never looked more ethereal. The forests, the rain, the river. A village house. The temple pool. All captured beautifully. The occasional chants of MS in the background. And really, its a tale of horror, told amidst these verdant surroundings. Malli(Ayesha Dharkar) is a suicide bomber on a mission. It is the story of her journey and the people she meets in the last few days before she is scheduled to blow herself and a prominent politician up. Its like a coming of age movie. Except the prom is a suicide mission. How Malli's thinking is influenced by the discovery of her pregnancy, and the kindness she receives from an innocent man who's home she rents is the meat of the story. Dharkar is powerful, combining innocence with brutality superbly. The child who plays Lotus/Surya is haunting. SS's camera work will stay with me for a long time. Go watch it if you haven't already. Its at the top of my favorite list now.