A new Tamil film, ‘Komaligal King’, by King Rutnam, who hails from an illustrious family of talented artistes, is now featured in most theatres in the island. After several decades a full length film has been made. I hesitate to call it a ‘feature film’ because it is a cocktail of unconventional cheap entertainment that makes the neglected audience relish the robust lifestyle of the underprivileged, living in the shanties of Colombo. The high living and middle class audience, I doubt, would sit through this loud blast of babbling of dialects and slapsticks in the name of comic scenes. The audience at the premiere of the film at the Regal last week thoroughly enjoyed the film with laughter, merriment, whistling and clapping.
As a film critic I sat through this so-called entertainment watching how the mass audience reacted so enthusiastically and I was happy that the class of people enjoyed themselves that evening.
The class distinction is one point that the director intentionally or not, successfully underlines in his film. Never have I seen in a local Tamil film the actualities of proletarian and underground people in their social makeup.
For this and the collaborative effort in rejuvenating Lankan cinema using the different dialects of Tamil spoken in Lanka, I congratulate the newcomer filmmaker.
The fact that a film has been made in Tamil after 40 years or so itself is a thing for celebration.
The other and most important point that the director scores is to be noted.
The story is that of a middle class man living in U K, who visits his motherland with his family, wife, teenage daughter and young son, and spends all the money they had in buying luxury items in Colombo.
They go to Tamil speaking areas in a van driven by a Sinhala driver and returning to Colombo, the husband allows himself to be kidnapped by a gang of shanty dwellers perhaps to escape from his financially broke family. He enjoys the simple and rustic life of the common people and proclaims that it was this life that he longed for and enjoyed.
In other words, living with the poor, though distasteful to his middle class sentiments, he really enjoys the company of thugs who plan and try to execute a scheme that failed ultimately.
The director himself plays the role of the husband. The Colombo dialect- a mixture of slangs- in all three languages was interesting. The Muslim and the Tamil gangs use a hybrid language which was understood by the people who were at the Regal that day. I for one could not understand the meaning of the words they used. The players were all well-known media personalities. I regret I couldn’t get their names. The person who played the Colombo rowdy, the Sinhala auto driver and the one who played the master planning, and two actors featured in Sinhala films gave substance to the film. I appreciate their acting.
The film was trilingual in parts and the English subtitles were helpful to many.Beautiful shots of our motherland were stunning and the camera people need to be applauded. That is about the film.
Now, I come to my theme which is, why the local Tamil film could not survive in the context of the influx of Tamil films produced in Kodambaakam.
1. There was no market for Lankan Tamil films in other Tamil speaking countries, including Tamil Nadu.
2. Our films could not compete with the Tamil Nadu films.
3. The superior technological devices found could not be had in Lanka.
4. The typical spoken Tamil in Yaalpaanam and the typical Tamil spoken in the hill country could not be understood by the Lankan Tamil audience fed by and conditioned by the Tami Nadu spoken language.
5. The speed in which the Tamil spoken by Yaalpaanam Tamils and the Malayaalam like Tamil spoken by Madakalappu Tamils were not familiar to the people in the western and southern parts of Lanka.
6. The acting was more stagier than film like.
7. Inexperienced actors could not meet the expectation of the audience.
8. Failure in communication was the key factor
9. Local theatres would not screen Lankan Tamil films as they opted for box office Indian Tamil masala films.
10. Entertainment was minimal and pretentious seriousness took the upper hand
There are more reasons for the failure of the Lankan Tamil cinema.
However, a few films like Vaaik Kaattu were reasonably good.
But with the direction given by new Sinhala film directors and the holding of international film festivals and with the newly formed film conscious critics and short film makers in the north, east, and even in Malyaham (hill country) there is much optimism now. These are signs that truly Lankan identified Tamil films will be made in the near future with peace and conducive political climate. And, understanding what a film is would be necessary.