Transcending the Space

I am writing this post after watching a refreshing tragedy. How can a tragedy be refreshing? Then go and watch ‘Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya’. In this movie of Gautam Menon we get to listen to some of the most romantic tunes of AR Rahman. Listening to Rahman has always been special. But this time it is more special because this album comes after Rahman won his Oscar. Thamarai’s love-ladden poetry is light on ears but heavy on the heart.

The hero of this movie, Karthik, is a young energetic and creative person who aspires for a behind-the-screen career in the tinsel world. His lady love, Jessie, is a beautiful voluptuous young woman of good breed. Karthik is of the philosophy that love should approach him and make him mad turning him upside down. Love strikes him quite heavily at the moment when he sees Jessie for the first time. The girl is reticent in expressing her heart. But Karthik, an adamant guy, breaks the ice which Jessie tries to build around her heart. Jessie expresses herself for the first time in a church, moment before her marriage with some other guy.

Their love has only one villain. As usual it is the society. A Hindu boy and a Christian girl try to join hands against all odds. But destiny has it otherwise. The girl is forced to take a call between her lover working in a far off city and her own father who threatens to kill himself. Jessie chooses to say an abrupt ‘no’ to Karthik hoping that this rudeness will help him in hating her and subsequently in moving on.

Karthik, an adamant guy resists forgetting her. One day he learns that Jessie has married somebody else. This makes his life miserable. It is here that Gautam Menon presents a different lover. Karthik turns his own painful experience with Jessie as a source of inspiration to script his debut success in tinsel world as a film director. He writes his own story with the same character names and circumstances. This script earns him the most coveted entry into the film world which he brilliantly exploits to produce a successful movie. Gautam has made the last half-hour of the movie extremely interesting and lovable by seamlessly interspersing two different sequences of events.

I have always been a fan of Gautam (since his second movie ‘Kakka Kakka’) and a fanatic of Rahman. This movie is the first production where two of my most favourite creative people come together. My expectation for the movie was a bit high. After watching the trailer a few days back my expectation shot up to the summit. The protagonist’s character name is Karthik! Oh my God, that’s interesting. More interesting is that his lady love’s name is Jessie. The name Jessie has got no special significance for me. But Karthik falling in love with a Christian girl made my heart-beat race for a few moments. This is a theme that has been so close to me in the past. So I kept asking ‘how would the movie be?’

To my pleasant surprise the movie was a tragedy. Karthik never holds the hands of Jessie in marriage. More importantly Gautam has portrayed Karthik turning his pain as the fountainhead of his success. I should whole-heartedly appreciate Gautam for dishing out an excellent lesson for me. Many Karthiks like me believe that when love breaks one should drown in sorrow. But one can also use it positively. Gautam has always portrayed such positive energy in his films.

‘Would Gautam show someone like me on the silver screen?’ was the question that lingered in my mind just before I watched the movie. But Gautam’s Karthik was strikingly different from what I am. I have never believed in love at first sight for the simple reason that there is nobody in this world who can fall in love with me at first sight. I am a kind of person who practices ‘untouchability’ with women and more with my lady love. To feel the beauty of a woman one has to consume her in all the five senses. Touching, kissing and hugging are definitely divinely and heavenly. But I would like to win the society’s sanction before I can treat myself with my woman’s satiny skin. But Karthik’s characterization had one striking resemblance with that of mine (or I would like it to be that way).

“Gautam thank you for making this movie. With this piece of creative work you are transcending the space in many of your fans’ estimations. Thank you so much for the Jessie and Karthik that you painted on the screen. Thank you so much for portraying Karthik as a person who neither complains nor curses his Jessie. I see myself in this characterisation. I am or at least I expect myself to be someone like this.”