The wonder that was

Let us start by watching pAttum naanE.

Why would I tell you why yet, this is enjoyable enough for me to not have to bother telling you why.
Yet.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BAVFuEqqV-k

If you didn’t like that, you probably shouldn’t read further.

It is a memorable performance from all participants, not in the least, from Sivaji.

Now let us look at a precedent, that I stumbled upon yesterday

Here is P.U. Chinnappa from Jagathalaprathapan 1944

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mPzjb0R9bbg

He does everything Sivaji does in that performance, way better!

-looking on at his split-screen fellow performer at near perfect eye-level

- playing the instruments with virtuoso elan.

Do watch the video fully before reading the following, which will urge interruptions.

Histrionics
It seems likely he played the mridangam himself!

The ganjira player’s preparation, rasanai of the singer, the mridangist and konnakkOl player keeping thALam and many more are outstanding.

Film-Acting

However, what is phenomenal is the way it has been pieced together. Just think about how this would have been created. And that distinguishes acting for film as opposed to stage - from where all our acting talent then was sourced (and is oft derided for perceived inadequacies).

The instruments were presumably played by others for the audio  track and then ‘matched’ by Chinnappa’s acting. He sang – no dubbing there. But how about the konnakkOl? Looks like it was dubbed in – as there some lipsynch lapses later in the song.

And each frame was shot as many of number of times as the number of Chinnappas in it – bear that in mind as you read on.

2:22 to 2:32 : the singer and the konnakkOl are performing simultaneously – a challenge seemingly consciously avoided by APN 21 years later. 

You can see this again from 4:55 onwards at a closer frame when you assess the lip-sycnh match.

At 2:38-2:40 – look at how the mridangam, konnakOl and to a lesser extent the ganjira player ‘nod’ at a particular high the singer is hitting

At 2:52, when the konnakkOl takes over from singing mid-phrase, the singer’s pause and hand-over is perfect! He, and the mridangist, turn their attention at the exact same point.

Now, all this may merely(!) point to an actor-par-excellence displaying a good sense of timing.
What is more impressive is how the film-experience was created.

Techniques

 Look at the way it has been cut:

At 3:15 ganjira starts (off-frame) and the singer acknowledges him and it cuts to him. 
The cut is while he is playing – and he is perfectly playing.

Now - to make the bar higher - we can assume that there could have been imperfection in the ‘seemingly authentic playing’ which we don’t notice. Look at the next cut:

The jaw-dropping cut is at 3:29.

Before that you have the singer on the right and the ganjira on the left

The frame after that has the singer on the left and mridangam on the right

And it is cut in the middle of the swarams being sung. 

Mind you, each frame was shot multiple times. It wasn’t like there were multiple cameras shooting the singer performing once.So the precision with which this was edited was razor sharp – not missing even a fraction of a beat! And this happens many times after that.

And all this while the acting itself remains excellent- at 4:48, he will have you believe that the ganjira player is smiling one of those artistic camaraderie ones at someone there.

The constant communication and presumed eye-contact is incredible.

See how the konnakkOl player ends at 10:03 and then, in a wider frame the singer, receives it at 10:04!

Film aesthetic trajectory: 1944 to 1965!

To be clear,  I feel APN-Sivaji were going for a different kind of aesthetic and theirs is an achievement in their own right. I don’t mean to put them down at all. But for an update of something from a 21 years before their time – doesn’t it seem artistically so unambitious?

Watch pAttum naanE now. All of two minutes of split screen against ten minutes here. So many static frames with not a single cut-induced movement. It is dominated by single performer frames and two performer frames where only one is performing. It now feels like they didn’t challenge themselves much at all. One wonders why? 

That question may not be entirely their to answer. They were the best expressions of an era with its own aesthetic. But the trajectory that got them here from what was passing muster in 1944 is certainly curious.

It seems lazy to dismiss the early days of Tamil cinema as ‘mere’ translations of the stage, insinuating that there was naïve understanding of film grammar earlier, which ‘evolved’ later. Evolved to what we see in 1965?

On the contrary, to me, it seems the opposite is the case. Of course, this impression is not based on any comprehensive analysis but just anecdotal evidence (it’s not for nothing that my blog is named so!). Which of the two clips displayed a greater understanding of film medium, is beyond argument.

The more I watch earlier films, the more I feel there was a finer understanding of techniques, that was later abandoned in favour of a different kind of popular aesthetic. Perhaps someone more systematic and scholarly can pursue this more seriously and see if that indeed bears out.

Will leave you with an example of what I am talking about:

Ponmudi

Here is a clip from Ellis R Dungan’s Ponmudi. Here is RandorGuy’s write-up about the movie 

The clip covers a clichéd climax scene of an elder blessing the union of the hero and heroine in the very spot where the climax fight has happened.

It is a fairly regular sequence which surely has precedents and has been repeated several times later.

Now, what is particularly special about the film medium – say, as opposed to the written word. It is the simultaneity of action.

There are several things going on in the visual frame and soundscape – even when the emphasis is ‘directed’ to a particular part of the action.

Dungan enlives the scene by letting the groans of the defeated villains persist in the sound of that scene.

That is, while the film is proceeding towards a subham ending, the place in which the film is taking place retains its ‘reality’.

Watch this: http://www.tubechop.com/watch/3479205 

Have we seen anything like this since? Such nuance in sound-design and editing. 

Did we see cinematography like Maruthi Rao’s work - which deserves its own post - in Andha NaaL?

Well we did. I am being polemical. But did we see it soon enough and widely enough, is the question.