Quality difference in screenplays in different languages
iView Author: temple oak (New Delhi, India)
Email: turn360degree [at] hotmail [dot] com
I have heard repeated comparison in kerala that tamil movies are much ahead of malayalam in terms of script quality. what is the real difference between those two? And how do they compare with current Hindi and Indian english movies?
I think the strength of tamil movies is in their treatment and of course direction. When you examine theme wise there is not much variation. Most of them (we are talking about main stream movies) deal with criminal heros or a love story told in a unique way. Even if you take a movie like ‘Subramanyapuram’ which was recently acclaimed for its realistic portrayal of 80s you see ‘gone wrong’ criminal heros and a love story. Same with Selvaraghavan- one of my favourite directors. What makes them different is the courage for unconventional endings and unsuspected twists. The protagonists of these movies does not represent the life and concerns of majority of middle class Tamil population. Setting may be close to life but story is not.
When you come to Malayalam first thing you notice is the dearth of classy directors. There is no one now who has a signature in their visual style. As once John Abraham said every director is doing the ’supervising job’ for the script writer. Its like putting a stage drama in video. It doesn’t help the script writer either. Malayalam has its share of ‘commercial exercises’ like the recent Twenty 20. But in the last month there was another hit movie in Kerala called ‘veruthe oru bhaarya.’ (roughly translates as ‘a wife of no utility’). Its about a wife who is stuck in menial jobs with no time for herself. So she informs her inconsiderate husband that she is resigning from the ‘house wife’ job (not a divorce – mind you). Movie is about her husband trying to prove that doing house hold jobs is not such a big deal. Needless to say he fails miserably. Such a movie cannot be generalized for presenting the status of scripts in Malayalam. But still theme wise Malayalam movies remain closer to life though in patches and stripes. But they fail when they get into desperate comic situations. Of course tailor made stories for the mega stars doesn’t help either.
But I think currently the best scripts are coming out in Hindi. I am not talking about the movies in which you throw in a star and starlet with beautiful locations and 50 crores and you hope to get a blockbuster. I am talking about the so called ‘multiplex’ movies. Movies like Bheja fry, A wednesday, Amir etc has carved out a niche for themselves. They rely on a smarter script rather than star faces. Some times story situations go over the top but usually they get away with taut treatment. The reason these movies are good is because they understand the importance of a good script. You don’t have to cut your story to size to incorporate the image of the star.
I think that’s the message for the regional movies also- especially malayalam. Avoid stars and your writer is free to write a better story.
Tags: Screenplay
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
I don’t think we have a dearth of good screenwriters. It’s just that enough producers and studios don’t think that a good script is an important ingredient of success.
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Things are changing though….lets hope for the best…
Coming from chennai its true that there are much more of a talented bunch in the tamil film industry than say in bollywood. But one main draw back here are the stars get into an vicious image circle too soon, in the process good script gets diluted in order to accomodate their image. And added we have a sudden trend of most of the good directors turning into actors for their own scripts which in turn does not do justice to their magnificent scripts. but yet we have movies like Subramaniypuram, Anjaathey and Saroja which believes in its scripts. Maniratnam has slowly but surely moved towards the Bollywood Industry, Kamal Hassan ( to me one of the best script writers in India) is also tending to reach more to the National Audience offlate. Even in bollywood you see a OSO or SIK being a blockbuster not a Wednesday or OLLO. Though these movies are getting appreciated just wish and hope they prove to be a BO success as well.
I think we must all appreciate one basic fact- good movies whether it be an Aamir or A Wednesday in Hindi, Subramaniapuram or an Anjathey in tamil, Ashta Chemma or Avakai Biriyani in telugu are all being appreciated & quite a lot of these are also making money.
I am getting sick & tired to hear people here complaining that OSO & SIK are becoming blockbusters but why arent movies like OLLO or a Sorry Bhai becoming so.My comment always has been the same- there is a difference between a OSO/SIK and a OLLO/Sorry Bhai.
As long as people appreciate the good movies & as long as the people behind these movies make money & get appreciated we must feel happy about it.Why make the unneccessary comparison with a RNBDJ or a Ghajini or a CCTC?These movies are also required to keep the industry up & running.
Regarding the status of screenplays in regional & hindi movies I have this to say.Malayalam cinema is going through a bad patch currently.Otherwise they were always ahead of bollywood & even tamil & telugu cinema.Currently in tamil & telugu there are two types of movie makers- the majority are the Dharani,K.S.Ravikumar,Puri Jagannanth type who cater to the masses & try to make larger than life “superstar” movies.
The minority has people like a Mysskin, Bala,Amir,Chandrasekhar Yeleti, Sekhar Kammula etc for whom stars are secondary to the story & script.In case of malayalam unfortunately there is a strange case of people caught in between.
But its all a cycle, I am sure with movies like Pakal Nakshatrangal ( released recently) you’ll see malayalam cinema emerging out of the dark again.Where else can you see top stars like Mohanlal & Suresh Gopi doing a “small” movie just because they liked the concept ( in case of Pakal Nakshatrangal).
But the fact remains that after getting used to bollywood & tamil movies ( even dubbed telugu movies) and also the blockbuster Twenty:20, its not going to be easy to bring the audiences back to watch meaningful movies in Kerala.For that I expect directors like Blessy, Shaji Karun etc to take the lead.Lets wait & be positive!!!
ACtually i wasnt comparing OSO, SIK with the other movies, i am sure you need these biggies to rake in the money and entertain the larger audience. All i was saying was, hope good movies like OLLO and wednesday become blockbusters like these movies.
Well i dont see OLLO and Wednesday becomming a blockbuster, because of the economics of scale involved.
But what is needed is space for these movies to grow. We need the OLLO, Wednesday kinda movies to do well, reach out. And thats because we have seen that of late 90% of the mainstream movies, are turning out to be sheer rubbish. If Drona, Kidnap, Yuvvraaj is what is meant by entertainment, thanks i would rather not have it.
Right now the fact is the mainstream movie segment is totally devoid of ideas, and just recycling cliches. Movies like SIK, OSO run just because of star power, take away Akshay or SRK, those movies are nothing. But the issue is star power can’t be taken for granted. In the 80’s almost every movie where AB starred was a huge hit, irrespective of how it was. But when AB’s star power started to wane, he could not save many a movie, from sinking.
From the past 2 years, audiences have sent a message to movie makers, by giving the thumbs down to many a blockbuster movie. When the movie industry is dependent on a handful of stars to survive, its not healthy.
thanks for the comments guys.
@ dazedandconfused: may be we have good screenwriters. but talent doesnt always equate with success. what is required is shrewdness from the side of writers. look at ‘Lage raho Munna bhai.’ the commercial format was very well used in the script. (though the actual movie was partially damaged by the high pitch melodrama toned direction.)
@ KPV Balaji: agree with you that Kamal Haasan is a good writer. Thevar Magan vouches for that. Movies like ‘A wednesday’ may not be block busters. but the fact that such movies are able to cover their costs and earn some profit is enough encouragement for those who believe in substance. because the satisfaction of creating something meaningful makes up for the rest of the money.
@ Sethumadhavan: yes, all kind of movies can co exist. I havent seen Pakalnakshathrangal. But now I am eager to watch it.
@ Ratnakar: its an interesting observation that all those blockbusters would not have succeeded if they didnt have stars. i think its a good way of assessing the script- remove the stars. will the story still get attention with new comers?
v need oso,sik kinda films to make bollywood’s presence felt outside india & to bring corporates(read investors,moneybags) in india…look al biggies wana make films wit srk,ak(aamir khan),sk(salman),ak(akshay) etc.but thy also manage to make ollo’s,bheja’s etc…now new revenue sources r opening…initially it was theatrical only…now atleast a bheja fry,ollo,manorama etc. n thr music, home video wil recover the cop,whras v do need RNBDJ & CCTC also hand in hand to make investors,banks etc.happy…
just imagine whole year watching a wednesday kind of films??? dont forget th teenagers, youth also wants kuch kuch hota hai in btween…kabhi kabhi tom cruise ke saath al pacino theek hai…roz roz nahin!!!
coming back to malyalam,tamil cinema…any one heard of a director TV CHNANDRAN? hows he?
@ Ashu
Yeah I’ve heard of T.V.Chandran.He’s a great director.he’s made some good movies like Ponthan Mada,Danny etc in malayalam.He’s now almost ready with a tamil movie called Aadum Koothu with Cheran.
as ve been born and bght up in mum n fortunately in a tamilian locality i can understand Tamil/malayalam pretty well being a film buff,,,i belive that 85% of Tamil industry is CRAP/BULLSHIT malayalam in ealry 90s and late 80s n earlier was good with lots of novel ideas and daring concepts but ,,,,as for bllywood,, its only recntly we can boast of quality cinema movies with fresh/original concepts etc…other most of our producst r again CRAP…not worth even single watch,,,,
I think malayalam movies r THE best movies compared to bollywood or hollywood.in the script point of view or in the screenplay point of view malyalam movies r the best.the only thing the malayalam movies lack is big bucks.money is not spent much.u put crores sure u get the best quality.