“Are Tamil indies finally having
a moment?” tweeted film critic Baradwaj Rangan.
Looking at his tweet, I was feeling rather wistful thinking of fabulous filmmakers
such as Balu Mahendra and Mahendran. And
how they would have thrived and been even more prolific had a funding system
been in place for low budget, honest, non-mainstream films. I wonder if Balu Mahendra would have ever
felt the need to make ‘commercial compromises’ such as item numbers in any of
his films. I would like to think that
even some of the subjects (freemakes such as Julie Ganapathy and Rettai
Vaal Kuruvi) that he would have chosen would have been better. Most importantly, we would have gotten to see
more films that showcased artistes who were superb talents yet didn’t quite fit
into the commercial mold. An artiste
like, say Chokkalinga Bagavathar.
Thanks to Balu Mahendra, we got
the opportunity to see him in two classic films, Veedu and Sandhya
Raagam and in a hilarious avatar in the comedy classic, Sathi Leelavathi.
(You have not lived till you have seen him contrast an underwear and a loin
cloth. The former is “wear and tear” and
the latter is “tear and wear!”) But the
film where I fell hook, line and sinker for his spontaneous, measured acting
style was Veedu.
In Veedu, he does not just
portray a grandpa who is affectionate.
Balu Mahendra writes his Thatha as a three-dimensional human being who
is funny, caustic, even angry in a couple of instances. When Archana suggests to him that her partner
(a delightfully casual Bhanu Chander) will aid her in her efforts to build
their house, he scoffs at her. When she wants
to sell jewelry, he chides her and barks that he will hear the proposal no
further. But best of all are the scenes where
he mixes sagacity with humor. When the
kid sister, in the middle of the road, stops walking because her older sister refuses
her a room for herself, he gently ribs her, “Baaga Pirivinai elaam apram
paathukalaam. Mudhal-la veedu kedaikkatum!”
They say that one’s eyes are the
windows to the soul. It is one thing to,
in real life, feel for something and reflect it in our eyes. It is another matter altogether for an actor
to internalize the emotions in a character that they are essaying and project
it in their eyes. And Bagavathar was an
expert at it. And one has to look no
further than his final sequence where he visits the house as it is being built. As he is about to step into the house, he quickly
stops himself and steps in with his right leg first (for auspicious reasons). It is such a common practice that it makes
one smile. His smile as he walks the
house is so gentle and so moving because we have seen the travails of the
family till then. The way he expresses
his gratitude to the construction worker Manga (Pasi Sathya) is deeply affecting. Notice the way he
exclaims, “Manga!” And the way he thanks
her is devoid of the artificiality that is unfortunately too well known to mainstream Tamil Cinema. This entire sequence is such an acting tour de force whose impact lingers indelibly. When he passes on, it is
impossible to not sob along with Archana (who turns in a stellar performance,
herself).
Click on 'Play' to go to the house entry sequence:
Actors like Chokkalinga Bagavathar
were rarely given their due in Tamil Cinema.
Plum roles eluded them somehow. We
can only rue the fact that they didn’t have the luxury of an indie film
environment or an active parallel cinema movement to provide fodder for their
enormous talents. But I suppose we can look
at the cup (of joy, offered by their works) half-full and be thankful for at
least a limited set of films that stand the test of time. And Veedu certainly is a timeless arthouse
classic. While the Bagavathar character never
got to live in the house built in this film, it is his presence that fills Veedu
and our hearts permanently.
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