ANALYSIS OF COSTUMES IN THE SONG AKADANU NAANGA FROM THE MOVIE

INDIAN
Indian movie directed by Shankar starring Kamal Haasan, Manisha Koirila and Urmila garnered
a lot of attention for the use of 14 costumes in a song featuring Kamal and Urmila in it. This
song had costumes from different backgrounds and depicting the characters in various styles.
Even the back dancers in the song had to undergo different costume changes to suit the lead actor
in the song.
The introductory part of the song places more emphasis on the character faces which are adorned
with jewelry and tattoos. The backdrop dancers sport a mask during this part of the song.
However, this part lasts for a duration of a few seconds only. But it ensured the audience's focus
towards the main leads in the song due to the dark background and highlighted tattoos. The
backdrop dancers and the lead actress wore a gold coloured dress which gave more prominence
to the tattoo and the lead actor sported a red and white coloured shirt and pant.

The second costume reflected more of a gothic nature. Kamal wore a black costume similar to
that of the batman and vampires. The back dancers had a plain black dress while Urmila wore a
brownish black dress. The brown colour in her dress made her stand out among the rest of the
backing dancers. Ovrall his costume setting reflected a gothic culture which was a bit different to
the costumes usually portrayed in Tamill cinema.

A complete contrast was seen in the next set of costumes with Kamal and Urmila wearing white
which was completely different from the earlier black costumes which kind of balanced the
absence of color in the previous one. The back dancers wore different coloured dresses giving
prominence to the lead actors in the song and also bringing more colours to this scene.

The next set of costumes puts the viewers in a jolly and relaxing mood through the hawaii
costumes adorned by the lead stars. Kamal wore a shirt and shorts with a flower garland and
even had a cane hat. Inclusion of small details such as garland and hat brought out the holiday
effect altogether. A green dress was worn by Urmila along with a garland. Proper detailing was
given even to the back dancers. They wore different hat shapes and added up the colour quotient
to the jolly and relaxing atmosphere.

An Indian movie song needs to have an Indian costume !! Kamal and Urmila brought an elegant
appeal in their next costumes through the golden colour traditional costumes. Urmila wore a
golden ghagra while Kamal wore a gold kurta with a red dhoti. The colours were coordinated
among the leads and the jewellery and flowers and adorned by urmila brought out the traditional
look among both of them.

Again, this was a contrast to the previous one. Kama and Urmila sported a western outfit and
they matched with each other through one of the best colour combinations in the world (black,
white and red). Kamal wore a black suit while urmila wore a white top with a red skirt. The back
dancers were dressed in different colours and western outfits. This scene brought out an
international flavor among the audience.

Shankar had made sure that every change in costume was completely different from the previous
ones wore by them. The next set was more of a retro/rock performer look. Kama wore a silver
colour shirt with a black pant and had neon lights fixed on his clothes while urmila wore a gold
and silver combination dress. Even the back dancers had the attention of the audience with their
unique shaped headgear worn by them.

India is a country with diverse culture and clothing style. The next set of costumes worn by the
actors were of Indian clothing. But the style was different from the previous Indian clothing in
the song. This resembled more of a north Indian style with Kamal wearing a green sherwani and
Urmila wearing a red and gold lehenga.

The following costume is also of Indian style, but it reflects more of a folk culture. Again, the
colors used in this dress are red, black and white. The dress had a lot of Kashmiri embroidery
style.

The next costumes reflected a youthful look and the current trend of clothing that was going on
during the time of films release. Kamal and Urmila wore a jean type shorts and skirt
respectively.



The next set of costumes had more male backdrop dancers for a change. This was a mixture of
Indian and western type with Kamal wearing a Sherwani and Urmila wearing a western outfit.
Th dress worn by the leads in this song portion was of contrast to each other in respect to colour
an the style.

The last portion of this song ended with a swimsuit worn by Urmila and Kamal wearing a
bathrobe which was in the continuity with the scene from which the song began.

The costume director of the film experiment with different styles and colours to the maximum in
this song and brought out the best look among the leads and the back dancers. Proper detailing
was given to each costumes even for the back dancers which is uncommon among many films.

ANALYSIS OF MOVIE POSTERS:


The main image consists of six main characters in a city street, while two of them appear
to be armed, the way they are dressed sows it is formal rather than social. Upon closer
inspection, you can see that behind the characters, the street bends and turns upwards
defying physics, this gives the impression that reality has been defied or not all is as it
seems. It raises the questions: Who are these people? Why are they armed? And why
does reality appear to have been altered. The image itself is not multi layered however, it
is the visual editing that is memorable.
Below the poster, lies the credits displaying the names of the director and producer which
are small to read, but instead of advertising the director, the poster advertises the
directors work trying to draw the audience by using previous films as forms of
advertisement.
The movie tag line your mind is the scene of the crime suggests that a crime has been
committed and that the crime revolves around someones mind, hinting that perhaps the
film contains aspects of a psychological thriller.
The top portion of the poster contains the name of the lead star Leonardo Caprio using his
name and image as a selling point for the film.
The weapons held by the characters in the posters indicate the action aspects in this film.