Reel rewind — Clas­sics series.

It was a bright Sun­day after­noon in the early 90s..[ க‌தை சொல்ராறாமாம் :) ] In Door­dar­shan, after the 1.15PM news for chal­lenged, I was wait­ing for the national award movie [ Even the news­pa­per TV sched­ule shows just as regional film with­out the title – nobody knows till the film is screened ]. Sur­pris­ingly, there was an inter­view before this movie. The inter­viewer was Sriv­idya — gor­geously dressed in silk saree with untied wavy hair [ போதும் பிர‌த‌ர் ! ]. The inter­vie­wee was BR. I can­not for­get the ques­tion and this par­tic­u­lar answer.

Q : Sir.. You have used a phrase ‘Easp­paatu’ in this film. What does it mean?
A : You see.. If one kuyil kuck­oos, the other kuy­ils replies with an answer cuckoo. This is what Esap­patu is.

His lan­guage might not have been con­vinc­ing as Srividya’s. But the pas­sion, emo­tions he showed with his facial expres­sions was the most mem­o­rable one for me. Though I had seen the movie already in the­atre, I watched the movie again.

The movie didn’t have exotic for­eign loca­tions, noisy BGM, com­edy track, eye-catching pho­tog­ra­phy, fast cut edit­ing, club dances, furi­ous chas­ing or fights, vio­lence but the key is it had a beau­ti­ful story, well etched char­ac­ters, extra­or­di­nary BGM and won­der­ful visuals

Film details

Mud­hal Mariyad­hai — 1985/Drama/Tamil
Story, Dia­logues — R.Selvaraj
Music : Illa­yaraja
Pro­duced & directed by : Bharathirajaa

மீண்டும் ஒரு கிராம‌த்து ராக‌த்தை என‌து ப‌ரிவார‌ங்க‌ளோடு பாட‌ வ‌ருகிறேன். — BR.

Every artist has their own peak peri­ods in the career curve. Inter­est­ingly, every artist involved in this film was at their peak artis­tic form. The story & dia­logue part is already estab­lished by R.Selvaraj. What BR could do to estab­lish his tal­ent ? How he con­verted the story on the paper to the cel­lu­loid ? That’s the tal­ent of BR. Like Alfred Hitch­cock, he nei­ther formed the story nor wrote a sin­gle dia­logue in the movie but he had the enor­mous con­fi­dence in exe­cut­ing this project [நான் விஸுவ‌ல்ஸ்ல‌ வெள்ளாடிருவ‌ன்யா..].

He aptly used flash­back, a sus­pense, love, fidelity, inter­est­ingly woven char­ac­ters, nar­ra­tion and of course, songs. He is one of the direc­tors who believed in story rather than the stars. This was really a craft in his career.

Music : If you ever hap­pen to watch this film with­out music or BGM, it would have attained 50% of its essence, what it has achieved. IR added life to this project. If a MD is inter­est­ingly work­ing in a project, the out­put is always bril­liant — this movie is a beau­ti­ful exam­ple. Sim­i­lar to Hol­ly­wood musi­cals, we too had our other art forms mostly depend­ing on music. The first 40 mins of the film has 4 songs ! The script just flows along with the songs — to men­tion specif­i­cally short songs were also used in this movie. The music is blended very aptly in this movie; there’s never been a forced sit­u­a­tion for a song [ Innaiku night party-la inter­na­tional smug­glers varaanga..:) ] The main char­ac­ter is intro­duced with his inter­est on songs to over­come his per­sonal short­fall at home.

I have to appre­ci­ate the peppy title song which aptly sets up the mood for a per­fect vil­lage film. To make it sim­ple, this film can be kept as a les­son for how a BGM should be. If BR used visu­als to nar­rate the char­ac­ters, IR in par­al­lel plays his role to ele­vate the flow. The flute bit music used when the char­ac­ter Sevili dies and the fol­low­ing sequences — exotic visu­als with a fan­tas­ti­cally accom­pa­nied music.

He has con­tributed valu­ably right from the open­ing song to the end title card. The ini­tial dia­logues of Pon­nathaal slowly dis­solve into the flash­back with­out any break — the dia­logues just con­tinue. The divide starts with a slow vio­lin bit [ when she serves food ] and the peppy music his out­side world once he comes out of the home. BGM for try­ing to lift a rock [ gui­tar ], for his daugh­ter rasamma’s intro­duc­tion, when they fish out, when kuy­ilu gets arrested, the final deathbed of Malaichamy [ No need to worry about reveal­ing the fine moments , when it comes to writ­ing about old classics :) ].

Above all, the parts of the songs are also used per­fectly in the flow of the story. The song ‘Ye Kuruvi’ has this line ‘பொல்லாத வீடு.. க‌ட்டு பொன்னான‌ கூடு’, which trav­els upward from the plane where it started.The orig­i­nal mark of IR.

Kanaiyazhi mag­a­zine quoted once IR as — அங்கீக‌ரிப்ப‌தின் மூல‌ம் புற‌க்க‌ணிக்க‌ப்ப‌ட்ட‌ க‌லைஞ‌ன்.,இளைய‌ராஜா. How true !

R.Selvaraj has writ­ten the story and dia­logues very beau­ti­fully with per­fect mix of melo­drama and other feel­ings. The char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of Malaichamy was so fan­tas­tic [ even his inter­est in good food is used – அரிசி சோறு க‌ஞ்சி தானே.. இருக்க‌ட்டும் :) ]. The dia­logues are remark­able [ ஆத்தை க‌ட‌ந்து அனுப்ப‌றியே.. அங்க‌ என்ன‌ அர‌ண்ம‌னையா க‌ட்டி வ‌ச்சிருக்கு, அவ‌ங்க‌ குடும்ப‌ம் ந‌ட‌த்த‌, உன‌க்குத்தான் ஒரு கூடு இல்லை, the dia­logue Malaichamy talks with his grand­son [ sim­i­lar resem­blance in The­var magan ], the emo­tional dia­logues with aru­vaa towards the cli­max – even the vil­lage pro­fan­ity [ ..க்காளி was per­fectly used :) ].

The vil­lage shown is not from TN but KA. In a scene, Malaichamy returns from Andi­patti in red colour Kar­nataka bus — the movie was majorly shot near Mysore. One more trivia is that the pho­tog­ra­pher who takes the photo of Malaichamy and kuy­ilu, in the vil­lage mar­ket was Illavarasu [ he worked as asst cam­era­man to B.Kannan ].

Sivaji – I really don’t know how BR nar­rated scenes or shots to him. Because, the moment he gets into the frame, every­thing changes. Sivaji just answered so politely back with his under-play act­ing to all his critics.

“I had no idea of the char­ac­ter. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the per­son he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.” — Char­lie Chaplin.

This suits for Sivaji too. Vaira­muthu wrote a par­tic­u­lar line for Sivaji in பூங்காற்று திரும்புமா..– உங்க‌ வேஷ‌ம் தான் கொஞ்ச‌ம் மாற‌ணும், just keep­ing his over­coat and strange wigged use­less n usual movies, he was doing those days. He requested him trhough a song :). Radha also did a com­mend­able work.

The tech­ni­cians nei­ther had pres­sure nor had bound­aries, I guess. The entire team has done a neat work and the final form is an unfor­get­table experience.

ஒரு ந‌ல்ல‌ திரைப்ப‌ட‌ம் க‌தையை ம‌ட்டும் சொல்வ‌தில்லை.அதில் எல்லாம் இருக்கிற‌து.
ஆழ‌மாக‌ப் பார்க்கிற‌வ‌ர்க‌ளுக்கு ப‌ல‌ நுட்ப‌மான‌ விஷ‌ய‌ங்க‌ள் அத‌னுள் இருக்கின்ற‌ன‌.
எந்த‌ ந‌ல்ல‌ ப‌ட‌மும் பார்க்கிற‌ பார்வையாள‌னை ஏமாற்றுவ‌தில்லை. ‍ ‍‍

- செழிய‌ன்.

It’s always bet­ter to watch a mix of films rang­ing from old clas­sics to world classics.

:)

–Toto.

Related Posts B

1. Reel rewind — Clas­sics — Mul­lum Malarum