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Time to stop the ‘Vettrinadai’!
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What
is this ‘Vettrinadai Podugirathu’?
That is a phrase we have been hearing at the rate
of 100 per hour over the past year or so. And
the ‘Vettrinadai’ is always on show
at an ‘Abhimana Thirayarangu’; another
phrase that threatens to make viewers tear their
hair out in desperation. Turn on the TV (any channel
of the SUN Network to be precise) and you are
told once every two minutes that a movie that
was apparently acquired by them during the final
rounds of production is now strutting a ‘Vettrinadai’
at the ‘Abhimana Thirayarangugal’
near you. You watch it until you can stand no
more and decide to take refuge in the numerous
FM radio stations only to discover that they are
also part of this all pervading ‘Vettrinadai’
nexus.
No one knows from when, where or from whose brain
this phrase originated. But, it was definitely
an inauspicious and unlucky moment for Tamil cinema.
For many years we have bemoaned the lack of originality
and out of the box thinking in the storylines
and themes that are presented on screen. While
that problem still persists, we now have
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this
new problem to deal with; the absolute lack of imagination,
integrity and transparency in promoting or publicizing
a film.
No one who has at least a passive interest in TV, FM
and movies can deny having heard the ‘Vettrinadai’
phrase umpteen number of times. And to make things even
worse, there is the occasional ‘Ulagamengum’
prefix added to this publicity gimmick. What ‘Ulagamengum’,
one tends to ask? Well, Tamil cinema will be blessed
if this ‘Ulagamengum’ covers at least 20%
of the space on the globe where cinema is a popular
form of entertainment. Yet, minds behind publicity seem
to have no qualms in proclaiming that their film is
an ‘Ulagamengum’ success. That the ‘Ulagamengum’
claim is over the top will be plainly evident even to
a primary school student and in most cases is taken
only as poor joke on a sensible audience. But, it is
the ‘Vettrinadai’ overkill that might end
up damning all that is worth investing for while publicizing
a movie.
With every film holding the ‘Vettrinadai’
banner proudly (no matter what its fate at the box office),
it will in the long run make no sense to anyone. Such
loud and proud proclamations should be used as signals
to alert audiences about the presence of a good film
theater. But, everyone who releases a film is making
too much of the same kind of noise these days that it
becomes improbable for a viewer to distinguish the signal
from the noise. Speaking scientifically, the signal
to noise ratio is far too low for anyone to be able
to discern anything.
Of course, no one can question the right of a filmmaker
to promote his film in the most aggressive manner possible.
But, aggression sometimes becomes pretentious and misleading
which needs to be curbed. Such demands can look Utopian
in a country where it is okay to advertise alcohol and
tobacco products even though using a surrogate brand.
One cannot ask for laws which ensure that film makers
are honest in their claims about the ‘whooping’
success or otherwise of their movies. But, the film
industry can consider having internal checks and balances
which requires a film maker to substantiate his publicity
claims. This should make a film’s publicity more
believable and help the really good films garner the
right kind of attention. At present, the audience is
being presented with too much of one kind of publicity
to be able to tell the genuine claims from the hoaxes.
And, the most worrying factor here is the absolute lack
of originality that the Tamil film industry is exhibiting.
Every film is plainly copying the publicity tactics
of the former, trailers, banners, captions and all,
of which the ‘Vettrinadai’ overkill is a
classic example. Where has all the imagination and thinking
gone? Are there any dearth of glorifying phrases in
Tamil, where is the expression and individuality that
every film demands? At present, it is a ‘one size
fits all’ approach that is being followed for
publicizing films which is definitely not the best way
to do things.
If such ‘Vettrinadai’s, ‘Ulagamengum’s
and ‘Abhimana Thirayarangugal’s continue,
there will soon be a time when publicity for a film
will become a rather useless endeavor which no one really
cares for or listens to and every film will end up being
tagged with another phrase---- ‘Thiraikku Vandhu
sila maadhangale aana…… Ulaga Thulaikatchikalil
mudhal muraiyaga’. Let’s hope that such
a day does not come. May Tamil cinema’s ‘Vettrinadai’
continue!
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