Sigh, they just don't make movies like they used to any more. I'm talking about old movies like all the mythological stories in technicolour, where the characters with their magic power can appear or disappear here and there like teleportation, emanate fireworks from their hands or throw weapons in a projectile to fight in mid-air, all this against a landscape of mountains that is so obviously a studio backdrop. Movies with heroes of such special aura like Sivaji, or clowns like Nagesh who just tickles your funny bones like nobody even before he opens his mouth and talks. At that time it must seem like all the entertainment one ever needed. Could people then have imagined that movies one day would be so full of non-stop fighting and bloodshed or raunchy dance numbers like what we have today?

It's after the recent passing of actress Padmini that I decided to watch her legendary movie Thillana Mohanambal, featuring her as a dancer pitted in a contest against Sivaji as a nadaswaram player, a rivalry turned love affair. The story has a typical character of a greedy and class-conscious mother coming in the way of true love, and Nagesh plays the comic role of an opportunist who would steal a cut from the artistes' performance, when he is not busy being a pimp arranging match-make of the danseuse for a rich landlord or some nobility. Padmini as the lovelorn danseuse must have mesmerised an entire generation of male audience with her big watery eyes batting those long eyelashes. Her pink lips find perfect enhancement in a rosy pink saree, but if you think that looks seductive, wait till you see her dancing in a glittering orange dress, with thin stripes accentuating the contours of the voluptuous bosom and legs. It was not exactly classical dance of course, more like flashy poses and exaggerated bouncing and swaying to show the exuberance of the body. It's entertainment, so who's to complain?

The movie is certainly not without kitsch, silliness or quirkiness. You will find a musician fighting in the temple by knocking his opponent's head with his taalam (cymbals), a landlord with a mini Chinese palace for a harem, not forgetting an American couple which applauds our nadasawaram player and then asks if he is able to play western music on the Indian instruments. Our nadaswaram player, who has just walked out of the show venue and returned his performance payment, refusing to play for a bourgeoise audience who has swing dance before his item, takes up the challenge readily. He breaks into something that sounds like a waltz, apparently set in Sankarabharanam to imitate western music. I recognised it as a tune I have also heard on an album by Dr Chittibabu. In fact, as I now learn, it is a piece known as the Madurai Mani notes. (The composer Madurai Mani Iyer himself, by the way, seems quite a character - he is known for refraining from singing "Nidhi Chala Sukhama", ie "is money the cause for happiness", since he thought it was hypocritical when he was accepting money for his performances.) You can guess that scene suggests the growing influence from the West was felt even in those days. Entertainment value aside, hopefully the movie can serve as a reminder of how music and dance are indispensable to our culture and also that artistes should be given due respect?