Venneer with Panneer - 2 ( Entry scenes for heroes)

There is this thing called a stylish entry scene for our heroes, where the hero enters with a bang.....For Rajini and his clones there will be the camera panning from the shoes(which will be a Nike even if hero is a velai illai pattadari) to the face and then a smile and a wink followed by a song where the hero praises himself sky high. If the hero happens to be too modest then he will get some vetti fellows to do the praising. Another version would be a fight scene with a hand suddenly appearing to stop the villian from cutting off one pava patta ponnusamy's head or stripping off some pookari's saree....The clenched muscles and sweaty hands and the music reaching a crescendo turns an anticlimax as the camera reveals the owner of the iron hand to be Ramarajan in pink shirt and green pants.

One of the earliest stylish entry scenes was in Sivaji's Raja Raja Chozhan. While the head sculptor is busy at his work, his young assistant, who has to give him his betel leaves, runs away, without telling the sculptor. When the sculptor asks for the leaves, a hand with a bracelet appears on screen and as the sculptor turns to spit the leaves in the jar he notices that it is the king standing and giving him the leaves. As Sivaji enters the screen you have proper entry music with Thavil pattayakalappifying. And then the great man gives an acknowledging nod in his usual style. Truly a classic opening piece. And it straight away makes a point about the nature of the art loving king.

But apart from this and a few others there have not been many really wonderful opening scenes which also make a distinctive point about the nature of the character. So as usual while searching for anything quality in Tamil movies, one turns to Kamal's(mostly post nayagan) movies. So here is the list of my top 3 opening scenes for Kamal. All these scenes in addition to being interesting make a point about the character of the hero.

1. Opening scene of Nammavar with Kamal entering the college during a bloody strike. He ducks as a bottle is thrown at him by Karan, when he tries to enter the college. He turns around to show a thumbs down, making the point that he has seen it all and won't be intimidated by that. This is Kamal's most stylish enry scene ever. The purposeful lecturer not about to be put off by kids wielding weapons. A brilliant start to a not so brilliant movie.

2. There are some roles which Kamal could do a lot better than Sivaji. One of them being, acting clumsy and awkard. A case in study being the Chaplinsque scene with Kamal getting stuck trying to push a trolley through a small door at the airport. What follows is a laugh riot. What better introduction does the clumsy Sakthivel Gounder of Sathi Leelavathy need.

3. The station scene in Thevar Magan makes a contrasting point to the serious role which Sakthi would have to play later in life. For the moment life for this man is all fun and frolic. And by the time the movie ends one is left wondering sadly, eppadi iruntha Sakthi ippadi aaitaru.

These are my top 3. Maybe Bala and others could add a few more to this.