Revisiting Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam: A film that brought the West back to the South
Director Chimbu Deven's Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam (IMS), a spoof on Westerns, released almost a decade back. Let's look at the fun facts and references that this film had aplenty
IMS is one of the very few Western ever made in Tamil cinema after Ganga and Jakkamma (both 1972). Interestingly, Kalam Vellum (1970) had Western themes and all three films starred Jaishankar
Between the Jaishankar films and IMS, Rajinikanth's Thai Meethu Sathiyam is the only other Tamil film to fall under the Curry Western - the Indian version of a Spaghetti Western
Just a year before IMS, the Rajendra Prasad-starrer Quick Gun Murugun released. Made in English and dubbed in regional languages, this comedy Western also incidentally had Nassar as the antagonist
To pay homage to the hero and villain of Ganga -- Jaishankar and Ashokan -- Chimbu Deven named the fictional villages in the film as Jayshankarapuram and Ashokapuram
While we're at it, the antagonist is named Kizhakku Kattai - the literal Tamil translation for Eastwood, referencing Clint Eastwood who is known for his Hollywood Westerns
Similar to the unorthodox names of characters in Westerns, IMS too had a few like Baali (Padmapriya), Pakki (Raai Laxmi), Ulakkai (Sai Kumar), Bilagiri James (Mouli)
IMS is one of the first Tamil films to have had a dedicated website. The now-defunct cowboy-themed www.murattusingam.com had the film's trailer, synopsis, posters, gallery and music
Being a comedy, the film had an ensemble of comedians such as Manorama, VS Raghavan, Senthil, Mouli, MS Bhaskar, Ilavarasu, Ramesh Khanna, Vaiyapuri, Delhi Ganesh and Chams
IMS is the first film in which Raghava Lawrence played dual roles. The actor who grew his hair long and learnt horse riding for this film would later do dual roles in Kanchana 2 and 3
Chimbu Deven, who is known for not repeating his music directors, roped in Sabesh-Murali for the film's background score. The duo had previously composed music for Imsai Arasan 23rd Pulikecei
Famous Malayalam cinematographer Alagappan N was roped in for IMS which is his only Tamil film till date
Chimbu Deven's frequent collaborator, Art director Muthuraj was responsible for constructing gigantic sets to achieve the Western backdrop. 300 people worked on the sets
The film was shot in Andhra Pradesh, Nagpur, Pune, Palakkad, the forest areas of Puducherry, the hills of Mysore and in Ambasamudram
IMS starts off by explaining the concept of Westerns and the tropes of the genre such as the attire, treasure hunt, capital punishments and also the frequent confrontations with the Native Americans
As a homage to the cult classic Hindi film Sholay, which is also Curry Western, another village was also named as Sholay Puram while the villains lived in a town called USA Puram
In a courtroom scene, there's another homage to Sholay in the form of a picture of Amitabh Bachchan instead of Gandhi
The Westerns are infamous for the number of rape scenes and how it was trivially depicted. This shot is a satirical take on the blunderous representation
Singaram is accused of losing a gem called Texas Mullangi. Lost treasure is a common trope in many Westerns such as The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The Lion (Singam) in the title logo, when shown in close, meows instead of roaring denoting the swapping up of Singaram's character with Singam's
The introduction shot of Singam with a harmonica is a direct reference to Charles Bronson from Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
References don't get more direct than this. A statue of Jaishankar that's inaugurated by Clint Eastwood - with apparently a website too
Chimbu Deven specialises in infusing pop-culture references irrespective of the backdrop of his film. Here's an example!
You just can't talk about Westerns without mentioning the names of veteran actors Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. In the film, the two are considered as the founding fathers of this community
According to the film, the first to start the settlement is Karnan the cameraman. The reference is that of cinematographer turned director Karnan who directed the Jaishankar films mentioned earlier
Veteran actor Major Sundarajan is then called as the first leader of the community. The photo used is a picture of him from Jaishankar's Ganga in which he plays Ganga's father Kathirvelu
Ganga's villain Ashokan is shown as the one who terrorised the first settlers. Kizhakku Kattai is said to be the sister's son of Ashokan, thereby, technically making IMS a spiritual sequel of Ganga
During a flashback duel, Singam tells Ulakkai that he's a student of Terence Hill -- the actor known for Spaghetti Westerns such as They Call Me Trinity, My Name Is Nobody and Django, Prepare a Coffin
And of course, there's a statue of Ashokan in USA Puram with a website too
The look of Kizhakku Kattai (Nasser) seems to have been inspired by John Wayne's character Rooster Cogburn from True Grit (1969) for which he won a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor
The scene where Singaram trains the villagers is a homage to a similar scene from The Magnificent Seven (1960) which is an Old West-style remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai
Kizhakku Kattai is shown to be a fan of rock and roll music. In this scene, he's listening to Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley
We're then introduced to the Native Americans (Or in this case, Indians) and their village of Veg - Andi Puram
And of course, there must be a treasure map. Though there are can be many source materials for this troupe, Chimbu Deven seems to have been heavily inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
MS Bhaskar as the ‘Pure Vegetarian’ Indian chief Athrikesa and his translator Chams are the masterminds behind some of the film's most hilarious moments
Just like how Madan Karky created the Kiliki language for the Baahubali film franchise, it's said that MS Bhaskar and Chams came up with the language of the native people right at the sets
Chimbu Deven is known for his unique interval blocks. If it was 'Ini dariyal thodarum' in Imsai Arasan 23rd Pulikecei, it's 'Ini trouser kizhiyum' here in IMS, with its native language translation
Considering it took the film so long to introduce all its three female leads, let's have a look at what their characters, that had very little to do throughout the film, are based on
Baali (Padmapriya) is the usual innocent character that falls for the hero. She's a doctor and Anne Bancroft's character Dr DR Cartwright from John Ford's 7 Women, could have been an inspiration
Pakki (Raai Laxmi) is the quintessential cowgirl similar to characters such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's Etta Place (Katharine Ross) and Calamity Jane's titular character (Doris Day)
Thumbi (Sandhya) is the daughter of the tribe's leader and she falls in love with Singaram - similar to Brandon Merrill's Falling Leaves getting married off to Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) in Shanghai Noon
Who needs rap battles when there are such classical standoffs. This song also spoofs Azhagu Malar Aada from Vaidhegi Kathirunthal
After taking a dig at how no one cares about the tribals, this scene shows the natives using election manifestos as toilet paper - classic Chimbu Deven
The marriage of Thumbi and Singaram takes place with the native language remix of Pasamalar's Vaarayen Thozhi
Be it the group of people with differences teaming up for a treasure and tropes such as following the shadow and using wooden rafts, the treasure hunt scene seems to be inspired from Mackenna's Gold
Talk about direct references. Though this ID card is a famous film prop, in the films, Indiana Jones has only worked at London University, Marshall College, Princeton University and Barnett College
The 1985 cult classic The Goonies which inspired a lot of adventure films also seems to be the influence for the booby traps the team encounters while on their way to the treasure
The box that the team assume to be the treasure looks like something that's inspired from The Ark of the Covenant from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
While we're at it, the same Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and films like Project A seem to be where the makers must have gotten the idea of bringing the entire place down in the end
Instead of having a face-off like in Westerns, IMS ends with a revolution of sorts leading to freeing people looking eerily similar to Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara and much more
