March 18, 2004
tamil movies fascinate me. hardly because of the plot (plot, not plots. because it's always guy meets girl, girl's the villain's daughter, guy fights a few thugs, and marries the girl), but more so the nitty-gritty details, which the movie producers frequently overlook.
1. the actors
if you were to perceive tamil movies with a little more awareness, you'll see that in many of the movies the same actors and actresses are recycled. same thing with tamil dramas. mr gopal the immaculate family man of 2.30pm may easily become mr raja the village terrorist in the next program at 3.00pm. it gets confusing for the indiscriminate viewer of tamil dramas. in movies, you'll notice that certain actors keep reappearing, for the same damn role over and over and over again. it's like they've created a niche for themselves in the tamil movie industry. there's a man who's become a professional at what he does. not acting, but turning to his accomplice to give a feeble, slightly remorseful (it's hard to describe, he's THAT good) look whenever the hero admonishes their boss. then there's the elderly village lady who acts as the spokesperson for her village. she's the one getting interviewed with a baby in her arm, complaining about the ministers who never heed their complaints. i swear i've seen the same woman doing the same thing in about 7 or 8 movies.
2. the dances
now where in the blue hell do all those dancers come from, seriously. i mean ok, maybe you want to argue about artistic license. even if we do grant you that the least you could do is make the dancing look good. half the time the actors seem like they're having dry-sex. but, they NEVER kiss. and the dance steps are so completely third rate it's a menace to society. i can just imagine the choregrapher telling his actors, 'ok first you prance here and JUMP. then you prance... over here, and JUMP. then you bring your hands here... no, here. HERE. yes. trust me, i've been doing this crap for years. yes, then you JUMP. ok, excellent.' once in a while, they like to experiment a bit. they make the colour of the plump actress' clothes change as she's dancing, using some sort of video effects. bizarre.
3. the fights
they waste so much money breaking things. i remember once some hero grabbed a thug and threw him down the stairs - not
along the stairs but really from second floor to first floor the quickest way possible - and against a chandelier which smashed to pieces. now even if the chandelier was made of chalk there was no reason to smash a fine looking thing like that. and not to mention risk the poor bugger's life. mind you, in tamil movies, there are no stunt men. just people who really really need the money. and they do anything to earn some cash. it's exploitation at it's most cruel and painful best, because the brighter side of me reckons they don't have any insurance.
4. double acts
it's not funny, no longer amusing, and quite irritating. the use of double-acts, that is using the same actor for 2, or more, different roles in a movie, is rampant. the first time someone decided to do it, i gotta say it was pretty cool. but after that it was hackneyed by movie directors too eager to impress. i mean imagine the torture the actors have to go through. heck, i know of a DRAMA which had some poor dud doing double acting. and dramas are aired daily. he must have had a traumatised life. and a possible severe identity crisis.
5. endings
the endings more often than not occur in temples, with the hero marrying the heroine. it's usually the same happy ending in most cases. which really annoys me. i hate happy endings.
the end.
1:01 AM
