Angadi Theru

Cast: Mahesh, Anjali, A.Venkatesh Music: GV Prakash & Vijay Antony Direction: Vasantha Balan

Melodrama is not an Indian invention. The term originally referred to 18th and 19th century European dramas where music and songs were used to heighten the emotion. Then in the 50s Douglas Sirk made the term famous among the modern audience. However, the use of this genre in Indian films was so prevalent that until the late 80s, the genre of large number our films could only be defined as ‘melodrama’.

As the taste of the audience grew and became more sensitive, and as many directors became inspired by other influences such as New Wave and Neo Realism, our films changed tone, tenor and texture. In Tamil, directors like Balu Mahendra, Barathiraja and Bala used Neo Realism effectively in Indian context. However, losing melodrama altogether was not possible. For almost four decades people were fed on it non-stop and the antidote had to be gradual lest the withdrawal symptoms would be severe and unbearable.

Thus was born another formula unique to Indians. A fusion of melodrama and neo-realism: the two incompatible elements cleverly fused together to provide a different cinematic experience. A combination of Vittorio de Sica and Douglas Sirk would have been unimaginable and therefore unpalatable to a western taste bud was lapped up eagerly by the Indians. The Bala school pioneered this (probably often unaware of what they were doing) movement joined actively by soldiers from another unlikely institution: The Shankar school.

Vasantha Balan’s Angadi Theru pays ample tributes to Bala school while remaining true to Shankar’s action melodrama techniques. It works like as if Shankar had written the script but gave it to Bala to direct. This kitsch must have been an inedible concoction but it surprisingly works, simply because of the sincerity of Balan’s intentions and his consciously woven multi-layered script.

Angadi Theru which tells the story of the workers of a large Indian style departmental store in Chennai’s most famous shopping area, Ranganathan Street, has all the elements of a Shankar film. It has opinionated social angst, drama, action, stereotyped villains and a comedy track in the midst of the misery. The villains are so loud they grit their teeth and always look angry. As if that wouldn’t produce the desired aversion, they pick their nose and smell the gooey.

On the other hand, the protagonists are normal people with normal problems. They drop out of school due to dire economic conditions, take up jobs just to support family and sleep on the pavements. The main protagonists are people from villages who have come on employment with their ‘urban dream’. There are ample subplots involving a dwarf and a sex-worker, a blind hand-kerchief seller an underage girl working as domestic servant, a caretaker of a public toilet, and a couple working in the same departmental store whose secondary love story plays an influential role on the main protagonists. In a way, true to the principles of established scriptwriting techniques, each of these subplots in some way connects to the main characters and influences their decisions. Douglas Sirk would have been proud to see that Vasantha Balan even makes liberal use of ‘melodramatic objects’, a technique Sirk pioneered that helps to establish and narrate romantic emotions.

Fusions are not without their problems. In Angadi Theru, Vasantha Balan oscillates between his desire to be judgemental and pragmatic. Neo Realism prefers to depict situations as they are. Melodrama not only articulates opinions but even amplifies them for heightened impact. The heavy set background music and action-packed plot developments heighten the mood and certain dialogues and exaggerated character development sensationalise what are otherwise very natural events. This disturbs at times although the overall effect is kind of a surreal dream charged with emotional power where you’re made part of and that participation without your permission. You're shake your head in disagreement at certain opinionated depictions whilst anxiously caring for the characters. Isn't it a success for Vasantha Balan?

Angadi Theru is one of the films in the line up of the modern phenomenon that’s sweeping Tamil industry. What started off as a quiet, reticent initiatives by Balu Mahendra and spontaneous burst of energy from Barathiraja have now become an active and conscious movement. Guided mostly by the Bala school but also helped by a few handful directors from outside this new generation directors are now reengineering Tamil cinema. Vasantha Balan is one of proud soldiers among them. They are unapologetic about the films they make. They are skilled, technically savvy yet highly rooted in the culture. They don’t pick up their inspiration from DVD rental stores. They look at our society for story ideas. And our society rewards them by offering plenty of plots. And plenty more subplots than they could reasonably close in a single film.

Endiran - a preview

Attempting technology-based films is a dicey game in India. The filmmaker will have to overcome many barriers in order to even successfully communicate the story, leave alone entertain. Many such valiant attempts in the past have bitten the dust miserably. Vikram, Kamal Hasssan’s answer to James Bond was more than laughed at by the audience. Many others, trying to balance their eagerness to do a ‘Hollywood style’ thriller with the taste of local audience, diluted the presentation so much that it often resulted of garish, shoddy outputs.

With today’s audience, the nature of the trouble has changed. In urban pockets, they have seen all the Hollywood blockbusters so it is difficult to meet their high expectations and also they approach Indian products with certain level of cynicism.
In this respect, when a filmmaker sets out to make an Indian film about a robot, words whisper around about inspiration from Terminator, I Robot, etc. Endiran, arguably the first Indian film on robots, has to bear that weight. The presence of Rajinikanth is going to level the playing field to large extent as in his fans are going to be more forgiving of the technological compromises. And the good thing for him is most of Tamil speaking peoples can be safely considered as his fans, only with a varying degree of devotion and fanaticism.

The curious question is how is Shankar going to tell this story? Is the robot going to be created by the scientist Rajinikanth to fight society’s evils? Every Shankar’s movie boasts of an almost superhero who single-handedly and tirelessly destroys corruption, nepotism and bureaucracy. Has Shankar found the most powerful superhero in the form of Robot? Is Robot a cross between Iron Man and Terminator?

These are the problem a filmmaker will have to face. None of these questions would have been asked if Shankar has made a non-technological film. But a question which this blog purports to ask, and considers significant, is how is Shankar going to ‘explain’ the concept of robotics to our audience. With the exception of the urban viewers who grew up on liberal doses of Spielbergs and Camerons, the rest of the population may not even know what a robot is and is capable of. While this could be advantageous in presenting preposterous things, such an attempt may offend trained urban pockets.

So a robot that is simple enough for rural populace to understand and enjoy and ‘accurate’ enough for urban sensibilities to appreciate is the challenge Shankar should meet in Endiran. Add to that, another curious thing would be how the technology is going to be merged with Shankar’s pot-boiler formula seamlessly? For years, Rajini fans have come to expect politically charged scenes so there’s also a requirement to include such power-packed sequences to whet the appetite of hardcore Rajini fans. That’s part of the problem for the director who had to sign up with Rajini because presenting a cohesive script whilst meeting all these requirements was never an easy bargain. Added to that the hype for Rajini films kept getting bigger for every release. Sivaji effectively ticked all these boxes and once again proved Shakar’s dexterous mastery over the mass-entertainment segment. The hype went a few notches higher when Endiran was announced. Is Shankar’s robot a cross between Iron Man and Terminator fortified with the moral angst of the old man in Indian and the ferocity of Anniyan? September 24th will be as much a test for Shankar's inventivenss as it is for the Tamil audience’s readiness.