This Obsession With Cinema

It is common knowledge that an average eight-year-old in Thamizh Nadu (for that matter, this is probably true of Andhra, Telengana and Karnataka also) would be better informed on movie matters than other fields of knowledge.  This inherited and infectious wisdom is derived from being associated with front-running elders. These worthies are so steeply immersed in cinema and are exposed continuously to its concomitant effects in their daily lives, that most people within a radius of fifty kilometres cannot escape their ubiquitous influence. Thamizh Nadu politics has been dominated by film people -- heroes, heroines, writers, producers et al -- so much that invariably it has become difficult to distinguish between politics and cinema as they run concurrently in the state. The aspiration of any actor with a reasonable fan base is eventually to enter politics and hog the limelight for some more years, because such actors would rather continue to `act' in politics than lose their halo progressively and fade away.  Acting is an inevitable, major ingredient in politics, as we know, since most of the politicians are just play-acting much of the time, whether it be delivering fake promises, hugging old men and women in a display of boundless affection, seemingly listening with all sympathy to the down-trodden people intently, even as they are planning the next scene somewhere else.

What is rather sad is that the gullible population (a good portion of that, anyway) also takes the bait more often than not,  emotionally recalling a few flashy, socially relevant dialogues or lines from songs the actors had delivered in their various movies, with the specific objective of encashing the goodwill on some future poll date. Ageing actors in Tamil Nadu, during their last decade, start cultivating the audience to receive them as their future political leaders sooner or later.  Their films are full of dialogues and scenes, which depict them as saviours of the common man, protectors of women and small children and generally the do-gooders for  humanity at large.  Modern actors believe that just because one MGR and one Jayalalitha successfully transformed himself/herself thru this process, they can all do that. Fact is, very few succeed to even scratch the surface, but this has not discouraged a succession of actors from trying.  Some older heroes are testing the arena even as you read this and are getting scalded in the process.  There are a few somewhat sensible actors, who desire the aura, but decide they may not be up to it.  They dodge the issue by forever staying on the sidelines and rolling out justifications and excuses for not taking the final plunge. None of this knowledge seems to dampen the adulation of the movie-crazy populace, which fervently hopes that such actors hold the panacea for all their ills and see them as leaders who can wave their magic wand and solve all the problems. When elders in the population go this way, what chance do the impressionable young ones have? They dutifully pick up the signals early enough and follow all the way.

Thamizh TV stations are full of film stuff, you will know if you have surfed stations for just a few minutes.  If it is not a segment of film songs or films themselves,  (there are stations which do this 24/7), there are interviews with actors/directors interspersed with clips from their films or with playback singers/music composers, peppered with their abbreviated songs and so on.  Otherwise there are these all-pervasive TV serials, which mimic films in all ways.  Of late, in the name of innovations, they have progressed along cinema lines to include action and dance sequences too. While TV actors do not have the chutzpah to attract the same kind of viewership as movie actors, they manage to occupy people's mind space simply by appearing on TV every single day for a few years continuously, through those so-called mega serials.  And then there are those panel discussions about something or the other, in which at least two film personalities appear, only because the subject matter has some streak of a connection to films.  Even if there is no real or imagined relevance, it does not matter because movie people are always welcome, anytime, anywhere.  When stations think people would have had enough of movies, TV stations 'innovatively'  replace them with Super Singer programmes, which laudably aim to bring out young talent by making them sing all those memorable old and new film songs.  And of course, they are judged by a fixed panel of erstwhile playback singers, complemented by a rolling stock of film stars.  So cinema world does not give you a inch of space to breathe freely, but hustles you everywhere.

TV is so obsessed with cinema that even when some events worthy of reporting occur, such events get a passing mention and stations are back to their favourite pastime forthwith.  I am sure,  regretting the loss of those two minutes which they spent on the serious newsbreak!  Even when the China-India border skirmish was on all national TV channels, Tamil TV stations seem to swat the subject aside to focus on what they prefer to do. On all holidays, including Sivarathri, Krishna Jayanthi, Mahatma Gandhi's birth day, Teachers' day, etc nothing changes and all the channels are full of movies, more movies and special screenings of movies.  And, of course, the movies do not pretend to be recalling any specific occasion.  

Take a look at all the Thamizh periodicals (weeklies, fortnightlies) and you will get sure-fire proof of the film craze that stalks Tamizh Nadu. And this burning fanaticism and the need to satisfy that as felt by the magazines is made starkly evident if you casually turn the pages. Even erstwhile cultured publications, famous for their quality output involving history, arts, poetry, tradition, values etc have now been forced to commit pages to filmy content. If you count the pages dedicated to cinema stuff, that invariably amounts to about 40-50 percent in most magazines.  Including interviews with actresses who have just been signed up for their first movie and the shooting is yet to start. Now 'what can they say to edify any reasonably intelligent man or woman?' is a legitimate question, but then the publications do not make the mistake of assuming that all their readers are intelligent.  You cannot blame them because that is how the herds have been behaving, I guess. Their take would be that this is what sells and they just pander to people's current tastes.  Add to this, all those adverts which show film folks trying to sell various products, by doing everything from wielding brooms, chewing pan, walking in dhoties, selling dog food to plugging for new housing projects 'which are veritable heavens-on-earth' in god-forsaken locations, some 100 kms away from Chennai.  It will definitely be a challenge for anyone to read the bulk of the magazines (it wont take too much time, given the triviality of the stuff published) for a few weeks and come out confidently and say that he/she learnt something useful, unless of course, it involves the tinsel town!  Even quizzes are there, with readers' questions answered by, who else, some film director or actor. Given their expertise and domain knowledge, all the questions chosen are also about films, especially about film actresses. Sample this - `Which actress is the better dancer amongst A, B, C and D' (answer is - the type of dancing they have to do in films, anyone can do) or `Which actress delivers dialogues the best among X, Y and Z (answer is - none of them because they are not good at Thamizh and have others dub for them) and so on.  If at all there is a news item about a scientist or sportsperson or classical musician, that only appears in a brief, single column short, after the person has achieved an Olympic medal or Nobel prize or something of that magnitude.  Of course, occupying the rest of the spread is the photo of a starlet, trying to spread her wings.

Daily life in Chennai, as in other southern metros, is dominated by all those posters - small, medium, large and extra large - which are propped up by poles on the ground (which are stumbling blocks for walkers) or hoisted up on advertising platforms (which could fall apart and kill a few one day), in all nooks and corners. From where heroes and heroines strike all those popular postures enshrined in their respective movies.  It is clear that filmdom won't leave people alone even after they step outside their homes.  On the roads, there are gigantic cutouts of famous heroes, looking literally down upon people and smiling benevolently even as they are preparing for their political future.  Poster culture is so strong there that anyone who wants a bit of mind space of people has to find literal public place to park his posters, with a massive dose of inappropriate and mostly fictional self-praise. This can all be done easily and is par for the course only because the funding comes from the subject himself.  The truth is, not everyone who has erected cutouts - actor or otherwise - becomes an adulatory object of the people. Thank God for that.

So, inside homes or outside, if there is such an over-dose of cinema related pounding from multiple directions, how can a child or youngster escape the lopsided influence of that fictional world?  The one thing that has changed for the better in movies now is that unlike yesteryears when only a fair and good looking person could usually become the hero or heroine, now anyone can assume the mantle, regardless of complexion, looks, ability to act etc.  One only needs a financier to back you and mostly the parents take on that role avidly since no one would volunteer for that.  People like me will have to just sit moping around, ruing the chances we never had!