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Death of Tamil identity in Tamil cinema

Topic started by Ramakrishna (@ 209.179.214.237) on Thu Jan 3 22:23:11 EST 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

In the 80's and before, Tamil movies and songs had a flavor that made them unique. But in the 90's, there has been a slow but sure trend in Tamil movies where they have become more and more North-Indianized or even MTVised (if there is such a term).

Songs don't feature south Indian instruments like Nadhaswaram or the mridangham any more. Even the days of rich violin orchestrations of Illayaraja or Viswanathan Ramamurthy are over. Instead, the music has become more techno/pop and were it not for the lyrics, one cannot even recognize a lot of songs as being Indian, let alone Tamil.

Speaking of lyrics, the less said the better. Apart from being nonsensical, the heavy use of English phrases makes one wonder if these lyricists have secret desire to start a career with Motown.

Also why do most dance seqences feature Punjabi attire? Hello, these are supposed to be TAMIL movie about TAMILIANs.

How many times these days does a lead actress wear a saree and has a pottu? I mean, other than in Vijayakanth films.

Even other things insignificant ranging from background score to rolling credits at the end are blindly copied from Hollywood.

For me in my youth, a major portion of my cultural exposure to south Indian culture was through Tamil movies. I am afraid the current and future generations may not have that opportunity. Instead they would be stuck with watching dubbed Hindi movies because that is what Tamil movies these days essentially are.

I am not a Hindi basher but it is sad that regional language films are losing their identities to this relentless MTVisation.

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Responses:

• From: Philosopher (@ 24.190.51.205) on: Thu Jan 3 23:42:14 EST 2002
  
  Ramakrishna:
  
  I really agree with you. One recent movie that I appreciated for its rich regional culture and excellent music was Dumm Dumm Dumm. I think if our audience make these kinds of movies a big hit, there is some hope.
  
  
• From: raj (@ 198.151.230.253) on: Thu Jan 3 23:49:33 EST 2002
  
  Exaclty
  & take Music
  Y our MD's bring Singers of North To sing when we have Plenty of South indian Singers
  
  Are the North indian MD's giving chance to our singer..
  will they ? no
  
  I know KJY,SPB sang/singing in HFM
  but that too few
  SPB sang in Our director's Film for the first..
  
  but here irrespective of Dirs,Producers,MD's call HFM singers who kill Tamil to the Core
  
  This is also One of the Reason to Lose the Tamil Identity
  
  
  
• From: Dubbing Artist (@ 203.199.248.96) on: Fri Jan 4 13:20:47 EST 2002
  
  1977 il Bharathiraaja large scale dubbing for actresses konduvanthan...IR tamil i kolai pannugira Kerala singers palarai kondu vandhu tamil kolai Arangetram panninan...Appove tamil manvasanai poyachu....Today all non tamil speaking heroines and Dubbing voice for them is telugu girl SAVITHA....Indraikku full tamil screen heroines namboyirukkum ore penn kural Panruti born Reddy girl Savitha...Idhil...TFM eppadi tamil i kappatra mudium...
  
  
• From: sats (@ 139.177.224.101) on: Fri Jan 4 14:34:58 EST 2002
  
  Ramakrishna
  
  I have few question for you as you are talking about tamil identity
  
  1. Do we use all tamil words when we speak without mixing any english words at all . When we cant do that how do we expect them in songs .
  
  2.Talking about punjabi attire , is churidhar a tamil attire , how come we changed to that dress , y dont we wear dhoti's which is a tamil attire.
  
  Sticking to something doesnt allow us to grow.
  
  
  
• From: yaaro (@ 195.93.49.157) on: Fri Jan 4 14:42:33 EST 2002
  
  dear DA,
  
  SPB-andhra
  KJY-kerala
  PS-andhra
  SJ-?kerala, ?andhra
  PBS-?kannada
  go thru discography in raajangahm and see the list of tamil singers used by IR.atleast these singers were from neighbouring states and they improved over time with good songs.but the present crop of udits and sadhana sargams and that chap who sang nadhiye adi nile nadhiye...
  are these people going to stay around trying to improve tamil in madras?
  regarding dubbing for actresses-well, as long as they can emote that is fine.when the dubbing voices can take care of the dialogues why worry?
  radhika,revathy, radha all spoke their own dialogues .why blame BR-balachander brought in Rajini.the point is as long as they can take efforts, like what kushboo has done-and if they can stay in madras long enough, they picked up nuances of tamil.
  
  
• From: pained why not (@ 128.194.171.240) on: Fri Jan 4 14:42:37 EST 2002
  
  what the heck man...
  you can all talk of all this but what about the actore...they act in tamil movies.... get their money from tamil people...and then call them selves... super star ...super actor... supremem actor.. action king.... they should be hanged first..... and then there is our own vairamuthu "thangame tamilukillai thattupadu" .. name of the film :DUET .. what an irony...
  doomsday folks!!!
  
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Fri Jan 4 14:46:26 EST 2002
  
  Ramakrishna,
  
  This is a good topic and you are trying to address an issue of tamil identity through culture, music and lyrics. There are many people who do not believe in identity or roots. Beware of such individuals who will always use arguments of diversity and growth to favour trends over principles/tamil pride. It is the way things are in today's film world.
  
  Sats, we may use english words when we speak tamil, but how many times have you heard hindi songs use english words? Hindi speakers (or speakers of Northern Languages) are not easily "anglicised" when it comes to film music. Tamil MDs/lyricists are. Can you tell me why?
  
  
• From: yaaro (@ 195.93.49.157) on: Fri Jan 4 14:56:36 EST 2002
  
  one reason for all this anglicization and hindicization was the advent of all the presenters who copied MTV type of presentations-I can categorically state that the present state is mainly because of these presenters whose anglicized tamil became to be associated with the image of 'modern'girl.
  If you look at the films before all these presenters came-for eg revathi in oru kaidhiyin diary-very decent tamil.
  also lost in the technowave are the following generes:
  lullaby songs
  mother sentiment songs
  folk musicals
  carnatic musicals(when was the last carnatic music based movie in tamil?-will KB dare to take a sindhubairavi type movie with his current MD?I doubt it)
  when people here stupidly equate using tabla and mirudhangam with lack of musical sense(what was that?tok tok tabla-god save these ignoramuses)
  and being out of touch with 'modern'trend,what else can you expect.I think we have seen the last carnatic music based movis in tamil.
  the truth is that we have all lost our sense of roots.when I listen to music from MSV,IR and host of others I feel like I have gone back home.The present lot of MD's cannot do that.
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Fri Jan 4 15:05:48 EST 2002
  
  Why then does the trend continue? Your disgust cannot be singular and isolated, surely. Is the tamil public (regionally) so spineless or without anger about how their language/idenity is being molested by so-called techno-tamils and their ilk? Why is Technology seen as Progress - when all evidence is contrary to the claim (esp. in TFM)? Any ideas why this massacare is allowed to go on in the name of entertainment? Any analysis?
  (I stopped listening to tamil music after the release of ARR's Indian. There are many more horrors after that, I am sure.)
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.254) on: Fri Jan 4 16:01:07 EST 2002
  
  yaaro,
  
  I thought Sangamam was a musical(carnatic+folk). Correct me if I'm wrong.
  
  "will KB dare to take a sindhubairavi type movie with his current MD?"
  
  First of all, is KB interested in doing a project like that?There's no definite answer for a hypothetical question.
  
  Naaz,
  
  Your anger seems to be very intense.Your posting reminds me of a person called Indhu who used to post before.Do you happen to know that person by any chance?
  
  "Any ideas why this massacare is allowed to go on in the name of entertainment?"
  I think Indhu discussed this issue and the collective action that need to be taken in detail in a thread(pronounciation affair or something like that) some time back.You may want to check that thread for some ideas and analysis.
  
  
• From: worried-tamil-speaking-guy (@ 12.31.202.4) on: Fri Jan 4 16:05:02 EST 2002
  
  The worst type of Tamil kolai is done by people who ask proper Tamil speaking people to mispronounce words so that they sound "so-called-cool".
  
  
• From: Krishna (@ 199.43.48.22) on: Fri Jan 4 16:15:14 EST 2002
  
  You have to realize that trends and tastes change with time. If you belong to the Ilayaraja generation , you might have heard your elders talking of the crap music that was being generated as compared to their days of MSV/Ramamurthy/Kannadasan. Well, accepted that some of those melodies are evergreen and unbeatable, all music composers have produced trash too whether it is MSV or Ilayaraja or ARR. But then all have produced gems too, right. It's all amatter of opinion end everyone has a right to his own.
  
  
• From: s0 (@ 128.119.85.50) on: Fri Jan 4 16:18:20 EST 2002
  
  i totally agree. without tamil movies I would never have learnt about various graamiya idheegams (like the one in kizhakke pogum rail), alla maraththu-adi panchaayaththu with its vetti graamiya perusus, people like pannaiyaar, mitta-mirasu, aiyyanaar, mallu-vetti minor, and words like ettu-patti, parivattam, mudhal mariyadhai etc.. and various sounds like the one that groups of women make with their tongues rolling during pongal.
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Fri Jan 4 16:25:04 EST 2002
  
  Trend,
  
  I am not angry, just intensely curious. Why are you so defensive?? I was only addressing Yaaro's anger/frustration with current TFM. I think just expressing dissatisfaction is not enough, there has to be a deeper analysis/investigation to understand why things are the way they are with Tamil film music nowadays. I don't listen to much recent music. I am not a trend-junkie.
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.254) on: Fri Jan 4 16:48:06 EST 2002
  
  Naaz,
  
  I don't understanding why there is a blame on technology.If people understand technology correctly it can help them to further their efforts.Among true creators there are also bound to be pretenders of technology.For the sake of pretenders it's not a good idea to stop the technological advance.There's also no reason to blame something which doesn't have any sense(technology).:)
  
  "I don't listen to much recent music. I am not a trend-junkie."
  
  I think you are contradicting yourself there.First of all one should understand the trend to exactly qualify as not a trend-junkie.Just kidding.:)
  
  
• From: Trend (@ 216.68.113.254) on: Fri Jan 4 16:49:24 EST 2002
  
  Correction:
  
  I don't understanding should be I don't understand
  
  Hope my English teacher doesn't see that.:(
  
  

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