Stereotypical Tamil Cinema

I recently read this article in Sify that talks about women being potrayed in a stereotypical manner. In fact, this isn't something new to Tamil Cinema. Ever since I started watching Tamil movies, I have seen a lot of stereo types and a lot of them still remain true to this day.

1. Hero will always be poor or utmost middle class and he will only have a mom.

2. If hero is a rowdy or goonda types then he will be an orphan brought up by the villain whom he will take revenge against in the second half of the movie.

3. If heroine is a young girl then she will be very rich but she will have only a dad.

4. The young rich heroine will always be in scantily clad clothes and will be arrogant until she falls in love with the hero.

5. The hero will never get aroused by a young beautiful girl stripping next to him. He will rather advise her on our cultural values and ask her to change her behavior. If hero is a rough and tough person then he will slap her. In most of the cases either of these will be done in public, humiliating the heroine.

6. Heroine will fall in love with the hero, thinking of his advise (or slap) lying down on her bed.

7. No sooner does the heroine fall in love with our hero, lying on her bed, there will be a duet in her dreams.

8. If heroine is wife of 45+year old hero who is shown as a middle aged man, then she will be an orphan and our hero would have rescued her from a deadly situation and married her.

9. In most cases, heorines father will be a goonda and he will be the villain as well (God only knows how come such goondas get such beautiful daughters in tamil movies).

10. If the hero and heroine are caught in the middle of their affair, then they will only be caught in the middle of a paddy field. Immediately the heroines father will slap her on her face. The next shot she will fall down on her cot and start crying. The father will then beat heroines mother saying she doesn't know how to raise her daughter (now dont ask if that isn't the fathers responsibility as well).

11. If at all the heroine has to ditch the hero she will only do so because the heros life is in danger and she wants to protect him.

12. If the hero is a rowdy from the slums who is uneducated, looks horrible and is poor, then the heroine will be a college girl from a decent family, very rich, good looking and will always run behind the hero (mind you the hero wont).

13. Though hero will not get aroused with a beautiful girl standing next to him scantily dressed, but will advise her, he will dance with another scantily dressed woman in a kuthu paatu or item number (refer my previous posting for the differences).

14. If heroines father is not the villain then it will be her murai maman (maternal uncle who is supposedly the one to marry her as per customs).