Aval Appadiththaan – Cinema – take a bow!
Cinema is often abused as the vehicle of silly entertainment. So much so there are even reviewers telling you how irritated they feel when a movie tries to ‘preach’ – convey a message etc., The culprits are usually film makers who seize on a current issue and make an ‘inflight video’ of do’s and donts’ where the protagonist is a walking talking saint. When the protagonist is a female, then the movie is all about how all the men are ready to rape her and she ends the movie usually with a big sermon about ‘maa’, ‘behan’ etc., Languages may differ, but the treatment is all the same. Only few makers approach a issue and expose it layer by layer without taking sides, without the characters becoming people arguing a case, but simply being themselves as flawed or flawless like you and me. In Thamizh, when someone mentions movies on issues, particularly on women, the only name that pops up is the master K.Balachander who gave the men of thamizh nadu two of the biggest stars to adore and patronize for decades in the form of Rajini and Kamal.
However with K.Balachander, there is always symbolisms, eccentricities of lead characters to accentuate the ‘message’ portion a bit more. Was there a thamizh movie which simply did not have an established name like K.B., but still did discuss issues with strong characters and neat story line? There were a handful and I rediscovered and relived the exalting experience of watching one of them. The movie is ‘Aval Appadiththaan’ and it was directed by an hitherto unknown film maker Rudraiyya. It had the two actors who were promising a new hope for thamizh film fans with their stupendous work in movies like Padhinaaru Vayadhinile, moondru mudichu, Aboorva Raagam. They were Kamal hassan and Rajinikanth. ‘Aval Appdiththaan’ went on to become one more movie where the duo simply rewrote the way acting had to be done, how one has to carry himself as an actor in front of camera and particularly how one should speak his dialogues. Gone was the heavy intonations and loud mouthing of drama style. In vogue was speaking the usual normal way and both these actors relished on the new opportunities they were getting and were getting comfortable with their roles than with their ‘image’.
Special mention must be made of Kamal Hassan who went on a brief sabbatical from thamizh films to Malayalam cinema which was closely facing literature and churning out lively and earthy stories in a quite relaxed manner. In the late stages of 76, he came back a charged man with new found spark creatively and strong inclination towards communism, that was turning him more restless and it showed on screen more and more. The political climate of the country was also one of a new found liberation post the lifting of Indira Gandhi imposed inglorious emergency. The chamber of film commerce in Chennai was having its peak churning out more students exposed to european cinema and clearly aiming to recreate what they learnt over there. Post the Rajinikanth phenomenon, the film institute products were attacking the decadent thamizh film industry with renewed vigour.
The actresses of thamizh films were getting stronger than their ‘wigged’ counterparts – offcourse with the patronage of directors like K.B., actresses like Sujatha, Srividhya, Jeyachitra were simply churning out one powerhouse performance after another and that meant the naive and ‘thought of’ as less talented actresses also gained confidence. Sripriya was one such actress who played a rather tiny role in K.B’s ‘Aval Oru thodar kadhai’ as one of the ungrateful sisters of Sujatha. Her performances later did not set the screen on fire and an actress who had claimed to be inspired by the success of ‘Jayalalitha’ and ‘Hema Malini’ was waiting for one role of a lifetime. A role that could make her immortal. She was not to be denied her dream by destiny.
The combination of young blood and the conducive environment paved way by K.B and Bharathiraaja meant that another film which is going to push the envelope just to a new level was just waiting to happen. However the decaying Thamizh film ‘industry’ which had many talents, but talents that were too accustomed the old way of film making and old world ideals were not going to let this happen just like that. Added to the mix was the strong Producer-Distributor-Theatre owners nexus that had given only a crack on the surface as the breathing space for a K.B. and Bharathiraaja are going to be another tough nut to crack.
However a good idea with great people behind it does not wait for the right time – like a seismic event – it simply happens.
The movie began with a very small budget and that was not a concern at all for the four samurais. They went on and etched possibly the strongest woman character to be seen in Indian films while placing cleverly in between the pretext of a documentary on women made by Arun (Kamal Hassan).
The film begins with an unassuming title card in which Aval Appadiththaan was written in thamizh with letters skewed in a zig zag fashion indicating to us that the movie is based on a character who does not conform. However what we are not prepared for is to see ourselves(society) on a straight mirror and that is what this movie does with aplomb.
The movie begins with a cabaret artist dancing and Arun (Kamal) capturing the dance in a camera, followed by an interview with her where he asks her the routine questions of how she got into this profession and what motivates her to do this every day(night?). While his questions sound academic, it is her responses that really set the tone for the movie.
She remarks:
“While I have hunger of the stomach that makes me dance, the men who see me have a different hunger that feeds my hunger”
The camera then pans to Arun’s face to register an expression of pain and guilt – pain for the state of the woman and guilt for being a man in the age of trivializing female body for thought sex. This is the pattern that is going to be for the movie. If you are a man – who is comfortably ignorant – this should definitely warn you of watching the rest of the movie. For if you watch the rest you cannot sleep comfortably anymore the following night.
Next we see Arun discussing with Thyagu( Rajinikanth) who starts his monologue about women, politicians and wine – he is shown to be a quite candid and self professed ‘MALE’ Ass and this monologue repeats throughout the movie and serves as a metaphor for two aspects of men the progressive and sensitive aspect represented by ever so hesitant, but perplexed Arun and outwardly confident, morally bankrupt Thyagu (Rajini). The story actually moves in between their conversations and in every conversation we see the progressive side get more and more confused till they meet in the climax – totally changed and shocked people – both repenting their decisions and ashamed of their opinions.
First Part: Manju the great wall
In the first part, Arun and Manju get to know each other. It is Manju who begins the conversation trying to ascertain whether Arun is a communist guessing by the poster art in his house and general leaning by the books he reads – as the conversation develops and when the question centers around her and her childhood, manju turns into this wall. She stone walls him from knowing anything further and Arun (and us offcourse) are left perplexed, leading to the first Thyagu monologue on Manju and her childhood – Some really politically incorrect remarks that are unbelievably coarse, yet stylishly delivered by Rajinikanth follow. This leads to the first knot – “Is Manju like this difficult puzzly because of her indifferent parents?” The answer follows when Manju reveals the truth in the following scene where she opens up to Arun (confession # 1) about her amorous mother and a spineless father who sticks to a dead relationship for the sake of society. The result is a neglected child who is also abused by one of the men who visit her mother often. This sequence is as suggestively told while making it all the more shocking (The film is an ‘A’ rated film with no explicit scenes – just shocking situations and raw dialogues).
Second Part – Manju the Misandrist(why should I call a woman that hates men as misanthrope?)
Manju takes Arun to a film shooting to interview one cinema heroine, played by Kutti Padmini who invites them both to see a scene shooting. The scene happens to be a love scene and Manju laughs out loud hearing the ‘Pure love’ dialogues. She then recounts of her ‘Love’ affair with her college friend Kiruba (played by Malayalam actor Ravindran). In spite of the assurances and promises, Kiruba deserts her citing family and unmarried sisters as the reason. Manju’s first question to Arun (to the society in general) Didn’t the guy know he had family and unmarried sisters when he was roaming with her in the name of ‘Pure’ love? Arun as usual is stumped, but asks her if she came to a general conclusion just because of this one reason and her answer is in the form of second question which is delayed in the film by a beautiful song – “Vaazhkai Odam sella” – a ghazal kind of song with masterful interludes and picturised in the most meaningful, yet cost effective manner. The lyrics are deep and convey the hapless situation of women trappen in men’s world built on lies where even women willfully impose the fabrications as rules. The song is sung at her melancholic best by S.Janaki tuned to perfection by Maestro Ilaiyaraja.
Immediately after that part, Arun speaks to Manju’s ’sister with whom she is living and the lady has no kind words for Manju. Arun is shocked and much to his amazement discovers that it is her aunt (father’s sister) who is unmarried and therefore thinks of hosting Manju in her house as an emotional solace plus charity. Soon enough their conversation veers to why Manju hates men and why she is not living with her father. Manju after the ‘kiruba’ episode becomes dejected and tries to find her inner peace in the company of a christian priest, whose son Mano (Sivachandran) also happens to be a good piano player. Manju soon starts to become normal and starts trusting Men and mano in particular. After a particularly disturbing domestic fight, Manju comes over to Mano’s place and soon they make love after a wonderful melody ‘Uravugal Sirukadhai’ . Soon afterwards Manju decides to leave her home and tells mano of the same. Mano visibly upset brings her father and asks him to take care of her and tells him ‘ she is like my sister’. While we dont get to know how she reacted then, Manju recollects with a powerful statement to Arun (’Had he called me a whore, I wouldn’t have minded, when he called me his sister, I felt ashamed like a woman with no clothes in the public’) This strong recollection scene is something to be seen to be believed. The acting by Sripriya is absolutely TOP NOTCH and look for the reactions of Kamal here too. Soon afterwards Manju develops a nervous break down ashamed perhaps at the fact that she shared her memories which she wanted to forget to a man - an entity that she hates the most. Arun then retreats, terribly shaken at the condition of Manju. His sympathies reaffirming the faith that she needs to be in the company of someone who understands her completely and slowly it dawns on him that she doesn’t even have a female friend and he might be the only person who knows all about her.
Soon another episode of Thyaagu’s lectures begin and he tries in his flamboyant and cool way (you should see Rajini in this powerful and cool scene telling that she is not steady and is ‘chanchalam’ in his inimitable style – hinting that she is amorous like her mother). Arun is sure that her behaviour is easily attributable to the men that she has seen in her life.
After an incident in Manju’s office where she slaps a colleague (there is another episode where a young male employee tries to grope her all the while calling her ’sister’ she chides him in the rudest, yet the best possible manner) and when Thyagu(rajini) tries to get too comfortable with her in the name of consoling her she resigns. Arun learns of this and tells her that he will talk to Thyagu and get her job back. Manju snubs him saying that she doesn’t need his help and asks him to go away.
Days pass and Arun completes his documentary with two completely documentary style scenes – one an interview with girls of Queen Mary’s college and one with platform sellers(women) of chennai and one gets to hear a lot of radical questions posed by Arun which also incidentally form a part of questions that Kamal, the actor is identified with and the answers he elicits from the women, most of whom are real and not actors is all the more insightful and adds additional layer of meaning and believability to this wonderful movie.
Soon Arun realizes that Manju has got her job back and is seen to be very firendly with Thyaagu. After seeing that Arun is shocked and is totally confused (so are we) and in the meanwhile gets married to an uneducated girl and sends a letter to Thyaagu that he is coming to chennai with his newly married wife. What he doesn’t understand is that Manju in the meanwhile befriends Thyaagu to only teach him a lesson (again another see it to believe it scene where Rajinikanth and Sripriya simply whoa you out) and when Thyaagu and Manju learn the fact, it is all to disheartening for Manju who is betrayed yet again in life , while thyaagu is shocked and has a newfound respect for Manju. While Arun is defiant when he sees Manju. She gets down from the car which moves forward with Arun, his wife and Thyaagu – a symbolic way of telling that Manju is an anamoly who is beyond the grasp of the rest of the society which is formed of schemeing chauvinist men (thyaagu), and a part of society that knows the guilt it is carrying, yet is cowardly and hesitant (Arun) and offcourse the women who are ignorant and exploited (Arun’s wife – played by Saritha) and a liberated, carefree and truthful women like Manju has no place in their collective journey – Aval Appadiththaan (She is like that…) A journey of ideas – bold and stated with courage in a way that it elevates our respect for the medium called cinema that is sullied and blackened every friday by a conscienceless Indian Film fraternity that has started patting thier dirty back by instituting fake awards while a gem like this is lying unnoticed, amidst their weekly stench inducing garbage pile.
I have to , as a film viewer (not reviewer) say special thanks to Kamal Hassan, Rajinikanth, Shripriya amd Rudraiyya for making a film of this sort when they could have encashed their commercial status in the Box Office a little more by doing a ‘aam aadmi’, commercial cinema that wouldn’t have lived beyond 1978.
Thanks to Karthik Krishnan who has provided some memorable clips from youtube from this unforgettable movie by Rudraiyya that I have embedded below..
Tags: Aval Appadiththaan, Rajinikanth, rudraiyya. Kamal Hassan, Sripriya, Thamizh films. Tamil movies
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
A wonderful read!!
.
Never seen the movie but now looking forward to see the movie sometime (dont plan to rent it just yet… maybe if some channel shows it or maybe rent it later…)
also the Subrat style of prologue to the movie ‘review’ was really cool
wow good one. thanks for throwing light on thamizh cinema.
Outside tamilnadu tamizh cinema has always been associated with Rajinikanths worthless masala movies (shivaji is a standing example). Tamil new wave directors have always been there parallelly making movies and releasing them with the worthless masala movies like mahindran, balachander ,baalu mahindra, bharathiraja, aamir , baala, maniratnam , selvaraghavan …..etc
yes VP. cinema is not meant just for entertainment.. i consider cinema as a visual book respecting the disticnt medium of cinema… just trying to create an analogy. we dont buy books just for entertainment.. we get certain things from it apart from being amused.. similarly cinema if well executed provides us with great insights.
even a film like Pulp fiction which was meant purely to entertain gives us so much beyond entertainment.
An engrossing read VP. I could imagine the scenes in my head – thats how vividly you’ve described the scenes.
For such a film to be made in Tamil Nadu in the 1970’s this is a bold film I feel. Even today the women there are defined by the traditional roles that they have to play – mother, wife and sister and in a way all are dependent on men in their respective lives. (Have you seen the serials that come on Sun TV and the likes today? Terribly Terribly regressive.
And then one writes about a film Like AA that came out way way back.. Did the audience accept this film or was it given a small art-house film kinda reception that narrowed the no of viewers?
@ Arthi
I dont kow how much it grossed – It was definitely a hit.
As a man I had thought of myself as progressive, but this film made me rethink and I realised my own failings. And that is the biggest success of this movie – At no point I could say ‘Manju is wrong’ – though she doesnt care about chastity etc., because the director had already placed me in a glass house by then and I didn’t have any stones too!!
I particularly loved the documentary scenes where Kamal goes quizzing the women – Those scenes are done very cleverly and the way it alternates between the actual story was beautifully done and did not irk me as a gimmick like what was done in Rang De Basanti where the transition of a group of wastrels was shown along with the journey of a legend like Bhagat Singh.
True.. I guess this is the first time that I had read something like this about RDB..and i thought only I felt so.
I’ve got to watch AA…Thanks for writing about this film VP..
@VPJ,
A nice read. AA is a movie that is definitely beyond its time. Performaces were definitely toned down when you compare it to older tamizh movies. I wouldn’t necessarily term it ‘natural’ though it is defintely leaning tawrds a ‘natural’ performance based movie. This movie is very outspoken on its ideas and that’s why characters louder than necessary.
Personally, I do not agree with the ‘repenting’ part of Thyaagu’s character or his finding any respect for Manju. The reason for Manju to get apparently close to Thyaagu for teaching him a lesson also seems pre-posterous(but it works for the movie as it gives a nice ‘twist’ to it). For a lady who is pretty confident and does not fear taking on men, not taking on Thyaagu directly looks somewhat of an exception and the reason does not justify the means. She has taught a lesson to many with other means as well.
Finally, one comment on your RDB point. Am I to understand that wastrels are not worthy to even associate with any legend? Should they have had any moral standing for the association to be justified?
Sarang-
Excellent post man…..any idea whr can i find this movie online????? I never knew Rajni and Kamal had acted in any movie together. Ofcourse tamil movie industry has given gems on a consistent basis. Tat makes me a proud tamilian. Offlate I saw a couple of very old black and white tamil movie 1. Edirnichal and 2.Aamdani athani kharcha rupaiyya (tamil version ofcourse). Gaali mat dena yaar but didnt know how to write the tamil words in english.
These are Nagesh and Cho movies. Perhaps one of the best comedians of all times. The light hearted innocence, simple story made so interesting with the dialogues and narration and pure acting is simply amazing. Perhaps someone whose more knowledgable about tamil movies can come up aith a post on Nagesh and Cho. I also remember the Tughlak narrations on radio by Cho when I was young. They were good too. Perhaps like desi ‘Wonder Years’ for me.
One question : Why do u guys have to bring RDB out of nothing and then abuse it, is it only becoz u didnt approve of the idea and but still it grossed so much….
@Sarang:
1. Thyagu doesn’t repent – he simply understood ‘Aval Appadiththaan’ – just because she doesn’t confine to the traditional ‘norms’ of chaste woman(which so many thamizh films have drilled into audience mind set later on) doesn’t mean she will come whenever he calls her – She is like that. This means he has realized her – before he was passing comments like shit on her without even understanding her one bit. Manju showed her vindictive ide by shunning Arun for a while to teach Thyaagu a lesson – wile retaining her well paying job at the same time – Any other woman would have not passed on an opportunity to be more friendly with a considerate guy like Arun – She wouldn’t and her judgement proved allright as Arun had to conform to his father’s wishes in the nd.
@ Sarang and Kaafir
I brought in RDB (not all the guys kaafir) to show an analogy – when using a technique – we can use it to really create a deep subtext and meaning and in his film the documentary on state of women and the story in hand jell so well. Whereas in RDB, my grouse is that a freedom fighter who was always affected by the Jaalian Wala bagh (not his friends death in an aircrash mind you) who had a lifetime o dedication to a cause , his life becoming a sub text to a gang of friends who suddenly become patriotic and aware of the situation because they lose someone close to them and what happened afterwards needed no reference to Bhagat Singh in my opinion – this trivialises the life of a hero and is not a purely cinematic grouse and a more personal one.
Kaafir:
I never knew Rajni and Kamal had acted in any movie together.
Whoa! You have missed a lot of Tamil movies, haven’t you?
They have done close to a dozen movies together, all between 1975 and 1983 types. And each one of them is as good as Aval Appadidhan
@anantha – not each of them – there were some duds like ‘alavudeenum arpudha viLakkum’ – mostly K.B movies
Any idea what happened to this director?? DId he direct any other movie?
not that I know of – I donno what is keeping him from directing one..