In the first scene of DeMonte
Colony, when a young wannabe film maker starts narrating his story to his
producer, the producer asks what the title is. He replies “DeMonte Colony” and
the title appears on the screen with an eerie background score. This is how
young wannabe movie buffs want to make cinema. They are triggered by an urge to
do something different from what the audiences have been fed to all these days
but are constantly pestered by the itch to ensure that their audiences are not left off the hook for even one moment, and they do it even if it needs the breaking of the fourth wall.
A similar scene in Pizza, Karthik
Subbaraj’s debut movie, came at the end where the hero himself is caught in his
own concocted story which turns real and the doors shutting around him, giving
the audience, a desperate nudge to leave the hall with a shock. The film should
have ended when the hero starts his bike in slow motion, getting away with his
felony, and the truth is revealed that none of what the audience have been
seeing all this time is true. It could have been pulling the rug or even the marbled
floor beneath the feet of the audience. It is possible that a section of the
audience could have been pissed off at such an ending which pulls off a trick
at their expense. May be Karthik would not have wanted to alienate the elders
in the audience who would not accept a movie that allows bad guys to live in
impunity and happiness. But if he wanted
not to disappoint elders, he would not have spun the story around an unmarried
couple living together, at the first place. So please tell me, why do directors
do something that they would not want to, only because they have to please
their masters (audience)? This is probably what every other working man who
chose to do a mediocre job, does at his workplace.
Today’s young film makers have
great ideas and brimming love for cinema more than their predecessors in
mainstream cinema possibly had. (Their ability and craft, I am not talking
about right now). But they plant themselves in situations similar to a gala
wedding, where you are pleased to see your crush which is a great chance to talk
with her but, to your disappointment, she is flanked with a mutual friend whom
you cannot avoid at all. You want to lavish your crush with all your heart and
attention but at the same time cannot afford to disengage your friend and you manage
by occasional questions to him about his pending visa process, his parents’
endeavors to get his sister married, etc. But you may know, whatever you do for
your friend, he is going to feel disgusted with you.
But I am not going to sermonize,
enumerating every tenet of the The Holy ‘Follow Your Heart’ Bible. Both DeMonte
Colony and Pizza are well intentioned movies, to say the least. Both are horror
movies and made by first time directors. Both are so self-conscious that they
were doing something that others had not and both have nods to specific sections
of audience through stars like Rajni(in the former),Vijay (in the latter).
Pizza focused on ‘living together’ problems and DeMonte Colony features an
extra marital affair, though a (needless) backstory. I am getting more
similarities if I start rummaging through my ‘compare and contrast’ nerves of
my analytical brain. But there is one striking difference. Pizza knew what it
was doing. DeMonte Colony loses its consciousness the moment the titles begin.
It is a great idea to plot the
story around an evil ghost, precisely because most of the horror movies center
on ghosts that are either humanized or ennobled by their flashbacks. And a
noble ghost rarely manages to spook me which is why I almost stopped watching
horror after Kanchana. It is a great idea to leave the ghost unrelieved from its
earthly origins even after the end and to remain mute throughout on why the
ghost haunts. It is a laudable idea that there is no attempt to shoehorn a
romantic track into the story or allow the audiences to get some comic relief
from the ordeal of the haunting.
But the ideas remain attractive
only as much as they appear now even after the viewing. As critic Baradwaj
Rangan used to repeat in every review, ideas need to be shepherded from the
brain to paper and reworked meticulously for the final journey on to the screen. I hear Ajay Gnanamuthu, the director belongs to my age which is possibly
too young for any film maker. Dear Ajay, hundred people can have ideas. Fifty
people can have good ones and twenty can have great ones like you do. But not
even four or five get the stage to narrate them aloud. Since you have qualified
into the last four, you can inspire others. We wannabe artists look up to young
film makers like you to make it big on the stage. As we predicted, Karthik
Subbaraj did it big with Jigarthanda. DeMonte Colony is already a hit, yet we don’t
want to predict something for you the way M.S.Bhaskar did in that uninspired
movie of yours.
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