Boycott Bollywood?

My reaction to the article Resident Evil.

Well written, but not balanced.

I too am uncomfortable over what you eloquently call the anticipatory boycott trend. I did not watch Laal Singh Chaddha (LSC), so can't tell you if it should have succeeded, but I know what you mean. I dislike the the over-the-top criticism on the movie Ponniyin Selvan over perceived distortions.  I did not like Amir Khan being hounded a few years ago for his comments on rising intolerance. I did not like Kamal Haasan being held hostage by the Muslim organizations over the perceived portrayal of Muslims in ‘Vishwaroopam”.  

The other side of the argument is that a good business considers the needs - including perceived needs - while designing a product. When it doesn't or can't do it, it is an exposure. A good example is the failure of Chevy Volt, a well-designed car we would now consider a plug-in hybrid. It was arguably ahead of its time. The biases against General Motors, resulting from financial handouts caused the public to view the product claims with suspicion. The product failed. GM has since discontinued its production. There were other factors too.  When the product hit mainstream production levels, fuel prices had come down, reducing the demand. But I believe the main factor was that the rise of ‘Occupy Wall Street’ coincided with its rise in production, causing GM to be cited as an example of how big business succeeds at the expense of a common man. GM had produced its share of bad products, bad decisions; but its good product failed, due to its historical baggage.

I believe that has a parallel to the pushback against films such as LSC.

The article does not acknowledge that some folks may have felt uncomfortable with movies in the past, but had not reached the tipping point. The examples I can think of are in Tamil movies, where “soft target” segments of the population were shown as the bad guys. When stories (either from novel or real life) were pictured, the core nature of the players was changed to reflect the beliefs of the film maker. (Was about to write “zealotry”, but restrained myself). Examples for this are:

• “Soorari Potru”, where the social segment of the hero was changed due to reflect the social views of the filmmaker; and 
• “Malaikkallan” (1954) was made from a novel that had been a runaway success. Religion was a predominant theme of the novel. The script writer for the movie, Mu. Karunanidhi airbrushed religion out of the story and changed all positive characters to reflect his socio-religious views. 

This is not whatabotism. I’m citing these examples to show that people may have felt a certain way about messages being shoved down their throats for decades. Now they start seeing patterns everywhere. A good businessman sees this social change and walks a line, just as the moviemakers had done before the screening of Bombay in your example.

Here are some examples of some good decisions movie makers have made. 

• When Rajinikanth heard that the movie Ponniyin Selvan was being planned, he offered to play the role of Periya Puzhuvettaraiyar, a minor king who plots against Chozhas, Mani Rathnam is said to have rejected the idea. (“No thanks! Do you want your fanbase to curse me?”). He turned down Rajini’s offer!
• Cho Ramaswamy had heard murmurs that political opponents had instigated Muslim youth to cause troubles when his political satire, ‘Mohammed-bin-Tughlaq’ hit the screen. The story was that the crowd, with its with pre-conceived notions, was preparing to exercise the ‘hecklers'-veto’. Cho heard of it, and a pre-emptive move, opened the movie with a religious song (“Allah Allah”) that mollified the crowds instantly. The song went on to become a hit in its own right. 

When social changes take place, the pendulum never stops in the middle. There are examples from all walks of life. India’s brush with socialism ended up denouncing profit motive in businesses. The long overdue women’s rights movement caused some of its supporters to take offense at all perceived slights, and lash out, alienating its supporters. 

Like I said, a good businessman is sensitive to the trend and walks that line. Film-makers are not exempt from this. In fact, I would argue that they have a greater need to be sensitive, as they are more likely to benefit from a possible popularity wave than, say, carmakers.

Image Credit: Wikipedia.

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Always?

 

Pic Credit: Tips Tamil

When I first heard of Mani Rathman’s plans to picturize Ponniyin Selvan, I wrote:

There was a memorable dialog in a recent Tamil movie that otherwise proved unremarkable. An author is asked why he refuses to grant film rights for his novels. His response is “I describe a dark street. I want each of my readers to visualize the dark street themselves, in a way consistent with their experiences. I don’t want a filmmaker to do the visualization for them”.

 

That argument captures my objections to Ponniyin Selvan being filmed. By anyone. With anyone playing Vandiyathevan, Kundavai, Nandini, Vanathi, or Poonkuzhali. It’s impossible to please folks like me. I have a mental picture of the Kadambur Palace that no art director can match. I have a vivid sequence in mind of the dark murder sequence in volume 4. How dare anyone imply they can match it?

With all the chatter around the trailer of Ponniyin Selvan, the movie, I have been thinking more. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. As a broad statement, it might be true. But what if those thousand words were written by a master, challenging himself to fire your imagination to create the scene in your head?

For the benefit of folks who have not read Kalki’s works, I want to illustrate this point with an example. Here’s the English translation of a segment that caught my fancy when I was a teenager. Try creating this scene in your imagination. 

Here is the setting. Vandiyathevan, our hero, is left alone on a ship. He is not a sailor. He doesn’t know how to operate a ship. In fact, he is terrified of the ocean, and can’t swim very well. The crew is dead. The two miscreants who engineered the situation escape on the lifeboat, leaving him to his fate. The weather deteriorates. Here is how Kalki describes the scene. (My translation).

Vandhiathevan emerged from his reverie, and noticed that the lifeboat had traveled a long way from the ship. ‘How did the boat move away so fast? The ship must have also been drifting in the waves!’, he thought. He noticed that the waves were surging higher. ‘And what is this? it is also getting darker!’

He looked at the south-western sky. What had been a small patch of clouds had now grown to occupy the whole western sky. The dark clouds rolled around, and advanced rapidly. As he was watching, the clouds covered the setting sun. The southern and western skies got even darker. The dark clouds reflected in the water, and blackened it too. In a matter of minutes, It became impossible to draw the line between the dark sky and the equally dark ocean. 

The clouds advanced and started descending down the eastern sky as well. He looked for the boat that had left. It seemed to have moved beyond his sight. The whispering, rustling noises of the wind had now transformed to a howl. The ocean started roaring. The sails were fluttering loudly. The wooden pieces making up the sail clattered, sounding like a thousand picket gates opening and closing simultaneously. Vandiyathevan looked up at the sails and realized that the ship was going in circles, rather than moving in a definite direction. 

‘Is this what they call a tornado?’, he wondered. He knew that he should lower the sails in such conditions, but also realized how impossible the task was. The sails were big enough to need ten people to attempt to lower or roll them. Four people, at a minimum. He decided to just leave the ship to its fate, and commend his soul to a higher power. 

Soon, it became apparent to him what the ship’s fate would be. It would be tossed around by the forces and sink. It might break into several pieces before sinking. No matter what happened to the ship, he had no doubt as to what his fate would be.

‘Death by drowning in the ocean! The astrologer of Kudanthai didn’t mention this as a possibility! What sort of astrologer is he?! When I see him next… What madness! How am I going to see him again?!’.

Something hard fell on his shoulder. It felt like a pebble. Soon, more of those pebbles fell and scattered all over the ship’s deck. They shone like marbles. 'How can they fall from the sky?'

A few more of those fell on his head and shoulders. They hurt on contact and then felt cool. And what is this?! The stones that fell on the deck seemed to melt away. ‘Ah, this must be what they call a hailstorm!’, thought Vandiyathevan, who hadn’t experienced anything like that before. ‘How fortunate that I got to see this before dying!’, he thought jubilantly.

He sat down on the deck and touched the ice pieces. The melting pieces of ice caused him to quiver. Touching them was like contact with fire, but without the skin getting scalded. 

The hailstorm stopped as abruptly as it had started. It must have lasted just a few minutes. It then turned into a rain. Vandiyathevan noticed that the rain water ran down the gentle slope of the deck and fell into the ocean. He marveled at the skills of the Chozha shipwrights. The ship was designed to cause any rain water or waves to drain off the edges into the ocean. 'Unless the hull breaks, water can't get into the ship'. 

This gave him some hope. He remembered that there was a door in the room where he had been imprisoned. It was low enough that water could get in if its doors were open. He ran down to check the doors. As he had suspected, the doors were clattering in the wind. He locked them tight. If the wind and rain get unbearable, getting into that room and locking the doors would be an option. Then it would be up to God. 

‘The idiots who abandoned the ship left this secure vessel and got on a tiny boat’, he thought. But the boat was constructed with equal skill. It would be hard for the winds to sink that boat. Even if the boat capsized, it might be possible to float by holding onto the large wooden mainstay. ‘Those murderers can stay alive by holding onto the wooden shaft and get ashore, probably around Kodikarai’, he thought.

His mind went to Pazhaiyarai. ‘How would the princess know of my fate? Who will tell her that I perished attempting to fulfill her wishes? Will she get the message from the winds or the ocean? Why couldn’t I die before meeting that queen among women? Could I not have met a brave end at the battlefield? Dying now is like showing a man a glimpse of heaven before throwing him in hell!’

The wind was getting stronger. The surges in the ocean were getting bigger. The sails were heaving and making eerie noises, resembling ghosts dancing. It was getting even darker than before.

Can there be darkness that is darker than black? It certainly seemed so. A lightning briefly went from one end of the sky and went to another. When it disappeared, it seemed darker than black. A thunderclap followed. The ship shook. Everything shook. 

Another lightning cut through the darkness. It stretched, split into branches, decorated the skies with wondrous patterns, lit up the ocean and skies, and disappeared the next moment. A thunder followed. The world seemed to be falling apart. More lightning and thunder. Just as Vandiyathevan was wondering, ‘why hasn’t the sky split apart yet?!’, the skies seemed to open. Floods gushed through the opening.

It was surely not appropriate to call it rain. It seemed that seas trapped in the sky had been struggling for freedom, and used the opening to pour through. 

The waves performed a dance of fury. Lightning showed mountains of water all around. The winds performed their exhilarating dance. Vayu, the lord of the rains uprooted those mountains of waves and tossed them in the air. Some of them crashed on the ship. 

Torrential downpour hit the ship from above. Waves attacked from all sides. The swirling wind was battering the sails. The ship withstood this onslaught and was spinning around. How long could it hold out? Surely, it was going to drown this moment or the next, taking Vandiyathevan down with it.

These thoughts did not discourage him. He thought it would be a worthy, exciting way to go. His mind joined the exhilaration of the waves. His laughter joined the howl of the wind, and the roar of the thunder. He had tied himself to the mast, as he wanted to be able to see the sights. When the ship spun, the mast spun, and so did Vandiyathevan! He couldn’t tell how long he had been spinning. His mind transcended time; it was impossible to tell if it was a few minutes, or a few ages.

Eventually, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. The wind seemed to be slowing too. Lightning and thunder had become less frequent. It was still very dark.

Vandiyathevan had closed his eyes after the last flash of lightning, and had closed his ears with his palms. He opened his eyes and ears. ‘Did I really live through this? Was God on my side? Am I going to see the princess in this lifetime? Am I going to be able to talk to the prince?’

As his mind asked the questions, a response seemed to come from above. A blinding lightning split the sky. It seemed as bright as a hundred suns. He could not see anything. He feared he may have lost his eyesight. His ears seemed to be buzzing too. He had heard several thunderclaps, many that night alone. But this one was louder than anything he had heard. It seemed to be a strike of Lord Indra’s weapon, Vajra, on his ears.

He could not open his eyes for a while. His ears were ringing. But he heard some howling noises. His closed eyes could perceive some light around him. There was another strange noise. It resembled the sound of a wildfire. 

Vandiyathevan opened his eyes and saw that the sails were ablaze. Now he understood why the lightning and thunder had affected him so badly. The lightning strike must have landed either on the sails or somewhere very close to the ship.

Two forces of nature had tried to destroy the Chozha ship. Varuna, the God of rain, and Vayu, the God of wind had failed. Agni, the God of fire had now accepted the challenge.

The trailer of PS1 shows a burning ship in rough waters. It appears that the movie will include this scene. Good luck Mr. Mani Rathnam!

Also see: Picturizing Ponniyin Selvan