Acting and Dialogue Subtlety

After watching the teasers of Neethane En Ponvasantham (Tamil and Telugu) sometime back, I have had a few questions at the back of my mind regarding the acting choices and dialogue delivery.

Consider the clips below, it is a good case study to me because so many things are common. The actors (at least the males) are quite decently skilled too, but the performances are so different for the same scenario.

Why shouldn't it be so? It is not necessary to make the same acting choices after all. But if we ask the other question, there is more to ponder.

'Why so?'...here are some of my questions to ponder further.....

Is it...

1. because of the acting choices of the particular actor ?

2. because of the director's choice ?

2. because of the language and target audience ?

Before I try to find the answers, let me say what is different in the performances in my opinion.

In the Tamil clip, I thought the acting choices were good and subtle. When the heroine speaks of the hero's singing and after a deep breath, says '"Anga naan kaali!", the expression is cute and original. The choice of words are beautiful and simple. The better part is when the hero responds saying "Ilayaraja " - Just one....ONE WORD! perfectly works for me! We know exactly what he is trying to say. With the camera tight to the face, with no big facial/bodily movements, the acting is so subtle and it sinks so well in to us. We could feel them getting very close to each other without being physical.Well done!

Now in the Telugu clip, with the same heroine, the acting seems a bit cliched. I miss the deep breath and expression is flat and not so cute. The 'resting-on-the-shoulder' does not work at all. I am not sure if its the actors choice here. Again, with the hero's response, the big hand movement and the facial expression seems to have all the stamps of a 'telugu hero' that we are used to- cliched to the core. Again I doubt if it is entirely the actor's choice.

Looking at both clips, I think its the director's calculated choice of acting. The framing of the shots has also been tweaked to accommodate broader movements in the Telugu clip.  I suspect the choices were driven by the target audience. I would like to know if it does really work for a Telugu person. But, if what I suspect is correct, Gautham has made a mistake in tailoring scenes to the audience rather than giving what comes right out of his gut irrespective of the language. The director will be lost if such tweaks had to be done.

NEP - Tamil

 NEP - Telugu

Indian Animation – Is it good?

No, this is not about the visual quality of animation or the technicalities behind it. This is a layman’s take on this sunrise industry. Bollywood has set its eye on animation! So far we have seen a bunch of mythological movies making waves in animation. Now that there is a movie planned on every god (goddesses forbidden) ever created by man, it’s time to move on to other shores. There is news on every big production house wanting to make an animation movie and many film makers wanting to fancy their hands at it.

In the land where animation in strictly for kids, some of the upcoming movies are scripted for adult audience. The Indian audience over the years has been treated with bollywood masala (adeptly adopted by other ‘woods’ too), but animation begs to be different from the usual treatment or at least that is what we expect. Now we wonder, what to expect and not to expect from Indian animation movies. What the creators will do and what they can’t?!

A few naïve things I could come up with-

What can change….

· No more problems of call-sheets from big actors who charge a bomb to act in a movie. Animation heroes don’t charge you a fee! J
· No worries of seeing the same faces of actors again and again and again. Movies don’t necessarily feature same characters, unless it’s a sequel.
· Hollywood looks up to top actors for lending their voice skill to the animated characters. In India, if we need a particular voice, the mimicry artistes can do a better job than the actors themselves.
· Forget the model turned actresses with pathetic acting skills. Animators can give better acting to animated characters.
· No ‘item’ songs and rain songs (!) in animation movies. Who wants to see a bosom popping animated character anyway?! (Don’t prove me wrong folks ;-) )
· Movies can do away with rape scenes.
· Hopefully no ‘rasigar manram’ (fan club) menace for the lead character of animation movies. Even if some come up, it might not put up cut outs and perform poojas to please their heart throb.
· Politicians can breathe easy, as the successful character in animation movies won’t get into politics!!


What won’t change!

· Animation movies would still deal with more love subjects. Robots love each others. Dog falls in love. Triangular love between a fox, crow and owl!
· Hero and heroine sing love songs running around green trees in the middle of Sahara desert with snow falling over them.
· Police will always come at the end of the movie based on a tip off, to arrest the antagonist. And they say ‘Hands up’!
· The hero is strong enough to hit a hundred bad guys at the same time.
· Heroes cannot be killed by machine guns. They always manage to escape by a whisker. Even if shot, they’ll manage to stay alive till the climax.

Animation in India is going to be a potpourri of old and new trends. Have to wait and watch if it comes good.