I went for my first ever night show movie after marriage and I was so thrilled! Staying up that late and going out was unheard of before marriage. So, to go for a movie at 10PM and to be on the streets around 1AM was quite a thrill! Sadly, my kids seemed rather ambivalent about it. They couldn’t see why it is such a big deal. However, I was happy to have broken them into this lifestyle rather than let some random stranger take credit in future 😉
This is probably the first time ever we saw a Malayalam movie on screen, and I am happy that we did. I don’t think we would have got the same experience on TV. The visuals and audio effects in theater couldn’t be replaced by watching on TV. Maybe it is also a first that a Malayalam movie deserves a theater-viewing rather than TV!
And for the first time ever I resisted the temptation to eat pop-corn! I stood firm by my intermittent fasting schedule and refused to eat past my dinner time. Except a few sips of cold coffee (who can resist Satyam cold coffee?!) I didn’t eat or drink anything until breakfast the next day!
Oh, one more first: It took us less than two hours to decide, book and leave for the movie. Randomly (first time ever ever!) Anand suggested that we go for a night show around 8-30PM and within a few minutes he booked the tickets and we were out by 10-30PM!
Now coming to the movie: I suppose anyone who has watched would know the interesting plot, where it is derived from and how it connects to Kamal’s Guna. But there were other other aspects that made it all the more interesting for me.
I got to know of this movie when we were watching a YouTube video where the boys interacted with Kamal and Santhana Barathi. And I thought they were fanboying Kamal so the movie is most probably a soppy tribute to Kamal. But there were so many positive reviews that I was tempted to watch. Except the animated version of the song in the beginning and the song played at the end, reference to Kamal and Guna were quite subtle. They just happen to decide on going to the Guna cave because one of them has heard about it. The mallu accent while reciting the famous dialogue was quite funny, while the reinterpretation of the divine love was quite amazing (more on that later). And if you look beyond the realm of the story, I quite agree with Kamal that the original is more of a duet between Kamal and Ilayaraja (if you have heard the audio cassette version of making of Guna songs you would know what I mean; and yes, I am that old!). It is a completely different aspect that he hasn’t stayed loyal to Ilayaraja. He not only worked with multiple music directors, but also compared some unworthy ones with Ilayaraja! All the same, there is this deep connect between them that shines through in songs likes this.
Looking at the way the boys plan their trip and how they travel was quite humbling. Except for needing a big car there was hardly any pre-planning required! In this age, we spend a really long time identifying a place and then at least a month planning our itinerary, hotel room, ticket booking, etc. My recent week-long trips took us couple of months of planning and organizing. Even if we consider trips we took before kids, they still required a lot of planning. All the boys needed was a dorm for stay, roadside eateries for food, hopping from one sightseeing place to another – that is all it takes to make a trip fun! No fancy resorts, or adventure sports, or luxurious mode of transport, or apparel shopping…the list could go on! And just one camera for a group of 9!
I don’t know if the backstory for the boys is true to real life or if it was just for cinematic effect. The whole ruckus around losing Tug of war and practicing for it was quite funny. I am sure there was a lot of humor in the first 15-20min during the wedding scene, but the dialogues and subtitles were running so fast that I couldn’t keep pace. How the tug-of-war comes into play while rescuing their friends was quite interesting, but again am not sure if this is just for the movie since we usually like to see things nicely wrapped up.
I was especially impressed by the picturization of the trauma Subhash goes through while inside the pit. I have only seen such articulation on book, and often on screen it is all very murky and confusing. But the director got this perfectly on screen. Here again, I am not sure if the back story of Subhash saving Kuttan in their childhood days is real. If it isn’t, then we really didn’t need that kind of background to justify Kuttan stepping up for Subhash.
The most goosebump inducing moment is the last scene when Subhash is finally rescued and is carried by his friends, with the ‘Undaana kaayam engum’ line from the ‘Kanmani Anbodu’ song playing in the background. Until recently the song was merely Kamal’s interpretation of how an illiterate would compose a letter to his beloved with a good dose of exaggerated expression of his love. I personally found the main line (undaana kaayam engum….etc….) extremely annoying (btw, the only part I loved was Kamal’s piece towards the end (‘la la la laalala….’) because of how wonderful his voice sounds!) But with this movie, you realize how this line can be reinterpreted for a completely different situation and made all the more beautiful! Time and again we have seen movies and songs on friendship, but this movie took it to an all-new level.
Reinterpretation of a song for a different situation reminds me of how my mother could interpret a love song for a mother-child love. I discovered this when I had my kids and my favorite song was ‘Poo kodiyin punnagai’ from Iruvar – and it turned out to be my son’s favorite. I could always calm him down and put him to sleep (and no silly jokes on my singing skills please!) with this song! Now those days are long gone………..I guess nothing really lasts forever………..just like how I can never get annoyed with the ‘Kanmani anbodu’ song ever again!
