hrrmph! Action!!

Clearing the throat - whether necessary or otherwise, that is how Kamalhassan would probably start his lights, camera action routine!.

Just finished watching the black & white classic - avargaL. Quite possible that Kamal started his casual way of acting from this movie - peppered with banging against furniture while walking, that hesitant way of talking... No, no, I really loved his acting, after all, he is born for acting. Somehow that has become his trademark way of acting, of course, his un-abashed on-screen crying!

Thinking along the same lines, most of the acclaimed tamil movie directors have their own trademark styles/techniques painted, sometimes, scribbled all over their creations. I am not trying to generalize their ways, but it is more likely that it may be the case.

1. K. Balachander:

• most of his movies would have a house with a long set of rooms, with multiple entrances to each room. Just so because, the all-enduring female lead character can retort to each and every family members' rants
• he will make sure you don't forget the mirror-reflection technique
• symbolic scene settings - like kilo yenna velai for the depth of music interest
  

2. Manirathnam:

• very short dialogs, which sometimes would be understood only by the writer
• some of his older movies definitely had a rain sequence
• one of the characters would be referred by his caste name

3. Bharathiraaja:

• graamam
• particularly in song sequences, a shot of a flower, or the heroine showing her pearly-whites (teeth!) or a group of birds flying would be repeated and merged in a transclucent manner

4. Visu:

• simple sets - just one or 2 houses
• character named Uma
• this guy takes theorem-proving/tautology very seriously
• climax scene would be a 2 page dialog. For every person in the house. For two iterations.
  

5. Baghyaraj:

• makes us to wait for his "story, screenplay, direction" title card after a solid trademark scene
  
• tremendously taut screenplay
• subtle matter dialogs

6. Shankar:

• rich sets. Vairamuthu or vaali must be partly blamed for this. Some of their over-enthusiastic lyrics makes Shankar think too literally and the CGI costs of those special effects run riot!
• i believe he introduced the "jerky movement" scenes
• glorifies brahminism - true isn't it?

7. Selvaraghavan:

• no-holds-barred story settings
• yuvan shankar raja
  
• None of the characters are normal

Just for fun!. Have a nice weekend!.

PS: Merry Christmas and considering how frequently I post, Happy New Year!