Beta Noir. Beta testing a new genre for Tamil Cinema - Soodhu Kavvum, Pudhupettai, Aaranya Kaandam and Thulluvatho ilamai

I've been told by many people that my posts are hard to read. That they are too complicated with difficult  phrases, obscure English prose or unfamiliar references and require a little bit of initial research to totally follow. I personally think that its not that complicated. All I'm asking of my readers is to follow a few simple rules:

1. No big thinking. There's no need to think beyond the usual stuff . If there is a reference to something you've not seen before, enjoy it or forget it. Look it up when you have time.

2. Don't come here with your mind already made up. This is not a usual blog with the usual description of plot lines and plot holes. Just keep your mind fresh and clear. By the time you come across this little site, you'll probably be well aware of the movie I'm talking about.

3. I'm not expecting you to be either English professors or Tamil medium students. Please have trust in me that I will always write what appeals to the ordinary person, and that I'm no different myself as a reader. I don't have any great expectations of myself, and neither should you. I don' want to torture you.

4. I'll never insult your intelligence. Readers are the heart and soul of this blog, as they are of any thing else. Bloggers post for their readers to read and enjoy. They don't post to get angry responses. They don't post to get frustrated audiences.

And then fifth, this is the most important,

5. If I've screwed something up so bad in an entry, I'll be the first one to apologize. If you've read my entries before, and If you've come back agian, you'll realize that it has probably changed. I'm happy to take constructive criticism and change things that I've been told are not in good taste.

There... these are the five rules I put for myself. And these are the five rules that "KEDNAPING" also successfully works by.

Better to be late than never. Even better, better to be late and latest rather than new and oldest. That's why its taken me so long to write this entry about the fantastic movie Soodhu Kavvum and others of this type.

In those simple five rules from the movie, that I felt are relevant to any walk of life, not just "KEDNAPING," I felt that the director of this movie got everything down crystal clear. You see how with just a few modifications I was able to adapt those rules to my own writing style. It is a gem of a movie that will probable be forgotten in a few years. As Tamil cinema matures and as Tamil audiences start looking for more, movies like this will become templates for future generations. But they themselves will end up in some dark corner of a digital library. Because movies like this are not for everyone. They are only for people who appreciate subtle humor. Most of the humor we have today, like that of Vivek, Vadivelu, Santhanam, even Senthil - Goundamani and even Nagesh, are in your face and body language oriented.

Dialogues and screenplays are mostly as direct as possible in Tamil Cinema with the exception of people like Mysskin and Selvaraghavan. Unfortunately,  their brand of movies are not for the everyone. For instance, I personally hated Pudhupettai, but I loved the climax when Dhanush goes to kill the bad guy. The BGM is fantastic. Highly upbeat - capturing utter hopelessness of his one man crusade versus a ton of baddies - and yet utterly hopeless, because you feel that this is the last hoorah of the hero. The scene when ten rowdies come at him with knives and run back in fear as the camera pans out to reveal that Dhanush now holds a gun is pure magic. His mad laugh suggesting that  he has become mad and that the director has infused ironical humor into the scene.

Soodhu Kavvum is like that, only the darker elements have been replaced with noir. Let me explain this term. Noir in French means black, and if literally translated into English, means darkness. However, in the context of movies, it means showing the seedier, seamier, uglier parts of life in a way that is not revolting for most of us. Its a way of showing things that we were probably not aware of happening in an acceptable way. Many Hollywood movies have done this kind of thing before. Like Vivek's fantastic explanation of the Policeman's roles in movies from MGR in Ragasiya Polive, Sivaji in Thanga Padhakkam, Rajnikanth in Moondru Mugam, Vikram in Saamy, and, ah (Vivek gives a beautiful pause here, just like Vijayakanth would, if he was advising senior officials across a conference table), "OOmai Vizhigal lerundhu Pala padangalla Vijayakanth, (in many movies since Mute Eyes)", we have movies like Peter Sellers' How I learnt to live with the Bomb, to Sin City, to Fast and Furious to Oceans Eleven and so on. They have mastered this art. We are only learning it.

Aaranya  Kaandam approached this genre from a purely masala (action oriented formula) angle. In that movie, it was decided to show the usual aspects of gangster flicks such as violence and implied vulgarity in a very realistic light. Pudhupettai approached subjects like rowdyism, political motives, and unfaithfulness to your wife in a slightly academic way. While Aarayna Kaandam was still not going to gothe extra mile and make us hate a hero who was working for getting a massive cocaine deal done for his own profit, Pudhupettai was trying to get us to hate its hero as much as possible. A very bold move for Tamil Cinema, which even the beautifully made Sigappu Rojakkal only barely managed. But it too gave up in the end by dissolving into a crusade.

The movie that I've not mentioned so far, which is Thulluvatho ilamai, is extremely dark in comparison. It talks about taboo subjects like alcoholism, drug dependence, child abuse, sexual harassment and homosexuality (which is a taboo subject in India, and I don't want to get into here). It also stars Dhanush, but in a role that nobody else in the industry would like to do as a debut. Its like debuting an opening batsman to the bounce of a Perth wicket. Its definitely noir, but its depressing. Like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting (Great but tragic movies - watch them if you're in a dark mood). It has no redeeming qualities as an entertainer. It forces realities down our throats to such a extreme that we end up vomiting in disgust after the film. Being one of the earliest films on such a combination of depressing subjects, its no wonder it didn't do well, and that every other movie on this list took ten years or more the come out.

But, Soodhu Kavvum is different. Finally here's a movie in the same class as any Quentin Tarantino movie, that gives us so much as it subtly tells us, not only in its title (that crime will bite), but also through the sequences that Crimes will eventually bite you in the buttocks (Vadivelu says Betex).

There are several gems in this movie...

1. Vijay Sethupathy ending up back at square one teaching a fresh set of recruits about "KEDNAPING," may imply that you will probably not go anywhere with a life of crime. Atleast according to religious scriptures, you sow what you reap, and his criminal ways have not brought him wealth. He is back to his old ways in his old dirty hideout.

2. The savvy smart stylish guy ended up being an actor in the more disreputable line of cinema. Not much of a future for him there...

3. The other two ended up being assistants to a corrupt politician, being so scared for their lives that they cannot not face anybody new unless they are stripped down to their underwear, fearing that any new meeting could be a sting.

4. And the scheming politician's son ending up a minister, seemingly having fun. But is he really? Maybe he is. but that's the way India is right? I'll give the director that one. Maybe politicians and their kin do have no strings attached happiness at the expense of others' misery.

Oh... and completely out of context, the imaginary friend bit was pure gold. Movie makers... a lesson to you. If you want to show a hero's inner struggle and triumph over adversity, this is the way to go. Not some sob story about handicaps.

Anyway, Noir cinema is something that's only now being explored in Tamil Cinema. Its a good thing to experiment. If its fresh, its sure to be appreciated. I only have one request of directors. As long as you can keep audiences engaged... that is through new ideas or through different and innovative storytelling, you'll have fans. And the best way to get messages across is though humor... atleast some. Don't push high concept down our throats. Like beta testing a new piece of software, we need to have something to like first.

Oh... one final thought. Agatha Christie, the great crime novelist was thought to have Alzheimer's because her later works contained simpler words and less creative phrases. I urge my readers to not take my blogs as affronts to their command of English and feel slighted, but to appreciate the fact that new things are sometimes nice. Once in a while, having to step out of your comfort zone to appreciate something new is a good thing. And being challenged by a new turn of phrase is just a kick in you BETEX that you need to open up a little bit outside of Facebook, Twitter and James Hadley Chase. After all, if you're fifty today, some point before you kick the bucket, you're going to have to try Chinese food. As one of my old professors use to say, "then don't come and say me... Saar, I didn't understand."