Avatharam and my passion for cinema
Recently there was a discussion. I wouldn’t say it was pleasant. I was at the receiving end for most part of it.
It centred on what credentials or knowledge I possess to write articles in an esteemed forum like PFC?
Sure I was no struggling AD in the streets of mumbai or chennai trying to make movies, not now – probably I never will be.
Sure I was not a guy who has poured over books on cinema and I surely do not get the meaning of Seventh Seal and I havent seen Pather Panchali in my life – not till now, atleast.
Neither I am a fan of ‘Black Friday’ or ‘No Smoking’, the second being way above my understanding – probably that is why it is too good a movie for me.
By the same token I am not much impressed by Yash chopra factories movies too – except Chak De.
While the accusations were piling up for my ‘credentials’ to blog on PFC, I introspected, for the exact moment in my life where I became a cinema lover to a ‘passionate’ cinema lover. It was not the countless Kamalhassan, Mahendran and Balu Mahendra classics that converted me to ‘passionate’. Sometimes we experience the best in life too soon to appreciate their greatness. For me, the music of Ilaiyaraaja, cinema of Bharathiraaja, Balachander and Baalu Mahendra were so easily available from my early days, that I did not think special about them initially. It is only when I entered the 1990s and with the quality of movies dropping to the ground post ‘Mahanadi’, that I started really taking note of my ‘taste’ for films.
Around 1995, Nasser – the renowned, yet under used and much abused (by way of roles he was made to play) was the most terrorising villain actor in thamizh film industry. I was a fan of his for his performances in Nayagan, Devar Magan and Avaaram poo. When I saw the remake of ‘Droh kaal’ as Kamal’s Kurudhippunal, I was blown away by the character ‘Badri’ played by Nasser – His portrayal was the best in the movie overshadowing amazing performances by Kamal and Arjun. I was impressed in the way he showed me the boldness and fear of the character at the same time. And when I saw him in ‘uniform’ in the last portions of the movie, I became a die hard fan of Nasser. I revisited all the movies that had Nasser – even the obscure ones. I began to follow each and every interview of his. I literally stalked him on the print media. He became a cult figure for me, kind of role model. His thoughts and expressions would soon become mine. Right at that time – he announced that he was directing a movie and typical reactions from people was ‘why? – even Kamal hasn’t officially directed a movie?’. I soon got into quarrels of why Nasser is the best actor in India. My folks began casting suspicious glances on me when I said I am a fan of a ‘villain actor’.
So came 1995 and with it the movie I was anticipating – ‘Avatharam’. The story of an innocent artist who performs ‘Theru koothu’ (Street Drama). I had seen a lot of theru koothu thanks to the rural programs in Chennai Door Darshan. I had gathered a noterity as a boy who saw ‘Vayalum Vaazhvum’. I was so used to ‘ வயலும் வாழ்வும் கூட விடாம பாக்கறியே ?’ (How can you see vayalum vaazhvum program too?). In addition to the advantages of crop rotation and factompos 20 20 commercials, the annexure of the program had rural arts section in which ‘theru koothu’s were telecast regularly. I was a sucker for them and naturally, my delight knew no bounds when Nasser announced that his movie is based on the dying art of Theru koothu.
Peope here cribbing and concerned about the dying ‘art cinema’ and fledgling ‘new age cinema’ ought to consider the plight of our traditional art – not that elite NSD dramas – but our rural arts which once were patronized by people are now staring at imminent extinction. Before their plight, avant garde cinema and Ingmar Bergman’s cinema are in much safer and healthier position and a handful of bloggers in PFC not knowing Bergman is not a ‘point apocalypse’ now exactly. Here is an artform that gave birth to Drama in Thamizh nadu which conveyed the spirits of freedom movement to every last thamizhan (tamil citizen). Here was an artform that was patronized by Mahendra varma pallavan (6th century AD) and Raja Raja chola (10th century AD) to spread the stories of Mahabaratha and Ramayana to common men and women who had no access to literature, was facing certain death. Real art of people which has been crushed by the very cinema that I loved. The cinema of Bharathiraaja and Balachander. Thousands of young artists who would have otherwise played on in the therukoothus , ‘devarattam’ and ‘Oyilaattam’ were now walking in the streets of Kodambakkam in hot summer with no sandals for a ‘cinema chance’. All the temple festivals in rural Thamizh naadu which used to have marathon all night Theru Koothu performances were now hosting ‘L.R.Eswari’ kutcheris and in some reprehensible situations ‘record dance’ and cinema music performances. Around that time when Nasser announced about his movie and that it will have Ilaiyaraaja’s music, the movie scene in Chennai was very much the pits, with low quality masala flicks like Nattamai and Muthu ruling the roost.
Nasser had an interesting background – he came from film institute in Adayar allright, but had a different school’s influence too. The influence of ‘New drama movement’ of Koothu-p-pattarai (Drama – workshop), a movement that was discovering, preserving and popularizing dying rural arts. All in all the movie seemed to be a harbinger of some amazing things and the cast which also had names like Revathi ,Kakka Radhakrishnan (veteran who plays Sivaji Ganesan’s younger brother and arch rival in Thevar Magan) and Delhi Ganesh( Aiyyar in Mani Ratnam’s Nayagan) only heightened expectations.
As days passed press reports of some mind boggling music being cooked up for the movie by Maestro began circulating and the cat was getting repeatedly slain by the curiosity. Maestro himself was facing a challenge, in the form of a new strain of music let loose by a new whizkid in the block and a new generation of film music lovers were committing adultery rather fondly.
Days passed and there was no news about the movie at all for a while and I was checking every ‘Ananda Vigadan’ and every friday ‘Dhinathandhi’ for ‘releasing shortly’ announcement. And then the movie released like the second coming of the Lord, silent and in some obscure theaters in Chennai where usually second installment of shady pictures and Hong Kong action flicks of a bygone era. Initial reviews of the film was very discouraging. Certain death comments like ‘Art film’ were floating around and the movie tripped down in its feet even before it could begin its run. I was left with no choice but to watch the movie in purasaiwalkam area’s Vasanthi, a theater about which I had no great opinion about.
As the movie unfolded, all my misgivings about theater and contrary reviews I had read faded into thin air. A whole new world of characters warmly embraced me and took me into their fold. The world of theru koothu artistes in an obscure village in north thamizh nadu around the chengalpattu area, filled with real sounding people who were passionate about their art – which was their only learning, only skill, only passion and only life. They were innocent about the worldly affairs and were oblivious to horrendous winds of change that was chiseling away their way of life, every day. The oily hairs and authentic mannerisms, with funny group talks set in contrast with dwindling income and ever increasing questions over their livelihood as pure artists made for interesting and heart wrenching. Delhi ganesh plays the role of the head of the troupe – the master who can play ten roles in one play – he is a revelation in this role. Unbelievably he transforms into a character of so much command and when his honor is belittled, he performs the ultimate sacrifice in what is the best moment of the movie. The irony of the event in the scene is truly bound to shake up the viewer. (I am not going to provide with plot details and additional spoilers here – go search for the DVD, casette or VCD and find out for yourself)
The artistes in the movie are your regular character artistes in thamizh film industry – talented, yet underused and Nasser being one of the bunch has given some plum roles to Kaka radhakrishnan, Revathy, Junior Baalayya, Murali Kumar and ‘Vennira Aadai’ moorthy. And the artistes mentioned have grabbed the roles and performed them superbly. The star of the show being Balasingh – who officially made his debut in this movie as Baasi – the lecherous and much detestable villain. Nasser having perfected the art of representing evil onscreen to the T – mounted a spectacular character for his friend Balasingh (if you cant recall him, then see ManiRatnam’s Kannathil Muthamittaal and look out for Nandita Das’ father in the movie). As Baasi, he represented a perverted artiste – one who enjoys playing in the koothu, but spoilt by the worldly wise(!) habits of commercial cinema industry. Whenever the screenplay needed direction, Baasi was brought on and it was not without any purpose – he was made to represent the society and its decay and how the carelessness and exploitative mindset of ’survival at any cost’ has made the value of traditional art appear lesser in the eyes of the society. Interestingly enough in the second half, Baasi becomes a part of cinema world occupying its shady underbelly. As any screenplay cliche would have , Kuppusamy – played by Nasser follows to City to simulate a betrayal-anguish-revenge story ala a traditional Thamizh masala movie. However it is a ’simulation’ alone as the underlying contest is that of Cinema – a modern art form that derived so much of its context and content from Therukoothu and Stage play (in Thamizh context) soon would create an allure that would blind out its parent art form – the koothu – seen as a betrayal by purists. Finally in a gruesome climax the evil is won – but the pathos of loss of the ground where the art once thrived and enriched is echoed – as the tragic end of the ‘Ponnamma’ – the blind girl character – played astutely by Revathy.
All these motiffs and contrasts are beautifully outlined in a subtle and effective manner by the song and BGM package of ‘Transporter‘ Ilaiyaraja. Venu’s camera captures the simple beauties of a village and the revolting underbelly of Chennai city with amazing detail and a minimalistic beauty. The climax sequences are shot in a very effective and impactful way.
All this praise and yet the film was a colossal disaster in box office. Not just Box Office, even the sensible cine lovers of the day dared not venture out to see this movie- for it exposed them and us all . The film neither got the appreciation as an ‘art film’ would , nor it achieved any monetary benefit for Nasser’s production house. It fell into the netherland in Thamizh film world – where it was not possible to slot it in any fashion and over the years, whoever was associated with Avatharam have frittered away or merged back into the glitz of commercial pot boilers. Murali Kumar is now the most heard voice on Vijay TV and Nasser himself is seen in all kinds of ridiculous roles and outfits in Thamizh movies. Balasingh has now become a standard father, or rough village bully in thamizh film industry.
Only thing the movie is remembered for, after a full decade and a half is for this song…
This awesome music video is a poignant capture of a very decent relationship between Kuppusamy and Ponnamma and Ilaiyaraaja strangely conjures up a new age sound and tone for a village love affair. It is picturized too in a fashion sync with the song – One unforgettable experience.
I still remember avathaaram – for it was the first movie I was passionate about watching and recommending to my friends and family alike. I stilllook back warmly at the humid, yet breezy moments I spent in Vasanthi theatre watching slice after slice of a village and its artistes flicker in a theatre filled with people who were discovering their long lost roots. It is then I felt the pulse of average thamizh audience – they loved the moments in the movie that were cinematically brilliant – the moments where Kuppusamy is unable to explain himself to a judge about the death of his beloved ponnamma and breaks out into a koothu song to explain his misery and the educated judge condemns him into a mental asylum, or the funny ‘ Aridhaarathai poosikkolla aasai’ song (which I am searching for every day in youtube) or the scene after the demise of the master of the troupe in which a closely knit group of artists are left rudderless and break away one by one in despair. I saw them laughing and crying all along in the right moments and came out wondering why did such a movie not release in prominent cinema halls of chennai?
The reason was mot hard to fathom. It was a movie that one left with no answers, just small needle pricks at your conscience as to what form and kind of art do you support and patronize? It asked that question and the prick was too much for an audience used to seeing cinema as only an escapist entertainment. It was a new experience for me as well. I too had maintained a rather low opinion on rural and native arts and a glorified affection for urban art forms and ‘eclectic’ forms like sabha carnatic music and ofcourse cinema.
However I fell in love with cinema because of this very movie that questioned cinema and the disproportionate craze that follows it that has left the support bases for other arts eroded to the point of extinction. That a medium can allow questioning of its own basis within its own ambit represents the ideal democracy that is required to make it an art form for the ‘democracy loving’ times of ours. Nasser might have become a failed film maker with each of his next films that tried so hard to please the ‘masses’ while maintaining some artistic integrity, his first ‘passion’ might be a largely forgotten one and it might not have changed a thing for him, but unknown to him or anyone else, it has touched so many like me – who might not have made a constituency large enough to influence the fate of films like ‘Avatharam’ in a positive manner then, but now, a decade and a half later, in the age of orkut, Twitter and face book, we have (or atleast I do) in the way of PFC to voice the aspirations of film makers that make films that leave the viewers with more interesting questions at ‘The End’.
PS: You tube proves me wrong once again!!
Here you go – for a theru koothu in hindi – an excerpt of Bharathiyar’s ‘Panchaali Sabadham’ in hindi!!!
If this is a sample of things happening, then Avatharam’s voice has indeed been heard!!!
Tags: Avathaaram, Avatharam, Cinema, Drodsky Marudhu, Ilaiyaraaja, Ilayaraja, IR, Nasser, Revathy, Theru Koothu, Venu
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
Jai- I’ve been seeing you keep on modifying the post for the last few days and something told me this post was gonna be special and my doubt is now confirmed.Much before Nasser ventured into direction, I had also started admiring him & my joy knew no bound when I actually had the honour of meeting him at a friends place when I was still in school.Initially I wondered why he wanted to make a movie like Avatharam, but then realised his intent after a while.its commendable that in the movies that he made Nasser tried to retain the artistic touch at large- sadly his movies did not gain commercial success.Popcorn’s failure in particular has made him take a break from direction & production.Yes even now I yearn to see the brilliant actor in him doing roles of substance like he did in Poi Solla Porum.
And thanks for reminding me of Vasanthi -theatre.Dunno know how many people would even remember Vasanthi-Vani the twin theatre complex.I am now looking forward to seeing him play the villain in Quick Gun Murugan.I guess even my passion for cinema started off around the same time and movies like Kuruthipunal/Drohkaal and Is Raat ki Subah Nahin had a grave influence on me.
Vazhalum Vaazhvum or Krishi Darshan is like a blast from the past.Apaprt from the theru koothu being shown in D.D, I even used to watch the villu paatu programs ( today if you mention villu paatu to people they would assume that you’re referring to songs from Vijay’s movie Villu).
Great nostalgic trip my friend and nice to know the insight behind your passion for cinema.viva cinema.
loved the way you interlaced the theru koothu tradition with your own passion for cinema – intercutting kuppuchamy’s ordeal with your own insights (apprehensions?) is thought provoking to say the least. brilliant!
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but how this post can be an answer to those questions that you mentioned in the beginning of the post (which you said were asked of you) is another story.
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anyways, i am sure most of the readers agree with me that such questions need not be raised as long as you keep giving us these glimpses of your true self.
VPJ.. I, for one, have been enjoying your posts. Sometimes I comment, sometimes I dont. But have not missed any of your posts.
I am not sure if one needs to be qualified to share something that he enjoyed, so that others too can enjoy that. I only have a problem with authors dismissing valid ‘alternate’ POV comments. This forum, to me, used to provide excellent debates. But of late, debates are getting personal and below the belt and since I dont enjoy that, I have stopped commenting frequently. (The above is a general opinion and pointed towards you or anyone in particular).
BTW, Nasser is a great actor; he is someone like Kay Kay Menon, he always does difficult roles and not roles that play to the galleries(like Prakashraj does all the time), and therefore is not as popular. But Avatharam worked for me only in portions and not as a wholesome movie. I was even more disappointed with Popkorn, his second effort in direction. And I hated his third film Devadai.
btw, I dont understand why he stopped doing comic roles,he was fabulous in both Magalir Mattum and Avvai Shanmughi!
VPJ, really liked reading this. It really makes me feel how much I am not aware of. About the existence of such art forms, such films. This takes it beyond just writing @ a film. Its about some part of our tradition that is dying silently. Of which I had no clue. Till now. Lots to learn….
@Jai…the eager wait for this post was worth it…’Aridhaaratha poosi kolla aasay…Naan Adagukatti aattam poda aasay…’ in Rajas voice still rings fresh in my ears….As you had rightly analyazed..the cliched storyline was perhaps what undid this movie …It is a brilliant movie anyways…just for the color scheme and characterizations and ‘Transporter’s’ music…The climax was superbly picturized indeed…It could have been a great one, if only an innovative storyline was in place..
viva passion. viva cinema.
Great post man.Did not knew that Naseer had directed movies.Have to check them out.
@ Anand-
Nasser has directed 4 movies so far and Avatharam was the 1st and the best of the lot.His second movie incidentally is Devathai and not Popcorn.His 3rd movie was another dud called Maayan & finally his 4th and last directorial venture so far is Popcorn.
Sethu: Thanks for the update…I generally get confused about dates :-)
BTW, Devadhai had a fantastic number….Oru naal by S.Janaki.
Wonderful insight into the works of Naseer, specially ‘Avataram’. He really is not tapped to his potential, even after so many years in the industry. I do remember the wonderful song from ‘Avataram’ composed by the meastro. It used to play on Sun TV and had a very unique rhythm to it. I never knew that Naseer directed the movie. I really liked the way you wrote the post, with the personal touch and it shows your pain in what you really wish to see on screen more these days. Naseer has been totally wasted down south in the last decade, specially in Telugu movies. As an actor, he needs good directors to make him improvise. Im just guessing what if Naseer would get an oppurtunity to work in Hindi Cinema with the likes of Vishal Bharadwaj or AK or Prakash Jha or Neeraj Pandey. They can tap him well. And, yes in Tamil cinema, a Mysskin or Kathiir or the ‘new’ energetic ones can also give him a break from the scrap work that he is doing now.
@wb – We introspect most of the times – but dont get the answers out of it – sometimes something new is born – sometimes we just remember something.
I recollect the first time when I was an ‘activist’ for a film. I still feel that Nasser has let me down – but from his position he has tried and failed – there are some talents that haven’t tried at all and there are some who dont even know what their talents are. And ofcourse there are some so far away from talent, yet succeeding rich by scheming, usurping name from someone else’s success and hard work.
Nasser’s Devadhai is also an interesting work with the first 30 minutes made in cinema heaven. It was an attempt at Bram Stoker’s Dracula and it too had fabulous music from Raja!! However the raw passion of ‘Avatharam’ was missing in it. To his credit Nasser reintroduced ‘Thalai vasal’ Vijay in Devadhai and gave a handsome break to Pasupahi in ‘Maayan’. He has hadled fellow artises well, but always has struggled with what he feels as compromise. Now when we talk of New Age Thamizh films, one wonders if he can come back into direction. However I am not even seeing him in the films of he so called New thamizh film directors like Bala, Ameer and likes.
From my pouring into his early movies, I even found out that he acted in a movie that he closely influenced, ‘Mr.Prasad’ which is a remake of english movie ‘Step Father(1987)’. That was one helluva role and acting. The guy is an awesome actor to attempt a role like that and pull it off with ease.
He was all set to star in Kamal’s Marudha nayagam along side Om Puri and the sight would have been a thrilling one – to see Kamal, Om Puri and Nasser in an epic movie. – but alas destiny had different plans, though Kamal gave me a token satisaction of seeing the three together in Chachi 420, with Nasser as a c(r)ook
So people think you need to have some “street cred” to write about movies?? I hope all such people don’t have IQ tests for their audiences to let them see their movies. Or, may be they do. No wonder their work is stuck in a can or a hard disk.
A good write-up btw.
I recall the discussion you reference at the top of your post being about whether a post/article should be written with “quality” – not about the qualifications of the author. A huge difference.
Unless of course you are talking about another discussion I am not aware of…
Besides this piece of revisionist history, the article is interesting.