Lights, Camera, Kathipara: Chennai’s vanishing function in Tamil cinema-OxBig News Network

InSuper Deluxe, Thiagarajan Kumaraja walks us by slim lanes of a metropolis, with dry partitions guarding frames tinged with saturated hues. As it’s, there’s nothing flashy that signifies it’s Chennai (the movie was set and shot within the metropolis), however the filmmaker held a fascinatingly hyperreal lens on Chennai, displaying an city panorama you’re most conversant in, however in a world solely imagined. Cities have distinct energies, a way of managed chaos that solely cinema comes near simulating. How Chennai has advanced on celluloid is a storied exploration with some compelling patterns.

In the Nineteen Seventies, Chennai was often featured in anti-urban narratives that portrayed cities as pockets of debauchery, a overseas land that preys upon the ignorant newcomer. Before Okay Balachander critiqued the regressive norms of rural India, he made Pattina Pravesam in 1977, through which a household from the village endured excessive hardships in Chennai, forcing them to return. Though setting a serial killer story like Sigappu Rojakkal within the metropolis factors to an identical mindset from Bharathiraaja, his Nizhalgal spoke about youths shifting to Chennai to fulfil their lofty desires. Kamal Haasan’s Mahanadhi (1994) additionally hinted that maybe the household wouldn’t have confronted such unspeakable miseries had they stayed again of their village. Even comic Vivekh, who has sung praises of town, confirmed this attitude in 2002’s Run, the place his character will get creatively swindled of all his belongings upon touchdown in Chennai.

The early 2000s have been an fascinating interval in how movies continued balancing these perceptions with more energizing takes. Where Alaipayuthey, Enakku 20 Unakku 18, Priyamaana Thozhi, Minnale, and 7G Rainbow Colony embraced the trendy city life, Chennai grew to become the capital of crime in movies like Thirupaachi and Dhool. Similar was the case with Saran’s Amarkalam and Gemini, set in North Madras, however we are going to come to that in a bit. The 2000s have been additionally when extra non-native residents of Chennai began to reap the advantages of the IT increase, and movies started reflecting this. Autograph wasn’t set in Chennai, nevertheless it spoke of a person who discovered prosperity within the metropolis, wanting again at his roots. Ram’s Kattradhu Thamizh is arguably the loudest critique of gentrification, Western way of life, and the anglicisation from Silicon Valley.

Kattradhu Thamizh can also be a uncommon exception at this level, as one may discover that whereas Chennai components within the backdrop of the above movies, it seldom turns into a personality by itself. In Ram’s movie, Chennai turned the protagonist right into a sociopath. The metropolis was intrinsic in how Venkat Prabhu captured the frenzy of road cricket, the carefree lives of children, and the way they handled new-age issues in Chennai 600028. That movie, together with 7G Rainbow Colony — and later, Madras, Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara, Kodiyil Oruvan and Maaveeran — have been additionally movies that depicted lives inside housing boards and colonies. Going again to the 2000s, movies weren’t simply portray Chennai as a metropolis of hope; in Angadi Theru, Vasanthabalan, a staunch critic of city life, made a persuasive case by displaying the heart-wrenching ordeals that occur behind the curtains of an exercise most Chennaiites should relate to — buying in T Nagar.

The rise of the Vetri Maarans and Pa Ranjiths:

Angadi Theru additionally pointed in the direction of the rise of an virtually neo-realistic, hyperlocal strategy to filmmaking within the 2010s — ushered by the likes of Thiagarajan Kumararaja, Vetri Maaran and Pa Ranjith — the place town isn’t only a concrete shelter for the protagonists, however a thriving socio-political organism that homes tens of millions. You can’t take Chennai out of Aaranya Kaandam, Madras, Metro, Vada Chennai, or Maanagaram. Most of those movies, particularly these of Vetri Maaran, certainly fell in keeping with themes that stereotyped North Madras as a land of crime — a stigma many residents know to have real-life results.

But a silver lining did emerge. These tales weren’t involved in single-mindedly exposing the darkness of the underworld; that they had characters, black, gray, and white, someway interacting with the crime lords and native politicians as a consequence of circumstances or socio-economic components. This is why you wouldn’t thoughts climbing a water tank with Anbu from Vada Chennaifairly than hanging out with Kokki Kumar in Pudhupettai. Further, the likes of Oram Po, Kaakka Muttai, Sarpatta Parambarai, and Iruddhi Suttru managed to interrupt the stereotype surrounding Chennai north of the Cooum — an ever-fascinating area wealthy in historical past, tradition and artwork.

A nonetheless from ‘Madras’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

But earlier than we get to the present state of affairs, there’s one other angle to take a look at Chennai’s illustration in movies — in how town was greatest proven in songs fairly than scenes.

A musical heritage stroll:

The Marina breeze not solely carries the scent of fish fries, filter espresso, Cooum, sambar vadai and the sound of an autorickshaw kick-starting. Chennai is a unending open live performance enlivened by the likes of TM Soundarrajan, MS Viswanathan, Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Anirudh Ravichander and Sean Roldan, who rule the radios of bustling tea retailers and the quiet concert events that occur inside earphones within the metro practice. So it’s solely befitting that we discover essentially the most memorable depiction of town within the visuals of songs.

Somehow, ‘Madrasai Suthi Paaka Poren’ from 1994’s May Madham involves thoughts immediately, nevertheless it’s fairly one thing to revisit the previous Madras in older songs. It appears tune sequences have been an awesome alternative for the characters and the audiences to get some air and respite from the studio units, and what higher place to do this than Marina Beach? It feels surreal to look at ‘Nenjirukkum Engalukku’ from Nenjirukkum Varai, through which Sivaji Ganesan, R Muthuraman and V Gopalakrishnan stroll and dance on a Kamarajar Promenade we will now not recognise. If you thought hitting the seashore to shake away the blues is a contemporary development, watch Gemini Ganesan stroll and sing ‘Manidhan Enbavan Mirugamagalam’ in Sumaithangi. Or when he takes his squad to the seashore in a automotive in ‘Naalai Naam’ from Punnagai. Songs like ‘Enna Paarvai’ from Kadhalikka Neramillai and ‘Nee Ketal Naan Maatenendru’ from Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu turned the gardens of Marina into Eden.

When it involves displaying different components of Chennai, ‘Madras Nalla Madras’ from Anubavi Raja Anubavi is usually cited for example. But take heed to the lyrics and you’ll realise it’s something however a tribute. Interestingly, the tune that options the utmost variety of heritage websites, as identified by heritage activist Sriram V, is ‘Azhagiya Mithilai Nagariniley’ from the film Annai.

A nonetheless from the ‘Azhagiya Mithilai Nagariniley’ tune
| Photo Credit:
API Tamil Songs/YouTube

The hassles of taking pictures in actual areas:

Over the years, nevertheless, fewer and fewer songs have been shot in dwell areas in Chennai. Managing the gang of keen onlookers rendered taking pictures movies that includes well-liked stars in actual areas unimaginable, which is why you would possibly discover many songs, like ‘Nenjam Undu Nermai Undu’ and ‘En Kanmani En Kadhali’, have the actors carry out in entrance of a display screen. If not for this, you needed to take Mr. MGR to another desolate seashore for a hassle-free expertise, like in ‘Kadal Oram Vangiya Kaatru’ from Rickshawkaaran.

The ‘90s and early 2000s too had films like Kadhal Kottai and Kadhal Desam that were shot in popular locations in Chennai, but in the mid-2000s, the Tamil Nadu government’s restrictions in taking pictures movies in public areas prompted filmmakers to shoot in studios or exterior Chennai or transfer to suburban areas the place getting permissions was simpler. Still, even then, there have been nice exceptions to this, like ‘O Ringa Ringa’ from 7 Aum Arivu, a 2011 Suriya-starrer that was someway even shot within the congested Ranganathan Street, T Nagar. Fascinatingly, regardless of these restrictions, the 2010s noticed many small and mid-budget movies — equivalent to Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum, Chennaiyil Oru Naal, Goli Soda, Vadacurry, Vathikuchi, Meyaadha Maan, 8 Thottakkal, Irumbu Thirai, Sillu Karuppatti, Maanagaram and others — that have been shot in actual areas and had intriguing takes on town, maybe on account of a sure drive in the direction of realism among the many youthful crop of filmmakers who made their approach to the fore from making quick movies or small options that couldn’t afford a studio.

A nonetheless from ‘Goli Soda’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Chennai has featured in additional than a dozen Tamil movies since 2023, however by no means as a personality by itself. Films nonetheless set up town with a shot of the Kathipara flyover or the Central station, however the metropolis by no means turns into central to storytelling. Prashanth, Shaam, Attakathi Dinesh and Shakthi Vasudevan now not climb onto MTC buses; solely in Blue Star, a movie set in Arakkonam, not Chennai, romance blooms in an area practice. The autorickshaw drivers and passengers are actually concerned in discussions too totally different from what Rajinikanth sang about in 1995. The Central railway station we see in movies now not lets a girl discover her thriller lover carrying a rose-knit sweater. Interestingly, solely Bharathiraaja seems as an exception right here, as he tells the story of a married man falling in love with a girl he meets on the Metro practice in Modern Love: Chennai.

The present crop of Tamil filmmakers has largely kept away from romanticising Chennai, however even sobering explorations of a way of life, neighborhood, or neighbourhoods are few and much between. Except for movies like Ram’s Taramani or Chennai 600028 (should one add Demonte Colony?), even movies that carry a selected neighbourhood because the title — Kodambakkam, Nungambakkam, Kizhakku Kadarkarai Salai, and so forth — don’t inform a memorable story rooted of their milieu.

And but, you’ll nonetheless discover children romanticising town on social media, and aspiring filmmakers of their quick movies. Even when listening to Ilaiyaraaja from an MTC bus hurling by rainwater is taken into account ‘overrated,’ we do it, for there isn’t a frequent grammar to romanticising such momentary joys. So whereas this is probably not the season for Chennai, on display screen and in IPL, this metropolis was by no means recognized for invincibility. This is, in any case, the dominion of Rajinikanth, an actor who grew to become a famous person by turning the rising-from-the-ashes arc into his signature fashion in industrial cinema.