Read the full article on Film Companion, here: http://www.filmcompanion.in/southern-lights-tamil-cinema-english-thoughts/
In which I make a case that there needs to be more writing about non-Hindi cinema in English, if this cinema is to break through ghettos.
I interviewed two authors at this year’s edition of the The Hindu’s Lit for Life. One of them was a writer in the old-fashioned, books sense of the word: Shamya Dasgupta, who’s authored Don’t Disturb the Dead: The Story of the Ramsay Brothers. The other “writer” was Karan Johar, and the quotation marks aren’t so much to exclude the filmmaker from the literary community as to acknowledge the fact that he isn’t primarily a writer. He’s more of a screenwriter, a column writer, and now, a co-author (with Poonam Saxena) of his memoir, An Unsuitable Boy.
The point I wish to discuss in this column is that both are books about the Hindi film industry, and both books are in English. And the point that makes me want to discuss this is the comments section under my YouTube videos (and, sometimes, on Facebook and Twitter), whenever I conduct an interview with a Tamil-film personality in English. These comments are usually a variation on this sentiment: “This is somebody from the Tamil film industry. Why don’t you talk in Tamil?” (The sentiment isn’t always expressed this politely, but this is the gist.)
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
T_G
January 25, 2018
Aren’t things like ‘comes more naturally to me’, ‘my employers are typically English publications and so I’m more used to it’ good enough reasons?
Anyhow, ‘why don’t you do your thing in Tamil because it is about a Tamil thing?’ (the question for which you are responding to) deserves no response. None of those people who raise that question don’t blink to wish happy new year on the 1st of January. They don’t bother about Sunday being a holiday from their Tamil jobs. I don’t see why such sentiments should be merited with any response.
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"Original" venkatesh
January 25, 2018
I broadly agree with what you are saying BR , my one point of contention would be why interview someone in a language when they are not comfortable with it ? And this does happen. The interviewee gets completely flustered and defensive.
Other than that ., English is fine.
And oh “Imagine a situation where even the lesser lights of non-Hindi cinema are visible on a national platform!” – Did you just call the Ramsay Brothers , lesser lights ? .. Sacrilege.
Where are my smelling salts ?
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shaviswa
January 26, 2018
Agree with Original Venkatesh. English as a language is not the issue. I remember a couple of interviews – Myskin and Selvaraghavan – where I felt the language was stopping them from being articulate enough. They could have probably opened up if interviewed in Tamil.
With someone like Madhavan or Siddharth, I actually prefer the interview to be in English….because the two actors are more comfortable in English than Tamil.
Of course, finally, your writing. I am sure there is nothing to argue there 🙂
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Devarsi Ghosh
January 26, 2018
A question related to this: Do you think a book or a review written about Tamil cinema would be popular with non-Tamil speaking (but interested in Tamil cinema) readers if the writer has already not established himself as a popular writer of articles/reviews about Hindi films as well?
The thought came to me when I realised that most of the English-language writers I know, who write on Tamil cinema, also frequently comment in your blog. So my gateway to not just Tamil cinema but also these writers was your blog… which I got access to because I started off by reading your writing on Hindi cinema in the first place.
I am also wondering why English writing on Tamil films by writers other than you do not break outside of the Tamil-speaking film buff/cinephile circles. Which begs me to wonder if there are enough good English-language writers who really devote themselves to writing about Tamil (or any Indian language other than Hindi) cinema.
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Vivek narain
January 26, 2018
There is this glory of english where all languages have to converge, and there is the masterpiece by Cervantes that has to be translated in all languages. A classic tale of anglo vs spanish, bard vs soldier. A true knight errant will always sway the world.
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Madan
January 26, 2018
“I remember a couple of interviews – Myskin and Selvaraghavan – where I felt the language was stopping them from being articulate enough.” – I did not watch the Selvaraghavan interview but in the Myskin interview, he was articulating what he wanted to say clearly, just with a strong Tamil accent, which is fine. I mean, I would prefer a strong Tamil accent to some of the hideous Northern England accents I have come across in the internet rabbit hole. Even when Myskin appeared on Super Singer, he did slip into lyrical English metaphors to describe Ilayaraja songs. My feeling is he is comfortable in both languages.
Anyway, addressing the topic at hand, perhaps the resentment comes from the perception of English as the language of the upwardly mobile (and this is true to a large extent…except the political class 😉 ). So maybe this constituency THINKS you are speaking in English to impose your superiority. That it is possible to love the English language and feel most comfortable expressing oneself in it at least to discuss technical stuff doesn’t occur to such people. I speak Tamil at home (even though I don’t live in Tamil Nadu, by the by) but if I wanted to get into a debate about films, music or current affairs, I will end up switching to English. If the Birbal test were applied to me, I would most probably cry out in Tamil, but there are settings where I prefer English and that is my prerogative. Just as, if I may, it is the prerogative of Tamil Nadu to distance itself from Hindi. There is no difference in the two scenarios as far as I am concerned. The constituency that won’t be forced to speak Hindi under jingoistic pretexts cannot impose Tamil at all times on Tamilians out of parochial sentiment either.
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Purple Sky
January 26, 2018
U know, you may be getting that response from people because they know you are Tamilian and it feels like some sort of insult to them that you being a Tamilian and interviewing a Tamilian, you are using English. If for eg, Anupama Chopra was doing this interview, say the interview with Sathyaraj, nobody would bother. But again, there is a difference between you and Anupama Chopra interviewing a south indian artist. She didn’t know anything about Sathyaraj and his body of work and he had to quote examples of his work to establish his experience and repertoire. That would not have happened with you.
Again, I would not have watched Arjun Reddy or Kirik party if it was not for your reviews. And for that, you are absolutely right, there should be more people writing in English about Indian films.
Hindi already has a lot of trustable names writing in English. So there is already a good thing going. But it is yet to happen in non hindi movies. Before you started writing about Malayalam movies, I didn’t find anyone passionate enough writing about Malayalam movies and it always left me frustrated. So you are walking a path less trodden and maybe you can take consolation that you are blazing it for the future writers.
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vinjk
January 26, 2018
I primarily watch English and Malayalam movies. Occasionally I watch Hindi and Tamil films and even more rare are films from other languages. It is true that I am much more aware of Tamil films, actors, directors and other artists because BR’s English blog. But I highly doubt it has led me to watch more Tamil movies. Language and culture is a quite high barrier to cross.
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Anu Warrier
January 26, 2018
I think this comes down to something I mentioned on an earlier post – it’s only English that gets this step-motherly treatment. Speak Hindi badly and you will be hung out to dry. Don’t speak Tamil even if you are a Tamilian? You are snobbish. But speak English badly, or not at all, and suddenly you are the son/daughter of the soil.
I tend to think in English but I also speak fluent Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi, and depending on who I’m speaking to, one or more of these languages will find their way into my speech.
Yes, Tamil interviews of Tamil stars and technicians is definitely needed – but there are a plethora of channels to meet that demand. To introduced the stars and technicians of the four major industries of the South to a predominantly North-Indian audience, many of whom still believe that anything south of the Vindhyas is ‘Madrasi’ – you need a lingua franca that is common to both.
If it weren’t for you doing these interviews, or reviewing these movies, I wouldn’t have been introduced to films from Telugu and Kannada. (My earlier comment about the quick reviews notwithstanding.)
I’m fine with accents – I know people tend to make fun of ‘accented’ English, but the ones doing so seem blessedly unaware that they have an accent as well – just not this particular one.
I agree with Madan – if Tamilians are willing to protest the jingoistic imposition of Hindi (and I agree with that) then they cannot turn around and jingoistically insist on Tamil usage everywhere.
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nathanrh
January 26, 2018
apart from everything else surely the most difficult thing in selling a book on k. balachander is accessibility of the films themselves? very few of his films are accessible to those who can’t speak tamil. and this plagues most of tamil film history in general; if you use say baskaran’s eyes of the serpent as a guide (a very problematic book…but easily available in english) almost none of the films discussed are available for non tamil speakers.
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Arjun
January 27, 2018
“it’s only English that gets this step-motherly treatment. Speak Hindi badly and you will be hung out to dry. Don’t speak Tamil even if you are a Tamilian? You are snobbish. But speak English badly, or not at all, and suddenly you are the son/daughter of the soil. ”
Let me rephrase that for you. Speak english badly, or not at all and you cannot be a judge or lawyer in the higher courts. Heck the poor villagers cannot even read the fucking judgement in which the supreme court banned jallikattu. You cannot study at top medicine and engineering colleges, cannot hope to go to IIMs, face glass ceilings in corporate jobs. India is a neo-colonial country for the 1% (largely Brahmin) english speaking elite. Cry me a river for the step-motherly treatment.
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Sanjay Shankar (@sanjayshankar)
January 27, 2018
I am one of those that enjoy an occasional interview in Tamil rather than English when the subject is more comfortable in Tamil. The interview of directors Lokesh and Nithilan worked very well in Tamil. So did the one with Sivakarthikeyan. If I’m not wrong, those were subtitled.
I agree with Anuja’s point about accents, but that’s not why I prefer to hear some folks in Tamil. As long as the interviewee is able to communicate their thoughts clearly in English, any accent is fine. E.g., the recent Mysskin interview was terrific. He had so much to say. It didn’t matter that he pronounced some words differently than others would. On the other hand, take Dhanush. He was quite comfortable in English, but I feel he didn’t open up as he often does when he’s interviewed in Tamil, even with interviewers that I wouldn’t consider well versed with cinema. It was still a very good interview.
I respectfully disagree that “there are a plethora of channels to meet that demand”. There is a wide gap in the quality of those interviews when compared to what you see here (not just from BR, but from the others at FC north and south). Abhishek and Maathevan are reasonably good. However, while they will criticize a piece of work in the presence of others, they seldom use that criticism to frame a question when they are interviewing the creator/actor. In fact they often feel the need to pander to them.
E.g., take the case of Rajeev Masand’s interview of SLB, where he asks about Rowdy Rathore and points out that it did not make sense to “see your name attached” to a film like that. SLB answered it very well. For those interested, here’s the link (give it a few seconds before it gets to that part):
Now, I understand that there are some interviewees that will take not criticism well, but a good interviewer will find a way to put it across without being mean and have a good discussion. In that sense, I feel let down when I watch most of these other interviews in Tamil.
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Ramchander Krishna (@ramctheatheist)
January 28, 2018
I agree with nathanrh. I faced a similar issue while writing about Bala and Mahendran for Film Companion. I wanted to include links to watch good quality prints of their films with proper English subtitles. They’re very difficult to find. In fact, I remember Mahendran mentioning in an interview that he himself doesn’t have access to all of his films. So for a book on non-Tamil cinema to work commercially, I feel it should be paired up with some means to access the films that the book talks about, maybe even with retrospective film screenings.
Agree on Sanjay Shankar’s point too. The interviews in Tamil on Youtube these days are pandering and hardly of any value. From a 20-minute interview, you’d roughly get 2 or 3 points that were worth your time. Koffee with Anu used to be really good in bringing out the interviewee’s thoughts & personality but you don’t have it any longer.
Also Rangan, subtitling your English videos in Tamil is an option to consider or publishing a Tamil transcript of an English interview (eg: your interview with Sab John). The Moving Images YouTube channel began to do this recently. There’s a sizeable chunk of assistant directors and film enthusiasts whose primary language of reading & consumption is Tamil. I feel there are many ideas about cinema in your blog which should get communicated to them in some way. For example, when you explain why a film works or doesn’t work for you and it’s a current film that’s also being debated in Tamil circles, your views if translated could add to that discussion. (Eg: Your Iraivi review)
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நவீன்
January 31, 2018
Madhavan did point out the same crunch during his interview with you. He like most of other urban Indians are more with ease in English than Hindi or even Tamil, but even with his webseries named in English on a streaming platform no English version. And I expected Siddharth’s The Girl Next Door to be an English but no it’s only Hindi. Remind me of a night we bought tickets at Sathyam for movie called Christian Brothers which ended up being a Malayalam movie.
Why is southern dubbed movies telecasted in Hindi channel without the original title but English dubbed stick to original name thou movies are still released with phony titles in South. Which brings back Ayirathil Oruvan Hindi dubbed on satellite channel with a Hindi commentary running explaining second half ceremonies that were never needed in the original version but ended better than your AskBR.
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weeguttersnipe
February 8, 2018
I am not from India and I yet I love Tamil cinema (as well as many non-Hindi Indian industries). It is only through the writing in English I am able to find more to explore in cinema. I agree if you want Tamil cinema to be appreciated by many people beyond the Tamil speaking population, then it needs to be accessible to non-Tamil speakers through subtitles and articles. In the past few years there have been more Tamil movies releasing to dvds without subtitles. It is frustrating. As more movies move to digital platforms I hope subtitles will become more common.There are many people love to experience the cinema of different cultures, but only if it is accessible.
This is not only an issues for Tamil films, but all films. English is a start, but there are fans all over the world.
In the same vein, Mr. Rangan, please go back to your practice of translating the dialogues you mention during your articles.
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