Sub-genres like science fiction horror, and psychological horror films remain alien to the visual and narrative culture of South India.ĭescribed by local critics as throwing into sharp relief the worst aspects of the industry: dodgy special effects, amateurish make-up (without the ghastly contact lenses and smoky eye shadow, how else would audiences tell apart the human and the uncanny?) and predictable plots, the pey padam has been derided for being decades away from reaching the towering heights of frightening movies available in markets elsewhere. Richard Donner, 1985), was another anomaly. Paul Schraeder, 1982) and Ladyhawke (Dir. Durai, 1979) about a vengeful female serpent belonging to a mythical tribe of cobras that can take on a human form, similar to the shape shifting femme fatales in Cat People (Dir. The erotic horror film Neeya? (‘You?’ Dir. Thakkali C Seenivasan, 1990) that attempted to create a bloodthirsty subhuman monster inspired by undead monsters in western popular culture. Thakkali C Seenivasan, 1989) and Adhisaya Manithan (‘Shocking Human’, Dir. Also known as the pey padam in Tamil ( pey: ghost, padam: film), these films privilege an exploration of the consequences of what happens when normal people confront the otherworldly paranormal and occult forces.įoreign audiences will find that in Tamil cinema, vampires, werewolves, and zombies are conspicuously absent, with the exception of the limited run of Nalaya Manithan (‘Future Human’, Dir. Most others are either dubbed versions of horror films from other languages, or unpopular B-grade productions.Įvaluating those that standout, Tamil horror films emerge as narratives that use representations of the paranormal to provoke an irrational terror and visceral disgust, while enthralling the audience with a vaudevillian spectacle. Few productions have either attained cult status, were critically acclaimed, or became successes. Yet, not all the films that utilized these moods have left a lasting impact on Tamil popular culture. The Tamil horror film genre can be identified by the structuring of the narrative on two out of the seven key emotions in Sanskrit dramaturgy known as the navarasa aesthetic: bhayanaka (terror) and bibhatsa (disgust). In the spirit of Indian versions of the Chuck Norris Jokes, one might say: even disembodied souls fear Rajinikanth. However, once Dr.Saravanan returns, things are set right, the karmic order is established, and the malevolent ghost is busted. Audiences who watched the film, some many times over, had to wait for the protagonist-action hero to leave the palatial mise-en-scène for things to go bump in the night. Ganga is fascinated by her tragic backstory a fixation facilitated by the discovery of old clothes and jewelry.
Senthil is about to start his married life by moving to an abandoned palace with a dark feudal past, and unfortunately for him, his enigmatic wife, Ganga, is attracted to the painting of a dead court danseuse in the mansion. Vasu, 2005), one of the highest grossing Tamil horror movies of all time, commences with the superstar actor who plays Dr.Saravanan, the hero of the film, being introduced in a fight scene, where he disposes of an army of thugs with flying kicks and punches that send them hurtling through the air, and then has an emotional reunion with Senthil, his foster brother. In Tamil cinema, it appears that even the spooks must wait their turn on the reel after the mush, the weeps, the laughs, and the fight.Ĭhandramukhi (Dir.
John Landis, 1983), which was a hit in India. The worst of these appear like an extended three-hour version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller (Dir. Commercial requirements in an industry where genre purity is always in question have consigned the horror film to share screen space with the musical, the romance, the comedy, and the melodrama. An unadulterated treatment of the genre, as is understood in Hollywood, has an even more depressing history. For a culture that continues to believe that the metaphysical and corporeal can coexist, deifying both ends of the Manichean spectrum, seeing all creatures as deified by death, and death itself just another state of being, the genre of horror in India’s Tamil cinema, has a miserable output.
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