Warning: long long post.. which may go anywhere...As I don't know, where I am going with this. I am just typing my feelings..
I saw a nice old Malayalam movie, "Krishnagudiyil Oru Pranayakalathu" today. When seeing YRKKH.. I felt many things reminded me of this movie(which I saw in my childhood).. so, I finally decided to watch this movie again. The movie is about love, friendship, forgiveness, redemption, morality and humanity.
Akhilesh and Meenakshi were betrothed to each other from early childhood,Meenakshi's father accidentally killed Akhilesh's parents ... so in a mixture of guilt and love he raised Akhilesh with much much more love than his own children. His over love and rich environment made Akhilesh grow up as an arrogant young man. Akhilesh was short-tempered, impulsive, extra-possessive and violent person. Meenakshi was a smart. sensible, strong-headed and stubborn person. Because they both were betrothed at such young age, they genuinely loved each other. But their personalities were not exactly compatible. They both magnified each other’s faults.
For example: He sent a guy to ICU after that guy mistreated with his childhood friend/fiancé during her dance performance. In a fit anger, he orders her to never dance in front of other men. And she, in her stubbornness swears to never to sing or dance in her lifetime (as though taking revenge from him). But they both do like each other and they have their ways to make the relationship work. But things go south just few days before their actual engagement or marriage, when a drunken Akhilesh crosses the line and Meenakshi breaks the relationship.
They are now angry at each other and are not ready to back down. Each of them stays stubborn that they will give this relationship second chance only if the other person asks for forgiveness. Meenakshi’s father dies and even on his death bed he wanted to see Akhilesh the most. He last wish was that Meenakshi and Akhilesh marry each other. Both of them are equally affected by the father’s death but their decision to wait for the other person to repent remains still.They both were not ready to give up.
Akhilesh cruelly leaves Meenakshi after her after her father’s death all alone. Meenakshi decides to stay with her sister and her brother-in-law in another state. Enters our 3rdimportant character, Giri who is a nice family friend. He shares the same interests as Meenakshi. He was soft-spoken, well-natured, and a nice person.
We see Meenakshi slowly moving on her life in this new place. She starts singing and dancing. She starts to befriend new people including Giri. She starts to live her life again. 6 months pass by and Giri proposes to marry her as he fell in love with her. But she never saw Giri in that light and maybe she still has feelings for her fiancé. She rejects Giri. But when she and her family feel that Giri is much more good match than Akhilesh, they come up with a solution. Meenakshi sends a letter to Akhilesh that she will wait for him for 6 more months and if Akhilesh does not arrive there,then she will move on and marry Giri.
I wont spoil the rest of the movie.. but it was a beautiful movie. I don’t know if the movie is available in subs but if you could see, I would recommend it.
And Why I am boring you with this old movie story, well this relationship dynamics reminded me of YRKKH3
While, the characters and story arcs are much more well written that this this stupid show. Really, I feel comparing this movie with this show is such a praise for this show.
Abhimanyu just like Akhilesh is hot headed, impulsive. While Abhimanyu is not as violent as Akhilesh. Nor is he a spoiled brat but just like Akhilesh, his relationship is always affected by his extreme anger. They make impulsive decisions and later regrets.
Giri is a genuinely nice person just like Abhinav. He is really a sensible and lovable character. He loves Meenakshi, but respects her to make her decisions herself.
Later in the movie, He and Akhilesh (both who loves Meenakshi) shares a really a nice beautiful relationship. They form a friendship and care about each other. And the base of that relationship mainly Giri’s sincerity and humanity.
Sadly, Akshara will never come even close too Meenakshi as a strong personality. Akshara is a very poorly written character.
Meenakshi had to battle with herself to send that letter to Akhilesh. There was a nice sequence where she remembered their nice moments... but as she thought more about it.. all their nice moments were spoiled by his anger... this slow realisation and also combined the fact that her and Giri’s moments were much more joyful and peaceful was shown in a nice manner. She thinks a lot about her and Akhilesh relationship. We feel that she realizes that their relationship was not ideal nor was it happy but still, her father’s last wish and their past where they genuinely liked each other stops her from completely moving on. But her writing that letter was her step towards improving her life. Her realization that their relationship was toxic was enough. Knowing is the first step… they both can work on the relationship or she can move on. This I think was brilliant.
Here, Neither Akshara nor Abhimanyu realized that their relationship was toxic. They both never thought about their relationship in an objective manner.They loved each other, but they failed to understand that they themselves made the relationship toxic. They both still feel that their relationship was the strongest but they both blame the situations. Which is sad.
Akshara at least could have realized after living with Nav for 6 years, that if both she and Abhimanyu had worked on themselves and their relationship, then maybe they may have been together. But nope... she shut herself completely...and was too traumatized to even think about it. I am not making fun of her trauma… I genuinely feel bad for her. But, Meenakshi was also left alone. She did not want to move on in her life. She let her past control her present until few wise words from Giri made her think about herself and her actions. She struggled but slowly she broke the shackles of her past and let herself to enjoy her life again. Akshara can not think about herself nor her actions. She still lets her past control her present. And I don’t think I will ever see that kind of smart and sensible woman in Akshara.
When Meenakshi takes any decision, we see her think... think a lot… try to think from all POVs before taking any action. And Akshara lets her emotions take the decision and not thing about the consequences of her decision.
The triangle in movie worked because, like both the male leads, they have written the female lead also a strong personality. The triangle in the serial fails because
a) There is no triangle as Abhira is the end game and Navra was not an option
b) Akshra is not a strong character
c) And Akshara is not even morally strong. She makes many morally wrong decisions without thinking about their consequences.
d) And She is not strong enough handle the consequences of her actions.
Abhimanyu and Abhinav both have their weakness when compared to Akhilesh and Giri but still they both are much better written than Akshara.
Where I understand, why Akhilesh and Giri fell in love with Meenakshi, I don’t really understand the reason to love Akshara.
This old movie showed love, toxic love, forgiveness, moving on , morality ina mature manner. The way they treated the concept of love is also so fresh.There is a running theme that love is a part of life along with many others.Love can fail, love can win, love can be forgotten, love can be forgiven, love can even be joked about. We have to just accept it.
There is scene where Giri asks a school principal to be more considerate of him as he could have been her son. Apparently, Giri’s father had given the school principal a love letter during their college days (she was also a fan of Giri’s father). There is no much details given to us why that relation did notwork out or whether it even started. But the way they make fun of it makes you realize that they just moved on from that. It was just a part of their lifelike many things. The school principal sees Giri like a son. And he also finds freedom to tease her about her past.
Love is surely an important thing... but it is not the only thing in our lives.
I understand that movie core story and situations are completely different from the setup if this show.
The premise for Abhira love and Meenakshi and Akhilesh love is totally different. And there is no kid angle. There is no evil(whitewashed)sister. There is no killing of younger brother. there is no over-reacting mother in law.
I understand all these.. I was just sharing if they treated love in a mature manner. If they could make their characters think.. them getting good sensible advises.. then this story could have been much better.
Rant finished
Jhanak
15