With Thunderbolts* (the asterisk denotes a little something that’s worth ceasing all phones at early screenings), Marvel Studios offers a strange something. Not a new beginning, not even an end, but a reluctant middle piece to its dwindling self-worth nearing the conclusion of Phase-5. After a decade-plus of spandex operatics, cosmic showdowns, and multiversal migraines, we’ve arrived at the era of mid-tier misfits and discards. The Avengers are either dead, de-aged, or trapped in development hell. The remaining bench is a set of weary characters staring down the abyss of their own irrelevance. 

A former child assassin, a disgraced Captain America knockoff, a super-assassin turned congressman, a haunted quantum blur, a Soviet relic, and a human emotional contagion named Bob. They’ve been shelved, sidelined, and mostly forgotten — by their government handlers, by the world they supposedly saved, and, most damningly, by their jaded audiences who’ve long since moved on. What throws Thunderbolts* a lifeline in the slow, defibrillator rhythm of a post-Endgame Marvel is that Kevin Feige has finally started to admit that the party might just be over. 

Once a promising successor to her late sister Natasha Romanoff’s Black Widow, Florence Pugh returns as Yelena Belova, still mourning her sister, still drolly Russian, and still the Phase-5’s most emotionally legible performer. She wears her disillusionment like a second skin and her job is no longer to avenge, but to merely trudge along begrudgingly, and that’s proving more difficult by the day. “Maybe I’m just bored,” she says early on, which feels like a discerning summation of the post-Endgame age.Thunderbolts* doesn’t solve that problem. But it does acknowledge it with unusual clarity, and that alone makes it one of Marvel’s more human efforts in years.

Director Jake Schreier (of Robot & Frank and the 2015 adapatation of John Green’s Paper Towns) brings a light indie touch to the proceedings. He doesn’t seem particularly interested in the convoluted lore or flashy pyrotechnica of modern superhero fare, and instead, lets his cast rattle around in desaturated corridors and puts them in vulnerable spots. No one could reinvent the MCU at this point, but he does subtly redirect it.

The plot, as is often the case, is the weakest link. CIA head honcho Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, whose dry wit is underserved by the script) tricks our assorted antiheroes into a mission that’s really a death trap. One by one, they realise they’ve been sent to eliminate each other, and we soon get a slow-burn mutiny of sad-eyed soldiers who would rather hug it out than throw punches, at least most of the time.

A still from ‘Thunderbolts*’
| Photo Credit:
MARVEL STUDIOS

David Harbour’s Red Guardian continues his grumpy dad routine with winning goofiness. He gets some of the film’s funniest lines (Yelena’s pee-wee soccer team becomes an ongoing source of oddly affecting pride), but his real role is to tether the film’s sky-high gloom to something earthbound and foolishly tender. Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes also reappears, with a more grounded gravitas that reminds you he once had a more engaging storyline. Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, still festering from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, scowls his way through a majority of the film, and Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost remains half-formed, but that feels appropriate — her power is literally to phase in and out. And Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster… well.

These are characters stuck in a kind of cinematic purgatory. They’re not quite important enough for franchise salvation, but not disposable enough to be killed off. They’re the narrative flotsam of past installments, with enough courage to question what actually happens to a superhero deferred. The action is competent but rarely thrilling and the colour palette leans hard on shadows and grime. But amid the industrial drabness, a freshness takes form and the characters begin to breathe.

The new wildcard is Lewis Pullman’s Bob, a fragile, mumbling superbeing with the power to make people feel the worst thing about themselves. That his supposedly omnipotent abilities are practically weaponised depression is quite telling. When he loses control, he becomes a living fog of despair, swallowing blocks of Manhattan in shapeless, shadowy grief. It’s a heavy metaphor, but Pullman sells it with a twitchy, wounded sincerity. Bob is the first Marvel character in ages who seems genuinely surprised (and a little terrified) to be in a Marvel movie.

A still from ‘Thunderbolts*’
| Photo Credit:
MARVEL STUDIOS

It’s actually through Bob that Thunderbolts* achieves its most ambitious emotional swing. This rag-tag group of “disposable delinquents” isn’t trying to stop a bad guy so much as stop being the bad guys, and their arcs aren’t driven by fate or destiny, but by therapy-adjacent self-reflection. In the end, it all leads back to Yelena, whose sardonic emotional register makes her a compelling nucleus. Pugh’s performance builds momentum in silence and she’s the only one in the ensemble who seems to understand that the real villain is disconnection.

It’s messy, meandering, and emotionally lopsided, but Thunderbolts* feels like it was made by people who wanted to be there. That’s more than can be said for most Marvel projects in recent memory. That Thunderbolts* feels like a minor miracle in the post-Endgame MCU is less a credit to the film itself than a damning verdict on the films that came before it. It’s a modest movie, practically allergic to MCU chutzpah, and yet it succeeds where so many others have failed.

Thunderbolts* is currently running in theatres

A pall of gloom hangs over ‘Piravi’, Shaji N Karun’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram. This was where the auteur and ace cinematographer met admirers from all walks of life. This is where he had conceptualised all his works, including documentaries and short films. This is where I met Shaji more than three decades ago as a student of journalism as part of my course. He had shared that it was his wife Anusuya Warrier’s idea to name their house ‘Piravi’.

Shaji spent considerable time speaking to a rookie reporter, discussing his maiden film Piravi (1988), his second film Swaham (1994) and his student days in Pune. Piravi , a huge success, was about the story of a father’s futile search for his son, who has been picked up by the police. The film brought alive the excesses during the Emergency, in a poignant way. It won Shaji the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989 and the National award for best director along with several other honours from across the world. Swaham (1994) was also screened at Cannes.

It was Shaji’s fascination for the images painted by light that made him take to cinematography. After his graduating in Physics from University College, he chose to join the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. He passed out with a gold medal in cinematography.

Shaji always spoke passionately about the magic and moods of the tropical sun. He would excitedly capture its constantly changing hues and direction. His attention to detail was amazing.

His simplicity was in stark contrast to the world he saw through the lens. Since he lived in the neighbourhood of my mother’s house, I have often seen him walk quietly along the road. He was then the chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. He was also the executive chairman of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). He was able to get the best of filmmakers and technicians to these festivals because of his personal equation with them.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to speak to him several times. Each time, I was left with a sense of wonder at the filmmaker’s ability to delve into varied themes set in different periods of times. Shaji was not a prolific director. He took time to shape a story or a theme and then spent some more time visualising it in a language and idiom that was all his.

Among the many awards that Shaji had won, he particularly treasured the Sir Charlie Chaplin Award instituted to commemorate the birth centenary of the legendary comic actor (1989) at the Edinburgh Film Festival. “After I boarded my flight to India, the flight attendants announced that I had won this prestigious award and the passengers gave me a standing ovation,” he had recounted during an interview to The Hindu.

Artist Namboothiri and filmmaker Shaji N Karun
at the release of the documentary, Varayude Klapathy
| Photo Credit:
THULASI KAKKAT

Shaji’s deep affinity for music and painting was evident in all his films. His bond with artist Namboothiri resulted in the documentary Neruvara on the latter’s life. Moving Focus – A Voyage captured the artist KG Subramanyam’s journey. The free-flowing lines and strokes were beautifully translated onto the screen by Shaji.

He had stepped into the world of cinema by cranking the camera for KP Kumaran’s Lakshmi Vijayam (1976). But it was his long association with G. Aravindan that marked his cinematographic oeuvre. Kanchana Sita (1977), Thampu (1978), Kummatty (1979), Esthappan (1979), Pokkuveyil (1981), Chidambaram, Oridathu and Unni were all filmed by him. He had an uncanny ability to understand what Aravindan had in mind. Shaji was able to transform Aravindan’s abstract ideas into perfectly composed frames. “Aravindan’s screenplay was often very brief. Thampu, for instance, had only four pages,” he had recalled during the screening of the film’s restored version in Cannes.

He had also worked with other great directors such as P. Padmarajan, M.T. Vasudevan Nair, K.G. George and Lenin Rajendran. He was the cinematographer of writer-director Padmarajan’s Koodevide, which marked actor Suhasini’s debut in Malayalam films.

Paying tribute to Shaji, Suhasini had shared on Instagram: “Remembering Shaji Karun. Some people we meet are evergreen and eternal. He was the cinematographer for my debut film Koodevide. I was his Subhadra in Vanaprastham. A true artiste and a great human. People like him made our industry safe and marvellous for newcomers. Will miss him…”

Mohanlal in Vanaprastham, which isamong Shaji’s timeless classics
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

In Vanaprastham (1999), Shaji’s third feature film, Mohanlal came up with an award-winning performance as a poverty-stricken Kathakali performer and his inner struggle as an artiste and man.

Kutty Srank (2010) remains one of the most complex films of Shaji. It traced the past life of a dead Chavittunatakan artiste and the different memories he left behind in the places he had lived. Blurring reality and fiction, Shaji’s story in a sense was also the story of certain regions of the State and the arrival of different faiths and belief systems. Mammotty effortlessly played the three avatars of Kutty Srank and his relationship with three women.

Shaji had once said that Mohanlal’s large expressive eyes was his biggest advantage while Mammootty was so handsome that it was difficult to mask his good looks. “Even if one were to smear his face with soil, it would difficult to hide his features.”

From the movie Swaapanam.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

After Swaapanam and Olu, Shaji’s heartfelt desire was to direct a musical. He had said how disappointed he was when a top actor, who had received several awards for his work in Shaji’s films, had come up with all kinds of excuses to not work in the musical. It was to have been a mega Indo-European project.

With Shaji’s passing, Malayalam cinema has lost a director and technician who elevated it to global standards. I recently watched Vanaprastham on television and experienced the meditative pace at which Shaji’s camera captured every nuance of emotion. It reflected Shaji’s approach to life — observing and enjoying every moment in quietude.

Among the few artistes in the State to master both Bharatnatyam and Kathak, Shubha Dhananjay is a pioneer when it comes to using special Kannada compositions in her performances.

Shubha, who is currently president of the Karnataka Sangeeta Nrithya Academy, has also mastered several forms of folk art and is passionately involved in training her students in the same, at her dance institute Natyantharanga, which was established in 1987.

Over the past four decades, Shubha has amassed awards and accolades at state, national and international levels. Apart from judging dance competitions, Shubha produces ballets for Natyantharanga and grooms students at Karana, which she began in 2006, to impart vocal, instrumental, dance and yoga training. 

On May 5, the Srishti Institute of Performing Arts in association with the Rotary Bugle Rock organisation in Bengaluru, will bestow the National Achievement Award on Shubha. The award ceremony will be followed by her Bharatanatyam performance.

“I feel honoured and thank Srishti for extending this award to me. It is gratifying to be in a line-up of awardees that has included names such as Vyjayanthimala, Birju Maharaj, vocalist RK Srikantan and flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia among others,” says Shubha. 

Auspicious start

Born in Thirthahalli in Shimoga district to N Narasimhaiah, an engineer, and Lolakshamma, a dance and music enthusiast, destiny played a part in Shubha’s future when her father was transferred to Bengaluru when she was seven. “Eager to find a dance guru for me, my parents were thrilled when guru SV Srinivas, a simple man in a dhoti and kurta, arrived at our doorstep after hearing my sister and I were eager to learn dance,” says Shubha.

“We were undergoing fundamental lessons in the Mysore and Pandanallur styles when Guru Srinivas, who originally hailed from Madurai, had moved to Bengaluru and was looking to train students in the Tanjore style. We did not hesitate to join him as he belonged to a lineage of gurus who were instrumental in the establishment of Kalakshetra in Chennai.”

Though dance was a passion from childhood, Shubha’s family believed she would follow in her brother’s footsteps as he was pursuing medicine at Bangalore Medical College at the time. However, that was also when dancer Maya Rao shifted from Delhi to Bengaluru and began the Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography that offered degree courses for dancers. “Nothing could stop me from knocking at her door, and the world of dance widened further for me.”

In the 1980s, the word choreography was novel, to say nothing of a degree in the same. Shubha explains that while artistes wondered what such a course would entail, students were equally curious about the possibilities this stream could offer.

“Our study of choreography was shastra-based and substantial, with Natyashastra as our foundation, with dimensions of stage, lighting, language and costumes. We were also exposed to the history of choreography, world history of dance, folk dances of India and the world, as well as ensemble production,” says Shubha, adding, universities and dance platforms eventually began inviting her for lectures on comparative studies and philosophies of choreography.

Chairperson of the Karnataka Sangeetha Nrithya Academy Shubha Dhananjay interacting with The Hindu in Bengaluru
| Photo Credit:
SUDHAKARA JAIN

Globe trotter

Soon after Shubha’s Bharatanatya Ranga Pravesha in 1987, which was attended by the likes of art critics such as BVK Shastry, TB Narasimhachar, Gunagrahi and SN Chandrashekar, she was awarded the Best Dancer Gold Medals, at both the state and national levels. Following this, she was selected to perform at the Vishwa Kannada Sammelana in London.

“I have been on world stages for the last 37 years and looking back, it is gratifying to see thousands of students who trained at Natyantharanga come into their own. Among the awards I have received, I am grateful to have been selected as the Cultural Ambassador in Bali, Indonesia, and for the French Canadian Heritage Society Fellowship Award from Montreal University in Canada and the Ugadi Puraskar from the Lalithakala Academy among others.”

Sree Devi Mahatme, Mohini Bhasmasura, Srinivasa Kalyana, Kanmani Krishna, Radha Madhava, Mysuru Huli Tippu Sultan, and Kittur Rani Chennamma are a few of Shubha’s works that have been presented at major literary, cultural and religious festivals such as the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, Mysore Dasara, Mahamastakabhisheka at Shravanabelagola and the Hampi Utsava, apart from global dance festivals in the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Maldives, Nepal, Iraq, China, Cambodia and Malaysia. 

Shubha has also choreographed special ballets including Vachana Vaibhava which incorporates vachanas by saint poets such as Basavanna, Akka Mahadevi, Siddarama, Sarvajna, and Kuvempu.

Cherished treasures

While crediting her husband Dhananjay for being a pillar of support and steering Natyantharanga, she is happy her daughters Maya and Mudra perform with her, taking its legacy forward. “My father Narasimaiah was a multi-linguist and had translated several Bharatanatyam compositions from Tamil to Kannada. He also penned original compositions which I took up in my recitals and I plan to work on his spiritual compositions shortly. I believe my students will take this precious collection forward for posterity.”

Shubha regularly identifies talent from rural areas and trains them free of charge. She has also created large choreography sets with up to 600 dancers during Suvarna Karnataka and Dasara celebrations.

Shubha hopes to continue in her new role as the 16^th President of the Karnataka Sangeeta Nrithya Academy, where she not only dances and teaches, but also leads the way by organising dance and music events in India and abroad, to take the institution forward.

The National Achievement Award instituted by the Srishti Institute of Performing Arts will be presented to Shubha Dhananjay on May 5 at 5.30pm, at Ravindra Kalakshetra. Shubha will present a Bharatnatyam performance on May 5 and a Kathak performance on May 6, at 6.30pm, at the same venue. Entry free. Call 2224 1325 for details