watched this movie called anniyan yesterday.touted as a mega hit and marketed as a commodity this movie claims to be on of the most expensive movies made in south india.(not sure of the exact price though heard it was close to 25 crores) where that money went i still wonder because besides the songs(which i admit were shot in amazing locales) the rest of the movie seems like any other movie.
anyways getting to the point.the movie is about fighting corruption and the protagonist is a tamil iyengar youth(the hero is in his 40s)called rules ramanujam alias ambi and his multiple personalities.
wat got to me was the way in which the iyengars were portrayed.comic was what they tried to show. pathetic was what i felt. their food, their music,their clothes,their customs ok u get the point basically everything abt them. its not just this movie most south indian movies these days.so decided to make a classification of our filmy
tamil brahmin or tam brahms as they are stylishly called!!
TYPE 1
in thick soda buddy glasses with a huge namam on his head and clad in dirty faded kurta and veshti.
TYPE 2
poor wud be an understatement.miles below the poverty line.invariably an upright government clerk or koil pujari.if he is the former then he wud strongly be against corruption and hence cant rise in the ranks and has his entire family against him.and if he is the latter then he believes his God will take care of everything but she is not doing that at the moment.
TYPE 3
the one who is a stickler for rules and customs that were followed even before the rough draft of the Gita came into the picture.and what but the obvious can happen his daughter(it CANNNOT be his son) will fall in love with a christian/muslim.Father wont give up on his customs daughter wont give up on her love.
TYPE 4
extremely rare case but variation of the former- son who is against his father and so does everthing against his father's wishes. proves himself rite in the end.
and so the story goes.i think as the indian film industry is growing in all aspects so it can grow out of this cliche. none of the tam brahms i know are anything like this.they just like the rest. as in hit the disco saturdy nite, have grl frnds and eat a lot of other stuff besides curd rice!! and most often than not their folks cool abt it. i think its appreciable that there is a community that still follows its traditions and sticks by them.and this brahmin bashing is doing no one any gud.
