BEHINDWOODS CELEBRITY COLUMN

Dear readers of ‘talkie with rekhs’

My humble apologies for being absent from this particular column. I’m so overwhelmed by the mails wondering where me and my ‘TWR’ disappeared into oblivion!

I met this amazing gentleman from Enumclaw, a small city in Washington, on December 18^th, 2012. It was at CIFF in Rani Seethai hall and after every screening of a Tamil film I saw a hand go up and a relevant point / question raised in the Q&A that followed.

On that particular day after watching Sundarapandian he got up and posed a question to the director. As luck would have it, the Viscom student who translated his question did so, but conveyed just the opposite! I was so baffled and I thought I had misinterpreted his question and went up to ‘Mr Twiddle’ (of Enid Blyton fame)  and clarified. He nodded his head and said I had got it right. I explained to the director how the context had got lost in translation.

What made my day or should I say the year 2012 was, this gentleman, in his mid 70s, told me, ‘I loved the subtitles, so I could understand the Tamil films I’ve seen so far’. So I promptly thanked him and added, ‘I subtitled them except for 1’ Pat came the reply, ‘so you’re rekhs? I am Lyle Pearson’

We bonded, 2 people separated by infinite miles of ocean and land with one dream, or should I say, same obsession?!

I’d call Lyle Pearson a film historian with illimitable passion. He is a sterling example to my mother’s belief that age is no barrier to following one’s dream.

When Lyle was 6, he made his first slide show out of a cardboard box of ‘Frankenstein meets the Wolf man’. The celluloid-bug caught him that early. With a Masters in theater and Shakespearean films he went to Canary islands in 1968, his first step out of USA. Many adventures later, he landed in Morocco, walked into the 1^st Mediterranean film festival and watched films to his eyes’ content and wrote about them.

Early 1970s he spent in Algeria watching North African films. It was here in a tea shop, he heard a Hindi song ‘tumse hai dil ko’ set to the tune of the Beatles' ‘I wanna hold your hand’. Lyle, then in his 30s found out the song was from the film Jaanwar and he decided he had to go to India.

In 1974-75 he wrote about the Filmfare awards in India.Hearing about his travel and travails I realized he has to meet ‘the other pea in his pod’, none other than our own film curator, oldest and the best, Film news Anandan. The 2 men met,an octogenarian and a septuagenarian, and oh boy! It was like time stood still as they compared notes and spoke about films at length to their souls’ content!

Lyle went back to the U.S in 1980 as he had to nurse his father who died at a ripe old age of 106. In 2006 Lyle got himself a computer. The internet opened a whole new world for him. He could send articles and know if they are accepted in a jiffy, as opposed to the 70s where he had to wait for days to know the outcome. He sure is an awesome example to us.

Contrary to our mental block, age is for sure no barrier to pursuing one’s dream / goal / love.

A brief Q&A

Q1 – Your ‘take’ on the various film festivals in India you’ve attended?

This is a brief compilation (in alphabetical order)

Bengaluru – Most sophisticated audience, biggest plus being films on various dialects showcased.

Chennai – selection of Tamil films disappointing though as far as distance goes, the avid film buff can hop, skip and jump between Woodlands, Inox and Rani Seethai hall with ease. Interesting Q&A sessions

Goa – Commercial Hindi films not shown anywhere else can be watched here plus a very good selection of foreign films

Kolkatta – One gets to watch North Eastern, especially Assam and Manipuri films

Mumbai film festival – Very commercial, the 2 venues are too far apart

Trivandrum – Cinema taken on a more serious note, with a retrospective on Nigerian films (referred to as Nollywood!) he enjoyed watching ‘Phone swap’

Q2- Your take on violence in Tamil films?

A2- I find the violence in Tamil films even more intense, sometimes totally unnecessary. For example, ‘Harmony lessons’ is a Kazakh-German drama film directed by Emir Baigazin. In this film the violent incidents were narrated and not shown, no BGM that hits the ears and brain cells hammer and tongs. In Tamil films it seems to be a style, gratuitous violence (violence for the sake of violence) which doesn’t augur well if it is the new trend that’s here to stay!                                      

Q3 – Subtitles and do you think they disturb the viewer?

A3 – They certainly do not disturb me and they are an extremely essential tool to make the foreigner (to that particular film’s language) understand the nitty-gritty. And definitely a cheaper and better option to dubbing as the flavor is not lost.

Like for example, in ‘Endrendrum punnagai’ which I saw without subtitles, I missed out the importance of Jiiva’s dialogs in the airport scene. Till I was explained, I had a totally different picture of the story.

Q4 – What do you think of slang or words like ‘gonna’ and ‘wanna’ used in subtitling?

A4 – In the film ‘Last detail’ starring Jack Nicholson (1973) screened at Cannes,  American navy slang was subtitled in French the same way and was not well received. I don’t approve of ‘gonna’ and ‘wanna’ as you restrict it to a particular country’s way of speaking, which is not used worldwide.

In ‘The French, they are a funny race’ directed by Preston Sturges (1955) the hero Major Thompson, a widower, marries a French woman who speaks broken English which the producer decided to retain in the subtitles. This is acceptable as it can also showcase the humor in the story.

Q5 – What did you think of your meeting with Film news Anandan today?

A5 – I think it is amazing. I met a man who follows cinema the way I do, with remarkable passion and intensity. But his personal archive should be made public for a wider awareness to other film buffs like me, Viscom students and general public.

To this gentleman who has interviewed Satyajit Ray, who has travelled all the way to India just because a popular Beatles song caught his attention and ears, who has literally moved heaven and earth to attend some ‘out of reach’ festivals…who now in his mid-70s has so much to offer and grasp from life, who still has a spring in his step…I salute you!

Hoping to be with you again, dear readers, before this year bids us tata, bye-bye, cheerio!

rekhs