My take on 'Raanjhanaa': Dhanush, all the fucking way.

SPOILERS ALERT!

First things first. There are many occasions where I've hooted and screamed and rooted for this average-looking, dark, almost anorexic man. He looks like any face you'll find in a crowd. But there's something about Dhanush that sets him apart from every other actor in this industry. Because when he acts, he's never really acting. What does this man possess, that makes me feel like I'm watching all of my collective emotions, desires, fears, anxieties and feelings being played out on screen?

Dhanush in Aadukalam(2011)

Apart from playing a stunning variety of mostly uncouth characters in films like Thulluvatho Ilamai, Kadhal Kondein, Pudhupettai, Mayakkam Enna, 3 and my personal favourite, Aadukulam, as well as being forced by the industry to be involved in absolutely forgettable commercial potboilers like Sullan, Padikkathavan, Venghai, etc, Dhanush's real claim to worldwide fame was the insanely viral song "Why this Kolaveri Di".

Dhanush in '3'(2012)

Even after dabbling in so many different things, it still made me apprehensive to think about how he was going to make the crossover to Bollywood, an industry filled with fair, good-looking, six-pack donning male actors. And which added to the dilemma was the fact that he was a Tamilian, a breed that is almost negligible in prowess when it comes to speaking Hindi.

And then I watched him in his first frame in Raanjhanaa. All the doubts that existed vanished almost instantaneously.

To be totally honest, there's nothing new about Raanjhanaa's storyline. It's about a boy who is smitten by a girl in his childhood, falls insanely in love with her and how he relentlessly tries throughout his life to make her his own. This premise has been the story of virtually almost every Tamil movie ever made. But where Raanjhanaa succeeds is in making this done-to-death concept so real, so believable and actually likable.

Raanjhanaa revolves around the holy land of Benaras(captured stunningly by Natarajan Subramaniam and Vishal Sinha) and the lives of a boy, a girl, their friends and families in its narrow lanes, temples, ghats and markets. Kundan(Dhanush) is the son of a Tamil Brahmin pandit, who falls in love with Zoya(Sonam Kapoor) when he lays eyes on her for the first time.

A dozen fail pickup lines, a couple of songs and almost 17 slaps later, puppy love begins to brew. And all goes well until Zoya finds out Kundan isn't a Muslim(which he pretended to be) and she discards him instantaneously.

With a slit of a wrist(this happens quite a number of times during the course of the story), Kundan 'convinces' Zoya to fall back in love with him. But this time, Zoya's family finds out, and packs her off to complete her schooling in Aligarh, after which she would go on to attend college at JNU in Delhi. During all these years, Kundan is still in Benaras, going on with his mundane life while still waiting for his Lady Love to come back, which he believes she will, and that they'll live happily ever after together. She does come back, but as luck would have it, she doesn't even remember him.

The rest of the movie is a series of Kundan's ploys to win Zoya and her family over, who have always thought of him nothing more than an errand-boy. Subconsciously, even Kundan realizes that the two of them are a perfect mismatch, but still tries relentlessly just get her to say that she loves him. His antics and his selflessness border on the insane, and he even goes to the lengths of uniting Zoya with her beau(played brilliantly by Abhay Deol). Every time he fails, he tries even harder. At some points in the film, it becomes hard to digest the things that Kundan does for Zoya. Not that it isn't realistic, it's too emotionally draining.

One particular scene that literally had me feeling for the character involves him standing on the street, looking at Zoya in the balcony, and trying to make her remember who he is. Without uttering a single word, Kundan carries out a heart-wrenching charade as a desperate attempt to refresh her memory. This is one scene among many others that truly shows Dhanush's brilliance as an actor. I thought Ranbir's performance in Barfi(the scene involving Ranbir and Ileana in the rain with him expressing his lament over his poor financial state and societal status) was brilliant, but this scene literally gave me goosebumps.

Ranbir Kapoor in Barfi(2012)

It is so moving, that one can't help but remember a similar heart-wrenching scene from Moondram Pirai(or Sadma), the 1982 tear-jerker starring Kamal Hassan and Sridevi. This is just one among many beautifully subtle references I stumbled upon during the course of the movie.

A similar heart-wrenching scene in Moondram Pirai(1982)

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi(2005)

It is only the second half where the film veers away from its original plot and gets muddled in the big bad world of politics. Honestly, it seemed like an afterthought in the script when they decided to add politics as a backdrop of the epic romance. Raanjhanaa somewhat fails in this aspect, one in which Sudhir Mishra's masterpiece, Haazaron Khwaishein Aisi(2005) so wonderfully succeeded in weaving a beautiful tale of love, loss, aspirations, desires and political insurgency. However, a lot of what happens during Raanjhanaa reminds me of HKA(one of my favourite Indian films ever made). I'm very very sure Anand L.Rai used HKA as a reference while making Raanjhanaa as well.

There are a couple of scenes in the second half which were very very strong. One of the scenes which I don't want want to mention right now as it would reveal the plot. Another scene is when Kundan is sitting on the ghats and meets an educated, wise Sadhu with a DSLR. It's a weirdly discomforting scene, but absolutely beautiful to say the least. My most favourite scene in the second half however is the one where Kundan speaks in Tamil to a police officer. The first word he uttered in Tamil, all of the Tamilians across the theater erupted with joy among shrill, deafening cheers. An emotional triumph!

It all culminates into a gripping, very highly emotional climax that is sure to leave you in tears, or definitely moved. The end is a bittersweet redemption to the meandering second half.

What helps the film in achieving this connect, among many other things is Rahman's magic. Ofcourse he doesn't churn out perfect albums at the moment, but songs like the title track and Tum Tak go very well with the mood of the movie, and are shot beautifully.

Swara Bhaskar as Bindiya

Regarding the performances, every single actor irrespective of the size of the role, makes the best out of his/her screen time, especially the wonderfully talented Swara Bhaskar as Bindiya and the extremely likable  Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub as Murari. Abhay Deol who plays a college student doesn't look like one, but is absolutely effortless in this role. He plays the role with a certain air of cool confidence that is very difficult to come across these days.

But the real surprise for me in Raanjhanaa is Sonam Kapoor. I generally have a very strong aversion to Sonam Kapoor and never liked her in anything except her short, confused role in Delhi 6. But here, she looks like a woman any normal guy would fall head over heels in love with, and backs that up with a more than adequate performance. For the first time ever, I felt Sonam gave everything she had into giving a wonderfully layered natural performance. Not to mention her crackling chemistry with the contrastingly-skinned Dhanush, which makes your heart actually go out to the characters. What a charm.

Ofcourse, I've said enough and more about the lanky embodiment of supreme brilliance, Dhanush K Raja. He is the mind, body, heart, soul, limbs, joints, and basically every force behind the magic of this movie. Though his Hindi is a little incoherent, he still quotes Ghalib with extreme confidence. He also dances on the streets of Benaras with uninhibited irreverence to the onlookers, the exact same way he does in 'Ottha Sollala', the amazingly charming song from Aadukalam(2011). I can definitely say that Anand Rai signed Dhanush for Raanjhanaa the moment he watched this song, and also decided to recreate the exact same scene with the exact same camera angle and the exact same situation!

Dhanush in 'Otha Sollala' from Aadukalam(2013)

I can't begin to imagine the effort he put into playing this highly complex character. He has played this character so bloody brilliantly that it creates a mystery beyond the scope of the character, and you actually begin to wonder and anticipate what he's going to do next. He is the one who transforms this simple storyline into something larger-than-life. You laugh with him, laugh at him, smile at his antics, frown at his misfortunes and empathise with his plight. I can't wait to see what he does in Bharatbala's latest film 'Mariyaan', a true story of survival about kidnapped Indian labourers in Sudan.

Mariyaan(2013) - releasing this July

I don't remember the last time when I felt compelled to actually write about an actor and his movie, and considering the theme of this movie, I've really never done this before. But Raanjhanaa, irrespective of however simple and sappy it is, works for me on so many levels. And to see Dhanush carrying this almost single-handedly on his shoulders is just so wonderfully satisfying.

I could write much more but I think I've more than overstayed my welcome. But watch Raanjhanaa. Watch it for its simplicity, for its quirky charm, its mesmerizing locations, for its grey characters, for the sheer audacity, power and passion of love.

And above all, watch it for Dhanush. You will not be disappointed. 

College ends. And so do a lot of other things.

Ask me three-four months ago about how I spent my college life and if I'd miss it all.

I probably would've said, 'Nah. I'm fucking glad I'm getting out of this shit-hole sooner than expected.'

And a week later, I'd have had a fucking epiphany about how I viewed college, or rather my time in college.

So it was my birthday, late September, and like most college kids who celebrate their birthday these days, I decided to buy booze for all of my friends and watch them 'make merry'. Drove all the way to Pondicherry to buy around 3-4 cases of beer(If you lived in Chennai, you'd know why we drive 2.5 hours to Pondi to get booze). Got back around 9 or so, and we'd decided to drink it the next day, that is, on my actual birthday.

Everything started out fine, all of us started drinking a little(there were around probably 10 of us). As time went by, the beers started to decrease in number and our buzz started increasing bit by bit. Everyone was having a fucking good time, listening to music, engaging in pointless conversations. After a point of time we were pretty fucking drunk, and more and more of my department mates(whom I didn't know that well) started coming in, wishing me, and I'd offered them all the beer. And in a little bit, the new entries were piss drunk as well.
What followed were a few conversations(I don't remember EVERY WORD, though, given the situation) that I'd treasure for probably as long as I live.
Me and a few people from the neighbouring class, to whom I'd hardly ever talked in three years, started talking about how we're in adjacent classes and didn't have the fucking chance to get to know each other, because of our gloriously anti-social,hypocritical,cringe-inducing,fucking ridiculous department(yes, Engineering is like that. Anti-social would be a damn understatement). For god's sake, there still are people in the other class whose even names I don't know, a few bastards who actually hate me, for god knows what reason, and spread shit around saying that I'm an arrogant prick(OK, maybe I'm a little arrogant but they don't even fucking know me) and that I look stoned all the time. What the fuck kind of a reason is that to hate somebody? Looking stoned?
"Oh let's not talk to that guy, he looks stoned all the time. And I heard he is arrogant also, so yeah, let's tell that to everyone."
Fucking pricks.

Anyways, as the night went forward, the guys told me that maybe it'd been different if I was in their class, and that they wished that I was in their class and that they got to know me better. I'm not completely sure if that was them genuinely expressing their feelings or if it was the beer talking, but I'd like to believe that a man never lies when he's inebriated, especially not when they start weeping like five minutes later.

And I never really realized it, but I felt the same. I told them that. God damn it, it was fucking true. I never had the chance to get to know so many people, not only in college, but even otherwise. The animosity that people create between everyone else makes us all believe that the other person isn't worth talking to, or that he/she is a bad person. We miss out on getting to know some of the most wonderful people that we will never meet, and we rather get stuck with people we should've never met. Such is life.

College, though however cruel it might've been for me, to force me into forgetting my true passions and aspirations in life, bludgeoning me with things I could never hope to understand(the same things which a few people understand and are so unbelievably proud of it and spite others because of it), not letting me socialize with people I really wanted to meet, and a hundred other reasons that I regret for taking up engineering, has really taught me a lot of things.

I've met few of the best friends I'd ever have in college, but the only regret I have is that I hadn't met them earlier on, because of the same aforementioned reasons. Animosity, and unnecessary,unwarranted judgments. Of course I did have friends earlier on as well, but I didn't know what made them start hating me gradually, and eventually we grow apart probably serving to the best of our interests. I don't have anything against them or anyone for that matter, but my issue is that the same certain people came in the way(indeliberately, of course) of meeting and getting to know my real friends.
And honestly,these people would never measure up to be as loyal or as close to the friends I have now.
I don't have to pretend, or be formal, or hide anything from my friends. They accept me for who I am, and we'd probably do anything for each other. And seriously, fuck everyone who thinks otherwise/that they're too good for me. Keep judging, keep spreading shit, keep hating. Seriously, fuck you guys :)
If you think you're too good for me, you're probably better off amongst yourselves. Have a good life :)

What I considered as mundane earlier, will serve to be memories which are indelible, etched somewhere deep inside. It's said that you can never forget two phases of life : school, and college.
Because after this, it's just : the pressure of getting a job, working for a boss who's head you'd want to shot and whose wife you'd want to fuck, finding a mate, getting married, having those fucking annoying miracles of life called 'children', watching them grow up and tell you to fuck yourself, watch yourself getting thrown out of their lives, growing old, getting arthritis,saggy skin and boobs, losing your memory, becoming senile, and finally, the best part of all, dropping dead and ending your insignificant, worthless, piece-of-shit lives.

All this ^  would just remind you of a glorious time in the past when it was all about trying grades every now and then, meeting girls, making friends and having your own kind of fun and be accepted, no matter how weird you are.

Fist fights, politics, cigarettes at 3 am, bike rides on the highway to get those cigarettes, pointless conversations, grades, arrears, dealing with rejection, falling in love, insulting people, that first experience with drugs, sarcasm, playing cards, beer, whisky, white rum, running around from one wine shop to another to try and procure all this, road accidents, dealing with drunkards on the road, ragging the professors, making love for the first time, house parties, copying , getting caught for copying, bits, trading porn, movie marathons, dealing with pricks, scoring pot, drunken madness, puking, birthdays, losing friends, gaining friends, maintaining attendance, hustling, hostels, cigarettes during the lunch break, short break, any fucking break, avoiding people, ignoring people, watch people get hurt, get hurt yourself, instigate fights, break up fights, head-spinning brandy, horrible food, canteens, bunking, the old campus, the staff quarters, the flats, acquaintances, friends,foes,and all the people who I've met,seen,or have had the pleasure to have known in college...

I'll miss this. I'm really, genuinely gonna fucking miss all this, especially when I hear that bell tolling, the bell that warns of us of the treacherous, scum-filled, maggot-infested underbelly of life in the real world.
These four years, though however eventful/uneventful, were a lesson, a booze-fest, a 'roller-coaster ride', to put it in the cheesiest way I can.

This is purely dedicated to all those people I've met during college. It doesn't matter if we'd ever been friends. But in someway, you've changed my fucking life. I love you, and peace to all of you. May life be not as harsh on you.

Cheers,
Mango.

Random Drunk Nonsense #1

 Fuck damnation, man! Fuck redemption! We are God's unwanted children? So be it! 

- Tyler Durden

I see people pretending to be in love, buying teddy bears and shit for some inexplicable reason. Is that love, now? Hey, who am I to judge, but still. Stop buying fucking teddy bears. Stop making 'friendship day' such a big fucking deal. You know that deep down, you don't have any fucking friends. You're on your own here, and all this is just a way to get by. Friendship bands, status messages, wall posts, tagged photos don't mean a fucking thing. You're still hanging out with the same old bunch of retards, people who don't really give a shit about you but you just feel they do. And you try to make up for it by pretending the same way. Such is life.

I see roads and alleyways and gullies being dug up for no reason. It happens bimonthly, I've noticed. It's all a fucking conspiracy. The government doesn't give a shit about you either, and you're duped into thinking that we're getting new roads. You're wrong. While you adjust with an hourly power cut each day, and standing in the line at 5 am in the fucking morning for two buckets of water, the fat lady in power is sitting in one of the largest secretariats in the world, that fucking monstrosity which represents nothing but all of our cumulative failures. 

I see people drinking a couple of beers and then picking fights with random people on the road. You're not drunk, you're not cool, you don't have a cool life. You just think you have one, and you're wrong in more ways than one.

Whatever happened to the 90s when there was genuine joy? Drinking cheap sodas, watching doordarshan and cartoon network, and buying fake Nike shoes. Noone pretending to be anything else, all us kids just wandering the streets, looking for someone to play cricket with. And now I see fucking 10 year olds irritating their parents into buying them fucking Android phones, and 11th grade kids getting drunk to prove they're cool in front of their retarded friends. What the fuck are you trying to do, kids? Get a fucking life. Get out, stop talking to your imaginary friend. Even he doesn't give a shit about you. Your parents don't care either, they just need you to shut the fuck up for a few fucking minutes. Have some mercy on them, they're trying to bring you up. And they haven't fucked in months. Stop bothering them , will ya?

I hate seeing people getting what they don't deserve. They don't know who the fucking President is, and they roam around in fucking BMWs. What is the use of getting straight A's then (not that I get straight A's, but you get the drift) ?

Parents, stop trying to give your kids shit they don't deserve. This country is growing even more retarded than it already is because of all the people getting stuff they don't deserve.

Coming to love, do most of you even know what the fuck love is? NO SIR, you fucking don't have a fucking clue. You look at a girl and 'DECIDE' that you're in love with her. You think buying her a teddy bear, taking her to a supposedly good restaurant proves that you're in love with her. You think that if you pursue some fucking random chick for a week, or if she responds to your pathetic message on facebook, that you're in love. It doesn't work that way, you pathetic souls. Doesn't matter how many days/months you stand below her window or follow her or anything, it isn't love. You're either in love with her breasts or you have nothing better to do. It's mostly the latter. 

And I see double.