“Dhom-tana dhom-tana…” – a dozen angels accompanied by this humming having a special place in our hearts as the eternal background for any romantic sequence is from Pudhiya Vaarpural (PV). One of the landmark films of Barathiraja, PV released in 1979 was also the launching pad for K.Bagyaraj as a hero. Late 70s was also the period when Tamil cinema was seeing a transition – both in terms of the filmmaking styles and the lead artists. MGR-Sivaji Ganesan era was gradually making way for the new combo of Rajni-Kamal – the twin stars that rein Kollywood till date. The movie themes that underwent a transition from mythology to raja-rani stories to social issue themes to the ones built around very strong characters, reached a new level with Barathiraja shifting the production unit from the sets and cities to real, live villages; creating a path breaking film – 16 Vayathiniley (1977).
The raw and simple village life – with people looking awestruck at anyone with a pair of trousers, little kids running behind the rare motor cars, villagers gossiping under the shade of huge banyan trees, old grannies giving out their readymade advice and proverbs, lush green paddy fields dancing like waves, little kids shouting out their lessons sitting in crude rooms called schools and the beautiful damsel singing amidst acres of bright sunflowers – was never thought to be a place for a successful cinema plot until Barathiraja’s entry. PV established this trend that had started two years earlier with 16 Vayadhiniley.
If 16 Vayadhiniley explored the interface of the villages with the city-life with a perverted doctor’s entry into the rural landscape and how he cheats a local girl, PV is about a nice school teacher who gets posted in a village. Here, fuelled by the womanising, widower village-head, the villagers manipulate the teacher’s good intentions leading to unexpected turns in the story. The village-head’s character is parallel to that of Parattai (Rajnikanth) in 16 Vayathiniley. Goundamani is cast as the yes-man of the villains in both the films. In a way both these films reflected the slowly changing socio-cultural milieu of a village due to the overall progress of our country.
Rati (Rati Agnihotri of the Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) fame) is splendid as the village beauty Jothi. The director had put her to the best use by cutting short pages and pages of dialogues into just a few close-ons of her expressive face and extreme close-ups of her eyes. Sometimes her expressions are enigmatic. (The cutting short of dialogues was also another major trend that was gaining ground in Tamil films around that time) Bagyaraj, needless to say, has given an impressive debut performance. But as we are used to his typical voice these days, it is quite difficult to get adjusted to the stranger’s dubbed voice coming out of Bagyaraj’s mouth. However Bagyaraj scores full mark as the dialog writer for this film. The conversations look so natural; they are convincing; gripping; and even humourous. The social worker character though not well-developed, creates a pivot to move the story. Jothi's father - a nadaswaram vidwan - reminds us of Kamal Hassan's brother in Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, released more than a decade after PV!
An intelligent and soulful re-recording by Ilayaraja recreates the moods of a village and makes you a part of the life there. Remember, this was one of the early films of the maestro and one could feel the mark he would be leaving on Tamil movies in the years to come. The Barathiraja-Ilayaraja team continued to captivate us till as late as the early 90s with Nadodi Thendral.
Shots with the sun over-head could have been avoided. There are also a few continuity problmes with the light. Otherwise the cinemotographer has done a decent job. Many scenes have camera movements that add to the effect. The initial temple sequence where Shanmugamani-Jothi take lovely looks at each other from behind the tall temple pillars is done well. PV also uses symbolic scenes that were used quite liberally in those days. The one showing blood oozing from the mouth of the nadaswaram chillingly conveys the old man’s death. The burning of the chokkapaanai on a Karthigai Deepam day in the climax, and the lighting of it by the village-head’s son also stands out in meaning. In fact, even the insane son of the crooked village-head is symbolic in itself!
Another highlight of the film is the village festival sequence with transgender artists performing for the villagers. This lengthy folk sequence also manifests as the setting for the trigger plot for the climax. One is reminded of the opening sequence of Paruthiveeran (2007), released almost three decades later!!
The film gets built gradually with the unfolding of a beautiful love story between the new teacher Shanmugamani and the local beauty Jothi. The evil village-head who is attracted by Jothi, plots and throws the good-hearted teacher out of the village accusing him of a rape and murder; he also goes a step further by marrying Jothi off to Amavasai (Goundamani) and asks them to live in his house so that his lust can be satisfied at will. What leads to this point and what happens after this is the film.
Though there are not many sub-plots in this movie, the twists and the spontaneity of the film keep you glued till the end. And the end falls in line with the title.
Pudhiya Vaarpugal is a classic.
PS: Bagyaraj is presently making a movie with the same title. This movie is going to be a grand success if it matches even a quarter of the benchmark set by the original Pudhiya Vaarpugal.
The raw and simple village life – with people looking awestruck at anyone with a pair of trousers, little kids running behind the rare motor cars, villagers gossiping under the shade of huge banyan trees, old grannies giving out their readymade advice and proverbs, lush green paddy fields dancing like waves, little kids shouting out their lessons sitting in crude rooms called schools and the beautiful damsel singing amidst acres of bright sunflowers – was never thought to be a place for a successful cinema plot until Barathiraja’s entry. PV established this trend that had started two years earlier with 16 Vayadhiniley.
If 16 Vayadhiniley explored the interface of the villages with the city-life with a perverted doctor’s entry into the rural landscape and how he cheats a local girl, PV is about a nice school teacher who gets posted in a village. Here, fuelled by the womanising, widower village-head, the villagers manipulate the teacher’s good intentions leading to unexpected turns in the story. The village-head’s character is parallel to that of Parattai (Rajnikanth) in 16 Vayathiniley. Goundamani is cast as the yes-man of the villains in both the films. In a way both these films reflected the slowly changing socio-cultural milieu of a village due to the overall progress of our country.
Rati (Rati Agnihotri of the Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) fame) is splendid as the village beauty Jothi. The director had put her to the best use by cutting short pages and pages of dialogues into just a few close-ons of her expressive face and extreme close-ups of her eyes. Sometimes her expressions are enigmatic. (The cutting short of dialogues was also another major trend that was gaining ground in Tamil films around that time) Bagyaraj, needless to say, has given an impressive debut performance. But as we are used to his typical voice these days, it is quite difficult to get adjusted to the stranger’s dubbed voice coming out of Bagyaraj’s mouth. However Bagyaraj scores full mark as the dialog writer for this film. The conversations look so natural; they are convincing; gripping; and even humourous. The social worker character though not well-developed, creates a pivot to move the story. Jothi's father - a nadaswaram vidwan - reminds us of Kamal Hassan's brother in Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, released more than a decade after PV!
An intelligent and soulful re-recording by Ilayaraja recreates the moods of a village and makes you a part of the life there. Remember, this was one of the early films of the maestro and one could feel the mark he would be leaving on Tamil movies in the years to come. The Barathiraja-Ilayaraja team continued to captivate us till as late as the early 90s with Nadodi Thendral.
Shots with the sun over-head could have been avoided. There are also a few continuity problmes with the light. Otherwise the cinemotographer has done a decent job. Many scenes have camera movements that add to the effect. The initial temple sequence where Shanmugamani-Jothi take lovely looks at each other from behind the tall temple pillars is done well. PV also uses symbolic scenes that were used quite liberally in those days. The one showing blood oozing from the mouth of the nadaswaram chillingly conveys the old man’s death. The burning of the chokkapaanai on a Karthigai Deepam day in the climax, and the lighting of it by the village-head’s son also stands out in meaning. In fact, even the insane son of the crooked village-head is symbolic in itself!
Another highlight of the film is the village festival sequence with transgender artists performing for the villagers. This lengthy folk sequence also manifests as the setting for the trigger plot for the climax. One is reminded of the opening sequence of Paruthiveeran (2007), released almost three decades later!!
The film gets built gradually with the unfolding of a beautiful love story between the new teacher Shanmugamani and the local beauty Jothi. The evil village-head who is attracted by Jothi, plots and throws the good-hearted teacher out of the village accusing him of a rape and murder; he also goes a step further by marrying Jothi off to Amavasai (Goundamani) and asks them to live in his house so that his lust can be satisfied at will. What leads to this point and what happens after this is the film.
Though there are not many sub-plots in this movie, the twists and the spontaneity of the film keep you glued till the end. And the end falls in line with the title.
Pudhiya Vaarpugal is a classic.
PS: Bagyaraj is presently making a movie with the same title. This movie is going to be a grand success if it matches even a quarter of the benchmark set by the original Pudhiya Vaarpugal.
6 comments:
Sundar,
My Mom loves this movie so much.There is a reason behind it.
I am telling u some thing Bagyaraj was my moms classmate in Mani highschool in coimbatore along with Nizhalgal Ravi .But K.B was in Peelamedu where my Granny's house was.And u know when KB entered movies my mom and her friends were waiting for hrs to get the ticket of the movie to see their school mate:))))) She now wants to sakkarakatti.i told her its a horrible movie but still she wants to see her friends son's acting....:)
Hei! Thats lovely da... :) :) Bagyaraj's classmate!! :)
This is one movie I am longing to watch.
Interestingly, IR had attempted something very unique in the song "Thamthana Thamthana"; the song has pallavi and anu pallavi but no charanam. That is even the charanams have same tune and hence, effectively there is no charanam.
For more on the song, check this post
http://www.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?t=799
I think even the parent thread would be of interest to you as it discusses some of the unique attempts of IR.
http://www.mayyam.com/hub/viewforum.php?f=13
Cha..Cosmicu..appappo ipdi touch pannariyeyppa!! :) that was a very interesting info..
[will chek out the links once i get a better network]
as said by every one, the song "thamthana thamthana" kindles our heart even now when we hear the song, the song gels very well with the scene and only ilayaraja can create such a master piece.u can see the mix of chorus, folk , indian classical and western in this song, i am just overwhelmed by the excellent composition of this song, one cannot imagine such a point perfect fusion of various types of strings, chords ,chorus and rythm . only a talented music director can deliver such a master piece.
even now many light music troupes find it very difficult to reproduce the same music, not only this song but many songs of ilayaraja are very difficult to reproduce. As clearly told by S.P balasubramanian, it will take another 100 years for another music genius to be born like ilayaraja. Maestro ! we salute your talent. may your fame spread across all corners of the world
Absolutely! Raja..Raja thaan!
Thanks,
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