Note: The personal opinion here is on why I don't watch locally produced movies. It doesn't propagate the idea of why readers shouldn't watch them. Accept or reject the opinion at your own will. Comments are welcomed.
Jeng Jeng Jeng ... after collecting much information, going through some of the local production's synopsis and psoriasis, I'm finally ready to pour out my feelings in here. I'm sure many of us yearn for a good movie, for entertainment or information purpose. Movies are a big pass-time of our generation, millions of people survive on movie industry in India. India produces more movies than any other country in the world. In Malaysia there's no less than 5-7 locally produced movies or tele-movies released annually. For the record I don't watch almost all of them. Sometimes I do accidentally land in channel that's playing the movie, after enduring 10 minutes of their storyline, I usually shift to babyTV or food channel which I feel worth watching.
So many may ask (angrily), why this kolaveri onto the local movies? Why you being a biledi indiyan no support local movie hah? Because people like youlah we cannot develop in many areas, such as building a international space station and shoot our movie out there!!!
Let me just give the glimpse of what I see OK. Here we go ... (some synopsis may appear, where possible)
Majority of local production has only one and only theme : CRIME!
(ngongkakmokka vereh kathaiyeh illeyadah?)
Aanava Attam
Thandavaa
Jayakumar (Sreedharan), a professor whose dream is to build his own college. One day, he is faced with his daughter's kidnap who is meticulously planned by Siddarth (Vassan)
K-I-D-N-A-P (The-Crime-Begins)
Undercover Rascals
Zha The Movie
This movie emphasizes on how women are being abused sexually.
Vittaghan: The Hacker
Vikrant
KL to Ipoh
JAGAT
Yantra
Manjari
What do you see in all the movies above? Crime! Crime! Crime! If this is what they want to show in the movie, I better just read our newspapers front pages everyday, it shows our passion for crime in living color, every F-ing day! Already our community is topping the charts for the wrong reasons, why must we keep showing the dark sides of the community 'as the form of entertainment'?
Some may counter this: crime story sells paa! If money is the only matter, better run some other business. Why must the community fed with mediocre storyline, highlighting only the negative elements? Aren't there any good stories such as hardworking people, rags to riches stories that can be made into movie as a source of inspiration? For the record, our very own Malaysia Indian producers, have made award winning movies in India such as Vaagai Soodava. We end up with more films like Ethirkaalam and Vilaiyaatu Pasange (The Tuff Nuts).
We move to next category : Horror!
(bang, peyiku konjam make-up koreingeh, parke cartoon mari iruku, bayameh varaleh)
Vaishnavi
I Know What You Did Last Deepavali
SAAVI
Panja Muni
Kattu Rani
THIRUMPI PARR
Here we see list of so-called horror movies that make you shit your pants while watching them, even their posters are scary, no? This list includes Uttrachai Kali, Agoram, Uruvam, Athunge, Uyir & Athma which won BEST DIGITAL MOVIE in Film Festival Malaysia. Honestly, I don't even watch English, Korean, Indon horror movies, because I can't relate the over exaggerated storyline to any real events.
At least, these movies makes you laugh (a little) with their slapstick 'comedy' and attempt to entertain. (enakku itheyum parka manasu varaleh bang)
4S Ops Kossa Dappa - The Final Dappa
Ops Kosa Dapaa 2
Ops Kosa Dapaa
Ops Kosa Dapaa 2
Ops Kosa Dapaa
(hot chics and cool cars tho, no I'm not saying anything about the guys)
Gaana's comedies
Naana Neeya
Expectations for the above movies are rather predictable: comedy and some happy ending. At least watchable when aired free for Ponggal or Hari Gawai.
By now, some might have already made a conclusion that I'm a local movie hater. No sir, I'm not. I've watched the following movies, at least more than once when its aired. I do find some bold and brave producers and directors come up with good, above average and sometimes simply superb local movies. These are the movies, that won't gross much returns for the producers (except for Appalam I think). These producers and directors must be encouraged, their work must be well publicized and supported.
Chemman Chaalai
Chalanggai (Dancing Bells)
Appalam
Estet (not Tamil movie)
(majority local Indian artistes)
November 24
Many local film producers and director may not agree with me, they may even say 'if you don't watch, nevermind'. Some will also brush me (and other like minded critics) off as 'not matured enough' or 'you don't understand the pain and struggle' to produce and release a local movie. I ask, 'why go through pain and struggle to release a low quality productions and waste your effort?'.
Do you remember some group of 'smart people' organized 'hunger strike' (new trend for protests now, after protesting for 2 hours they kena hokkien mee and stout at nearby cheeneh kadeh) for compelling a private satellite TV to provide them with 24 hours channel to air locally produced contents?? If (God forbids) that happens, what can they show us? 24 hours of crime & horror movies listed above? Will it help our local talents to improve or just 'gundu chattiyil kuthirai ottureh kathai'? yosingeh, yosingeh ... thank you for reading.
