Sunday, September 29, 2013

Point of View on Preference and Patronage in Film Making.


                                       
     Film making is both an artistic and arduous process. A released film, is the heart and soul of a collective creative group, reflecting the preferences and applications of every segment of  the movie- making process. Preference may be a point of view or a personal whim. It may be about one’s liking for a pet theme, or genre or a favoured person. Patronizing  themes, genres  and individuals  is a prevalent factor in every human activity. The creative and commercial scopes of film making, look forward to the practice of preference and patronage, quite often  as a prerequisite.
    With regard to themes and story line the natural preferences would be romance, comedy, crime thrillers, myth and spiritualism, modernism, idealism, history, satire [political or social]Personal predicament and family sentiment.The Modern Theatres and the Devar films, mostly dwelt on crime and justice, in the form of action genre of narration. Devar would time again visit spiritual themes, to reaffirm his faith in Lord Muruga. A.P.Nagarajan was almost a full time devotee of myth and spiritualism. Directors like A.Bhimsingh,Krishnan Panju,K.S.Gopalakrishnan, P.Madhavan A.C.Thiulokchandar were experts, in demonstrating the diverse dimensions of an individual’s personal predicament in relation to one’s family and society.While Sridhar mixed up romance and comedy, Barathiraja was ever a profound adorer of the core of romance. K.Bagyaraj was the incarnation of levity and cheeky humour, reaching a state of seriousness for the climax. K.Bala chander was a mystifying combination of modernism, idealism, satire and family drama, with a fair focus on romance too. Like Balachander, modern directors exhibit their zeal for variety performance but still, each one could be identified by their respective tag of creativity like the negativism of Bala, the optimism of Vikraman, the committed visits of Mysskin to the darker zones of the human psyche and so on.
      It is not themes alone that are closer to the soul of film makers.There has ever been a predominant quantum of the absorption theory, bringing individuals to form an intimate circle. The amount of team spirit, the degree of wave length felt, experienced and shared among film folks, would most often surpass the boundaries of caste denominations, community orientation and religious and linguistic chauvinism. No one could successfully grasp the logic behind the mind boggling preference and patronage practised by individuals involved in the film making process. One could very well  understand that [late]Manivannan and Sathyaraj were batch mates in college and were  natives of the same town and so they were mutually compatible individuals.But Devar’s preference for MGR and his exclusion of so great an actor like Sivaji Ganesan would be a riddle for many. Similarly distinguished film makers like A.Bhimsingh and K.Balaji could think only of Sivaji Ganesan for their films and they had never inducted MGR even for a single film.Ironically,Balaji would have acted in some prominent films of M.G.R like Paasam,Parakkum Paavai but as a producer of films, Balaji has not inducted MGR even once in his movies.
    One could obviously notice P.Neelakandan’s spirit of  patronage of MGR like A.P.Nagarajan’s affinity with Sivaji Ganesan. A veteran director like K.S.Gopalakrishnan frequently went in favour of Gemini Ganesan and Muthuraman. K.Balachander also preferred Gemini Ganesan and Muthuraman to MGR and Sivaji Ganesan {excepting the single film Ethiroli with Sivaji Ganesan}. Later on he effectively supported the growth of Rajinikanth and Kamalahasan. Between MGR and Sivaji Ganesan the latter reflected a greater level of team spirit with Gemini Ganesan S.S.Rajendran and Muthuraman while MGR accommodated villain actors with a supportive frame of mind. While one could find late Raguvaran in many movies of Rajinikanth, one could not find the same actor in the films of Kamalahasan.P.Vasu’s preference for Sathayaraj and Rajinikanth would be similar to that of K.S.Ravikumar's for Sarathkumar and Kamalahasan. The biggest AVM banner would have included Rajini more in their films than Kamalahasan. S.P Muthuraman’s team spirit with Rajini is well known.
    When it comes to music, Devar films and Vijayalakshmi pictures always preferred K.V.Maha- devan  to M.S.Viswanathan. Where as, the romance specialist Sridhar could rarely think of including Mahadevan for his films. K.Balachander  always had V.Kumar in his mind to compose music for his films just as today’s Vikraman showed a soft corner for S.A.Rajkumar. Shankar’s priority for Rehaman’s music is a regular phenomenon.
    R.S.Manohar was a value addition in the films of the Modern Theatres, just as Nagesh remained with K.Balachander’s  Kalakendra unit. While K.S.Gopalakrishnan regularly used the talent of M.R.Radha ,his sons M.R.R.Vasu and Radha Ravi were duly recognized and supported by K.Balachander. Among actresses Padmini and K.R.Vijaya were the regular heroines of most of the films of KSG, just as Sowkar Janaki, Jayanthi and Saritha were periodical additions in the films of K.Balachander. MGR’s  lasting heroines were B.Sarojadevi and J.Jeyalalitha though he later on included Manjula and Latha. It was the popular opinion that MGR's  principle of patronage could do and undo the career prospects of many film personalities.
    Patronage and Preference is just a matter of compatibility and it need not imply prejudices of any kind against the other artists. Making a film looks forward to a lot of occasions to get together at positive meeting points, for discussions and decisions, in a mood of understanding, cordiality and pleasure. Like -minded people can work together, with greater levels of amicability and accommodation and come out with  commendable quality out put in their creative activities. Though team spirit is becoming a pre-determiner  for the successful completion of projects in various sectors, its indispensability is much more a demanding proposition, in the film making activity. What is more significant is, this kind of preference of concepts and individuals will automatically lead to the acceptance of responsibility for success and failure, with the same spirit of mutual accountability and collective good will.
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