The curious tendency of stereotyping and hypocrisy!

I am a tamilian who has spent quite a few years outside Tamil Nadu. Though being outside Tamil Nadu is not a prerequisite for knowing how people not from the south perceive the Tamil film industry, I feel I am in a better position to write about this perception because of my experiences, interactions and even arguments with many of my very good non-Tamil speaking friends.

Many non-Tamil people would unanimously agree that Tamil films are all about mindless action sequences, physics defying stunts, exaggerated heroics of the omnipotent protagonist, a dark-skinned not-so- good-looking guy (to put it mildly) romancing an incredibly fair, beautiful actress. This image has largely been formed based on one or two movies (with Sivaji or Enthiran – Robot being one of them) that they have watched. I have always believed that Rajini Kanth films are not for non-tamil audiences. Tamil audience has watched Rajini Kanth for over 35 years, they have watched him grow, they have admired his grace, style, charisma in different films, portraying different characters, bringing his unique distinctive flavor to the different characters, doing things on screen which others could not do (like flipping the glasses or hoisting the cigarette which somehow landed on his lips!). He charmed the Tamil people for several decades with his style of dialogue delivery and his swift on-screen actions reinforced by his simple, unassuming off-screen persona. By the mid 90s he had grown so much in stature that people started idolizing him. The directors could include any action sequence because people just loved to watch Rajini Kanth on screen. Probably the frequency of his on-screen appearances also contributed to this. From the mid 90s Rajini Kanth has been doing just 1 film every 2-3 years and also unlike other big film personalities who come on TV every day selling everything from itchguards to inner wear, Rajini Kanth does not do endorsements. People – of all ages, men and women flocked to the cinema halls to watch Rajini Kanth playing a particular role – not for the director or the story line. Watching Sachin Tendulkar score a 100 is any day more special than watching M.Vijay get a century though the shot selection etc. might be the same! Rajini Kanth is a phenomenon which can only be understood by people who have lived in Tamil Nadu for several years. It is therefore terribly misleading to form an impression about Tamil films in general and Rajini Kanth in particular solely based on Sivaji or Enthiran. It is understandable that people who do not know Rajini over the years cannot accept a 60 year old actor running around trees with an actress half his age! In short, non-Tamil people passing jokes about Rajini Kanth, is like Pamela Anderson giving a seminar on p-n-p transistors: Only exposes their ignorance.

I was particularly appalled at Shah Rukh Khan’s behavior. When NDTV bestowed the entertainer of the year award on Rajini Kanth, SRK asked Rajini with mischievous sarcasm: “Is there anything on earth that Rajini can’t do?” If this question was asked by anyone else I would have dismissed it as just another playful Rajini banter. But it was extremely hypocritical for SRK to ask this question to Rajini Kanth. The reason I say this is because when I watched SRK’s ‘Main Hoon Na’ I came across a cycle rickshaw chase scene - probably the most mindless action scene that I have ever seen which had the worst ‘physics-defying stunts’. The fact is, somewhere deep inside, we Indians want to see larger-than-life characters on screen doing impractical things, performing superhuman stunts and no film industry in India is immune to this. Many foreigners find Indian films extremely funny because they never understand why 20 people should dance (or why a guy and a girl should dance around trees) when 2 people are in love. But we Indians still enjoy romantic songs, item numbers etc., isn’t it? The problem is that most of us have a condescending attitude towards things which we do not understand.

Recently when I was discussing about films with one of my friends (who was not from south), he called the Tamil audience as being illogical because of the kind of films they watch! I was deeply hurt. I could not overlook this as an isolated comment made by an ignorant person as I feel that many people would be having the same opinion. Of course he had no idea about some wonderful movies that have been made in Tamil in the recent past (and before). There are so many gems - Aadukalam, Kaadhal, Paruthiveeran, Subramanyapuram, Angaadi Theru - just to name a few in the recent years. These films (and many more such films) were made with just a few crores, did not have high profile heroes and were made by not very well known directors. They went on to become extremely successful at the box office because of a sound storyline, brilliant screenplay and the mastery of the director who gave life to the characters with extremely realistic picturisation! They were not made just because ‘call-sheet’ of a big actor was available and the producer was ready to shell out tens of crores (which is the case with many films in Kollywood and Bollywood)

Somehow I experienced a sense of relief when the national film awards were announced a few days back, as Tamil films bagged quite a few accolades (including best actor for Dhanush and best director for Vetrimaran for Aadukalam) A few months back I showed the video of a song from Aadukalam to some of my friends (by now you should have guessed that they were not from the south). I was totally in awe of this song for the realistic portrayal and the life in the character. I told my friends that the actor is Rajini Kanth’s son-in-law and that he was quite popular in Tamil Nadu. My friends looked on with a sense of disbelief. They could not come to terms with the fact that such a person could become an actor leave alone being a hero. In fact one of them made me stop the video song in just a few seconds as he could not stand the actor’s ‘antics’. Somehow many people (not from the south) can never accept that acting has nothing to do with appearance and appearance has nothing to do with the colour of the skin! For some strange reason, I felt like I was vindicated when the same actor won the national best actor award for the same film!