VISITOR COLUMN

A god sent child opened a gate to mark the arrival in 70s, only for his followers to tail along, all along. This unassuming phenomenon flipped a cigarette in the air in 80s, only to find scores of fanatics scream their lungs out, out of sheer joy. He rode an auto in 90s only to drive the audience into a frenzy. This destiny's child was kissed on the head by an elephant in the 2000s only to have his audience feel blessed watching him. Today we have him sketched by his daughter, only to have his devotees block their calendars and throng the theaters this coming summer. A few tongues wag, jealousy prevails, critics cry during his movie releases, but each one of them has been made to eat their own words in the last 4 decades. While fans celebrate the release of Kochadaiiyaan trailer, a few detractors release the foul smell from their mouth criticizing the quality of animation. Movies are made with budgeted figures. Traditionally, regional movies have virtually had no acceptance outside it's own state. While international movies make it to literally every screen in every country worldwide. Budget-wise, it was never feasible for regional movies to be stacked up against international movies purely because of the language barrier. and economic reasons. Cartoons are generally caricatured art, and cartoon films use animation techniques to photograph a sequence of drawings rather than real people or objects.

Anime is more stylized with common character designs and facial structures, detailed backgrounds, and a plot.

Kochadaiiyaan being an animation movie, uses any image made from a composite of still images of inanimate pictures, makes a 'closer to reality' movie through the medium of computer graphics or otherwise. It takes an eye for detail and a dash of sense to differentiate animation from cartoon. Most of us do, few choose not to. Please bear in mind what you say. It exposes your ignorance and lack of knowledge more than what the movie is when you say Kochadaiiyaan looks like a cartoon. Here's a bit of mathematics: James Cameron made Avatar with a whopping budget of 1400 crores bombing 17000 screens worldwide. Today much less than 1/10th that cost has gone into producing Kochadaiiyaan, yet it's debuting in more than 1/3rd the number of screens Avatar did. At 120 crores, India makes it's first ever motion picture film, and we have some funny bones dying hard to criticize this attempt. Wake up. With 120 crores, even James Cameron would have struggled to make even the teaser of Avatar. Mind you, Thalaivar is appearing only in animation and we have already started wondering what all records Kochadaiiyaan is going to break. Just imagine if he were to appear in flesh and blood. Adhirrrardhulle!

Kochadaiiyaan is here, Thalaivar is here, and so is the biggest festival for all of us. So let's celebrate this occasion together rather than complaining. It's afterall our thalaivar, a tamizhan, the darling of masses who's gracing the theaters this summer. Thalaivar therikka viduvaaru, Goosebumps guaranteed! Beware. We promise to bring the roof down in every theater when he says 'Paathayaa yengal naattin radha gaja thuraga padhaadhigala!'. Just beware!