Action in cinema is an arrangement of movements, pace, camera angles and time which is carefully designed to look amazing. It is proved that not just merely about displaying a strong male fighting the evil, it is more than that. It is not a gender specific genre as we have seen strong female protagonists fighting crimes in movies like Tomb Raider, Charlie Angels etc.
The definition of action is more than what we think it is. It is not necessary that an action sequence should only involve testosterone pumping men fighting with each other. It could also have the element of comedy in it. Charlie Chaplin made people laugh while running around or being chased by someone. It could also have the element of suspense in it. For instance, in the opening chase sequence of the movie Casino Royale where James Bond chase and fight on the moving cranes or in Kahaani, when Bob Biswas follows Vidya Bagchi and Assistant Sub Inspector Rana.
Action hero and emotions
Action sequences could also make you emotional like when Kattappa picks up his sword to kill Baahubali, we all want Prabhas to notice and defend himself or when Salman Khan is thrashed by policemen in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, one only wants him to run and escape from the ‘bad guys. The action could also generate mystery like in the movie Psycho, we see the murder but we don’t know the murderer. Action is not confined to gender, mood, theme, geographics, the scale of production & landscape. It is just choreography with some great participants. Action should be all about action.
What lies ahead
With Baahubali, Salaar, etc. South Indian cinema has shown that it is evolving and only becoming better in terms of action but what it needs to address is the image of its action hero. For one time, an action hero could be a female with no vendetta or revenge angle associated with her or someone from the queer community who does what males have done for so many years in movies, fighting the evil. If we talk about Hindi cinema, it is becoming a lot better too with its action sequences. These days there exists a team of action designers and Bollywood has a thing for choosing Hollywood action trainers in their movies. The result is terrific. Who could have thought of making a movie like ‘War’ 20 years ago?
Action heroines
The term ‘action hero’ is generally associated with male actors but thankfully things are changing with time. In the recent years, several web series and movies have given us badass female characters who are great action heroes. These characters include Raji played by Samantha Akkineni in Family Man 2, Akira by played by Sonakshi Sinha in Akira, Shabana played by Tapsee Pannu in Naam Shabana, etc.
