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dangermousieI am dipping my toes into Tamil cinema. And what a delightful dip it is! The movie in question is Dumm Dumm Dumm, a film that's making me want to check out other Tamil films.(I've seen and enjoyed KK and Bombay, but neither, while excellent, made me want to check out more. Must be the mustaches).
The plot of DDD is simple: Two youngsters are engaged to each other by their parents, village neighbors. But neither Adiyan (Madhavan) nor Ganga (Jyothika) are interested in getting married. They cannot tell this to their fathers openly (not only would that really be going against tradition, but also neither of them has the courage), but they get together and decide to scheme their way out. Of course, these schemes bring them closer and closer together, and they end up falling in love for real.
Tamil cinema (the movie industry of Tamil Nadu in India) is known to be a lot less Westernized, a lot less glitzy, a lot less glam and more down to earth than Bollywood. And much as I adore Bollywood's spun dreams, I find that Tamil movies (if DDD is any indication) have a charm of their own. In practice, the above difference means that the actors are darker-skinned and plumper, that the women wear traditional clothes, and the settings are a lot more rural. Oh, and the men love their mustaches. The village where the story takes place, while I am sure much more clean and cinematic than a normal one, looks more real than Bollywood's villages, and the movie shows normal rhythms of life: the lanes are dusty, you see one of the fathers operate a mill (the process for sifting grain is actually kind of interesting), and Ganga dances in the mud of the fields. The actors look different too. They are attractive, but 'realer.' Jyothika is cute, but she is cute in the way of a girl you pass on the street and fleetingly notice. Madhavan is attractive (and has no mustache!), but he is attractive in the way of that boy in class that you notice at the start of the semester and add to the list of people you might not mind going out with if he asks. They are largely attractive because of charm and not looks. It's a rather nice difference.
And the acting is really good. Madhavan is one of Mani Ratnam's regulars (Mani Ratnam is one of my favorite movie directors. He makes both Tamil and Hindi movies), and there is a reason for that: he stole the show in every movie I've seen him in. And Jyothika (it's the second movie I've seen her in) is equally delightful.
And the music numbers are really cool.
The plot of DDD is simple: Two youngsters are engaged to each other by their parents, village neighbors. But neither Adiyan (Madhavan) nor Ganga (Jyothika) are interested in getting married. They cannot tell this to their fathers openly (not only would that really be going against tradition, but also neither of them has the courage), but they get together and decide to scheme their way out. Of course, these schemes bring them closer and closer together, and they end up falling in love for real.
Tamil cinema (the movie industry of Tamil Nadu in India) is known to be a lot less Westernized, a lot less glitzy, a lot less glam and more down to earth than Bollywood. And much as I adore Bollywood's spun dreams, I find that Tamil movies (if DDD is any indication) have a charm of their own. In practice, the above difference means that the actors are darker-skinned and plumper, that the women wear traditional clothes, and the settings are a lot more rural. Oh, and the men love their mustaches. The village where the story takes place, while I am sure much more clean and cinematic than a normal one, looks more real than Bollywood's villages, and the movie shows normal rhythms of life: the lanes are dusty, you see one of the fathers operate a mill (the process for sifting grain is actually kind of interesting), and Ganga dances in the mud of the fields. The actors look different too. They are attractive, but 'realer.' Jyothika is cute, but she is cute in the way of a girl you pass on the street and fleetingly notice. Madhavan is attractive (and has no mustache!), but he is attractive in the way of that boy in class that you notice at the start of the semester and add to the list of people you might not mind going out with if he asks. They are largely attractive because of charm and not looks. It's a rather nice difference.
And the acting is really good. Madhavan is one of Mani Ratnam's regulars (Mani Ratnam is one of my favorite movie directors. He makes both Tamil and Hindi movies), and there is a reason for that: he stole the show in every movie I've seen him in. And Jyothika (it's the second movie I've seen her in) is equally delightful.
And the music numbers are really cool.
