A
man’s attire determines his civilized status.
A well-dressed man or woman makes a good impression.
He or she is also able to build a good rapport with
others. While it is not necessary to be flamboyant or
hip, we generally accept new influences in our sartorial
preferences. This article seeks to explore the impact
that our screen gods (and goddesses)
have
had over our dressing styles over the years.
In
the early stages of Tamil cinema, our heroes usually
played kings and soldiers. They strode around in royal
finery way beyond the reach of the common man. Women
also portrayed queens and mistresses. But, the accessories
like jewelry or hairstyle created an impact in the
viewers. Long flowing flower strings were a rage then
as also the kunjalams at the tip of the plait. The
traditional pavadai thavani or the sari was worn with
great aplomb and silk, velvet and satin were in demand.
Then came the era of the so-called social films. The
heroes began to wear trousers. The broad-pleated trousers
were made popular by Gemini Ganesan and MGR. MKT and
NSK had a unique hairstyle and several men sported
the
‘Bhagavathar’
style. Women started wearing modern outfits like tops,
sneakers and our own salwar kameez. But the sari with
matching and lavishly embellished blouses still reigned
supreme. Slowly, but steadily the salwar kameez and
Western imports like jeans and T-shirts made inroads
into women’s choice of clothing. Sari was liked
only by married and older women. But, there was a huge
interest in accessories like Nadiya bindi, Kushboo bangles
and so on. The progress was quite limited in the men’s
section. There was only an occasional trend about a
particular hairstyle, but nothing more.
In
the post-modern films, some heroines like Revathy(remember
her Anjali sari?) or Ramya Krishnan as Neelambari in
Padayappa made some impact. Otherwise, most heroines
are used only for the bubblegum effect. They are themselves
accessories to the movies and hence their clothing does
not evoke much interest. The clothes are becoming scantier
by the day and nobody can wear it to work or a party.
It just provides some titillation to the viewers. The
current audience has several sources of information
on fashion and hence, movies are not the only barometer
for measuring the fashion trend.
