Screen writingகதை – வசனம் மற்றும் பலர்?

My observations

Cinema writing is to an extent collaborative in nature. A finalized and locked script could be reopened at the shooting spot and changes could be incorporated which may add value or downgrade the quality of the narration.

கதை விவாதங்களில் பங்கெடுத்தாலும் அவற்றின் போக்கை மாற்ற பெருமுயற்சி ஒன்றும் எடுத்ததாக தெரியவில்லை// The crew is headed by the director and he / she pilots these discussions of course with the inputs from the writer.

A novel is my own creation and I can take all kinds of liberties with narration, technique and content.. cinema is a team effort.. at least here.

thank god, I swim with the tide and do not have the luxury of the fan-following.. I value my freedom not to write than to write..

Contrary to general belief, most of the writers don’t go hunting for chances. Almost all the writers are financially doing not that bad and do not rely on cinema for a regular revenue stream..

My experience so far in this department is not bad.With a mentor like KH for the first attempt at screen writing, it was all interesting and intellectually rewarding.

He used to challenge me for each line that was written for UPO, especially, his long monologue in the climax… KH minces no words when he says Tamil writers do not view screen writing as a different genre of creative narration but as an extension of writing a novel or a novella. It is important to know, this art form is not entirely dialogue driven but gets embellished thru the silence between spoken words, he claims.

How does one master the art then? He made me watch a few films (English and other languages) and also gifted me with scripts of some wonderful movies ever made.. to make a long story short, the writer though experienced in his field requires grooming as a screen writer.

As to making a movie faithful to a story that came in print –

My publisher gave a copy of my novel ‘Arasur Vamsam’ to a leading movie director with a request to explore the possibilities of making a movie of it. The director dutifully read the novel, appreciated the nuances of post modernist fiction but raised both hands up when we were on the subject of filming it. ‘It won’t fly’.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s ‘Amilie’ with a seemingly unassuming story line on the surface but with complex innards can be made in French and that too with success. But that cannot happen here. Our perception of cinema is different from that of the west. Why, for that matter, even Persian (Iraq) parallel cinema like those created by Jaffer Panahi and others or the Japanese extreme cinema of Takeshi Kitano (leave alone his ‘Kikujiro’ which was Tamilized) may not have any takers here..

From that perspective, I observe ‘Kadal’ to be an important milestone unfortunately turning into a millstone around the neck of the auteur.

An year ago, my friend and movie Director Vasanth invited me for a special screening of his telefilm ‘Vicharanai Commission’ based on Mr.Saa.Kandasami’s novella of the same name. Apart from me, other friends like Manushyaputhran, cinematographer Chezihian and lyricist Muthukumar were there for the screening. The movie is brilliantly made, extremely faithful to the story and the enacting of the story is top notch, providing a visual experience at par with the reading experience one gets on print. We all appreciated the movie and expressed our admiration to Vasanth and also to Mr.Kandasami who was also present. But the million dollar question on everyone’s mind was, how will this film be marketed. I am yet to know that..

Many of the aspiring script writers think Sid Field is the guru of screen writing and his book is the sacred text. Wrong. He is giving the recipe for a 1960s Hollywood B class movie.. Spielberg and others have taken the art form forward by light years..