Thread by @suneel_r

The 80's and my initiation into Kannada pichchars and bengaLoor:
Before my parents showed me my city, or Doordarshan bengaLooru kEndra did. My Bangalorewiki was one single movie and it's title song:

I've seen this film maybe a few hundred times, my parents had taped a telecast of the film, and everytime I fell ill (which was a lot) I would watch the film morning till evening. Over. And. Over again. Needless to say, I'm a diehard fan of The Nag, Shankar Nag.

As a documentation of city life, this is a rather lovely piece of work, lovely in the sense it endears you to the city and its inhabitants. The protagonist himself lives in a vathaara which has a pluralist dynamic. Caste relations are not conveniently avoided in the interactions.

Visually, he shows Mysooru Manmohan Matha seamlessly blend in with pETe, the Mal-gudi suburbs and cantonment. Every part of town is his to venture, and he belongs to everyone. In the film too, a lot of interactions are outdoor or have an outside-in staging

In the title song, he's gregarious and helpful with neighbours and acquaintances alike (yaaru snEhadi baruvaro avare nammowru - Those who reach out with affection are my own people - bad translation) Cheeky with the Establishment, shown by him trolling the Taxman.

In a series of visuals that connect to life in Bangalore, he's a spinning top, a snake that sways, he's as comfortable with death as he is with a daily routine of life. He also shows a Mental hospital, which given urbanisation and how it has affected people, is striking

A spin-off of this rather large canvas is the film Parameshi prema prasanga. The city is very much the same, but this is a more intimate portrayal of some of its more conservative citizens. This was produced by The Nag, but directed by Ramesh Bhatt.

While Mysoori from Nodiswamy is a smoking drinking jiving modern man who empathises with a stressed wife and nagging mother-in-law; Parameshi is a traditional man with a loving marriage, steeped in traditional gender roles that are depicted without too much judgment.

In fact, in Parameshi's life, the plurality of the city threatens his family unit. Lily and her lipstick catalyses his relationship to plummet.

LOL a whole bunch of tweets I'd typed just got deleted. Retyping.

In direct contrast to these films is the brilliant 1985 film Accident. Directed by the Nag, written by Vasanth Mokashi, this gives a brutal look at a burgeoning city of haves and have-nots. The characters aren't ordinary folk, they're kids of politicians

Nodiswamy starts with a pleasing backdrop of the city for it's opening credits, Accident begins with a tersely typed out list of names. With every ding of the Typewriter is the sense that this a journalistic style of narration. A style similarly used in Maniratnam's Guru.

We see our main characters in a swanky car, looking around with disdain at the general ordinariness of the city, loudly expressing disgust as disabled man crosses their path, making a sleazy pass at a woman as they drive by, and then buying what turns out to be a tub of weed.

(won't get into the politics of weed and it's acceptability now, let's just assume the Director is showing ~contraband~ , like later on in the film, they buy "pills" too, which I assume to be some of the stronger recreational drugs)

Watching this for the first time, I was seeing Bangalore like never before. This city was grungy, Confusing, scary and supremely unfair to its vast classes of residents. The final shock is well built up to. And I think two scenes stand out for me as radical depictions of the city

a) With the weed the men go to a stoner party at a friend's house. People are drinking, smoking, hooking up - all narrated with some very frank dialogue:
"Sex & smoke, oLLE combination alla?"
"nimmanna hOg kELu"
'Sex & smoke, a good combo amirite?'
'ask yo mamma'

And later in a post coital conversation between Deepak and the hostess:
"Deepak do you love me?"
"Sometimes"
"You bastard!" *kiss* *kiss*

1985 ladies and gentlemen...

b) the horrific last scene. In this Bangalore, a suppressed and violated subaltern won't just speak, it rise up and seek vengeance. A lifeless head of Deepak tilts to the side on the steering wheel, dripping with blood. Sends a chill down my spine to this day.

Another well known depiction of Bangalore from the period, is from Manirathnam's debut, with Anil Kapoor in the lead. Again a pleasant narration of primarily Cantonment, aided by the sparkly chemistry between the leads. Also, features Chit Chat the restaurant #YouRemember

However as this, and also the depiction in Minchina Ota, the Nag's debut as Director is largely cursory and story moves out of the city, I won't dwell on them.

Minchina Ota in fact, very deliberately transports the viewer into the region of Bombay-Karnataka; Karwar, Dharwad, Hubli et al.. We'll come to this topic later. In the voices of The Nag, the charming Ananth Nag and Uncle Loknath:

While these films are "our" own presentation of Bangalore, I'd like to refer to 2 Important films that were made towards the end of the Decade, by the inimitable Singeetham and UzhagaNayaga. One a magnifying glass at the unfair city, the other the romanticised modern nagara.

pushpaka vimana is an poetic un-spoken work that, not just (like Nodiswamy) shows all the people the city is made of, it strongly underlines the resulting contrast and class conflicts. The high unemployment of the era is of specific interest as it drives the entire story.

is there anyone that didn't fall in love with Amala and Kamal in this film? True story: I ran into Amala at the NFDC filmbazaar 2016 and shared an elevator ride with her. Best 18 seconds of my life, damn near passed out in the end.

In MMKR Bangalore, while not a visual element, it means Modernity and sophistication to one of the Kamals, Madan. It's directly telegraphed by the henchmen stalking Madan lose sight of him in Madras. "Madan is from London and Bangalore, Let's check the few 5 star Hotels in city"

This is also a theme that has continued in some recent films from our neighbouring film industries, I'm looking at you Bangalore Days.. Though in Arya 2, Adrianna SchwazzaRinga insists that neither in BengaLoor nor in MangaLoor did she find a moustachioed man to kiss her.

This thread seems to have grown like level 52 snake on a Nokia 3300, so I've broken the thread and continued here:

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