Two directors and one and half movies

I saw two Tamil movies last week that gave me some new perception of people's tastes. Actually, not two but one and a half movies. I saw a movie called Bharati Kannamma (Bharati and Kannamma) fully and Idhayathai Thirudathey (Don't Steal My Heart) half. Bharati is debut by a village-bred director called Cheran. Idhayathai is is a dubbed version of Nagarjun's debut film Geethanjali by Mani Ratnam, the 'legendary' director of Tamil Industry. I'll explain that apostrophe later.

Cheran's latest film Autograph was a run-away hit and was critically acclaimed too. It won several Filmfare awards and a coveted National Award. I didn't know anything about Cheran till Autograph. For a perennial Tamil-movie-basher like me, Autograph was a whiff of fresh air. Autograph was a most satisfying Tamil movie I saw in a long time. I started learning about Cheran's background and realised that it is his fifth or sixth film. So I searched around for the VCDs of his other films. Believe me you can rent an Iranian movie in Chennai but a legal VCD of a Tamil movie is next to impossibility.

Cheran

I finally watched Cheran's first movie Bharati Kannamma. It was, as expected, a very well-made, honest portrayal of feudal-caste-structures in a typical southern Tamil Nadu village. Though mildly propagandist at times, Cheran generally stuck to the realistic portrayal of a village life. The actors genuinly human and non-heroic, characters are not pure black or white but in shades, and finally the ending is very believable, though a bit dramatic. But that's understandable.

Mani Ratnam

I picked up Idhayathai Thirudathe when I went to buy Bharati VCD. I struggled to go past half the movie. The scene settings were clever but artificial, dialogues were cheeky but pretentious, and the actors were good looking, well dressed yet pompous. But overall the movie is very stylistic. This movie came in 1989 and I remember, as a teenager, I went bonkers over it.

Watching it some fifteen years later, I felt quite depressed. Even post-Autograph, Cheran isn't half as celebrated as Mani is. I might even be tempted to add the caste-angle to the whole thing.

But I guess, it's not just brahminical. It's about style over substance. I feel we are overtly excited by the style -however pretentious- from the likes of Mani Ratnam rather than downright realism of Cheran. I still can't figure out how Autograph got the box office kicking. From the seventees, we applauded the stylish arrogance of MGR, deep, brooding and cigarette chewing Sivaji and the angry, young word-chewing Bacchan. And of course not to mention the style phenomenon called Rajini.

It's easy to understand why Mani Ratnam succeeded. People lapped up his hollow, yet slick Dalpathi or wordless pop-flick Agni Nakshatram. My memories of Idhayathai.. are quite fond and as a teen-ager, that movie fed my thirst to be hip. I wanted to run away to a nice lonely hill station and sing along down its valley, while a girl quietly followed me. I wanted a girl to come and ask me if I want to elope with her. Idhayathai.. showed me all that I wanted to do but couldn't. In a semi-realistic presentation, Mani Ratnam deceivingly made me believe that I'm watching a good movie.

Cheran shows you a village with all its failings. I'm a no villager and I've not spent a single night in any village. But I could identify with every character and their grayer shades of personalities.

Cheran's next movie, Thavamay Thavamirundu (literally, A long wait), I am hoping, coming a the wake of the hugely successful Autograph will be a path-breaking film. I'm also hoping that he sticks to rural Tamil Nadu, his strongest area. Post-Barathiraja, there was a huge slump in realistic and original portrayals of rural India. In the midst of pretentious, overrated copy cats like Kamal Hassan and others, Cheran comes with a huge promise. Let's hope he delivers Tamil Industry. Pun intended.