29

29 

is a romance movie filled with love. The cast includes Preethi Asrani, the actor who played Jag in Jil Jung Juk, Leona Lishoy who acted as a heroine in a Malayalam movie where I myself appeared for one tiny scene, and many others. I still do not know the hero's real name. I do not know Jag's name either. I do not feel like searching Google. So I am sticking to the character names. Sathya and Sathya's friend. Anyway, let us talk about my experience watching this movie.

According to the story, the hero Sathya is a man who has lived until the age of 29 without really knowing his own identity. Instead of searching for that answer, he is busy wondering why no woman has ever spoken to him beyond saying excuse me. He completed a BSc in Agriculture, moved from Salem to Chennai, and now works in an IT company.

The heroine is Viji, who works a few rows behind him in the same office. Unlike Sathya, Viji has a clear ambition. She wants to become an IAS officer. If Sathya had transformed into Sakthivel and imagined Viji as Devayani in Natchathira jannalil, Viji would probably have become an IAS officer and Sathya would have become the owner of a bus company. But Sathya is not Sakthivel. He is a typical nineties kid.

Instead of putting labels on them, let us see who they naturally are and who they become.

The scenes where Sathya and Viji slowly transform from colleagues into lovers were very well done. The rain scene at the bus stop was a little too cinematic. That attempt fails, but Viji's next attempt is wonderful. It feels like a beautiful poem written on a beach. The entire movie is filled with small lovely episodes like that. A scene begins naturally, slowly drifts away from its usual path, and by the end paints a colour inside our minds and leaves a gentle smile on our faces before moving on.

I had already experienced something similar in Meyaaadha Maan. That is genuinely one of my favourite films, including its songs. But this movie goes beyond that and becomes an experience of its own. The only thing missing was Santhosh Narayanan.

Anyway, back to the movie.

After watching for quite a while, I checked how much was left. The movie had not even crossed the halfway mark. My goodness. I felt like my patience was being tested. So I stopped there and gathered some courage before continuing the next day.

This time I reached the fortune telling scene. When someone hinted that something bad was about to happen, I became genuinely scared. Not for the characters. For myself. I was hoping it would not turn into a heavy emotional sequence because I cannot handle those kinds of scenes beyond a certain point.

It reminded me of my experience watching Kaadhal. In that movie, when Sukumar asks Bharath and Sandhya to spend the whole night travelling after the second show, I could not emotionally handle their suffering. I literally ran out of the theatre crying and thinking Oh no, they are suffering so much. It was only a Sunday evening show. When I came out of Anusham Theatre, it was not even dark outside yet.

So I continued this movie with the same fear.

Thankfully, nothing like that happened.

But Sathya's stupidity in the following scenes definitely made me angry. She had already explained that she was not answering calls because she had her final exam the next day. So what if your parents could not meet her? They had already left because it was time for their train. If you had simply left her alone, she might have studied properly and cleared the IAS exam. Was that really the right moment to say something hurtful to her?

Honestly, I felt like getting up and hitting Sathya in the face with a stool a few times. Then again, how can you hit someone when he is already lying down? The episode title itself says that love is simply the heart being unnecessarily overinvolved. So why should we bring violence into it?

Scenes like these are great as long as we use them to measure how we ourselves would react. Beyond that, if they start feeling completely real, that is partly the director's storytelling talent and partly the audience's foolishness.

This is the same country where people supposedly threw knife at the screen because they thought MGR was getting beaten up and wanted to help him. I do not know if that story is true. But I am the same person who cut paper into pieces and threw it around the theatre when Ajith appeared on screen. So it would actually be surprising if I had not believed that MGR story.

Before watching this movie, I had not seen the trailer, teaser, or poster. So I had absolutely no expectations. While watching, I suddenly noticed that the director was Rathna Kumar and that shocked me. His social media posts had already created a strange fear in my mind. But then I remembered that he was the director of Meyaadha Maan and Gulu Gulu. That gave me confidence, and thankfully he delivered.

But suddenly the story starts talking about cleaning lakes and sending sexual offenders to prison. That was intense. Then there is a scene where a man sitting in jail tells his own mother to fall at in front of the media after coming to see him. That kind of dark absurdity is exactly the director's signature touch.

Those are the moments that reminded me whose film I was watching. That is exactly why seeing his name made me nervous.

And please forget all about Aadai. Forget that such a movie existed. Forget that you watched it.

Preethi Asrani was excellent as Viji. She felt like a proper Tamil girl in this role. Before this, I had seen her performances in Kiss and Ayothi, but honestly, I have probably seen her more often through her reels she posts online. Those reels are incredibly cute, and she is just as cute.

But in Ayothi, she played a North Indian girl. Even in Kiss, there was a slightly elite vibe to the character. Here, she is Viji, a jasmine flower loving Tamil girl. Fantastic.

At the same time, watching Preethi in some of the romantic and intimate scenes made me a little uncomfortable. There are some women whose private lives we simply do not like imagining, such as our mother, sister, aunt, or other close family members. Ever since watching Ayothi, that is the kind of place Preethi occupies in my mind. She feels like that kind of person.

As for the hero, I have seen memes saying that he appeared in a few Karthik Subbaraj movies before. But I do not remember seeing him in any of them. So as far as I am concerned, my account with Sathya starts from this movie.

And then there is the Hindi teacher who appears in the second half. She made my eyes open wide. I was genuinely surprised and thought Wait, does she acted in a Tamil movie now? Yes, it is Malayalam actress Leona Lishoy.

In fact, I also appeared in one tiny scene in the Malayalam movie Aghatthokkekolagical that she acted in. That is why I know her.

The funny thing is that I still have not watched that movie myself.

Hehe.

Let's meet again in the next post, friends.

See ya!