Singam - Review

Spoiler-alert !!!

Lets get the governing dynamics clear - 

Saamy + Vettaikkaran = Singam --> Equation 1 

If all the Vijay films are turning out to be colossal disasters under the pretext of "No novelty in the storyline and performances", then why pick Vettaikkaran in the above equation ?. Because, it is the most recent Sun Pictures - Vijay combo, I watched on screens.

One can actually enter a bet to find six differences between "Vettaikkaran" and "Singam" - and can come up with points like, Aspiring police officer - Established police officer, the anti-social activity committed by the villains of the scripts etc. Anushka and Sun Pictures will contribute to the similarities list.

Well, the substantiation for Equation 1 needs to be presented.

Now, have a look at the following template (for the first half of the movie only) and just match with how many ever movies you want. Saamy, Arul, Vettaikaran, Singam are some notorious titles which will readily sit-into it with some minor tweaks.

- Villain's introduction - during and before title cards

- Hero's introduction - Fight and opening song compulsory

- Comedian's introduction (Association of the comedian with either the hero or the heroine)

- Heroine's introduction (naughty, sportive, beauty)

- Villain's family (the whole TN will know how bad the villain is, but the villain's wife is still not aware of it - the only job she seems to have is to serve breakfast for him)

- Comedy scene 1

- Heroine's family (the heroine is the darling of the 10-odd people in her family, she is offered all freedom but to choose her guy)

- The villain is a bad guy - Instance 1 (committing some horrendous murders)

- Hero's family (one more serial-family - this is optional)

- The hero is an epitome of goodness - Instance 1

- Villain's younger brother is a cheap rogue - womaniser, most of the times (turned on by the worker-maid or some shopping mall chic)

- Hero-heroine look at each other, sometime some place (But, the heroine still haven't reserved some real-estate in her heart for him)

- Comedy Scene 2

- The villain is a bad guy - Instance 2 (So many crimes in the Indian penal code - Pick one here)

- Hero catches a sight of the above (Trembling shoulders and boiling blood, he is not involving himself into the mess and stays away as he is not directly impacted by the "The villain is a bad guy - Instance 2" )

- Villain's younger brother commits a heinous crime (related to his innate womaniser instinct or some acts of rowdism)

- The hero unknowingly bumps into the Villain's brother and thrashes him (and 20-odd "office room boys") aside.

- Heroine, fortunately gets a glimpse of the above - fall in love

- Duet 1 in foreign locales.

- Hero - villain main encounter - No punch dialogues here. The hero shows his intentions to shy-away from the mess but the villain is not letting him to do so.

- Comedy Scene 3

- Romance followed by Duet 2

- Hero-Villain Head-on collision followed by the challenge - Punch dialogue guaranteed.

- Freeze the frame as the hero concluded the punch - Spin the letters of I-N-T-E-R-M-I-S-S-I-O-N and deposit it on screen.

Hari - what more can be expected of the Master-Masala-Maker who invariably - will pick up a town/city, have a powerful villain dictating the story, eyecandy heroine reserved for the duets and a mean "meanwhile" style screenplay interspersed with comedy pieces. Hari has started maintaining a police-template also, I believe and "Singam" is the latest output of the template. Dialogues - "I ll make you run out of Tamilnadu", "Chivalry, courage, intelligence of the Tamilnadu Police" - Yappa !!! Enough of it man ... starting from Sethupathi IPS, many police officers have uttered these stuff out.

What is this "meanwhile" stuff, anyways ? - Pick the first 40 minutes of any masala movie - the hero, villain, heroine and comedian will be doing things on their own with zero correlation coefficient. The villain is doing some anti-social activity - "meanwhile" the heroine is playing around merrily in her home - "meanwhile" the hero is doing some good deed to the society - "meanwhile" the buffoon is doing something somewhere. Scenes follow one by one, like the above ... Don't dare to call this "screenplay" ever. Kamal Haasan, who has been conducting screenplay workshops should do one for these guys and inculcate some sense of screen writing in them. 

When the first half was shot, well in lines with the above template, "Saamy" came to the rescue in the second half, in terms of screenplay. The hero - Romancing while in duty at check-posts, leading the ruffians to a lonely place to clobber them, losing some of his kins in the last 20 minutes, smartly follows the villain as he escapes to Andhra, delivers the final monologue message to the villain - are you not reminded of "Saamy" ?.

Surya - His 25th film this is. While I am very much happy with his resume thus far (starting out as a shy-ridden, seemingly resourceless and a naive youngster in "Nerukku Ner", whose only credential then was that - he was the son of the veteran actor Sivakumar), I am not full-of-praise for his 25th film. But, there were enough films in his kitty which will speak of his value as a performer to the present day tamil cinema. With his penchant for performances and an undeniable panache, Surya seems to be the only actor whom you can bank upon in look for good cinema. Way to go Surya and if he is inclined more to be a "hero" like his contemporaries (like in "Singam"), he is disappointing many in our camp.

Coming to Surya's performance in "Singam" - He just exhibits an animated, arrogant, powerful, adrenalin-ridden police officer, pulverising the jumbo-looking "office room boys" (like "Vettaikkaran" Vijay) in a few strokes. While speaking to his adversaries, Surya stands with his legs-apart ("stable equilibrium", probably) and shouts-aloud the dialogues (a bit irritating and monotonous mannerism, it becomes). He is soft-spoken only to Anushka and his family-people. There's a remarkable improvement in his dancing abilities as well, no doubts. The fight sequences should be loads-of-work for the film editor - so many shots - Juggernaut-like Surya thrashing the baddies, exploding tata-sumos, flying rowdies, slashing glass pieces - so much to cover and add to that a racy speed with which the sequence is enacted. 

Though one can be easily critical of Surya's performance in the movie, owing only to the monotone of a masala movie, you can only admire his crackerly-attitude in whatever he does on screen. His body language evokes an unconditional strictness (of a police officer) through-out and his fit 'n' trim physique add a special punch for the role, he enacts. Now, on a comparative note, there is a substantial difference in characterisations, displayed by Anbuchelvan (Kaakha Kaakha) and Durai Singam (Singam). The former sounds more driven by intuitions & smartness and the latter by emotions & raw physical abilities (of course, there is a lot of cognitive smartness as a police officer, exhibited by Durai Singam also). Nevertheless, Anbuchelvan is a calm-n-composed urbane police officer whereas Durai Singam articulates pages of punches in high pitches. Gautham Menon and Hari !!!

Anushka Shetty - Has she got some meat in the script to chew upon ?

- This is a masala/mass/entertainer

- This is a hero-centric Hari film

- This is from Sun Pictures

She is reserved for songs, precisely. Especially, in the second half, where the hero's itinerary is really filled up with appointments-with-villains, Anushka should have tried keeping herself busy with her dance master and the wardrobe-expert for the upcoming duet sequences (Hari has already sent her lines in several SMSes). Her cleavage-friendly attires in the songs successfully received many a "oohs" and claps from the audience. And yeah, she is tall and gorgeous. 

And, I wanted to mention this - There's this atrocious sequence which would lead Surya (Durai Sngam) to nick-name the heroine "Puli" in line with "Singam", which Hari also uses to get them introduced to each other - absolute lack of creativity, I felt.

Prakash Raj - looks aged - made up for the role, probably. Nothing special here - he has tossed up tons of performances like this, on us. For the umpteenth time, he is the Big Dada of the city with the police and politicians under his belt - owns many Tata sumos and elephantine "office room" boys. Loses out finally to Durai  Singam, the untouchable tough cop. 

Support Cast - It looks like, there has been an ordinance in effect at the Tamilnadu Film Artistes Association that atleast two from the following set {Vijaya Kumar, Radha Ravi, Manorama, Nizhalgal Ravi, Nasser}, should be a part of the support cast in any big budget production. Hari, so graciously includes the entire band here. No offence meant on the extremely talented artistes above, but we have got so much used to these guys' body language, dialogue delivery and mode of emotions that nothing new is in store for us. Support cast, on the other hand, is only horribly typecasted, thus trashing the real "potential" in these wonderful actors. They, like countless other occasions, deliver a cliched but balanced performance. we should feel sorry for talented thespians like Nasser, Girish Karnad who were always picked for petty malefactor roles. On a welcome note, our cinema these days, is actually getting progressive in sorting out the support artistes from the "society".

Vivek - should consult a good doctor - His "Mokkais" are turning pathetic. The concept of "Sirippu Police" has been tested by time but the comedy track just sucks here. Same old "Injury between legs" man !! ... When Murali and Vadivelu pole-vaulted and Vadivelu hurt his "%^&*" (for the first time, I believe), it was moderately funny with his facial expressions. Enough of it, Vivek tries to sound funny calling it by different names - Mani, Sombu, bulb - Not funny any more.

Songs were actually a let down. But, Sun pictures can make Dindukkal Sarathy's songs popular. Sun Music will take care of the rest. This has been in light for some time now - tamil pronunciations by North Indian singers - Shaan sings "Oru Vaarthai MoLiyaale" - Unbearable. "En Idhayam" was shot well in some ravishing foreign locales. And, according to Sun pictures rules, there was a real kuthu number 20 minutes before the close of the movie - Surya did a almost-Vijay here, dancing really well. 

I have this feeling that we turn a bit hypocritical when it comes to Surya and very much hypercritical to Vijay. Of course, Surya has proved his capability as a performer many a times before while the latter has never done so. Surya should, in future, choose his scripts judiciously to not to fall into "that" category.

Singam - Tamed circus lion performing routine stuff.

Nostalghia - School Annual day Memoirs

This post is an explicit compilation of those memories which I have been incubating in my brain cells over a long period of time. Since the events and insights, I am bringing about are very much with reference to my school and it's culture, I don't know if everybody were able to identify themselves with this post. The names and events described are not fictitious and are absolutely true. I have tried to be utmostly honest about things and what I felt about them, then and now. I made it a point not to discuss this with people and recall stuff. I stole things only from my own memory and again, this is to provide this post, the much required authenticity. This looong post (the lengthiest I have ever written) is more like a diary for me to tackle my fading memory.

After the winter holidays are over, you enter the school in the first week of January. January is the absolute dream month for any school kid, I believe. It already opens up after the half-yearly vacation, you attend school for around 1 to 2 weeks and you get a mini vacation of atleast 4 days for Pongal, then republic day holiday follows etc. You hardly attend 17-18 days of school in Jan. And, Every year, amidst this happy atmosphere, begins the annual day (or the school day) frenzy and euphoria. School day will usually be held in the third week of Feb in our school and the training sessions for the culturals (drama and dance events) will begin as early in January. Classes used to be half empty as people would be busy with practice & rehearsals and this is the absolute timepass season of any academic year, that you can dream of.

 

There were these two Aasthana heroes of my school's drama scenario, whom I can never forget - Vij and ArKu. Vij was that "typical" Shakespearean thespian of our stage-play arena. The school had this tradition of staging one of Shakespeare's plays every year and as long as Vij was there, he was the hero. I don't know when he started out at the stage but by the time I started consciously following the plays, he always held the title roles. The play will change every year - King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, The Tempest etc but the role of the protagonist was customarily reserved for him.

Most of Vij's performances were staged when I was in the high school and I was never sophisticated in understanding and admiring the dialogues and performances in English plays. Like the male protagonist, there will again be a regular cast to fill in the roles of Ophelias and Desdemonas. You get to see these faces regularly again and again, year after year. Shakespearean plays, naturally oozing with intriguing romance would be let through a thorough censor-filter and "Love" would be one aspect that will be safely dismantled from the plays (for obvious reasons). But, the conduct of the Shakespeare's plays every year was really awesome that those "lengthy" plays with all those sonnets and soliloquies would be prosi-fied and brought down to 10 to 15 minutes. But, I can't recall if the actual integrity of the play was preserved in the process of shorting them down. English plays though looked rich and stylish never attracted a substantial section of the audience.

One more insight which I developed is, among the Shakespeare's plays, mostly tragedies were enacted and "Celebration of masculine valour" was the focal point in the enaction. Other aspects of Shakespearean theatre like Comedy and Romance were not touched upon, I believe.  The female characters of the plays were literally dummified as you remove the romance flavour out from the plays, keeping in mind the "dignity" and "sanctity" of a high school drama stage. And, plays with female-centric themes were never staged, as far as I remember (Shakespeare's Cleopatra, for example). 

ArKu was someone who did an awesome work with the tamil plays. He played a variety of roles from mythologicals to epics to social themes. I have seen him from close-proximity and I can call him "the actor", I saw in my school. He had a good tamil accent and clear pronunciations and I can recall more than one instance where he used to suggest new and better ways of presenting a dialogue, to the teacher. He had a fierce and majestic dialogue delivery when he played the king Ashoka and also excelled with comical timing when he played Tenalirama in one of the plays. I have acted with him in two or three plays.

I had been on stage as a drama artiste for five continuous years, from Class 5 to 9. I can successfully recollect my tamil teachers Seetha miss and Kalaichelvi miss, who hand-picked me for a tamil drama when I was in Class 5. For me, performing on stage those days always meant loud and bold deliverance of lines with the waver of arms. That's it ... I still remember some of the comments I received during rehearsals like, "He doesn't need a mike at all". But, during my 9th Class, I did the role of Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and my English teacher Loganathan wanted me to largely underplay that role. Remember, for me "Playing" means delivering lines aloud (I was regularly with tamil drama troops before and tamil plays required a loud deliverance with right intonations and punctuations stuff). I remember, I found it difficult to keep my volume down and actually speak soft. He used to instruct me frequently, "Mike irukkunda ... en ipdi kathare" ... "gentle aa pesu paakkalam" (Which means "You'll have a mike dude, why do you shout like this ? Can you speak gentle ?).

After all, You can't expect "method acting" from a school kid right ??. I still believe the criteria that would be looked upon a sixth class kid to actually appear on-stage would be, stage courageousness, a good memory to deliver the lines by-heart and a not-so-funny voice to identify and sync with the character you play. Memorising the dialogues by-heart was something, I was naturally interested in, those days. I used to take a special interest in memorising the entire script of the play and whenever somebody is absent for the day, I used to double-play his role also, along with mine, during the training sessions. I remember, I used to enact the entire play to my mom at home, playing all the characters.

The drama training sessions will impart the necessary stage aesthetics like, Don't show-off your back as you perform on the stage, approximate positions of the mikes (there used to be three mikes and you need to walk into the mike and speak, for you to be heard), you shouldn't walk on stage like you are in explicit pursuit of the mike, Coping up with the wardrobe malfunctions (like the breakage of cardboard swords etc). You get to learn a lot many nuances of the art during those sessions, I remember.

The annual day function will start with speeches and prize distributions followed by culturals. They used to be held in the evening and we used to spend the morning in preparation of the props with cardboad and golden-paper stuff. One important thing, I liked with the stage performances is the "Arithaaram" (in tamil), which would be applied on your face before you are made up for the role. There used to be a single sponge which the make-up man will use to apply this stuff (Arithaaram) on the faces of so many people. The sponge used to stink bad but getting yourself made up for that role is always a special feeling (you literally are a different entity & character, now). I had a special liking for this, I remember.

Tamil plays were always the center of audience's applause and appreciation (because they are the ones which will be actually understood by everybody out there) and hence they would invariably be pushed back to the final stages of the school day culturals, to keep the crowd in. So, I always had an opportunity to witness everything going on, from the backstage. Goof-ups, teacher providing the dialogue-leads if somebody forgets his lines, scoldings between the scenes, the busy-ness of the props-setting-people between the scenes, musicians playing the BGM tunes for the drama etc - I've had a first hand experience.

Apart from the dramas, the culturals would feature a good number of dance performances - again there were regular entries - Though I remember a lot of names, I skip them here so as to preserve their identities. Songs for the dance events were chosen with utmost care, such that they don't feature any controversial terms (you got it right ??). If there's one, they used to switch to a hindi version of the song, if available or even chop-off that particular line from the song. Apart from that, we used to have a few hindi songs for dance events. For example, when "Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna" from DDLJ (which literally translated to "Put your henna on and keep the wedding palanquin decorated beautiful girl, your beloved will come to take you away ...") was staged, nobody had a problem, because the song was in hindi and nobody can decipher the sense, the song made.

Some of the famous dance numbers which I can recall are ARR's Vandemataram, Alisha's Made in India, Cheranenna Chozhanenna, Nooraandu kaalam vaazhga, Margazhi thingalallava, Poo pookum osai, Pulveli pulveli etc. The dance performances were mostly by girls and there were boy-girl mixed dance sequences with atleast five feet distance between each of them. During the Annual day seasons, some songs would be universally popular that they will find an entry into the school day culturals of almost all the schools during that year. Made in India, Vandemataram by ARR are classic examples of this particular aspect. I was never interested in dances during my school days, though I believed and still believe that, dancing was always tougher than playing a character in plays.

Kids' rhymes dance sequences would be awesomely cute and equally funny. When there are 10 to 15 kids (the number will always be so high so that the flaws wouldn't be apparently visible), there would be atleast 2 to 4 kids dumbstruck at the stage amused by the people in front and they will forget all the dance sequences and stand-still the whole time on the stage. Some will even start weeping. Yeah, there are instances even the kids will perform flawless - such training and rehearsals they would have gone into.

And, the best part about performing on stage is, you get some fans ... Right ?. I remember one of the conversations I had with a fifth grader (FG) after my performance in a stage play. I should be in Class 8, I believe and this was during the lunch break or something. I pretty much remember the matter and the following is somewhat fictitious.

FG: Anna ...

Me: Ennappa ...

(Someone calling you "Anna" itself is great, when you already have to call so many people "Anna", in school)

FG: Nethikku ungala paathen ...(I saw you yesterday)

Me: Apdiya pa thambi? kandupidichittiya ? (Oh dude !! glad that you identified me)

FG: Aamanna .. Sirippa irundhuchu ... (Yes Bro ... The play was comic)

You can't forget your first fan ... right ??. And, it always feels great to be a senior. 

It was undoubtedly a social status kinda thing to be performing on stages in school, I believe. Layers of Condescension were apparently present. You act in a play or dance to a number on a school day culturals, you achieve some kinda Prima-donna-ish image in the class or school. Everybody likes attention and everybody seek attention - and you get attention when you are performing on stage. Attention seeking is one of those human instincts that will prominently feature somewhere in our Emotional Intelligence pyramid.There are a lot of sociological and psychological aspects to be looked upon here. Thinking over this aspect, will present a lot of insights about how one's personality and social outlook has been shaped and sculpted during the formative years at school.

If somebody has really come this far, reading all the above, I appreciate your patience and indulgence into this. Hope you liked this.

Angadi Theru - Review

Spoilers ahead !!!

Social commentaries are that breed of cinema which mirror the contemporary society and will invariably evoke a spectrum of emotions with the audience. You get a glimpse of various unseen facets of the very same society in which you live ... The social and economic strata, the struggle for the daily bread, the society's hard-heartedness towards its own subjects etc. This Vasantha Balan film is a powerful entry into this genre, which very successfully arouses this feeling of how-privileged-one-section-of-the-society-is, which I wish to establish as one of the measures to assess the films of this genre.

On a retrospective note, recently we had "Naan Kadavul" which screened us the horrendous lives of temple-side beggars and the Agoris. "Vaalmiki" was one decent attempt that tried to portray the lives of pick-pocket thieves. "Polladhavan" featured absolute detailing with respect to the underworld of the bike pickers. Madhur Bhandarkar's Bollywood attempts, though they always gave a glamourised account, are worthy of a mention here. I just remembered a relatively unknown tamil film, Prathap Pothen's "Meendum Oru Kathal Kathai" which was well ahead of its times in its honest picturisation of a mental asylum. "Angadi Theru" just stands tall as a social black-commentary with no commercial concessions. The film picturises the lives of the sales-guys & gals in one of the many all-in-one shopping kiosks at T.Nagar's Ranganathan street. The film neither glamourises their lives nor is exploitative in its experiment. 

The film's main plot - sales-guys & gals in a Saravana stores-like shopping complex, the places they live and dine, the relationships they share amongst each other, their supervisor, the proprietor of the store etc.The lives of these sales personnel are shrewdly oriented towards only one goal - work and work only, for fifteen hours a day. In the process, they are forced to lose their self-esteem and are ill-treated like bond-slaves. The supervisors even barge-in on their personal spaces and try to chop-off their love interests. The film employs various other sub-plots depicting the street-side platform businesses. In short, it brings up the T.Nagar's commercial street live and  buzzing.

The movie's technical brilliance is something which you will never be able to appreciate at the first viewing. The film has such an engaging screenplay, that you aren't allowed to digress away from the story. You can't notice any flaws with the cinematography, editing or the Music as you will be very busy following the details depicted on the screen and a triggered-screenplay. The scenes are impact oriented and consequential - You are simply occupied with the emotions that engulf you with every scene that is exhibited. Jeyamohan's dialogues are spiky and they deserve a special appreciation.

 The film's protagonist Mahesh wields a blank face through-out and is not so efficient in communicating both vehemence and excitement  - gets the pass-mark as a fresher. If there has to be a find-of-the-movie, it is undoubtedly the heroine Anjali. Anjali just delivers such a matured performance in only her third movie. We saw her as Anandhi in "Katradhu Tamil" and was acclaimed the "Best Debutant of the year" in Vijay Awards that year. She is just apt as a salesgirl here and her face sharply relays the emotions what-so-ever. She looked very much subtle in her performance and scores way ahead of the glam-chics we have these days. Way to go Anjali !!!

The support cast including - the "Kana Kaanum Kalangal" guy & the bunch of sales people, A.Venkatesh as the supervisor, the platform salespeople - everybody just deliver their roles to perfection. The character of the sales supervisor Karungaali, played by A.Venkatesh needs a special mention here. He just reminded me of the role played by Thandavan in "Naan Kadavul". This character is a personification of cunningness, wickedness, villainy and rascality etc. You hate him so much big-time and thus he succeeds in his role. Casting has been awesomely good and Vasanthabalan's confidence with the first-timers pays off well. This is becoming more of a good sign with our cinema these days - The casting is mostly fresh and if the story demands a touch-of-nativity, the directors never bother to pick people from the society rather than from the industry. 

Many scenes in the movie just sweep you off with an overwhelming shock value. I feel that they are not intended as cheap exploitative gimmicks to jolt your conscience and emotional setup but are genuine in portraying the sick lives of a strata in this society. You just sit there paralysed by the impact, a few scenes create in you. And, I always had this compassionate empathy towards the salespeople in garment stores ... They just go on and on showing you stuff, till you decide that you are gonna buy something. So, whenever I spend a reasonable time browsing through garments in a store, I always have this habit of picking up something, atleast to satisfy the zeal, the salesperson exhibited to me. And, here on, this empathy is gonna be on a rise.

This is Vasanthabalan's third venture after Album and Veyyil. Album was very silent and never created an impact at the box office. Veyyil, deeply autobiographical and intensely personal gave him the much needed success and went on to the Cannes Film festival (though it premiered in the non-competitive section). I always have a great deal of respect for "Personal filmmakers". Veyyil was a dark personal tragedy and we can see the remains of "Veyyil" in "Angadi Theru" too. The flashback sequence shown here is very interesting and genuine, as he deals with relationships. 

Film-making, in terms of Andrei Tarkovsky is, "Juxtaposing a person with an environment that is boundless, collating him with a countless number of people passing by close to him and far away, relating a person to the whole world, that is the meaning of cinema".

This piece is brilliant ... Go watch it !!!

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya - Review

Spoilers ahead !!! 

Finally, the tough-cop and the disciplined army man in Gowtham Menon are dead and comes alive in him is, himself of the yesteryears, young wannabe film director.  VTV - Breezy, vibrant, youthful, colourful – So, Is VTV, just one more addition to that long list of Kollywood flicks which glamorize, idolize and epitomize the boy-girl relationship ?. Not really, though not much offering from the storyline point of view, the presentation is applause-worthy.

 There is nothing much happening in the movie as such, meaning, the film is not studded with events and consequential scenes. It just strings together “n” number of meetings and colloquial exchanges between a smart lad and a charming lass. It’s just a boy-meets-girl and fall-in-love story in an urban setting with all those society-contributed hiccups for love. But, I still wonder how the movie managed to keep us all engaged, the whole time. The magic, I think, lied with the screen presence of the lead couple and the wonderful dialogues seasoned with peppy-zippy one liners. Gowtham probably picked this up from Mani Ratnam – many interesting and crispy short dialogue exchanges, successfully received many a “Wow”s from the audience. The dialogues, unlike the usual Kadhal, chedi, poo, deiveegam, divine stuff, were exploring the lust-diamensions also. 

This movie is what, I would like to define a “Romantic Musical”, in the limits of Tamil Cinema. Our films generally couldn’t be brought under a single genre umbrella and they always are Action-Romance-Sentimental and blah-blah stuff. The movie is pretty one diamensional except for that tiny boxing expertise episode. I, definitely, ain’t complaining this … I, Infact, loved this aspect of the movie.

Offtrack - Silambarasan is labeled “Young Superstar” in the title credits. I don’t understand this … He was previously the “Little Superstar”, probably referring to his relative immaturity in the field (in terms of age, attitude and naivety of his activities) … Now, that he is a bit seasoned in our cinema arena, he has been promoted from “Little” to “Young”. Next in line, might be “Pubescent”, “Teenager”, “Middle aged” etc. But, where will all this end ?, as plain “Superstar” is something reserved and he can’t afford it, whatsoever.

Coming to Simbhu’s performance in the movie, Here’s a Simbhu without his finger-gimmicks and the trademark narcissistic attitude and dialogue deliverance. In the movie, (quoting one of my friends, here) his dialogue deliverance and behavior are a bit unusual that it took some time for us to actually tune into his frequency band. You befriend a new guy, you take some time in getting accustomed to him … That was exactly the glitch, I just explained. But, there after, you actually have no problems, whatsoever … Simbhu has delivered a real good performance and you gotta love it. He looks more subtle and matured, as he conveys a lot of his emotions with his facial expressions and dialogue modulation. 

Trisha, as quoted in the trailer and the movie, is classy, stylish and sexy too. Dressed up in angelic chiffon sarees and salwars, she has an elegant and ravishing screen presence. There was this Lord Byron’s poem, “She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies”, Trisha just picturises this as she gracefully walks and Simbhu glancing at her in an overwhelming admiration - one of the nicely shot sequences. 

 Characterization of Jessie (Trisha) is what is, “the” achievement of Gowtham, as far as VTV is concerned. Millions of poets would have registered this in all their poems - “the depth of a woman’s heart” and Gowtham, very successfully brings it graphical. Confusion, obscurity of thought, explicit misunderstandings, absolute swiftness in opinion making and naivety in decision making – all complex diamensions of a lady’s mind were brought out so lucid. In my opinion, Jessie is the actual villain of this script, more than her father and brother, who understandably throw in red lights, for her love. I am not sure, if Trisha has done complete justice to this character in all her capacity, but her presence, vagueness in eyes and her empty smiles definitely communicate her confusion, effectively. Chinmayee (who dubbed for Sameera in “Vaaranam Aayiram”) dubs for Trisha in the movie. Myself, so much accustomed to this voice was actually looking for Sameera on the screen and realized it’s Chinmayee again for Trisha.

Jessie’s attitude and behavior is where, I believe, this movie holds aloft, the personal filmmaking of Gowtham Menon. You can be supremely confident that, this candourly genuine characterization of Jessie is not a result of imagination but of experience. Then, there is this Gowtham regular – “Mechanical Engineering” – given a chance, Gowtham just plugs this in every movie of his. Also, Simbhu is an aspiring filmmaker in the movie. Again, this presents a lot of scope for the director to pour in his life as a beginner in the industry and I should say, he has utilized it good. I was, somehow reminded of Balu Mahendra’s “Marupadiyum”, in which Balu brought in many of his diamensions as a filmmaker in Nizhalgal Ravi’s character. That was more intense, I should say and understandably, Balu is a more turbulent and intimately-personal filmmaker, this industry has ever seen. 

The cameraman character, who is seen with Simbhu all the time, with his witty and timing deliverance of lines, provides a lot of short one-moment laughter situations. 

This movie is definitely “a body without soul” without the mesmerizing BGM tracks and songs. ARRahman’s album tracks have been chartbusters, months before and the thrill actually rested in seeing them all picturised. (No Rahman track should suffer the horrendous picturisation which “Nee Marilyn Monroe” of “Azhagiya Tamil Magan” received, with Namitha shaking her booty off and made it possible). Hardly, there are moments in the movie without the BGM in the backdrop … the music just keeps you submerged in that pool of romance. My favourite track, “Mannippaya” by ARR and Shreya Ghoshal was placed at an apt juncture in the movie and as ARR with his typical intonation, vocalizes in high pitch, “Melum melum urugi urugi, Unai enni engum Idhayathai enna seiven ?” – you actually get lost somewhere (Lyrics by Thamarai). 

The picturisation of the songs were good and would require subsequent viewings or TV broadcasts to actually observe and enjoy them wholly. I never remember any dark colors like red, brown or black on screen through out the course of the movie … blue and green all the way - Soft and cool mood throughout, with the camera work.

Cinematography – I don’t know if anybody else felt this problem. But, there was this large scale misuse of close-up shots, through out the movie. Right from the frame one, it has been close-ups all the way … The movie looked like 8X zoomed in, through the course. There were always beaming faces on the screen which was not so pleasant. Close-ups, one of the five Cs of Cinematography is a very powerful technique and storytelling device that actually transcends the viewer into the actual mood of the protagonist, chopping-off the unessential props around, for that particular shot. But, terribly overused and misused, close-ups lose their potential and becomes more of a routine endeavor in this movie. 

Many would probably like to call this a “feel good” romance. I don’t know, from my childhood, I have accustomed myself that only “they lived happily, ever after” are “feel good”. If pain and loss in love can be considered “feel good”, then this one is. It is actually the “pain of love”, which has inspired many a great poets and achievers (in the creativity industry, more importantly) towards goals. This movie, or rather Gowtham Menon’s career, can be a testimony to this particular aspect.

EDIT: Days after I published this post, I found this particular song "Maalai Neram" from "Aayirathil Oruvan", fitting-like-a-glove for the mood, feel and substance of this movie (VTV). Listen to this number ...

காதல் இங்கே ஓய்ந்தது ... கவிதை ஓன்று முடிந்தது
தேடும் போதே தொலைந்தது – அன்பே
இது சோகம் ஆனால் ஒரு சுகம்
நெஞ்சின் உள்ளே பரவிடும்
நாம் பழகிய காலம் பரவசம் – அன்பே
இதம் தருமே …

பேருந்து பயணங்களில் ...

பேருந்தில் பயணம் செய்வது எனக்கு எப்போதுமே பிடித்தமான விஷயமாக இருந்துவந்திருக்கிறது. என் அப்பாவிடம் டி.வி.எஸ் முதலிய உந்துவண்டிகள் அன்றைய நாட்களில் இருந்திருக்கவில்லை, அதனால் சிறுவயதினில் எங்கு வெளியே செல்வதாயினும் பேருந்து தான். இதற்காகவே வாரா வாரம் அம்மாவுடன் சந்தைப்பேட்டை செல்வது மிகவும் பிடித்தமானதாக இருந்தது எனக்கு. பவானி கூடுதுறை எங்கள் வீட்டிலிருந்து சற்று தொலைவு. ஒரு மணி நேரம் பிடிக்கும் ... ஒரு மணி நேரப் பேருந்துப் பயணத்திற்காகவே எனக்கு கூடுதுறை மிகவும் பிடித்திருந்தது. அப்போதெல்லாம், பல முறை சென்று வந்த போதிலும் பாதை மற்றும் சாலையோர அம்சங்களை நினைவில் வைத்துக்கொள்ள பிரயர்த்தனப்படுவேன். எனினும், ஒவ்வொரு பயணமும் புதிதாகவே தோன்றும். இன்றளவும், பெங்களூரிலிருந்து சொந்த ஊரான சேலம் செல்லும் போது கூட பேருந்து பயணம் களிப்பு மிகுந்த அனுபவமாகவே எனக்கு தென்பட்டுவருகிறது. ஆயினும், பெங்களூர் வாசம் உள்ளூர் பேருந்து பயணத்தினை வெறுப்பும், சலிப்பும் உடைய அனுபவமாக மாற்றியது வேறு விஷயம்.

எல்லோரையும் போலவே "ஜன்னலோரம்" எனக்கு மிகப்பிடித்தமான ஒன்று ("பேருந்தில் நீ எனக்கு ஜன்னலோரம்" என்று பாட்டெழுதும் அளவுக்கு இது ஒரு பொதுப்படையான விருப்பம்). அன்றைய காலங்களில் பேருந்தில் ஏறியவுடன் கண்களை வேக, வேகமாய் அலைய விட்டு என் தம்பியையும், என்னோடு ஏறியவர்களையும் முந்தியடித்து ஒரு ஜன்னலோர இருக்கையை பிடித்து அமர்வதிலே நான் கொள்ளை ஆர்வம் காட்டியிருக்கிறேன். இன்றைக்கும் பேருந்தின் ஜன்னலோரம் எனக்கு கவிதையாகவே தோன்றுகிறது. முன் செல்லும் சாலை, பின் நகரும் மரங்கள், விசித்திரமான மற்றும் வித்தியாசமான மனித முகங்கள் ... ஒரு முழுமையான அனுபவம் அது. திரைப்பட சுவரொட்டிகளை பார்த்தல், கடைகளின் பெயர்ப்பலகைகளை வேகமாய் எழுத்துக்கூட்டி வாசித்தல், மற்றொரு பேருந்து முந்திச்செல்லும்போது தென்படும் முகங்களை நோக்குதல் என்று சுவாரசியங்கள் ஏராளம். சில முறைகள், இன்று எத்தனை பேரை சாலையோரங்களில் காண்கிறோம் என எண்ணிக்கை வைத்தது கூட எனக்கு நினைவிருக்கிறது.

பதின்பருவங்களில் பேருந்து பயணம் எனக்கு ஒரு வித்தியாசமான பரவசத்தை அளிக்கத்தொடங்கியிருந்தது. இந்தத்தருணத்தில் ஆர்.கே.எம் (RKM) ஐப் பற்றிய ஒரு சிறு அறிமுகம் தேவைப்படுகின்றது. RKM சங்ககிரியிலிருந்து பவானி நோக்கி இயக்கப்பெறும் ஒரு தனியார் பேருந்து. எங்கள் பள்ளியில் ஒன்பதாம் வகுப்பு முதலான மாணவர்களுக்கு  தினமும் காலையில் சிறப்பு வகுப்புகள் நடைபெறும். தினமும் காலை 7.45 மணிக்கெல்லாம் நாங்கள் பள்ளியில் இருக்க வேண்டும். RKM சரியாக 7.15 மணிக்கு சங்ககிரியிலிருந்து புறப்பட்டு 7.40 க்கு எங்களை பள்ளியில் சேர்க்கும். நான் 7.15 மணிக்கு வீட்டில் இருந்து எனது மிதிவண்டியில் கிளம்பி, என் பெரியம்மா வீட்டில் மிதிவண்டியை நிறுத்தி விட்டு, 7.25 மணிக்கு பேருந்தில் ஏறுவேன். ஏறக்குறைய, வெறும் 15 நிமிடங்கள்தாம் பேருந்துப்பயணம் என்றாலும் அந்தப்பயணம் அளித்த அனுபவங்கள் அலாதியானது. அந்தப்பேருந்து கிட்டத்தட்ட எங்கள் பள்ளி மாணவர்களுக்காகவே இயக்கபட்டதென எண்ணவே தோன்றும். அப்பேருந்தின் காலை 7.15 இயக்கத்தின் போது பயணம் செய்யும் கிட்டத்தட்ட 65 பேர்களில் சுமார் 40 பேர் எம் பள்ளி மாணாக்கராகவே இருப்பர். எங்களுக்கு பயணச்சீட்டு கட்டணத்தில் சலுகை அளிக்கப்பட்டதாகக்கூட நினைவு.

RKM பேருந்து அழகான நேர்த்தியுடன் அலங்கரிக்கப்பெற்றிருந்ததாய் நினைவிருக்கிறது. பின்புறம் கண்ணாடியில் ஐஸ்வர்யா ராய் அழகாக சிரித்துக்கொண்டிருப்பார். பேருந்தில் பொருத்தப்பெற்றிருந்த ஒலிப்பெருக்கிகள் கூட நல்ல தரமானவையாகவே எனக்கு அப்போது தோன்றின. இன்றும் கூட, அந்நாட்களின் காலைப்பயணத்தின் போது நான் ரசித்துக்கேட்ட ஒன்றிரண்டு திரைப்பாடல்கள் எனக்கு நன்றாக நினைவிருக்கின்றன. "வானத்து நிலவெடுத்து வாசலில் வைக்கட்டுமா ?", "காதல் என்பதா காமம் என்பதா ?", "உயிரின் உயிரே" முதலிய பாடல்களின் வரிகளை படியில் நின்றுகொண்டே முனுமுனுத்தது பசுமரத்தாணி. RKMன் நடத்துனர்கள் கூட மிகவும் இயல்பாகவே பழகியதாக நினைவு ... பெரும்பாலும் எங்கள் வயதையொத்த இளைஞர்கள் தாம் .. பேருந்து முழுக்க பள்ளிப்பாவையர் - பேருவகையுடனே பயணச்சீட்டைக் கிழித்தனர்.

சங்ககிரி போன்ற சிறுநகரத்தில் அமையப்பெற்ற பள்ளிகளில் சமுதாய ஆண்-பெண் ஒழுக்கக்கூறுகள் எவ்வாறெல்லாம் நிறுவப்பெற்றிருக்கும் என்பதற்கு பெரிய அளவில் விளக்கம் தேவையில்லை என்று கருதுகிறேன். (இன்றைய தேதியிலும், சென்னை மற்றும் தமிழகமெங்கும் உள்ள பொறியியல் கல்லூரிகளில் நடைமுறைப்படுத்தப்பட்டுள்ள விதிகளைக் கவனித்தாலே புரியும், நமது ஒழுக்கக் கோட்பாடுகள்). கலாசார காவலர்கலாகவே வலம் வருவார்கள் ஆசிரியர்கள். பள்ளியின் பெயர் பாதிக்கப்பட்டுவிடக்கூடாது என்பது அவர்களது குறியாக இருந்தது. இயல்பாக அமையப்பெற வேண்டிய ஆண்-பெண் நட்புச்சூழல் சமூகம், பள்ளி, கல்லூரி எங்குமே கிடைப்பதில்லை என்பது தனிப்புலம்பல் ... அதை விடுவோம்.

கட்டுப்பெட்டித்தனமே நிறைந்து வழிந்தோடும் சமூகத்திடமிருந்தும், பள்ளியிடமிருந்தும் ஒரு தற்காலிக விடுதலையாகவே அந்த RKM பயணம் எனக்குத்தென்படுகிறது. அந்த வயதினில் இவற்றை நான் உணர்ந்ததில்லை ... ஆனால், இன்று அப்படித்தான் எண்ணத்தோன்றுகிறது. உண்மையாகவே, RKM பயணங்கள் பதின்பருவத்தினரான எங்களின் உற்சாகம், வேகம், உணர்வுகள் முழுவதையும் பிரதிபலிக்கக்கிடைத்த ஊற்றுக்கன்னாகவே கருதுகிறேன். அன்றைய எண்ணங்களும், சிந்தனை ஓட்டமும் வித்தியாசமானவை ... என்றாலும், இன்றளவில் எண்ணிப்பார்த்தால் பதின்பருவத்து உணர்வுகளான Peer pressure, Infatuation, shyness, coyish glances முதலிய அனைத்தையும் சிக்கலின்றி நாங்கள் வெளியிட்ட இடம் RKM பேருந்து தானோ என்றெண்ணுகிறேன். மொத்தத்தில் நாங்கள் நாங்களாக இருக்கும் வெகு சில இடங்களில் அந்த RKM பயணத்திற்கு மிக முக்கியப்பங்கு இருந்ததென்னவோ உண்மை.

வாழ்த்து அட்டைகளோ, காதல் மடல்களோ பரிமாறிக்கொள்ளும் அளவுக்கெல்லாம் எவனுக்கும் தைரியம் இருந்ததாக நினைவில்லை ... எல்லாம் பார்வைகளின் ஊடாகவே நடந்தேறின. எனக்கு நினைவு தெரிந்து நான்கைந்து காதல் ஜோடிகளுடன் நான் பிரயாணம் செய்திருப்பேன். ஒன்றிரண்டு சீனியர்-ஜூனியர் ஜோடிகள் கூட உண்டு. உணர்வுகளை வெளிப்படுத்த பார்வைகள் மட்டுமே கைவசம் உள்ள நிலையில், அந்த தவிப்பு மிகுந்த சிருங்காரப்பார்வைகள் ...கண்கூடாய்ப்பார்த்தது நினைவிருக்கிறது எனக்கு. பலசமயங்களில், பேருந்தின் முன்பகுதிகளில் அமர்ந்திருக்கும் பெண் இவனை கவனிக்கக்கூடமாட்டாள் ... அவள் நோக்கும் ஒரு நொடிக்காக காத்துக்கிடப்பான் இவன். இதில் சமவயதுக்காரர்களின் கிண்டல், கேலிகளையும் சமாளித்தாக வேண்டும். இப்படியாக எங்களோடு எங்களின் எத்தனையோ தவிப்புகளையும், உணர்வுகளையும் சுமந்து தாம் RKM பயணம் செய்திருக்கும்.

அவசரம் அவசரமாக அசைன்மென்ட் காப்பி அடிப்பது, தேர்வு சமயங்களில் வினாக்களை விவாதிப்பது, புத்தகத்தை வைத்து படிப்பது, படியில் நின்று சீன் போடுவது என அனைத்தும் RKMஇல் ஐக்கியம். சினிமா, கிரிக்கெட் முதலிய பொதுப்படையான விமர்சனக்கருத்தாக்கங்களும் நடைபெற்றுக்கொண்டிருக்கும். சில சமயம், முந்தைய நாள் கிரிக்கெட் ஆட்டம் அக்குவேராய் பிரித்து மேயப்பட்டுக்கொண்டிருக்கும். 10 மற்றும் 12 ஆம் வகுப்பு பொதுத்தேர்வுகளுக்குக்கூட RKM இல் தான் நான் பயணம் செய்தேன். RKM எனது பள்ளி வாழ்கையின் ஒரு முக்கியமான பாத்திரம் என்றே கருதுகிறேன்.

கல்லூரிப்படிப்பு - விடுதி வாழ்க்கை ... பேருந்துக்கும் எனக்குமான தொடர்பு அறுந்தே போனது. பின்னர், பெங்களூர் வாசம் ... இங்கு தங்குதடையின்றி வாகனங்கள் செல்ல வழியே இல்லை. பேருந்து பயணங்கள் களிப்பும், சுவாரசியமும் தருவதற்க்கான மிக முக்கியமான காரணம் - காட்சி இன்பம் தான் ... சாலையில் வேகமாய்ப் பயணிக்கும் போது தான் அது காணக்கிடைக்கும். பேருந்து சிக்னலில் நின்றே கிடக்கும் காலம் தனில் அது வெறுப்புக்குரிய அனுபவமாக ஆகிறது. நம்ம ஊர் அரசுபேருந்தில் கிடைக்கின்ற இன்பம், இங்கே எனக்கு வோல்வோ பேருந்தில் கிட்டியதில்லை என்பேன்.

Tamil Padam and Goa - Reviews

Spoiler-free ...

Tamil Padam (2010)

I am not going to evaluate this movie analysing it's Camera composition, Sound Recording, Editing excellence and the likes. Keep aside the sacred rules of Cinema and hop onto it ... But, I think it is reasonable on my part to expect an engaging screenplay, even though it brands itself a Mockumentary feature. The Only reasonable benchmark against which the movie can be accessed should be, Vijay TV's weekly feature "Lollu Sabha". But, honestly speaking, the movie fared much below-par, the standards of a spoofy mockumentary and presents a much boring endeavor altogether.

If you look at the rolls of Tamil Cinema, if this movie is the curtain-riser of this so-called genre "Mockumentary", the answer would be "Yes". A few of the Satyaraj flicks (like Englishkaaran and Mahanadigan), Venkat Prabhu's cocktails and the most recent "Quickgun Murugan" etc have a pinch of this genre, but not as wholesome as Tamil Padam. The movie's stills and trailor only heightened up our expectations and we were all set for an absolute rib tickler. Being aware of the fact that the movie is going to pick up pieces from various tamil films, the only expectation from my side was, "How will the screenplay be adjusted to fit in all those pieces of a jigsaw puzzle ?". Ahh !! And, the result, I should say, was miserable.

The characters - I understand that the movie is a parody and that the characters are caricatures, but you need not be caricaturously caricaturesque. I don't ask for touchy characters but for logical & hilarious ones. The cast of Manobala, M.S.Bhaskar, Vennira Aadai and Paravai Muniyamma - the oldie-foursome with all their college-dude characterisations and machi-conversations just torture you to the highest possible extent. I was frequently glancing at my watch for the movie to get over and the second half was an extreme prick and I should say, a lot (if not all) of Lollu Sabha episodes were better than this movie. The problem, I think, was with the length. The movie runs for close-to 2:15 hours and you only rush out of the theatres as it has got over.

Complaints apart, the film has it's hilarious moments, Thalapathy-Mammooty and the Mani ratnam style one word conversations, "Ippaadalai Paadikondiruppavar ungal Siva", Mouna Raagam-Karthik, Lady Don Sornam and her rape attempts, becoming a millionaire in half a song, A English song - etc were good. Mirchi Shiva just fits in the role and he is becoming more of a type-cast, these days ... His performance was good anyways. The film parodies various tamil masala regulars like Introduction song, punch dialogues, village panchayats etc but definitely loses out in keeping you engaged, the whole slot. The heroine was a regular face and a more regular role - Nothing great.

The film tries to score on the shock value, by parodying tamil cinema to an all new, non-existent low stature. But, even then, it doesn't seem to work all fine. The film looked more like an unfinished product, with hanging scene sequences and absolutely out-of-nowhere plot incidents. I still feel that the movie would have kicked-off with the script in its infancy and the product, instead of being a polished outcome, was crude and looked like patches pasted together.

I am supremely confident that, with however lighter vein, you are in, you wouldn't be able to avoid those distressed disturbances & uneasiness, at some point or the other, with the movie. Considering the fact that you have the entire 80 year old tamil cinema history at your disposal, the film could have been more interesting. A bit of more homework on the director's part would have resulted in a better-fit pieces on this jigsaw board.

Miserable and Missable.

Goa - A Venkat Prabhu Holiday (2010)

A Few random thoughts & opinions ...

Goa is a typical Venkat Prabhu venture, with mostly his regulars in the cast department. The movie started with a Ramarajan style village setting song & banyan-tree panchayat and me, still with the Tamil Padam hangover of the last night was aghast. Thank God, Venkat Prabhu knew when and where to stop.

 Three constrained & conservative village lads (Jai, Vaibhav and Premji) travel to Goa and adventure the glitz and glamour of the beach-paradise. That was all the movie is about and the movie was never bad, honestly ... Whenever the screenplay hung-on, Venkat just maneuvered the script ahead and "All was well".

Lights on a few aspects of the film ...

Male Homosexuality - I couldn't recall the last time, when the gayism or the male homosexuality is dealt in all these details in a tamil movie. Share of the beds, hugs, six-packs gazing, open dialogues addressing the relationship - Am I in India ? ... I still couldn't believe, how they were let-off at the censors. There was absolutely no hideous or subtle dealing and it was all black and white. It was meant to be a comic track but still, I couldn't understand the Indian censors.

Subramaniapuram Hangover - It's high-time Venkat and his boys escape this "Kangal Irandaal" hangover. Premji Amaran has already patented this turning his head backward and gently swaying his head (Hope you understand what was meant) action and has used it more than Jai (in Subramaniapuram) himself. Whenever a romantic scene opens up, Premji does this and James Vasanthan's BGM props up. I could see people enjoying it at the cinema hall, anyways (including me). I have this getting-ready-to-laugh syndrome, as soon as Premji appears in the frame. He just manages to put everybody in laugh-riots with his custom body language and dialogue delivery. He does action sequences also, in this movie.

Camera Cool - Sakthi Saravanan - Wow !! Gorgeous camerawork. You only get that Jill-Jill tone through out the Goa sequences. Bluish beaches and dashing bikinis - Saravanan just brings you Goa alive. Me, being a Goa resident for four years, haven't seen such a beautiful Goa with naked eyes & Saravanan's camera-eyes does that in all efficiency... The film brings out an utterly glamorous depiction of Goa and his camera just aids the point.

As the second half opens up, there was a slight slow-down, in a not-so-racy script. But, before the effect becomes much more pronounced, the film moves ahead. Definitely, those timing comedy pieces, trademark of this gang, was missing in this venture. Probably, Venkat runs out of stuff on this particular aspect. Premji Amaran, without a girlfriend in both Chennai-28 and Saroja (and was desperate to get one), is presented with an absolutely gorgeous Melanie Marie in this movie. Pia Bajpai (the close-up ad fame) and Sneha just spice up their roles. The build-up towards the climax is not so interesting and surprisingly, you get Nayantara and Simbhu (No .. No... Not together !!!) in guest appearances at the climax.

Overall, the film looked enjoyable all the way. On a final note, the Venkatprabhu style movie is losing that punch, mainly because he is running out of fuel on this genre & style. If at all there's a next movie from him employing the same screenplay sense and script-flow, that might turn out unattractive to the audience. Buck up Venkat !!! Time to amend ...

Definitely watchable.

M.G.Ramachandran's Film & Political career - A Critical assessment

M.G.Ramachandran's 22nd Death Anniversary Special

24th of December ... Exactly 22 years earlier, Tamilnadu was a ground of uncontrollable grief and social & political unrest of huge magnitude. The entire state came to a standstill as people were aghast with shock on the death of their beloved Chief Minister, M.G.Ramachandran (MGR). The response was genuine and highly emotional to the extent of a large number of reported self-immolations.

Dinamani dated 25th December, 1987 - Carrying the news of MGR's death.

The following article is a recap of, what MGR was to tamil filmgoing audience and tamil people, in general. Most of the facts presented were borrowed from various media and the output is a result of my understanding of the various inputs I received. The article will try to assess the cinema and political career of MGR and I generally will try to avoid the flowery descriptions that he always gets from any media, print or visual.

MGR starred in his first major film role "Raajakumari (1947)" and for a larger part of his film career spanning 30 years till "Madhurayai Meetta Sundarapaandiyan (1977)", he was the reigning superstar of the tamil filmdom. MGR's popularity as an actor was well pronounced and more readily seen after his own production & directorial venture "Naadodi Mannan (1958)" broke and set new box-office records.

If you leave aside his most obvious box-office capabilities and success, what were his contributions to Cinema, as such ?.

Actor Vs Director
Early 50s were a crucial period for tamil cinema as this period saw the emergence of a large number of films with social themes (transition from Mythology based movies). If not for the star system (MGR & Sivaji Ganesan) that developed during this period, the control of the cinema would have rested with the directors instead of the lead actors. MGR paid ample attention in moulding his on-screen persona and encouraged hero worship. In MGR's case, it is said that, he would interfere in each and every department of his film and that lead to the sidelining of the actual creator of the movie - the director, forever.

The Hero
MGR rewrote almost all the prevalent notions that defined a film's lead actor. In tamil popular culture where moustache is seen as a macho-symbol, MGR never acted with his original moustache. Also, when he made his way into the cinema, the lead actor should be in a position to lend his voice for the songs also. Playback singers weren't popular that time. MGR acted out what a film-hero should and shouldn't do on-screen. He was a definite milestone in tamil cinema's history and even today, actors like Rajinikanth, Vijayakanth and Vijay just follow him. The image of Robin Hood that he left behind was picked up by later generations of actors.

 Enga Veettu Pillai 

Masala Cinema
There is a very common term that we use these days, Masala film. What is a masala film ?. The film won't have a great plot ... The story never stands on its own but on entertaining scene sequences, good songs and stunts. I think MGR institutionalised and popularised this concept ... Sword/Silambam fights, romantic songs with attractively dressed ladyleads were almost universal in his later movies. "Enga Veettu Pillai", "Ulagam Sutrum Vaalibhan" etc offer grand examples of how a masala movie should be made.

Philosophical Songs
One good thing that formed a part of each and every MGR movie is his introductory / thathuvam / philosophical song. They really educated and inspired a generation of audience. Again, the credit for the song was never given to the lyric writer or the singer but to MGR. Even after the defect in his voice (M.R.Radha shot MGR at his throat, 1967), people discussed, "Vaathiyaar paatellam nalla dhan paaduraaru, dialogue pesum podhu dhan prachnai pola", which means, "MGR is able to sing the songs properly but only while delivering dialogues, he has the problem with his voice".

MGR and Latha

MGR never looked at cinema as an art. For him, it was sheer business. For producers, he was the most reliable brand available, MGR would stand for Maximum Guarantee of Returns for them. People never complained or expected real performances from him. They just wanted to watch him on-screen and whistle at his gimmicks for three hours. Interestingly, the MGR fanatics were referred to as "Whistleadichaankunjugal" (விசில்அடிச்சான்குஞ்சுகள்). MGR's films, in a way desensitivised the film-going audiences in Tamilnadu and made them very mediocre. On the other side, if you speak of monotonous performances, even Chaplin did the same. Entertainment is what people looked at and they got it in him. That's how it went !!!

Let's have a look at MGR's Political career.

MGR & AIADMK
It was a complete underestimation of MGR's potentials on Kalaignar's part that brought MGR into the political arena of Tamilnadu. Once he was in, he never turned back and was outrageously successful. MGR was never a serious politician in his beginning years or till the death of C.N.Annadurai in 1969. Annadurai called MGR his "Idhayakkani" and he was generally used by the DMK to mobilise people for political rallies and meetings. Annadurai has once openly commented on the vote-garnering capability of MGR. Out of DMK in 1972, MGR starts his own political party AIADMK and won the state assembly in 1977. What are his political achievements ?. Lets have a look ...

Anna and his "Idhayakkani" MGR

Tamilnadu on a back-foot
MGR's rule during 1977 to 1987 resulted in an apparently visible setback in terms of Industry & Commerce infrastructure and performance of Tamilnadu. The Economic indicators of the state were on a rampant back-foot during his governance. The development activities only slumped during his regime and this should be seen in light of the fact that MGR's party enjoyed a real continuous reign of the state, close to 11 years except for a brief period in 1980. Single party, Single administrator and hence uniform policies & governance should have only elevated the growth of the state, which sadly didn't happen during his period.

 MGR - Jewel of the masses

Populism
MGR was straight from the studio sets of "Madurayai Meetta Sundarapandiyan" to the Chief Minister office and hence his administrative capabilities were below par, atleast during his first term. His government always concentrated on the populous schemes like the mid-day meal scheme etc (Which would keep his votebanks intact) rather than Infrastructure oriented schemes which should have put the state in a good shape in future.

Faction Politics
MGR is credited with setting up a faction-ridden AIADMK and factionist politics saw its peak during his regime. A large degree of misuse of powers and government funds was reported and this only deepened the economic disparities in the state. If it was DMK under M.Karunanidhi which introduced corruption into the state, ADMK under MGR institutionalised and mastered the course. His fans and devotees used to dismiss these facts with a simple explanation, "It is the people around MGR who do all these and that he isn't aware of things around him". Even if that is the case, Can it be called a good governance ?

Glamour Politics
MGR was very much aware of the saleability of his brand and was very consciously preserving his image. He was heavily made-up in all his public appearances. His fur cap and black glasses were only hiding his balding head and sunken eyes - signs of ageing. He never let people knew that he was ageing, for them he was still the same young man romancing with youthful ladies in cinema reels. MGR's brand of politics, the so-called "glamour politics" only set a bad example in the state that almost every actor in this state nurtures political ambitions just after delivering a box-office hit. I completely admit that the filmstars are also part of this democratic system and hence own every right to contest elections and lead people. But "Right" doesn't provide an automatic implication of administrative efficiency, which many of them lack at the outset.

The MGR Phenomemon
His politics never projected AIADMK as a party, it's policies or its plans / manifesto for the state and MGR remained the sole cynosure for AIADMK and its political propagandas. Whenever questioned about the policies, agenda and manifesto of the AIADMK party, MGR never came up with a concrete or complete explanation. He used to blabber Annaism, democracy, socialism, "Naadodi Mannan" etc. Apparently, In AIADMK's political entry and succeeding electoral duels with DMK, the wholesome attention is paid to the MGR Phenomenon only. Interestingly, the then Tamilnadu Food Minister Tirunavukkarasu once said, "We all are zeros.We gain our value because of the number one before us.The number one is MGR". In all the 200+constituencies, people always believed that they were casting their vote for MGR as they punched their ballots on the two-leaves symbol.

Leaderless AIADMK
By the fag end of his political career, MGR was largely sick and was unable to deliver his duties effectively. The party was in dangers of disintegration and there was an apparent unrest among the partymen. As long as he was alive, he successfully kept the party intact but left behind a chaotic and leaderless AIADMK. Lots of turmoil followed before things fell into place under Jayalalitha. This is a more serious blunder on the part of the leader of a party. Literally, the second rung was absent in AIADMK during his premiership of the party and AIADMK still remains so under Jayalalitha. For all these partypeople who call themselves patrons of C.N.Annadurai, Anna was a magnanimous leader who encouraged a second rung leadership in DMK and fondly called them "Thambigal", meaning younger brothers.

That's a lot of criticism. So, What has his government given Tamilnadu. My father gave me the following information and when I asked him, "Is that all ?", he said, "That's it". He was of a firm opinion that, even if MGR would have lived more, his party would have been defeated in the next polls because of apparent administrative negligence on his part and corely corrupt-head politicians of his party.

- Housing scheme for Harijans or the untouchables.
- Good Transport network or town bus facilities to small towns.
- Immensely popular Chief Minister's mid-day nutritious meal scheme.

Mid-day meals scheme
His Mid-day meals scheme has been analysed and applauded worldwide. In 1982, MGR started the noon-meal scheme for children below five years which was then expanded to include pre-schoolers, all primary school children, children up to 15 years of age in rural areas, old age pensioners, the destitute, widows and all pregnant women. The noon meal scheme has had a long run in Tamilnadu with a wider coverage and as a result various indicators of malnutrition showed a downward trend in Tamilnadu during the period.

Summary
Summing up, The relationship that MGR and DMK had before the formation of AIADMK was a symbiotic one. MGR required the party's light on him for a successful cinema career and also, It was the DMK's propaganda cinema and DMK's script writers who provided a kick-start for MGR's film career. DMK also took his services for adding glamour to the party and nobody can deny the importance of the sympathy wave (MGR was shot at the throat, 1967) that put DMK on the political saddle. Later MGR-MK fallout and the formation of AIADMK produced a wholesome shift in the state's politics. MGR's administrative capabilities and his political successes only seem to be an oxymoron, for me.