Tuesday, August 31, 2004
In the Name of the Father
After years of trying to be an uptight film-critic, I finally cried while watching a film. This movie by Jim Sheridan is not only your typical political issue movie, but is also a great piece of filmmaking.
My first reaction: There is now more reason for our own Tamil political issue type filmmakers to go shoot themselves, then disembowel themselves with a sharp katana, drink poison and jump into the Bay of Bengal!
Comments to In the Name of the Father
Anand, to be fair to our Directors, do they make Movies that get watched only by the Censor Board and Exhibitors or do they take a few liberties and deliver a semi-artisitic product?
For example, what do you think was wrong with 'En Vuyir Thozhan'?
- hemanth
posted by 
Hemanth: Sorry I have not watched the film you have mentioned, but I am tired of condoning our filmmakers... after all, I find their excuses for not making quality stuff too flimsy... lets face it! They need to kill themselves... Especially if so many others can do good stuff in the face of worse constraints. If I myself dont live up to expectations, I need to do the same!
posted by 
Anand
Leniency Anand. I think it runs deeper. As much as I hate our present crop of Film makers, I feel they�ve got their issues too. If at all our filmmakers are guilty of, it's their lack of motivation. Clearly they have learned their lessons from Directors before them. If Directors like even Balu Mahendra need work, they are expected to agree to a compromise before they get whatever meager funding! Balachander (�Thaneer Thaneer�), Bharathiraja and even Kamal (to an extent w/ �Mahanadhi�) have tried these experiments and have had no impact on people, whatsoever.
In the west, no matter how stark or �serious� a movie is, it will get its initial back, but what about Tamil Movies? Where does the funding for such movies come from? Why does the State Government not even offer sops to such Movies? Why should a person who sells his himself to make a Movie under 20 lakhs pay up the same Tax and fee as Mr. A M Ratnam?
Why do you absolve people who won�t go to theatres to watch movies that have anything to do with Social issues? Let�s face it; our people don�t have the stomach for such movies. And what about the Censors, will they let me make a Movie on four LTTE �convicts� who are wrongly accused and victimised by the Indian Political System?
- hemanth
posted by
Maybe I should be more lenient, coming from the same breeding ground as this crop of characters; but that is what makes me more mad. I know what these guys are upto all the time and I certainly know they are capable of better. Being an aspiring filmmaker also compulsorily makes me more lenient towards the audience than my collegues.
posted by Anand
Hey u missed out Kamal's Kurudi punal...that was one of his best, although not a political satire in real sense.I don't think anyone really found K.Balanchader's Jaathi Malli interesting, but I did.
The general attitude of our public is to just have fun and not be depressed after watching the movie.Even a hard core political movie has to have its share of "commercial" entertainment.
Queer.
posted by
Actually, I did not want this discussion to veer in the direction of "if we (Tamil filmmakers) have the guts / political awareness / business acumen etc to make political films", but if we have the sensitivity and sincerity to make one.
The examples you quote Queer, are fine, but these are the films that pale in comparison with "In the Name of the Father". If the "Best we can offer" are prone to rudimentary disputes such as the question over the Balachandar style of non-committal dabbling, there is no way we can be sensitive to the 'issue involved'.
Moreover, my main concern is regarding the quality of the films made. "In the Name..." is made with the kind of storytelling discipline that is required of serious cinema, at the same time, it is stylish and gets the audience sucked into its line, but I don�t even want to start talking about Tamil films that profess to be social / political statements. They are either boring nonsense no one wants to watch or are kitschy claptrap that has no sensitivity. Worse still, our fellows try and take the 'intellectual and artistic' higher-ground and give us 'messages'. While they themselves are non-committal political speakers. In Tamil filmdom, the only polices that exist is either naively childish or idealistically insensitive and removed. Or Jingoistic "Hollywood" style macho.
posted by Anand
Moreover to blame the audience and insist that they will watch only belly dancing is an excuse our filmmakers use to 'fuck around'. Trust me, they do, I've seen it!
posted by Anand
Call me by names, but this is a hard truth. We (I mean the tamils) can never take a movie that is so true in political standing.
Not that our folks don't have the ability to do it. they can do it, going forward, much better than the westerners, because we have more ideology/comics/crime stories in our political arena. We are still a developing nation and these are prone to be there.
Like how in Kakkha Kakkha, Surya responds to his immediate sub-ordinate who is angry on a public man who shouts " Can't you get Veerappan?"
Surya says, "Its true. We aren't able to get Veerappan. But it doesn't mean we are incapable". By the same dialogue, not that we cannot make a movie better than the mentioned one or the contemporaries.
There are simply too many variables operating in a movie coming out. They don't want a movie that talks the truth. Hence our folks either are afraid to take a movie and get ripped apart for that or waste time in a useless effort.
posted by lazygeek
Lazy, you are too good a friend for me to call you names, but to say that we as a culture are reticent and non-perceptive is missing the point. As an aspiring filmmaker, I can and will only talk about the filmmakers. After all, not many have made any effort to seriously make a good movie and wait for the audiences reaction. I am not putting it simplistically nor am I in denial of the complexity of film production, but just give it a thought: so many people, so many years, such a long history, such a glorious culture, such talent, such literature and what do we have to share with the contemporary world? It is the Olympic Conundrum.
posted by Anand
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