Laurie Baker, the Builder

Laurie Baker. Born in Birmingham, England on March 2, 1917. Died on April 1, 2007 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. He had become a household name in Kerala synonymous to low-cost housing. The Times of India article (that triggered this attribution issue) says he is "relevant for a world that is threatened by global warming".

Apparently after completing his architecture course, he became an ambulance driver in the Second War in Burma and China. On his way back (to England) through (then) Bombay in 1945, he met Gandhi who told him there was much useful work to be done by architects in rural India. Baker lived 13 years in Uttar Pradesh (where he got married to a local doctor) before he moved to Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala in 1963.

Some of my friends are now camping at a house built by him, at Vagamon in Kottayam district of Kerala (see Inspiration: For Nature-friendly built Environment) for a Pattu Kalari (Music workshop).

I have memories of a cartoon strip "Malayaliyude Mundu" (Mundu of Malayalees, a piece of cloth that is worn like a wrap-around) by him in one leading Malayalam periodical.

A few links for those who are interested in knowing more about him and his philosphy of life: MUD: An article by Laurie Baker (pdf), Of Architectural Truths and Lies: another article by him in The Hindu, An interview: Architecture for the people, and an article on the builder: The cost of Living, by London-based architect Ayyub Malik (pdf) .

[Image from Inspiration page]

Chitra's little puzzles of life

I landed on Chitra's cartoon blog yesterday, and I was impressed.

[The strips featured here are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs2.5 License].

Moonnamathoral and Bhargavacharitham Moonnam Khandam: Good work

In general the Malayalam movie posters are going from bad to worse-- is it that the producers find it a waste spending money on good-looking posters or even having attractive fonts for the title? Most of the posters don't call for a second look, and the designers are at best finding some new words like "monsoon hit" "elephant hit" and "muttan megahit", but some recent designs by rahmandesign are exceptions. Especially "Moonnamathoral" and "Bhargavacharitham Moonnam Khandam" posters.

[Somewhat off-topic: While talking about Malayalam film industry's unwillingness to experiement, I missed mentioning V K Prakash who dared to make different films like "Mullavalliyum Thenmavum", "Police" and now "Moonnamathoral". "Mullavalliyum Thenmavum" and "Police" weren't big hits, but they stayed in the mainstream commercial league, as does "Moonnamathoral". I didn't get to see the earlier films, I think I should catch this one. Link: film site]

What If..?

I feel bad that the film didn't get the kind of release it deserved, and that it was released like some "crossover" or "arty" film, with single shows at the multiplexes and almost none in other cinemas. Can't blame it completely on the film having no stars in it, because as Naseeruddin Shah said, Paresh Raval is a star now. And Malamaal Weekly got to a much bigger audience. May be thats one of the disadvantages of being Naseeruddin Shah:-)

I also feel bad for those who did not go for ``Yun Hota To Kya Hota'' because Rediff gave a bad review (I know at least a couple of them).

However, those who came to watch it seemed so involved in the film that they shared every bit of fun and frustration that the characters had. And the hall, though somewhat smaller than the regular ones, was packed for a late night show. I haven't had a more engaging and entertaining movie experience for a long time. ( Bluffmaster was close, and then I can remember Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi).

Unlike many moviemakers who are happy doing plays on the big screen, Naseer seems to be more interested in doing things that he couldn't have done in theatre.

The film could do with better posters. The one in picture looks better than most others which gave an impression of a dark film.