Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Tragedy about the Tragedy

Cinema, fiction are very different from our real life. Real life has a lot of irrational things. But fiction, cinema are technically rational, these mediums present the ‘edit’ version of real life.
2 characters meet and they speak about a point and they speak so that the reader/ viewer understand sthe context. This can never happen in real life.
Take this example
“Do you really have to go?”, asks the mother
“Yes amma. This is educational tour and we are going to Udhagamandalam to study the tribes life”, replied the daughter
Do you see how crystal clear the dialogue is? But can you be sure that this is how the incidents happen in real life? The woman and her daughter would’ve spoken the same things, but it would have been lengthy exchange and could’ve happened over a period of week. But for the sake of Fiction/ cinema the creator has given the distilled information.
Now there is this craze in Tamil Cinema to take a rustic story with a tragic end. But what is tragic in this tragic cinema is the tragedy is irrational!
Take for example ‘Vennila Kabadikulu’, the movie goes for a smooth finish, but the director decides that he needs a tragedy. Nothing works like tragedy, the sympathetic wave of the crowd is extremely important.
So the hero dies accidently. Yes! Accident happens in real life too! Life is so irrational that suddenly a person dies in an accident. But in cinema you cannot do it. You should be as rational as possible.
It’s ok if a character dies of an accident and then the story can be how the people around come terms of what happened. The story can provide space for how rationally the characters react. But abruptly ending a story with a tragedy is a ‘tragedy’ of creativity.
In ‘Valmiki’ the hero is a thief and he finally turns a new leaf and all of a sudden someone snatches the gold chain from the heroine and she gets cut in her neck and she dies. Come on! Be creative, it’s easy to make people cry but it’s difficult to make the tragedy rational. And it’s the duty of the creator to make it rational.

Mirza Raja - Blurb

“We are not slaves of Mughals, to not to care for the empire during time of distress. We are very much part of the glorious Mughal empire. We are partners, stakeholders”

The life of a Rajput Commander of the Mughal Empire.



This story I wrote recently can be called 'narrative non-fiction'.
I tried my best to be faithful to history.
I was intrigued by this Rajput Commander, who witnessed and co-created some of the important events in his time period.
He was eclipsed by some prominent historical figures, I just had a glimpse of him and thought how big role he might've played and did my research which confirmed my intution.

If you want to read this story drop a mail and i will send it across to you.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Don’t fool you readers

I’d seen soaps where in an important event happens. I mean I know when I see that event that it cannot happen. Soap proceeds very slowly why should there be an important breakthrough now and guess what.
An actor wakes up from his sleep, forehead sprinkled with sweat, he gets relaxed that it was just a dream. But you viewer may not get relaxed! This is just cheating the viewer.
The viewer/ reader should be pleasantly surprised but should not get irritated or fooled. If the creator takes care of the above rule the world will be a better place.
In Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, there is the last song where the Hero and Heroine gets married in America. I’ve no issues with it being a dream song, but the hero’s crew members were present in that song, making it feel like a real life event. This is really a let down!
I recently read “The Runaway Jury” a brilliant thriller, but if you look back after reading the whole novel. The girl need not have contacted the Plaintiff lawyer., she contacted the lawyer just to distract us.
I’m given up on thrillers because they try to fool you, there is nothing wrong in not revealing a secret, but distracting you with a non-event is silly.
Why can’t the creators (directors of movie, serial, writers) be more conscious and try entertaining the readers