Drama in Cinema

Recently as I was switching channels I chanced upon a song from the recent Tamil film, 'Kaviya Thalaivan'. The background for the story is supposed to be a drama troupe of the 1930s or 1940s in Tamilnadu. I haven't seen the movie so I cannot comment on how the movie dealt with this but the song was very disappointing. As a standalone tune the song is not bad but the overall effect was quite bad. No one seems to have taken any pains to recreate that era. The director, the art director, the music director: No one seems to have put in effort to give an authentic feel. Instead the dance seemed like a pale imitation of a Broadway musical rather than a song from the 1930s drama.

This song and the movie reminded me of a few Indian films in which are set in the world of theater. I could immediately think of three such films (I know there are many more). I will write briefly about them.

The first film I will take up is not strictly about theater. It is about a dancing troupe in which the members of the troupe dress up as film heroes and heroines and dance to film songs. These are known as 'Recording Dance'. Vamshi, the quirky film director, makes such a recording dance troupe the focus of his film, 'Sree Kanakamahalakshmi Recording Dance Troupe'.

Nominally the movie is a love story with a villain as usual trying to disrupt the proceeding and the lead pair winning in the end. To a large extent, the main theme is not what will enrich your watching experience. It is the amazing recreation of the dance troupe atmosphere by Vamsi which is refreshing. The small town feel, the petty jealousies, Godavari dialect and the amazing humor give a very authentic feel to the movie. Vamsi is aided by actors like Kota Srinivasa Rao, Nirmala, Tanikella Barani and Y.Vijaya who speak the dialect perfectly and whose comic timing is inch perfect. Here is one amazing humorous set piece from the movie wherein everything - timing, acting, the setup - comes together to give us one of the best comedy sequence you will see in a Telugu film.



Or watch this scene which with great humor depicts the problems faced by the dancing troupe:



And here is one 'Record Dance' as we call it. The original song featured the hero, Krishna, who is being imitated. It was from the movie 'Gudachari 116'. Illayaraja has re-orchestrated the song keeping the original tune intact.



The Malayalam film 'Yavanika' is nominally a mystery thriller. A tabla player of a theater group disappears suddenly. A police inspector investigates the case and interrogates the members of the drama troupe. Slowly a full profile of the drama troupe emerges with its rivalries and loyalties. More importantly the character of Ayyappan slowly comes to the fore. The murder mystery is finally solved. The movie is good not because of the 'whodunit' aspect but because of the way it recreates the theater atmosphere. K.G.George does a terrific job in putting us bang in the middle of a drama troupe. The whole movie has a lived-in experience, probably because many of the actors had a drama background?

Here is a song from the movie which gives us a glimpse of the theater. Music by M B Srinivasan. Lyrics of ONV Kurup:



The movie had many actors who would later be a part of the legends of Malayalam cinema: Mamooty, Thilakan, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathi Sreekumar. Towering above all these talent actors was Bharat Gopi, the man who plays the role of Ayyapan, the tabla player who disappears. Gopi was at the peak of his powers at that time. He enters the movie very late but once he comes in, you will have eyes for no one else. He plays the role of a drunken, manipulative, lecherous man to perfection. If you have seen him as a harmless lazy bum in 'Kodiyattan' you will not believe it is the same person who is playing the role of Ayyappan. A film definitely worth watching for its re-creation of Malayalam theater and for Bharath Gopi's amazing performance.

A friend once shared me a small snippet about this movie. When the director George asked Bharath Gopi to play this role, Gopi demurred saying he did not know how to play the tabla. George replied, "But Ayyappan knows" That clinched the argument. Here you can see how effective is Gopi's tabla playing.


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Ritwik Ghatak's films were known for their emotional intensity. It is very difficult to remain unaffected after watching 'Megha Dhake Tara', 'Subarnarekha', 'Titas Ek Nadir Naam' and 'Nagarik'. They are heart wrenching dramas. 'Komal Gandhar' though is different from other Ghatak movies in that it is more a light-hearted movie with a bit of comic touch. The world of theater is the backdrop against which the delicate romance between the hero and the heroine plays out. Music plays a very important role in this movie. (I had written about a song from this movie, 'Aaj Jyotsna Raatein' in this same blog) and all the songs are very nice to hear. Ghatak brings the authentic milieu of Bengal theater in front of our eyes. In this scene, with a song playing in the background, you get to see how they achieve 'special effects' in dramas of those days with very minimal props.



Here is a terrific song which casually depicts the camaraderie between the troupe members



Let me know if you know of other films in which the theater backdrop was used effectively.