Have you ever thought that films are more than a thing which
is used for killing some time when u feel boring?
Have you ever thought that films are not only for spending some quality time with your friends by cracking jokes on
the film and having popcorn and coke with them?
Have you ever thought that films are a medium where the
director tries to tell you something more than how two people fell in love or
how a hero defeats a villain?
Have you ever pondered after watching a movie why the director chose this story for
his film and how well he convinced you that it was worth all of the hard work
and money they put in this film?
If you have watched such kind of film then there is an another film for you in theaters this weekend. 'Aravaan'.
Prologue :
If you are only interested in reading about the movie, then you can skip the next five paragraphs.
During my school days, I have read the prose versions of Mahabharata and Ramayana from my father's library. I chose these books because other books would be discussing about something like Marxism, Socialism which was beyond my reach that time. I have even read 'Animal Farm' that time, but it took me a long time to know the real meaning of that story. But these mythological stories were very interesting, easily understandable and had everything a boy needs in a story; Heroes, Villains, Romance and a big climax war where finally the good defeats the evil. These books were more interesting than the Doordharshan's sunday version of 'Mahabaratham'.
As the years passed by, My memory storage became full with Syllabus books like Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, etc., and moved these stories to the Recycle Bin. So when my parents proudly say to someone that I have read all the parts of Mahabharata and Ramayana already, I will simply smile sheepishly and pray to god that they should not ask any questions from these stories. So when I heard the movie name 'Aravaan', all I could remember was that he was one of the sons of Arjuna( I think even Vyasa didn't count how many sons Arjuna had !), he was killed in the great Mahabharata war and he is worshiped as Koothaandavar in Tamil Nadu. So when my mom mentioned that Aravaan was the human sacrifice for Pandavas in the war, I was little confused. I thought of clearing this doubt by watching the movie, but later came to know that the film's story is only based on the 'Aravaan' character but set in 18th century. So I had no other option than to ask the question 'Who is Aravaan ?' to the only person in Earth who knows answer to all the questions, the 'Google'. As expected, he forwarded me and my question to the person who's in second place, the 'Wikipedia'.
So if you want to know the whole story of Aravaan and Mahabharata you can also visit the wikipedia page; But if you are lazy to search in another website or like my writing very much (!) and want to continue reading here itself, then here is the shorter version:
There are many versions of Mahabharata in India, each one differs in a way. So I will try my best to cover all of it without confusing you much. So basically Aravaan was born to Arjuna and a Naga princess Ulupi when Arjuna was on an one year exile. Even though he was a prince, the others never treated him as their equal in his tribe. So he went to meet his father Arjuna and joined with Pandavas for the Kuruchethra war. From here each version differs about Aravaan's story. The Original version simply states that he was defeated on the war by Alambusan. But the south indian version states that when Pandavas and Krishna decided, that they need a human sacrifice to win this war and Aravaan would be the perfect choice for that, he accepted that with three boons. The stories differ about how many boons he asked and what were they also. The first boon he asked was that he wanted a warrior death in hands of a great warrior. The story states that's why he came back alive after the sacrifice and killed by Alambusan on the war. But the second boon contradicts the first boon by asking that he wanted to watch the war even if he dies before the war. So they arranged to hang his head on a pole on the war field during the Kuruchethra war so he can watch all of it. But the story also says his head was alive and watched all the events ! The third boon was that he didn't want die as a virgin and wanted to marry a girl before his sacrifice. Since no one was ready to marry someone who will be sacrificed the next day, Krishna himself took the female form Mohini and married Aravaan. I think now you can guess why the transgenders are called Aravaanis in Tamil and why they Aravaan as their god.
Even though I know that this story doesn't have more sense and logic than a Vijay's film, I don't want to linger upon it more and offend those people who believe that these characters are gods who came to earth in human form( Oh God ! Suppose if you are really there somewhere and watching me typing this, please forgive me ;) ). Now that you have an idea about the character let's discuss about the movie.
The movie starts with Pasupathi and his tribal gang going for a theft (Kalavu) to a wealthy person's home. The first fifteen minutes show how they do the theft, how they came to know the house plan and how they escape from the guards when they get caught; and I would say that these are the best scenes in the film. From this initial theft scene, the movie moves in a superb speed till intermission that I didn't even mind the minor flaws like the slang they speak is more like our village Tamil than the one spoken on 18th century and the poor CG sequence that comes in the scene where Adhi rescues Pasupathi from Kottaiyur guards. The suspense about Adhi's identity is well maintained in the first half, that I was eagerly waiting for the second half. But to my little disappointment the second half was not enough pace as the first half. Even though I compromised myself that the second half was slow because it has to describe all the flashbacks it would have been much better if it had the same pace as the first half. Even the special appearances of Barath, Anjali, Swetha Menon and Sruthi Prakash doesn't help the pace. Since I know that all Vasantha Balan's movies have sad endings the excitement I had when the film started slowly reduced. So when the movie ends , one part of my brain argued that its not fair and it should have had a different climax. But the other part of brain which deals with logic told me that whether it's fair or not, this is probably what would have happen if the story is real.
In the end, Vasantha Balan finishes the movie with a message saying that British government banned the human sacrifice but it is still in many countries including India, in the name of Death sentence and it should be stopped. Even though I accept that death sentence should be stopped, I don't think human sacrifice and death sentence are same. In death sentence the accused might be an innocent or criminal, but in human sacrifice it's always an innocent who lost his life. Whether the stories of Aravaan and Chinna(Adhi's character) are real or imaginary, they show this point only.
There is a saying in Tamil 'Kalavum katru mara'('களவும் கற்று மற'). I would say that you may forget how to thieve but don't forget this movie which is about the life story of ancient Tamil thieves and guards.
