Sirai aka Prison [dir. Suresh Rajakumari]

In Sirai aka Prison, Kathiravan (Vikram Prabhu) is a policeman involved with the escort of prisoners in transit. These escort cops must often rely on public transport, and during the entire journey they are responsible for keeping the prisoner confined and the public safe. At the beginning, Kathir is shown to open fire in a public place to stop an escaping convict. He is placed under enquiry. In the meantime, he takes on another escort job, of an under-trial Muslim boy called Abdul Rauf (a stunning LK Akshay Kumar, who reminds me of a young Basil Joseph).

Kathir's two teammates in the mission treat it more like an outing where they can drink and make merry. When they are caught in a public scuffle after one such carouse, Abdul is unsupervised in the bus. It gets worse: Even the rifle meant for guarding the prisoner is left behind with him. The cops chase after and catch up with the bus, only to find both Abdul and the rifle missing. It is at this cliffhanger moment that the intermission comes.

Sirai's second half deals with Kathir and his team meeting again with Abdul, and learning the circumstances that led to his incarceration. It is not a novel story; 70's and 80's mainstream Indian cinema was rife with narratives where an upright cop finds sympathy for a law-offender and they ultimately team up against the actual bad guys.But within this archetype, Sirai imbues its characters and situations with sufficient substance for them to engage the audience.

Abdul's situation comes about as a consequence of the communal divide in his village, and the opposition to his transgressive romance with the Hindu girl Kalai (Anishma Anilkumar). Supporting characters like Abdul's mother (Remya Suresh) and Kathir's wife (Ananta Thambiraja) show a welcome fire instead of being the stereotype doormats. I also loved that the Sirai did not feel obliged to have a climactic showdown reinforcing the cop's badasserie. This is a refreshing change from the ultra-macho 'my beard/dick biggest' leanings of today's masses-oriented cinema.

Of course, all is not great here. The second half of Sirai leans hard into sentimentality - sometimes to the point of obvious manipulation - with repetitive scenes of characters being oppressed or bursting into tears. Also, the visual grammar becomes unnecessarily jerky, insisting on cross-cutting flashbacks where a few lines of dialog would have sufficed to convey the information. It is as if the makers felt that the audience constantly needs to be shown stuff happening. But there is enough goodness here that flaws notwithstanding, Sirai is an excellent example of what I wish more mainstream cinema would aim for.

PS: The film is also an example of how using people born within the industry does not in itself constitute nepotism. Vikram Prabhu comes from an acting family that includes father Prabhu and grandfather the late Sivaji Ganesan. LK Akshay Kumar is the son of the film's producer SS Lalit Kumar. But both are so well-suited for their parts that you do not see them as privileged insiders denying more deserving candidates.

Tokyo Godfathers [dir. Satoshi Kon]

Occasional violence notwithstanding, Tokyo Godfathers - Satoshi Kon's 2003 Xmas themed movie - is his most family-friendly effort. The title is a hat-tip to John Ford's 1948 Western Three Godfathers, in which a trio of thieves led by John Wayne are landed with the care of an orphaned infant.

Kon's heroes are three hobos that find the baby while scavenging in a dumpster. Hana the melodramatic transgender is overjoyed at the prospect of being a 'mother' although it is soon clear that she is less prepared for the practicalities than the middle-aged taciturn alcoholic (ha!) 'Gin', who has a tragic backstory that may not necessarily be true. Rounding out the trio is morose teenage runaway Miyuki.

Initially, Gin and Miyuki want to hand the baby girl over to the police, while Hana - who names the child Kiyoko - is determined to raise her, even if it means striking out on her own. They reach a compromise in deciding to hand the girl back to her parents using the meager clues they find to their identity. Their winding journey includes meeting a mafioso, bearing witness to an assassination and learning about a former bar girl that may be Kiyoko's mother. In this process they also learn more about each other and about their own selves.

Kon is normally known for bizarre dream-logic enterprises like Perfect Blue, Paprika and his series Paranoia Agent. His 2001 fictional biopic Millennium Actress - which traces the life of a former film star, and in the process gives a history of the Japanese film industry - was the closest he had till then got to a conventional drama. Tokyo Godfathers is again a more grounded narrative, remaining in a real world, albeit one with some very colorful characters. While Kon does not sugarcoat the melancholy of his characters, this is ultimately a film of hope, and that is what Xmas season is all about, isn't it?

The Breaking Point [dir. Michael Curtiz]

In Michael Curtiz's The Breaking Point, Harry Morgan (John Garfield) is a married sailor that leases out his boat for fishing trips. He is aided by his first (and only) mate Wesley (Juano Hernandez), a colored man with whom he and his family share the sort of friendly bond that would surely have raised audience eyebrows at the time. On one fishing trip, he meets the provocative Leona (Patricia Neal), who is accompanying her sugar daddy. Leona throws him strong feelers but he doesn't bite. He also turns down  a proposal from sleazy broker Duncan (Wallace Ford) to carry some illegal human cargo for cash. But fate does not side with our honest family (sea)man. The sugar daddy defaults on his payment (and dumps his mistress), and there are bills that need paying. So Harry has no choice but to take on the job.

Unfortunately things go further wrong and he ends up accidentally killing a man. Harry throws him overboard, and after dropping Leona ashore, goes back to his wife Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter, who I only knew previously as Superman's foster mum, Martha Kent) and two kids. Now the coast guard impounds Harry's boat on suspicion and he still needs to provide for the family. Lucy well-meaningly nags him to give up on the boat and move to her father's farm. Harry loves his wife and daughters, and wants to do his best by them, but he wants none of the farming business: The sea is his lifeblood. He's in the pressure cooker and now it's getting hotter.

Desperate for a paying job, once Harry gets the boat back, he gives into Duncan's new job offer, which actually involves him being the getaway boat for a gang of bank-robbers. Does he actually go through with this? Will he get out alive, and if so, can he face his family again? These are the questions raised in this steamy noir drama.

Early on the film emphasizes the strong romance between Harry and Lucy's married couple. It's the backbone of the drama and one makes believable his actions, be it his rejection of Leona's repeated advances or his resistance to the temptation to make a shady buck. Harry's not a boy-scout but there are lines he will not cross. The threat to his family life is what raises the stakes in how the film plays out. The characters are beautifully written - while Lucy is the 'good wife' pitted against Leona's provocateur, neither of them are archetype 2D cutouts. You completely empathize with Harry's recognition of his fallibility and his resolve to keep certain ties sacred; his monogamy is not a cliche. Leona is also not the archetype 'whore with a heart of gold'; she understands why Harry is committed to Lucy, but does not let that stop her from trying to pull down his defenses. This nuanced struggle between faith and temptation is the powerful engine propelling Breaking Point's drama.

The boiling pot screenplay eventually explodes in the climax with a shootout on the boat. Without spoilers, the end is not a happy return to status quo. But apart from the haunting final image, it is mostly hopeful, and we are glad for that. Shot mostly on real locations, the film carries verisimilitude; Ernest Hemingway, who wrote the story To Have and Have Not, upon which it is based, is supposed to have declared it the best film adaptation of his works. 

A few words about the blu-ray release of the film from The Criterion Collection:

Coming off a 2k restoration by Warner Bros, the transfer is a solid one, with good detail and excellent contrasts that do justice to the visuals by Ted McCord (The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The Sound of Music). The mono track is good enough to get the job done. Extras include a 20-min video essay by critic Alan Rode, a shorter piece by the people behind the popular cinephile Youtube channel Every Frame a Painting and a featurette with John Garfield's daughter Julia talking about her father, his rise and fall in Hollywood, and his work in The Breaking Point.