Of relationships and complexities

Life in a Metro (hindi movie) is a favorite of mine mainly because of its music track. Pritam's best i would say. And some of the stories in that anthology were nice as well. Especially the ones involving Konkona and Irfan alongside the one involving Kangana and Sharman (a direct lift off from "The apartment" movie). There were couple of other story lines as well, with the core theme being, relationships and love between couples of varying age groups and social status. It was the decade that began to normalize depiction of gay/lesbian characterization on screen and there are sequences involving those relationships as well. Overall the story was about how people fall in love, fall out of it and while some manage to fall back in love, some retreat into a shell and few ends up relinquishing it, living with the support of memories. When i heard that there is a "spiritual" sequel to the movie i was actually feeling bad, being dead sure that they would've screwed up big time. Not that the first one was an all time classic, but sheerly because of the songs, i always carried good opinion about that movie. The cast of the new version was impressive to say the least and possibly more complex than the original. Dharmendra - Nafisa pair were matched with Neena gupta - Anupam kher. The one involving Shilpa shetty - Kay Kay Menon - Shiny Ahuja was mapped with Konkona sen - Pankaj tripathi (in a role that is totally against his built up image) and a third guy. The original also had Konkona who happens to be the sole survivor from the film paired with Irfan which is more or less mapped by Sara Ali khan - Aditya kapoor. There is a sob story involving Ali and Fatima shaik which doesn't have a match in original. Pritam is again the music director but the songs were over kill to say the least. They have tried to make this like a musical thinking it would be whimsical but adhula thaan oray sikkal. Thiyagaraja bagavathar padam pola paatuku nadula dialogue setup didn't work out and not all songs are good unlike the original which was a blockbuster album. The reason behind this post is not to review the movie alone, but the ease with which they brush away extra marital affairs, pre martial relationships, gender confusions, all as something common place and natural and how easily people can get over the trauma by escaping to a vacation. A short break is what the recommendation is, for any relationship related problem, irrespective of its seriousness.

I happen to see another movie immediately after watching the above one, which was the actual trigger for this post. It is a tamil movie named "Bun Butter Jam" (yes Thala. Ipdithaan ipolam per vaikaranga). May be due to the lack of any expectation or mainly because of the very high expectation that i will not finish watching the movie as it would suck big time, i was pleasantly surprised. The story again, like the previous one, deals with relationships and if at all the treatment was any more practical, the cast and crew would've ended up wearing lab coats carrying record notes! Avlo practicalna paathukunga. There is our hero who is the typical college goer, smoking cigaretters, watching matter movies and thanni adichifying agmark latest gen ilaignan. The heroine is of the insta influencer brigade and it is love at first sight. Hero has a childhood friend, a literal chuddi buddy, who leaves the hero midway without any reason. Apparantly he is in love with the heroine. There is another lady lead, who has her own lover and the parents of hero and this second lady lead, conspire to get them married. How they end up breaking their own love stories and ends up marrying themselves forms the plot. The break up sequences are so practical, as i mentioned before, that you would end up feeling it could've been bit more melodramatic. It is an usual story otherwise. But similar to the previous movie, the take on relationships is more decided by logic. Mind rules over heart. Innum konja naal pona emotiongrathu marundhuku kooda irukathu pola!!!!