Maestro Ilaiyaraja New Albums 2011 - Hello Jaihind / Sri Rama Rajyam

[Saagar]

raja_fan,

I thought Sathyan achieved that nirvana quite some time back. Atleast the last half dozen movies of his which I saw were almost similar in characterization and treatment.

This reminds me of P G Wodehouse and his statement against his critics. Writing the preface to one of the Psmith novels, Wodehouse said something like this, "For my earlier book, the critics said it was the same Wodehouse story with different characters. They can't say that for this book. This is the same story with the same characters!!!" (He has already written a Psmith book.) Sathyan is somewhere close to that.

You could not have put it better!

A perspectiveon Sathyan.
Sathyan is a pioneer in introducing believable stories with subtle performances, socially relevant themes , targeting family audiences, laced with humour that is never of the not over the top kind. He has initially done this in the company of Srinivasan(the script writer of most of his films). The target audience for his films are not the college going or tech- freak ones. He is even today considered the number 1 director in Malayalam & the # 3 in terms of a Brand on box office draw, after Mammootty & Mohan lal – His target audience being the family & Ladies. Even today, Sathyan’s films are the first choice for a middle class family – something they would go to blindfolded. In a way, he has been a trendsetter for these kind of ilms in Malayalam – with many like Fazil,Kamal,Srinivasan,Priyadarshan etc. following this model.

Recently, I had watched an interview of Mohanlal in a Channel, where he interviewed his mother. While explaining, what she disliked & what she liked, she mentioned – “I like u doing those Sathyan films - & the songs like in Innathe Chintha vishayam - Manassiloru poo maala – I enjoy them a lot”. Mind u – that’s not the best picuturisation or the best of Sathyan films recently – That’s the Sathyan hold on the Lady audiences tastes! In fact I find a similar echo from many of the women.

Every director ultimately belongs to a particular league or format – the canvas or segment targeted may be different. Sathyan is , in my opinion, in the league of Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Basu Chatterjee, who produced one of the most believable films, somewhere connecting to the life of a middle class or common man. In Hindi films too, the 70’s period of Hrishikesh/Basu is probably the golden period. After losing way, they are now connecting back with some good films/ film makers in between. Sathyan , now into his 50th film , somehow has been able to sustain the charm & sway over audiences, consistently delivering box office success with simple themes even after 30+ years in films.