Photographer irked by Mayakkam Enna

I read many people claiming that Mayakkam Enna is realistic and so true to life. As a professional photographer, I wanted to spare a few thoughts about the extremely unrealistic portrayal of Karthik Swaminathan's profession in the movie. Here are a few of the many bloopers in the movie that bothered me throughout the movie,

• Wildlife photographers are rare group of people whose passionate love for wildlife, nature and photography leads them to choose this profession. They do not sit in an office with two assistants nor do they send their assistants to take pictures for them. They choose this profession to interact with wildlife and be close to nature. Actor Ravi Prasad as Mathesh Krishnaswamy was a poor casting decision made worse by lack of characterization. 

• Why exactly would the character, Mathesh Krishnaswamy a world renowned wildlife photographer, shoot swimsuit models in a beach (with the help of foreign light assistants)?

• Karthik walks into a forest and shoots a bird perched high on the tree (questionable perch location for a water bird like Cormorant) with a limited zoom lens and no tripod. He also shoots African elephants not seen in Mudhumalai forests.

• In a world where digital formats are widely available, it was a joke that National Geographic was shown to have published a photo without the raw format (copyright). Unless Mathesh also stole the memory card, which defeats the whole purpose of why he chose to be a wildlife photographer in the first place. 

• And why exactly the protagonist or the girlfriend/wife did not think of writing to NatGeo is a big puzzle. It is easy to prove it to NatGeo than trying to spam a number of local magazines. I will let this go, as certain cinematic liberties need to be taken to take the movie forward.

• Looks like the popular International forum keeps selecting the same photo over and over again. Mathesh won the award for the same picture and was still nominated for the same picture a few years later.

• On a lighter note, Why Kumudam? How many times have you seen an animal published on the full page cover of Kumudam, let alone a female one?

Bottomline: The portrayal of the wildlife photographer was totally misleading. A creator, be it a book author or a movie director is expected to invest time in doing the research to represent the characters/profession appropriately. A director like Selvaraghavan, who is known for his realistic portrayals of characters, should have invested at least a little bit of time in doing research about the profession. 

- A Professional Photographer (Visitor Column)