Aparna’s Blog

I recently had to take up some certification. Which meant there was quite a bit of studying to do and that meant what else but having Rahman’s songs for company! The best part about studying for exams for the last several years has been experiencing not just the beauty, but also the motivating power of Rahman’s music! As I listened to song after song uninterrupted, as always, I was transported to that blissful, magical state which only Rahman’s music does and which you can only experience & not describe ever!
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In the show ‘Mani Matters’ on CNN-IBN, talking about Alaipayuthey, this is what Mani Ratnam said,

“To me, that’s where a love story starts. After hard facts of life of having to get up every morning, not just when you are trying to impress somebody, where you can be on your best behaviour, when you can charming, when you can be intelligent.

The relationship grows when it is faced with reality, when it is started…the milkman coming in, I mean, that’s where the real relationship starts.”

Hearing these lines, I started thinking about how not just in Alaipayuthey, but also in many of his movies, Mani Ratnam has portrayed the ups and downs in the relationship between a husband and a wife. His lead pair, in most of the films, has always been a married couple and not just lovers. His lead pair gets married in the course of the movie and he has always shown an equal share of romance as well as the complexities involved in the relationship.
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Now when everybody is talking about the director’s note on the website of Raavan, let’s revisit the note that was there on the website of Alaipayuthey. Check it out here in the archived website of Alaipayuthey. Follow the links below to read the notes on Karthik’s and Sakthi’s worlds too.

P.S.: To all those who got bored of this mini-series on Alaipayuthey, I’ll try to come up with posts on other topics soon!

With this song, Mani Ratnam shows he needs neither exotic locales having nature’s beauty in abundance (Pacchai Nirame) nor a fort (Snehidhane) nor a festive atmosphere (Yaaro Yaarodi) and with just brick and cement (and not to forget those yellow and white bed spreads) as a backdrop, he can create stunning visuals too.
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The name itself is one among the numerous things about Alaipayuthey that instantly fascinated me. I really wish I could know what made Mani Ratnam give it a title like this and if he had any other names in his mind.

There was this programme telecast on Sun TV on the 14th of April, 2000 in which Madhavan, Shalini & Swarnamalya spoke about the movie. I remember Swarnamalya saying how much she liked the name of the movie. Seems she came to know the name only after hearing the story.

It wasn’t just the name alone. I liked the font in which it was written too. As the first few minutes of the movie alternates between Madhavan on a bike and the titles of the movie, the titles in that nice font in white colour on a black background looks good too. Even though I later saw quite a few movies using this font, I’ll always associate this font only with Alaipayuthey.

Blame it on the lack of time or the fact that the ability to satisfactorily translate thoughts into words seems to be often eluding me nowadays or sheer laziness, I am now looking at the number of posts that I have written to celebrate 10 years of Alaipayuthey and cursing myself. I now feel like somebody who has a 3-hour exam to finish in just half an hour.

Thinking about exams, I remember the first time I heard a group of people raving non-stop about Alaipayuthey. It was the day of my class 10 English board exam. Having completed the exam well ahead of time, all of us were happily standing outside the school and chatting. And that was when a group of my class mates started talking excitedly about the trailer of the next Mani Ratnam’s movie which was being telecast on the TV channels. They were talking about Madhavan, (at that time, who wouldn’t have done that? ) the music, etc. But I had not watched the trailer yet, since we still didn’t have cable connection at home! Being a mute participant to the conversation, little did I know back then that a couple of months down the line, I would become totally crazy about the movie and the craze would still be on an ever-increasing mode ten years down the line too! And that movie would be the one thing about which it’s difficult to get me to stop talking about. I am in a nostalgic mood now!

Sand, sea, sky in pink & orange hues, Ustad Sultan Khan’s vocals in the background, a lone boat, the couple – the girl clad in a salwar kameez and the guy in a blue t-shirt and jeans – and the wife’s name written on the sand by the husband. As the girl is about to bid adieu to her husband, the song begins. The location shifts from Bay of Bengal to the banks of Narmada River. Sand is replaced by a fort that is an architectural marvel. And yet the romantic atmosphere prevails.
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