The larger-than-life cutouts and hoardings on Chennai skyline stand for sycophancy? 

Every city acquires its own character and personality over time. The suburban trains with people rushing heedlessly mirror an ever-rushing Mumbai, Kolkata would be the yellow taxis and hand-pulled rickshaws, malls represent Delhi, and Chennai would most likely be humongous hoardings and larger-than-life cutouts in the downtown business districts of Mount Road.

Cutouts and hoardings go back to the days when fans of MGR and Shivaji Ganesan competed with each other to project their favourite star in the 1960s. Since cinema and politics were bedfellows – MGR, Karunanidhi, Shivaji dabbled in both politics and cine field- it was no surprise when political parties started to use hoardings and cutouts as it happened during movie promotions with large hoardings drawn by hand artists showcased outside the theatres.

The political parties added more elements to the cutouts with party flags pinned on road dividers and huge portraits of leaders decorated with colourful pieces of fabric. These loud visuals are no less of an eyesore. Any Chennaite would know that buntings and a surfeit of digital flex materials encroaching upon pavements mean that some important leader is readying for a rally .

With the state-of-affairs being in the hands of the Dravidian parties for the last four decades the larger-than-life cutouts promise a foolproof way to express political loyalty in a state where leaders like Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha are worshipped as demigods. On their birthdays or on any trivial occasion Chennai streets would be glutted with wall posters, graffiti, giant hoardings and cutouts of councillors and MLAs with an aim for climbing up the political ladder.

Tamilnadu is perhaps the only state where political leaders and film stars carry heavy titles before their names: Kalaignar, Puratchi Thalaivi, Supreme hero Sarath Kumar, Superstar Rajnikanth, Ilayathalapathy Vijay and more.

Taking a cue from politicians, the cutouts and hoardings culture has now engulfed the film industry where heroes like Sarath Kumar, Vijay, Suriya, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan, Ajith use their fan associations to celebrate their movies and birthdays. Those nurturing political ambitions spend money on cutouts and hoardings to organize blood donation camps, student scholarships, and flood relief projects while painting themselves as responsible citizens of society.

They use the neighbourhood auto rickshaw associations to distribute free buttermilk on festivals like Velankanni . And no publicity is complete without giant hoardings and cutouts!
Everyone knows that cutsouts and sycophancy goes hand in hand. So does wanton self-promotion and political ambitions though the city has gone modern with Tidel Parks, IT and a growing size of the young lot. But something never changes. Cutouts and hoardings and the visual filth and noise they bring along, it seems, are here to stay. On that score Chennai remains feudally backward and parochial much like our nattamais and Chinna Goundars.

But strangely these cutouts give Chennai its unique personality. Like them or hate them but you simply can’t ignore them.

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