The CMM level of Indian cinema

Though I said Indian cinema to generalize things and CMM level to remind you that I'm a Software Engineer, the intention was to talk about the improvements in Tamil cinema over years...

Regional language industries like Tamil (Tamizh), Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, etc suffer one huge draw back - the reach... Unlike a hollywood movie that is released worldwide or a bollywood movie that is at least release all over India, a Kollywood (Tamizh) movie is supposes to be restricted to its province; thus shortening the reach, revenue and scope. For a long time, Tamizh industry was stuck to the traditional village stories or love failure stories; offered with varying screenplays and stunning pieces of music from Ilaiyaraja, MSV and others. But not anymore! Tamizh cinema and its reach is improving these days and there are some must-mention personalities who are making this happen.

The first person I'd like to mention here is Superstar Rajinikanth... So called film critics accuse him of taking up the heroism line at the compromise of the story! To me a movie's purpose is entertainment and if it does so, then it serves the purpose. In that sense, superstar's movies exceed the expectations (again in Software jargon). The reason I mention him as the first person in the list is the reach and fan following he has; and the extent to which it has taken Tamizh movies across the world. Japan, South Africa, Malaysia and a lot of other countries where Tamizh is not a common language screened his movie Sivaji without subtitles and still made truckloads of money. Of course I'd be biased if I don't mention Kamal haasan who strives to produce world class movies and improve the standard of Tamizh movies, in terms of the technical departments. A movie like Hey Ram or Anbe Sivam speaks for itself. However I'd still name him second because of his attitude to inject his personal opinions in a movie and a slightly ego-centric approach to film making which often leaves film makers in a huge loss.

Second comes the production department. Ever since Prakashraj started producing films, Tamizh cinema has become more beautiful I'd say. His productions Mozhi, Kanda naal mudhal and azhagiya theeye were exemplar movies to new comers interested in taking non-commercial and lovely movies. Though the credit goes to Radha Mohan and Priya for giving such beautiful movies, it takes a Prakashraj to fund the cause and color the dreams of an artist. Same holds good with mega-budget producers who spend a lot to deliver a rich movie in all aspects.

In the direction department, there are a lot of newcomers with a passion of making lovely movies and some of them indeed craft picture-perfect movies. The person who tops this list in my view is Radha Mohan. One could proudly boast the greatness of Tamizh cinema with his creations. Even in Tollywood (telugu industry) there are a lot of talented newbies coming up, passing fresh blood across the veins of a conventional and sluggish industry. I don't think it requires the mention of legendary directors like Mani Rathnam here; but at the same time directors like Mani speak for themselves while directors like Radha Mohan speak for the industry they represent. The difference is that Mani directs movies in Hindi as well and people in North India know him as a hindi film director than a Tamizh film director; and vice versa. But people like Radha Mohan carry the industry with them and when Mozhi was screened at Cannes film festival, people knew the exact industry he represents and came to know of a language called Tamizh and the classy films that are made in that language, as opposed to viewing it as yet another part of Indian film industry.

The other most important area which actually made me write this post is art direction. Outside religious movies, art direction in Tamizh cinema has always been a debatable topic until the last decade or so. But a movie like Iruvar or Hey Ram or the recent Subramaniapuram have completely renamed art-direction. Manirathnam, Kamal haasan and Shankar take a special reward in this segment to the extent of perfectionism they expect, resulting in world class art-direction. The latest hit song 'Kangal Irandaal' from Subramaniapuram is a standing example of this positive trend in art direction. The amount of care taken to depict Madurai in the 80s is just amazing... Silver colored Pandian Roadways Corporation buses (which have been renamed as TNSTC and colored these days), posters of old films like Kaali (Superstar starrer), Gouravam (a 70s movie starring Sivaji Ganesan) and Oru thalai raagam adorn the background. Not to mention the very small sequence that happens in the Meenakshi temple. I'm sure that temple authorities wouldn't have permitted shooting in the temple and I was literally reminded of the Sundareshwarar shrine (including the dimensions, the lighting, architecture, etc) when I looked at this small sequence in the song.



The only area that is yet to improve a lot is Graphics/Visual effects and this seriously limits the ability of Indian directors to take up fantasy stories like Shrek or The Lord of the Rings. I'm pretty surprised that despite having a large volume of software engineers and multimedia specialists in India, the film industry is still lagging in this area. I hope this turns out to be better in the upcoming days...

Overall, the trend is positive and even though making a movie like Troy or Titanic (in terms of the richness, art direction, etc) is going to be a distant dream for the Indian film industry (given the currency exchange rates and the useless politics in India), I'm sure that the day an Indian movie gets an Oscar is not too far!