What would you do if the following things happen to you back to back….
1. You read a beautiful romantic novel.
2.You meet an interesting person (So interesting that you are wondering if he is an imaginary character)
3.You are charged up with a lot of positivity within you that you have started radiating happiness to people around you.
Well as a film journalist I would choose to write a column about wanting to fall in love with a love story yet again. Everything about being in love or rather the mere idea of being in love is bliss. Most of you will agree that most of our fantasy for love was enhanced by watching films.
This year I had the privilege of witnessing a love storm hit the audience very hard through Mani Ratnam’s Oh Kadhal Kanmani (OKK). Dulquer and Nithya Menen lived the lives of Adi and Tara. Their pace, energy, passion, compassion and most importantly emotional trauma reflected and strongly anchored a connect with many youngsters.
Similarly, Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ series consisting of three films, Before Sunset (1994), Before Sunrise (2004) and Before Midnight (2014) is truly an ecstatic journey. The series is about two individuals, Jesse and Celine who meet each other during an Eurorail journey as youngsters in 1994. The three films summarizes their evolution into a married couple. It is more beautiful as the auteur released each film by giving a 10 year gap. The actors were let to grow old gracefully and they convincingly pulled off their roles. If you haven’t watched it, I would suggest you to watch all the three films at a stretch to actually experience the magical spell it casts on your soul.
As an ardent cinema lover, an idea struck me. What if we have sequels to OKK in a similar manner. Watching Adi - Tara grow old together in Mani Ratnam’s style would be an experience of its own as Mani sir's films redefined love for us. This attempt would be the first of its kind in the Indian film industry if executed.
With just one film Adi and Tara have turned into household names. Imagine meeting them again after few years. Checking out what this insane couple is upto. Did the idea of marriage work out ultimately? Have they achieved what they aspired to be? Have they started to live their life together?
These abstract questions can be asked even in case of many other memorable on screen couples like Karthik - Sakthi of Alaipayuthey, Shiva - Jeni of Kushi, Manohar - Sowmya of Kandukonden Kandukonden and the list goes on. What happened to these on screen lovebirds after the customary ‘Happy-lived-ever-after”?
Now you may understand why this idea struck me. Sometimes overdose of love and cinema do kindle questions of these kind from nowhere and I must confess that I have fallen prey to this!
