Tamil film industry's young directors: Wizards of the South

Tamil cinema swept the 58th National Film Awards announced last month, bagging 14 awards. Interestingly, the awards went to movies by a new breed of enterprising young Tamil directors, writers, and technicians who are adventurous enough to plow fresh cinematic territory, and jury members were evidently spellbound by their mastery of the craft.

Thirty-six year-old Vettrimaaran walked away with six awards, including Best Director and Best Script, for only his second feature film, Aadukalam. A post graduate in English literature, he doesn’t have any formal training in filmmaking.

“I’m happy that I did not go to any film institute. My university was Balu Mahendra,” says the director, crediting his success to the skills he picked up while assisting the iconic Sri Lankan-born Tamil filmmaker, whose Kokila (1978) and Moonram Pirai (1983) bagged national awards.

Having started out as an assistant to Mahendra in 1997, he had to wait for a decade before venturing out on his own. He took more than two years to write the script of Aadukalam. So what made it click? Vettrimaaran wants you to believe that there was nothing unusual about the film — about cock fighting in a Madurai suburb — other than its simplicity and honesty.

The movie is shot realistically, with accurate rendition of the local dialect, attire, and culture. “I went to the rural interior, studied the language spoken by the people, their lifestyle. You will not see anything in the film that you won’t find in the actual geographical location. The characters are people we meet in our day-to-day life. And I tell the story without any exaggeration. I guess the audience liked it.” 

Inspiration in rural life
That Aadukalam is not a flash in the pan is evident from Seenu Ramasamy’s Thenmerkku Paruvakatru. Madurai-born Seenu, 38, was also an understudy to Balu Mahendra. He too found inspiration in the sights, sounds and spirit of rural Tamil Nadu — he stumbled upon a village where the entire population specialised in stealing. “There was a drought in the village, and hence no water. The only way the villagers knew to survive was by thievery. I saw goodness in those villagers and wanted to depict their story in a film,” says Seenu.

His friendship with a former soldier of the Indian Army helped him realise his dream. “When Seenu narrated the story to me, I knew it would work. I did not think twice before taking the plunge,” says film producer Shibu Isaac, a former army captain who has seen action in Sri Lanka with the IPKF and in Kashmir.

“All these years, directors used rural landscapes mostly as props to beautify the film, especially in the song-and-dance sequences. But I wanted to capture the life in those landscapes. The village is the central character in my movie,” says Seenu.

The transformation
Isaac, 46, who runs a security agency in Chennai, says the days of opulent, big budget movies are coming to an end in Tamil cinema.

“As a serious student of cinema, I’ve been interacting with the avid movie watcher, the ordinary man, for many years. I can tell you that viewers find it difficult to relate the themes of commercial potboilers to real life issues. They stand in queue to watch the so-called blockbusters only because they don’t have any alternative.”

Noted film critic Meena Pillai of Kerala University agrees that Tamil movies have undergone a major transformation in the last three years. “The make-believe world is a thing of the past. Tamil film audiences want to see on screen the life that is familiar to them rather than the clichéd boy-meets-girl stories,” she says.

This change is reflected in the scripting process itself. “Scripts used to be written with artists in mind. But now that is out. The modern day Tamil director wants only actors and stars. It is reflected in movies like Aadukalam or Paruthiveeran,” says film critic and writer Sundar Das. This is a big change from the days of MGR, Sivaji and even Rajinikanth, all of whom dictated terms to the writers. “Not any more. The script writers and directors have learnt to put their foot down firmly.”  

Das, who has been following the Tamil film industry for close to three decades, identifies Subramanyapuram (2008), directed by newcomer Sasikumar, as the film that marked the beginning of a new phase in Tamil cinema.

“The Madurai of the 1980s was resurrected by the director through his choice of location, script, and even the slang. The movies that followed brought out the state’s myriad rural landscapes and slangs, which varied from one region to another,” he says.

K Balachander, who was honoured with this year’s Dada Saheb Phalke Award, is the movie maker who set the process of change in motion. Women were akin to set property in Tamil movies till his arrival. KB demolished the concept. Heroines became as important as heroes. Tamil cinema was not the same after the release of his Aval Oru Thudarkathai,” says Das.

The same is the case with Bharatiraja and Balu Mahendra. “Their movies were different from traditional Tamil movies,” points out noted chronicler of Tamil cinema, Randor Gay. “Viewers want something new when they go to watch a movie. KB, Bharatiraja and Balu Mahendra had their innings. Now it is the GenNext’s turn to deliver.”

And indeed, the GenNext is here. Other than this year’s National-award winning directors, Vettrimaaran, Seenu Ramasamy, and Prabhu Solomon, there are also Sargunam, Susheendran, Samudra  Kani and Sasikumar — all young,
vibrant and bubbling with ideas.