- Sivakumar Rajkulam
- BBC Tamil
image source, TWITTER
On 14th February…
After proposal day, chocolate day, rose day, kiss day, youngsters are excitedly preparing to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Although love is said to be natural and natural, cinema plays a major role in determining its expression.
Moreover, in the Tamil society where the influence of cinema is high, there are a lot of films that talked about love from that day till today. Whether they branched out from society or influenced society is still a matter of debate today.
Whatever art is seen as an expression of human emotions, it has never been devoid of love. Cinema is no exception. Especially, love is the most talked about topic in Tamil cinema. Devdas and Arichandra started a mythological and epic love affair with O.K. It can be said that there is no unspoken love in Tamil cinema till today’s modern love like Kanmani, Love Today. To that extent, Tamil cinema has approached love from new angles every year.
Mythical, epic love stories
image source, NFAI
Thyagaraja Bhagavata
In the early period of Tamil cinema, the love stories that took place in Puranas and epics were mostly filmed. In the 1937 movie Ambigapathi starring Thyagaraja Bhagavatar, the story revolves around a poet’s son falling in love with a king’s daughter. It was poetically shot by director Ellis R. Duncan in the form of Romeo and Juliet.
Romance in Tamil cinema in the 1950s
The 1953 film ‘Devadas’ based on Sarath Chandra’s novel marked the beginning of all the love stories that followed. Nageswara Rao and Savithri lived their lives in the film and people were mesmerized. The song ‘Ulake Mayam, Life is Mayam…’ which is played today will bring back the sadness. There was even a time when it was fashionable to name Devadas as Parvati.
The influence of the Dravidian movement in Tamil society during this period also resonated in cinema. Tamil cinema, which talked about myths and legends, slowly began to reflect the society and absorbed stories from it.
During this period, Gemini Ganesan, who made his debut in Tamil cinema, acted in a series of romantic films and in his own life also became a romantic hero and was known as the King of Love. Missiyamma was his first significant pairing with Savitri. A situation in which a woman and a man who are on opposite frequencies must join in the same place. The screenplay is about bringing them together in the circumstances of that house.
Hailed as a Navarasa director, Sridhar’s first film, Kalyana Parishi, had a love triangle as its plot. This film, in which Gemini played the role of the hero who falls in love with two sisters, was a huge hit with fans.
1960s – Women in cinema changed to fashionable clothes
It was only after the 1960s that women in Tamil cinema began to shift from the saree to other modern clothing such as chudidar. Director Sridhar, who was one of the pioneers in taking Tamil cinema out of the studios, made the heroines look beautiful in his films by giving them modern clothes. He made films like White Dress, No Time To Love, which were enjoyed by the masses, and earned him huge success.
Jayalalithaa Mgr.
The movie Nenchil Or Ayayam was seen as a great romantic epic, with the entire film revolving around a hospital. The film, in which the hero saves his ex-lover’s husband who was fighting for his life with cancer, attracted the youth of the day. Even today, the song, ‘Enkadhoha Hajsue’, featured in the film, sounds like a scripture for young people who have failed in love.
1970s romantic movies
This was the period when Tamil cinema was undergoing a generational change. MGR This was the time when Sivaji Thandi, Kamal, Rajini and others mingled as youngsters. In the 1970s, when more social and family-oriented films were released, films that spoke about love in many ways were also released. In 1975, Apoorva Ragangal, directed by Balachandar, won many awards.
The theme of this film is the desire of a father and son, mother and daughter to marry each other. The plus point of this film is that it broke the conventions and criticized those who frowned upon hearing it and said it was all a story.
“Your daughter is your mother-in-law, my son is my father-in-law revolution, we will make this innovative revolution” is the highlight of this film.
1980 – The time when love was worshiped by Tamil cinema
The period of 1980s, celebrated as the golden age of Tamil cinema music, saw a series of films that worshiped love. The songs of the 1980 film ‘Oru Thalai Ragam’ played all over the bar.
If today’s generation sees this film, they may be surprised, “Emppa… Oruttan… Did they make an hour-long rendering of a girl without saying ‘I love you’ to a girl?” What a great injustice it is to chase and torture a girl physically and mentally in the name of love, and punish yourself too. This movie showed that.
1981 Bharathiraja directed movie ‘Alaigal Oiwathillai’ was hailed as a trend setter. In many films, Tamil cinema has talked about the ways in which there will be opposition to love from within the home and from the society. Many films like Clinchals and Panneer Pushpams were released in that order.
The 1986 film Mauna Ragam directed by Mani Ratnam is notable. The movie revolved around the heroine, who has failed in love, after marrying a rogue single, decides to divorce her lover because she is unable to live a married life and then changes her mind.
Actor Kamal Haasan is known as the King of Love by presenting various dimensions of love to the fans through films like Asami Mannan, Thimthi Prai, Guna.
Innovative love stories in the 1990s
In the mid-1990s, films with innovative love stories were released. The 1991 movie, Heart, is still enjoyed today. This is the film that made actor Murali the icon of Tamil cinema for the role of reluctant to tell love. Murali has played the role of Alladum Nayak who opens his heart to the heroine in many consecutive films.
Vijay, Ajith and Prashanth acted in romantic films in a row at the beginning of their debut in the film industry. Films like Kaadhal Kota, which spoke of love without seeing, Respect for Love, which spoke of tender love, and Poove Unakaga, which celebrated the superiority of love, were celebrated by the fans.
The movie Alaipayuthe released under the direction of Mani Ratnam from Mauna Ragam became a new trend setter. In Tamil cinema, which only showed love in the entire film and talked only about the success or failure of love, the film talked about the problems faced by a romantic couple after marriage. Madhavan – Shalini Jodi has attracted a lot of fans. Prashant starrer films like Jodi, Jeans, Priyadha Varam Wala were also a treat for the fans.
image source, Twitter
Sethu, released during this period, was one of the films that grabbed the attention of the fans. In the climax of the Sasi-directed film Sollamale starring Livingston, the hero cuts off his own tongue for love. There are many films where the hero or the heroine make any sacrifice for love.
In the 2000s, Tamil cinema talked about love and ambition
Tamil cinema, which talked about friendship and love, had started to talk more about the future ambition of the youth with love in the new millennium. Vikram-starrer Dil and Ajith-starrer Adjani showed love and ambition of the youth. That is, unlike the earlier films which emphasized that love is life, these films also remembered ambition.
Selvaraghavan and Gautham Vasudev Menon were prominent among the directors who talked about love in Tamil cinema during this period. Selvaragawan has captivated the fans by giving the heart of a middle-class youth in the apartment life of the city. The songs of that film are still celebrated by fans. His works like Kadhal Kondane and Second World have been admired over time.
image source, Ajayan Bala/Twitter
Ajayan Bala
Gautham Vasudev Menon, who made his foray into Kollywood with Minnelay, captivated the youth with his style of subliminal romance. He had expressed the love, practicality and maturity of the younger generation through the movie Vinnithan Varuaya. Even today many young people consider this as their film.
Love, autograph, beauty are also important. After the release of the Autograph film, there are young men who have sought out their ex-girlfriends and given them wedding invitations. ‘Azhagi’ is a film that captured the hearts of the fans and expressed the plight of ex-lovers who fall in love at a young age, get separated by fate and meet in person at some point.
Today’s modern films
After the IT and internet revolution, the trend in today’s movies showing love has changed a lot. Reluctance to say love, love triangle, rare love, love without seeing, love sacrifices, love and friendship, love and ambition, the way Tamil cinema shows love has changed a lot.
image source, Pradeep Ranganathan/Twitter
The success of movies like Love Today, which talks about a live-in-together relationship without getting married, shows that the fans have accepted it, and the success of movies like Love Today, which revolves around the idea that deep trust between lovers can make their love grow.
We spoke to multifaceted writer, director and narrator Ajayan Bala about love in Tamil cinema. He pointed out that the way romance is told in Tamil cinema and the way women are portrayed in it has changed over time.
“Tamil cinema has given many scenes of love since its inception. In each era of mythological and epic love, the way of telling love has been different. In the films released in 1950s and 1960s, women were not given space to express their feelings, especially love. A woman who expresses love like that He has been portrayed as Willy,” he said.
In the 1970s, artists depicted the real life of people and talked about the problems of love at home and in society. While the 1980s Eku Thalai Ragam took romance a bit further back, the following year’s film Alailam Oivathallii emphasized romance with social issues.
Romantic films also featured intimate scenes during the Indal period. Especially, the kissing scenes in Kamal Haasan films were the talk of the town. During this period, women in Tamil cinema were not given the freedom and freedom that men used to have in love. The 1990s film Pudhu Vasantham emphasized that a girl can have a boyfriend and there is nothing wrong with that,” he added.
“In the 1990s Tamil cinema showed many dimensions of love and women’s feelings were also given importance. This was the period when the gap between men and women was gradually destroyed. When heroines like Simran and Jyotika came on screen, women were given more space to express their feelings. In Thani Oruvan, the heroine of Tamil cinema showed her love to the hero. It has moved to a place where emotions are expressed as they are.Not much needs to be said about the way love is handled in today’s movies.
The IT revolution has played a major role in the dramatic change in romance and the way women are portrayed in Tamil cinema. “The main reason is that women in Tamil Nadu have studied more and started working in fields like IT and standing on their own,” opined Ajayan Bala.
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