Engeyum Eppodhum (எங்கேயும் எப்போதும்) 2011
So you think you have seen them all - Tamil movies with the usual masala, boy meets girl, girl plays hard to get, then succumbs to undying love which plucked the right chords and strings of the heart, then comes the villain or unrelenting parents and resistance, then climax with a little bit of humour thrown in for your money's worth! Think again!
In 1979, just before the heights of the reign of Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth as the undisputed heavyweights of the Tamil silver screen, there was a musical movie (all Tamil movies are, anyway) Nineithale Innikum (Sweet Memories) with both of them being band mates with Rajnikanth doing a bit of overacting playing the electric guitar the way only Rajnikanth and maybe Sivaji can play! In that movie there was a song titled 'Engeyum Eppothum', hence the title of this movie 32 years later but Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan are still very much in the limelight still! Seriously, I cannot fathom the correlation!
The beginning of the movie was a surprise when the familiar loud orchestral symphony music which usually accompanies 20th Century Fox movies flashed. You see, it is the first venture of Fox into Indian cinema. Is it a good thing or is it like a scene from 'Lion King' when Uncle Scar stands before his clan to announce that a new dawn has come where lions and hyenas were friends!
The movie starts with a head-on collision between two buses. The story then unfolds in flashbacks of two lovebirds and the evolution of their love stories. One green village girl who lands in Chennai and takes fancy to a town boy. The other is about a domineering girlfriend and forever obliging partner. The story weaves on to put these people these two buses. Along the way are some small but significant characters to spice up matters, like a father who is returning to meet her daughter whom he had not met since her 5 years previously as he got a job offer in Dubai just before she was born. There was also a pair young college students falling in love on the bus.
It was an eye opener to see posh and clean buildings in Chennai. They must have been either airbrushed and edited aggressively for the movie or India has indeed prospered tremendously! Even the highways looked like highways (Thanks to Samy Vello for introducing tolled highways there)! The long haul express buses looked robust and fit for the road for once.
After the accident, however, all the typical behaviours of people of Southern India came to fore. All the loud, demonstrative wailing were seen just as seen in any Tamil movie. I would not say that this is an earth-shattering new revolutionary moviemaking that need to be seen or anything like that. It is just that it showcases old story from a new angle and it is refreshing. Happy Deepavali....
The movie starts with a head-on collision between two buses. The story then unfolds in flashbacks of two lovebirds and the evolution of their love stories. One green village girl who lands in Chennai and takes fancy to a town boy. The other is about a domineering girlfriend and forever obliging partner. The story weaves on to put these people these two buses. Along the way are some small but significant characters to spice up matters, like a father who is returning to meet her daughter whom he had not met since her 5 years previously as he got a job offer in Dubai just before she was born. There was also a pair young college students falling in love on the bus.
It was an eye opener to see posh and clean buildings in Chennai. They must have been either airbrushed and edited aggressively for the movie or India has indeed prospered tremendously! Even the highways looked like highways (Thanks to Samy Vello for introducing tolled highways there)! The long haul express buses looked robust and fit for the road for once.
After the accident, however, all the typical behaviours of people of Southern India came to fore. All the loud, demonstrative wailing were seen just as seen in any Tamil movie. I would not say that this is an earth-shattering new revolutionary moviemaking that need to be seen or anything like that. It is just that it showcases old story from a new angle and it is refreshing. Happy Deepavali....
Enjoy it while the aroma of mutton curry and sweet scent ghee balls (நெய் உரண்டை) still lingers on...
Neeiorrundai.... mum makes the best!
ReplyDeleteAppa will do the grinding,Amma mixes the dough, and we roll them. It is a truly joint venture. The Love infused enhances its taste!
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