forestpenguin: The Theme for the Day 12 - the final day!!! - of...

forestpenguin:

The Theme for the Day 12 - the final day!!! - of #12daysofKollywood is BLOCKBUSTER! 

blockbuster: a very popular or successful, usually big budget production.

I realized after researching Kollywood’s top grossing movies (seen above) that blockbuster is my favourite genre. There’s no shame in loving movies with dramatic hero entries and large amounts of money shelled out for song sequences. Though issue films are good for spreading news and ideas and art films show artistic flair and creativity, a good old masala blockbuster distracts us from the problems of and our own lives and gives us heroes to cheer for - which is something we need. However not every blockbuster has a “cooling glass-u” wearing hero vs. “murukku meesai” having villain ft. love story.

Blockbuster films are the first to come to mind when one thinks of Kollywood, so it’s apt to end our 12 days of the industry with this theme. 

A quick look at the list tells us most Kollywood blockbusters feature our Big Heroes: Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay (Thupakki, Kaththi, Thalaivaa, Jilla), Ajith (Veeram, Vedhalam, Mangatha), occasionally Suriya (Ayan. Singam,  7am Arivu) and Vikram (I, Anniyan, Deiva Thirumagal) to name a few. The director whose name is synonymous with blockbusters is….. Shankar.  

I’m pretty sure almost everyone has seen all of these movies. If you haven’t here’s a rundown of Kamal and Rajini’s movies: 

Dasavatharam and Vishwaroopam

Dasavatharam (the 10 forms - refers to Vishnu) is a film where Kamal Haasan plays 10 different people (that’s where the name comes from - try guessing which the first time watching!) and how their lives intertwine leading up to the December 2006 Boxing Day tsunami, featuring bioweapons, spirituality and one reincarnation story. Also features Asin!

Vishwaroopam (the true form - again refers to Vishnu) is a great film where Kamal plays Vishwananth, a Hindu kathak dance teacher. Or Wissam Ahmad Kashmiri, an Indian Army deserter who helps train members of a certain terrorist group. Or “Wiz”, a secret agent. Who really knows what his true form is (ha ha). Really love how it portrays treatment of Muslims/brown people in various situations under the guise of humorous jokes. Stars Pooja Kumar as his super intelligent and super confused wife and Andrea Jeremiah as a super sassy dance student. Or another agent. Maybe. 

Sivaji and Enthiran

Sivaji (name of yesteryear actor Sivaji Ganesan) is one of my favourite movies and now I realized it’s probably the whole “lets take corrupt bad guy’s black money and turn it into white money to spend on good things”. It’s a grand movie for sure, with our millionaire-turned poor person-turned millionaire hero. Trying to imitate Rajini’s gum flicking skills in this movie is futile, though you can always quote him: “pannigal thaan kutama varum - singam, single-ah than varum”. (only pigs come in groups, lions come solo) then proceeds to beat up 40 people because he is Superstar, after all. 

Enthiran (the Robot) is another favourite of mine, with our ‘mad scientist’ of sorts, Vaseegaran, trying to build a robot, Chitti, that can serve for India’s military. To prevent Chitti from being an emotionless killing machine, Vassegran tries to give our robot emotions. Chitti falls for Vaseegaran’s fiancee, so much so that Vaseegran has to destroy the friendly robot. This is when the problems arise…. thanks to our greedy villain. Very very large scale movie (thanks Shankar) with a sequel in the works. 

Where both actors tackle real world problems in their films, Kamal delivers with intelligence and Rajini with mass appeal - neither less than the other, both worthy of blockbuster film status. 

Merry Christmas everyone! I’m happy to have been able to contribute to #12daysofKollywood and I’m sure you guys enjoyed it too! Let’s not have it all end here, and keep spreading our film love well into 2016 :) 

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