Art imitates nature-Yuddham Sei(Munch's Scream)

 It is not rare to see the movies which have an inspiration from something in surroundings. I am not talking about copycat, adaptions or any other media issues. But I tell that sometimes art can be the reflection of artist's personal feelings. Or it may hugely obsessed with the atmosphere of the artist.In one interview mysskin says that yuddham sei inspired by Edvard Munch's hunting the scream.The scream is written by munch and lately, he draws the painting which is famed in the lists of famous painting like Monalisha and which is one of the highest sold painting.It is a modern art by munch with multiple colors and freehand patterns.

  Munch once mentioned in his diary he had been screaming with fear and anxiety and at the time his sister was admitted to hospital for insanity.Munch's sheltering place was not much distance from the asylum.This may reason for his screaming.In the writing of Munch, he writes

"I was walking along the road with two friends
The Sun was setting – the Sky turned blood-red.
And I felt a wave of Sadness – I paused
tired to Death – Above the blue-black
Fjord and City Blood and Flaming tongues hovered
My friends walked on – I stayed
behind – quaking with Angst – I
felt the great Scream in Nature.."

Munch's Scream

 Those two men in the bridge have not cared about his scream. It shows that the man cries inwardly. He is completely unheard in nature.And no one seems to hear it. Because it is in his head. Like our protagonist who missed his sister and screams himself. His isolation anxiety is a complete match to the main figure in the painting.In the above lines, he writes "Sky turned red as blood", which represent the disgusting dead bodies, separated hands of victims in the movie. And it creates sad inevitable feelings among the audience. There is a scream among all characters in the film.

 Apart from the protagonist, it reflects the artist the artist's personal experience, like munch Mysskin's scream, reflects in his art. Before we start this discussion, let us view munch's scream once again.His fear is not about only for his family but also for the atmosphere. In that painting, air and water are represented as curved lines which is the symbol of decay. So many argue that that is an interpretation of pollution in Norway in that particular time period. Of course, the painting drew in the industrial age of his country so the scream can come from nature. And this is a reason why Oscar Wilde writes the line," Art imitates nature.."

In Tamil Nadu at the period of film release crime rate is very high. Many women and school children kidnap occurs in the state. According to 2011 reports, we get this point clearly. And also mysskin wites one dialogue," Unga veetla ipdilaam nadantha summa viduveengala..",which is the scream of nature or artist.

Like my previous statement, it is easy to see the art with artist's internal thoughts.You may wonder how the single piece of art inspires the film story. It does not help mysskin for write the entire plot, but it helps to set the mood for the storyline which is filled with dark and sorrow.So listen to nature, observe your surroundings and people, it may help you to hear the uncared screams as an artist.

Christopher Nolan - The Opening shots

   Nolan's movies hugely inspired by the traditional 3 act story structure. And mostly the contents of the theme hooked in the beginning in his movies. And he is the one who knew how to make astonishing visuals to impress the audience.Major elements of magical realism appeared in those visuals.So let us examine the opening shots of Nolan movies.And how they tell the story of the film.

Prestige: Clones and Twins

   These pictures are the initial frames of the first scene in prestige. And those are brilliantly placed at the narration of Michael Caine. We see a bunch of caps lying on the ground and the next shot birds with similar appearances. While story moving forward we know that they are cloned caps of Angier. So the first shot represents duplicates of Angiers are clones and Bordens duplicates are twins it symbolically represented by the birds in the cage.Headless magician caps meant the died clones of Angiers. It is not different from the story and even caged birds have the same looks but they are not clones same like Borden's case.

Memento: Reverse shot

   The Polaroid photo vanishes itself and gets back to the camera and the bullets also do the same thing. Of course, it is the reverse shot for the purpose. And it tells, the story of the movie will be told in a reverse manner by the director like these scene. Nolan placed some metaphors in this scene. The vanishing photo stands for Leonardo's vanishing memories and his memory conditions. And we see the dead man in his polaroid photo before we know that he is the murderer of that man same like a conflict of the movie he is the murderer of his wife.

Interstellar: Memories
 

       Christopher Nolan hugely obsessed with the cinematic language of time and space. So what is the factor that connects time and space? That is memories, They can connect those elements. From classic to modern every writer used books, diaries, Memorable gifts to interconnect the character's memories. We see diaries in prestige and memento for connecting the space and time. And watch in inception and interstellar. Cooper gave a watch to his daughter which stands for love and that is the memory object which also used to show the time. The initial frames filled with books in the shelf and the rocket doll. Which refers the Cooper behind that bookshelf.

Inception: Half remembered dream

    Cobb lying in the beach, half water, and half ground. If we observe the whole movie we can see water symbolism used for portraying the deep subconscious of the cobb. When dream collapsing cobb gets back from the water in the bathtub.But the first scene not placed in the underwater so it means his half-remembered dream. And his children hallucinations show his desires. So total situation can be framed by this sentence," A man in half-remembered dream looks for his children". His children are the ground so he must get back the land instead of lying the water.

Nayagan - Writing the Shakespearean Tragic hero

    What makes the hero a successful character or morally pure.From classic to modern or old to new every character can be defined by their individual ethics or from their subjective morals. A clean character should have written by his journey related to the nature of the plot.Most stories end with the triumph of protagonist, sacrifices and the defeat of villains.But apart from these trends, there is one kind of character who is literally spelled with the word "tragic". In the period of Shakespearean tragedies, this character was developed in his stories by the reaffirmation of Aristotle's tragic hero. Macbeth, Othello, and hamlet etc. What are the unique concepts they have?. The same 4 act journey of the heroes filled in those tragedies.They have their own journey, conflict, and flaw. In 1987 Nayagan released in theatres and gets international acclaim.The movie contains the maximum characteristics of the tragic hero and their journey.

    So let us get into the four-act structure of the hero's journey.Creating the morality, Failure of ethics, Self-examination, and Resolution. The first act gives some morality to the character which he follows to the next entire section of the movie.Shakespear writes Hero's morality is based on things what happens to him or the things changed is a path. In Nayagan velu adapt his own moral based on two subplot characters.One is his first father who died in the first scene. And his second Muslim father. Those are two characters who feed those philosophies in Velu's life. His moral is "Naalu perukku nallathuna ethuvum thappila..".It is very important to consider that the character didn't have an idea about that ethics. Nolan's Batman is the best example of this act. He has no idea about the new morals. He is completely opposite in his previous actions.So the journey of the hero starts with these morals initially.

  And the second act features the failure of ethics of the hero. This is the turn of the main narrative story.Their own philosophies become the reason for their flaw.His initial mistakes make suffer. The characters pushed to choose the option between difficult choices. It will make them as the victim of circumstances. It makes isolation, alienation and lot of troubles for the protagonists. Even Velu praised as a good-hearted man among people. He didn't escape from justice. And the justice makes his flaw. In Dark Knight, his primary motive is he won't kill anyone for the reason. Joker takes it as an advantage and makes more trouble. So it makes batman's flaw.

  And the third act called "Self-examination". It intensely created by the Doubting nature of our tragic heroes.Even he held his own justice with him, after many losses the character falls into this third act.It is clear that velu fight with his daughter to justify himself, he didn't want to lose his morals.But at final he suspects himself, as the result, he didn't  say himself whether he is a good guy or bad one.In Batman after the death of Racheal, he suspects on his morals and the whole third sequence of the trilogy is made for this purpose.And the final act is the resolution for the heroes and that is "He must die". By these type of ending writer creates the moral balancing for the movies.It also appeared in all tragedies of Shakespeare.

    Not only this movie, every movie with tragic characters follow this 4 act structure to create intense tragedies.Tragic characters can't be classified as a good or evil.Even his motivations labeled himself as a protagonist, his actions to achieve that motivation looks like villain's attitude.I would like to mention the phrase which is defined by Aristotle "A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall". Velu saw his downfall in his tragic journey.  Is he a hero? or the title (Nayagan) represents himself as to be?Who knows?. But the flaw of the character is different for both protagonists and antagonists.

  For protagonists, the flaw is his major fall after the losses.velu lost his son, daughter even his ethics. And faces overcome. For antagonists, the flaw is his eventual downfall. So what is eventually happen?. He dies that's all. He ends like those subplot characters for holding the same morals. Finally is he the protagonist? or antagonist? even we ask him personally to tell.Tragic heroes cannot be classified so he will tell "Theriyalaye pa.."