CINEMA VEERAN REVIEW

We would have seen them as scary henchmen in many films, some of us might have even cursed them for scolding or hitting our favourite heroes on screen. Apart from that, have we recognized them or their efforts? We are talking about the stuntmen who have been an integral part behind many success stories.

Aishwarya Dhanush takes us on a 50-minute journey into the household of these real heroes behind each and every successful stunt scene. It has voice over by Superstar Rajinikanth, music by AR Rahman’s Qutub-E-Kripa and edits by Ruben. But let’s not go into the technical aspects much as we know how good these men are already.

The documentary starts with a thumping short song. Then we have Rajinikanth voice over narrating about the prominence of stuntmen in the industry with some rare real-life footages in the background. The initial phase of the film talks about some of the backstories of the fights that we have seen and enjoyed. It is always nice to know the backstory of the scenes that entertained us. It also shows us how scary it is to perform those fights.

Murratu Kaalai train fight or Mudhalvan nude run firefight or Anniyan 100 men breathtaking fight sequence. We might have been in awe while watching these stunts on screen but it is definitely not a happy scene to see the men who had performed them. From the time when there was no CGI till the present era, Cinema Veeran features a mix of experiences and current breed of stuntmen’s perspective.

We bring to you a selected few excerpts from their testimony:

"In a year, If I work 150 days in shoot, you can be rest assured, I will be spending the rest of the 150 days in a hospital. On 2 occasions I even had to battle out suicidal thoughts"

“We entertained the audience. Most of us do it for our family. We don’t even inform our family about how tough our work is as it might scare them.”

“We know if we perform this stunt, we will get severely injured. Knowing that we still perform that stunt. That is the true spirit of a stuntman”.

“We don't even tell our colleagues that we have been hurt, it might grab away our forthcoming opportunity”

Rajinikanth narrates the current salary structure of stuntman:

Daily bata - 350
Car and bike stunts - 10,000
Fire accident stunts - 6,000
Jumping from a significant height - 3000

“Some of them are paid enough, they might lead a happy life for the time being but they still have unstable job and if they die, and their family goes helpless”

“Unions have made the system better than before. Once we did not have sufficient money to even bury a stuntman”

“There is no wallpaper in our union office; you could only find the photos of the dead stuntmen as wallpaper.  It is a common thing to see stuntman die at a young age. We look at their photos before and think about them before we perform our stunts”

The documentary will definitely leave you with a significant impact. It might even make you feel guilty of not recognizing their effort, even for a second. Thank you, Aishwarya for letting us know the efforts that go behind a stunt scene. Probably the industry and the society might look at them differently one day and give them the credit and reward they truly deserve.