Comparisions are odious, they say. But cricket fans were forced to compare players from different era while choosing players for a dream eleven team that was announced by ICC before the 2000th test match started between India and England.
The final eleven chosen by lakhs of fans were Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag, Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Adam Gilchrist, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, Curtley Ambrose and Glenn McGrath. It is obvious that the team was chosen by mostly youngsters. Don Bradman’s stupendous average of 99.9 must have led the fans to chose him as hardly any participant could have seen him play. He retired in 1948. His fame has grown over the years and his batting average could well be unbeatable. He is almost like God in cricket and shouldn’t be touched.
But what is surprising is that there is no Vivian Richards, Gary Sobers or anyone from fearsome fast bowling quartet of Roberts, Holding, Marshal and Garner. No Muralitharan or anyone from Sri Lanka, England or New Zealand. I would have included Gary Sobers for Lara and Marshal for Ambrose. Viv Richards would have to be 12th man. Just imagine that !
To avoid heated arguments, it is better to name two teams: One consisting of players up to nineties, and the other comprising cricketers after that. This way one can avoid heated arguments over the selection. Constructing a team of oldies is difficult because one is not familiar with the players before the sixties though their exploits in the field are well known. So I will stick to players from the sixties onwards
Here goes my list : Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Vivian Richards, Allan Border, Javed Miandad, Gary Sobers, Alan Knot, Ian Botham, Dennis Lillee, Malcom Marshal and Richie Benaud. There isn’t anyone from great Indian spinners Prasanna, Bedi, and Chandrasekhar as they were not good fielders. But any one of them can replace Benaud if the situation demands it.
The choice from the four all rounders, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham, is a difficult one to make. Since the team has two fast bowlers, Imran Khan is out. Of the other three, it is anybody’s choice. I chose Botham because he has changed the complexion of a game both with his batting and bowling. The other two had done that with their bowling mostly. Kapil’s batting shone more in ODIs. Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards from South Africa could have been in the team had their career not doomed by apartheid.
The nineties list is easier to fill. Hayden, Sehwag, Ponting, Sachin, Lara, Kallis, Gilchrist, Akram. Warne, Muralitharan and McGrath. If you think that is a fine team. Then look at the bench strength. It has the likes of Dravid, Kumble, Vettori , Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Ambrose, Walsh, Steve Waugh, Azharuddin, Inzamam etc
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Look-alikes 2
I keep finding more look-alikes in life. I had written about a group of people who resemble each other, culled from the familiar faces one sees mostly in cinema and TV, in this blog. I thought some readers might add a few more to the list. But that has not happened. Meanwhile, I have some more cases of close resemblances. And mind you these are based purely on my observations. You may agree or not agree with it
Keyboard prodigy Stephen Devassy has some kind of resemblance to Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni. The similarity is more when they keep straight faces. Their smiles are, however, different.
Director Hariharan and comedian Kuthiravattam Pappu had a striking resemblance when they were young. Hariharan has put on weight and his face is different now. Similarly, Pappu’s looks also changed when he grew old. But just compare their old photographs, you will know what I mean. Incidentally, both are from Kozhikode.
My other examples are from cricket. Former England fast bowler Domnic Cork and South African tearaway pace bowler Alan Donald are look-alikes. When I see either of them on TV, I get confused for a moment. When they smile confusion worsens.
Aleem Dar is a Pakistani umpire officiating in the ongoing IPL matches. Doesn’t he look like former Pakistani fast bowler Waqar Yunus when he was younger? In my previous blog I had found a similarity between England fast bowler James Anderson and actor Jim Carrey. They have company in the form of Latin pop singer Ricky Martin. The resemblance is only from certain angles.
In the current IPL tussle the ousted Deccan Chargers have look-alikes in J P Duminy and Shikar Dhawan. They have almost same facial structure and short crop of hair. When they wear sunglasses, they look like identical twins.
First part of look-alikes can be found in my archives.
Keyboard prodigy Stephen Devassy has some kind of resemblance to Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni. The similarity is more when they keep straight faces. Their smiles are, however, different.
Director Hariharan and comedian Kuthiravattam Pappu had a striking resemblance when they were young. Hariharan has put on weight and his face is different now. Similarly, Pappu’s looks also changed when he grew old. But just compare their old photographs, you will know what I mean. Incidentally, both are from Kozhikode.
My other examples are from cricket. Former England fast bowler Domnic Cork and South African tearaway pace bowler Alan Donald are look-alikes. When I see either of them on TV, I get confused for a moment. When they smile confusion worsens.
Aleem Dar is a Pakistani umpire officiating in the ongoing IPL matches. Doesn’t he look like former Pakistani fast bowler Waqar Yunus when he was younger? In my previous blog I had found a similarity between England fast bowler James Anderson and actor Jim Carrey. They have company in the form of Latin pop singer Ricky Martin. The resemblance is only from certain angles.
In the current IPL tussle the ousted Deccan Chargers have look-alikes in J P Duminy and Shikar Dhawan. They have almost same facial structure and short crop of hair. When they wear sunglasses, they look like identical twins.
First part of look-alikes can be found in my archives.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Southpaws
It’s the IPL season. 20:20 games are a bowler’s nightmare and a batsman’s delight. It is raining fours and sixes in grounds of India. It doesn’t matter if you are right handed or left handed as long as you can hit boundaries. Cricket is a batsman’s game. But IPL endorses it more than any other format of the game. Unless you are a bowler of the calibre of someone like Malinga who can bowl well directed yorkers at will, you will invariably get some stick.
There is whole lot of players from different countries playing for ten different teams. Since there are many southpaws successfully playing the game, it will be interesting to make a team comprising left handers. Players batting and bowling left handed are not many. Majority of them are ambidexterous. That is they either bowl or bat left handed,
So I ‘ve decided to make a team with left handed batsmen who will not bowl if they are right handed bowlers and left handed bowlers who also bat left handed. This is because all the eleven players have to bat. It looks odd if someone bats right handed in a team of lefties.
So here are my choices. As per the IPL rules only four foreign players can be in the team.
Gautam Gambhir
Michael Hussey
Kumar Sangakkara
Suresh Raina
Yuvraj Singh
Ravindra Jadeja
Irfan Pathan
Daniel Vettori
Iqbal Abdulla
Doug Bollinger
Sreenath Aravind
Reserves: Adam Gilchrist, Chris Gayle, Shaun Marsh, J P Duminy, Shakib Al Hassan, Wayne Parnell, Shadkab Jakati, Jesse Ryder, Parthiv Patel, Abishek Nayar, Saurabh Tiwari, Pragyan Ojha.
Some bowlers like Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Jaidev and Prashant Parameshwaran don’t find a place in the team as they bat right handed. I chose Michael Hussey over Chris Gayle as he is more consistent. But in the present form I think Gayle would be the choice. Suresh Raina will lend solidity to the middle order. But both Gayle and Raina will not bowl as they are right hand bowlers. The team has good left arm spinners in Vettori, Abdulla, Jadeja and Yuvraj. Pace bowling may look a bit weak with only Bollinger and Irfan being the experienced ones. Aravind is a young promising fast bowler. In case he fails to fire, one can substitute a foreign player with Wayne Parnell.
Who will be the captain? I prefer Indian captains. Gambhir is doing better than Yuvraj as captain now. So he will be the captain. Sangakkara and Vettori are the choices among the foreign players.
There is whole lot of players from different countries playing for ten different teams. Since there are many southpaws successfully playing the game, it will be interesting to make a team comprising left handers. Players batting and bowling left handed are not many. Majority of them are ambidexterous. That is they either bowl or bat left handed,
So I ‘ve decided to make a team with left handed batsmen who will not bowl if they are right handed bowlers and left handed bowlers who also bat left handed. This is because all the eleven players have to bat. It looks odd if someone bats right handed in a team of lefties.
So here are my choices. As per the IPL rules only four foreign players can be in the team.
Gautam Gambhir
Michael Hussey
Kumar Sangakkara
Suresh Raina
Yuvraj Singh
Ravindra Jadeja
Irfan Pathan
Daniel Vettori
Iqbal Abdulla
Doug Bollinger
Sreenath Aravind
Reserves: Adam Gilchrist, Chris Gayle, Shaun Marsh, J P Duminy, Shakib Al Hassan, Wayne Parnell, Shadkab Jakati, Jesse Ryder, Parthiv Patel, Abishek Nayar, Saurabh Tiwari, Pragyan Ojha.
Some bowlers like Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Jaidev and Prashant Parameshwaran don’t find a place in the team as they bat right handed. I chose Michael Hussey over Chris Gayle as he is more consistent. But in the present form I think Gayle would be the choice. Suresh Raina will lend solidity to the middle order. But both Gayle and Raina will not bowl as they are right hand bowlers. The team has good left arm spinners in Vettori, Abdulla, Jadeja and Yuvraj. Pace bowling may look a bit weak with only Bollinger and Irfan being the experienced ones. Aravind is a young promising fast bowler. In case he fails to fire, one can substitute a foreign player with Wayne Parnell.
Who will be the captain? I prefer Indian captains. Gambhir is doing better than Yuvraj as captain now. So he will be the captain. Sangakkara and Vettori are the choices among the foreign players.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Batsmen too win matches
By winning the cricket world cup on April 2, 2011, Indians have proved wrong the saying that it is the bowlers who win matches. India’s strong batting line-up alone helped it to emerge as champions for the second time in the world cup history.
India had gone into the world cup with a formidable batting power led by Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag. Its bowlers except Zaheer Khan were quite average. Harbhajan Singh was a far cry from the turbaned magician who bamboozled the Australians ten years ago. Though he didn’t get many wickets he was able to contain the batsmen as his name perhaps evoked a kind of awe in the minds of the opposite team based on his exploits in the past.
In 1983, it was the Indian bowlers who did the trick after the team score a paltry 183. Who can forget the banana swing of Sandhu which fetched Greenidge’s wicket. It started the slide. West Indies lost because their batsmen were totally off colour, something which was rare. Their batsmen let them down.
West Indies and Australia dominated cricket when they had champion bowlers like Holding, Garner, Roberts, Marshall, McGrath, Warne etc They were sure to get wickets when they came on to bowl. India had fearsome bowlers in spinners in the seventies. After that Kapil Dev carried the burden as a strike bowler. After he faded out, Kumble was the only wicket-taking bowler India had. But he was not that effective outside the sub-continent.
The strong teams in 2011 world cup like South Africa, Australia and Pakistan had good team of bowlers who could bowl out the entire team. New Zealand’s entry to the semis was a fluke. South Africa had a rare off day. That was the biggest upset in the world cup. For, they had the look of the champions on paper.
If you look at the world cup champions down the years, you can see that they always had a good bowling attack to back up the batsmen. It is sort of 50:50 effort from bowlers and batsmen. If bowlers failed, the batsmen rose to the occasion and vice versa. It was the insipid bowling of India that let Austalia off the hook in 2003 final.
The 2011 Indian team was 70: 30 in favour of batsmen. Most of the teams had batted well against Indian attack in the league matches. India’s batsmen saved the day on most occasions. But chasing anything over 250 in a final is quite tough and challenging. More than skill, it is a test of mental strength of the team. What turned the tide in favour of India were its matches against Australia and Pakistan. Two demanding matches saw that Indian team did not wilt under pressure in the crucial final game against Sri Lanka after the twin strike by Malinga to dismiss Sehwag and Tendulkar.
Yuvraj’s reincarnation as a spin all-rounder couldn’t have come at a more apt time. Since the exit of Kapil Dev, India never had a pace bowling all-rounder except Irfan pathan for a brief while. That slot is still vacant. So is the position of a tearaway fast bowler.
India had gone into the world cup with a formidable batting power led by Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag. Its bowlers except Zaheer Khan were quite average. Harbhajan Singh was a far cry from the turbaned magician who bamboozled the Australians ten years ago. Though he didn’t get many wickets he was able to contain the batsmen as his name perhaps evoked a kind of awe in the minds of the opposite team based on his exploits in the past.
In 1983, it was the Indian bowlers who did the trick after the team score a paltry 183. Who can forget the banana swing of Sandhu which fetched Greenidge’s wicket. It started the slide. West Indies lost because their batsmen were totally off colour, something which was rare. Their batsmen let them down.
West Indies and Australia dominated cricket when they had champion bowlers like Holding, Garner, Roberts, Marshall, McGrath, Warne etc They were sure to get wickets when they came on to bowl. India had fearsome bowlers in spinners in the seventies. After that Kapil Dev carried the burden as a strike bowler. After he faded out, Kumble was the only wicket-taking bowler India had. But he was not that effective outside the sub-continent.
The strong teams in 2011 world cup like South Africa, Australia and Pakistan had good team of bowlers who could bowl out the entire team. New Zealand’s entry to the semis was a fluke. South Africa had a rare off day. That was the biggest upset in the world cup. For, they had the look of the champions on paper.
If you look at the world cup champions down the years, you can see that they always had a good bowling attack to back up the batsmen. It is sort of 50:50 effort from bowlers and batsmen. If bowlers failed, the batsmen rose to the occasion and vice versa. It was the insipid bowling of India that let Austalia off the hook in 2003 final.
The 2011 Indian team was 70: 30 in favour of batsmen. Most of the teams had batted well against Indian attack in the league matches. India’s batsmen saved the day on most occasions. But chasing anything over 250 in a final is quite tough and challenging. More than skill, it is a test of mental strength of the team. What turned the tide in favour of India were its matches against Australia and Pakistan. Two demanding matches saw that Indian team did not wilt under pressure in the crucial final game against Sri Lanka after the twin strike by Malinga to dismiss Sehwag and Tendulkar.
Yuvraj’s reincarnation as a spin all-rounder couldn’t have come at a more apt time. Since the exit of Kapil Dev, India never had a pace bowling all-rounder except Irfan pathan for a brief while. That slot is still vacant. So is the position of a tearaway fast bowler.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Fast bowling all rounders
If Indian cricket team is lacking in something it is an all rounder who can bowl fast or at least fast medium or medium fast. All the other big teams in the world cup have such an all rounder. Some have two. For Australia there is Shane Watson. Jack Kallis for South Africa, Abdul Razzaq for Pakistan, Angelo Mathews for Sri Lanka, Andrew Russell and Kieron Pollard for West Indies, Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara for England and Scott Styris and Jacob Oram for New Zealand.
India has batsmen who can bowl spin like Yuvraj, Yousuf Pathan, Suresh Raina. Virender Sehwag hasn’t bowled in this world cup because of injury. They are at best part-time bowlers and not genuine all rounders in the strict sense. For India after the exit of Kapil Dev, Irfan Pathan was the only who could fit into that role. Saurav Ganguly was too much of a batsman than a bowler and that too of military medium pace.
A real fast bowling all rounder should be at least 60 % bowler and 40 % batsmen. The likes of Shane Watson and Jack Kallis are more batsmen all rounders. But captains rely on them to complete the quota of ten overs. If you look at the great all rounders of the past like Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham, they are all fast bowling all rounders not just in ODIs but in tests too. At times their batting did shine more than their bowling. But they were essentially bowlers who could bat well. They had better bowling averages than batting averages.
In India’s case, the so called all rounders are batsmen but are called by the captain to bowl when the conditions suit them or when other bowlers are giving too many runs. Irfan started as a good swing bowler. But he lost pace and ability to swing probably due to a faulty action while his batting improved considerably. But he was in the team primarily as a bowler. When wickets dried up he lost his place in the team. I’m hoping that he will make a comeback.
In ODIs such an all rounder gives plenty of options to the captain of the team as he can be the fifth specialist bowler who can lend solidity to batting in the lower order. Indian team in this world cup has played matches so far with four specialist bowlers and seven batsmen and has been struggling to get the combination right. The other teams don’t face this problem as they have a fast bowling all rounder. Of course some teams face a dearth of a good spinner but that is another matter.
Even if India wins the world cup, I think to maintain its supremacy as a top ODI team a fast bowling all rounder is essential as the batsmen acting as part-time spinners may not be that effective in the pitches outside the sub-continent. When Australia reigned as a champion team for around ten years since late nineties, it had Steve Waugh and Andrew Symonds playing this role efficiently.
India has batsmen who can bowl spin like Yuvraj, Yousuf Pathan, Suresh Raina. Virender Sehwag hasn’t bowled in this world cup because of injury. They are at best part-time bowlers and not genuine all rounders in the strict sense. For India after the exit of Kapil Dev, Irfan Pathan was the only who could fit into that role. Saurav Ganguly was too much of a batsman than a bowler and that too of military medium pace.
A real fast bowling all rounder should be at least 60 % bowler and 40 % batsmen. The likes of Shane Watson and Jack Kallis are more batsmen all rounders. But captains rely on them to complete the quota of ten overs. If you look at the great all rounders of the past like Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham, they are all fast bowling all rounders not just in ODIs but in tests too. At times their batting did shine more than their bowling. But they were essentially bowlers who could bat well. They had better bowling averages than batting averages.
In India’s case, the so called all rounders are batsmen but are called by the captain to bowl when the conditions suit them or when other bowlers are giving too many runs. Irfan started as a good swing bowler. But he lost pace and ability to swing probably due to a faulty action while his batting improved considerably. But he was in the team primarily as a bowler. When wickets dried up he lost his place in the team. I’m hoping that he will make a comeback.
In ODIs such an all rounder gives plenty of options to the captain of the team as he can be the fifth specialist bowler who can lend solidity to batting in the lower order. Indian team in this world cup has played matches so far with four specialist bowlers and seven batsmen and has been struggling to get the combination right. The other teams don’t face this problem as they have a fast bowling all rounder. Of course some teams face a dearth of a good spinner but that is another matter.
Even if India wins the world cup, I think to maintain its supremacy as a top ODI team a fast bowling all rounder is essential as the batsmen acting as part-time spinners may not be that effective in the pitches outside the sub-continent. When Australia reigned as a champion team for around ten years since late nineties, it had Steve Waugh and Andrew Symonds playing this role efficiently.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
In praise of saree
Draping a saree is an art by itself. The five to six metre piece of cloth needs to be worn skillfully or it could end up revealing more than what it conceals. Certain women look good in sarees and certain don’t. It is as simple as that
Do all tall women look good in saree? Height is certainly an advantage but shorties too can look equally elegant in a saree. It all boils down to how you wear and carry it, whether you are tall or short doesn’t matter.
Today, young women keep it for special occasions. Most office goers shun saree and opt for the ubiquitous churidhar kameez for the sake of convenience. They can’t be blamed because saree doesn’t give the freedom that churidhar does while traveling in a bus or riding a two wheeler. Generally, churidhar kameez is considered a safe bet as it covers the body and hides love handles as well!
There is another reason for evading saree. Just walking along the road wrapped in one can be tricky. If careless, this wonderful piece of garment can offer an open invitation for oglers and eve-teasers. But to those keen on flaunting their body covertly there is nothing to beat saree. It has given saree a dubious reputation in films. For songs shot in rain, the actress inevitably has to wear transparent sarees to get the seductive look. A clinging wet saree will melt hero’s heart faster than ice. Yes, there are a few saree aficionados who consider it safer and surprisingly feel exposed in churidhars !
I plan to focus on the celebration of saree. Since there are lots of celebrities, right from Indira Gandhi to my former colleague Leela Menon, who can make saree look like the best dress designed for women, I’ll limit the write-up to actors who stand out in the crowd in a saree.
Vidya Balan comes to the mind first. Here is someone who takes pride in donning one when saree is given the least sartorial preference in Bollywood. Saree with the combination of long sleeved blouses gives her killer looks something which other women crave for in variety of glam clothes. She played Amitabh Bacchan’s mother in Paa. But she pulled it off wearing lovely sarees that amplified her improving acting skills
The picture of Zarina Wahab in a saree is forever entrenched in the mind of Malayalis. After the runaway hit Madanotsavam in which she appeared mostly in western clothes, people were thrilled to see her in a simple Kerala saree crooning the melodious `naadha nee varum’ in Chaamaram. A North Indian, she looked every inch a Malayali in the film. Again in the movie Paalangal, she looked equally splendid in saree.
Sumalatha, who played the heroine of Mammootty and Mohanlal in several films, has a body which lends itself to wearing a saree. Her height is a plus point. Saree brings out her beauty in the song `Poomaname’ from Nirakkoottu
Shobana never looked more beautiful than when she was in saree. Saree began to look good on her in the late eighties as she began to mature as an actress. In the nineties she was the best advertisement for saree. One can’t imagine Ganga in any other dress but saree in Manichitrathazhu. Any other dress won’t have the same effect. Ok, in the crucial scene she came in dancer’s attire. But that was for a short time. In the Hindi version Vidya Balan was the right choice for Shobana as she is another stunner in saree.
Going further back to Seventies, saree nearly slipped out of fashion. Bell bottoms were the rage. Saree was the rule and not the exception before this period. Sharmila Tagore, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi and Neetu Singh, Mumtaz etc ushered in a craze for fashionable wear. But saree held its own, thanks to heroines in serious films. I should say that Sharmila was quite graceful in a saree especially in Bengali films. Hema Malini did wear saree to a good effect in some movies. But being a natural beauty she looked riveting in any other dress like Aishwarya Rai or Madhuri Dikshit.
But the same cannot be said for cat-eyed Rakhee. I can’t visualize this Bengali beauty in any other dress. She was a typical example of saree suiting a short person. Just have a look at her in films Blackmail, Trishul, Kabhi Kabhi, Muqaddar Ka Sikander and Jurmana. The song `Sawan ke jhoole pade’ in Jurmana has her ample pallu billowing in the breeze to the words `aanchal na chode pawan.’. Another not-so-popular actress Vidya Sinha was gorgeous in saree despite her pleasantly plump body. Anybody who has seen the movie Rajnigandha will vouch for that.
Cut to new millennium and you have the glamorous Sushmita Sen in a saree sweeping a hapless Sharukh Khan off the feet in Main Hoon Na. So ravishing she looked that the viewers did not mind the fact that the saree didn’t cover all the parts of her six-foot frame.
When I discussed this topic with my friends they told me not to forget the doe-eyed south Indian beauty Bhanupriya. Saree adds to her dusky charms. Bhanupriya in saree made watching Azhakiya Ravanan a memorable experience. Like Bhanupriya, eyes are the first thing you notice in Madhavi. The allure of her eyes topped by a prominent bindi together with the simple and chic sarees she wore had a devastating effect on the Malayali viewers in the eighties. This was before she became popular as Unniyarcha of Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha. She projected a dignified persona totally different from her swimsuit-clad sultry siren image in Tamil films.
Sneha has taken saree to greater heights. She looks elegance personified in a saree. I’ve seen her appear in many Tamil song scenes in a saree. No wonder the heroes are floored! Talking of dark beauties one can’t ignore Nandita Das. Saree enhances her appeal. How quietly sensual was she in a saree in 1947 Earth.
Among the present lot of Malayali heroines Samvritha Sunil alone stands out in saree. Her height obviously helps to make her lovely in a saree. I’ve also felt that saree suited Samyukta Varma more than other dresses.
My fervent hope is that saree doesn’t run out of fashion in the invasion of new dresses over the years. For saree does make many Indian women more beautiful.
Do all tall women look good in saree? Height is certainly an advantage but shorties too can look equally elegant in a saree. It all boils down to how you wear and carry it, whether you are tall or short doesn’t matter.
Today, young women keep it for special occasions. Most office goers shun saree and opt for the ubiquitous churidhar kameez for the sake of convenience. They can’t be blamed because saree doesn’t give the freedom that churidhar does while traveling in a bus or riding a two wheeler. Generally, churidhar kameez is considered a safe bet as it covers the body and hides love handles as well!
There is another reason for evading saree. Just walking along the road wrapped in one can be tricky. If careless, this wonderful piece of garment can offer an open invitation for oglers and eve-teasers. But to those keen on flaunting their body covertly there is nothing to beat saree. It has given saree a dubious reputation in films. For songs shot in rain, the actress inevitably has to wear transparent sarees to get the seductive look. A clinging wet saree will melt hero’s heart faster than ice. Yes, there are a few saree aficionados who consider it safer and surprisingly feel exposed in churidhars !
I plan to focus on the celebration of saree. Since there are lots of celebrities, right from Indira Gandhi to my former colleague Leela Menon, who can make saree look like the best dress designed for women, I’ll limit the write-up to actors who stand out in the crowd in a saree.
Vidya Balan comes to the mind first. Here is someone who takes pride in donning one when saree is given the least sartorial preference in Bollywood. Saree with the combination of long sleeved blouses gives her killer looks something which other women crave for in variety of glam clothes. She played Amitabh Bacchan’s mother in Paa. But she pulled it off wearing lovely sarees that amplified her improving acting skills
The picture of Zarina Wahab in a saree is forever entrenched in the mind of Malayalis. After the runaway hit Madanotsavam in which she appeared mostly in western clothes, people were thrilled to see her in a simple Kerala saree crooning the melodious `naadha nee varum’ in Chaamaram. A North Indian, she looked every inch a Malayali in the film. Again in the movie Paalangal, she looked equally splendid in saree.
Sumalatha, who played the heroine of Mammootty and Mohanlal in several films, has a body which lends itself to wearing a saree. Her height is a plus point. Saree brings out her beauty in the song `Poomaname’ from Nirakkoottu
Shobana never looked more beautiful than when she was in saree. Saree began to look good on her in the late eighties as she began to mature as an actress. In the nineties she was the best advertisement for saree. One can’t imagine Ganga in any other dress but saree in Manichitrathazhu. Any other dress won’t have the same effect. Ok, in the crucial scene she came in dancer’s attire. But that was for a short time. In the Hindi version Vidya Balan was the right choice for Shobana as she is another stunner in saree.
Going further back to Seventies, saree nearly slipped out of fashion. Bell bottoms were the rage. Saree was the rule and not the exception before this period. Sharmila Tagore, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi and Neetu Singh, Mumtaz etc ushered in a craze for fashionable wear. But saree held its own, thanks to heroines in serious films. I should say that Sharmila was quite graceful in a saree especially in Bengali films. Hema Malini did wear saree to a good effect in some movies. But being a natural beauty she looked riveting in any other dress like Aishwarya Rai or Madhuri Dikshit.
But the same cannot be said for cat-eyed Rakhee. I can’t visualize this Bengali beauty in any other dress. She was a typical example of saree suiting a short person. Just have a look at her in films Blackmail, Trishul, Kabhi Kabhi, Muqaddar Ka Sikander and Jurmana. The song `Sawan ke jhoole pade’ in Jurmana has her ample pallu billowing in the breeze to the words `aanchal na chode pawan.’. Another not-so-popular actress Vidya Sinha was gorgeous in saree despite her pleasantly plump body. Anybody who has seen the movie Rajnigandha will vouch for that.
Cut to new millennium and you have the glamorous Sushmita Sen in a saree sweeping a hapless Sharukh Khan off the feet in Main Hoon Na. So ravishing she looked that the viewers did not mind the fact that the saree didn’t cover all the parts of her six-foot frame.
When I discussed this topic with my friends they told me not to forget the doe-eyed south Indian beauty Bhanupriya. Saree adds to her dusky charms. Bhanupriya in saree made watching Azhakiya Ravanan a memorable experience. Like Bhanupriya, eyes are the first thing you notice in Madhavi. The allure of her eyes topped by a prominent bindi together with the simple and chic sarees she wore had a devastating effect on the Malayali viewers in the eighties. This was before she became popular as Unniyarcha of Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha. She projected a dignified persona totally different from her swimsuit-clad sultry siren image in Tamil films.
Sneha has taken saree to greater heights. She looks elegance personified in a saree. I’ve seen her appear in many Tamil song scenes in a saree. No wonder the heroes are floored! Talking of dark beauties one can’t ignore Nandita Das. Saree enhances her appeal. How quietly sensual was she in a saree in 1947 Earth.
Among the present lot of Malayali heroines Samvritha Sunil alone stands out in saree. Her height obviously helps to make her lovely in a saree. I’ve also felt that saree suited Samyukta Varma more than other dresses.
My fervent hope is that saree doesn’t run out of fashion in the invasion of new dresses over the years. For saree does make many Indian women more beautiful.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Unknown melam fan
In the sea of wildly flaying limbs, I see his arms. There he is in the jostling crowd enjoying the paandi melam at Maradu temple festival. His arms are up in the air, active as usual, setting the tone for the melam rhythms. A languid smile lights up his thin mustachioed face as he stands there soaking up every nuance of the beats.
This piece is dedicated to an unknown man who I keep seeing at temple festivals. Wherever there is percussion–dominated temple ensemble or melam, in local parlance, in Ernakulam town and suburbs, he is invariably there.
By just looking at his arms you can gauge the changes in the rhythms. The melam proceeds at a leisurely pace and it seems a piece of cake for an avid melam devotee like him to judge the shift in the cadence.
His arm measures the rhythms and in between he extends it to signal the change in the tempo when all the instruments- chenda, elathalam, kombu and kuzhal join in unison. The slow and fast tempo alternates as the beats gather pace. In about two hours (sometimes it takes longer) the intervals between the ebb and flow of the orchestra disappears by which time the beating of chendas (drums) will reach a deafening high.
All this while he never loses focus and stands rooted to the spot in front of parasol-bearing caparisoned elephants lazily flapping their massive ears. His arms never get tired. If his right arm flags, the left one takes over.
As the pace of the melam quickens, so does his expressions. The smile is replaced by an ecstatic grin. Both his arms now come into play. His whole body sways slightly in tandem with the undulating beats. As the frenzied rhythms swell, he waves his arms and lets out a cry of joy inaudible in the thunderous reverberations of vigorous beating of chendas by over 100 performers and the roar of the cheering crowd. You have to make out the signs of mild shout from the puckering of his lips. I feel that the mela pramani,the chief drummer controlling the show,who in this case is none other than Peruvanam Kuttan Marar, picks up the cue for change in the cadence from this man's arms as he always stands face-to-face with the drummers.
The melam reaches a crescendo and then comes to a close. As the musicians pack up, he dissolves into the crowd as unobtrusively as he comes. I think of meeting him after the melams, but he has never given me a chance.
Whenever I go to listen to a temple melam, be it a panchaari, pandi or panchavaadyam, my eyes keep searching for this man’s face. It is probably easier to spot his arms as they will be precisely counting the rhythms. It is always a delight to watch him as he enlivens even a lull during a melam.
This piece is dedicated to an unknown man who I keep seeing at temple festivals. Wherever there is percussion–dominated temple ensemble or melam, in local parlance, in Ernakulam town and suburbs, he is invariably there.
By just looking at his arms you can gauge the changes in the rhythms. The melam proceeds at a leisurely pace and it seems a piece of cake for an avid melam devotee like him to judge the shift in the cadence.
His arm measures the rhythms and in between he extends it to signal the change in the tempo when all the instruments- chenda, elathalam, kombu and kuzhal join in unison. The slow and fast tempo alternates as the beats gather pace. In about two hours (sometimes it takes longer) the intervals between the ebb and flow of the orchestra disappears by which time the beating of chendas (drums) will reach a deafening high.
All this while he never loses focus and stands rooted to the spot in front of parasol-bearing caparisoned elephants lazily flapping their massive ears. His arms never get tired. If his right arm flags, the left one takes over.
As the pace of the melam quickens, so does his expressions. The smile is replaced by an ecstatic grin. Both his arms now come into play. His whole body sways slightly in tandem with the undulating beats. As the frenzied rhythms swell, he waves his arms and lets out a cry of joy inaudible in the thunderous reverberations of vigorous beating of chendas by over 100 performers and the roar of the cheering crowd. You have to make out the signs of mild shout from the puckering of his lips. I feel that the mela pramani,the chief drummer controlling the show,who in this case is none other than Peruvanam Kuttan Marar, picks up the cue for change in the cadence from this man's arms as he always stands face-to-face with the drummers.
The melam reaches a crescendo and then comes to a close. As the musicians pack up, he dissolves into the crowd as unobtrusively as he comes. I think of meeting him after the melams, but he has never given me a chance.
Whenever I go to listen to a temple melam, be it a panchaari, pandi or panchavaadyam, my eyes keep searching for this man’s face. It is probably easier to spot his arms as they will be precisely counting the rhythms. It is always a delight to watch him as he enlivens even a lull during a melam.
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