Pound A Bowl

The place where I stay is a small town which has weekend markets with everything from vegetable stalls to celtic jwellery stalls.

I love roaming about in these markets.

The best stalls are ' Pound a Bowl ' stalls.
They sell fresh farm fruits and vegetables.
Bowls of fruits and vegetables are arranged in various bowls of same size, and 2-3 people are busy at each stall.
The variety keeps chnaging with availability and there is always a range to choose from.

Grapes, bananas, pineapples, apples, peaches, plums, pears,oranges, grapefruits, melons,passion fruits, summer berries like strawberries, blackberries,rasberries, cherries,dates and a few more fruits that am still trying to identify :-)

Then there are veggies like aubergines (thats brinjals :-) ),pumkins,radishes, cabbages,tomatoes, cherry tomatoes,shallots, spring onions, carrots, spinach, rocket salad(its some kinda greens),gourds, parnsnips, suedes,okra (bhindi), beans, sprouts,parsley,capsicums,cauliflowers,mushrooms and all that.
At times we find flower boquets, small potted pansies sharing space as well.

The aubergines are the shiniest purple i've seen and the berries are the juciest I have tasted.

One person at the front of the stall will be busy shouting
'Pounda Ball - Pounda Ball ' ( Pound a Bowl) interspersed with a more personal note,
' care for fresh grapes - honey? ' ,
'how'bt these aubergines dah-ling ' for a passing by customer.
One person is behind the make-shift counter managing cash - with
'here's your change -dear',
' a bowl of bananas - ya? ',
'yes sweetheart - whatdaya want?'.
'Thats 2 pounds baby' .
This person can be anyone from a cute little elderly lady to a pimply teenager with spikes . But the dialogue is always same :-)

One person is kinda behind-the-scene , refilling the bowls, emptying the crates, stacking goods in that small makeshift stall.

The places are always merry, the products almost always look clean,healthy and inviting and always appear to be the best bargain. The stalls are never messy, the people at the stalls never snobbish or rude and they all seem very happy to have you at the stall.
The business is always quick and by 5.00 in the evening, the stalls are empty and packed up to leave.

Of the small everyday joys that we look for, this one is on my top-10 (or whatever) list and I make sure that on weekends I tick this one off as 'passed with flying colors' :-)

Saagara Sangamam

I happened to watch a very good film yesterday, after hearing loads and loads about it from my hubby and his friends.

Saagara Sangamam.Its fantastic. Its fabulous.

And though am still learning telugu, I had absolutely no problem what-so-ever in understanding the film. Its the mind over matter kinda thing. Language is no obstacle for feelings. They can be communicated beyond such boundaries. ( Which incidently I've come to realise very closely. But more on language barriers later - in some other post.)

Its about an unfortunate but gifted classical dancer, who aspires to make it big in the world of art. He refrains from comprising on the form of art, and persues the art of dance in its purest form.
He is noticed and encouraged by a rich lady. She gets him an opportunity to perform at a platform whch would bring him recognition. He is overwhelmed with this, and wants his aged mother to witness this event.But as fate may be, his mother expires and he does not participate in the event.
After this incident, he becomes attached to the lady, who inspires his art. But again fate intervens, and the day he confesses his love, he comes to know that she is married. He sacrifices his love and reunites her with her husband.
He loses a pillar in his life, and becomes an alcoholic. A few years later, fate brings them together, this time when he reviews a dance performance by her daughter.Her husband has expired.
She finds him, and is crushed to see the state he is in.She revives him and gets him to teach her daughter.
He, as a gesture of his gratitude towards all that she did for him, trains her daughter to master the art, and passes away watching her perform, thus preserving the art and making it immortal.

The songs are beautiful. S. P. Balasubramanyam and Ilayaraaja work magic.

JayaPrada looks serenely beautiful. Acts superb. I've never found her so appealing before.
I don't claim that its her best acting effort or something, but I personally liked her a lot in this particular movie.Its a pity what the hindi movies of 80's and 90's did to her. (all those movies with Jeetendra, Dharmendra and the lot- when all were towards the fag end of their careers)

The supporting cast is also very apt. All are humble, normal characters. No one is larger than life. No one is over the top. Even the small anount of humour here n there in the film is refreshing, and not out of place.
I find these things quite appealing in films.

And now the main protagonist of the film. Kamal Hasan.
I find him extremely methodical and in this film, a perfectionist.
He potrays a gifted classical dancer, and gifted classical dancer he is.
Its a treat watching him on the screen. The dance sequences are lovely.
The way he acts is just superb. You find yourself riding the waves of emotions as he walks us through the film.
There is no melodrama, no extreme emotions or heartwrenching dialogues. The simplicity of it all suffices to make tears flow.

I have a very gawdy impression of south indian movies (Tamil & Telugu), especially the recent ones. Extreme emotion, extreme action, extreme romance,heavy dialogues, heavy heroines ;-) .
One reason for it can be the gawdy remakes that end up in Bollywood. I find them very crude.

But with movies like Sagara Sangamam,Rudraveena, SankaraBharanam, even Chitram Bhalare Wichitram, that impression is definitely altered. There are more such gems, and I would definitely like to view as many as possible.