So, I just saw Theri.
I also saw Vedalam.
Both the movies were extremely similar- predictable, tried and tested stories, with unbelievable fight scenes and overdose of emotions. Loopholes in the story, where you dont know how the hell Ganesh knew those villains were in that specific building, or how Vijaykumar survived.
Both movies were built purely on the shoulders of stars of the film. Projecting them as soft and gentle to people in general, and ridiculously strong deliverers of death to people who deserved it.
There were "social message" dialogues, and yes, some scenes were actually enjoyable. The comedians made you laugh, and charisma oozed out of the screen.
Both were also films that largely banked on a theater atmosphere- where fans go crazy to give the viewers a good time. In fact, you could enter the theatre and spend 75% of the time texting and staring at your phone, and I'll guarantee you'll have a great time. You'll understand the story, catch all the "mass" scenes, scream your lungs out and have a hell of a ride- which is exactly what 2 of the people I watched the film with did.
So these films will let you have a good time, provided the right atmosphere, and if that is purely what you seek from a trip to the theatres, then stop reading here. The films have delivered to you what you need.
But are they good films? Are they good cinema?
[DISCLAIMER: Im neither an Ajith fan nor a Vijay fan. I think both of them have demonstrated exactly equal ability in the industry (and off late, thats been shite)]
I might be told that Im pandering purely to negative thoughts, and not spreading anything positive but there's a reason why Indian films rarely get a shot at the Academy and that is largely because of our film culture.
And honestly, let's not blame it on the audience anymore. People keep saying "Oh Indian audiences! They cant appreciate art! If you make good cinema, then it wont run in the theatres. Thats why noone finances good scripts."
While that may have been true a decade ago, I feel the situation has changed. At least in Tamil Nadu. Absolutely wonderful films that are artistic, and pure cinema like Kaaka Muttai and Visaaranai have been lapped up by our audiences. In fact, Id go as far to argue that movies like Jigarthanda, Soodhu Kavvum and Pizza were also not your conventional commercial run-of-the-mill films, but they were all well received (lets add Ka Ka Ka Po to that list too).
Film makers like Karthik Subbaraj, Nalan Kumarasamy, Mysskin and Bala are experimenting, and their experiments are paying off. Manikandan experimented and it payed off. Their films are earning enough to keep the producers happy, and to find them producers for their next films. So is it really true that the Tamil Audience doesn't buy good cinema?
The answer to that cannot be binary. I think the reason the films and the film makers above have succeeded is because they've made beautiful films with sellable content. They havent compromised on their art and craft to make their scripts sellable (like having Silk Smitha appearing randomly and dancing for an "item song" in Moondram Pirai, or an unnecessary fight scene at the end of the movie to show the protagonists heroism in Mahanadi), but used their artistic talent to write sellable scripts. Mani Ratnam was another director, who in his prime, "broke the false dichotomy of artistic and commercial cinema". He excelled in writing artistic scripts that were sellable to our audiences- and our movie goers lapped his films up.
And cinema purists may sit up in shock coz I just shitted on two of Tamil Cinema's all-time classics, but lets be honest. Im a massive Kamal Haasan fan too, and I absolutely loved those 2 movies, but I was disappointed with those scenes. (Discussion on why Kamal Haasan's art refuses to sell for the most part is for another time).
So it is pretty clear, that off late atleast, our audience has bought artistic, quality films, that appeal to them. The trick is, and I'm aware that it is immensely difficult, to make a film that falls in that small subset of films that are both artistic, and still appealing to the masses. But it is not an impossible task. It's been done enough times in the past, and it can be done in the future.
But this leads us to the next question: Can we expect films like these out of our stars? Dont Ajith and Vijay have too big a halo around their heads to do films like these? Haven't they been type cast as heroes that we go to worship in the theatres and not actors that we seek to appreciate? Is it possible for them to break away from their mass-intro-4-fight-scenes-lover/family-sentiment-and-songs formula and still satisfy their fans?
I argue they can. Even today. Because not too long ago, both these stars made movies that broke the monotony of their usual films, still satisfied their fans, and earned enough to hit profits.
Rewind to 22nd October 2014. Vijay's newest offering Kaththi hit the screens, and it wasnt what anyone was expecting. It wasn't the kind of film we've grown to expect from Vijay. It broke his usual formula, and Vijay actually emoted and acted in scenes. It still had scenes in the film that we were used to. The impossible coin fights, the powerful dialogue delivery which all made the audience go wild, but on the whole, the film was completely different from any Vijay film that we've seen after he reached his star status. Now whether I enjoyed the film or not (as a neither-here, nor-there attempt) is a different question, but I saw it as a healthy sign. That Vijay was willing to depart from his niche, his comfort zone and accept films with a semblance-of-depth. The movie wasn't entirely satisfying to me, but it gave me hope that he was willing to break tradition and listen to good scripts. I hoped that this would only be a first step in many, that he'd gradually open up, and later, chose scripts that had even more depth, that maybe the next script would actually have a role for each character. Gradually, redundancies, and silliness would be trimmed out.
A few months later, on 5 February 2015, the other major star, Ajith released Yennai Arindhaal. Again, it had a storyline that the same director had tested before, and it wasnt really satisfying for me, but it was different for Ajith. It had movement. The scenes flowed from one to the next, and were not random shots put together and connected by a string like the ones we saw in Veeram, Jilla, Vedalam and Theri (tee-hee). The heroine actually had a role to play in the film, the villain's strength was actually felt and the characters were well developed, and though people will scream "THATS BECAUSE OF THE DIRECTOR! IF IT WAS ANYONE ELSE...", it was just satisfying for me to see Ajith accept this script, and irrespective of whether the film on the whole impressed me, Ajith brought his A-game to the role. Yes, there was the swearing, the crass jokes, the commercial fights and punch lines to get cheers out of the audience, but on the whole, just like Kaththi for Vijay, this wasnt a traditional Ajith film post his label as a star. And this gave me more hope. That Ajith too, was willing to break his own norms, and accept roles that we wouldn't traditionally accept out of them.
Of course, my hopes were only short-lived, as they both decided to go fuck-all with their next films,
But here's the thing- they both broke their norms and the film succeeded. So it's possible to make good, different films with these two. And Im not suggesting that they make a pure art film devoid off all masala straight off the bat. That would fail, despite being enjoyable for a few (Kuselan, anyone?).
So what do we do with them? Possibly, scripts for Ajith and Vijay should be like a post 2008 Eminem Album. Have two-three absolutely commercial songs guaranteed to be chartbusters, though they dont show off your artistry or talent much (Not Afraid and Love The Way You Lie from Recovery). Release these as singles to tease the audience, and bank on these songs to make sure your fans go ape-shit and buy the album, and enjoy it, but in the rest of the album you have Cinderella Man, 25 To Life, Going Through Changes and Almost Famous.
And the advantage is, unlike a music album, where your fans would just skip the songs that are too art for them, they'd watch the whole movie in the theatres. They'd have fun during the mass commercial bits, and be exposed to art throughout the reminder of the film. The key to a movie like this, would obviously be the placement of your commercial scenes to keep the masses interested, and at the same time, make sure that these scenes flow well with the rest of the movie to avoid ruining it for purists. And the more the masses get exposed to art, the more they appreciate it, and the better our industry gets. Making movies like this was Mani Ratnam's strength and maybe, Id have evidence to show you that these type of films starring Ajith and Vijay could work, if Mani Ratnam had directed movies with them.
Obviously, not every director is Mani Ratnam. It'd take immense amount of skill and work to get films like these made, but looking at the slew of new directors who've popped up on the scene, especially the three I mentioned, Im still hopeful.
It's not like a bitter, serious asshole who cant appreciate commercial cinema, or think that commercial cinema should never be made. I enjoyed both Mankatha and Thupakki immensely, as well as a host of other commercial films in Kollywood, and other industries too. But when we continuously churn out bullshit and try to justify it by calling it commercial, that's pissing off. That is Vedalam, Veeram, Jilla, Theri, Masss, Anjaan, Anegan and Maari,
Ajith and Vijay both, as much as anyone would like to deny it, have the star power and charisma to influence our film industry and our film culture. And it would be wonderful if these 2 made movies like these. I for one, would be incredibly happy and somehow, Im sure that the "die-hard" pans of these actors would lap up these films too.
I also saw Vedalam.
Both the movies were extremely similar- predictable, tried and tested stories, with unbelievable fight scenes and overdose of emotions. Loopholes in the story, where you dont know how the hell Ganesh knew those villains were in that specific building, or how Vijaykumar survived.
Both movies were built purely on the shoulders of stars of the film. Projecting them as soft and gentle to people in general, and ridiculously strong deliverers of death to people who deserved it.
There were "social message" dialogues, and yes, some scenes were actually enjoyable. The comedians made you laugh, and charisma oozed out of the screen.
Both were also films that largely banked on a theater atmosphere- where fans go crazy to give the viewers a good time. In fact, you could enter the theatre and spend 75% of the time texting and staring at your phone, and I'll guarantee you'll have a great time. You'll understand the story, catch all the "mass" scenes, scream your lungs out and have a hell of a ride- which is exactly what 2 of the people I watched the film with did.
So these films will let you have a good time, provided the right atmosphere, and if that is purely what you seek from a trip to the theatres, then stop reading here. The films have delivered to you what you need.
But are they good films? Are they good cinema?
[DISCLAIMER: Im neither an Ajith fan nor a Vijay fan. I think both of them have demonstrated exactly equal ability in the industry (and off late, thats been shite)]
I might be told that Im pandering purely to negative thoughts, and not spreading anything positive but there's a reason why Indian films rarely get a shot at the Academy and that is largely because of our film culture.
And honestly, let's not blame it on the audience anymore. People keep saying "Oh Indian audiences! They cant appreciate art! If you make good cinema, then it wont run in the theatres. Thats why noone finances good scripts."
While that may have been true a decade ago, I feel the situation has changed. At least in Tamil Nadu. Absolutely wonderful films that are artistic, and pure cinema like Kaaka Muttai and Visaaranai have been lapped up by our audiences. In fact, Id go as far to argue that movies like Jigarthanda, Soodhu Kavvum and Pizza were also not your conventional commercial run-of-the-mill films, but they were all well received (lets add Ka Ka Ka Po to that list too).
Film makers like Karthik Subbaraj, Nalan Kumarasamy, Mysskin and Bala are experimenting, and their experiments are paying off. Manikandan experimented and it payed off. Their films are earning enough to keep the producers happy, and to find them producers for their next films. So is it really true that the Tamil Audience doesn't buy good cinema?
The answer to that cannot be binary. I think the reason the films and the film makers above have succeeded is because they've made beautiful films with sellable content. They havent compromised on their art and craft to make their scripts sellable (like having Silk Smitha appearing randomly and dancing for an "item song" in Moondram Pirai, or an unnecessary fight scene at the end of the movie to show the protagonists heroism in Mahanadi), but used their artistic talent to write sellable scripts. Mani Ratnam was another director, who in his prime, "broke the false dichotomy of artistic and commercial cinema". He excelled in writing artistic scripts that were sellable to our audiences- and our movie goers lapped his films up.
And cinema purists may sit up in shock coz I just shitted on two of Tamil Cinema's all-time classics, but lets be honest. Im a massive Kamal Haasan fan too, and I absolutely loved those 2 movies, but I was disappointed with those scenes. (Discussion on why Kamal Haasan's art refuses to sell for the most part is for another time).
So it is pretty clear, that off late atleast, our audience has bought artistic, quality films, that appeal to them. The trick is, and I'm aware that it is immensely difficult, to make a film that falls in that small subset of films that are both artistic, and still appealing to the masses. But it is not an impossible task. It's been done enough times in the past, and it can be done in the future.
But this leads us to the next question: Can we expect films like these out of our stars? Dont Ajith and Vijay have too big a halo around their heads to do films like these? Haven't they been type cast as heroes that we go to worship in the theatres and not actors that we seek to appreciate? Is it possible for them to break away from their mass-intro-4-fight-scenes-lover/family-sentiment-and-songs formula and still satisfy their fans?
I argue they can. Even today. Because not too long ago, both these stars made movies that broke the monotony of their usual films, still satisfied their fans, and earned enough to hit profits.
Rewind to 22nd October 2014. Vijay's newest offering Kaththi hit the screens, and it wasnt what anyone was expecting. It wasn't the kind of film we've grown to expect from Vijay. It broke his usual formula, and Vijay actually emoted and acted in scenes. It still had scenes in the film that we were used to. The impossible coin fights, the powerful dialogue delivery which all made the audience go wild, but on the whole, the film was completely different from any Vijay film that we've seen after he reached his star status. Now whether I enjoyed the film or not (as a neither-here, nor-there attempt) is a different question, but I saw it as a healthy sign. That Vijay was willing to depart from his niche, his comfort zone and accept films with a semblance-of-depth. The movie wasn't entirely satisfying to me, but it gave me hope that he was willing to break tradition and listen to good scripts. I hoped that this would only be a first step in many, that he'd gradually open up, and later, chose scripts that had even more depth, that maybe the next script would actually have a role for each character. Gradually, redundancies, and silliness would be trimmed out.
A few months later, on 5 February 2015, the other major star, Ajith released Yennai Arindhaal. Again, it had a storyline that the same director had tested before, and it wasnt really satisfying for me, but it was different for Ajith. It had movement. The scenes flowed from one to the next, and were not random shots put together and connected by a string like the ones we saw in Veeram, Jilla, Vedalam and Theri (tee-hee). The heroine actually had a role to play in the film, the villain's strength was actually felt and the characters were well developed, and though people will scream "THATS BECAUSE OF THE DIRECTOR! IF IT WAS ANYONE ELSE...", it was just satisfying for me to see Ajith accept this script, and irrespective of whether the film on the whole impressed me, Ajith brought his A-game to the role. Yes, there was the swearing, the crass jokes, the commercial fights and punch lines to get cheers out of the audience, but on the whole, just like Kaththi for Vijay, this wasnt a traditional Ajith film post his label as a star. And this gave me more hope. That Ajith too, was willing to break his own norms, and accept roles that we wouldn't traditionally accept out of them.
Of course, my hopes were only short-lived, as they both decided to go fuck-all with their next films,
But here's the thing- they both broke their norms and the film succeeded. So it's possible to make good, different films with these two. And Im not suggesting that they make a pure art film devoid off all masala straight off the bat. That would fail, despite being enjoyable for a few (Kuselan, anyone?).
So what do we do with them? Possibly, scripts for Ajith and Vijay should be like a post 2008 Eminem Album. Have two-three absolutely commercial songs guaranteed to be chartbusters, though they dont show off your artistry or talent much (Not Afraid and Love The Way You Lie from Recovery). Release these as singles to tease the audience, and bank on these songs to make sure your fans go ape-shit and buy the album, and enjoy it, but in the rest of the album you have Cinderella Man, 25 To Life, Going Through Changes and Almost Famous.
And the advantage is, unlike a music album, where your fans would just skip the songs that are too art for them, they'd watch the whole movie in the theatres. They'd have fun during the mass commercial bits, and be exposed to art throughout the reminder of the film. The key to a movie like this, would obviously be the placement of your commercial scenes to keep the masses interested, and at the same time, make sure that these scenes flow well with the rest of the movie to avoid ruining it for purists. And the more the masses get exposed to art, the more they appreciate it, and the better our industry gets. Making movies like this was Mani Ratnam's strength and maybe, Id have evidence to show you that these type of films starring Ajith and Vijay could work, if Mani Ratnam had directed movies with them.
Obviously, not every director is Mani Ratnam. It'd take immense amount of skill and work to get films like these made, but looking at the slew of new directors who've popped up on the scene, especially the three I mentioned, Im still hopeful.
It's not like a bitter, serious asshole who cant appreciate commercial cinema, or think that commercial cinema should never be made. I enjoyed both Mankatha and Thupakki immensely, as well as a host of other commercial films in Kollywood, and other industries too. But when we continuously churn out bullshit and try to justify it by calling it commercial, that's pissing off. That is Vedalam, Veeram, Jilla, Theri, Masss, Anjaan, Anegan and Maari,
Ajith and Vijay both, as much as anyone would like to deny it, have the star power and charisma to influence our film industry and our film culture. And it would be wonderful if these 2 made movies like these. I for one, would be incredibly happy and somehow, Im sure that the "die-hard" pans of these actors would lap up these films too.
