C2C

Its well known that director-turned-cinematographer Jeeva was in the middle of his fourth film(as director) Dhaam Dhoom in Russia, when he passed away prematurely. The future of the film was naturally shaky after that. But his mentor P.C.Sriram has stepped in and offered to complete the film and the producer must be heaving a big sigh of relief.

I'm sure there have been more than a few instances of a director taking over a half-finished film but off the top of my head, I can remember only one. Kamalhassan took over Chachi 420, the Hindi remake of Avvai Shanmugi, from its original director after the two had some differences of opinion. Since Kamal ghost-directs most of his movies anyway(that was probably where the difference of opinion arose!), the change of directors probably didn't make much of a difference there.

As far as pedigree goes, one can't think of a better director to take over a film originally started by an ace cinematographer. Apart from being Jeeva's mentor, PC was probably the person most responsible for making viewers sit up and take notice of cinematography as an important component of a film. He won the National Award for Naayakan and worked on movies like Mouna Raagam, Agni Natchathiram, Thirudaa Thirudaa, Alaipaayuthey and Mugavari. He too turned to direction without giving up cinematography, his first love and has directed 3 films Meera, Kuruthippunal and Vaanam Vasappadum. But the two directors' style of filmmaking does make me wonder if it will be a smooth transition as far as Dhaam Dhoom is concerned.

PC's three films so far have all dealt with very heavy subjects. I don't remember much about Meera, his first film, apart from the fact that it starred Vikram and Ishwarya, but I have seen it and I don't think it was a candyfloss love story. Kurudhippunal was a stark, realistic and violent cop story about a policeman's single-minded pursuit of a terrorist while Vaanam Vasappadum was a bleak, depressing story about a woman's search for justice after being raped by two young boys(in fact, the romance was the weakest part of the film).

On the other hand, Jeeva's films have all been light-hearted, romantic entertainers. 12B dealt with 2 love stories in 2 parallel, alternate timelines in a man's life; Ullam Ketkume dealt with multiple love stories in a college setting; and Unnaale Unnaale revolved around a love triangle. All 3 films were slickly packaged with nice locations and great songs and were glossy. They had their share of serious storylines and poignant moments but no one would label them as tearjerkers or heavy movies.

According to the article, most of Dhaam Dhoom is finished and only the songs are left to be picturized. It will be interesting to see if we can spot the different styles of Jeeva and PC when the film arrives in theaters...