Today’s
post is a guest post by a very dear friend of mine Deepa Duraisamy, who owns a
blog called FictionPies. Writing short fiction is her heartfelt passion.
I love reading her posts, and her short stories. They are humorous and quirky
but in a good way as they are different.
So, now
let’s hear from her about her favorite movie for today’s alphabet and why she
loves that movie.
Vaaranam Aayiram (Language: Tamil, Release: 2008)
Thanks to
Aparna doing her A-Z on film recommendations, we discovered some English,
Hindi, and Marathi gems here, and reaffirmed some of our all-time favorites as
well. So, I thought why not bring in something completely new here? My
recommendation for today is a Tamil movie called Vaaranam Aayiram (translated: A Thousand Elephants).
The
younger Suriya plays an army officer, and the movie outlines his growing up
years, circumstances that lead him to join the army, personal tragedies that he
goes through, finding love, re-finding love, and comfortable solace, all the
while with the support of his mother, played by the beautiful Simran and of
course, his father played by – Suriya again!
Playing
both the son and father in this movie, emoting, and acting out the characters
physically and emotionally going from 10 to 72 with such aplomb and ease, you
can see why Suriya is so well-liked.
The reason
I pick this movie is for a few reasons. Firstly, the way it covers a gamut of
relationships, emotions, and phases in life. And I can say with much
confidence, if you re-watch it at different ages/stages in your life, you’ll
relate to it differently every single time. What warms your heart consistently
is the beautiful, emotional strength-filled father-son bond throughout – even
when both characters are not sharing screen space, the faith and knowledge that
his father is there for him, shine through – this is the stuff fathers are made
of.
The second
reason is more personal, but then I suppose more shared too. Watching this
movie, especially the parents – older Suriya and Simran (their younger love
story is also shown!) I kept catching glimpses of my parents so much in the
movie, once the movie ended, I ended up making an ISD phone call just to talk
to them and tell them about it, and at that moment, I missed them so much!
Parents usually are such an emotional safety net, even when they don’t make it
obvious, even when they don’t spell it out, the silent confidence that they are
around to catch you if you fall – it’s a Godsend.
Gautham
Vasudev Menon does a fabulous job with direction, and Harris Jayraj’s music is
amazing. A couple of numbers stay with you! I still hum them from time to time.
This isn’t a teary-eyed emotional drama (well, a little maybe) with lots of
lectures or ‘gyaan’ as they say. There is no social message. Except what it
leaves you with is happy emotions and warmth filled heavy heart. And isn’t that
something really good?
As of this
writing, you can watch Vaaranam Aayiram
on Voot, Zee 5, Hungama Play, MX Player, and VI movies.
To check out other posts of A to Z challenge click on links below
A > B > C > D > E > F > G > H > I > J > K > L > M > N > O > P > Q > R > S > T > U > V > W > X > Y > Z
