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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