Life imitating art ...
Of course, great artists have always been influenced by life. And in several cases, life is influenced by art as well.
In my opinion, Tamil movies are a prime example of the latter. Rajinikanth, the famous actor is extremely famous for his stylish smoking with the cigarette performing wild calisthenics in the air before finding its way into his mouth. There are probably thousands of young kids that took up smoking in the hope of being as cool as their "Thalaivar". Research has shown that most addicts start smoking in their teens because they perceive it as being "cool".
The Union Minister for Health, Anbumani Ramadoss has ordered the ban of smoking scenes in movies effective Jan 1, 2006. I support the principle, but not the method of execution. What should happen is that every movie with a smoking scene should automatically get an "A" certificate. And there should be a concomitant enforcement of minimum age restrictions for these movies.
I believe that people have no right to complain about vulgarity in movies, when they happily take their kids to an "A-rated" movie (which requires the viewer to be 18 years of age). Blaming movie makers for spoiling their kids is as dumb a hell, when they are the ones that are disregarding the posted restriction. Pointing fingers at theatre owners is another escape route for these parents, but I have personally witnessed people fighting with theatre owners to take their 12 year old kid to watch a movie like "Abhay".
In my opinion, Tamil movies are a prime example of the latter. Rajinikanth, the famous actor is extremely famous for his stylish smoking with the cigarette performing wild calisthenics in the air before finding its way into his mouth. There are probably thousands of young kids that took up smoking in the hope of being as cool as their "Thalaivar". Research has shown that most addicts start smoking in their teens because they perceive it as being "cool".
The Union Minister for Health, Anbumani Ramadoss has ordered the ban of smoking scenes in movies effective Jan 1, 2006. I support the principle, but not the method of execution. What should happen is that every movie with a smoking scene should automatically get an "A" certificate. And there should be a concomitant enforcement of minimum age restrictions for these movies.
I believe that people have no right to complain about vulgarity in movies, when they happily take their kids to an "A-rated" movie (which requires the viewer to be 18 years of age). Blaming movie makers for spoiling their kids is as dumb a hell, when they are the ones that are disregarding the posted restriction. Pointing fingers at theatre owners is another escape route for these parents, but I have personally witnessed people fighting with theatre owners to take their 12 year old kid to watch a movie like "Abhay".
However, there is one common theme in Tamil movies that I believe could be done away with - Showing pretty, "modern" girls enjoying abusive treatment at the hands of thuggish characters (the "heroes"). Vijay is the leading proponent of this school, but I was upset to see that Surya has joined this group, with his movie "Aaru". This probably leads to most of the eve teasing cases that Chennai is so notorious for.
Comments
Yes. Woman bashing is a regular feature in Tamil Films.
The only exceptions to this general rule I have seen are films by Sivaji Ganesan, Kamal Haasan and recently Vikram.
MGR, I think started this trend. If I remember well, there is even a thesis on how MGR got into the hearts of women by continuously uttering dialogues against women in his movies.
The trick is one should only speak against the would-be wife / lover or the vamp but call others as Mother & Sister.
Once the above rule is laid, you can talk anything about women.
Ironically, they get lots of women fans. And more ironically, these are the guys who also have obscene dream sequences in their movies which is always a dream of the heroine or the vamp and never the Hero.
R. Sathyamurthy
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