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Voe is me! As yet I veakly vobble – veary, out of vhack and vonky in the aftermath of vaging vengeful var against a young vhipper-snapper not three moons ago…
Vilful, he indulged in no idle vaffle, but vaded in with no varning. He vielded his veapons – a vorpal* svord? – nay, a velter or varped vords that packed a vallop, vithal.
In a vink did I parry, fought to vrest advantage, though hard strove he to vriggle free, villy-nilly… the vily vrangler!
Yea! Didst the knave declare me a gray fool! (I concede membership only to the former league.)
Alas! The vretch (though a vorthy foe proved he) vanished vhence he came, to vit a vill-o-the-visp, into the ether they dub the Vorld Vide Veb.
*Vith apologies to Lewis Carroll.
© Sosha Srinivasan
“Mom! I’ve got to see The Godfather! By this weekend.”
This was my son, a few days into freshman year at SRM University – Kattankalathur.
I looked at him quizzically, “Sure, but what’s the hurry? Is it an assignment?”
“Nooo… Dennis asked me if I’d watched it… He said I should be ashamed not having seen it, being a VisCom student!”
Dennis was one of his new pals in the undergraduate course in Visual Communication.
“Let me see what I can do.”
A colleague of mine at work was kind enough to lend me her copy on CD and I settled down to watch it a second time.
My first time was about two decades ago and somehow I didn’t much care for it – for several reasons.
My comprehension of the English language is, may I say, above average but I found the dialog hard to follow – especially with Brando mumbling right through I wanted subtitles! And the violence, the extortion and arm twisting, the power hungry shenanigans – all against their own kind – and not least of all the underlying fear all too visible on their women’s faces – left me cold.
So, to quote Meg Ryan’s character in You’ve Got Mail:
“What is it with men and The Godfather?”
I have a theory – a takeoff on the 80:20 rule – 80% of men (and 20% of women) represent the bloodthirsty half of the human species.
Do note that I agree wholeheartedly when critics praise The Godfather in terms of its technical brilliance…
As Thomas Delapa of the Boulder Weekly put it: “One of those sublimely rare movies in which every element–casting, acting, directing, script, cinematography, score–comes together.”
My question is – where is the humanity?
Contrast the Tamil movie Nayagan – said to have been inspired by The Godfather. Perhaps. But an equally good movie technically – and better because it shows a humane side to the don – portrayed as helping the disadvantaged and those in need. Deservingly on Time magazine’s list of “All-TIME” 100 best movies – as was The Godfather.
© Sosha Srinivasan
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