Wednesday 12 December 2012

I Hate Love-Stories


(Warning: Contains Spoilers...heck,it's the whole story.Don't tell me I didn't tell you!)
I just saw this movie, Thattathin Marayathu(or Behind the Veil)...Roy gave it to me saying he loved it and I didn't want to hurt him with my cynical singleton views on love(ha!) stories so I watched it.
For those of you who didn't know, I'm South Indian and the movie is in Malayalam (yeah with the loopy writing. Which you’re not going to understand).So here’s the story:

Hindu boy sees Muslim girl. They’re 10 years old. Or some other ridiculously small age to decide who you’re going to marry and talk like you’re an 18 year-old guy. Still, young Vinod decides little Aisha is the girl he’s going to marry. And tells God too.
Repeat after 10 years when he sees Aisha in a hospital after knocking her down some stairs when running during a Muslim friend's wedding. Enter young girl with stencil and secret message writing technique. Sorry Aisha. Aisha smiles. Vinod rapturous. Falling in love.
Manages to get a letter to her. She says nothing. Hero gets warned to leave the girl alone...still, he goes jumping over walls to meet her in the night. She still doesn't say anything. More falling in love. Song.

Enter rival in love. Our hero calls Aisha up to bitch(or whatever you call what guys say about each other) about Mr Rival.
Gets a telling off from a friend and he wants to meet her for the last time.
There she takes his hand, tells him that she doesn't want to be like the countless women she knows who hide their dreams behind a veil forever and hands him a letter. She loves him. He reacts with general Sreesanth-goes-to-Lords behaviour (Indian cricket. Ignore if not understood)
Song.
He gets beaten up by the girl’s family.
Interval.

Scene: Police station.
Present time (because all that was a flash back when our hero was languishing in prison)
The police like his story and are kind-hearted (and have nothing else to do).They are going to help him in his quest.
Vinod walks out of his home due to family-pressure. Starts a helmet-business to earn money to woo Aisha.
Super successful (obvious in India where hundreds die on roads).They enlist the help of her tutor (typical) to smuggle letters and the romance blooms. And Vinod opens (or begins) a purdah shop where he kisses her on the forehead.
Best-friend: 3 months and you only got till the forehead??
Girl’s uncle caught in factory-workers strike due to a mining-accident or something.
Lover boy fends off party-workers attacking the uncle. Father angry and decides to send her off somewhere else to a new life.
Crying on both sides. Vinod arranges a last meeting with the help of elder sister Mehru.
Loved this dialogue: Aisha the girl will never forget you but Aisha the Muslim has to.

Crying in car. And pleas to stay and run away(on Vinod’s part).Aisha runs off into the rain.

Thoughtful uncle says this is wrong. Because it wasn't what Aisha’s late mother wanted for Aisha. What happened to Mehru (terrible failed arranged marriage) wouldn't happen to Aisha. Permission granted.

Beautifully happy Aisha tries his cell phone. Expectedly switched-off. Last-minute tension.
Has he killed himself??

Till they trace his phone to a port/bridge. They meet (Cue: confetti throwing!!):Kiss...as seen from behind the girl's head. Like in a fake kiss in a cheesy Hindi movie. But this is(supposed to be) real all right. Pretty considerate toward a parent-including audience.
Smart-aleck best-friend: Bugger finally got beyond the forehead.
Sweet as sugar smiles on everyone’s face.
 Lights on!

Maybe my synopsis hasn't been kind to the movie so for the interests of fairness,it was a sweet lovey-dovey romance of the innocent lambs type but not of the silly chunariya-udti Bollywood kind...depicted like only serious cinema can and Bollywood can’t. And the songs were pretty good too. The only problem: I couldn't watch it. However cynical and scoffy I sound here, every time the hero (what we call the male lead in India)went ultra lover soppy eyes at the lady or a very romantic song began I’d feel uncomfortable and skipped it. This is acceptable if you’re watching the stuff with anyone else but I wasn't.
Funny that I can’t handle two people making puppy eyes at one another when I don’t mind some hard core making-out between Jean Grey and Wolverine.
And I've been wondering why.
It’s just like singletons can’t bear to be around two people who are really in love. All the closeness. The privateness. It’s like your'e invading a person’s home when they’re singing in the shower (or having sex.Trust me to dramatise drama).
And this was a damn movie. They WANTED to be invaded. Still I couldn't.

Maybe I'm a jealous single 18 year old. Funny, because I really don’t want to date.
Or maybe the protagonists were REALLY in love and those love beams were seeping out from the movie. But no news of a scandal.
Or maybe it’s some spell or potion my parents have secretly fed me to keep me single (and out of the influences of romantic tosh) till they can marry me off. Highly unlikely. Though daddy’s Keep-the-family-name-high speeches do have a similar effect.
Or maybe I'm just not a romantic person. No. Because I do have crushes and things like that (yay, I'm normal. Take that, shrinks!)
Or maybe I should stick to cartoons. And X-men (anybody else think James Mc Avoy is geek-fantasy material? no one?), which is a pretty good lookout, so, oh yeah!

I rediscovered Cheb Khaled after another crazy 90’s music session with the family. And boy do I love the songs!

The first is an Aisha song I'm really loving...it's a remake of a Khaled song by Outlandish.But you can go watch the Khaled version on YouTube.
And the next is Didi. One of his most famous songs.You'll probably remember hearing it from your childhood like me!



And I have a job with A Lot of Pages...well, not a job. But it is a commitment so I reviewed Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. Boy was I crazy punch drunk after that book. You’ll find the review here!

24 comments:

  1. My sister told me to watch the movie! She said it was cute, but nothing special... something I may watch when I'm exceptionally bored.

    I think I'm like you in that I can't stand too much loveydoveyness in movies. But that's about it. I can't stand making out or anything either :P

    And Aicha! :O I love that song!!! ♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't bear heavy making-out either but compared to extreme koochie-koo I prefer the former unless it crosses a line of decency!
      I'm surprised about the movie...you Mallu??

      Delete
  2. I have no problems watching Jean and Wolive make out, but the real answer to that is that, well, it's Wolverine. I'd do dark and disturbing things to that man. Despite being quite the romantic myself I'm not much of a fan of romantic movies. There are some books I won't read, and some movies I won't watch, because they are so romantic and I don't react too well when I see happy couples when I'm walking down the street. I just think I'm bitter and cynical.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha ha...so I have company in misery!
      The thing is I'm NOT jealous...being the sweetheart I am(wink!),I'm happy for them.still.

      Delete
  3. Haven't seen it- so can't really comment. Although I do get ur point. I don't mind the Lovey-dovey depcition (even though am not a hardcore romantic myself) as long as it's handled tastefully or to be more precise "realistically". That is one thing that we absolutely ignore in the wake of bollywood drama and then the present day- hollywood watching- audience is left with no other option but to fast forward. Which also reminds me that I can never watch a hindi movie on my laptop.. makes me want to rip off my head- and I am not exaggerating... not saying that all Hindi films are bad but there is a scope for lot of improvement.. In the recent times one Hindi movie that I absolutely adored was English-Vinglish..
    P.S. I don't have anything against making out also.. as long as it is Vicky-Christina-Barcelona style!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ohh yeah,I'm all for English-Vinglish too!
      Umm...maybe the Vicky-Christina-Barcelona style might have to be reconsidered.
      Hey how about Gangnam style??wait...does that even exist?!

      Delete
  4. Hi there. Nice blog.

    Wish I could have someting to say regarding the post. Never been into Bollywood/Lollywood flicks, so wldnt have a clue wat to say. Lolz!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Thank you!
      And where staying away from Bollywood is concerned,Good for you...you aren't missing anything other than films of the audience-are-mush-brained variety!
      :)

      Delete
  5. I hate these sort of movies they are so very predictable!

    Thanks for dropping a comment on my blog, hope you'll return soon! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely will girl!
      And hey just so the producers of these movies don't sue me: I'm not saying Bollywood is ALL crappy...most of it is.

      Delete
  6. Hahah I love your summary of the movie!
    And yes, Cheb Khaled's songs are tooo good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks G!
      I love praise coming from you.:))

      Delete
  7. I cringe when I see all the lovey-doveyness scenes in movies. I don't know why :/
    Btw I love your blog design :) its really cute

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Ooh thank you!
      About the lovey-doveyness,I'm soo glad I have company!!

      Delete
  8. Hey Talitha,

    Sorry for the confusion over at A Lot Of Pages.. I had not been able to access thethinkeress before (slow connection), so I figured that it was also yours. Either way, I have to agree with you on love stories.. Some are nice, but others are just plain unrealistic!
    :)

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    1. No problem about ALOP sweety!
      You just managed to turn that long big post of mine into a one-sentence synopsis!:)

      Delete
  9. there was a lot of news on this movie and i watched it too, didnt find anything extra ordinary, but i liked another movie that i watched couple of days later, Spirit.

    Happy New Year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll check Spirit out,sounds interesting...the name at least.:)
      And yeah,Happy New Year in advance to you too!

      Delete
  10. Hahahah, I'm malayalee too, and I watched that movie a few weeks ago. I thought it was pretty boring, to be honest.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I hate love stories too ;)
    Totally LOVEE the blog background, btw!
    ..Now following you! :)

    Visit me at http://hopeihadasuperexcitingsecretlife.blogspot.in/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Special mention to that DIDI song.... listening to that song was so nostalgic... brought back the sweet memories of childhood... have totally forgotten about that song... childhood hit....
    and offcource AISHA is just amazing....

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    Replies
    1. Thanks...though the credit isn't actually mine to take!:)

      Delete

Go on say it!
I'm all ears...