A Certain Tendency Of Celebrity Long Takes

The opening train accident in Viduthalai (2023)

One of the problems that cinema faces today, more than any other time, is sensationalism. Anything that sounds tough or difficult or extremely hard to do is immediately appreciated (my classmate group will know about this, wink) without taking into context how that particular thing is implemented. It is like the Ranjithame song in Varisu: Great Song, bad timing. Does not mean we’ll appreciate the final output right.

Similarly one of the recent; recent meaning from the pandemic time period, a singular cinematic tool has been constantly been talked about for its use: the long take.

Viduthalai Part 1, Malik,- What do these films have in common? They were acclaimed for having a “brilliant” single long take. But what is the impact of that?

The main stylistic idea behind a long take is the fact that it is able to record the passage of time and a certain truth that it is able to convey by the fact that it doesn’t cut- Jean Luc Godard said, Cinema is “Truth 24 frames per second”. The cut, which is the lie, is negated by the long take and thus makes to us clearer the intricacies of the world that the characters inhabit.

Venthu Thanindhadhu Kaadu makes use of this aspect beautifully as we see his gradual growth both financially and character wise as he becomes embroiled deeper and deeper into the world of crime. The aspect of passing time is also used to show the struggles that Muthu faces especially in the sequences before he leaves for Mumbai. The way Gautham uses the long take especially in the interval sequence builds up a sense of tension and suspense that we constantly are in the shoes of Muthu. Or during the song "Unna Nenachadum", when the long take becomes an example of the couple's desire to not leave each other.

But in the case of Viduthalai and especially Malik, pretty much the existence of the long take functions more as a stylistic showcase rather than something that enhances the effect of the imagery being shown.

In Viduthalai, the opening sequence covers a massive train accident (the pose of the damaged train is suspiciously like the car in Weekend), and we go from seeing the ministers to the common people to the victims. But the long take doesn’t enhance the scene in any way. The impact felt would have been the same even if it would have been edited, and by having an edited sequence in place of a long take, would have significantly improved the subjective experience of what you felt during that scene. Another problem stems from the fact that the camera is pretty much consistently moving doesn’t allow us to linger on the imagery being shown and Vetri also uses the long take in strict opposition to general use of long takes. Long takes help to capture the action or the build up to the action. But by using a long take against type, Vetri disrespects both the long take and the imagery by subjecting the imagery to the constraints of passing time imposed by the long take and further exploiting the pain of the characters.

Subsequently in the last 30-45 mins, we have another action sequence, which is shown parallel to the torture of the women folk by the police. Here by leaving the long take in favour of a normal action sequence, the action feels more real and we feel into it, and the subsequent cutting between the torture and the action sequence, convey not only Kumaresan’s worry for Paapa but also in a sense shows how Paapa herself is waiting for Kumaresan and the edit acts as a hope for the character’s survival, while also showing us the sufferings of them both.

The opening scene in Malik (2021).

Malik on the other hand does an absolute 180 degree in terms of using the long take by faking the very truth that the long take so espouses. By stitching the shots, the film gives into its own fakery but by masking that very fakery within a garb of the truth of the long take. The scene tries to establish so much within that single long take that it becomes somewhat exhausting and then you have the additional weight of having something of a great payoff to bookend the scene. While Mahesh Narayan says that he used it because it showcased human emotions, the constant movement and the necessity to make it a long take, conversely bring it down and prevent us from feeling those emotions.

The next problems are films that claim to be single take movies like Birdman which uses many stitched shots throughout the entirety of its films constantly try to destroy its own truthfulness and by doing so manipulate the audiences, which again is not the intention of the long take.

The end unfortunately doesn’t justify the means here.

A man gets out of the auto. He is outside the gate of the society that his sister lives in. He is seeing her for the 1st time after many years. He walks in, walks in, and walks in. He first sees a building but it’s the wrong one. He then goes inside the society and reaches the second building and finds her house. He rings the bell and waits. Response No. He walks about like a “kutti pota poonai”. He decides to go away but again goes and rings the bell. And Now Finally his sister comes out. They hug it out. But she brings up some old issues in him and drives him away. But then again calls him back and then she takes him into the house and they converse and talk and then after some time some men attack his sister and hit him.

While reading this paragraph, you must have felt an internal sense of uneasiness and squirming and must have wanted to quickly skip the long story (hopefully).

This is exactly the feeling that we feel when we see the scene described above in the film Rocky, directed by Arun Maatheswaran. We are hitting out legs and ground in the hopes that the shot cuts but it doesn’t. But, this is also the exact same feeling that Rocky is undergoing as he is feeling a storm of emotions when he is going to visit his sister after years. This is one of the best uses of the long take in recent times (For those who don’t know, Rocky was released on Dec 2021).

It’s not the makers that I’m angry, it’s the people who constantly talk about this that irritates me. I guess when Cinema ceases to influence people, people begin to influence Cinema. And this time it’s not that great.