Spoilers ahead…
Among the more heartening trends in Tamil cinema is its gradual detachment from the middle classes, and attachment to the lower income groups. Earlier, films like Pasi were one-offs. Today, they’re practically a movement. The protagonist of Paisa (Murugan, played by Sreeram) is a rag picker. He falls in love with Veni (Aara), who earns Rs. 5000 a month in a supermarket – their dream duet has them cavorting through a garbage dump, amidst mounds of refuse, and later, sitting on a platform, watching traffic go by. The directors of these films do their research, so we get a glimpse into the lives of these characters – for instance, the fact that areas are demarcated even among rag pickers, so one cannot go and scrounge around in a dustbin in a different neighbourhood. Murugan lives in a shack that could be demolished at any minute, but he’s content. When Veni asks him why he’s in this trade, he says, “Inga odambu dhaan azhukku. Manasu ille.” Clearly, social class is no impediment to the ability to summon up punchy dialogues at will.
Slowly the film introduces us to people higher up in the social ladder. We get a hot-tempered gangster named Kiruba (Rajasimman), who pours boiling sambar on an idli seller because the idlis she served him came with a strand of her hair. And then we get Kiruba’s boss (Madhusudhanan), a businessman whose daily dealings run into crores. The plot revolves around Murugan finding a large stash of the latter’s money, and losing his peace of mind. He buys new clothes he cannot wear at home because he cannot tell people where the money came from. Worse, he begins to lie. He’s blackmailed. The vice tightens around him as the rightful (wrongful?) owners of the money come closer to tracking him down. The film, directed by Abdul Majith, is nothing great, but it has enough contrivances to keep us watching. At its heart is a big, fat message – money is the root of evil. But at least there’s a story woven around it, at least some bits of dramatic tension. In other words, as moral-science movies go, Paisa is a far-easier watch than Appa.
KEY:
- Pasi = see here
- “Inga odambu dhaan azhukku. Manasu ille.” = Only my body is filthy, not my heart.
- Appa = see here
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Baradwaj Rangan 
KadaKumar
July 2, 2016
“Among the more heartening trends in Tamil cinema is its gradual detachment from the middle classes, and attachment to the lower income groups.”
Heartening? So you welcome these low-budget films with a random unkempt guy picked off the street as hero and another sumar-moonji as the heroine, made even uglier by their costumes and make-up, waddling about in dusty drought-affected villages or filthy underbellies of cities? Where rich people are all shown as corrupt and callous and condescending, while the poor all have “nalla manasu”. Where “realism” is parried as a convenient excuse for crass violence, cost-cutting and poor production standards. And where some cliched message or moral is attached as a talisman to ward off criticism, like the string of lemon-chillies hanging at the front of an auto.
Why do people encourage such movies? Where’s the pleasure in watching them on screen?
Instead imagine a film with a rich canvas, beautiful locales, spectacular cinematography. With good looking actors in dignified costumes. And beautiful music. Even if the story sucks, it would still be a delight to watch. I’d take a Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya over these “realistic” movies anyday. At least it respects cinema as a visual medium.
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RohaN
July 2, 2016
KadaKumar: Both those types of films that you describe sound unwatchable, for very similar reasons.
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Amit Joki
July 2, 2016
KadaKumar: The type of movies you are representing can be likened to beautifully sculpted idols in the temples and the films like Paisa to the unkempt stone blocks which form the stair case to the temple.
Both are necessary. Each cinema has its own mood, which decides the type of camera used, lightings, cast, art direction to costumes. Even the background artists and the background itself.
While rich cinema evokes awe, films like Paisa keep us grounded.
Also your realism is different from the realism of lower income people or slum dwellers.
You might have never come across crassness as we and the film going audience are generally well to do, have at least elementary education and hence crassness seems abnormal.
But for those slum dwellers, their realism is crassness and their norm.
A great film like Pudhupettai bombed because people were too comfortable in their own realism that they disregarded the other realism to the extent as if the other realism didn’t exist at all.
Conflict of realisms. Since we are the film going audience our realism will always be the norm and other realisms will be generally looked down upon.
My two cents
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Anu Warrier
July 3, 2016
Yes, cinema is a visual medium, but who says the ‘visual’ has to always be beautiful? The choice is ours, to watch or not watch.
I do agree with you about the stereotyping, though I can’t see your ‘a film with a rich canvas, beautiful locales, spectacular cinematography. With good looking actors in dignified costumes. And beautiful music. ‘ being any less stereotypical.
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Vignesh Kanagaraja
July 4, 2016
Well BR, I wonder what Jackson Durai is doing in the Key. Copy Paste mistake?
What makes me wonder even more is, no one has pointed it out till now.
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