Hi, I'm Kishor, and I'm Preetika from Hashtag Urbanism,
and welcome to Cinema Chennai, a collaboration series between Moving Images and Hashtag Urbanism.
a collaboration series between Moving Images and Hashtag Urbanism.
The series is going to show how Chennai, as a city, has been used as muse and a stage
in Tamizh films, as a mise en scene.
Mise en scene is a French word that literally means placing on stage.
But in cinema, mise en scene is everything that is captured by the camera.
It's the set and how it is lit, how everything is framed, how the actors look and what they
are wearing.
It is the overall look and feel of the sets that helps tell a story.
The mise en scene of a film is the responsibility of the production design team.
Like these fruit cartons, which are used instead of acoustic foam to sound-proof the radio station.
The production designer in this case clearly did research on what materials a man from
a slum would have access to, and built a set using that.
This series is going to explore how Chennai, and its urbanism itself becomes
the mise en scene where certain poignant scenes play out in films.
In this first episode of the series, we will analyse the slums or informal settlements
in Chennai and how it is pictured.
We will use Velaikaaran and a few other films as our case study and explore the various
urban morphology of the informal settlements, it's symbolism, and how the production design
team in a film build this world to bring the director's vision to life.
In this video, I will be talking about Chennai from a Urbanist's point of view, and I will
be talking about Chennai from a film analyst's point of view.
On a macro level, informal settlements are formed in and around the unclaimed residual
spaces in the heart of the city, in the grey areas along the river banks, sea side, market
areas, and railway lines.
These settlements are part of the city and depend on the city for their survival.
In films, an informal settlement is always shown juxtaposed against the city, symbolizing
the economic divide between the slum dwellers and the rest of the city.
Just showing where a protagonist comes from establishes his character and motivation.
It could be to rule the place he is from, it could be to obtain the materialistic things
the city has to offer, it could be do better than the rest and get out of the slum, or
even to better the lives of the entire slum.
The juxtaposition helps establish the main lead.
Within, the macro level of an informal settlement, the nodes and intersections serve as anchor
points that house important social spaces in the area like temples, mosques, churches,
and public spaces.
These become landmarks within the settlement.
The public spaces are places where people gather naturally and provides the spectatorship
the directors needs to set an opening song, fight scenes, or even as a place to rally
the people for the common good.
In Velaikaran, the main lead's house and the radio station is even conveniently located
at the central node to show its importance and acts as a view point over the entire informal
settlement.
The narrow street pattern of the informal settlement shows how it is pedestrian centric,
which is later used to highlight the dominance of the antagonist when his car enters the
streets.
Furthermore, informal settlements are built organically rather than being planned by architects,
planners or urban designers, and hence have an almost maze-like quality such that an outsider
cannot find his way out.
This maze-like quality of the slums is also exploited in many run and chase scenes in
movies where the protagonist or antagonist manages to escape because of his knowledge
of the small alleys and hidden pathways in the slums.
Moving on to the street level, the houses within the informal settlement each have their
own identity.
As these houses are largely built by the people themselves, it reflects their occupation and
the kind of raw materials they have access to.
This brings us back to the juxtaposition with the city, where the tall rise apartments all
look the same and have no individual identity.
The tea shops, open areas, retaining walls that decorate street corners are urban spaces
whose poignance in Tamil cinema is well known.
A lot of comedy scenes, important plot points, discussion between the protagonist and his
friends, happen in these areas whose accessibility and informality invites social conversations.
Depending on the time of the day, and the accessibility of the social spaces, it could
serve the plot.
Within informal settlements, there are no defined boundaries between the street and
the house.
This spillover of activities and blurred boundaries, indicate the lack of space and a tight-knit
community that cannot afford to prioritize privacy.
In the context of the film, this serves as the perfect stage for the characters to discuss
their economic plight, as if to show it is public knowledge, have confrontations, or
even have the street as an extension of household events and activities, with the whole community
participating.
Slums are an unique urban form, that is entirely built by a community and functions as part of it.
The slums in and around Chennai are part of her identity and the production design team
has taken inspiration from various such settlements in building the set for Velaikaran that feels
quintessentially Chennai.
The meticulous detailing and research that has gone into building Kooliekaara Kuppam,
makes the place feel alive and lived in.
This video is both a tribute to Chennai and her slums and also the production designers
who have brought them to celluloid in such beautiful forms throughout the years.
The series aims to start a larger dialogue on cinema and the city, Chennai.
We wish to map Chennai through Tamizh cinema and highlight other similar typologies over
the upcoming episodes.
As cinema is a part of the Chennai-vaasi's lives, so are they a part of Tamizh cinema.
Until next time, this is Cinema Chennai signing off saying...
Hashtag urbanism is a young urban design and research studio based in Chennai.
Visit our website at www.hashtagurbanism.com or like our Facebook page to know more about us.
For more infomation >> Vuelve Mr Franklin (Video Official) HD Marzo 2018 - Duration: 3:35. 
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