Oomai Vizhigal - the real Independence Day for Kodambakkam

 

The real Independence or liberation of Tamil Cinema came with the release of Oomai Vizhigal , the Abavannan produced – R Aravindraj directed film released on August 15 1986. The release poster of the film was a Censor certificate got from the Tribunal after the ban was lifted. The film that ran for 150 days  gave a visiting card to hundreds of student’s of the Adyar Film Institute (AFI) who after passing out were the butt of ridicule in Kodambakkam.   A film Aval Appadithan released in 1978 and directed by Film Institute graduate Rudrayya with a bold subject of women emancipation and gender bias bombed miserably at the box office. Though Bharathiraaja and Mrinal Sen lauded the film, the subject went over the head of the audience. Sripriya was the central figure with Kamal Haasan ,a busy Star and a struggling Rajinikanth in the cast. Later Kamal Haasan described the film as "Aval Appadithan was a guerilla attack on the industry by insiders like me. It slipped through their fingers, so to speak. With all the attention that films get these days, I doubt we can get away with such a film any more.”

The gureilla attack was on the Institute pass outs who Kodambakkam said could make only such art films. The technical quality too was criticized. It did win State Awards and further consolidated the belief that these guys could get only awards and no rewards at BO. In 1984 August 24^th, My dear Kuttichathan, the first 3D film of India was released. The Tamil distribution went begging as distributors laughed at the practice of giving 3D glasses and taking it back from audience and the feasibility of recovering money by theatres after it incurred costs for revamp of projector screen and sound. Also a rumor did the round that the 3D glasses spread Madras Eye, a seasonal virus. Kayaar ,an AFI pass out bought the film’s Tamil Nadu area and had Rajinikanth come in a promo to say the glasses were safe. The film was a blockbuster and Meeran Sahib Street got its first Adyar alumni.

Abavannan who studied in the AFI, at first was thrilled with Sholay and embarked to direct  a 70 MM – 6 track stereophonic film in Tamil. Even songs were recorded in Mumbai with L Vaidyanathan as music director.The film got delayed and Abavannan took his short film given to AFI and saked his friend to rework on it.The technical crew was all AFI and its music director Manoj Gyan was got through their association with him in Mumbai during the shelved 70MM film. With Jaishankar joining the cast, things moved easily and came in Srividya, Ravichandran and Vagai Chandasekar pitched for Vijaykanth ( the role meant for Sivakumar ,who after a flop film with a AFI graduate decided to have no truck with such filmmakers). Arun Pandian, classmate of Abavannan got his friend Karthik, the hot selling Star for an extended cameo.

A crime thriller, censors banned the film as it was found to have pro- LTTE portions.  One of the songs in the film is still very dear to pro LTTE groups all over the World. After accepting cuts, the producer to shut the mouth of distributors who said that censor certificate was not got ,decided to release its first poster ( today it could be First Look) two days before theatre release with only a copy of the revised Censor copy on it. The censor Chief felt peeved as cows were chewing the poster with his name on it.

The film saw the entry of Disco Shanthi , Editor Jayachandran, Diamond Babu as PRO and his father Filmnews Anandan played a photographer in the film. The rapport that Jaishankar who played Editor of an investigative Daily had with the press and also some of them too acted as press reporters in it , helped the publicity.

After this film’s hit, Vijaykanth and his friend Rawther together gave umpteen students of AFI the much needed break and the jinx on them got removed. It was truly an Independence Day that Kodambakkam still remembers. The AFI has now led to many hi-tech Film institute’s and visual communication being a part of the college curriculum. Today the burning issue for Kodambakkam is resuming of film shootings and opening of cinema halls. Only then Tamil Cinema can celebrate I’Day says Bharathiraaja.