For books and movies at least, Lots. Many times you don't know anything about the book or the movie and yet the title catches your eye, you make a tentative exploration, get slightly interested and then you are pulled into it. A creative, effective title is probably the best advertisement. It's not a catchy play of words or high-brow literature that I am talking about here; the key here is - intrigue. The title should pique your curiosity just that little bit to get you started...solely on your curiosity, not on the book's reputation. From that point onwards the writing takes over and it's upto the writer to sustain intereset.
Probably the best three investigative stories in Malayalam cinema have been 'mukham (The Face)' by Mohan, 'yavanika (The Curtain)' by K G George and 'kariyilakkatupOle (Like a Zephyr of Dry Leaves)' by P Padmarajan. It doesn't take much to see which title is the one I'm gonna wax eloquent on. 'Like a Zephyr of dry Leaves'... doesn't it perfectly capture and enshrine the narrative technique of a whodunnit? Just like a pile of dry leaves caught in a wind, the configuration keeps changing, patterns keep emerging, teasing you, tempting you to read something into it... the title says it all.
Probably, I should mention one more title that got me exploring, 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess, later made into a cult classic (banned in India!) by Stanley Kubrick. I never read a review nor did anyone recommend the book to me. It was the title that got me interested. What did the author mean by that phrase? I originally thought that it was used to describe a mechanical contraption that was 'orange' in colour.[ I can already see you sneering at me... but come on, at least I was being imaginative :) ]. The book addressed a complex moral question; Man's freedom of choice between right and wrong. In the book, the protagonist Alex has almost incurable criminal tendencies. A new treatment is tried out on him whereby he becomes incapable of doing anything bad. He no more has the freedom to choose between right and wrong, he simply has to do right. The title puts it beautifully... an orange is something with juice and vitality, an orange that runs like clockwork or a wound up toy just wouldn't be an orange anymore. Ditto with Man, if he HAD to do right, without choice, without having to think, like clockwork, he wouldn't be Man anymore.
There's one last thing, I was still thinking 'But why did Burgess choose an orange? An apple would've been just as fine. Maybe better. "A Clockwork Apple", is as good, I say.' I did a bit more research and this is what I found out. Burgess lived in Malaya for a while and 'orang' in Malaya means 'Man'(as in the etymology of orang-utan)! Only true genius can pack so much into three words... economy thy name is Burgess.
PS: There are so many other titles I'd like to dwell upon... like P Padmarajan's 'innale (Yesterday)' and 'nomparaththippoov (The Flower of Sorrow)'; Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'; James Patterson's 'Along Came a Spider'; M T Vasudevan Nair's 'raNTaamoozham (Second Chance)' among many others. But that's for later; when I'm once again in the mood to rant.
