OF TAMIL MOVIES AND REALITY

15 Nov 2013

It is a commonly known fact that the Indian movie industry is the biggest on the planet and movies are a big deal for the people of India.

Indian movies are made in many languages like Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil and whatnot.

I watch Tamil movies from India a lot and I like them as well. But, of late, it struck me how bad most Tamil movies are to the audience, especially for gullible youths.

To understand the reason we have to go back to the past.

India was under British rule for over 200 years, and many people of India back then were deprived of the most basic necessities and were unaware of tech as well as developments happening worldwide.

After independence, Indians began making movies in their own languages and when they saw their mother tongues echo with resonance in theaters, they were overawed. It was like a miracle for them.

Since most Indians at the time were the slaves of the British and were kept away from knowledge and information, cinema became a source of knowledge and information.

And then India gradually shook off her British rule and the Indian masses began to acquire formal education but due to political shenanigans and corruption, India is plagued by widespread poverty and utter ignorance in some parts of the vast country.

Cinematic technology has, since developed in India and while it's nowhere near the standard of Hollywood, for many non English speaking Indians, even in this 21st century, they have no the slightest idea of the physics of films behind the screens and pre-production work involved.

The direct result from this ignorance is the glorification of cinema and the idolization of the people on screen which are literally seen as gods as the line that divides reel life and real life gets blurred.

And because of that obsession with heroism, Indian film directors began to project the actor as superheros that can fight off 30 baddies single handed, without even a strand of their hair falling out of place.

During the colonial period, the British looted everything and India, in this case, the people of Tamilnadu suffered severe adversity and they were looking for a life saver and they saw such a man only on screen and they made him the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. The man is none other than MGR.

If that veracity is left to the past, it is a path to progression but sadly, it is not the case. Cinematic heroism adulation has been followed through to this day -- it, perhaps embedded in the DNA.

A bus conductor turned actor who appears in films romancing heroines half his age is considered a spiritual guru and a role model for many Tamil youth. This particular actor is always asked when will he enter politics and it would be no surprise if he becomes Tamilnadu's Chief Minister in the near future. Ironically, he is not Tamil -- he is a Kannada.

The actor described above is Rajinikanth and he is indeed a good man without airs in real life and reached this level in his career due to hard work. The key word here, is acting is his job and some Tamil masses leave their jobs to see his acting. This is where the problem begins.

Many Tamil young men began smoking because of Rajinikanth. In his movies. smoking is depicted as stylish and Tamil males fall for it hook, line and sinker.

Before a Tamil movie starts, there will be a warning made that smoking and drinking is injurious to health but the caveat is almost entirely dismissed.

Perhaps if actors like Rajinikanth, whose every word is literally taken as the word of god, says in person that smoking and drinking are harmful to health, young Tamil smokers and drinkers would quit the habits cold turkey. 

But, social awareness is alien for most Tamil film makers and Tamil movies actors.

Kaase, panam, dhuttu, money, money matters.

And, fans set up fan clubs for different actors and hold that their favorite hero (leading actors in the Tamil movie industry) is the greatest and that other heroes are zero. And, this doesn't apply to Tamil cinefield alone; it's all over India.

To name a few:

Tamil = Vijay vs Ajith

Telugu = Chiranjeevi vs Nagarjuna

Hindi aka Bollywood = Shah Rukh Khan vs Aamir Khan

Malayalam = Mohanlal vs Mamooty

Fights happen among fans over issues concerning which hero is mass and which hero is piss and if there is no death penalty for murder in India, homicide related to this stupidity might have occurred.

In real life, Indian actors are good friends with their opposite numbers and have healthy competition in the field that feeds them and their family. Yes, acting is their ricebowl and the Tamil audience are kinda not in touch with this reality. For them, actors are literally Gods who need to be defended and sometimes, worshiped.

When the movie Endhiran, starring, Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai was released in Tamilnadu in 2010, milk was poured on the movie cut outs by his die hard fans. The pouring of milk is a Hindu ritual called pal (milk) abhishegam where milk is poured on Hindu anthropomorphic deities in temples.

Women clad in yellow saris carried pal kudam (silver pots containing milk) so that the movie Endhiran, also dubbed in Hindi and Telugu bearing the title The Robot, would fare well in the cinemas, seeking divine intervention so that a man, 10 times well off than them would become richer.

The two former paragraphs corroborate my claim on cinema heroes being worshiped. And, the worst part is, the actors who the Tamil audience so admire and exemplify condone this outlandish practice and utter stupidity and needless and senseless waste on behalf of their fans for self serving intents.

As though worshiping actors is not enough, temples are built for cinema heroines who are mostly not Tamils in the first place; they are Hindi speaking ladies who predominantly originate from North India who got absorbed into Tamil cinema to fulfill the fetish of some audience members for fair skin.

There is a perceptible pressing, almost mandatory need for many Tamil movie goers to watch their favorite heroes' movies in theaters on first day of release and first show, particularly on festive days like Diwali and Ponggal (harvest and thanksgiving festival).

One dude didn't get to watch his favorite actor, Vijay's movie, Thalaiva on the first day of its release and he committed suicide because of that. He was 21 and the only son for his poor parents. The application of the theory of Eugenics is so very apt here, speaking euphemistically.

Responding to the suicide, actor Vijay offered his commiseration towards the deceased's family but he did not condemn the ridiculous, defying all logic and common sense act. Why, you may ask. It is because the actor's cinematic survival relies heavily on such blindness and idiocy.

And, it is a norm for Tamil movie fans to accord sobriquets for their favorite actors. Rajinikanth is known as Superstar. Silambarasan or fondly known as Simbu is called Young Superstar. And, Vikram, who shot to fame following his blockbuster movie Sethu, in which his nickname is Chiyaan, decided to adopt that name as his sobriquet and he is known as Chiyaan Vikram.

The above's actors' sobriquets are acceptable because they are in relevance to what they do -- act in films. But, sobriquets like Ilaya Thalapathy for Vijay and Thala for Ajith are not only misleading, they are sending all the wrong messages to youngish Tamil movie goers. The terms 'Ilaya Thalapathy' and 'Thala' basically mean leader and head.

Isn't it pathetic when Tamil masses look up to actors as leaders and role models instead of notable Tamil iconoclasts such as Subramaniam Bharathiyar, Periyar, Kamarajan, scientists like Abdul Kalam and Srinivasa Ramanujam and inventors like Sundar Pichai and Shiva Ayyadurai?

Indian movies have song and dance sequences in them; there is no separate soundtrack in them like Hollywood films. The Indian cinema industry employs a whole lot of experts like choreographers, costume designers, art directors, sound engineers, music composers, playback singers and whatnot due to this phenomenon.

On the Oprah Winfrey's show, Abhishek Bachchan quipped that in Hollywood, when you fall in love, you kiss but in Indian cinema, when you fall in love, you break into a song, dance at locations everywhere in the world and change a dozen costumes in 5 minutes.

Song and dance are indispensable factors in Indian cinema. Many films have become high grossing hits just by the songs in them. Like how a rough and tough policeman character is expected to kick the asses of baddies and recite long punch dialogues to make the villain get mad, he is expected to have some swell dance moves alongside his love lady.

And, what is Indian cinema without love? Love is a must have in Indian films plots. Concerning love, there is also a connection made with skin color, an extreme paradox. While the actresses are snow white, they profess that the dark skin of the heroes is pulchritude and it is not vice versa. Dark skinned women are not considered beautiful in India and movies only entrench such mindsets.

In the name of love, Indian movies objectify women. The zoom on the heroine's midriff and cleavage in the dance and song sequences are absolutely distasteful and how the hero handles the body of the heroine induces nausea. The romance in Indian film industry is not romance -- it's perversion bordering criminal and the complete sexual exploitation of women.

But, the Tamil movie industry is improving with realistic and gripping story lines that need not be supported by songs, heroism, a separate comedy track and action but real life circumstances.

Movies like Anbe Sivam, Unnai Pol Oruvan and Vishwaroopam starring Kamal Hassan can be cited as neo Tamil films.

Films with minimal budgets and featuring ordinary looking actors are now being produced by the Tamil film industry, namely Pizza, Naduvule Konjam Pakkathe Kaanom, Soodhu Kavvum and Itharkuthane Aasaipattai BalaKumara.

The films experimented with unfamiliar waters, based on cult and black comedy as well as intelligent supernatural thriller genres. It hit the right chord of Tamil movies audience, especially youth who are embracing change in Tamil movies.

Ultimately any movie is for entertainment purpose only and if we can learn from movies, it is an advantage. Take the good and leave the bad from any films.

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