2014's most interesting storytellers & their movies!

[MysteRy]

2014's most interesting storytellers & their movies!



2014 was an exciting year for Tamil cinema. This is a time when directors, young and old, are experimenting with new themes and new ways to tell the old stories. The audience, too, has been welcoming of this change. There was a time when producers were reluctant to invest in a movie if it had little known faces or did not have the requisite ‘glamour’ to bring the crowds into the theatre. But though the regular masala films do find their way to the big screen, there are far more ‘adventurous’ films being made today than ever before. Here are some films that came out this year that were not especially original in story but employed interesting storytelling techniques.

[MysteRy]

Madras was the come-back film for Karthi who was going through a lean period of sorts for a long time. Story-wise, Madras isn’t mind-blowing. A familiar tale of gang wars, misdirected youth, cunning politicians, and some romance thrown in for good measure. However, the storytelling in the film was exceptional.

The plot moves along an expected track but the strength is in its narration. Attacking superstition and exposing the political machinations behind established rituals, Madras was unafraid to make its point consistently and courageously throughout the film, frame after frame.

[MysteRy]

Jigarthanda was another gangster film that went on to become a big success at the box office this year.

A gangster’s life needn’t always be about sending people to an early grave or riddling the landscape with bullets. He can have artistic ambitions, too! Written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj, who has already shown us his genius for tongue-in-cheek storytelling, Jigarthanda spills its blood and gore in a surprisingly hilarious fashion.

The storyline is fairly direct but the storytelling is not. The narrative makes jumps, refuses to settle for linearity, and on the whole keeps the audience on its toes, asking for more though we all know throughout that everyone’s going to be happy in the end.

[MysteRy]

Directed by Parthiban, Kathai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam was promoted as a film without a story. But the film itself is about storytelling and how movies are made. Where do stories come from? Where does inspiration come from? What are the behind-the-scene difficulties that storytellers face?

There are two strands in the film that the audience is expected to follow – reel life and real life. By juxtaposing these two narratives and consciously reminding us that we’re watching something that was scripted and is not actually real, KTVI is a lot like watching epic theatre. It works for the large part but the performance by much of the cast was a tad too amateurish for the film to really take off.

[MysteRy]

Balaji Mohan's Vaayai Moodi Pesavum is a romcom with the typical elements. Boy meets girl, girl isn’t interested, boy woos her, girl relents. Everyone’s happy. But the story is spiced up with the inclusion of a rare disease – the dumb flu. If affected by it, the person ends up losing the ability to speak. This element livens up proceedings in the film and creates much humour. It also provides scope for interesting sequences when the actors have to convey their emotions and thoughts without speaking a word.

This was a good breakaway from regular films where if not for noisy songs, the background score is always telling you how to feel and what to think about the scene you are watching! The miming was innovative and executed with finesse.

[MysteRy]

Kochadaiiyan told a story in a way that’s never been done before in Indian cinema, using 3-D animation and motion capture technology. The story wasn’t really anything to write home about and if it hadn’t been a Thalaivar film, one highly doubts that it would have received the kind of attention that it did.

The film, directed by Soundarya R Ashwain, was a far cry from big budget Hollywood productions like Avatar but that said, it was still a decent first for India technology-wise.

With 2015 just around the corner, here’s hoping that the new year ushers in newer ways of telling the stories that we so love to watch!