Modern 💓 Chennai - Touching Most Parts

6. Heart Emoji

Almost a Maniratnamesque escape episode. Heroine reminded me of the ‘Cinema Paithiyam’ Jayachitra – crazy about movies and sees movies in everything and vice versa. Her approach towards love isn’t any different. Her love affairs get egg-puffed; cheated; ‘caste’d out and finally resigns to an arranged marriage only to find that the guy she gets married to is the real deal. If this reminds you of ‘Mouna Ragam’, pat yourself in the back! 😊

#LoveReelly?

5. Imaigal (Eyelids)

How would you react when today could be the last day that you can see them forever?

Behind all the glitz and materialism that pervades in our lives, there is still that axiom which lives to say: love goes beyond the end-credit of ‘…they lived happily ever after…’. Throw in the
physical problem that the protagonists encounter, you get a good Kumbakonam degree coffee. The scene where Devi and Nithya fight in the roadside… it resonated so much with us that we were like, ‘yes, this is like how we fight!’ The ending was a bit contrived but left a warm feeling, nevertheless.

#WideAngledLove

4. Margazhi (December)

Roll back the years. In an almost homage to Bharathiraja’s Alaigal Oivathillai, puppy love is celebrated sweetly in this episode. If it was Radha learning music there, it is Milton learning keyboard here. If it was the beach there, it is the hilltop here. You get the drift. But the poetic depiction is palpable, and one could almost feel Jazmine’s happiness as her first love blossoms. Use of Raja’s ‘Poove Sempoove’ song and its Western equivalent in that piano scene was shiok!

#EasyNotes

3. Ninaivo Oru Paravai (Memory is but a bird)

It is a film or a meta-film. You can consider it either way and end up tearing your hair. 😉

Jokes apart, the film succeeds in showing the how a situationship (?!) can turn into a relationship and then can breakup over a trivial matter (good direction of not telling you what the breakup was over) only to be put back on track by quirk of fate. I like the concept of ‘World got created last Thursday and all the earlier memories were pumped into us to kind of give a sense of continuum.’ A delicious way of looking at the short duration of life and shorter duration of love/relationship within it. Thiagarajan Kumararaja has dealt with the treatment of memories quite adeptly including the use of long corridors and the appropriate colour combination – pleasant in gold and sad in red… There are a number of Super Deluxe memories – lighting, camera angles, sets etc. Pardonable. Ilayaraja’s music in this segment is epic. One cannot stop wondering how an octogenarian can swing so much pep, vigour and relevance into the proceedings! Salute!

Of course, if your friend walks in with a red star on the back of his palm, you know what it means! 😉

#LoopyMemories

2. Lalagunda* Bommaigal (Lalagunda Dolls)

Talks about the fact that we are all puppets of destiny, and the strings are held by a mysterious Supremo. 😉

So much gets stuffed into each frame of this episode that it makes us rewind and watch it again: The doctor who spouts ‘Attraction! Abortion! What else do you know?’; the online rummy-playing fake godman, the love/infatuation induced by extra pani pooris; the peeled-skin-feet of the girl who got her fetus aborted; ‘You can’t live with men; you can’t live without them too!’ juxtaposed with ‘You can’t live with women; you can’t live without her too!’…

A delightful nugget. Vasundara as the loud-mouthed, do-gooder Vaiju stole the show. The ‘gaana’ song ‘Jingrudanga’ was fresh and so was the twist in the end.

*Lalagunda Masjid is a place in Korukkupet. North Madras.

#TastyPaaniPoori

1.     Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal (Gazelles those reside in a bird’s nest)

A true tribute to Balu Mahendra by Bharathiraja including the subtle and sophisticated handling of a tricky topic.

Separation is difficult. Acceptance, reconciliation, moving on… really tough! In a classic BM triangle, you have the clueless man, an I-won’t-give-up new entrant, a I-can-give-up-but-don’t-know-how’ incumbent. The acting by the three main characters is so top notch, that you think that no one can knock them over. But then you have Delhi Ganesh! Even the extra pause he gives while on the other end of the phone is pregnant with acting!

We loved two bits of no dialogue action: When Ravi sees a groom in the metro being followed by Rohini, he thinks that she has left him to get married to that person and his face changes; only to change into a smile as the actual bride follows Rohini. And when Revathi explains her situation to Rohini about how she is willing to give it all up including the children, Rohini says, ‘I don’t know whether I could do all that you could do…’ There is a small ray of hope in Revathi’s face – after all, maybe she is going to go away… But when Rohini ends it by saying, ‘…but I want to be in it!’, the ray just vanishes. Fantastic acting!

There are so many nice directorial touches in the episode (the cigarette score, the selfies, the complementing outfit of two women…) And it did leave a heavy feeling in the heart even though it seemed to be an amicable arrangement.

#SeparatedUnion

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Otherwise, true to Web Series grammar, there are a lot of cusswords, double-entendres, kissing & bedroom scenes, rampant smoking and drinking etc. If you look past all that, these six stories do show the mirror to the society on what it is morphing into. 

Apart from a few nice vignettes of Chennai (it is no longer Central station & the beach, but the metro trains these days!), the city in itself is absent, both physically and mentally. It is a city that is still conservative in many aspects. Granted it has moved up (?) the chain. Except for the token Delhi Ganesh character, that conservative approach is shown to be truly out of the window. For a 50+, it is perhaps difficult to fathom; maybe it is the truth, though one corner of the heart says that it could be an exaggeration. Maybe?

Modern Love Chennai is worth your time just to recharge those love batteries. 💝💝💝💝

#ModernLoveChennai #Anthology #PrimeVideo #Tamil #Reviews #sriGINthoughts