Holy cow
Tamils have certain rituals. What appears perplexing or perfectly disgusting to others is heavenly to us, and we swear life isn’t worth living without it. For instance, we take some rice, mash it all up, add some yoghurt to it, mash it up some more, and then we stuff our faces with it. We like our heroines with some fat on their thighs and our heroes with some hair, well, everywhere really. And we like directors called Mani Ratnam. Because that’s what we do.
If you were a kid during the 80s and 90s, you’ll remember your first Mani Ratnam movie. It’s probably different for different generations – Agni Natchatram, Nayakan, Thalapathy, Roja, whatever. It was the only movie you’d ever seen which had dialogues like “odi poyidalama?” It had jokes your parents didn’t want you to get, and the odd song they wished you wouldn’t hum. But even they couldn’t hide their enthusiasm when a new Mani movie was released. Ratnam’s movies were among the few I could be certain about watching in the theaters, instead of waiting for a decade or so for Doordarshan to stoop down and broadcast it.
I feel duty bound to hate all holy cows. They are very annoying and demand adulation, even when they’re doing very little to deserve it. The reason my enthusiasm for Mani Ratnam has remained strong over the years is because I didn’t really see him as a holy cow. His movies were just another artifact from childhood. Also, I was just a little proud of the one Tam movie personality I didn’t have to defend to my northie friends. Not to forget the feeling of infinite superiority I derived from knowing that these northie friends didn’t have a clue about Mouna Ragam or Agni Natchatram – a feeling very similar to that one has for people who discovered Tolkien via Peter Jackson. You are glad they finally got on board, but Jesus, the effort it takes to convince them!
The experience of waiting for and finally watching Guru brought back a lot of memories. When we lived in Cuddalore (where I watched my first Ratnam movie – Agni Natchatram), we didn’t have 24 hour television, and it was possible to actually look forward to something. For some reason, I didn’t watch this movie with my parents. I watched it with a couple of friends, and a random adult who’d come along to baby-sit. I remember desperately wishing during the movie that it wouldn’t end, and I remember emerging from the theater in a daze.
One of the friends who watched the movie with me managed to get her parents permission to buy the audio cassette, and we listened to the songs for hours. We even tried to write down the words – I was in charge of the cassette player and T wrote down the words, as she was the one who knew to write in Tamil.
Perhaps thanks to being away from India, the weeks running up to Guru were, for me, quite like the weeks running up to, oh, Nayakan or Anjali. I knew it was coming, had a very vague idea of what it was going be about and who was in it, but nothing more. What’s more, I didn’t have to wait for my opening-weekend-averse parents to take me to the movie. I’m not going to review the movie here, other than to say it is an OK movie and no where in the vicinity of Nayakan, which it tries to invoke.
When I turned on Namaste America the next day (a Saturday morning ritual, if I manage to get up early enough), I found out that Mani Ratnam and other stars from the movie had been in Manhattan to promote the movie. They were all asked extremely silly questions by the desi press, to which they managed to give boring and occasionally charming answers.
That press conference, with its multitude of gushing desis was the first inkling. Since then, at almost every desi DVD store I’ve been to (and I went to several while on a mission to buy DVDs for a friend who’s recently moved out of NY), I’ve had people incessantly gush about Guru. Much of it has to do with the movie’s pedigree. I’ve finally reached the deeply saddening conclusion that Mani Ratnam is now very much a holy cow, if not one of the holiest.
It’s a good thing I didn’t come to this conclusion before watching the movie. While I was watching Guru, my only wish was for it to be not a lousy movie (and I mostly got my wish, until the very last bit, of course.) But since then, every time I read one more hyperbole about how fantastic Abhishek’s acting is or how brilliant a director Mani Ratnam is, I just want to grab the person and shake them for a minute or two. Have people become so inured to exceedingly lousy movies that a mediocre one appears superlative by default? Or is all this gushing the dues we owe a holy cow? If it’s the latter, it’s a pity, for it confirms his bovine status. And it makes it almost certain that he, too, will turn into a monstrosity, like the Big B has.
Comments (18 comments)
Objection yuvaaar haanar! Any demeaning reference to thayir saadham shall be protested by my comrades in Mylapore, Triplicane and T.Nagar! Effigies will be burnt!
As for fleshy heroines, oh come on! Thighs, chest, potato, potaatoe! Same only! So don’t hate us for loving Khushboo! She is practically a goddess!
anantha / February 2nd, 2007, 3:17 pm / #
Hey - no offense whatsoever meant towards thayir saadham! Or plump actresses. We love ‘em all.
DoZ / February 2nd, 2007, 3:48 pm / #
[...] … Mani Ratnam! DoZ describes how he came to realize that Mani Ratnam has become one of Tamils’ holy cows: Tamils have certain rituals. What appears perplexing or perfectly disgusting to others is heavenly to us, and we swear life isn’t worth living without it. For instance, we take some rice, mash it all up, add some yoghurt to it, mash it up some more, and then we stuff our faces with it. We like our heroines with some fat on their thighs and our heroes with some hair, well, everywhere really. And we like directors called Mani Ratnam. Because that’s what we do. [...]
DesiPundit » Archives » Of curd rice, plump actresses, and … / February 2nd, 2007, 10:38 pm / #
dude,
i am sick of reading these cliches. i have read it in almost all blogs.
thayir sadam,
filter coffee,
kushboo,
gloating over mani ratnam ,
fat thighs,
coming from a godforsaken town in tamilnadu ,
why do u iyer guys have to write the same shit over and over again?
how is that ” what 3% of the population do in tamilnadu can be generalized for the whole population of tamilnadu ?
ramesh from tamilnadu
by the way i hate the word madras, thank god mu ka changed it to chennai
ramesh / February 3rd, 2007, 5:57 am / #
as the old saying goes, there may be a million “rosa poo” or “mallipoo”, but there is only one “Kushpoo”.
Cheesy, but awesome.
Sunil / February 3rd, 2007, 9:58 am / #
I think his movies are not that good, u seem to be overrating his ability. Generally, he churns out a very good masala mix which cynically contains something for everybody. So you can analyse it all you want, while he laughs all the way to the bank.
Sid / February 3rd, 2007, 11:43 am / #
I second Ramesh. Blogosphere la ivanga tholla thaanga mudiyale da saami…
BTW Ramesh, i don’t think DOZ is a ‘dude’
Anonymous / February 3rd, 2007, 11:46 pm / #
ramesh.. i guess u r beign a bit too harsh…. i wud rather say that all educated tamils like maniratna movies or atleast gush abt it… so u shudnt be really targettign one grp of ppl alone…
Balaji / February 4th, 2007, 12:13 am / #
“If you were a kid during the 80s and 90s, you’ll remember your first Mani Ratnam movie…” DoZ, this is so uncanny, because after the release of Guru, I was asked to write a personal piece on MR, and this is almost the exact line I took, the whole nostalgia thing about growing up with MR movies.
And going by a few of the responses to your post, I think I’ll have to duck for cover when it gets published 
Baradwaj / February 4th, 2007, 7:54 pm / #
[...] +:Etcetera:+ (a.k.a Stochastica) on being Tamil, Holy Cow, Mani Ratnam and other things. Tamils have certain rituals. What appears perplexing or perfectly disgusting to others is heavenly to us, and we swear life isn’t worth living without it. For instance, we take some rice, mash it all up, add some yoghurt to it, mash it up some more, and then we stuff our faces with it. We like our heroines with some fat on their thighs and our heroes with some hair, well, everywhere really. And we like directors called Mani Ratnam. Because that’s what we do. [...]
DesiPundit » Archives » Holy Cows And Mani Ratnam / February 5th, 2007, 2:09 pm / #
Ramesh: Anonymous has it right, am afraid - am neither a guy nor an Iyer. Plead guilty to thaiyir saadam addiction, though.
Sunil: Thank you
Sid: Yeah, he makes masala movies - that wasn’t my complaint. Only, they used to be good ones - or at least better than they have been lately. Or maybe he still makes the same movies, and it’s me who’s changed…
Baradwaj:
Looking forward to this article!
DoZ / February 5th, 2007, 10:41 pm / #
Mani Ratnam, of course, gained the holy cow status at a national level after the huge success of his “Pan-Indian” films (all that furore when they were dubbed to Hindi!). Till then, as you say, we had the pleasure of feeling superior over our northie friends. But, then, he became a household “master filmmaker”.
I totally refuse to see Mani Rathnam’s films at a different level; at least, after all these years of setting up greater expectations with every film when he had just pretty much made his own kind of films. It just robs me off the pleasure of watching those films!
Zero / February 5th, 2007, 11:57 pm / #
daymn! all this for a movie(s). Hemm God save humanity, holy cow!
gp / February 7th, 2007, 1:02 am / #
Cuddalore, wonderful place to come from. Meanwhile the only wish I have is that Mani should pair with Illayaraja again.
Karthi / February 7th, 2007, 6:04 am / #
[...] சும்மா சொல்லக்கூடாது… பின்னியிருக்காங்க… If you were a kid during the 80s and 90s, you’ll remember your first Mani Ratnam movie. It’s probably different for different generations – Agni Natchatram, Nayakan, Thalapathy, Roja, whatever. It was the only movie you’d ever seen which had dialogues like “odi poyidalama?” It had jokes your parents didn’t want you to get, and the odd song they wished you wouldn’t hum. But even they couldn’t hide their enthusiasm when a new Mani movie was released. Ratnam’s movies were among the few I could be certain about watching in the theaters, instead of waiting for a decade or so for Doordarshan to stoop down and broadcast it. . . .The reason my enthusiasm for Mani Ratnam has remained strong over the years is because I didn’t really see him as a holy cow. His movies were just another artifact from childhood. Also, I was just a little proud of the one Tam movie personality I didn’t have to defend to my northie friends. Not to forget the feeling of infinite superiority I derived from knowing that these northie friends didn’t have a clue about Mouna Ragam or Agni Natchatram – a feeling very similar to that one has for people who discovered Tolkien via Peter Jackson. You are glad they finally got on board, but Jesus, the effort it takes to convince them! [...]
கில்லி - Gilli » Mani Ratnam, Holy Cow? / February 9th, 2007, 9:51 am / #
Hey, had posted a comment here and its gone
neeways here it comes one more time….
Love thayirsadam but hate the thunder thighed gals of Tollywood.
Dint have much choice as a kid but can stand the tollywoody melodious melodies now.
Hate the tollywood thathas of yesteryears prancing around wid the teen tollywood gals.
Love the old temples and sculptures n hated that Tambrams were called madrasi in Mumbai so kinda dont mind “Chennai” as hopefully we will be called chennaikars soon if not any other tambramish name.
IengarChick / February 20th, 2007, 8:37 am / #
Hoping not to get trashed this time around :$
IengarChick / February 20th, 2007, 8:38 am / #
[...] Original post by DoZ [...]
» Holy cow / March 11th, 2007, 4:47 pm / #
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