From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Subject: Abundant usage of English in Tamil movies
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 16:28:18 GMT

         Abundant usage of English in Tamil movies
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       Tamil movies, nowadays, carry a lot of
 English dialogues and English usage is becoming
 a fashion in Tamilnadu. As someone has noted on
 the thread "A boy's head..", educated parents
 prefer to be addressed "Daddy", "Mommy", instead
 of  "appaa" and "ammaa". 
       It is while watching the MGR movie, "ulagam
 sutRum vaaliban" that I noticed the craze of people
 for speaking in English. In one scene in that movie,
 "makkaL thilagam" M.G.R. will have a short exchange
 in English with a receptionist in a hotel. That
 sparked a big applause in the movie hall and some
 M.G.R. fans emptied a sack of paper bits from the
 upstairs which blocked my view as I was watching it
 in the ground floor. My neighbour chuckled,
    "Vaaththiyaar English pEsuraaru.."
   [ M.G.R. talks in English..]
 It seems to be a poor man's dream to speak in English
 and he is glad to find his "idol" talking English.
      [ As a side note, have you ever witnessed people
 struggling to complete their "Vote of thanks" or
 "Note of introduction" when they do it in English in
 regional functions ? Well, if all audience know the
 regional language, then the speaker may use it well to
 complete his "vote of thanks". But, instead, the speaker
 tries to show his English proficiency and he struggles
 for words, when he takes the mike. I don't criticize
 such speakers, however, if his audience are from various
 states at which case the speaker has to speak in a common
 language. I don't like the audience's reaction either in
 this latter case, if they start "scaring" the speaker
 by either laughing loud or start clapping - a signal to
 end your speech in Tamilnadu .]
      The movie I referred to is an old one (1970).
 Apart from that little encounter in the hotel, the
 movie had good Tamil songs and simple Tamil dialogues.
 But now... How about a sample from "Superstar" Rajini     
 [ Future Tamil C.M. ?] movie "nallavanukku nallavan"
 (1986) ?
    Karthik : Your days are numbered..
    Rajini : My steps are measured.
 Same thing happened in the movie theatre I watched.
 Rajini's fans got excited and when I asked my neigbour,
 he explained that Rajini is replying Karthik in English.
     Sathyaraj, on the other hand, gets the audience to
 his side by playing the opposite. A sample from his hit
 movie "Jeeva".
    Captain Raju : ( after Sathyaraj killing one villain )
                    You are under arrest !
    Sathyaraj : yOv ! thamizhla solluyyaa.
                ( Say it in Tamil. )
      The heroines in Tamil movies prefer English dialogues
 and Jayalalitha and Bhanumathi started this trend. Both of
 them, proficient in English, performed songs in English
 and used English dialogues freely in their movies. Later,
 this trend was carried by Laxmi, Radhika and others and
 now English has become like Tamil in all movies and even
 the common exchange uses English a lot.
    From  the Kamal movie "Guna" :
     Ilaiyaraja : hero-va chuththi kathai pOradhunaala
                   hero pErE irundhaa better-aa irukkumnu
                  naan `feel' panREn.
               [ Since the story revolves around the hero,
                 I feel that it is better to have the
                 hero's name .]     
       I wrote a satire on this in one of my conversations
 ( Naangaam Tamil ) but people took no notice of this.
       I don't consider English as a taboo. But, it is my
 thinking that, when one has simple Tamil words to convey
 his ideas in Tamil, he can as well use them instead of        
 equivalent English words. There is no "glamour" in English
 usage and if one addresses Tamils, he can be free to use
 (simple) Tamil instead of trying to "impress" them with
 English vocabulary.
                                              S.Pandian
                                        sp2@cec1.WUSTL.edu
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