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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Different arena to play around...

This is how (the title), I will term the current scenario where in we are getting successful novelists / journalists into Cine field. Earlier, you might have observed adaptation of hit novels / stories into movies. In those type of movies, the main stories were tweaked mostly to suit the cine audience mood. Sometimes, the original plot alone had been kept with more commercial elements added, to make them hits.

I could remember some of those novels, which were adapted so...

SUJATHA's - 'Gayathri' & 'Priya' [In 'Priya' you could have observed several tweaks compared to the original plot & characters]. Two years back, one of his interesting novel 'Nila kaalam' was directed by Gandhi Krishna [director of 'Chellame'] Eventhough, this movie didn't run well commercially, it got a recognition among critics. There was a news few months back, that he had accepted for adaptation of his 'Pirivom.. Santhipom' too.
RAJENDRAKUMAR's - 'Vanakathukuriya Kaathaliyee' (Sridevi)
JAYAKANTHAN's - 'Sila Nerangalil Sila Manitharkal' & 'Oru Nadigai Nadagam Paarkiraal' [I believe, the second one also had Lakshmi in the lead]
SIVASANKARI's - '47 Natkal' (by K.B. with Chiranjeevi & Jayapratha), 'Nandu' (by Mahendran), 'Kutty' (a simple story well made by Janaki Viswanathan)
Pushpa THANGADURAI's - 'Oru Oothappoo Kan Simitukirathu'
T.JANAKIRAMAN's - 'Moga mul' (directed by Gnana Rajasekaran)

and may be some more, which I might have missed.. like Writer Lakhsmi's works (help, please...)

Of late, that trend has changed. Now our novelists & journalists have been lured with attractive returns, to have better involvement in the cine field. You could have observed several novel stories & punch dialogues in the last couple of years by some of these well known personalities led by Sujatha.

Our DBI team takes you thru the path for few mintues....


SUJATHA, who is celebrating his silver jubilee in film industry, has been associated with the leading directors for a long time. His association with the industry was so thick that, he led PentaMedia for sometime into various film ventures. His involvement stretches from story discussions, dialogues till the end of the movie, which is an inspirational one to the youth of these days.

His work which got started with K.B.'s 'Ninaithaale Inikkum', had fueled many other leading directors in the last two decades. Couple of his interesting ventures were - with Maniratnam (Roja), Bharathi Raja (Nadodi Thendral), Shankar (Indian, Mudhalvan, Boys, Anniyan) Ravichandran (if I'm not wrong, it was 'Kannethire thondrinaal', pl.correct me if not), Jeeva (Ullam Ketkumae) and the list goes on...

As everybody is aware, now he is completely into 'Sivaji' discussions. During an interview in our local FM 96.8 last week, he was very cautious in delivering project details of that movie. He admitted that he & Shankar's team need to be careful, since more hype is surrounding this mega venture. There was another interesting revelation during that interview. It seems, when Rajini approached him for 'Baba', he refused since the movie required contributions for its spiritual part which was ultimately taken up by Balakumaran. [he honestly said that he could not have justified his role].

His relationship which seemed to have started with Kamal 2 decades back, continued with 'Vikram' and couple of other movies which followed it. As a friend, it seems he got involved in many of Kamal's movies. Now he is also involved with Kamal-KSR-Crazy Mohan team for 'Dasavatharam', eventhough this movie is not portrayed as a comedy movie (inspite of those 10 roles, publicized). Trust this successful team presents another interesting stuff to the audience.


BALA KUMAARAN - I was so impressed with his 'Thaayumaanavan' novel (televised for DD in the early 90s), that I became his hardcore fan and started reading all his novels.. Eventhough, I have lost touch with his writings of late, I had come across several works of him thru movies. Eventhough his novels were not converted into celluloid packages, his involvement in dialogues had brought out several interesting movies to the front.

Some of his involvements were with Maniratnam (Nayagan), Shankar (Kaadhalan, Jeans) and several other directors for Guna, Mugavari, King, Citizen, Baba, Athu, Jananam, Manmathan, Thotti Jaya etc., His upcoming movies too have interesting directors / actors.. Selvaraghavan / Dhanush's 'Pudhupet', Simbu's 'Vallavan', Arya's 'Kalaba Kaathalan', SPB's 'En uyirilum Melana' etc.,

The famous duo writers SU-BA (Suresh-Bala) are expected to join KV.Anand once again for his new venture, after their previous successful involvement (Story/dialogues) in 'Kana kandein'. I could recollect Sarath's 'Chanakya' as well, as another plot requiring some sharp dialogues in which they were reportedly successful. Hope to see many more interesting plots from these Duo writers.

As far as I know 'Pattukottai' PRABHAKAR had penned for movies like Balaji Sakthivel/Vikram Combo's 'Samurai', Satyaraj's 'Maaran' and Prasanna's 'Kaathal dot com'. Still some striking movies are yet to come from him. I heard he is busy involving in couple of movie projects currently.

Cartoonist / Journalist MADAN showed his knowledge on several issues thru his involvement in Kamal's 'Anbe Sivam' [including those famous 'Tsunami' dialogues, well ahead of our Dec-26 incident]. I have also understood that he was involved in the recent thriller 'Aayul regai'. {probably BALAJI can confirm this, being the only person in my known circle who had seen this movie}. Trust he would pen for some more interesting movies.. Let us wait and see.





Definitely this arrival of more number of specialised novelists / journalists have brought in fresh air in the area of "story / screenplay / dialogues", which used to be typically occupied with masala stuff. Hope this continues and we get to view more watchable stuff from our energetic youth directors and artists.
226th post

14 Comments:

Blogger crsathish said...

pretty good article sir...

Thursday, November 10, 2005 4:27:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good work by the DBI team.. pretty much everything has been covered.. Their contribution certainly increases the quality of the movie. One notable writer whose novel I would like to see as movies is Rajesh Kumar.

I remember Lakshmi's 'Sirai' as the only movie from her novels.

Jayakanthan's "Agraharathil Kazhuthai" was made into film.

And, Balakumaran penned dialogues for "Gentleman" too.

Thursday, November 10, 2005 4:37:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sure, the arrival of these writers has brought a great change to screenplays and dialogues.. Madan did a fantastic work in Anbe Sivam.

I am not really happy with the way novels have been turned into movies. Interpreting a novel on the screen is a big task. I think the nuances and emotions which the writer etches across the length of the novel get lost when being stacked up into scenes in a movie. Mogamul is one great example for this. I was cursing gnana rajashekaran for a long time.

I wish the cine guys went for short stories rather than movies. Short stories just give you the core of the story thereby allowing you to use your own creativity to form the rest of the screenplay. Memento is one fine example for this.

Thursday, November 10, 2005 5:31:00 PM  
Blogger ada-paavi!!!! said...

nice post, good analysis

Thursday, November 10, 2005 6:22:00 PM  
Blogger Arvind Srinivasan said...

How about 'rosa poo ravikkaikari' and 'karai ellam shenbagha poo' ??

are they also Sujatha's stories that were made into movies ? or am i totally crapping ?

Thursday, November 10, 2005 6:45:00 PM  
Blogger Ram C said...

Sathish.. :-) :-)

Raju.. Yes, the team(!!) missed 'Sirai' of Lakshmi. Thanks. Reg. that 'Gentleman' portion, the team(!!) was curious enough to find... Since, they(!!) didn't have any confirmation, it left was left just like that...

Prasanna.. Recently I had a chance to watch 'Moha Mul'.. But I didn't. It may be possible that it would be difficult to visualise the feelings, as portrayed in the novels. that's where these guys tweak the stories...

Vatsan.. :-) :-) thankz

Aravin.. I remember now that 'karaiyellam senbaga poo' was based on Sujatha's novel only. But, am not sure about 'rosapoo ravikkaikari'.. 5/10 to you :-) :-)

Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:43:00 PM  
Blogger Devilish Angel said...

Nice post...

Friday, November 11, 2005 3:39:00 AM  
Blogger Cogito said...

DBI comprehensive as usual. Not many literary works are getting made these days and perhaps even the audience for them is scant now.

some addition :

Kalki -- Parthiban Kanavu

Friday, November 11, 2005 6:42:00 AM  
Blogger Narayanan Venkitu said...

Amazing post Ram. I liked every bit of it. Wonder how long you took to collect this info.

I didn't know that Sujatha is doing ( dialogue ??) for Sivaji.!

But I like his writing style. Crisp/short / straight.! I bought a cartoon DVD recently. PANDAVAS. vERY NICE cartoon I thought, dialogue by Sujatha.!!

Thanks for the info.!!

Friday, November 11, 2005 10:49:00 PM  
Blogger gP said...

A very good read. Thank you for posting so well.

Saturday, November 12, 2005 6:56:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ram, as usual, detailed analysis by DBI team!

Saturday, November 12, 2005 6:57:00 PM  
Blogger Krish said...

Good round-up Ram. I was having dinner yesterday at a friend's place and he mentioned with surprise that at this age, Sujatha has the energy and talent to write for movies. I said actually that is what keeps him going :-)

Sunday, November 13, 2005 5:32:00 PM  
Blogger Siddharth said...

high time that each person is allotted the job that suits him best...kb according 2 me iswas basically a story and dialogue writer,more a playwright/scrrenplay writer than a director...like hollywood he must have stuck 2 that.how classy say sindhu bairavi or arangetram will be if directed by mani rathnam?

i am glad men like sujatha are coming into films.wish there are more directors who dont dilute their story content.

i didnt know whoBALA KUMAARAN is.now i will watch out 4 him since he is involved in pudupettai!!!

Thursday, November 17, 2005 5:55:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The screenplay & dialogues (or was it only the dialogues?) were by one Mr. Madhan (as I noticed in it's promos).
And I still think it might not be the cartoonist Madhan as if it had been so, there would have been some marketing effort on that front which was not there. Well, I am not too sure.

Friday, November 25, 2005 5:30:00 AM  

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