Chappa Kurishu Review

Sameer Thahir's directorial debut 'Chappa Kurish' puts the scanner on the strangeness of reality in a busy city in Kerala, teeming with life. This wrenching and powerful testament on the politics of power that govern human lives, deals with issues that are real, contemporary and quite complex.

Arjun (Fahadh Fazil) is a dashing young businessman on his way to become a corporate magnate. Living in a swank apartment in Cochin, he likes to see the city move beneath his feet. He is engaged to be married to Ann (Roma), and has an affair on the sly with his secretary Sonia (Remya Nambeeshan). One of their clandestine encounters is recorded on Arjun's mobile phone, and when Sonia threatens to wreck his marriage, he loses the phone in a scuffle. Where it does land, is before Ansari (Vineeth Sreenivasan), a cleaner boy at a local super market, who quickly grabs it and disappears into the crowd.

Arjun is the kind of man who believes that money has earned him everything possible in the world. His gait is self-assured, perhaps a bit too much at that, and he has selectively ousted lesser individuals from his purview. He is used to having people hop around his fingertips, and is a strategic planner who devises his booming career with as much craftiness and care as his life.

Ansari on the other hand is fast getting used to being jostled at, and has learned that it's a man-eat-man world out there. He engages in a silent battle every day, with him on one side and the affluent world at the other, where he merely puts up a feeble guard and tries to meekly get away. He never gets to sit on a vacant sit on the bus, is shoved around by the bulky supervisor at the workplace, and gets insulted by all and sundry.

Money is thus the last thing on Anasri's mind, when he hears Arjun at the other end imploring him to hand him back the phone. For the first time, perhaps in his long and miserable life, he listens to someone talk to him with respect. He is neither aware of the possibilities of a blackmail nor interested in striking up a profitable deal. He is merely fascinated by the voice of a human being, who for a change is eager to take his orders.

It's a long winding chase that Arjun embarks on, since Ansari soon gets intoxicated by the dope of contentment that he derives from being in charge. The climatic showdown between the two is all the more vicious and bloody, as they literally tear themselves apart, before finally settling down and resignedly going their separate ways.
   Thahir's film has a deliberate thoughtfulness that is evident throughout. The pace is unhurried hence, and Arjun's breakdown over the given time frame is complete. There are no jerks and jumps in the narrative, and the buildup is terrific. And yet it remains that perhaps 'Chappa Kurish' could have made a crisper film with a shorter running time.
There seem to be ideational similarities between Chappa Kurish and the Korean film Handphone (2009) directed by Kim Han-Min. But Unni has pumped in some fresh blood into his characters, and has planted them meticulously in the local milieu. Despite all the dark shades of life that the film basks itself in, I found the optimism in it absolutely endearing. People in it do not live in their mistakes for their entire lives; they courageously decide to move on.

The riveting performances of the three lead actors in the film see to it that the blows and bangs that it delivers are right on place. We have seen actors reinventing themselves, but Fahadh literally stuns us with a compelling feat that is easily one of the best leading performances that I have seen in recent times.

Vineeth is a perfect foil, and if you feel he lets himself be outshined by Fahadh, you should realize what an amazing actor he is. And of course, there is the gorgeous Remya for whom I hope there is no looking back hereafter. Three brilliant actors of the new generation, who are here to stay. This review wouldn't be complete without mentioning two other names as well; the awesome background score composed by Rex Vijayan and Jomon T John, the man who has worked wonders with his camera.

'Chappa Kurish' is a simple film that is deeply moving, persistent, and eye-opening that tells a story that is undeniably grim. It's a brave and genuinely heartfelt directorial effort from a young director, who has clearly won the toss this time around.

Augmented reality has been touted as the "next big thing" for a while, yet mainstream success has proved elusive. So what can be done to turn it from a gimmick into a commercial necessity?

Imagine being able to watch miniature versions of Kings of Leon or Lady Gaga play on a table right in front of your eyes.
This is augmented reality (AR) in action.
Integrating computer-generated images and the real world has been made possible by the ever-increasing power of small computing devices, which can now render realistic 3D figures in real-time.

One company - String, in partnership with tech firm Digicave - has developed and demonstrated a system that creates the impression of a 3D figure mapped onto, for example, a book shelf. Such technology opens up the possibility of having a pop star appear in your bedroom, performing as if they were on-stage.

"I think what we're delivering here is a unique experience that no-one has ever seen before," says String's CEO Alan Maxwell.
"For example, we can capture a live performance from an artist on stage… and deliver that performance to people's devices wherever they are in the world and they simply have to hold their device at a marker. I think there is a certain amount of value in that."
The idea of augmented reality was first mooted as far back as in 1965, with Ivan Sutherland's now famous essay Augmented Reality: The Ultimate Display. In it, he said that "with appropriate programming… a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked," stating that digital handcuffs would be able to actually restrain users, and those shot by digital characters would be killed in real life.
His vision bears uncanny resemblance to the Matrix, although it is far from the world of AR that we currently inhabit.
Nearly 50 years after that prophetic work, computers have advanced beyond comprehension. However, commercial developments in AR have been slow and the buzz that surrounded the technology a couple of years ago seems to be waning.
That is perhaps because, up until now, the products and software available to most people have been gimmicky, fun applications rather than - as much of the industry thought - lifestyle must-haves.


Even in marketing, the first AR advert was seen in 2007 but the message seemed to be lost on most people until relatively recently, when models dressed up as angels seemed to magically appear alongside passengers at a London train station.
But while AR failed to captured the popular imagination, the technology was being extensively used in commercial environments.
"Fighter pilots are a classic example," says Dan Sung, editor of features at tech site Pocket Lint.
"The technology [of using a heads-up display] has been there since Top Gun. It's really useful and the reason we don't talk about it is because it's so good no one even notices it's augmented reality."
The heads-up display can now be used by cyclists and snowboarders alike, and in sports where looking unconventional is seen as often appealing, bulky goggles may not be a problem.
Sports programming is also a large user and developer of graphics that interact and rely on real-world reference points. A game of cricket or American football - for example - would now look strange without the use of some form of AR technology.
Then there is the possibility of using augmented reality to "add value" to the real world. Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones has looked at some firms that are developing AR as a marketing tool .

 Yet it all seems rather limited compared to the vision of AR painted by future-gazing technology evangelists.
What makes AR's slow progress all the more apparent is the way that sci-fi series and Hollywood have taken to the idea like a 3D duck to pixelated water. From the holo-deck in Star Trek to - perhaps more realistically - the virtual reality simulations in a recent James Bond film, examples are all around.
Sony recently announced its "SmartAR" project, which seems to have solved many of the problems which critics have previously used to discredit the technology - that it is too slow and does not react well to the unsteady devices it is used on.
But it is the start-ups and smaller enterprises that many see as making the big breakthroughs.
One thing that developers are looking to get rid of as quickly as possible is the need to use tablet or mobile devices to see the extra images.
"Ultimately, what we really want is glasses for this kind of thing because there is the problem of swinging a phone around in front of your face," says Sung.
"But a good working pair which doesn't look as though you're trying to assimilate people that people will actually wear is still at least five years away."
The barrier of a screen between the user and the action is seen by many as a problem and, until that changes, critics say that this technology will struggle to engage people.

But when solved, the effects could be magical.
"Imagine shooting zombies coming out of the ground while wearing glasses, it's pretty incredible," says Maxwell.
And away from gaming, rather than just videos and extra information, imagine walking round Trafalgar Square with a 3D depiction of Admiral Nelson you could ask questions to, or watching dramas that take place in specific locations with characters interacting with their surroundings in real-time.
"We need the whole world as a 3D reference," says Jan Schlink from AR firm Metaio.
"In 10 to 15 years, I really think you will be able to walk around the city and have it all augmented. There are already 3D map providers and you could use these and create a model so that entire cities could be referenced."
But perhaps the real challenge will be making the digital and real worlds combine and work together as if it had always been that way. As is often the way with technology, it has only been truly integrated with mass society if no-one notices it.
"What happens in 20 years, that's the ultimate test," says Sung.
"When augmented reality has made it, no-one will talk about it anymore. It will just be there."

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: The Surprising Link Between Light Pollution and Cancer

There are plenty of arguments against lighting the night sky: It wastes energy, blots out stars and messes with the nocturnal habits of animals in a big way. Now there’s another reason, one that could go a long way toward convincing humans that whatever sense of safety is conferred by nighttime lighting, it isn’t worth the risk. It turns out that light pollution may be a cancer risk. 

That statement is bold, but increasingly the science is proving it out. Humans, as well as many animals and plants, need regular exposure to darkness to maintain what’s called the circadian rhythm—essentially the body’s internal clock, which governs various bodily functions. Of particular interest to researchers is the fact that darkness at night tells the body to produce certain hormones, most importantly melatonin, which not only aids sleep, but also helps to maintain immune system function. 

In several studies conducted over the past decade, scientists have found that increased exposure to light at night correlates to higher cancer rates, particularly for those cancers like breast or prostate that require hormones to grow. Women who work the night shift have been shown to have higher risks of breast cancer, while blind women have lower-than-average risk. In 2009, a landmark study by epidemiologist Dr. Richard Stevens, of the University of Connecticut, compared cancer rates and the presence of light at night across 164 countries and found that women in industrialized, highly lit countries had a 30 to 50 percent higher risk of breast cancer than those in countries with less light pollution. 

That last study would be contentious had Stevens not been researching breast cancer for decades, and had he not already studied most of the other elements that might explain such a difference between developed and less developed countries. “Back in the 80s, we were all convinced that it had to be the high-fat Western diet that was causing the spike in breast cancer rates, but then the really good dietary models started to come in and nothing proved it out,” Stevens says. “Then we thought, ‘okay, maybe it has to do with the average age of the first child,’ because that typically gets older as societies get richer, but that wasn’t it either. We looked at a couple of other things that typically change when a society becomes more developed as well, but we’ve looked carefully at all of them, and those changes cannot account for the vast majority of the increase. So what else could it be? That’s how I got into this light at night deal.”

Stevens authored some of the first studies linking light at night (called LAN by scientists) to cancer in the late 1990s and early 2000s and since then the evidence has continued to mount. Light pollution has now been linked to a host of mood disorders as well, and even to obesity and diabetes. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, part of the World Health Organization) officially deemed shift work a “carcinogen” in 2009. There is, of course, more research to be done, but given the evidence out there already Stevens calls light pollution “the worst thing we’ve done to ourselves and the planet since global warming.” 

The good news is that light pollution is a relatively new problem and it’s entirely reversible, starting with ensuring nighttime darkness at home wherever possible. According to Joan Roberts, Ph.D., a Fordham University professor whose work on the importance of natural light in maintaining circadian rhythms also touches on the need for darkness, “It’s not that you need total darkness, but you need to have NO stray light that is in the blue or green region (400-600 nm) in the late evening.”

 The blue/green light is what is emitted from TVs , computers, clock radios and other gadgets (cell phones, Blackberry's, etc) or from what Roberts calls “light trespass,” which comes in from the outside, through your windows. “Light from the blue region stimulates a ‘wake up’ circadian response in the body and blocks the production of melatonin in the brain.” 

The same thing happens if you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and turn the light on. Stevens recommends using a red night light instead, because red light does not suppress melatonin production. Unfortunately, popping a few melatonin tablets won’t solve the problem, and in fact it could actually exacerbate it. Researchers have found that creating an artificial spike in melatonin makes the circadian disruption worse. 

 “Another thing: If you wake up in the night, stay in the dark,” Stevens says. “It’s completely normal to awaken during the night. They used to say if it happened, you should get out of bed and go watch TV or read a book. That is completely wrong. We’ve completely lost sight of so many things in modern life – that period of quiet wakefulness in the dark … we evolved with that.”