And please do not forget that Rajni is the 2nd highest paid actor in Asia (after Chan) - do you believe that Tamil movies are threatened by the Hindi behemoth? Please avoid patronizing the Tamil or other “regional” movie industries - gone are the days when one was forced to watch “regional” movies rotated on Saturday evenings and “regional” songs every Friday on “doordarshan”. Kamal has indeed made a “difference” - made us proud as Indians that we still make and see quality movies.

Thanks.

I wouldn’t disagree at all: my point is that this difference is thought under the sign of the “regional”, but one that is not reducible to the “local” (understood here in the specific sense of a cinema that is itself seen as cultural guardian). Kamal’s quality movies do not seem to me to be reducible to either pole, although of necessity they must negotiate both of them.

I do not believe Tamil movies are threatened ANYMORE by the Hindi behemoth — and that is because of the revolution that people like Kamal and Rathnam brought about from the mid-to late-1980s onward. Prior to that the “threat” was not there would be no Tamil film industry, but that it would be either derivative (automatically remaking Hindi hits, most prominently in the case of Rajnikanth, who has starred in remakes of multiple Bachchan hits) or “insular”. For those who would wish to see distinctive Tamil cinema and a cinema of aesthetic merit as well, those were grave threats indeed.

I don’t think Kamal or even Mani should be seen as ‘Tamilians’. But their identity and representation has always been that.

1. And if the prescription comes at a price — the casting of Kamal himself in the role of messiah — in a historical sense the price is well worth paying.
By ‘messiah’ in the above sentence, do you mean Kamal’s participation in front of the camera to enhance his contribution behind the camera? If that’s the case, why do you say that it comes with a price? I’m such a huge fan of Kamal and believe that his range as an actor is second to none and can rival any living artiste. You mentioned that Kamal as an actor is lesser than the filmmaker. You’re entitled to that opinion; but to call his on-screen performances as a price worth paying for his genuine concern for the health of cinema is overboard, I think.

2. A mindset that is best situated to result in global critical recognition for India’s popular cinemas, and in a manner such that they do not cease to be voices of our many Indias.
Very well said. The western roars have long masked many native voices. When personalities like Kamal & Mani elevate the standards of story-telling without diluting cultural integrity, it gives hope.

3. When you say that you are subtitle dependent, I feel sorry for you. For his grunts and yells and hisses acquire new meanings when you’ve grasped (not read) his previous dialogues. Its a matter of fact that he’s the best person alive to mouth Crazy Mohan’s lines and they’ve gone on to create laugh riots, which without knowing Tamil, is less than half as appealing. (cue to the violins).

Q: I am not conversant in tamil cinema but I do know that Kamal stands for quality. I need to check hey Raam in these interpretations.

…and can’t help thinking of the lyrics from “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”:

“Sunlo O deewanon, tum ye kaam na karo
Ram ka naam badnaam na karo”

(with apologies to rks! :-))

I agree completely; the same holds true when I watch films in European languages or Japanese, and I feel the “loss” just as keenly there (perhaps more so in the case of Japanese than Tamil, because with the latter I am far more familiar with the gesturality of the performers, it is not “other” in the sense that it would be with a Kurosawa film from the 1950s (Western gesturality has of course become so “normalized” and assimilated — or we have become assimilated to it — that it isn’t wholly “other” to any of us))…

“I have deliberately stressed the “filmmaker” Kamal here, leaving to others better qualified than I the task of thinking about Kamal’s performances and other contributions in light of this piece”

Thoughts?

- In Guna, he’s a Tamilian in Hyderabad. There is some amount of environment created because of that, but not too much. In Mahanadhi, he travels from Kumabakonam to Chennai to Kolkata. He was you-know-where in Mumbai Xpress. Kurudhippunal was pretty non-regional. But I’d probably dismiss all these, as Kamal was the writer too.
- Kalaignan had him as a pop singer (not the 80s filmi-type).
- Michael Madana Kama Rajan had quite a bit of diversity in the four roles. But here too, Kamal was involved in the scripting.
- Pushpak aka Pesum Padam was a truly national movie. He was with Singeetham; so, you can figure out what he did behind the scenes.

In pre-Nayagan days, he was a superstar who was mostly slotted into city-based roles. He did marvellously well in village-based roles too, of course.

Basically, over the past 20 years or so, the ‘filmmaker’ in Kamal has taken over and that’s pretty much what dictates the roles he does.

I agree with Rand Ramble, Kamal the writer has definitely improved Kamal the actor infinitely. If Virumandi was a movie about how a simple minded villager is manipulated, Thevar Magan shows how a London-educated Sakthi goes from feeling like a fish out of water in his own village to completely reimmersing himself in its vagaries. In a scene that occupies no more than a second of screen time we see his feet firmly embedding itself in a patch of wet slushy earth, indicating that he has finally crossed over. The writer Kamal seems to indicate that while learning global values (and I insist global not national) is important at a personal level, it also brings with it the responsibility of passing along that knowledge to those not fortunate enough to avail themselves of the same experiences. The implication I believe is that Chinna Thoovaloor (the village in the movie) is but a microcosm of the world and its problems, much like those of the world, are seldom solved by mindless violence.

When I first saw Virumaandi I enjoyed its Madurainess so thoroughly , that I was pretty apprehensive about its commercial prospects. Though I actually saw it in a near-full cinema in Bombay !

The movie seemed to underline the old one about ‘poetry being that which was lost in translation’. Except for a small slice, the whole world, I felt, was going to go about its life as if nothing had happened. This substantial aesthetic achievement was
going to go undernoticed. And it wasn’t going to be anybody’s fault.

I would never be able to fault a jury who didn’t connect to this film.

Wait, why did I think of a “jury” ? So all my pretentious gas about art-for-art’s sake has been a facade. After all, when it comes to things I like, it seems like I want them to be widely appreciated. Well, not “popular” in the vulgar sense of the world.What else then ? The applause of cognoscente ? Wasn’t that elitism even worse.

Even if I were to be elitist, shouldn’t I be the better kind ? The one who enjoys this movie all the more because it appeals to the very few who are ‘like’ him. Redeemingly, ‘like’ only in a basic cultural background sense; nothing more.

In my (now proven to be quite flawed) opinion, the movie was intensely local. A radius of around 50km around ThEni.It would be the clever limerick one cooked up with a friend in college. The vocabulary and references so intensely personal that it can only have an audience of the two.

Was glad to be proved wrong, first in the box office. Now, here.

//With Kamal, it is clear, the hegemony of the national may not be replaced with the hegemony of an “authorized” regional voice//
Beautiful perspective. For long, “typical” has been passed off as a compliment. An actor can be excused for it. But a writer creating “typical” characters creates flat cardboard pieces is just being lazy. And nothing could be more misplaced than thinking “typical” characters are easier for people to relate to.
//And if the prescription comes at a price — the casting of Kamal himself in the role of messiah — in a historical sense the price is well worth paying.// Couldn’t have said it better (and that applies to most of the article)

Keep writing !

PS: HAL, I didn’t get the one about the Tirunelvely dacoit ?

Michael from MMKR.

PR,
Aandavar speaks the Thirunelveli dialect in Mumbai Express. Well, after all, Avinasi is a Mumbai Tamil - he HAS to be from Nellai

HAL,
I though Michael spoke the Madurai thamizh…

However, in Mumbai Xpress, Avinasi speaks the Coimbatore dialect. (His family is basically from Coimbatore; remember, Kovai Sarala played his sister.) Chidambaram, on the other hand, speaks chaste Madras Tamil.

PR - The father (watch out for the scene where he arrests Nagesh - the “accent” stands out!)character in “Apoorva Sagotharargal” is clearly from “nellai”!

Again, Good work Qalandar!

Thanks,
Apala

P.S: kozhappi vittutteenga and i will have to watch it again!

Sorry for the kozhappam. I think I’m at total fault here, I know the Coimbatore dialect primarily through films, and, my familiarity with Mumbai Xpress exceeds with that of the Coimbatore dialect.

Mumbai Xpress is Thirunelveli, for sure and like i said, he doesn’t do a good job of it (by his standards) and hence there is some doubt.
Trademark Nellai accent in MX - e.g when he negotiates with Santhana Bharathi for the first time. Can’t remember the dialogues exactly but if you think of M.S Bhaskar speaking in Dum Dum Dum (pakka Nellai Tamil), you can find the similarity.

M. S. Bhaskar is the epitome of Nellai Tamil, especially the Ambasamudram dialect which was captured superbly in Dum Dum Dum. I don’t remember Kamal speaking that dialect in films. As for Mumbai Xpress, I must confess that I clearly missed the Nellai dialect even though I liked the nice rural touch in the Tamil he speaks. I think I got carried away with his longdrawn style of speaking. There’s a singsong way to Nellai Tamil as well, but the Tamil spoken is really faster than Kamal’s way of speaking in the film. But, Kamal uses some chaste Nellai Tamil words in the film (like ‘theendhuttu‘! Yes, I revisited some scenes of the film since this discussion started).

There’s a singsong way to Nellai Tamil as well, but the Tamil spoken is really faster than Kamal’s way of speaking in the film. But, Kamal uses some chaste Nellai Tamil words in the film (like ‘theendhuttu‘!
adhe dhaan!

While on the topic of accents, i am a fan of Kamal’s “peter” English. He has played a man returning from a foreign country in Thoongadhe Thambi Thoongadhe, MMKR, and Thevar Magan (Virumaandi is different) and while his accent hasn’t been the “exact” U.S/U.K version, its distinctly “Kamal” - “you’ve got 7 days to save your ass!”, “Open the bloody gates man! I’m your boss”, “she’s got neem oil on her hair” etc - while not totally ‘authentic’, are trademark Thalaivar stuff. Now, the question is, in Dasavatharam, the *villain* is an American. In a recent interview he gave in Mumbai after receiving the Living Legend award, we could observe some “peter” words with a tinge of American accent. Would be interesting to see how the role’s going to come out