Aparna’s Blog

Here I am celebrating the movie Alaipayuthey and the producer of this movie is now no more! I was shocked to read about the sudden demise of G.Srinivasan, Mani Ratnam’s brother cum producer of Alaipayuthey and all the other movies produced under the banner of Madras Talkies. May his soul rest in peace.

Moving on to the post, starting with the first meeting of Karthik and Shakti, it couldn’t have been picturized any better what with the joyous atmosphere of a wedding, friends and relatives pulling the leg of the bride and the groom and an excellent song by Rahman in the background! There can’t be anyone who doesn’t enjoy the conversation between Karthik and Shakti.

Mani Ratnam uses just two scenes, one for each of them and we get a pretty good picture of not only what kind of persons Karthik and Shakti are but, also of their family too! Karthik, the rich guy, enjoying his life with his father’s money and having a mother who pampers him and a dad, who though scolds him, gives him all the money to enjoy life. Shakti, enough has been said about her and her family in my earlier posts.

The second meeting: Karthik and Shakti travelling on different trains and the trains crossing each other and Karthik and Shakti’s eyes meeting each others’ with again, the song, Yaaro Yaarodi in the background. It is from this scene that the train starts playing a major role in bringing Karthik and Shakti close to each other.
What we have after this is one of the best set of scenes ever showing a couple falling in love with each other, wherein each and every scene during their courting is sure to make you fall in love with the movie even more! (I don’t really understand how the same people who enjoy watching lovely scenes like the ones in Alaipayuthey can also stand watching other stupid movies featuring other ‘great’ Tamil actors! One thing that I can’t stand watching is stupid love stories and unromantic ‘romantic’ scenes. This is one of the reasons why I watch very few movies.) To stop my post from becoming something like a narration of the movie (as if it already isn’t one!), I will just write about some of my favourite scenes and wrap it up.

I would say the best ever dialogues used to propose to someone are these :
‘Shakti naan unna virumbala un maela aasai padla, nee azhagaa irukkannu nenakkala, aana, adhudhaan nadandhudumonnu bayama irukku!’

Then, there is the kid, Karthik’s niece. Is she sweet! Yet again, Mani Ratnam shows that there is no one who can create lovely scenes with kids like he does! The kid telling the shopkeeper, ‘Avanoada illa. AvaLoada’, ‘Chee Shaktinaa pombaLa aambaLa illa’ , and later jumping with joy, tells her grandfather, ‘Naan rendu rooba sambadhuchuttaen’!’

There are so many nice scenes like Karthik’s father walking past him coughing, when he is speaking with Shakti over the phone; Karthik telling his mom that Shakti is the girl he is going to marry in front of a whole lot people and more than his mom, the lady sitting next to him becoming curious and asking him if it’s true and starts spreading the news! The joy some people derive from spreading news like this and the joy some feel on hearing it! But, at the end of it, when someone goes and congratulates Karthik’s father on fixing his son’s marriage, the expression on his face is priceless!
Again, comes one of the lovely conversations of the movie:
‘I Love You!’
‘Appadinna enna mean panre?’
‘I love younaa I love you!’
‘Appadinna ennannu seriya theriyaamaye’
‘Unakkaaga enna vaena seivaennu arttham’
‘Trainlaendhu gudhippiya?’
‘Maattaen’

After the meeting of Karthik’s and Shakti’s parents ends up as just a clash of egos (I feel more than Karthik’s Dad, in some places it is Shakti’s Dad who is not interested in letting this marriage take place), comes yet another favourite dialogue of mine:
Shakti: ‘Innikku oru poNNakkaaga Amma Appa ellaarayum vittuttu varuva. NaaLaikku innoru poNNukkaaga enna vidamaattannu enna nichayam?’
Karthik: ‘Hello unga logic sagikkala!’

After they decide to split only, they both start missing each other so much and Mani Ratnam uses the song, ‘Evano Oruvan’ to showcase their missing each other so beautifully.

She is missing Karthik and is drowned so much in thinking about him that she doesn’t even realize that she has to attend to a small child, a patient, even when she is standing right next to it, until another doctor brings to her attention that child! When they meet again after a long time, it is Shakti, the same girl who didn’t give in to Karthik’s words earlier in spite of him trying to persuade her again and again to marry him, who now, wants him to marry her immediately. Again, after a sweet conversion, they decide to get married.

Coming soon is the wedding! You all are invited!
P.S.: Translation for the dialogues used in this post will be done later!