The day since i saw...

"The day since i saw" or Kanda naal mudal as it is popularly called was my latest attempt to kill away some of my precious time... Had i known about astrology or had a bit of common sense i should have restrained myself from reaching the theatre...well what a day was that or rather what a night was that !!! It was at the most opportune moment that we, me myself and my friends decided to make it for the movie at night...

The pre requisites for a movie satisfied (a good meal without having had to pay for it), we made our way to the movie theatre... Silence has not been one of our virtues and so we made to the theatre chatting amongst ourselves over a wide range of subjects right from philosophy to girl friends (gosh !!! both are same). The outside of the theatre was bustling with activity, an event that was not common at night.. it was a saturday and christmas eve... so that explained it... The kadalai-vendors were among the first ones to realise the potential of such a night, man, they would make a very smart business executive...We were no exception to the kadalai magic that was lingering in the air... with such an aroma one wouldnt need saif to come up and say "raha na jayae...". Eating kadalai we went into the movie theatre...

That was when the surroundings changed, and so did our attitudes.... The movie started with a great turn off , the worst one can ever imagine, a documentary on agriculture...It went on for fifteen minutes, as if the movie hall was expected to be full of farmers on a saturday night !!! That was just an indication of what was in store for us.

The movie started quite unexpectedly transcending the lines of time. Two cute kids made to perform a task which they do with utmost ease in contrast to the experienced adults who find acting an uphill task... Thier fight which seemed much of a sport to me, was perceived by the entire audience at the marriage as a major war which even made the bride interrvene... Then the movie proceeded to make those kids grow up into teenagers in a flash with a song that helps them perform this transition... "Man", i thought, "this songs is good, good work yuvan"...

Perhaps, that was the last time i found the movie enjoyable(right now i'm five minutes into the movie)... Then was the display of continuous boy girl tussle going on between the hero and heroine. The movie gradually carved out its shape thanks to a very ordinary looking but smart fella.. One of my friend whispered with great reverence.."hey, the guy you are watching is an IIMA graduate...".. well after a miserably done CAT, i found myself eulogising his performance.. the only difference was that i saw him from then on as an IIM fella rather than an actor... hmmm... biased judgements are the worst kind of bad habits ....

Thankfully, the director seemed to have enough of this IIM fella and so despatched him to US (or some place other than chennai,i didnt bother to find out where..). Then it struck me how hopelessly lost i was ! I was briefed by my friend that the IIM fella had rightly rejected the heroine as he thought their chemistry didnt match... "oh", i said and then a flash went up in my head and struck me with such an intelligence that i felt like einstein at that moment... i asked, what the hell ???? where the hell did chemistry come from ??? what does chemistry have to do with love ??? CHEMISTRY...in love, man, That was a revelation...

I was yet to recover from the shock when thankfully the sign intermission turned up... It was during this period that i got the first reviews about this movie from my friends... They said a lot about a couple of songs, that had blissfully escaped my notice when was at IIMA... We had ice creams and soda which were costlier than the earth itself... We went inside the hall again and managed to catch a fuming hero blasting up a huge tower(typical hollywood movies)... Then was the part that everyone is accustomed to find boring... A couple of models with two inch thick make-up danced about in colourful sarees and with an amount of jewellery that would have seemed comical anywhere else but in a movie theatre... Another ad came up on a similar note and it was my friend who pointed out that this was a textile ad while the previous was a jewellery ad..

Then i saw a huge plane that zoomed into the screen, an indication of thefantastic stuff that was about to come up next.... we saw a simulation of a WTC (thanks to my GK, i could recognize that).. the plane went and crashed into it... then came up something that i couldnt believe was possible ever ... guess what, the building was intact with just the plastering torn off in places, just enough plaster to expose a steel rod within... A cartoon man in banian and a helmet came up and said "MURUKKU Kambigal".....and what's more, the title was NOV 11 attack... i sat transfixed in my seat, too perplexed to think anything ,let alone say anything... That, i felt, was something, i will never be able to swallow in an eternity.....

The movie began, drifting me away from the shock and i managed to gather that the two kids who fought in he beginning were the lead pair and their tussle ended up in love.... This, at least, was something that i was used to.... invariably 80% movies of the late shows tussle ending up in love and each movie is based on love on a 100 % basis... What a loving population that we have got.... The hero then tries his best to cry and show his emotions and the heroine had long given up the attempt to try showing emotions on the screen... perhaps it is her huge dimple that managed to keep the audience under control.... Then came the saga of uselfishness where the characters exceed themselves as regards their sacrifices.. the hero sacrifices for his friend, the heroine for her family, hero for heroine, mother for son, and the movie turns into a highly complex one, the solution of which is NP-hard ....

Then it was my cup-cake, the IIMA fella who turned up from US(i wasnt sure of the place again) ... The hero was making a huge mess at the airport shouting at the top of his voice ,yet was magically un-noticed by the huge population there...The heroine seemed pathetic at this juncture with her efforts to cry, seeming like a laugh( this is the place where dimples are bad) ... Then comes the IIM fella who suddenly shouts "This is CHEMISTRY".... i thought chemistry ??? but there ended the film abruptly putting end to all further thought...

We moved out of the hall, having lost our capacity to think, to believe to do anything,man !! the movie sure touched a few strings in us...all we could do, was to walk our way home silently... i dont know what went through others mind, but i was thinking of my chemistry master..... That was all that the movie could manage to do to me.... "the day i saw"....