Raja's read only memories

Director Suseendiran, who marks a return to the rural milieu with Azhagarsaamiyin Kudhirai (Azhagarsami’s horse) after Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu , I suspect, may have paid a silent tribute to a filmmaker who revelled in bucolic themes, Bharathiraja. The portrayal of the rural setting in the movie (based on a short story authored by writer Bhaskar Sakthi) is largely reminiscent of that in movies such as Pathinaaru Vayathinile or Kizhakke Pogum Rayil. Two lovers when on a secret outing to the town watch, of all movies, Alaigal Oyvathillai ; a village decides to conduct a temple fair in order to appease the rain god; women burst into lyrics at the snap of a finger. However, my favourite scene was where a sleeping stray dog perks up, rather expectantly, when the town crier announces the conduction of a village fair. The wooden horse of the village deity, Azhagarsaami, goes missing on the eve of the temple fair; as if in a metaphor, a person by name Azhagarsaami (Appukutty), too, loses hi...

With Sighappu Rojakkal (Red Roses), director Bharatiraja, who had earlier directed 16 Vayadhinile , a movie that continues to be regarded as the watershed of Tamil cinema, and Kizhakke Pogum Rayil – both of which focused on bucolic backgrounds – can be said to have attempted the cinematic equivalent of Operation Entebbe; none so telling as the manner in which its title credits roll: the discolouration of a rose in a dark background, accompanied by the harsh scream of a feminine voice in the background, conveying subtly that she may be getting raped, or even murdered, and sowing the seed of thought that its lead could be an anti-hero. A trendsetter in ways more than one, the director adopted urban Chennai - replete with women in attractive attire with little or no inhibitions, glitzy bars and restaurants, and people in odd jobs striving to make ends meet - as the canvas for Sighappu... The departure in the theme was, as many a chronicler of Tamil cinema would say, the director’s mess...

"Niruthanum...ellathayum niruthanum," are words that have been enshrined in Tamil film history, with movie spoofs, TV channel soaps and even other Tamil movies that were released later, having been influenced by the scene, the setting and the response that it elicits. For Tamil film aficionados worth their salt, the movie with which the dialogue is synonymous needs no introduction, however, for the uninitiated; it is the Rajnikanth, Mammooty, Arvind Swamy starrer, Thalapathy (the general/commander), a movie that stands out on more than one count. With Mani Ratnam as its director, this is something that has to be expected. If Thalapathy has remained in public memory, despite around twenty years after its release, it cannot be denied that its music has played a vital role in doing so, amply justified by the fact that a tweaked version of the hoot of a steam engine bringing to mind, S Janaki’s rendition of the song ‘ Chinna thaayaval ’. Probably, no other Kollywood releas...