Monday, October 15, 2018

'96: Heart-wrenching and Heartwarming All At Once - My Feelings



Certain books and films make you feel very strongly for several days at a stretch. While you mull over them, a lot of thoughts keep popping up. You can't rest until you have sorted all those thoughts neatly and put them down. I have never written any review two parts, But there is a lot to say, about '96. Putting them all together would not only make it a bunch of disjointed thoughts but also a long boring read. So, I have split my observations about the film into two parts. 'Facts' and 'Feelings'. 'Facts' is about the technical aspects, who did what, how I liked it and so on. 'Feelings' is about well, just my feelings. Here are my 'Feelings'. 
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*Spoliers galore*

Feelings:

                                    Related image

Ram, a travel photographer believes that the only place where one can freeze time is in a photograph. That's how he lives too. In an island of memories. But he is no Devdas. He just goes about doing the thing he loves to do. Freezing moments. He is happy to visit his hometown but does not want to stop by. He might have to make small talk with people there, you see. His eyes sparkle when he spots his school. He impulsively stops by and doesn't even mind catching up with the school watchman  (played by a darling Janakaraj). In the beginning, Ram is all sprightly, exploring every corner of the school with excitement. I squealed in delight when he brushes off the chalk-dust from the frame of a blackboard with a finger. Oh? So it wasn't just me who loved to do that! Watch the way he drags the desk closer to him when he sits on the first bench in the classroom. But he becomes broody and nostalgic by the end of the visit and this culminates in a longing for a reunion. Old friends meet. Old flames get reignited, not with the intensity of a fire but with the gentleness of moonlight. Quite naturally now, the friends get worried. It is the same gang that prodded the shy Ram in school (quite naturally for that time).

Ram and Janu take off from the word 'go' as if the past 22 years were just a fluid dream. As awkward as they were in Class 10, yet, as much in love, or even more, perhaps. The heart has this capacity to nurture some memories with each pump. The memories then grow and grow to become larger than the actual events. Memories are like an arm that grows with you. Mind you, this is different from what sceptics brush off as 'illusion'.  Forget lovers. Take childhood friends, for instance. There might not be a thing common between the two of them anymore but they are still friends. That's because they are still the same people after all. Like I have always believed, where ever life takes you, the core of the person will never change. It is only the circumstances that make you react differently.


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So Ram has now grown to be a bearded hulk, but he is still shy or shall I say 'faint-hearted'? (Miss the movie, you miss the pun.). He generally speaks very little but becomes a motormouth when he is excited about something. It is Ram, the more sentimental of the two, who lightens the atmosphere every time there is a tricky moment. There is still a world of innocence in his thoughts and actions, with or without the beard. And Vijay Sethupathi shows it so beautifully.


Janu is still the bolder and the more outspoken one of the two. Makes Ramu (and even me) jump out of the seat when she offers her plate to him. She sometimes pretends to have moved on. She tries to put on a 'chilled out' facade. She asks Ram blatantly personal questions which Ram finds too personal even for a lover to ask. She bawls like a baby when she knows the truth about the things he did. But soon collects herself. When he asks her if she is happy, she says life is peaceful. Now does that answer the question? We don't know.

In fits and starts, Ram and Janu speak about the lost moments. Dream up the what-ifs. Someone said they don't ask each other much about their present. I say, they won't. They don't want to know. "Here I am, unwilling to fill the space that has a beautiful memory. Why would I want to know about your daily routine with your child and husband?" No thanks, too painful.

 As the evening progresses, they get completely comfortable with each other. He loosens up. You know it from his voice. You feel the love in every little action - every flick of the eye, every little smile, every question and every answer. She breaks her twenty-year-old resolve and sings Yamunai Aatriley (a non-S Janaki song). This simple little action perhaps shows a huge change within. "Maatrangal Vidai, Maatrangeley Vinaa." (That's, by the way, one of the most impressive opening lines I've seen in a film recently. Listen to the poem recited by Nasser, it's beautiful).


Janu worries about Ram's loneliness. Her repeated talk of his marriage seemed a little annoying and made me wonder if she is trying to fix her own guilt. But I soon understood that it was out of genuine concern. When you can't take away your only possession, you want to at least place it in safe hands. Like Ram's student says, he needs to be taken good care of. But how the hell is she supposed to do it? That angst is so well brought out in the final airport scene. And the way she holds his face at that point...is that her closure? Oh the pain!

There is constant movement throughout the film (they are in a car, on a train, they walk) hinting at momentum, but when it is time to fly, his condition remains status quo, in spite of holding a valid ticket. There is a pain of losing yet there is a comfort of gaining something they never had. Janu's life might or might not be the same again. But for Ram, things are not going to change much. Only, he now has another piece of memory to stow away in the safety of his moulded-plastic suitcase with a secret number lock.

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You can read Facts here.

(Pic courtesy: The Indian Express; Silverscreen.in)


'96: Heart-wrenching and Heartwarming All At Once - Facts

Certain books and films make you feel very strongly for several days at a stretch. While you mull over them, a lot of thoughts keep popping up. You can't rest until you have sorted all those thoughts neatly and put them down. I have never written any review in two parts, But there is a lot to say, about '96. Putting them all together would not only make it a bunch of disjointed thoughts but also a long boring read. So, I have split my observations about the film into two parts. 'Facts' and 'Feelings'. 'Facts' is about the technical aspects, who did what and how I liked it and so on. 'Feelings' is about well, just my feelings. Here's 'Facts'. 



Image result for 96 movie
Facts:
Subtlety is the catchphrase of this beautiful little film. A gentle nostalgic trip without an ounce of melodrama. The emotions are gently rolled towards you for you to catch.


There is an aura of not just peace and calm but there is a sense of cleanness about the film. Like watching a gurgling stream with every pebble clearly visible.


The director, Prem Kumar has captured the essence of the 90s with a lot of fondness and care. The music. I can't imagine the 90s without Ilaiyaraja's presence. He has been an integral part of our growing up years. The director has used a lovely collection of songs through the film, all with due and honest credit right at the beginning. Life was in a cusp of change in the 90s - inching towards progress but not at all edgy. The 90s was perhaps the most difficult time to fall in love. You are brave but not brash. The possibility of losing people due to a lack of communication (physical or postal) was so much more higher. Gone meant gone forever unless for divine intervention, for many. I'm not sure if today's children can relate to something like this when being out of touch is mostly by choice rather than compulsion.


Even the present day scenes in the film are removed from the harshness that we see in today's times. The delightful Whatsapp group chat is probably the only thing 'current' in the film. The entire theatre was in splits in the scene (did you notice that there is always a white collared 'Peter' and a homesick NRI in every whatsapp group?). There is no overuse of technology anywhere in the film - just like how the teacher-Ram tells his students to keep things natural. If I noted right, I don't think many electronic instruments have been used in the music too. At least, not obviously. Didn't I speak of subtlety earlier?


Speaking of the music, Govind Vasantha is an excellent choice as a composer for this film. He creates a wonderful mood around the scenes. Be it a solo violin or a veena with the sounds of the night during a walk on the deserted GN Chetty Road flyover in the dead of the night or the piano pieces for Ram that let us peek into his thoughts. The songs fit so seamlessly into the flow that you don't realise when a song begins and when it ends. I want to watch the film again to see if the songs are even used fully. 'Musical' is one of the most misused terms in Tamil films. I have repeatedly said that a film with many songs does not make it a musical. So that way, I'd say '96 could be a musical but the makers don't mention it anywhere. (Just like the makers don't make much noise about anything at all - even the promo was a silent heart-stealer). While listening to the audio I realise that many of the songs are fluid and non-formulaic. A few actually run for just a just minute or two. I'd love to listen to the album on a long drive.

The song lyrics are beautiful - sometimes poetic, sometimes conversational. With heart-warming lines like "Iru kaalin naduvil urangum poonai pol, podhum indha vaazhkai". Such fuzzy simplicity is what the film is all about.

The clever use of the same voice for the dubbing and the songs makes viewing so much more easier. Chinmayee's dulcet voice as always matches Trisha's calm persona so well. And I am so glad for Trisha that she got to do this film. One of her best roles ever (and I thought VTV was her best). So effortlessly mature, so comfortable in that maturity. Totally deglamourised yet strikingly beautiful. She wears just one outfit almost throughout the film, unbelievable. Isn't it a little sad that Trisha being much more senior to Vijay Sethupathy in the field finally gets her chance to perform? But he, within such a short span of time has established himself as a class actor. And rightfully so.
What do I say about him in '96? There is an air of honesty about his style of acting. The one slouchy walk out of the room after Janu rejects a bar of soap is enough to speak of prowess.

Loved each of the supporting cast, the child actors and their grown-up avatars. Devadarshini was a such a charm. It felt so good to see Janakraraj and Kavitalaya Krishnan. And I am glad there are no other extra characters than what is needed. My morbid fears of a Singapore angle were gently put to rest.

There is a sense of timelessness between the reunion party and the airport scene. Not just the emotional but at the physical level. 'How long does the night last really?' is a question I had in mind. And then the slightly off-putting and inexplicable kumkum that kept coming popping back. But I shall leave these to the nitpickers.

I saw some of the audience get impatient during the later part of the second half. They perhaps expected Ram and Janu to do something more exciting than just talk and talk. But all our protagonists seemed to need, were eyes and words. They are the 90s kids after all! And that is another thing that I liked about this movie. They actually show what the couple is talking about. Something we rarely get to see/hear in films - the lovers' talk is always muted by a montage song. (And heaven forbid, I've heard that actors mouth things as mundane as the alphabet during the shoot!)  Love stories these days is all about action. No words. So, the expectation of the audience kept rising at every moment and therefore the restlessness maybe?
But the director Prem Kumar is in no hurry. He patiently takes us through the night with the same detail as he takes us through the attendance roll-call in alphabetical order.

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Find My Feelings here.

(Picture courtesy: thehindu.com)

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