Potti Vandhu Naalachu - Chapter I (Comedy)

   The Phenomenon of Kollywood Comedy

Phase- I

In this pace, where the cinema comes to the doorsteps of the people, there is a chance of people being a part of the direction team. In this basic thing, there is a static element in the cinema- the comedy. From the very beginning of the Tamil Cinema, there is a huge attention paid to produce the best comedy.
 Initially, people were interested in the comedy that was functional in driving home some moral. 
Comedy of N.S. Krishnan was more of moral science classes but still provoked laughter among people like how the Shakespearean clowns and fools did. 
Another most legendary comedian was Kalyanaparisu Thangavelu, who stimulated the nerves of people to smile and laugh with his ever popular Mannar & Mannar Co.
Then came character like Nagesh, who cracked harmless jokes and tried reforming the society. 
Then were Goundamani, and Senthil. The next phase is ruled by Vadivelu and Vivek. 
After that it was a monopoly of innuendoes, humiliation and a little comedy. At last now there are great champs spinning magic on screen making wonders off-screen. 
When Nagesh was occupying the screen, there were also two other characters, who were excellent comedians.

However, these leaves are not meant for all these transparent figures but for many other figures in the area of comedy, who are not well recognized and for the new phase of multifarious comedians who are so talented.

The first is Cho. Cho Ramaswamy, graduate of Law and a Bachelors from Loyola College was cast in many movies. One of the best movies, he acted was Galatta Kalyanam. He comes as an educated uncle of the heroine and her sisters. He is a chatter-box, who lets the cat out of bag all the times. Another character called Jaambajar Jakku is phenomenal. He is a riksha-puller in love with Kannamma (Manorma), and is fluent enough in Chennai Tamil (despite being a Brahmin, who speaks a completely different tongue with Sanskrit and ‘avas, ivas, and solrels’). He directed a film called Thuglaq, where Thuglaq is resurrected from his grave by professor Rangachary. Thuglaq comes back to live in India. The satire in Tamil Cinema is achieved at its maximum only with this movie. He speaks of all the events that shook the country and the state in a comical way. The one who is too authoritative will have lesser thinking is the movie’s lesson partially. This is similar to the titular king, King Lear. 

After sometimes came personalities like Visu, who wrote extremely good stories that became popular with people in the household. Though he writes basic stories that revolve around certain families, that are similar to Jane Austen’s novels, where marriage and family become the major raw materials, there is universality in every tale he spins. The movies like Samsaram Athu Minsaram, Kudumbam Oru Kadhambam, Dowry Kalyanam, Thirumathi Aval Vegumathy and others, the fundamental moral principles and the comedy that is expressed in almost all the characters of the movie is noteworthy. The most appreciable trait in his movies is that there is no much of black humour that generates inhumane laughter from us. In the movie, Kudumbam Oru Kadhambam, there is a character, who says that his mother is not interested in women going to earn because she is the one who is engrossed in Ramayana and Mahabharata. The counter dialogue is spoken by Pratap Pothan, who says that even in Ramayana, women had been in their careers. The answer is that the woman, who fanned to Rama were earning women too. He is one among the persons who is not regarded as a better comedian than many other.

This is the first chronicle of fine filtering a good comedian.

Next week on your computer screen with Phase II.

Laugh! Laugh!