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Film appreciation:
Glamorous Tamil cinema
K S Sivakumaran
When we talk about Tamil Cinema what we have in mind are films made
in Tamil in India in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Most film studios
are located in a suburb of Chennai (not a suburb really, it's part of
the mega city) called Kodambakkam. Films from Chennai are dubbed as
Kollywood (imitation like Hollywood, Bollywood).
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Engayum Kaathal |
Tamil Cinema reflects the current mass popular culture of Tamil Nadu.
What is 'popular' may not necessarily be artistic or quality infested.
Cinema has a stronghold among the less literate masses of Tamil Nadu.
Cheap politics and cinema are intertwined in Tamil Nadu. In fact, except
in states like Bangla (West Bengal) and Kerala in the southwest of
India, Cinema as understood by other countries is not applicable. This
is the general pattern. But yardsticks are changing. Values are
changing. Techniques are changing, mode of entertainment is changing.
Cinema as we know is also an industry. The masses have no time for
literary appreciation of a film. They want a 'Masala' (a cocktail of
dances and songs and fisticuffs, crime, distasteful sex etc) to while
away the time and to escape from reality. Youngsters all over the world
want quick action in everything.
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Raja Paattai |
If that's the status quo, let that be. But certainly there is hope
and there are plenty of positive features in contemporary Tamil cinema.
To know the real state of present day Tamil cinema, we have to be at the
centre stage in Chennai to observe things from the place s the events
happen. We have to depend on what the 'film journalists' (mind you, not
the 'film critics') in India say about the current Tamil films produced
in Kodambaakam. Unfortunately for us Lankan Tamil newspapers having
double spread film pages in a Sunday edition simply reproduce what the
cheap journalese in the name of 'Cinema Vimarsanam' (meaning film
criticism). The hackneyed jargon is mainly used to describe the sizzling
and saucy and juicy anecdotes of the short-lived glories of the
glamorous stars- both men and women are taken in as 'film criticism'.
Except for occasional articles on artistic Tamil cinema in English
language papers like The Hindu and the New Indian Express and the Deccan
Herald, the Tamil language papers do not pay much attention to devote
articles on serious cinema. But we understand that a few 'little
magazines' in Tamil do discuss serious cinema in their pages.
However a critic has got to take into account both the popular
glamorous cinema and the so-called serious cinema for evaluation. The
popular cinema cannot be dismissed totally because some positive and
improved features have been found even in the mass oriented films.
I noticed that some not so recent films like Moli, Vinnaith Thaandi
Varuvaayaa, Subramaniam Theru, just a few among many other, had some
kind of sophistication in film making that could please the middle and
upper middle class audiences. But these films wouldn't appeal to the
tastes of poorer and 'Dalit' classes because they are conditioned to
look at films in the 'Masala' kind of taste.
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Vinnaith Thaandi Varuvaaya |
Last year a total of 190 films (that include dubbed films from Hindi,
Telugu, Malyaalam and English) had been produced in Chennai. At the
Indian National level 13 State Awards had been given to Tamil films is
an achievement, it is claimed. The highest gross earner was Mangaatha
starring Ajith, a versatile romantic actor who combines valour and
perceptive acting. What the critics acclaimed as outstanding films
failed miserably among the masses. The films concerned were Aaranya
Kaandam and Vaakai Sooda Vaa. Similarly those films downgraded by
critics swelled with popularity running to weeks in Tamil Nadu. They
include Osthi, Nadunisi Naaikal, Raja Paattai, Vengai, Maapilli, Vedi,
Engayum Kaathal.
Incidentally a versatile contemporary Tamil poet from Lanka V V S
Jeyapalan is reported to have acted excellently in a film called Aadu
Kalam. Among the newcomers, Dhanush, Vishal along with slightly older
Vikram have drawn notices by their different kind of acting, wee re
told. There are a lot of Mumbai female stars acting in Tamil films now.
They are really beautiful, daring and throw a lot of sex appeal which
the deprived masses relish in seeing them on screen. Among them Sharward
is spoken of these days as a beautiful goddess.
The unfortunate thing is I am too lazy and tied up with much more
rewarding things than watching Tamil films that I have not seen any of
these films mentioned above either in the theatres or as DVD screening.
So, I had to depend on what our local 'film journalists in Tamil' say in
their enthusiastic reports for you to know about contemporary Tamil
cinema.
Whatever critics may say about Tamil films, they have mesmerized the
Tamil audiences all over the world with their stupidity at times that
they willingly 'suspend belief' and get themselves engrossed in the
magic dream world that is cinema.
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