Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Film-making:The Madness - THE CREDITS

It is a different high seeing one's name on the credits of a feature film. You wait for that one moment when you get to see your name on the credits...on the big screen. In a bit of a perasai, one of the projects that I worked on , I wanted my name to occupy the entire screen - so there was my 7 letter name + my 10 letter surname +my purushan's 6 letter name. Ensured that none who watched the film missed this name with 23 letters!

A close friend worked on this marathon 3 hour film. It was quite an ordeal to sit through the film in the theatre and I did that only to see her name. To my disappointment, the theatre was running against time and hence did not run the entire reel with the end credits. Actually a lot of theatres don't. When I watch Kollywood and Bollywood films, it is my alpa pazhakkam to see the credits till the end and say "Hey, look at XYZ's name on the credits as production boy. He served me suda suda pongal when I went for the shoot to Madras" and pult things like "Oh !they shot on ARRI535??Wow!" types

I was watching Karagaattakaran the other day and was very happy to see not just the names of the technicians but their faces too in the beginning of the film... right from the production driver to the manager to the top actors.











Even Farah Khan's Main Hoo Naa's end credits have the entire crew and cast dancing infront of the camera when their names appear...if not their names, atleast their faces with them holding a placard saying 'Production'.. 'Make up'.. 'assistant directors' etc. Much better than names scrolling upwards against a black background to an empty theatre.

Old films are better in this regard in the sense that the names appeared in the beginning, so there was no chance of the man in-charge at the projector room to shut the machine before the end credits roll. Remember old Tamizh films with credits in the beginning "Sangeetham - Saraswathi stores" " Isai Udavi - Pugazhenthi, Joseph Krishna"?

In most films the assistant directors, production managers, assistant cameraman, assistant art directors - get beginning credits. It is only the pult directors like Maniratnam who give end.. maha end credits to the assistants, like the Hollywood lot. While watching some Mani ratnam film, I felt bad for director Priya [Kanda naal Mudhal, Kannamoochi Yenada], whose name appeared in the end credits. When Mani sir suffered a heart attack during the making of Ayidha ezhuthu, it was his former assistants turned directors like Priya, Shaad Ali and Sivakumar who went to his rescue helping him on the sets. Avangalukkellam front la credit kudutha koranju poiduveengala Mani Sir?


8 Responses:

Anonymous said...

I personally I feel that you will rise from anonymity if your work is really good. That has what happened with Priya and Shaad Ali.. perhaps yeah, the end of the end credits can be changed - like they did in sivaji, showing something belonging to the movie....

you know wHo.

Appu said...

edhu oru nalla kelvi !!!

ambi said...

nice qstn. same qstn i also raised to myself. infact, i've noted few asst directors name like vickraman, shankar, etc in their guruji's pilms.

also y few directors are displaying the crew names (including the item song dancer name)in kadugu size ..?

ammani said...

Mani-sir is highly over-rated as a director. Honestly, what was the man's last hit? The last few have been such duds, it's a surprise he still commands such awe in certain circles. There are far more deserving directors, doing much better work than Manirathnam. He's way past his prime and has been resting on his laurels for so long that it's beginning to wear thin. Not crediting those who work in his films is just plain rude and it's a shame that his chamchas (read assistants) take it lying down. More's the pity!

Anonymous said...

//it is my alpa pazhakkam to see the credits till the end and say "Hey, look at XYZ's name on the credits as production boy//

athey athey :-). Thats where you'll find real gems.

while watching credits of an early ilayaraja's movie, just discovered that he was assisted by one amarsingh. He is none other than Gangai Amaran. Sattam En Kaiyil will have One Mr.Rangarajan, B.Sc as its production manager. He is our own Satyaraj.

intha maNirathnam vanthu ellaaththaiyum keduthuttaR :-)

Sasha said...

Even in television the end of the movie credits are cut off....

Appu said...

hey if possible watch alibaba and 40 thieves. first the credit goes to all the technicians and only then to the actors. not like today's movies where the actor names flash first!

Anonymous said...

Last week I saw a Kannada Movie on Udaya which had a Daniel Raja as Music Assistant. It didnt strike me then but in the mid of the movie, konjam bgm style was familiar and then it struck it is none other than our own Daniel Rasaiah @ Ilaiyaraja!