Sunday, June 10, 2001		Lead Article

FORGING A NATIONAL METAPHOR

The tendency has been to view Mumbai films on one end of a spectrum and films from the South on the other end. Happily, today, the barrier at least between Mumbai and Chennai is diminishing remarkably, a beginning perhaps of a larger breaking up of barriers, and a greater degree of intermingling between the film-makers, artistes, technicians, singers, musicians and choreographers of the Indian subcontinent, writes Surinder Malhi

TRADITIONALLY, India’s mainstream cinema has been identified essentially with Hindi language films (Urdu appears to have become a thing of the past) and also with the Tamil films of Chennai and the Telugu movies of Hyderabad. In recent years, the Telugu production rate has even overtaken that of the more highprofile Hindi cinema.

Bengal, Kerala and Orissa, on the other hand, are associated with cinema that is less rapidly commercial and allows for a certain exploration of offbeat themes and directorial treatment.

The tendency has been to view Mumbai films on one end of a spectrum and films from the South on the other end. Happily, today, the barrier at least between Mumbai and Chennai is diminishing remarkably. It is a beginning perhaps of a larger breaking up of barriers, and a greater degree of intermingling between the film-makers, artistes, technicians, singers, musicians and choreographers of the Indian subcontinent.

In a manner of speaking, it is as if USA’s two film production centres in Hollywood, Los Angeles and Manhattan, were collaborating more closely in the area of themes and technique. Actors, who were drawn either from the west or the east coast of the USA, are shuttling to and fro with more regularity than they did, say in the 1980s.

Similarly, the air flights between Mumbai and Chennai are witnessing a new boom in terms of film traffic. In less than two hours (if you discount the delays in flight take-offs), Mumbai comes to Chennai. And vice-versa.

So, practically every director and actor worth his salt in Chennai (or for that matter in Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram) is now talking about multi-lingual projects. Considerations of dialectical differences, behavioural patterns and stories rooted in a specific soil, apparently, do not make a major difference any more. To a discernible extent, the nation is shrinking.

Of course, over the decades there has been an exchange of film personalities, stories and random ideas between Mumbai and the South. Right to this day, the spectacular dance on giant drums seen in S.S. Vasan’s Chanderlekha, back in the 1940s, is ‘re-cloned’ in Hindi cinema, the latest being a musical piece featuring Govinda and Shilpa Shetty in Gambler.

The 1950s were notable for the family dramas, packed with sentiment and high emotions produced by the competing banners of AVM and Gemini. Artistes from the South and Mumbai co-starred in films replete with heavy-duty dialogue, ostentatious studio sets and plenty of dance, music and comedy.

Even as the tide ebbed for AVM and Gemini, other major production houses — B. Naga Reddi’s Vijay Vahuni Productions and L.V. Prasad Productions — made a lasting impact.

With time, directors K. Vishwanath (Kamchor), K. Balachander (Ek Duje Ke Liye) and Priyadarshan (Viraasat) succeeded in balancing their work in the realms of both Hindi and southern cinema. K. Bhagyaraj (Aakhri Raasta) and Balu Mahendra (Sadma) made a mark but chose to bide their time before making a comeback as they had with Ek Bechara and Aur Ek Prem Kahani, respectively.

Heroines, originating from the South, found favour with the all-India market, notably Vyjyanthimala, Padmini, and Hema Malini, in whose footsteps was to follow Sridevi.

Perhaps the brief entry in Bollywood of Kamal Hassan and Rajnikant has been far too casually dismissed. If they did not make Mumbai their base, it was evidently because both economics and consistency required them to return to the home front, where both are still going strong.

The Chennai-Mumbai link went askew somewhat with the mass manufacture of Jeetendra-Sridevi, Jeetendra-Jaya Prada, and Jeetendra-anyone capers in the 1980s. Padmalaya Studios and D. Rama Naidu of Hyderabad, as well as several Chennai movie barons, swung into the act. For a while, it seemed as if the movies were no more than a frantic PT exercise dances and an execrable Kader Khan-Shakti Kapoor comedy. Mercifully, the formula ran dry. And the stage was set for a new wave.

This wave was responsible for the arrival of truly gifted directors led by Mani Ratnam, who achieved due recognition after toiling at over a dozen films which were not exposed to the wider national audience. With Nayakan, he became a buzz word and outplaced Mumbai’s short-on-content ‘tecno-brats’. Ratnam’s multi-lingual trend gained momentum with the thumping success of his Roja and Bombay.

Also, Ratnam’s able aides, cameraman Santosh Sivan, P.C. Sreeram and Madhu Amhat became hot properties. The innovative set designs of Thottha Tharani were emulated, edging out the needlessly decorative props and paraphernalia that did not do anything but add costs and more costs to the production outlay.

New directors, young and on the go, arrived on the scene. Like Shankar, whose Gentleman, Kaadahalan and Indian excited a posse of plagiarists.

With Roja also arrived music director A.R. Rahman. He came, he saw and left his indelible stamp on the Hindi film music scene. Never has a music director-composer created this kind of hype.

Clips from their home-grown films, beamed with clockwise regularity on Doordarshan and the satellite channels, have contributed immeasurably towards making several starts from the southern firmament into household names all over. Thus, stars like Arvind Swamy, Prabhu Deva and Nagarjuna have become familiar faces from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

Earlier, Khushboo and Naghma were the prime imports from Mumbai to Chennai. Juhi Chawla, Pooja Bhatt, Raveena Tandon and Madhuri Dixit would head southwards and return after stray assignments. Today, however, more Mumbai actresses are making a mark on the southern scene. For Manisha Koirala, Jyotika and Tabu, especially, the South has laid out a red carpet.

For the viewer, the increasing cross-pollination between Mumbai and Chennai means not only a cinema with more potential but also cinema that looks beyond narrow confines. The outline of a truly national cinema is emerging at long last.