A goddess in every woman – Tamil movie that hit the bull\’s eye

So what is that one or several aspects of a movie which defines its greatness? Is it the Hero? Heroine? Director? Music? That\’s a subjective and an open-ended question. This piece will be an attempt at trying to find one of the answers for that question.

Here\’s this movie that I saw recently. The movie starts with elderly women, let\’s call her KR Vijaya, crying and complaining about how rude her husband has always been to her. In fact, the movie has several other women as the protagonists. One woman, let\’s call her Nayanthara, is brought up in an urban environment, well read, working for an MNC n most importantly wants to be liberal and not bogged down by marital commitments. The next one, let\’s call her Pechiammal, brought up in a relatively rural area, wants to find her hero straight out of a movie, marry him and bring up kids.

So what\’s the one thread that connects KR Vijaya, Nayanthara and Pechiammal? Well, you guessed it right. The men in their lives. Men who will always let their ego, anger, and temperament get the better of them and for whom self-pride comes before anything. I\’m not going to delve into the entire story of the movie and make this a piece sound like a movie critique. Straight to the end of the story. What happens to the men? Most of them lost. Some their lives and some their careers because they let their anger get the better of them. The reason I rate this movie highly is that of the way it handles it\’s women protagonists. What happens to them:

KR Vijaya, the elderly women from the previous generation falls into a coma and is bed ridden accompanied by her husband who realizes his mistakes when it\’s already too late.

Nayanthara, remember when I told her being a liberal one and wants to lead life on her own? At the end of the story, her husband betrays her trust and leaves her alone. She\’s in a position to lead her life the way she always wanted. But, she\’s bogged down by her insecurities and becomes a prisoner of her comforts.

Pechiammal, the quintessential Indian girl who wants to be married and settle down with kids loses her husband and is left alone to take a decision. The decision she takes here is what makes her the lead protagonist.

The most interesting part of this movie is the director\’s use of rain as one of the main characters. The only companion for all our women in this movie the rain. It accompanies them on each and every sorrow.

The amazing symbolism here is that every woman wants to get out there and drenched in the rain without fearing the consequences.

KR Vijaya wants to, but she\’s past her days and is resigned her fate. Nayanthara has her opportunity but becomes a prisoner of her comforts and insecurity.

Pechiammal is the one to get the final opportunity and when she does decide to go for it without fearing the consequences, that makes one of the most breathtaking shots of the entire movie. Remember, this is not about a woman wanting to get drenched in the rain. This is a woman who wants to break all the shackles and make it on her own.

The other good thing about this movie is also it\’s not a completely male bashing n preachy one. In some of the sequences, it does well to address that the men here have been victims of a system which preaches that a real man is one who is machismo and is always one step of ahead of women.

Now, there are several other questions this movie has raised. And the most impressive thing is none of what I have mentioned above are openly mentioned by the director. They are all my interpretation and there can be several other versions as well.

So going back to the original question of what makes a good movie. There are 2 critical aspects. Firstly, the plot should raise several questions in the viewer\’s mind and create a debate. Secondly, the plot should be left for the viewer\’s interpretation without being too preachy.

Now, there\’s also another woman in this movie. Perhaps, the most interesting of them all. She\’s a widow, ultra modern and is open to admitting about having a man in her life only to fulfill her sexual needs. I won\’t delve deep into her character. Staying true to the theme of this piece, I\’ll leave her character to your own interpretation. Because your interpretation of her character will decide on which side of the spectrum you stand on.

Go, watch this one of the most underrated films of all times. I do hope the \’Goddess\’ in Karthik Subburaj\’s life is proud of this gem of a creation.