WHAT WENT WRONG IN IRANDAM ULAGAM?
These ‘simple’ & ‘lucid’ thoughts of mine are solely written so as to share my personal views who may / may not agree, not writing this to target anyone or writing against them. If you are a die hard fan of director Selvaraghavan / Arya / Anushka, it is pointless for you to read, but still give it a try.
My article is focused on the movie Irandam Ulagam that was released few days ago. Well the movie opened up at the Box Office with decent opening and ended up as a disaster at the B-O, but still whats the big deal in it?
Woefully, the reviews that came along pouring in was not one would have expected. Irandam Ulagam witnessed the most conflicitng views, contrast reviews from critics and audience & some strange condemning speech and good support from various people those who watched the movie. Why?
Now our discussion begins! Irandam Ulagam has two major sides of the reviews that came – One group says – ‘Best movie ever made’ and the other group – ‘Worst ever made’ and of course we have a small group which says that it was neither best nor worst. But honestly I am into the small group, you will know why as soon as yo read further. Now, lets discuss further…
One of the website critic rightly said that there are two types of directors in tamil cinema – One who makes movies for the audience with compromise and the other who makes movies from his/her point of view with no compromise and leaves upon the audience to decide.So clearly director Selvaraghavan comes under the 2nd category throughout these years.Yet, let me clarify, 1st & foremost, a director / filmmaker / creater (keep it as you like) has to understand that when he/she is going to make a feature film especially for family audience (from 6 yrs old to 60 yrs old), the director has to understand that what the audience like and enjoy in today’s trend. Later he should strengthen the storyline, cement the plots properly, connect and then write a good screenplay etc. in later stages.
Ok, lets come back to Irandam Ulagam, director Selvaraghavan is a gutsy and bold director, takes immense efforts and has been a great support in the growth of Tamil Cinema these years! Yes, agreed, no denying that, but when it comes to his experimental movies like Aayirathil Oruvan / Irandam Ulagam, why something has to go for a toss and then later blame the audience? That ‘something’ is nothing but the screenplay-story, basically the movie script by the director!! So the real reason for the groups to dislike Irandam Ulagam was not due to the VFX – CG or any other thing, but due to the weak storyline and boring screenplay. Very very few had complained about the visuals since we know given the budget and our kollywood standards, it was top class.
Now your question will be like – Haven’t you seen hollywood films with poor screenplay and stories and yet given good reviews for ‘so and so’ films? Oh dearies, how many Tamil makkal watch hollywood films today? Just because you watch hollywood films, everybody watches? Do you think all old ladies and old men aged 30-60 are following hollywood everyday? Sounds funny, isn’t it? All they come is for an entertainment from the story / screenplay point of view in Tamil movies. And if you still wanna argue, hollywood films are made just under 2 hours and 2 characters are enough to keep us engaged, what about Tamil Cinema which stretches upto 150+ minutes, how can the lead actors hold up the audience till the end?
Lets move further, today our tamil cinema is constantly evolving, we are indeed much open to new genres and themes of any kind and any new comer. How can you say that our tamil cinema has not changed and still relies on mass commercial / crass comedy films? Didn’t we welcome Pizza, Naduvulla Konjam Pakkatha Kanom and Soodhu Kavvum? [Ok now all of them are Vijay Sethupathi’s film and his luck came at right time when the year 2012 was having a tough time with big stars failing in Kollywood].Ok lets take up Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, Neram, Madrasapattinam, Enthiran, Angadi Theru, Kumki, Myna, Engeyum Epothum, Deivathirumagal, Vazhakku Enn 18/9, Samar, Vishwaroopam and list goes on. Irrespective of the the star cast, remake or original , the budget, the genre, we supported these films and made it a HIT? How? Think deep.
At the same time films like ‘Alex Pandian’, ‘Thillu Mullu’, ‘Naiyaandi’, ‘Onbathula Guru’ or ‘Pattathu Yaanai’, ‘All in All AzhaguRaja’, ‘Settai’ were mindless comedy films and also films like Kadal, David, Maapillai, Venghai etc. never worked for any of the audience and given thumbs down straightaway but at the same time we have never failed to make good commercials with correct proportions of elements like Thuppakki, Singam 2, Arrambam and PandiyaNaadu HITS. If filmakers can deliver a film with all the elements in the right proportions, why are we gonna complain? Films like Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya, Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru, Raja Rani were runaway HITS due to excessive promotions with positive vibes that was surrounding it.
The reason why I am stressing a lot on story and screenplay always is because these are the core strengths and an essence for a film to work for each and every person as possible, very few are interested in technical department. Bring a heavy script onto screen showing great depth in story, meaning, having good amount of subplots without confusing the audience and come up with interesting new screenplays. You are definitely on the right path! If you cannot keep your screenplay racier, then plan for a normal mode to keep the audience engaged till the end but never ever test audiences’ patience, their mind becomes restless very soon(atleast 70% of our tamil audience). So that was one of the prime reasons why IU got negative reviews! Just Imagine had Director Shankar / Rajamouli did Irandam Ulagam, the movie would have done wonders at the BO and you know the reason very well.
Varna(telugu) received extremely bad reviews. One reason is maybe Telugu cinema is still yet to come out of the tastes for masala movies. 2ndly the reason might be they have already seen films like Arunthathi, Magadheera and Eega which are high budget films yet with solid scripts.[I may/may not be wrong]
We must feel proud of Tamil Cinema where people like us are atleast open in supporting new age cinema who have good talents to show.
Director Selvaraghavan’s earlier experimental grand movie – ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ was one such unique movie in tamil cinema which faced the same discontentment from most of them due to which it failed to set the BO on fire.
Now coming to the technical part, well today the VFX, Computer Graphics, Cinematography, Color correction for songs with good visuals blah blah blah.. are considered positives for a movie especially big budget films and you may point these are enough for a movie to work. But these things are targeted and assumed to be an attraction purposes for only the youth boys and girls, what about kids and old people, have filmmakers given a second thought? Be practical, do you think they are largely bothered to these aspects in anyway, even if yes, do you think they will appreciate a plotless/lifeless film? It makes NO SENSE to them. Again for them it is the story – screenplay that matters! Of course a film like IU has to satisfy the youth’s aspects, but why lose the concentration on story & screenplay at the cost of visual effects and other departments?
Sometimes it becomes very unpredictable about our tamil cinema audience, they end up making mindless comedy films like ‘Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga’, ‘Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam’ – A huge hit(is it just because it has Siva Karthikeyan?) and of course films like ‘KuttiPuli’ as well. Except true movie buffs, sometimes the support that they show so much for Irandam Ulagam, where did that support go when unique movies like ‘Maattrraan’, ‘Paradesi’, ‘555’, ‘Neerparavai’, ‘Naan’, ‘Aravaan’, ‘Thanga Meenkal’, ‘Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum’ etc etc. (which had either good story or screenplay) came? Just because you hate/dislike an actor, you failed to do so or maybe they did not have star power that other actors posses or what was the other reason? Need anwsers!
What do you mean by “Good Cinema”, “Bad Cinema”, “Average Cinema” used by some people these days? I do not get these tags seriously! Every cinema is a good cinema provided they are made with good intentions, every movie is created to make it a successful venture. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, in the end it is in the hands of audience who will judge and will decide the fate. Most importantly in today’s trend of tamil cinema, excessive promotions for good films works big, but at the same time films which has no content will backfire badly. Positive vibes, good support from Industry right from the word go will help a lot to make movies winners.
Above all these things, if you really can judge a movie as a neutral critic and be a genuine common audience, you will easily accept all flaws and errors of a movie. Be a fan, nobody is stopping you, but kindly do not spread fake views and reviews(both +ve and -ve) around just for the heck of it. It is sometimes better not to be a fan of any actor, any director, or anybody from the industry. Just watch all movies with open minded and without expecting big no matter who the star or what budget it is made in, it is the only best possible way to mediate movies. Irandam Ulagam had its own positives and negatives, but for me it was the core element that went missing so I would come into the small group – not the best, not the worst. As I already mentioned above, if the basic essence of a movie itself is weak, then it is difficult for a movie to sustain for long time.
Time for the ones who are supporting IU to stop blaming the general audience like me and introspect what really went wrong. Hope director Selvaraghavan hits back strongly with a solid script and neat screenplay and do more movies like Kadhal Kondein, 7g Rainbow Colony or a Mayakkam Enna which can be enjoyed by most of us.
Still not happy and disagree with what I all said? All I can say now is “Ovvorthurukkum Ovvuru Feelings” (“to each its own”). At the end of the day, it is the personal opinions about a movie which has to differ from person to person and when it reflects at the collections, the majority wins, and as we all know, a creator cannot satisfy everybody at the same time.
Hello everyone, my name is Pravin. Basically from Tamil Nadu- a tamilian but Mumbai is my home. Love watching tamil movies since my childhood.