The 72-year-old actor’s last two films, Darbar (2020) and Annaatthe (2021), received unanimously negative reviews though the second is said to have performed well in B and C centres in Tamil Nadu. Given this, and his contemporary Kamal Haasan’s stupendous reinvention with the blockbuster thriller Vikram (2022), Jailer, with a multi-industry cast that includes Mohanlal and Shiva Rajkumar, seems to be a calculated move to score with key audiences, and the film’s success is critical for the superstar to maintain his position in the industry. ‘Kaavaala’ – which translates to ‘I want you’ in Telugu – seems to be a desperate push in that direction, inspired by Samantha’s viral ‘Oo Antava’ item number from Pushpa: The Rise (2021), which helped the Telugu film become a pan-India hit.
Did the item song that was on its way out before ‘Oo Antava’ really need to be revived? At a time when the space for the heroine has shrunk to playing the “love interest” in most mainstream Tamil films, do we need to bring back a trend that further reduces the role of women actors?
From record dancer to item number
The item song has its origins in Hindi cinema of the 1930s, when there would commonly be a stock female character known as the “vamp”. Dressed in body-hugging, glamorous costumes, the vamp was used to underline the moral depravity of a villain or the setting. Occasionally, she was also used to emphasise the hero’s masculinity. But the idea of the vamp predates cinema, originating in a culture of women dancers and entertainers who, depending on their social status, entertained different sections of society.