When was the last time you saw a black and white Tamil film on television? While you may find them in the afternoon slots on KTV, Sun Life, Raj TV and Murasu channels, the mainstream TV networks devote their time only to newer releases. How many 25-year-olds today can claim to know Sivaji Ganesan or MG Ramachandran? Nostalgia may sound boring, but it can also be heartening when you revisit roots.
For every Rahman, there is an Ilaiyaraaja who set standards before him, and before an Ilaiyaraaja, there was, of course, an M S Viswanathan to remember. I miss refrains from the black and white era as radio stations and TV channels restrict themselves to only content produced after the 90s.
Re-releases come in handy, yes, but they’re at the most barely two per year. Considering that we, today, consume content on our smartphones, we seemingly don’t have time for films that run well past the three-hour mark, and which may have over six songs (The 1944 M K Thyagaraja Bhagavathar-film, Haridas, had as many as 12 songs. Bhagavathar who? Google please.) That was pretty much the template for all films till the 60s, when directors like Sridhar and later K Balachander set new trends, and those like Bharathirajaa and then Mani Ratnam did the same for later generations. Change is progress but understanding entertainment trends across generations is also how we can know what has gone into the evolution of Tamil cinema as we see it.
Social media, today, enables quick sharing, which provides instant feedback. The number of days a film runs is now equalled to the number of ‘hits’ or ‘likes’ it garners on the internet.
Publicity strategy for a film has undergone a major overhaul too. The advertising for Kaatru Veliyidai, for instance, is much wider on FB and Twitter than it is as paper-ads/wall posters or hoardings.
There was a time when Anna Salai would gleam with film hoardings right from the Church Park school corner till the Triplicane signal where Devi, Shanthi and Casino theatres are situated. Of them, Shanthi has now turned into a complex.
Hoardings are now mainly seen only inside theatre compounds in Chennai, unlike in smaller towns down South, where there’s still reliance on wall posters, banners and hoardings to announce release dates. Not to forget the fan-made cut-outs with garlands galore on the day of a big film’s release. Nostalgia for talents who have entertained the childhood of our parents and grandparents is something we are missing out on. A period-film today has come to mean a film set in the 80s.
Why don’t you watch MGR in Anbe Vaa or Sivaji Ganesan in Galatta Kalyanam and tell me if their characters feel outdated!
Source: The New Indian Express