My New Year Resolution

Dont take any resolutions ever.

Vulgarity in Indian Cinema - contd.

I named this post as "Indian" cinema and not just "Tamil" cinema because the situation is more or less pertinent to all movies made in India.

Before I go into the details , let me first clarify my position.

Vulgarity - I define this as expressions of energies in excess, and to a tune which is not pertinent to that which is followed among a majority of people in THAT society.

i.e, when we see a french kiss in a movie from France, it is not so uncommon. The same situation here is bound to raise eyebrows. So such a kiss , I will call as vulgar in Indian Cinema whereas not so in French Cinema. The French audience is quite used to those things whereas India is a country where women did not want to touch heros and used to wear skin dresses

There used to be separate cabaret dancers and heroine's like Padmini, Saroja Devi, Madhubala etc. refused to perform cabaret dances.

I do agree that times change, and we too have to accept change.

All the same, the question I raise is...."If it is old, then is it bad?"

IF something has been followed for ages, then it does not necessarily mean it is bad. We have to be mature enough to also adopt to the modern way of living with the essence of the old imbibed in it.

I am truly amazed at how creative the Lyricists of Indian Cinema are when it comes to writing sex songs. Many are nothing but a piece of "Cr**" ( I only am pointing to songs similair to the one below).

How vulgar can you get?

After all, sex is finally sex. So stop it please!! For the love of God and the sanctitiy of sex , stop writing all the various possible things you can do between a man and woman in the form of a song and call it a Lyric. It is just crap. Nothing else. Makes me want to puke.

That was just that audible part of it.

The visuals are worse.

I remember my dad telling me this when I was like 10-11 years old. I used to watch a lot of movies with him , and during a James Bond movie, he told me..."It is better to watch an English movie than an Indian movie, because there will be a sex scene for about 1 minute in a 2 hour English movie, and I can ask you to turn the other side when it is going to come, whereas in an Indian movie, the whole film is filled with vulgarity...how do I stop you from watching it.?"

I can clearly see the change visibly in front of my eyes, that in the last 10 years, Producers seem to spend very less on costumes. Sad thing is Heroine's dont mind that. The Navel is perhaps a part of the heroine which is comfortably forgotten to be covered.

Perhaps, that way, these things will become so common that it may not seem awkward. Who knows?

The difference in vulgarity levels between an English movie and an Indian movie is this:
An English movie portrays the lifestyle of the hero and the herione AS IS EXISTING in their society. The same is not the case in India.

Vulgarity is not just in sex. Take a 500 million rupee wedding ceremony which is performed in almost every goddamm movie. Where in India does such a HUGE wedding take place where everyone wears a Gucci or a Prada outfit?

A single wedding dance cost could run to millions. Is it not a vulgar display of wealth?
The movies are filled with anything but normal. I do agree that exaggeration is a part of a movie, but exaggerating things to this level is just too horrible to bear.

Though this is a bit off topic , in The Matrix, if Neo is able to dodge bullets, there is a solid reasoning behind his ability to do so and hence it makes sense. But Akshay Kumar dodging the bullets when 30 marksmen fire AK-52's at point-blank range at him in a movie makes absolutely no sense. In the end of it all , I only wish that the Producers and Directors stick to how the people behave and not portray some arbit thoughts in the form of a movie.

Did you know that in Malaysia and Singapore, a lot of our Tamil movies are censored heavily. These movies get an A certification in those countries.

Even in a western movie, the heroine is not unnecesarily displaying her body parts unless the situation demands. She wears a Jeans and a T-Shirt which covers more than what is necessary, whereas in most Indian Cinemas, the heroine wears nothing more than a Short (too short for comfort), and a top which displays almost everything, and this is the attire in EVERY scene.

Just take the movies made in the west from 1955 to 2005. You might not observe a visible change. There will still be french kisses. They stay almost same as far as the cultural behaviour of the actors go. The change might be from Bell Bottom pants and long curly hair cuts with colourful outfits, to less glaring outfits and neatly trimmed hair.

Take an Indian movie from 1955-2005. It starts with a fully covered heroine who stays 6 feet away from the hero in 1955, to a skin dress wearing heroine who might touch the hero in 1965 , to a heroine who occasionally shows different "earlier" covered parts of her body in 1985, to "Rangeela" in 1995 and finally on-screen sex scenes in Salam Namasthe and Bunty Aur Babli in 2005. I wonder how these movies escape an A certification?

This metamorphosis is not possible unless we have an incessant urge to imitate the west.

Sex sells, they tell.

But Sholay ran for 5 years. IF released now, it may run for another 5 years. Where was sex in Sholay?

Tell me the name of a single movie that grossed the earnings of Sholay which had sex as the topic?

Murder/Zeher/Fire???

They did not even run the first 10 days of release.

Directors, please realize that sex alone is not enough. Please donot look to vulgarity to make your movie run. A heroine looks like a Goddess when she wears the wonderful Indian Costume - The Saree and has Jasmine flowers in her head , and a Bhindhi in her forehead with some jewels tasetefully worn . She looks like a whore in a bath dress.

Choose a Goddess for a heroine and not a whore. I donot say that exposure of any kind is bad. All I say is stick to what is culturally feasible in the society where we live in and not show things which donot happen anywhere in the country.

I can show hundreds of Indian movies recently released which donot have excessive vulgarity in them, all the same I can show lakhs of movies which do :(. I hope the situation reverses.

Vulgarity in Indian Cinema

I had wanted to blog about this for a long time...I will also write other articles, but let me start off with a song from a Tamil Cinema. I donot wish to translate it because I feel highly embarassed to even put up that lyrics here in Tamil. Instead of putting forth my opinions on this first, I thought I will show one example first, and then continue.

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Egipthu Raani onakku edhukku dhaavani from Narasimha

Egipthu raani, onakku edhukku dhaavani
Enakku nee dhaan irukka edhukku thalagaani
Karuppu singam siricha neruppu pathikum
Irumbu nenjam thorandha kurumbu thothikkum

Hey ganja poondhottam
onna roja poovaasam
adi vaasam paathu mosam ponene
On meesayil ulla mudiadhu ellam yaana mudi
Adhil modharam senju podanum kai mela

.....

En veera, Un pera pacha kuthipen
Engennu nee sonna anga kaamippen
En bhoomi Un vaayil thenaa thithipen
Ennoda mundasa onna suthipen
Rendu dharava dhaaan samanja ponnu naan
Kannaaaal thechaye

Panju mullaye sela katti nee moodi vechaye...
Oru aan yaana dhaan on kayile ullasama oonjal aadum

Egipthu raani, onakku edhukku dhaavani
Enakku nee dhaan irukka edhukku thalagaani

.....

Pooven un mundhanai chinna koodaram
thenoorum un thoppul kutti paadhalam
muththathal seivoma niththam malyudhdham
appoppo vaayoram singa pal kuthum

Roma illadha dheham rendu dhaan meenum neeyum dhaan
Enga engayo enna thottadhu neeyum kaathumdhan
Adi Un naakile En perayum naa ezhudhava muththathaala

Egipthu raani, onakku edhukku dhaavani
Enakku nee dhaan irukka edhukku thalagaani
.....

If I were to sing this song, I would certainly be embarassed. I might perhaps refuse to do so.