Last Friday was a rare weekday. There was no ‘ghost movie’ release in Tamil when the current box-office trend is to make ghost flicks. The budget is kept basic. The cast really doesn’t matter...Yaamirukka Bayamey (2014), Demonte Colony (2015), Darling I&II (2015 and 2016) didn’t have ‘stars’. Cast Kovai Sarala-Soori for comedy, make one of the leads a ghost by interval, and add a ‘killing’ in the flashback as a reason for revenge, and finish with an open ending for a sequel (Or make Nayantara handle ‘horror’ — Maya,2015), and voila! We have Thamizh cinema’s success formula for ghost-stories!
This penchant for the paranormal picked up speed after Raghava Lawrence’s Muni (2007) ran to packed screens. Horror + comedy + melodrama worked big time in his sequels Kanchana 1 & 2 (2011 & 2015). The other successful franchise is Sundar C’s Aranmanai (2014). However, the formula remains the same.
In the 70s, the big daddy of mythological horror flicks was Vittalaacharya (Jaganmohini, 1978). His films had provocative dancers (Jayamalini) a clueless male lead (Narasimharaju) and plenty of ghastly made-up ‘ghosts’. Then one film replaced horror with humour, where even kids liked the ghost. Kalyanaraman (1979) saw star-actor Kamal Haasan don the ghost-cap as a sentimental, comical, buck toothed, naive simpleton who is killed for his wealth. His ‘ghostly self’ can be seen only by his twin (a regular hero also played by Kamal). Together they avenge their villains and the hero lives happily ever after with the heroine (Sridevi).
Directed by G N Rangarajan and written by Panchu Arunachalam with dollops of funny scenes, this film did such roaring business that it propelled Panchu Sir to make a sequel in 1985. Jappanil Kalyanaraman, directed by S P Muthuraman this time, had Kamal reprise both roles (he hasn’t played a ghost since then, so we can expect an ‘Americavil Kalyanaraman’ now?). Prior to playing a psychiatrist in Chandramukhi (2005), Rajinikanth acted in only one serious ghost film Aayiram Jenmangal (1978), in which he had to outwit a banshee from his sister’s psyche (what else?).
There was Pillai Nila (1985). Inspired from Omen (1979) where a jilted woman (Radhika in a superbly scripted role) ‘possesses’ her lover’s child (baby Shalini who is now Ajith’s wife), and the film was a huge hit. The same year Yaar (produced by Kalaipuli Dhanu) mixed religion and horror to a chilling climax. That led to another formula, where a series of ‘Amman’ movies released, in which the goddess had to deliver the leading man/woman/child from the clutches of a ghost/shaman.
Even when Spielberg wrote and produced Poltergiest (1982) our filmmakers like K Balachander, Bharathiraja and Mani Ratnam stayed away from ghost-tales. Also, MGR and Sivaji Ganesan didn’t touch the paranormal right through their shining careers. But from time to time, the box-office has proved that horror is a legitimate emotion.
As S J Suryah perfectly laments in the trailer of director Selvaraghavan’s horror flick, Nenjam Marappathillai, karmam kadaisila indha pei vandhu maattudhu (Alas! This ghost catches up in the end).