If I tell you that the director is an adman partnering an agency — WOC (Winds of Change) — you may not evince as much interest as you would, if I add that he was the one who created quite a stir with the ad campaign for a vernacular daily about a year or so ago! “I don't shy away from controversies,” laughs C.S. Amudhan. But isn't he heading for one with Tamizh Padam , his debut venture? “We are a group that loves cinema and we've come together to make people enjoy our idiosyncrasies. It's a guileless attempt, for people to come and laugh away their blues,” he contends.
The promos of Tamizh Padam are so rib-tickling that it arouses curiosity. “As you can guess it's a comic take on mother sentiment, step-mother cruelty and other such clichés our films revel in. But that doesn't mean it begins and ends as a spoof. TP has a well-defined, racy storyline, which will stand on its own without satire. If in a humorous film people are in stitches in six or seven sequences, doubling the number is our aim,” says Amudhan. “And don't get the impression that it will be on the lines of the small screen's spoof shows.” The reference is to programmes such as ‘Lollu Sabha.' “In the West such films are common. For us it's novel and should work. With its lucid line, it is bound to be a cut above the rest in the genre,” is his confident stand.
Amudhan's partner Jayaraj and friend Sasikanth lapped up the concept, and Chandru, who is part of WOC, began working on the dialogue. “Without much discussion we decided to go ahead, and our firm, Why Not, was launched.” The group has been very lucky — with Dayanidhi Alagiri's production house, Cloud Nine, entering the scene things began moving really fast.
Chennai-28 and Saroja proved that Shiva can make a mark both in sentiment and humour. He plays solo hero for the first time in TP .
Tailor-made for the role
“Actually, we couldn't think of anyone else for the role. Shiva kind of suggested himself for the role. We wanted the protagonist to look like a hero and also behave like an ass at times,” smiles Amudhan.
When comedy is all about getting your timing in dialogue delivery right, how does Mumbai-find Disha Pandey fill the bill? “We would have loved to have a Tamil speaking girl. But in all fairness, Disha caught on really fast. She's done a great job.”
From the stills we can make out that ‘Vennira Aadai' Murthy, Manobala and Bhaskar play the hero's ‘friends'! “Yeah, they substitute Vivekh, Karunas and other such characters who are generally seen with the heroes,” he laughs. “And probably for the first time, actors such as V.S. Raghavan are playing funny roles in a full-length comedy.”
“We wanted the sheen of Billa in TP and naturally Nirav Shah was our choice for camera work. He laughed throughout the script and at the end of it agreed to work with us,” he says.
Music seems to be an integral component of the film. The melody by Hariharan and Shwetha that has no words, but for ‘cryptic' phrases such as ‘Naaku Mooka,' is already a chartbuster. “Have you heard it? Listen to all the songs. They are worth it. Kannan who has done several jingles for us is the composer. Re-recording is another major aspect of the film. Kannan just cued in without my having to spell out what I want.”
“We've done several small but interesting things in the background. You can't notice it all in one go. So I hope people come to the cinemas to watch TP more than once,” says Amudhan in all earnestness.
