Trickling Thoughts - Asynchronous happiness

At last the endless torrents of English sitcoms is getting over. Managed to reach the last season of all those series that i had downloaded. Aduthu ennada panrathu..paakarathukku series illama poidumo nu romba kavala(!!) pattu kittu irunthapo...roomie was talking about Marma Desam and how he used to follow it with vigour when it was running Live in the early 90's. Seems when he was onsite during his first assignment, there used to be a tamil website where they uploaded an episode a day for this serial and it used to give the same thrill of anticipation of watching it on TV.

When those programs were aired, we didnt had cable connection at our house. Rommmmmmbaaa naal kazhichi thaan dad finally relented. I used to hear all my class mates talk in excited tones about Marma desam and the disappointment on their voices when the finale happened. They couldnt quite grasp the concept of multiple personality and felt the director, not knowing how to end the story, cooked up something. With no way to follow what they were talking about, i used the "chee chee intha pazham pulikkum" approach and used to stay away.

I happened to saw that series online, few days back and was stuck by the ingenuity and the effort that had gone behind. No wonder, it was the second most successful tamil series ever. The story line had all the elements of a thriller imbibed  in it. Muder, Mystery, Superstition, Ghost and little bit of surprise elements stewn around. It was infact a novel that had been pictuised and the director had stuck to the original as much as possible. The best part of the serial to me was the production value. Majority of the portions were outdoors!!! And the sound effects were haunting to say the least. To be honest, i never had very high opinion of tamil serials before and always used to wonder, why can't they make it "look" interesting like the English ones. This series answered that. Oru rendu moonu episodelaye semmaya impressed. Planning to watch the full series :)

Another gem that i stumbled onto was Ramany Vs Ramany-II, by the same director for the same production house and surprisingly for the same channel. Right from the time, where they scroll names of the actors and technicians at the begininning, the series is a fun riot. A middleclass family consisting of a marketing rep hubby, housewife and their school going kid plus their tenant cum family friend living on the outhouse ( do they even have such things now!!) in a really big house in erstwhile Adyar forms the crux of the setup. I am a big fan of Devadarshini :) and after watching few episodes of this series, i've begun to like her even more. Her goofiness, the natural ease with which she brings credibility to the housewife character is amazing. I was surprised to note that, the director, Naga, who is well known for his mystery series, had captained this one too!! Unlike the previous one, the entire series revolves within a single set. The day to day happenings on any normal urban middle class home has been told with tongue-in-cheek humour. Really enjoyed the first few episodes and it is becoming addictive.

When i was talking to my friends about these series, they reminisced about those days when it was getting aired and as usual, i agian got lost. I can watch the series anytime now. But i will never have those memories to enjoy or take part. Its like the feeling of watching a blockbuster movie for the first time after the entire city had seen it like a million times( Yes. Enthiran happened to me like that). The surprise element is done to death even before the name reel goes up and worst part being missing out on those occassions. Kadupething case of cup half full-half empty.