How A 12-Year-Delayed Tamil Film Became This Year’s Pongal Hit

Narendra Modi was yet to become Prime Minister and was only the Chief Minister of a small state. Sachin Tendulkar was still playing Test cricket. The nation was reeling from the shock and anger over the Nirbhaya case that had unfolded a month earlier. Smartphones had just begun to gain traction. Obama had been re-elected for a second term.

This was in January 2013. It now feels like a different era. Perhaps it was.

As it happens, a commercial masala film from that time has now emerged as the biggest winner among the prestigious Pongal releases in Tamil.

Madha Gaja Raja (MGR), the film originally set for release during Pongal 2013, never hit the theatres due to some complicated financial issues (though quite typical in the film industry). Even diehard cine fans in Tamil had forgotten the existence of such a movie. Somehow, its resourceful director Sundar C and lead actor Vishal worked behind the scenes and managed to get it ready for release.

But for all we can conjecture, MGR still wouldn’t have made it if another big-ticket release, Ajith's Vidamuyarchi, had kept its date for Pongal. Vidamuyarchi, due to its own production issues, pulled out 12 days ahead of its scheduled release. The gap left by the absence of this big-budget, high-stakes film provided space for other movies, and it was in that gap that MGR adroitly arrived.

Fortune Favours Those Who Wait For It

"But even then, there wasn’t much hope riding on it. To be sure, Sundar C and Vishal did their best to create a buzz with their pre-release marketing, interviews, and audio functions. But with movies like Shankar and Ram Charan's extravaganza Game Changer, Kruthika Udhayanidhi's modern-day romance Kadhalikka Neramillai, and Shershah director Vishnuvardhan's Nesipaya in the mix, nobody gave much of a chance to MGR. 

As it happened, Game Changer proved to be a dud. Nesipaya was no better. And Kadhalikka Neramillai, which deals with contentious issues that still don't sit well with a large cross-section of the public, received a less-than-favorable response.

But MGR, till the weekend, has been running not just to packed houses but has had audiences clapping rambunctiously and laughing riotously, showing unbridled enjoyment. Is the film that funny and well-made?

Well, as it happens, it’s just what the film industry casually labels a 'timepass entertainer.' It’s filled with gratuitous glamour scenes (the film has two heroines, Anjali and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, both of whom have since moved on to middle-age roles), double entendre dialogues, an over-the-top convoluted story, loud music, and pointless macho fights.

But the film's biggest claim to the audience's love is Santhanam's one-liners and Sundar C's undeniable flair for comedic set pieces. Santhanam himself has since graduated to hero roles, but at the time MGR was made, he was a popular comedian at the peak of his prowess — delivering what the Tamil trade calls humorous 'counters.' These chutzpah-filled retorts are similar to those Goundamani made famous in the previous generation. However, Santhanam's are aimed directly at the youth, with a fun-filled insouciance (while Goundamani's had more societal heft).

Message From Cine-Goers: Less Message Please!

The real revealing thing is the popular idea that if MGR had indeed been released in 2013, it may not have tasted the success it has now. Of course, this is a hypothetical idea, but the insinuation here is that MGR’s success isn’t just due to its own merits, but also because of what other movies in Tamil have offered in recent times.

Decoding what makes a movie click with a diverse audience is no easy task — it can only be a fanciful one. However, it cannot be denied that there was a sense of ennui among a wide cross-section of Tamil film audiences due to the kind of movies being released recently. It can be argued that the overtly political and decidedly preachy films with neon-lit messages have failed to impress the mostly entertainment-centric Tamil audiences (who form the majority of committed theatre-goers).

Some of these political films may have their hearts in the right place, and the ideas they discuss may also be relevant. But if they don't come parcelled in good cinema, the average fan — whose impatience is legendary — is always going to scathingly reject them.

The late last year's release of Viduthalai 2 is a good case in point. Now, it is a film that does not snugly hide its politics in its artistic folds. Those who had seen Viduthalai 1 would, however, vouch that it was gritty and the ideology that it dealt with came in the agreeable dialect of engaging cinema. But in the second part, director Vetrimaran, who is among the most impressive filmmakers of this generation, seems to have lost his poise and grip. In the event, Viduthalai 2 comes less as a mainstream movie and more as a rambling session with nostalgic politburo hands. It is no less clunky and heavy-handed than the ones dished out by the right-wing filmmakers.

Timing Right 12 Years Later

After Viduthalai 2, which takes itself so seriously, if the fans move to the other end of the spectrum — to the embrace of one that chooses to just pointlessly see the lighter side of things — you can't understand the underlying feeling. Santhanam's crude one-liners strangely seem to have become a balm, in the event. 

In a state where successive politicians have chosen to articulate their ideology through the screen, political movies cannot be a problem. But how they choose to be political is the issue here. Also, the high-handed approach of some in the liberal camp, who paint those who dislike these films as opposed to the cause or ideology they portray, seems to rankle the cine-goers. 

Some trot the line that the stupendous show of the 'lowbrow Madha Gaja Raja' is a sign of regression of the Tamil fans. Now, this is a knee-jerk facile response. It’s akin to searching for your lost phone in a well-lit area, even though you dropped it in a dark bush.

There may not be a grand overarching message behind Madha Gaja Raja’s triumph, other than the fact that it capitalised on a pronounced 'anti-incumbency feeling' toward certain recent films.  

To be honest, Madha Gaja Raja just got its timing right. For a film that has been 12 years late, that's something.