Saturday, April 03, 2010

On The VTV Note

I am credited with being the last person on earth to have watched Gautham Menon's latest musical romance flick , VTV - the name now so common that the abbreviation would suffice and even save some virtual breath.Its beautiful to watch, what with Trisha looking more angelic than ever,making every girl cringe wanting to look like that.The movie is equally delicious to listen to,holding us in thrall with the ARR magic.But what I set out to do was not write a review on the movie.Enough people have done that already for me to have anything more to add on to it.Having paid my deepest reverences to the maestro musician and the heavenly beauty,I set forth to say why I did not like the story.

The heady love story and the intense pursuit of it makes an interesting beginning.The idyllic view of Alappuzha adds flavour to the visual treat so much so that I now have a bee in my bonnet about visiting Alappuzha someday .Whoever bestowed the title of 'God's Own Country ' on Kerala ,must have had this blessed place in mind .I cannot mask my delight at the glimpses of Kerala and bits of Malayalam the film offered,stoking the flame of sweet love each one of us cherish for our own hometown and mother tongue .

The movie itself though left me with a bad taste in my mouth.Why does love always have to lose to be realistic? Why are parents always the villains of love?In the Indian context ,where children having love affairs are considered a disgrace to the family,isn't going halfway and then backing off,a disgrace to love itself?This is where I disagree with Jessie.She manages to disgrace her family by saying no to a marriage at the altar in front of the whole community ,and then goes on to do the same cold act again when she finally decides to give up on her love.Clearly,Jessie's reasoning prowess is not quite at a level with her beauty .Had the movie taken on the happy ending like the movie within the movie,Jessie would have saved women in general from the age old accusation of being 'cheaters in love'. I hear with amusement how romantics decry women of being traitors in love,every chance they get .

Having rejected the notion of love in a previous post,I feel the need for clarification before going ahead.Love is not allowed to exist,leave alone flourish,in our Indian cultural setup;not that love itself in non-existent.This happens largely due to the fact that love does not always look at religion and caste before happening to the unwarned.So in our pluralist melting pot of a society where we mix with people from every conceivable religion,caste and language, it's well nigh impossible to ensure that you fall only for someone who will match your exact profile w.r.t the afore-mentioned parameters.The older generation would cry fowl on how the younger lot will bring shame to the family honour through cross cultural marriages.No comments there.Its part of the Indian culture to obey and respect the elders.The arranged marriage system is also a part of our long standing tradition and is even the only hope of so many of our young commitment-phobic losers,including me , in finding a life mate .

However , as a member of the younger generation here's my take on love.Going the halfway in romance and then getting the cold feet and throwing love out of the window when its time to show some guts in getting committed to each other for life ,is like desecrating the purity of love.By all means,uphold the family honour but do not disgrace love in the process;for every time obedience is chosen over love, it loses a bit of its charm.For the lovelorn and the lonely heart alike,love is the elixir of life- the magic we all dream will happen to us in our lives and make living worth it .Be heroes in love,not losers!

Easier said than done?I know....

6 comments:

Vinod Ramamoorthy said...

Honestly, I am not sure that such a thing as Pure love exists, apart from some rare instances. It is all circumstantial. Even love is for that matter. It feels so good to be with someone that you do not think anything else. The world begins to be non-existent. And the wake up call leaves you with no other option than to kill love, if it was there. But ya, if the parents are more existing, there would surely be more love in the air :)

Blunt Edges said...

i don't follow tamil movies so no comments on the movie.

"Going the halfway in romance and then getting the cold feet and throwing love out of the window when its time to show some guts in getting committed to each other for life ,is like desecrating the purity of love."

the problem is that the first half is always the rosy, cheerful, fun part...u don't even know what's happening...the world seems pretty n life feels great.
then reality seeps in n u have 2 take major decisions...n people start having second thoughts.

i'm not completely sure what my point here is...i guess all i'm trying 2 say is that i don't entirely blame those who chicken out...some people are just not strong enough...n being weak is not a crime, it's just who u are.

manoranjini said...

@Vinod:Exactly my point.There would be more love if only we would allow it .
@BluntE:Getting second thoughts and moving apart for you own reasons is understandable.What I don't like is giving up on love for fear of the society.:-(

Aiswarya said...

I agree with most of what u said but , emotional blackmail is something that most of us women fall for. I lloved vtv foe the same reason that it shows the instabilty of our minds wen it comes to a final point. Hw dependent we are on others as woman. All I can say in all this is that life is indeed a bitch :@

Abhi said...

Always people who back out of love these days like to think of themselves as the practical people in this world, while in reality they were just afraid to face the music and be brave to back their decision to love someone.

So its always a compromise that makes love happen! That's my feeling! People who either give up lover's love for their parents' love or vice versa! You simply can't achieve both, especially when most parents think of themselves as the people who have the sole right to choose their children's life partners, if a guy or a girl decides to chose someone by themselves the parents' feel agitated and cheated.

:)

manoranjini said...

@Aishu - Watever is the good old naadan Olichottam for ? :D
@Abhi - Yep.Parents need to grow up enough to accept their kids as grown-ups who can make their own life decisions.