"Naan oru dharava sonna, nooru dharave sonna madhiri"
"Naan sollardhadhaan sieven, seiyyardhadaan solluven"
"Yen characteriye purinjika maatengaringale"
"Por! Por! Veeravel! Vetrivel!"
"Odinen, odinen, Kumari munai yellai varai odinen"
And many more. What is a punch dialogue? When was the first time a punch dialogue ever uttered on screen in mainstream Tamil cinema? Which actor was responsible for starting this Freudian over compensatory trend? And finally, is it important today, and if so why? To quote trick questions in exams, "and if not, why not?"
First of all, a punch dialogue is any line that when uttered even once in a movie, implants itself onto the collective memory of the masses. It is a line or monologue that defines the character that is being portrayed by the actor who voices it. It may or may not necessarily contain a social message, but it is one which will evoke one of the following strong emotions in anyone who hears it: awe, anger, frustration or resolve. It is a dialogue that, for the better or for the worse etches the character, not the actor, the dialogue, not the scene, the theme, not the movie into the masses for an eternity.
What about the history of punch dialogues? I am not sure about its origins on its progenitor, but I can say with assurance that its been around for a while. In the early days, in movies such as Parasakthi and Nadodi Mannan, punch dialogues were specific to the role and even required by the storyline. For instance, the famous courtroom scene in Parasakthi in which Sivaji puts society on trial is one punch line after another. MGR and Karunanidhi successfully used punch dialogues to espouse the cause of the downtrodden and further his political agenda. For example - in the movie Ayirathil Oruvan, MGR says "Namadhu thevaiye pirarudaya nanmai dhaan." This is a classic punch dialogue because it extols the virtue of the character and at the same time delivers a strong message about him. Also, at the time it came out in 1965, MGR was a major political player. Cho's political satire Muhammad Bin Tughlak, for instance has a bevy of punch dialogues such as "The previous administration made government an ass ... I will make it a pig." The emphasis in these early incarnations, however, was not so much on the delivery as it was on the line itself.
Later, with the advent of directors such as K Balachander and T Rajendhar (people who know anything about Tamil cinema will be cringing at the mere mention in the same sentence of these two opposite corners of the talent polyhedron), the punch dialogue focused on the director and the scene rather than on the actors themselves. This is also true of directors such as Visu. A classic example which my mother mentioned is a line that closes a scene of estranged lovers meeting in an office in which one of the characters is searching for a file - "Naan thulaichadu file mattum illa, yen life" - note the permutation of the word file into life.
But these early examples are distant cousins to the flamboyant ones we see today. And the template for the modern version was probably introduced with the advent of Rajnikanth once he reached superstardom. The one liners devised for them are too numerous to list here, but rest assured that during the eighties and early nineties, nearly every other scene in a typical Rajnikanth movie had a pithy one-liner. And that set the trend for things to come with guys like Vijaykanth, Arjun, Sarath Kumar Vijay and Ajith. To be fair to Rajnikanth, the directors of the movies he starred in created an aura around him because he was stylish and had a rebel image. So, punch dialogues enhanced his image and made the scenes memorable. And the ploy stuck because for the first time, an ordinary person like you or me could repeat these one liners with ease and sound cool - what's a better hardsell than that?
To answer the last question, let's take a look at the state of Tamil cinema today. By and large, a majority of the films being made will be relegated to the crapheap by purists. They are for the most part hero-worship affairs that cater primarily to niche fan-bases, mofussul crowds and box-office requirements. Movies by directors such as Vikraman and P. Vasu, and those that star guys like Arjun and Vijaykanth are good examples in this category. There are also as many movies as there are new stars and movie-makers that are made specifically to create a brand identity for the players involved - any of Simbu's or Dhanush's movies are good examples. These are not essentially horrible and may sometimes even involve innovative stories, but are still run of the mill in terms of packaging and delivery. Finally there are movies that have star billing, and even though such movies may have a tightly woven script and good storytelling, they still need to cater to public expectations built up across several offerings spread over many many years. Rajnikanth movies for instance fall into this category.
To hide the defects of the first category, to boost the image of the players in the second and to cater to demand in the third, punch dialogues are not only essential, but can also be thrilling and fun if executed well. And I've tried to showcase here how the punch dialogue morphed from an essential element of the script or a delivery mechanism for a social message into an unforgettable or impactful line in the context of a scene and finally became something that will forever be associated with the actor who voiced it, and which is not contextual anymore. And hey, its not as though only Tamil Cinema dishes out the tacky one-liners... what do you call "I'll be Back!", "Asta la vista, baby", and "You gotta do what you gotta do and I gotta do what I gotta do"?
If you are interested in this topic, I recommend this excellent article: http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-articles/movies-01/06-05-06-punch-dialogues.html for well researched factual information on some of the most unforgettable lines in Tamil cinema.
