Come on guys! we have been through this heaps of times before. One more time is no big deal.
I love movies with a 'social message' (my friends would say "I love movies".Period) and that long and famous list includes such movies as Gentleman, Indian, Bombay (what!!!! you don't think 'Bombay' has a social message - ppl! he married a muslim girl. And have you forgotten the last scene. Social as social gets man), Mudhalvan, Ramana, Aayutha Ezhuthu and yes! even Anniyan.
So from the list what do we learn. What is the 'social message' that our film-makers want to pass to us.
Gentleman - become a dacoit (to construct a college)
I love movies with a 'social message' (my friends would say "I love movies".Period) and that long and famous list includes such movies as Gentleman, Indian, Bombay (what!!!! you don't think 'Bombay' has a social message - ppl! he married a muslim girl. And have you forgotten the last scene. Social as social gets man), Mudhalvan, Ramana, Aayutha Ezhuthu and yes! even Anniyan.
So from the list what do we learn. What is the 'social message' that our film-makers want to pass to us.
Gentleman - become a dacoit (to construct a college)
Indian - kill corrupt people (corruption is a cancer and look at small islands with a precious skyline)
Bombay - hhhhhehhhhhheeee
Mudhalvan - become chief minister (you can do much better than the jokers already in and even if you can't, how worse can it be)
Ramana- kill bad people (spew statistics and talk non-stop for twenty minutes on your topic of choice and if that doesn't kill them...well! nothing wrong in the good old knife)
Aayutha Ezhuthu - join politics (hitting a four and marching towards century) (way cooler than going to States man! Thats so passe! And guess what! girlfriend will come back to you. you have more potential than a Sivakasi millionaire man! You could well become a chiefminister. Just imagine how many sivakasi fireworks, printing press you can buy)
Anniyan-kill not only corrupt people, also indifferent people, lazy people (now I am scared), bribe-givers, law-evaders, chefs (and look at small islands with their precious skyline)
Latest addition to the list - Rang De Basanti. OK! If you tell me Rang De Basanti is not at all like that-we have a bunch of guys doing what our film-makers do the best, kill bad people.
It was a brilliant movie (and definitely one of my all-time favourites from now on) and I salute the film-maker's effort. (I am watching it again on 23rd when it finally gets released in Canberra)
I am just in one of my bull-shit everything days. Excusez-moi and indulge me.
Now here comes the important question, when will we have a movie with a social message when the hero(es) (or the heroine(s)) don't kill anyone, don't join politics and do good to the society by being, basically a normal person.
I am sure there must have been a few of those... trouble is I just can't recall many. (Vaaname Ellai, Nammavar, Anbe Sivam, Lagaan come to my mind)
What this amounts to is
1. We believe that social change can be brought about only if we a.kill bad people, b. atleast give them the scares that you just might, c. join politics and
2. Since we can't go about killing people or robbing and even your five year old neighbour is not scared of you, and since you have seen the independant candidates in your electorate lose their deposits (and are simply scared of the MLA and his goondas as well as the five year old kid in your neighbourhood)
Ergo
social change is a fantasy that we watch on the screen once every three months, blog about it, discuss/debate at great length and...
Bombay - hhhhhehhhhhheeee
Mudhalvan - become chief minister (you can do much better than the jokers already in and even if you can't, how worse can it be)
Ramana- kill bad people (spew statistics and talk non-stop for twenty minutes on your topic of choice and if that doesn't kill them...well! nothing wrong in the good old knife)
Aayutha Ezhuthu - join politics (hitting a four and marching towards century) (way cooler than going to States man! Thats so passe! And guess what! girlfriend will come back to you. you have more potential than a Sivakasi millionaire man! You could well become a chiefminister. Just imagine how many sivakasi fireworks, printing press you can buy)
Anniyan-kill not only corrupt people, also indifferent people, lazy people (now I am scared), bribe-givers, law-evaders, chefs (and look at small islands with their precious skyline)
Latest addition to the list - Rang De Basanti. OK! If you tell me Rang De Basanti is not at all like that-we have a bunch of guys doing what our film-makers do the best, kill bad people.
It was a brilliant movie (and definitely one of my all-time favourites from now on) and I salute the film-maker's effort. (I am watching it again on 23rd when it finally gets released in Canberra)
I am just in one of my bull-shit everything days. Excusez-moi and indulge me.
Now here comes the important question, when will we have a movie with a social message when the hero(es) (or the heroine(s)) don't kill anyone, don't join politics and do good to the society by being, basically a normal person.
I am sure there must have been a few of those... trouble is I just can't recall many. (Vaaname Ellai, Nammavar, Anbe Sivam, Lagaan come to my mind)
What this amounts to is
1. We believe that social change can be brought about only if we a.kill bad people, b. atleast give them the scares that you just might, c. join politics and
2. Since we can't go about killing people or robbing and even your five year old neighbour is not scared of you, and since you have seen the independant candidates in your electorate lose their deposits (and are simply scared of the MLA and his goondas as well as the five year old kid in your neighbourhood)
Ergo
social change is a fantasy that we watch on the screen once every three months, blog about it, discuss/debate at great length and...
Related post - Be the change
13 comments:
Absolutely Priya! RDB is not a great movie. Can't agree with you more.
RDB was good in pieces and even brilliant at times. Sporadically too emotional and cinematic (Aamir was almost redundant)
The reason it is in my faves is b'coz of Siddharth whose depiction of Karan was the most restrained, underplayed and powerful character (kudos to the screenplay) I have seen without the 'hero' tag. (Surya in Ayutha Ezhuthu was a genius, Sid in RDB was jus an ordinary guy moved by circumstances). And ofcourse Rahman's music.
As I attempted to point, the social message movies all seem to be flawed in their approach. I would love to see one with a different approach, a movie which refuses to play within the strict boundaries of commercial cinema and challenges it instead.
btw, regd the book flicks we were talking abt sometime back... Chetan Bhagat's One Night @Call center is going to be made into a movie. I loved the book.. lets see wat happens in the on-screen adaptation.
I heard 'Thambi' talks about correcting the wrong doers and not punishing them.. eventhough,it may involve some bloodshed on the hero's family's part.
You can add on this to your list
you are right!
let's kill all the evil doers
lets kill all of us on this earth!
chaaaaaarge!
I haven't seen Thambi yet but looks like it is OK. But too much preachy preachy isn't good either.
Forgot to add 'Swades' to my list of good movies.
Vinesh! Remember the Jesus story. When ppl brought a sinner to be stoned to death (it was a prostitute if I recall right), Jesus told the mob, "Let the first stone be from one who hasn't sinned". Likewise, let one with no evil kill the rest of humanity.
hmmm... new style of writing, eh?
i've little to say wen it comes to movies.
I would rate RDB as a good cinema rather than good cinema with the correct social message. If the movie would have been made without slick editing, rahman’s music score, top notch photography, it would have soon joined the list of afternoon-zee TV/ sony-flicks. Nevertheless, we can’t totally ignore the underlying message which the movie tried to convey, almost. I don’t understand the logic behind these kinda social cinemas where in director/script writer sticks his neck up to make a point in each and every frame of the movie thereby presenting the audience with narrow / limited view points.
I believe, if social message has to be conveyed in Indian cinema, one has to stick to subtlety. Few movies which managed to achieve it – Swades, Terrorist, Hey Ram, Kannathil Muthamittal. As mani ratnam once pointed out - Theme of a cinema is a like a big lake, story can be as small a boat on which the characters paddle by.
So, subtlety is the key
Vijay! Sharp as a Hattori Hanzo sword. Subtlety is something Indian movies almost never exhibit. So much that Indian movies are synonymous with loud characters (Not my personal opinion -according to some of my non-Indian friends)
But I have to say RDB was subtle than most movies treading that path.
Hey Kamesh! Welcome to the blog.
Seven Samurai is a classic and a classic by by Akira Kurosawa at that. We don't want a Anniyan to be as good as that...just a little better.
MO of their operations... u gotta be kidding.
If you are talking about the hero being a normal person and trying to do good, 'Unnal Mudiyum Thambi' was pretty close - sure there was the Naaser confrontation, but you can definitely discount that!
Actually, some of Balachander's movies portray some very strong characters, who don't necessarily "do" good, but surely effect a change in their immediate social circles - 'Manadil Urudhi Vaendum' come to mind...
Kavitha!
Thanks for visiting the blog.
'Unnal Mudiyum Thambi' was an extraordinary movie dealing with normal people affecting great change. I would say it is the model of all 'social message' movies (how it slipped my list i will never know). and so was 'Manathil Uruthi Vaendum'.
'Thanneer Thanneer', 'Puthumai Penn', 'Achchamillai Achchamillai' were equally powerful movies.
Now the question is When will we have another UMT?
Watched RDB on the big screen Thursday(it released here only now) with some friends(had to drag them out of their rooms - but it was worth it - they LOVED the movie). Second time around I should say I loved the movie more than I did previously. Siddharth as Karan was the highlight.
btw, ppl i thought they banned smoking on screen. any updates on that.
hi..first time here...good blogging mate...
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