Friday, February 19, 2010

Proliferation of the decomposition of tamil cinema

(Disclaimer : All characters referred to in this post are NOT figments of my imagination. If there is any resemblance to reel life characters, it is exactly whom you think they are.)

Imagine this - Our 'Mr.Ilaya thazhavali[sic]' Vijay after watching 'Vettaikaran' with his wife and son, eagerly asks his wife for her feedback. Or 'Mr.Title-relinquisher-on-account-of-unworthiness' Ajith Kumar accompanied by Shalini  watches 'Asal' and asks her the same dreaded question - How eez the movie sweetheart? I really pity these women and our resilient audience who keep going back to theaters expecting a decent movie at-least on their God knows which visit. Are tamil movies so bad these days? For those innocent souls, sample these -     
  • In the late 60's when a soon-to-become-CM was happily serenading a   not-so-soon-to-become-CM, heroes were portrayed with a lot of dignity as wealthy businessmen, doctors, law enforcement officers and even scientists. But these days they are all uniformly cast as happy-go-lucky uneducated youth sitting on a wall (frequented by stupid donkeys)  along with their friends who never seem to age. Well, we (read as audience) are to be blamed to some extent for this. Fed up with the 'angry young man' themes of the 80's, we wanted some realism in our movies. Looks like the directors had taken it very seriously and started casting heroes (read as Vijays and Dhanushs) in their real life avatars.
  • Gone are the movies where heroines were a prominent part of  the hero's reel life (ya sometimes real life too). These days whenever our hero is fed up caring for his ailing mother or 'vazha vetti' sister or unemployed brother or bashing the villains,  he jumps into a Raymond suit or Tommy Hilfiger outfit and starts dancing with the girl nearest to him in the movie sets. That girl is the heroine. And if that girl gives a solo performance thats the 'item' girl.
  • If the movie has no story or screenplay but a compulsory run-time of  2.5 hours and the producer has lot of funds, cast another heroine and picturize 2 more songs in a foreign locale.
  • Can we ever imagine Sivaji Ganeshan doing a triple somersault followed by a long jump followed by a pole vault 'n' number of times? It's one thing that his anatomy wouldn't allow him to do so, but the fact is he didn't have a Kanal kannan or Rambo Rajkumar as stunt masters. These guys make a completely mockery of Sir Isaac Newton with the help of Archimedes (defying gravity with the help of pulleys and levers) and help our heroes vertically scale running trains and flying planes . But one good thing is they have done away with the biggest legacy of tamil cinema on mankind - that quintessential 'dishoom-dishoom' BGM.
  • From the days of Nambiar to Nasser, villains had a real bash in movies. They got to trash the hero till the climax, forcefully sleep with some close or distant relative (obviously female relative) of the hero  and at the end get general amnesty.  But  now a days they get the trashed from the beginning, can't touch even the hero's servant maid and on top of it have to consistently shout at 90dB level.
  • Latest techniques to compose a song - A.) Pick your favorite old song. Attenuate the voice and amplify the music and throw in some drum beats here and there. And place it exactly in the middle of the only good scene in the movie. B.) Repeat A. 
  • The latest menace are the new breed of hero cum director cum producers who look like and act like yuck. But whats the big deal. Cast yuckier guys as co-artistes and all is well by the theory of relativity .
And the worst among the herd are those directors who staunchly believe in the concept of re-usability and hence don't want to waste their non-existent creativity.
(N.B. - The title suggests nothing more than the fact that tamil cinema is decomposing rapidly...)








6 comments:

  1. Few more things I can add --

    * Almost everyone is so typecast, that imagining them playing a different role makes me laugh loud. Imagine a Kamal dressed as Rajni with a Shivaji Mottai tapping his fingers and saying laka laka laka .. Or Rajni doing a songless/fightless movie ;)

    * In every movie with two heroines, one of is always dumb/modest/poor and the other is hot/arrogant/rich ! Sadly .. the hot/arrogant/rich is always a loser ;(

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  2. Haha!!

    I enjoyed reading your post.

    Honestly, tamil movies don't inspire me anymore. Even the Kamals and Rajinis are bad now a days. Every movie is about a guy fighting a bad person and winning a girl.

    The characterization looks very weak and shallow. Subtlety is an unknown aspect and everything has to be so obviously stated. Watched "Tamil Padam" recently which I think was a decent spoof of the tamil movies.

    I hope people get more professional with this art.

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  3. I can't believe this is coming from a movie buff. You have exactly sampled the kind of movies that you personally dislike and have magnified its negatives.
    This is also the age wherein movies like nadodigal,yogi,13 B and aayirathil oruvan have been made.There is no typecast hero trying to save the heroine from his morai maman.Young directors are coming up with new themes( not new stories though because sadly every story has been beaten around the bush ) with fresh faces.
    There has been such a rise in the number of movies being released at a time that it seems as if almost everything is crap.

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  4. "Thamizh padam" release aagi hit aagara time ithu..
    All the formula movies of the 2 people in your first para are getting gunned down repeatedly..
    Even other heroes trying "mass" subjects (hehe.. unnoda thala mattum escape aaga mudiyuma) are failing..

    So, maybe, by 2020, both the formula films (for some audience) and the "good" films can co-exist in great harmony in Tamil cinema..

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  5. * Not sure if the latest (so-called) spoof about our own movies is the inspiration for the blog, but I guess the last sentence about reuse applies even to its director.

    * Having said that, I would also enjoy watching this movie. But, it's just for those three hours. There are good quite original movies coming too for 'serious' movie buffs. Others cater to general audience who come to theatres just to have some entertainment. Quoting the famous dialogue, "We always have a choice"

    * And isn't it wrong to go without standing for my thalaivar :-) I'm not sure if u can think for their wives. I only pity them for not being able to escape from your wittiness. I have heard a fair share of people who seem to have liked the movie and so it's not bad or i should put it clearly, its not meant for us.

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