Starting his career as a script-dialogue writer, it took almost a decade for J Mahendran to make his directorial début with Mullum Malarum in 1978. When he donned the director’s hat, K Balachander was at his peak; Bharathiraja was delivering back-to-back hits and Balu Mahendra was spearheading a new movement. Mahendran never emulated any of their work. Instead, he found his own voice amidst stalwarts. His movies vouched against fashionable portrayal of characters, with Uthiripookkal changing the filmmaking language of Tamil cinema. So much so that Mani Ratnam, in an interview to The Hindu in 2002, famously said, “If I get anywhere near what Mahendran did in [ Uthiripookkal ], I’ll be a happy man.”
Madurai,Tamil Nadu, 16/01/2017: Director Ameer photo:s.krishnamoorthy
Rebel with a cause
Tamil cinema was following a definitive template in terms of its depiction of hero and heroine, until the entry of Mahendran. Legendary filmmakers too succumbed to this trend, where you could easily find ‘heroes’ in their characters. But Mahendran broke that image that was built by his predecessors, and came up with real and rooted characters. I remember watching Uthiripookkal when I was a school-going kid. Even at that age, I could sense that the movie was far from mainstream cinema. It was trying to communicate something to me, but I could not understand what that emotion was. I was left with the same feeling when I watched Mouna Raagam for the first time. Years lapsed and I revisited it later. That is when I realised its underlying emotion and larger picture. Take the climax scene, for instance. Circumstances are what pushes a man into becoming an animal — something that was told subtly in Uthiripookkal . A good artiste is someone who can make you smile, laugh and cry at the same time. But if you want to use cinema as a tool to reform society, you need to watch and study Mahendran’s movies.
— Ameer
‘A path-breaking film’
It was a landmark film for several reasons. One being its portrayal of an everyday villain like the one played by Vijayan. Before Uthiripookkal , Tamil filmmakers had a penchant for writing villains who exhibited eccentric mannerisms. It subsequently changed when Rajinikanth entered the industry. But Uthiripookkal was perhaps the first time where we saw a benevolent sexist like Vijayan; his character is someone who you would find in tea shops and bus stops. These men might not have the face of a villain. Which is why you can spilt Tamil cinema villains into pre- Uthiripookkal and post. Mahendran has taught me one thing: to take the less travelled path. When you ask someone about a movie’s legacy, they would invariably say clichéd things like the movie is fresh even today or that it stood the test of time and so on. But you know how one should measure the film’s success? By counting the number of films that it inspired. In that sense, Mahendran’s movies have been copied the most, with every younger generation offering a new spin. For example, the core idea of Aasai was actually taken from Mahendran’s Uthiripookkal . If upcoming filmmakers want to make movies like Mahendran, then they need to engage with ordinary people, like how he did all his life.
— Karu Palaniappan
The healing power of art
Long before my film institute days, I was exposed to little world cinema. There is a saying that art has the power to touch your soul. That happened to me through Mahendran sir. His movies pushed me into becoming a filmmaker. He retained his uniqueness in every movie of his — whether it is Mullum Malarum or Poottaatha Poottukkal . What I learned from Uthiripookkal or rather Mahendran was his characterisation. Till Uthiripookkal , filmmakers dealt with characters with shades of black and white. But look what he did with Vijayan; he made him a sadist and a male chauvinist, but Mahendran never judged his characters. In Uthiripookkal , he escalated his character’s actions with the help of his supporting actors. He showed what life is without relenting to melodrama. The transformation Vijayan goes through in the climax was phenomenal. Today, if I’m writing a villain’s character, I need to make sure that I justify his actions by addressing the most important question: ‘why’. There are few movies that changed the course of Tamil cinema. Uthiripookkal , for me, is one. The younger generation has been making films because of its cause and effect. In fact, Mahendran sir’s caller tune was ‘Azhagiya Kanne’.
— Balaji Tharaneetharan
