Made of Sumos and Aruvals...

Hero-Heroin Romance, Villan, Sumo and Aruval.

What are these? These days, all of the above are integral part of a common Tamil cinema.

You can guess the relation between the first two components. But how are they connected to Sumo (a four-wheeler vehicle) and Aruval (native swords)? If you have been following Tamil cinema for the last year or two, that question should not have popped up in your mind.

For readers from other parts of the world, let me do some explaining.

Aruval: is a slightly different version of a long sword used by olden day kings during wars. It can also be seen in Hindu temples were certain gods or their body-guards sport them in their armor to combat evil.

I should also mention the home-based utility version of the same, which is similar to a sickle. It's a shorter version with a small handle, used for slashing grass, small trees, coconut and the likes. So it's widely used by the common man too and therefore everyone is aware of it.

Nowadays it has been said and believed that the local gundas/dons use these aruvals (the former version mentioned here) as tools for assault. You may ask why not guns? I can only guess a few reasons for it. Aruvals are: easy to manufacture, produces no sound like guns during an assault except the "whisk-whisk" sound (where it cuts the air during a swing and produces a minimal sound) and importantly, gives a great amount of fear to the general public as they are more accustom to aruvals than to guns.

Next … TATA Sumo vehicles. It has been so widely used in Tamil Cinema and especially by the villain crowd. Advertising products or their ads in films is common. All this could probably leave the average audience like me, asking "Why do all villains have to use only Sumos and Aruvals?". Thankfully, of late there have been a few deviations though. I do see some Scorpios and other SUVs being used for the same purpose.

It is also funny to see a dozen Sumos (or the SUVs) fly in the air and make a head-on-head collision with each other. I have seen it in so many Tamil films now and I am not able to digest the fact that Kung Fu (and the related martial art forms) has moved the Tamil Cinema directors to such a level of thinking. They must have probably thought to bank on a similar idea with a localized touch to it. They should have told themselves "Kung Fu wouldn't work here, but flying SUMOs would definitely do." Oh God!

And all this connected to a flash-back of violence happening in the southern cities of Tamil Nadu like Madurai, Thirunelveli, Salem etc. How many time? Grrr...

Proof of concept (recent films):
Aaru, Thotti Jeya, Aathi - Nothing but utter violence and of course a hero, heroin, villian, sumos and aruvals based stories. BTW, Aathi was the worst Tamil movie that I have seen of late.

Sanda Khozhi, Sivakasi, Gilli - Can watch once (“At least entertaining”, even thought they may be void of reality).

All this doesn't mean that Tamil cinema is going to the dogs. Many of the talented directors and technicians in the Indian Film industry come from Tamil Nadu. A few recent films that made a differnce and the ones that come to my mind are: Thavamaai Thavam Irundthu, Kanda Nal Mudhal, Arindhum Ariyamalum, Alaghia Theye.

Is this what stunt masters and directors are upto? We need to go places in the area of action cinema and forget the notion of using Sumos and Aruvals in each and every damn film.