That most essential ‘Prop’

  • IndiaGlitz, [Sunday,March 21 2010]

Its retro mode in Kollywood and guess what is the most happening ‘property’ our stars are using, eh sorry, wearing!

Call it the trend or a fashion statement - our heroes are wearing the Cowboy hats, more often than not. All you Tamil Film loyalists, rewind to times of Jai Shankar, possibly one of the first cowboys of Kollywood. He wore it for his most coveted cowboy role and then continuing his legacy was Rajinikanth in ‘Thaai Meedhu Sathyam'.

Well those were the days when stories were given the importance and costumes were naturally imbibed in the story. And now, Cowboy hats everywhere. The hero wears the cowboy hat and dances with the heroine in hilly areas, or you see him wear the hat as a ‘prop’ (short for property) and smoke a puff, typically wild… wild …west!

Remind yourself of the recent releases, the hats are surely in vogue now! Starting the cowboy genre after a long time was ‘Quickgun Murugan’ where funny man Dr.Rajendraprasad was seen with shooting guns and his cowboy hat stuck to his head. Well, agreed it was a cowboy role and he ought to do it. Lets take a turn and look at movies where the hat is used as the ‘most essential property’. Who wouldn’t want to wear a fancy cowboy hat and ride on a horse, even if the story doesn’t demand it? Kollywood has always had the option of songs at awry places, remember!

Recollect the song ‘Telephone Manipol’, Kamal Haasan wears the cowboy hat in ‘Indian’, in a song of course! And Prabhudeva as a cowboy in ‘Muqabla’ in Kadhalan. If that was old, let’s move to the present, the Superstar has fancied the cowboy hat in Sivaji, when he reclines on his cruise bike and covers his face with the hat. Santhanu Bhagyaraj sports the hat in a song in his first movie ‘Sakkarakatti’. No doubt! The hat is a big craze!

Not jus the heroes, even the heroines! For example, Reema Sen in ‘Minnale’ in 'Azhagiya Theeye' song and the hot Shriya Saran in ‘Oru Koodai Sunlight’ in ‘Sivaji’ wearing the cowboy hat smartly while grooving with the superstar.

Also Taking part in the trend is the ‘Ilaya Thalapathi’ who gets on the horse and gallops his way to fight the baddies in his not-so-old movie ‘Youth’, actually ‘Zorro’ style and again with the ‘hat’ in ‘Vettaikaran’, besides his introduction he also wears it in one of the songs making him look cool.

Continuing the trend is yet to be released movies like Arun Vijay’s ‘Maanja Velu’ and Sathyraj- Sundar.C starrer ‘Guru Sishyan’. Sathyaraj wears the hat on him with style and so does Sundar.

Taking the cowboy hat and the entire cowboy costume to the next level is Simbu Devan’s ‘Irumbu Kottai Murattu Singam’ (IKMS), a cowboy flick in Kollywood after a long time, that will release later this month. Larencce as the hero and all of us know, the man who dances his way with style, would have carried-off the hat with style too. Being a cowboy flick, its obvious that the movie would involve loads of cowboy hats.

Cowboy hats are a style symbol. Hats have always been an accessory to mankind, but as a property in movies, especially songs, cowboy hats fill the blank. Excuse us, if we missed your favourite actors or your favourite movies.

Spot the actors, be it the hero, the heroine or even the villain in the movies with the cowboy hats on. The tradition has been continuing for ages now and just like the shirts and the pants, the hats are here to stay. At least in Tamil Cinema.

With summer round the corner, time for you to grab one, and just chill! Happy Weekend Amigos!