Of memories and other things

 When i was watching Marmadesam, one thing that stuck me was the greenery in the city 3 decades back, especially the "Ambalakkaala kadigai" portions!! Either they had shot extensively in and around Besant Nagar or inside some studio with wide open spaces and gardens!! It is hard to believe that Chennai was this green a few years before. And the lack of traffic on roads that go deadly empty in late evenings or even those traffic that they show during day time is hardly comparable to what we witness on daily basis. Of course the population increase of both people and their vehicles has been humungous in the last 2 decades. But still, to realize that we had actually lived through such times as well, when things were green and traffic was lean is hard to believe!! One thing that stands out common and in fact has increased like everything else is the heat!! In most of the scenes the actors are drenched in sweat, especially the out door shots with huge blobs of sweat covering most of their shirt and even on shots covered during day time, one can see the mirage forming on road. That is one thing that has always been a constant feature in Chennai. And the serial is testament to the fact of lack of night life in Chennai decades back, where people either go to beaches or temples during evenings when it is slightly cooler and return back to their nest once it begins to get dark As compared to bumper to bumper traffic even at midnight nowadays!! The kind of costumes worn by the characters makes it even more interesting to watch, considering that we've grown up watching our akkas and annas in such attire, that was considered fashionable for its time and by chance if we end up wearing any such dresses now, we wouldn't just be Boomer but bloater rather, with our dressing bloating around like circus tents!!! The depiction of rich people and their house as to what was considered as posh looks quite interesting as compared to what they show for middle class. Maruti is with an odd fiat here and there lead the race for private vehicles with Green color Pallavan bus, true to its name, seems to rule the roads. Almost everyone from the cast seems to have grown big in their career and some of them who seems to have debuted with these series are well known house hold names currently and are well established in the tinsel town. The quality of writing holds up even after 3 decades, retaining the sense of thrill and the dialogues are genuinely unique. There are hardly any filler scenes, unlike present day ones, were the characters either are eating, about to eat, finished eating or going / coming from somewhere or going to sleep!!! Hardly any imagination on the situations with every serials churning the same dough time and again with zero originality, often lifting scenes from famous movies and stretching them to the limit possible!! Something the writers of today can really learn from their past masters!!