Behindwoods Team,

Tamil Cinema is looking for a way forward. But financial enhancements may not be the only way that you do move forward. We have seen Sivaji and Dasavatharam made at macro budgets, yet we know despite the vast improvements, we are still lacking in a certain way. Tamil Cinema is not a place dearth of potentials, moreover it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to mention that this industry would rank at the top in terms of not utilizing its potential. Arguably, Tamil cinema has made India’s most expensive movie, produced India’s most versatile actor (Kamal Hassan), produced India’s best camera people (Ravi K. Chandran, P.C. Sriram, Nataraja Subramaniam, Manikandan all learned their trades here), and even produced India’s best directors (Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan), yet we are lagging so much more in terms of global recognition in pale comparisons to Bollywood. Tamil Cinema could be so much more than what it is now, only if we dared to take three steps forward.

Step one

First of all, it is essential for me to introduce myself in this case. I am a mass communications student from Malaysia, majoring in film and television. I live in an extremely diverse society around me, filled with people from various cultures and backgrounds, both foreigners and locals, and I am a huge enthusiast of Indian cinema. People around me think it’s ridiculous to have songs in a movie, yet I firmly answer everytime anyone asks me about the best film I have seen in my life- ‘Hey Ram’. Best actor? Kamal Hassan. Best musician? A.R. Rahman. People roll their eyes when they hear these answers, of course they have no idea whom I’m talking about, but why? They do have some idea if I mentioned Shah Rukh Khan. It is depressing to note that such talents go unnoticed just because a lack of marketing. I recently read a report in another Tamil cinema website that Tamil movies are slowly commanding huge following overseas, and that we are heading in the right direction. But it’s about time we do a reality check. Let’s not go to Europe or USA as of yet, just take a look above your shoulders, within Asia Pacific, to Malaysia especially. As a result of three presentations in a row about ‘Indian Cinema’ (not Bollywood), and a lot of talking about it, I’ve been a reference point for my friends when it comes to Indian cinema, and finally my Chinese friend is convinced enough that he wanted to watch Dasavatharam. But he can’t. I can’t bring him. Why? There are no subtitles. I could bring him to watch a mindless ‘Tashan’, but I could not bring him to watch ‘Dasavatharam’. Neither are subtitles given to Tamil movies in theatres, nor are they given in the original VCDs. This is really, really poor marketing. I was web-browsing once and i viewed the cover of the German edition of ‘Hey Ram’. The word ‘Hey Ram’ itself were in smaller fonts, and there is no prizes for guessing that Shah Rukh Khan’s name was in the bigger fonts, but the more mind-boggling truth is that Shah Rukh’s name was the only one promotion on the cover. There was his photo on a large scale, followed by Rani Mukherjee’s, and somewhere in a little corner, there was Kamal Hassan, the real star of the movie- the lead actor, the producer, the writer, the choreographer and the director, his name was nowhere to be seen in the cover. It is heart-breaking for me, and I guess it would be for anyone who have come of age to really appreciate ‘Hey Ram’ for the masterpiece that it is. Again, this is the lack of aggressive marketing which is contributing against Tamil Cinema. Recently, Bollywood had ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’, ‘A Wednesday’ and ‘Aamir’ and finding handsome returns in terms of profit despite them not being movies laden with stars or glamour. What was the fate of a similar ‘Evano Oruvan’ in Tamil? Madhavan’s best performance of his career virtually went unnoticed. There is no use in blaming audiences, it is the marketing that has to be blamed. I usually visit a nearby DVD shop which basically sells English, Chinese and Thai DVDs with subtitles. Then, to my utter shock, i found ‘Aamir’ lingering among the bunch. Now that’s where good marketing could get you to. ‘Aamir’ is a good movie, but it is no better than ‘Evano Oruvan’ and i don’t think many would disagree with me here.

Step two

But it isn’t to say that there is nothing wrong with our movies at all. Of course, there are plenty of wrongs and I don’t want to beat around the bush again by mentioning about stereotypic actors or movies with plenty of mindless fight or dance sequences. I was back from my summer holidays last year when most of my non-Indian friends bombarded me with questions with ‘Sivaji’. They knew about it. Good marketing? Nah, think again. Rajini sir’s fans have virtually destroyed huge parts of a theatre in Ipoh, Perak just because the delivery of Sivaji’s reel was delayed in time for the midnight show. Such outrageous behaviour is not something new for Indian audiences, but never did such violent behaviour taken place in Malaysia to the extent that it was reported widely in local newspapers. The local newspapers usually only have a very small column, probably less than quarter of a page dedicated for a glimpsed review of Tamil movies, but after the ‘Sivaji’ fracas, ‘New Straits Times’ (Malaysia’s second largest newspaper) had full-page column with a huge Rajini cout-out picture. Something to be proud of? Again, no. The fracas created has only tarnished the reputation of Tamil cinema to a very, very low level. The writer of that article has wondered what was so special with ‘Sivaji’ that he had decided to watch it. And the rest is history. It was all over the page- over-the-top direction, over-the-top acting, over-the-top hype, and above all, no-brainer story. He hadn’t known who Rajinikanth is to understand that all this ‘over-the-top’ elements is what Rajini’s iconic status is all about. We can foresee it, but he can’t. The question that bugs me here is- is ‘Sivaji’ a good movie in every sense you look at it? As a childhood Rajini fan, I enjoyed it too, but something constantly bugged me in the theatre. ‘Sivaji’, is, indeed, at that time, India’s most expensive movie ever. But what is the money for anyways? All I see is an extremely simple story and over-done fight sequences. You don’t need a truckload of 70 crores to make such a movie. All the money was flushed just for the songs. It could have been so much more. Maybe Shankar could have directed it the way ‘Wanted’ was directed, all kinds of Matrix-ness involved but it was still a treat to the eye, not a pain to the brain like ‘Sivaji’ fight sequences turned out to be. Is this how we prefer our cinema is represented? Being the most expensive movie does represent something. At least ‘Sivaji’’s predecessor ‘Devdas’ represented Indian cinema as a melodramatic medium, and to add grandeur to melodrama is fine, as long as it reaches the hearts. But ‘Sivaji’ in every way represented everything that is discouraging about Indian cinema, or Tamil cinema in precise. Neither is the movie a complete treat for the heart, or brain.

Existence

We as humans live with a virtue that we exist for a reason, and indeed we do. Movies too, like any other medium in the media, exists for a reason. And that ‘reason’ is not ‘entertainment’. Not entirely. Back in 2004, the entire Tamil cinema frontier went gaga about ‘Manmadhan’, a movie that became a craze among audiences. This has to be a hit that has had the most negative effect to the society amongst many others. Few days ago, the very star of the movie, Silambarasan a.k.a Simbhu, stated in a press conference that just because he acted in ‘Manmadhan’, the media have portrayed him as a real-life womanizer. Character assassination- that’s what he called it. ‘Manmadhan’, apart from being the blockbuster that it is, has only had negative impacts more than positive impacts in many ways. Three of my friends became womanizers after watching that movie. Is this how a movie is supposed to affect its audiences? A film-maker should ponder properly before writing a script whether he is addressing a topic without being bias. Flirting and cheating in relationships are done by both men and women alike, and to be bias to only women and justifying murdering them by becoming a playboy himself is complete bias and narrow-mindedness at work. It is similar for many more other movies which try to portray political agendas with their stories. Movies carry social responsibility, not personal agendas.

This is where a celebrated Tamil director enters this argument, Shankar. When you talk about social responsibility, you have to think about Shankar. His movies have been always about social issues, from something as miniscule as public littering to something as big as political corruption. But here I would like to provide a very subjective yet relative argument about Shankar’s films. I have delivered my criticism of ‘Sivaji’ above, but this is about Shankar’s movies in general, with exception of ‘Boys’. Shankar’s movies are the perfect examples of how you could mish-mash a good social theme with extreme heroism. I often level this question to my friends- does Shankar’s movies really change the audiences? Do his messages really have been taken seriously? Apparently, Shankar’s movies have greay box office runs but very rarely they leave that social impact. Let’s take a look at north and the kind of impact ‘Rang de Basanti’ or ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ has had in recent years. They have had a similar impact in the society as much as in the box-office. The existent problem that is so common with Tamil cinema here is simple- heroism. Heroism automatically dismisses the level of relativity between the audience to the protagonist. For instance, Sivaji wants to fight corruption and establish his own school in ‘Sivaji’, and ‘Anniyan’ wants to wipe out social negligence, but how? Could a common man wrestle 30 or 40 goons as portrayed in the movies? ‘Rang de Basanti’ and ‘Lage Raho...’ were made with the perception of a common man in mind. There are no exaggerated, inhuman scenes in the movies. It installs the belief that you too, like me, could make a difference. ‘Sivaji’, ‘Anniyan’, ‘Gentleman’ all expose social problems but do not provide a common solution nor do they explore the topics in hand enough. A common man watches, enjoys and leaves. Maybe one or two who are remotely affected by it decide to do something about it, but even that belief would be tarnished because the director fails give the common man a belief of making a difference. Our movies have heroes flying all over the places (Vijaykanth’s Narasimma especially) and defeating terrorists. Compare this to recent masterpiece produced not in Hollwyood, but to our very north- the Nasserudin Shah starrer ‘A Wednesday’. Which common man wouldn’t be moved after watching that movie? Does movies like ‘Narasimma’ really make feel strong about terrorism in either way? Do they prompt you to think about it twice? Do they address your common fears?

Respect the identity and take guidance

We the people of Tamil cinema are an entity, and we should respect our identity and at the same time, could take guidance from our neighbours. By identity I mean the language. Actor R. Madhavan has mentioned several times in an interview that an essential difference between Tamil cinema and Bollywood is that in this industry, you hardly find an actress who can speak or understands Tamil.

The most insulting instance would be Shriya Saran, who shot to fame with her role in ‘Sivaji’. I have no need to stress about Shriya much, I guess many enthusiasts would acknowledge that she isn’t much of an actress and is just having a brief date with the spotlight. But to think that the individuals involved in the highest order of Tamil cinema entity have been responsible to her current fame is nevertheless shameful. A director like Shankar or an actor of Rajini’s stature would have certainly been aware of the kind of fame Shriya will receive of being part of ‘Sivaji’. She neither speaks nor understands the language properly, and to see her making terrible lip-synch on the screen represents an ignorant attidude when it come to respecting the language. Actresses such as Sada and Simran (in her early days) do not command good Tamil as well, but yet they make the effort of proper lip-synch to make it look convincing. And for Shriya to blabber in such manner is completely unacceptable for Tamil cinema. Most embarrassing is the decision by the who and who of Tamil Cinema to allow her somewhat ridiculously the opportunity to speak on the stage during the Cauvery water dispute demonstrations earlier in 2008. And she didn’t even speak in Tamil.

I still fondly remember veteran actress Urvasi holding a satire segment during a concert where she mentions sarcastically that in order to be a successful Tamil actress, you musn’t know the language in the first place. National Award winning Paruthi Veeran fame Priya Mani also mentioned in one of her interviews (prior to the success of Paruthi Veeran) that Tamil film makers should be blamed from her own shift from Tamil movies to Telugu movies, citing that despite being able to speak the language fluently, she was given little opportunity and was often over-looked in the industry in favour of more glamorous, non-Tamil speaking actresses. Then there was Madhavan who stressed one of the important essence of the success of Bollywood and its constant overshadowing of Tamil cinema being that the actresses do command a natural fluency of Hindi. Katrina Kaif is an exception, but she has worked hard enough to speak Hindi fluently lately, and now she does have a good command of the language.

Recently, K.V. Anand said in an interview that he thinks Tamil cinema is better than Bollywood. This is not the first time I have heard this answer from a Tamil cinema figure who has had experience both of these film industries. Without a shred of doubt, Bollywood does over-do it in terms of glamour sometimes, the perfect example being the recent Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Bacha Ae Haesseno’ which is a glamorized and over-done version of Cheran’s masterpiece ‘Autograph’, but don’t we too? The image of a woman bending over in Tamil films is far more explicit that the glamour that Bollywood offers. The actresses in Bollywood look sensous, gorgeous and stylish when they get into glamour mode, not as lusty as the characters are made out to be in Tamil cinema. Just compare Aishwarya Rai’s ‘item number’ for ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ to that of many of our item numbers. But let’s not live in defiance, there are a lot of lessons we could take from Bollywood- the way they market their movies, their bold attempts to try something different, their highly hyped IIFA (where is our ITFA anyway? Bring it back) the multi-starrers, the variety of scope their actresses get to do, the healthy environment between the stars (war of words do happen but they do not manifest as violence between fans). Tamil cinema is full of potential but is nowhere near fulfilling those. Let’s not go to Hollywood yet, just look at our neighbours, and we can draw out the positives.

So here I end my lengthy argument about Tamil cinema, everything that has boggled my mind about this industry for the past few years have been levelled out here in this essay. All I can say is that there is not much difference between where we are now to where we are trying to go. But to make that small difference, we need to take simple steps forward, which is to disattach ourselves first of all with the common stereotype associated with our movies. The trend is not a trend anymore. Lets making outside the trend a trendsetter itself.

I would like to apologize if any of my comments had hurt anybody, I am just expressing myself. I would welcome feedback and counter arguments.

By,
Ram Anand (Malaysia),
ram_dhanush@hotmail.com

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