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Mightier than the sword

SCRIPT IS THE KING The success of “Chak De”, “Mozhi” and “Taare Zameen Par” proved it

In Hollywood, the land where the history of movies began, a film begins with a script. Thousands of scripts circulate production houses, and if the first two pages do not interest the producer, the scripts will find the nearest exit.

Recently, when The Writers Guild of America (about 12,000 writers) went on a 14-week strike, it brought Hollywood to a grinding halt, and caused a mind numbing loss of USD 1.5 billion. Such is the power of screen writers and scripts in the West.

Compared to scriptwriting in Hollywood, the art is still at an early development stage in India. The complete process of writing scripts is only now going through a gradual change, and by the looks of it, it could take a while before the profession sees some maturity.

In a land where there are thousands looking for a chance to translate their words onto the silver screen, there are several individuals who are writing for free, for the sake of being part of a film.

There is still so much learning to be done when it comes to screen writing.

This goes for the top slot directors and writers as well. The content and quality of scripts being produced in India are mediocre, with four or five films winning by the end of each year.

Among those who revolutionised script writing last year were Jaideep Sahni (“Chak de India”), Amole Gupte (“Taare Zameen Par”) and Viji (“Mozhi”).

As one notices here, script writing has been an individual activity, as it is rightly meant to be so in the art of filmmaking. There have been very rare instances of directors who have excelled in screenplays.

Ameer who wrote and directed the international award winning “Paruthiveeran” is perhaps the saving grace of the Tamil film industry.

He is one of those rare lights of Tamil cinema who can differentiate between writing for the screen and direction.

He says, “Directors are forced to write scripts because they are criticised by various individuals in the film industry if they do not have a story of their own. It has thus become compulsory for directors to write dialogues as well.”

The Tamil film industry is the only industry which forces a director to write.

But directors such as Bharathirajaa and Maniratnam have excelled in the field although they write their own scripts”. When script writing and direction go hand in hand, it reflects on the screen.

Talking about the National Award which he missed this year, he says, “I am not too old, and I do not regret that they did not give me the award this year. I have confidence that I will win it one day”. Interestingly, there have been no awards till date for Tamil screen writers.

After watching the powerful script of “Mozhi”, a film about a speech and hearing impaired girl, many insisted that Viji be awarded for his excellent work. He is also looking forward to the Tamil Nadu State Award for the same.

Says Viji, “I am the only screen writer in the Tamil film industry. Even Sujatha was not considered a screen writer. He would only give ideas to directors, and they would translate his ideas into a screenplay”.

Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s rise in prominence in the Tamil film industry was because of the fiery dialogues that he penned for several movies. Since he is a fantastic orator, this has allowed him to be bold with his interpretation of characters in the scripts he writes. His latest baby is “Oliyin Osai” starring Vineeth, where he has also lent his writing talent to the songs.

The Malayalam film industry churns out some of the best films in the country, because they hire writers for screenplays, resulting in good cinema.

However, no one seems to be following suit. If directors continue to write screenplays for their films, it will turn out to be an unfortunate scene for Indian cinema. A lot of effort has to be taken to bring the process of writing a script, as the first step in the making of a film.

On the contrary, stars and directors are signed up even before there is a script to look at. It is definitely not enough if producers pump in crores to make films every year. If this continues, besides receiving flak from film critics the world over, the Indian film industry will face a stunt in growth.

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