Peresblancs Classic B-Movie Reviews: Tamil Pulp! The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction (2008), Chakravarthy and Khanna, eds. Kaattu Puli (2012), Tinu Verma.

Just returning from a month out of the country where I stumbled on the awesomeness of Tamil-language pulp films and fiction. The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction (2008) was a lucky find; as translator Pritham K Chakravarthy writes, not much of this kind of writing makes it into English. The Tamil pulps have a similar timeline as American and British pulps, if a bit of a later start but flourished in the 60s when works were printed on cheap, recycled paper and again in the 80s when desktop publishing allowed even cheaper production. They also share western pulp themes: crime, corruption, monsters, mad scientists and romance. Other themes, like Tamil astrology, are more specific to South Indian culture. Some of the covers have wildly creative, photoshopped covers like the one below, the cover for Best Novel issue featuring Rajesh Kimar's Matchstick Number One (which appears in the anthology) -- with the alluring face of Christina Aguilera as a vampire. I wouldn't have minded a bit more context on the publishing industry in India as it seems cheap paper editions still abound (but seemed to have died off in the west) but overall The Blaft Anthology has a good range of stories, interviews with authors and (best of all) there's a second volume that came out in 2010.

Christina Aguilera as vampire!

Also got to sit in on a few Tamil pulp films, including Kaattu Puli which translates roughly into "Taken by Force". This is a B-action movie starring "Action King" Arjun Sarja (below), which tells the tale of a large-boobed big city woman running an illegal trade in human organs. Kaatu Puli opens with a nod to Quentin Tarantino, as Arjun's daughter goes into an epileptic seizure while watching a clip of Kill Bill (sweet)! We heard a few "meows" while Sayali Bhagat poses sexily but mainly the action just keeps coming as a group of hikers lost in the jungle are pursued by a tribe of demonic murderers after their precious organs! I was annoyed at the complete resemblance of one of the actresses to Snooki, but luckily she gets an arrow through the chest right away. Arjun Sarja kicked ass - as an old fart I liked how they hand the important action scenes to a 45-year old. The young pups throw a few punches but are too full of themselves to get anywhere! This is B all the way, with great touches like how the mini van that gets smashed in an accident looks nothing at all like the one we saw them driving in just moments ago - but director Tinu Verma makes up for it by making it the biggest, most insane crash you've ever witnessed in cinema. The van flies 45 feet in height, and makes an ear-piercing glass-shattering noise. Then explodes. And, admission to all this incredible awesomeness was 45 rupees, that is about $1.