The tempestuous love of Aditha Karikalan and Nandini, of Vikram and Aishwarya Rai will henceforth be my go-to tragic love story. You do need a go-to tragic love don’t you for times when you’ve had the ugliest fight with your husband, when you’re thinking about lost love, the love that never can be. This one was really epic. I like to say that I don’t use the word ‘epic’ like the rest of the internet because I am a writer. My children say it’s only because I am a boomer.
I loved how the ‘Aditha-Nandini’ love was troubled and fierce and unrelenting. They’re moving away but still circling each other, going to great lengths to hate, to avenge because they can’t stand to love each other so. Oh my!
Kalki might have been a sport about Mani Ratnam’s take on his story but not the ones who’ve read his book, even the one who haven’t, the self-appointed guardians of ‘Ponniyin Selvan’. They told me how the movie was ‘wrong’, was definitely sub-par to the book. I don’t know why but this reminds me of ‘Kameswaran’ in Michael Madana Kama Rajan, who when Kushbu offers the rice painting of Taj Mahal, tosses it into his mouth, tastes it and spits it out saying it’s old rice. One woman’s (man’s) art is another’s old rice. All my analogies are movie scenes.
Whatever happened to those simpler times when we would just go for a movie uninformed, totally ignorant, find your seat in the theatre and just get transported. A time when there were no pre-movie song-releases, no unrelenting ads and memes, no reviews, no expert opinions, no making-of-the-movie videos nothing. You didn’t go prepared, you didn’t go in to compare, to evaluate. It wasn’t about being smart. It was simply about going on the movie ride.
I remember going to the theatre with friends, buying tickets at the counter to a movie we knew nothing about, watching the movie and thoroughly enjoying it (Naam). Once we even watched a ‘wrong’ movie (Ratchagan) because the guy at the counter gave us tickets to that movie instead of the one we asked for. Not proud of that but it was the kind of serious-hilarious movie like a Balayya film and and we had so much fun.
I have bought tickets at the theatre counter. I am a bonafide boomer.
How can they tear down Prarthana Drive-in theatre? How is it not protected as a Chennai heritage site? Nobody asked me. It was our only drive-in theatre! I have so many great memories from that place and I have gone so many times to that theatre absolutely blank about the movie. It was such a beautiful place, open-air with speakers next to every car and that huge screen. You could lie under the night sky, watch the movie, order gobi-65 from the canteen, take a walk around still watching the movie, cozy up inside the car. Once it rained. Imagine watching a movie under the night sky in the rain! It was magical. They are also demolishing Srinivasa theatre, yes, the one where Ajith’s Amarkalam was shot. They are building luxury apartments and villas in their place so people can sit in their pretentious homes and watch stupid ‘trending’ movies and shows that the OTT channels recommend them. Jagan told me it is dumb to want to file a PIL for this. So, I am going to save to build a theatre instead. Donations welcome.
My writing finally appears in a movie
If you’ve read my substack you’ll know that my line ‘why are there no breakup songs for women?’ was totally lifted and used by the director of episode 3 (‘Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji’) of Modern Love Chennai series on Prime. Forget royalties, how about some credit? It’s a sweet film about a movie-crazy romantic fool.
Other things I watched and liked in the last few months, which you might have already watched since I’ve been writing this post for a couple of months but just in case.
Dahaad (Prime) – Hindi crime series, tough, no-nonsense woman police officer in a small town in Rajasthan, cleverly weaves in caste discrimination, deeply entrenched misogyny and the abysmal choices and pressures of small town women. Loved Sonakshi’s spunk.
Por Thozhil – I saw this movie in the theatre. A clean investigative thriller starring Sarath Kumar and Ashok Selvan, no fluff, no songs, no love angle.
Pookalam (Hotstar) – Sweetest most heart-warming Malayalam movie about the love trouble between a grandpa and his wife. Most beautiful, sensitive portrayal of old people.
In other updates, Shiro chewed through our TV remote and we could not watch OTT channels for the weekend. We could only watch TV channels and we ended up watching ‘Suryavamsam’ on KTV. It is common knowledge that ‘Suryavamsam’ is the most-often telecast movie. But what are the odds (and how lame are we)?!
Happy watching!