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Veri in Tamil can be loosely translated as Passion-for/ Obsession-for etc. If this website, PassionForCinema, were to be in Tamil it would be called what i have titled this piece - Cinema Veri. And Cinema Veri can also be translated as Trippy Cinema which ‘Tamil M.A’ totally is.

Few films stay with you irrevocably for a particular impact. Like a certain expression, gesture or action. Every needle held by a girl would be an embarrassed recollection of a scary situation such as the one in Takashi Miike’s ‘Audition’. Or Belmondo’s lip-swagger in ‘Breathless’, Forest Whitaker’s SamuraiSword-like panache with his gun in ‘Ghost Dog’ etc. ‘Tamil M.A’ would be remembered for it’s oft-repeated, a measured honest-to-goodness-question posed to the protagonist by the love of his life - Nijamaa dhan sollariya? translating into ‘do you truthfully mean it?’. With its frequency as we proceed in the film we figure it to be less a question and more an exclamatory assertion. In the Latin-rooted languages also, of Italian, French & Spanish, Veri would be an obsession with truth, passion for the truth. ‘Tamil M.A’ is C.i.n.e.m.a V.e.r.i.

Film opens with people swarmed around a suicide scenario. Protagonist, oblivious to false hopes offered by the populace, looks downwards as Camera climbs skywards leaving behind the protagonist all by himself with his decision. VO accompanies the dissolve to another sky. As he is walking by himself in the middle of a crowded Pondy Bazaar in Madras the VO, reminiscent of Camus, says - “it was 4 p.m last evening when i decided to kill myself. Writing a letter to someone before killing yourself is something like a ritual; but who do i address the letter to? Only person i do know is YOU, Anandhi. But i don’t know where you are. Even if i were to write to you, i wouldn’t know where to send it.” A life that’s just been unveiled here clues us into an unbearably lonely existence. Complimenting this loneliness is the resolve that posting a letter isn’t a pre-requisite for writing one! So, the reason’s spelled-out as a question that justifies this film’s unique title: Tamilnatle Tamil padichavan eppadi uyir vala mudiyum, neeye sollu Anandhi Almost sarcastically, ‘How can a person who’s studied (specialized in) Tamil not commit suicide, you tell me (anandhi)?’. We’re HOOKED.

The protagonist talks only to a certain Anandhi, irrespective of her presence around him.
While the film’s Director talks, literally & cinematically, only to a certain audience; an audience that’ll become his during the course of the film.

A 10yrs old boy:
Boy grows up in Achankoil in Kerala. He loses his mother & grandfather to a car accident that he & his father manage to survive. He takes a shine to a girl he’s studying in class with, his most valuable possession being a Camlin Geometry Box that she’s gifted him. An outing with the girl in pristinely-green picturesque Western Ghats Kerala of Achankoil would come to haunt him for the rest of his life. In his own words he would never be as happy as he was there. The small boy takes his girlfriend to a location that he claims houses his friend, a Tiger. He substantiates convincingly how a Tiger would inherently be his friend, & that she shall be introduced to the friend. Her response: Nijamaa dhan sollariya? . While they are seated picnic-style in the lap of the paradise-like Ghats, the girl asks for the promised Tiger. Feigning a serious search, & a memory loss the boy tells her about how the Tiger can’t make it. Because Tiger’s sleeping, & he’ll be dreaming in his sleep, & that dream would be a big dream about Paradise, & that as soon as the tiger’s done with the dream she shall positively be introduced to the Wild Cat. Her present response: Nijamaa dhan sollariya?

Boy soon moves alongwith his Army Officer Father to a moffusil Tamilnad town. There, invoking Majid Majidi, the kid spends his school vacations at the hostel, having nobody to go to while father’s serving the Army. Only other person that also ends up staying back during vacations is his Tamil language teacher at the school, Tamil Ayya. Having ridiculed him earlier, the kid grows very fond of & models himself on his Tamil Ayya whom he would lose to an unforseeable mishap. But the interaction has rendered few decisions concrete for the small boy.

An 18 yrs old teenaged boy:
A pair of unfortunate incidents lead an 18 yrs old teenaged boy to stumble-upon a childhood friend in the neighboring town of Tiruvannamalai. The friend happens to be a girl whom he thought of, in his young mind, as somebody that the world wouldn’t bother separating him from. Girl’s recently lost her father in a bus accident. She’s her father’s illegitimate daughter on account of her mother making it only as far as being a mistress. Mother & daughter have none to fall back upon. It’s their resilient fight against the tag of illegitimacy that keeps them from leaving the village. That, & the girl’s increased closeness & fondness for the often-visiting teenager.

In ‘Tamil M.A’ world of extreme loneliness it’s their good times that sparsely dot a lifetime of separation & solitude. Boy promises to be back during his semester (mid-year) vacations. He’s starting higher studies soon in Paalayamkottai (Tirunelveli). His girl asks him about the subject he would be specializing in: Tamil.
At college, this decision of his becomes the very reason of his ridicule. His Tamil Professor even offers to allow him to change to a better stream of study that his scores seem to be deserving of. “Isn’t love for the language reason-enough to be pursuing it, & not disqualification at other (lucrative) subjects?”. Boy persists with Tamil. But the girl’s moved, alongwith mother to a place that nobody’s been told about.

her hand held in mine, i was thinking of her.
she, holding my hand, was thinking of the non-existent Tiger i told her about.
the non-existent Tiger, was dreaming of a non-existent Paradise (paalaivanam) that i fibbed about.

It’s few years later during 2nd year of his M.A in Tamil that he hears from the girl. He receives his 1st letter [he actually keeps count] that he duly photocopies. Mother & daughter have sought shelter at an uncle’s in Maharastra. Letter says that she’ll let him know when he could possibly write to her or come visiting as soon as she thinks it’s alright to. Till then,
take timely meals,
bathe atleast thrice a week,
wash those socks of yours,
don’t bite your nails,
submit your prayers to God.
[AK Ramanujan-style translation]

He travels to Maharastra & after a few days’ ordeal spots her in Sawargaon, Maharastra. Although they have a great time together, she asks him to take leave when she thinks they’ve spent more time than her uncle would approve of. He can’t possibly leave without her. At a time when any form of stalling would do, to keep your pined-one closer, he conveys his resolve to take her (& her mother) back as soon as his course (Tamil M.A) finishes. Paused for the film’s theme music to strum we savour a close-up of the girl asking Nijamaa dhan sollariya?

Young man (Late 20s):
A primary school Tamil teacher (Prabhakar) is elucidating the meaning of humiliation. He cites examples of Headmaster meting-out punishment at the school assembly, being publicly beaten-up by cops etc. Occupational hazard of being a Tamil teacher would entail invoking great Tamil poets & Litteratuers. Prabha chooses Tiruvalluvar who’s supposed to have deduced that being humiliated [losing honour] is reason-enough to drop dead. Hair/mane & pubes analogy smartly supports the same view. Soon enough Prabha gets an un-flattering opportunity to demonstrate what he was teaching in class. While smoking a cigarette during recess Prabha is confronted by a cop. When he defends his Right he’s trashed around before being taken away downtown. His students get an eye-full & probably a first-ever Tamil Practical session [from the Theory-Practical dichotomy]. At the Police Station he’s asked to cough-up 250 Rupees. Prabha’s broke, Cops un-convinced, they bring-up tuition fees, Prabha points out that language teachers never make extra money through tuition. He talks Rules & gets dumped away in a cell to be stripped & squatted for a whole day. VO reiterates the Thiruvalluvar quote. This & a whole lot of other reasons including Mr. Thiruvalluvar hisself duly make it to the suicide note addressed to Anandhi at the film’s opening. Prabha’s sense of being a loser is heightened when his suicide survives. He’s thrown at the mercy of the same cops for disturbing traffic, & general peace. He’s now half the man he used to be from the time the film began playing. He’s slapped around carelessly & Prabha takes himself less seriously. He even manages to rejoice when a slap misses his face. This is Humiliation!

Cops, having found a sitting duck, slap Narcotics rap on him & seal his fate for the next 5 years. Either ways it does matter very little for Prabha. He would be interested in a totally new way of life, no less. He jumps the Cops, packs few precious valuables, gets to a Local Railway Station. At this point the film could’ve been what Bresson’s ‘L’Argent’ was. But that’s a comparison that recurs without trying to imitate the master’s work. VO acknowledges how naive he was. He didn’t know he could travel without (ticketless) in a local. He’s pleading at the counter to issue a ticket against his torn 5 Rupees note. When refused, Prabha violently jerks the man (by his collar) in anger, through the ticket window. Droplets of blood collect on his forearm. Ticket issuer’s been speared in his forehead against a nail by Prabha’s jerking. One little drop of blood frees Prabha. It delivers him from the traumatic horror of having to witness, as a 10yrs old boy, a fountain of blood issuing from his mother’s decapitated torso, having to separate splintered flesh sticking to his neck. Blood is an altogether different currency that defies notions of ‘way of life’. He’s initially on the run, but a few more deaths (22 of them) to his credit he craves to be back at the place that made him run away in the first place. Prabha’s got blood on his hands, & Anandhi on his mind. When towards the end Prabhakar refuses to comply with Anandhi’s request to leave & tells her to ‘come away’ with him Anandhi responds with Nijamaa dhan sollariya?. Both lovers agree that they would best like to go back to their 10yrs old selves. Echoing Bresson, they would probably also agree that they had to go through all that they did to relive what was to be an eternity as 10yrs olds, in the Ghats of Achankoil.

‘Tamil M.A’ is expertly directed by debutant Ram. Ram is believed to have spent many years to get the film funded till an ex-underworld don Muthappa Rai produced the film through MR Productions. The film has a great Soundtrack & Background Score by Ilaiyaraja’s younger son Yuvan Shankar Raja and one divine rendition by the maestro himself. There is a particular section in the film that i’m not fond of; first 20 minutes of the last half-hour. But the end, & the film’s mainstream cinema format, for me, forgives an otherwise expensive 20 minutes. Tamil Cinema never had an art-cinema phase that cinemas in other Indian languages did. Maybe it was meant to be a blessing in disguise as Tamil Cinema supports refinement & experimentation under the aegis of the mainstream.

Ram doesn’t keep the stories separate & their relation ambiguous as i have. Apart from the opening sequence little else is kept chronological (in my recounting). What Ram does is start with the present (late 20s young man) and constantly intercut it with pasts of the 10yrs old Prabha-Anandhi followed by teenaged Prabha-Anandhi as the film progresses. There are 2 voices employed for actor Jeeva’s playing of Prabha. It’s Jeeva’s when Jeeva’s talking on-screen & director Ram’s beautiful inflections when it’s Prabha’s VO.

I can tell you this much; that the film is brilliantly photographed, smartly planned to be edited, sound imaginatively designed, music rave-worthy, performances well-directed & delivered. But the true winner is the writing craft employed in this film. Writing, not only on paper but one that seems to be both lived & conversely evolved as the film proceeded along. It’s the free man behind the film, & the execution of his unshakable vision (in this case) that gets un-reservedly celebrated when viewing the film. Bravo Ram!