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A reel of real life
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A group of young men has started a unique movement to promote meaningful cinema in Tamil Nadu
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EDUCATING THE MASSES The Naai Vaal team PHOTO: S.SIVA SARAVANAN
They don't believe in a formal set up. No office, no chairman, no office bearers ... all of them are thozhars (friends) and what binds them together is a social commitment. They meet in the evenings, discuss issues, chalk out plans and float a movement.
After lending their voice to issues affecting the environment, women's rights and equal rights for eunuchs, it is now the poor state of affairs in films that has caught their attention. And Naai Vaal (Dog's Tail), a film appreciation movement, is the result.
Tapping talent
"Apart from screening meaningful short-films, documentaries and feature films, we want to identify and encourage talents in Tamil Nadu who want to make it big in films," says writer Pamaran of Naai Vaal. The objective is to break the larger-than-life aura surrounding films. "We want to open the door and let the common man in," he adds. This will begin with screening meaningful short-films on a monthly basis by co-ordinating with a network of film societies, followed by interaction with directors who have excelled in creating such genre of films like Mahendran, Balu Mahendra, Bala and Cheran.
The Naai Vaal team recently felicitated director Seeman for his movie Thambi, starring Madhavan and Pooja that raised a voice against social evil.
The event provided the students an opportunity to discuss the film with the director. Naai Vaal wants to bridge the wide gap between the intellectual audience who can understand Akiro Kurosawa, Bulgarian and Pennsylvanian films and the viewers who enjoy commercial entertainers.
Demystifying cinema
" We want to avoid the intellectual section and change the mindset of the common man. When they are exposed to realistic movie-making in such screenings, they understand the difference. It helps in removing the pre-conceived notion that filmmaking is an `unreachable' territory," says law college student Sivakumar.
As Pamaran puts it: "When you are watching a TV programme, you have the remote and you can always switch it off if you don't like it. You should know that you have the choice to switch it off. What we are creating is this awareness among the movie audience. Give them the basic elementary level education."
What makes the movement unique is the mix of people — administrative staff Jayakumar and Mayilvannan, sculptors Selvan and Sethu, social worker Lakshmanan, web page designer Ravikumar, journalist Avinashilingam, hardware engineer Charles and software engineers Premadas, Mahesh and Sivakumar and class XII student Che Guvera. But we are a joint force and our thinking is in the same wavelength and therein lies our strength, they add. Movies that portray human relationships the way it happens in real life is their definition of a good film and they list movies like Mahanadhi, Azhagi, Tavamaai Tavamirindhu, Udhiri Pookal and Veedu that fit in this category. " Realistic stories with no vulgarity and violence," says Avinashilingam. "Commercial films corrupt minds, especially of the youth and the future generation will never know what meaningful cinema is all about. Naai Vaal has kick-started the process," Sivakumar adds.
Spreading the message
Why Naai Vaal? "Because we are a set of `adamant' people, adamant about a social cause. The movement aims to remove the misconception in the minds of audience about cinema and in filmmakers who make such larger- than-life commercial entertainers."
Pamaran puts it this way: " Instead of watching the run-of-the-mill movies, we tell the audience to choose movies like Thambi and Chithiram Pesuthadi."
K.JESHI
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