Cannes has found Naka Muka catchy. Smitten by the ultimate dabba kuttu pattu, the ad jury has awarded TOI for its Chennai campaign, especially for using the song. Now, that makes me proud. So what if Naka Muka is loud, it is catchy; it is crude and crass, but crazy. You can hate it, but cannot ignore it. Probably, the Besant Nagar crowd will abhor it. That is fine.. we still have Chintradipet and Saidapet to love it.
In what category do I fall? Well, whenever, I am listening to radio, and the song is played on a channel, I do not, repeat, do not change it! Listening to it while travelling by bus (PTC buses have FM radios now!), rubbing shoulders with namma Chennai crowd is a great experience.
But this excitement of being a proud Tamilian listening to Tamil film songs is actually a resurgence of my regional pride. It is only after I came to Chennai a decade back that I started listening to Illayaraja. I rediscovered my Tamilness only after I left Kolkata.
That was because in my early years in Calcutta (not Kolkata), it was unglamorous to be called a Tamilian. Tamilians were seen hiding their identity to pass off as locals! Disgusting! I have frequently come across a group of Tamilians conversing in Bengali in public. Shameful!!
My appa used to get livid seeing this. Once he gave in to his evil temptation: he interrupted a Bengali conversation between three Tamilian friends in a Lake Road-Howrah mini bus by asking them something in Tamil. Pat came the reply in chaste Tamil! And, then the sudden sheepish look on their faces. Appa was basking in his sadistic glory.
I have also been called an idli-dosa girl. And, I would hate that. But I did not have the temerity to challenge that. Being a Tamilian was not so fab before, especially when you are brought up in the north. Call it ignorance, or arrogance. The northies would call anyone below the Vindhyas Madrasi. And thanks, to Padosan, the quintessential Madrasi sported a dhoti, oiled his hair, wore vibhuti and spoke “indi” (not Hindi). Aaaahh! I am seething. Seething because I too have laughed watching Mehmood’s Tamil dhoti falling when he is running behind the very North India Saira Banu in Padosan.
Today, the Tamilian brain is giving the Big Apple an inferiority complex. The Tamil temperament is correcting that myopic vision of those above the vindhyas! Ahaa.. Tamil rocks!
Just continuing in that tone.. I read the review of Kambhakht Ishq. Kambhakht plagiarism peeche hi nahi chodta!! Pammal K. Sambandam, Kamal Hassan’s refined laugh-riot, is the source. Wonder, why no one even thought about that? Reading the review, I realised, the big-budget Hindi version was one crass act. I do not know whether there was any acknowledgement to the original. If there isn’t, I am not surprised by the attitude of those above the Vindhyas!
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This North South divide and generalization continues to this day. But times have changed and it is no longer true that you can stereotype a person with his place of birth/native.
ReplyDeleteBut I've seen the irritating need to fit in when I used to live in Bombay. I think it happens everywhere. It happens in the US too. But the love for a city is something different. It comes naturally and once you are part of it, you just belong to that city. For an outsider, it may seem shameful, but am sure it is not intentional. I love Bombay! Given a choice, I would live there. But only after I started living in Chennai, I realized how good this city is too. It really depends on the kind of company you interact with for you to love or hate a city. You are what your company is :)
And I am really looking forward to Rajendran's comments on this post! :)
I agree on the stereotypes of some Tamilians Bengali back in Calcutta but I would disagree with some points. I grew up being one of them not because I wanted to be part of the Bengali crowd but because I was comfortable speaking that language compared to other languages. However, treating it purely as a lingusitic medium, why should one treat it as negative vis a vis Tamilians conversing in English. Why is the Tamizh pride not hurt when they conversed in English?
ReplyDeleteTwo Tamilians would have interacted with each other in presence of other non-Tamilians so perhaps they had to converse in a neutral language. Bengali being the language of the place, was a natural choice. I am as happy to be able to sing a Raja song as I am to be able to quote Dinkar as I am to watch a Satyajit Ray film. Being a complex amalgamation of diverse languages and hence cultures, I am happy to possess each of those facets. I do not feel less or more jingoistic about any part of my identity. I reckon, each side of that comes out on different occasions. Even now, I think of myself as a Calcuttan rather than a Tamizhan or Bengali.
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ReplyDeleteSorry The previous post was in complete so had to remove it.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with both the blogger and rajendran. I would rather think myself as a Indian who is fortunate enough to know three Indian languages and English. This is because of us growing up in a typical middle class bong locality and having friends who speak the language. Madrasis were teased but were never insulted. We were treated as a part of the family by many school and college friends inspite of us being MADRASIS.
Films are an exaggerated medium. We have seen so many movies were a Bengali is rediculed, were a Maharastrian is made fun off,where Parsis are shown as cartoons...... The list is endless. Let us,who consider ourselves the enlightened souls because of our education, exposure and open mindedness,not confine ourselves to just language or region but be proud of the country we belong to. To add a bit more to what Rajendran has writen..... I think myself to be a Calcuttan who is a Tamil by birth but a Bengali at heart.