It’s a Friday and an eagerly awaited weekend, respite from the busy work week and other things. Also, we had booked for a night show to watch Ravanan, a new Maniratnam movie starring Vikram and Aishwarya. Especially for the Lady and the Lad, it was time to look sassy and sizzling. Since MIL was also there, it was a great time to bond as a family, especially for the kid who required all the cajoling from a loving grandma.
The love that you express and exhibit with kids stays put with them for a very long time and that’s a personal experience with me. I see that with Anirud as well since he adores his grandma when she visits us in Chennai and cries when it’s time for her to go back to her home (I am writing this paragraph after 10 years). It takes a great deal of effort for some and comes naturally for some (I am referring to elders) to become a kid at heart and play like a child. That’s what kids expect from us and you really have to turn yourself childlike and play with them if you want to win their hearts, nothing else is required. It’s quite simple yet extremely hard for people like me who can express so much in words yet struggle immensely when it comes to action in reality.
Mani’s movies are always different and refreshing from the usual cliched ones.And yes this one was quite radically different and off beat even from his own standards. It was a tribal affair with an enmeshed mix of Veerapan episode, Robin Hood, Ramayana and current Maoist struggles that we get to see in the eastern part of India these days. If one goes to this movie with an expectation of an all out entertainer, it would fall flat and be an absolute disappointment. It was not great either as it did not convey anything at the end of the movie or was open and debatable. Nevertheless, the visuals, picturisation, locales were a treat to the eyes and senses. It was simply breathtaking and spectacular on the big screen. And of course the lead actors gave their heart and soul in portraying their characters. But at the end it was incomplete and one had a feeling that Mani had a compulsion to end it that way.
We are an admixture of Ram and Ravanan in terms of sense, serenity, sensibility, sensuality, strength and savagery. While the expectation is that one has to be the former all the time, humanly and veritably it is impossible to be so in my opinion. If one can reach that end state then they become a true demigod. It is those situations and reaction to those specific situations that makes us either a Ram or a Ravanan. What may appear justified in one person’s view may not be appropriate from the counterpoint of another person. So is it perception, understanding, who or what dictates what is right or wrong in that instance. It thus can vary from person to person and situation to situation. Interpretation of what is valid, reasonable and vindictive. Is violence then justified…in any form….there is a proverb, those who take the sword die by the sword….I would like to leave it open ended…for now….
These days, Anirud had also started watching movies in theatres, especially night shows. It was the second film after Singam, starring Surya. He watched the movie in a spell bound manner up to interval and after interval fell asleep in Vidya’s lap. Least trouble some kid that way, very adjusting and accommodating.
We returned home after midnight and I stayed put through the night watching an English movie in my laptop, wrote something about evolution and slept finally at 6.30 in the morning. I saw this movie “Public Enemies” starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger who robbed banks during the great depression and became quite famous. Eventually he was killed by the federal agents. It was an okay movie similar to the many Chicago gangster movies that we get to see quite often.
Beautiful Life 