Kollywood Cinema & Madurai

Kollywood Cine Filmmaker and Madurai

Think of some random but successful Tamil movies in recent times. You better list out films like Kadhal, Subramanipuram. Sanda Kozhi, Thimuru, as they form the basis for my theory, which is these movies had one thing in common. We aren’t talking about the non-Tamil speaking heroine. We are talking about Madurai, the quintessential backdrop to these movies. The situation in Kollywood has come to level wherein even if you are making a movie about aliens in outer space, there has to be at least a dream sequence set in the rustic swamps of Madurai and its surroundings. But if you are wondering why Madurai, and not say Mannargudi, well here it goes:

Even if the movie were to be shot on a shoestring budget at the AVM , it is easy to capture Madurai, which is by showing a towering temple gopuram in the backdrop. It is Meenakshi Amman temple, you fool. If it is Madurai, the temple tower will stand as the super structure behind even a humble thatched roof hutment. If it is a realistic movie, then they will show endless stretches of dust and dreariness and make it out that the dust belongs to Madurai. Mannargudi, in contrast cannot be recreated on AVM third floor. And then there is the thing about life. Madurai people are even more easy to capture on screen. In the case of men folk, they are the ones who move around in veshtis or lungis hitched high around the waist or even above as if it were just a belt or cummerbund, thereby giving a full view of the undies that is usually striped shorts which end somewhere around the ankles. In general, the men are shown to carry the aruval as an intrinsic accessory to their daily lives just as a city-bred executive moves around with a cross pen and blackberry mobile.

The women are loudmouthed vixen who wear their saris in manner that is basically a variation of pillow cover that comes handy with tail. The Madurai woman will painstakingly pine for hero, whose redeeming quality in general is his brilliant ability to use cuss words even if he were dandling a new-born baby in his arms.

Talking of language , it may seem tricky, as Madurai slang is thought to be unique and flavoursome. But it can be realistically captured by the smart expedience of letting the character speak with the Mennakshi Amman temple shown in the background. If the character is shown to be talking inside a cotton mill, then you can deduce the language to be Coimbatore slang.

Another important aspect to Madurai is that you can go back and forth in time. Suppose a filmmaker wants to set his story in Madurai of the 70s or th 60s, all he has to do is to dress the hero and heroine in clothes that even clowns wouldn’t touch these days, and remove the details of today from the scene (now you know why Subramaniapuram ws set in the Madurai of the 80s. )

He needn’t worry about Madurai much, at least at the sociological level that our movies operate, and the temple tower would still suffice.

Our filmmakers to get up Madurai on the AVM floors. I don’t balme them, actually. For Madurai is less a place, more a state of mind, which is a combination of contradictions – hard, dark , colourful, enigmatic, expressive, kind, threatening, religious, spooky, imposing, ornamental, philosophical.

In other words, a temple tower.