He goes on to tell the story about initially rejecting an offer from Eastwood to write the adaptation of Mystic River. Helgeland sent the message through his agent. That day, which was a Sunday, Eastwood called him and asked him where he lived. Helgeland offered to drive to him, but Eastwood insisted on making the hour plus drive. Some time later that Sunday, Eastwood came knocking. He entered the house, looked around, and didn’t speak too much. Helgeland offered him a drink. Eastwood said no. Helgeland offered him a cookie. Eastwood took it as Helgeland started to get him a plate until Eastwood stopped him, saying that he didn’t need one. He walked into the kitchen and ate the cookie over the kitchen sink silently — such silent moments with Clint Eastwood are not unusual. Helgeland sat down at the kitchen table until Eastwood turned towards his direction with no eye contact and said, “So are you going to do the book?”
“Yes sir, I’ll do the book.”
Directors and writers are lost without each other.
David Chase is telling stories again. The 76-year-old creator of The Sopranos is seated at the kitchen table of a production office in Santa Monica, eating takeout Mexican food and telling me about the time his paternal grandfather, Joseph Fusco, confessed to killing a man. Fusco told the story to a then-12-year-old Chase, who had been sent to Fusco’s apple farm in Hudson, New York, for a week during summer vacation. They were sitting in the kitchen one night after dinner, green apples piled in a bowl between them. “He was telling me he murdered a guy in Buffalo,” Chase recalls. “They got in an argument in a bar. They went outside.” Things escalated — Fusco hit him in the head with a brick. The other guy was a romano — Roman — though not from his grandfather’s area. “Fusco was bad news. Bad guy.” Chase pauses a moment, staring at his rice and beans in a Styrofoam box. “Who knows if it’s true?” he says finally. “But why would you tell that to an 12-year-old kid who’s staying with you? Who the fuck does that?”
Everything about the anecdote is uncut Chase, from the intensifying violence of the confrontation (you can imagine Chase’s grandfather grabbing the brick off a pile in the bar’s parking lot after realizing he might lose the fight) to the chilling mundanity of a then-middle-aged man relating it to his grandson. It makes me think of all the horrific but realistically awkward brutality meted out during The Sopranos’ eight-year run — Tony (James Gandolfini), eyes swollen from having Raid sprayed into them, killing another mobster by strangling him and smashing his head against a tiled kitchen floor. It’s also the kind of moment that happens throughout the series’s forthcoming prequel, The Many Saints of Newark, a panoramic gangster film set in the late ’60s and early ’70s in Newark, New Jersey, directed by Alan Taylor and co-written by Lawrence Konner, both Sopranos veterans. The film follows junior mobster Christopher Moltisanti’s (Michael Imperioli) father, Newark mob soldier Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), who was discussed in the original but never portrayed onscreen
My interest got piqued when I saw the news that Bandla Ganesh would reprise the character in a Telugu remake, that veteran Tamil actor Parthiepan played in the original film ‘Oththa Seruppu Size 7’(Single Slipper Size 7). Interestingly a Hindi remake is on floors now, with Abhishek Bachchan playing the same role. Anything that Bandla Ganesh does is synonymous with controversy, so I wondered what ‘Oththa Seruppu Size 7’ had in store for me, when I tuned into Netflix. And I was pleasantly surprised.
‘Oththa
Seruppu Size 7’ is a remarkable feat that features only one character. The film
narrates the story of an ordinary person (Masilamani) who is taken into custody as a
murder suspect, and his subsequent interrogation, that reveals shocking
secrets. As skeletons from the closet start tumbling down, the police try to
make a sense of it all, with just one clue—a single slipper of size 7. What
makes it even more difficult for the police, is the attitude of Masilamani that poses some serious questions
about his sanity. As he vacillates from narrating the actual happenings to
ruminating aloud, from pedestrian comments to relevant statements about the
crime…the investigating team attempt to sieve the truth from his ramblings. Parthiepan, as he is credited in the beginning of the movie, ‘crafts’
a tale that is unique in its presentation with a brilliant sound design from
the Oscar winner Rasool Pookutty. ‘Oththa Seruppu Size 7’ is an engaging watch and
kudos to the veteran for putting this feature together.
There is a
terrific short story from the master writer Edgar Allan Poe called ‘The
Tell-Tale Heart’ published in 1843. It is a first person narrative that tries
to convince the reader of the narrator’s sanity and parallely describing a
murder the narrator might have committed. As the story progresses, the narrator reveals the meticulous planning and execution of the
murder.Ultimately, the narrator’s actions result in hearing a
thumping sound, which the narrator interprets as the dead man’s beating heart
and this troubled mental state reveals the truth to the police and audience.
I always
wondered how anyone could make this kind of story engaging enough to the
audience. Parthiepan shows it how, with his top notch handling of all crafts.
Senior comedy
actor Asrani once said, his dream was to play a psychotic person, a total
contrast to his popular roles like the ‘angrezoki zamane ki jailer’ from ‘Sholay’.
Same with other comedy actors like Brahmanandam who aspire to tread different
path by playing a mentally challenged person. Good actors can play any kind of
roles and actively go after them. Their acting caliber enables them to
transcend their successful genre, like the great Charlie Chaplin did with his
shift from comedy to drama and tragedy.
Can Bandla
Ganesh join that league? Seems like a deadly chasm to cross, considering the
work he has done so far. But as the movie parlance goes, anything is possible
in the industry, especially the impossible. All it takes is one super hit.
