TRANCE - 2020 film An Academic Review By Sab John | Director Anwar Rasheed | Fahadh Faasil
Vložit
- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
- BIO PROFILE - SAB JOHN EDATHATTIL
Sab John Edathattil, is one of South India’s leading storytelling and screenwriting voices. Sab John was born in 1958 at Alappuzha in the Southern Indian state of Kerala, to Simon Antony and Marykutty. His father was a businessman, mother a teacher turned Regional Deputy Director of Public Instruction of Kerala. He has two brothers: Cdr. JAE Simon of the Indian Navy (retired) and Dr. Rouben George, Nephrologist who is working in Kuwait as a State Consultant.
Though graduated in Commerce, Sab John’s accounting career did not last long as he subsequently aligned himself with screenwriting at an early stage of his career. His screenwriting took off after scripting a remarkable Malayalam film for Padmashri. Kamal Hassan, “Chanakyan”, the movie become a super-duper hit with its revenge plot and interesting climax, thus established John as a commendable screenwriter in the South Indian film industry.
During his three decades of screenwriting career, Sab John had written about 30 filmed screenplays. Some of the major projects on his roster have included Guna, Vyooham, Gandhari, Suryamanasam, Highway, Jillunu Oru Kadhal, Mayilpeelikkavu, Priyam, Kuruthippunal and Chanakyan. Guna starring Kamal Hassan was a milestone project for John, the movie talks about a mentally ill person who has unadulterated love for a fictitious character name Abirami, the film was not only succeeded commercially but also had an excellent blend of Kamal’s acting, maestro Ilayaraja’s music and John’s screenplay. John narrated Guna’s character equivalent to Laila Majnu love story through his creative screenwriting skills.
As a screenwriter, Sab John spins exhilaratingly complex, emotional and provocative tapestries of human lives under intense pressure. His films traverse a dazzling range of subject matters, characters and moods, yet share in common a visceral, often luminous, portrait of cinematic entertainment.
In addition to screenwriter, John has also donned other roles like film making, acting, direction and production management. His commendable role in “Kuruthippunal” as Narasimhan has won him laurels for his outstanding delivery of acting performance. The film was produced by Padmashri Kamal Hassan and directed by P C Sreeram. John worked as the Line Producer for Kamal’s Hindi feature film “Chachi 420”.
John is currently involved in four mainstream-movie-screenplays and three web-series content of four different Indian regional languages. He conducts training for corporate executives, university professors and students of professional courses on story-based-learning-teaching techniques and scenario-planning practices.
John holds many positions including Chief Mentor at Screenwrite.in, India’s only screenwriting studio he had founded, and Loyola LIVE, a co-venture of Loyola College, Chennai. Also, John has been a jury of FICCI Frames Awards since 2008. He was Professor of screenwriting at L V Prasad Film and Television Academy, Chennai, too.
John prefers to spare time working with young aspiring writers in India and propagates professional screenwriting through his much-acclaimed workshops and masterclasses. Unlike other screenwriting classes, Sab John is able to screen his own films starring leading actors like Kamal Hassan, Om Puri, Nassar, Girish Karnad, Raghuvaran, Charuhasan, Mammootty, Suryaa, Urmila Matondkar and many more. Also, John is passionate about demonstrating the principles & concepts of storytelling and screenwriting from the working writer’s perspective. From story design to character to dialogue to scene structure and all points in between, John takes you through the entire process and experience of writing your screenplay, as well as shows you on-screen (from his own experience) what works, what doesn’t work, what the industry looks for and more.
John has spent around 30 years of screenwriting with an approximate of 32 produced screenplays, many teleplays and brand campaign scripts. In the tenure of 30 years, he has spent 11 years of teaching and sharing the principles of screenwriting. In his master workshops, John presents the unique ways of creating the strong-walls of a captivating screenplay and how he resolved the screenwriting problems of the films he had worked. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
We regret to announce that we are unable to proceed with the event - Screenwriting Masterclass by Sab John @ Kottayam (Scheduled for 14 & 15 Mar '20), due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. We are cancelling the program for the time being. We support the Government's initiative to bring things under total control.
Everybody please take care of yourselves and stay healthy. We hope to announce our new program soon.
I like to attend this class how can i join this programme please inform me
This film for Fahad is what Guna which you had penned couple of decades back for Kamal hassan .. Only actors with immense talent can pull of such odd characters with ease and now Fahd has gone into that elite list by doing this character effortlessly.
*It's surprising how majority of the audience has still not understood the second half of Trance. Please allow me to share my humble thoughts. Pastor Joshua Carlton gets hit on the head by a golf club and he goes in a coma stage. From then on it's Viju's aka Pastor Joshua Carlton's (JC as in Jesus Christ) hallucinations / imaginations which takes over.The pastor's brain is in a trance state on the hospital bed and his mind's journey is the rest of the narrative. He 'supposedly' wakes up on the 3rd day similar to Christ's resurrection. It's clearly the Pastor's hallucination as he had started believing himself as Jesus Christ. The hallucinatory incidents follow when the pastor with whacky goggles goes "cuckoo" and then slams Dileesh Pothan on the floor which was highly impossible till 3 days back. Nazriya and Vinayakan are the pastor's imaginary characters. Nazriya is similar to his wayward junkie brother Kunjan and Vinayakan is most probably his father. Remember the pastor had mentioned in the interview about his dead sister. The pastor in his trance state starts to feel guilty and repentant. It's obvious in that highly impossible incident of Vinayakan with a large sickle slashing the villains inside their well guarded mansion that it's all in our pastor's drugs fuelled imagination. If we think in this way, the second half of Trance is not only engaging but is also a path breaking narrative in our Malayalam film industry. The narrative style of Trance is similar to Fight Club and Shutter Island where what the audience see on the screen is not exactly the truth.*
Well nice brother thanks for your humble thoughts appreciate it
@@nameisu4728 😊👍
Sorry... there is nothing in the movie to suggest ur take on the second half of the movie. Nazriya’s interactions with characters other than Viju (even when he’s off-screen) prove that she was not imaginary.
The movie was going really well until the interval point and Fahad was amazing throughout. But I felt it just lost focus in the second half and the last act was just disappointing.
@@jithmathew211 Everyone who has watched the movie believes in what I said. So much so that there are "Trance decoded" videos in CZcams which has started mentioning what I said. Try to watch them.
KING Everyone??? Not likely my friend. And btw I’ve watched enough CZcams reviews on this movie where they have my same thoughts on it!
Those 4 signature notes state getting to you after sometime.. Time to chance the bgm
Great review Sab Chettan , watching you is always a pleasure !!!!
I saw the movie ... Here is what i found
1 : The amazing camera ... I think there are many longer shots ... And angle which they used are very experimental . Character Object exposure in some scenes are very much interesting ... (Dont know they worked it or its like came just like that ).
2 : Script ... The flow is awsm but just in few scene... It went to little bit dramatic ..
3 The editing , Direction and the complete making is awsm
4 : Acting ... No words to tell how beautiful ..
I would say this is one of the best malayalam movie in recent after 5am pathira
Nice sir...
very good sir
What if that movie followed Dan Harmon story circle?
The character want something & later he gets what he want and pay a heavy price then return back to their familiar situation & having changed?
😍👌
Good review sir
I have certain reservations about the film’s screenplay especially the latter portion. Joshua’s sudden transformation to an empathetic and remorseful person after vinayakan/daughter episode seemed too sudden and unconvincing. After Viju’s success from being a nobody to becoming super successful, he becomes more manipulative and vindictive , especially towards his detractors, which is clearly shown in the soubin-poison drink incident..He never regrets about the evil he unleashes..He remains a selfish person till the moment he gets whacked on the head by soloman/Isaac.. Only after his medulla oblongata gets cracked and he getting high on flurry of drugs he starts becoming empathetic towards fellow human beings, which was not at all convincing. His transformation did not happen after true realization of his mistakes, it seemed it only happened because he got whacked on the head.
I truly believe the film needed a better second half
It's surprising how majority of the audience has still not understood the second half of Trance. Please allow me to share my humble thoughts. Pastor Joshua Carlton gets hit on the head by a golf club and he goes in a coma stage. From then on it's Viju's aka Pastor Joshua Carlton's (JC as in Jesus Christ) hallucinations / imaginations which takes over.The pastor's brain is in a trance state on the hospital bed and his mind's journey is the rest of the narrative. He 'supposedly' wakes up on the 3rd day similar to Christ's resurrection. It's clearly the Pastor's hallucination as he had started believing himself as Jesus Christ. The hallucinatory incidents follow when the pastor with whacky goggles goes "cuckoo" and then slams Dileesh Pothan on the floor which was highly impossible till 3 days back. Nazriya and Vinayakan are the pastor's imaginary characters. Nazriya is similar to his wayward junkie brother Kunjan and Vinayakan is most probably his father. Remember the pastor had mentioned in the interview about his dead sister. The pastor in his trance state starts to feel guilty and repentant. It's obvious in that highly impossible incident of Vinayakan with a large sickle slashing the villains inside their well guarded mansion that it's all in our pastor's drugs fuelled imagination. If we think in this way, the second half of Trance is not only engaging but is also a path breaking narrative in our Malayalam film industry. The narrative style of Trance is similar to Fight Club and Shutter Island where what the audience see on the screen is not exactly the truth.
Hi, I’ve heard this “It was all his imagination” version from couple of my friends too..The writers made latter portion totally ambiguous, I think on purpose may be to have multiple interpretations, which I would call ,lazy screenwriting. .I think after a stellar first half the writers dint know where to go, instead of going for the typical “ hunter becomes the savior” theme ala Avatar/ Kingkong or “Ruthless ambition leads to destruction”ala , All the kings men/Vaasthavam , they chose a path totally disorienting for the common audience..After all, when you are making a commercial film in Malayalam for the common man to comprehend, why take the lynch/Bunuel/kaufman path so that only a section of film geeks can appreciate it, for its weirdness. . “It was all his imagination” trick is one of most overused and abused trick in cinema especially Hollywood with films like vanilla sky/ mulhollan drive/ a beautiful mind/ American psycho to name a few. . even in Malayalam the recent prithviraj starrer “ Nine” was one such film. So cant call it a landmark film in any way, though the first half was brilliant
@@KING-ri2vs nice thought..
@@sanithvijayakumar3772 I understand where you're coming from. However I beg to differ that the 'protagonist's imaginary state of mind' is over used in our films. Western films have explored enough in that genre but Indian films have hardly gone to that territory. Trance needed that narrative angle and the makers should be appreciated for taking that risk. The biggest risk that the makers took was that for the second half they didn't bother to spoon feed the audience like how they did in the first half. Every malayali audience and his grandmother liked the first half and majority didnt bother about the second half coz of the similar reason I stated before. We as an audience have been conditioned to appreciate spoon fed storytelling and reject something which is meta. We appreciate Lynch, Bunuel, American Psycho etc but downright reject if it's attempted on our home ground. More than lazy storytelling in Trance I believe it's the lazy mindset of the audience which hurt the movie. I hope that it's high time Malayalam film makers collectively start taking risks in storytelling and I definitely believe that Malayali audience is smart enough to accept that sooner than later.
@@KING-ri2vs Even lynch/Bunuel etc were not mainstream filmmakers. Their films are liked by only a niche group everywhere and were not runaway hits by any means..So, its not fair to say that they are appreciated here and our filmmakers are not
Btw Your statement sounds a bit condescending towards the common audience. Pls understand that the common man have no bounden duty to appreciate a messy narrative just because it is meta or any mumbo jumbo . The common man who enjoyed a “Ratchasan” or “ Anjaam pathira” is no less than some geek who loves “Trance”. Unfortunately or fortunately 95% of the people falls in this common man category and they don’t go to cinemas to appreciate different cinema, rather to witness a good story getting unraveled. Common man don’t need to think ” Its all dream” trope is so new to Malayalam cinema , so let’s give it a big applause..Sorry it doesn’t happen that way ..Common man can’t afford to go to film appreciation societies to enjoy Trance like films. A Screenplay can have confusing interludes but before denouement, it is the basic duty of the screenwriter to tie all knots together so that people can comprehend what they are trying to convey.
Anyway Let’s agree to disagree
താങ്കൾ ഒന്നുകിൽ ഇംഗ്ലീഷിൽ പറ അല്ലെങ്കിൽ മലയാളത്തിൽ പറ അല്ലാതെ രണ്ടും കൂടി കൂട്ടി യോജിപ്പിച്ചു ആർക്കും വേണ്ടാത്ത അവസ്ഥ ആകരുത്... നിങ്ങൾ പറയുന്നത് ഏതേലും സായിപ്പ് കണ്ടിട്ട് അവര് പടിക്കട്ടെ എന്നാണെങ്കിൽ മുഴുവനും ഇംഗ്ലീഷിൽ പറഞ്ഞു കൊടുക്ക് അവർക്ക് അത് ഉപകരിക്കും ..മലയാളികളോടാണ് നിങ്ങൾ പറയുന്നതെങ്കിൽ മലയാളത്തിൽ പറയു... ഇവിടെയുള്ള മലയാളികൾക്ക് അല്പം മലയാളം അറിയാവുന്നതുകൊണ്ട് നിങ്ങൾ പറയുന്നത് നനസിലാകും...അതോ ഇയാള് അമേരിക്കയിൽ നിന്നും ഇപ്പൊ ഇറങ്ങി കേരളത്തിൽ വന്നതോ...
Thanikk movie kandit valladum manassilayo..You are explaining literally what you saw on screen...There are lot of symbolism and layers to this movie..JC...Jesus Christ or Joshua Carlton...His Resurrection..The Trance state or lucid dreaming ...His dialogue-I don't live in your reality... Nazriyas character as Mary Magdalene... His revelation in the end...Final frame where he gets a 'kick' from Nazriya which could awake him from his coma state or even his death...!!
പോടാ പരനാറി തരത്തിൽ പോയി കളിയാട പൊലയാടിമോനെ
green lantern So what? It doesn’t mean that his interpretation is always right!!!
@@ascendingrealms9265 also doesnt mean that your interpretation is correcr as well