My wife calls me for our usual daily end-of-the-day telephone chat, during which we
share each other's day. I can hear the TV playing in the background, which is unusual.
Me : You staying up late watching TV ? I thought you would want to hit the bed after
a hectic day at work + some 6 hours of travel to Cochin and back.
She : It's your son. He is not sleeping and is insisting on watching TV.
Me : Why don't you switch off the TV and put out the lights ? He would then hit the bed.
She : I tried it a few times, but he starts bawling. And since he has caught a cold, I don't
want to make him cry. So..
Me : What is he watching ? NatGeo or Discovery ? // Those are his favourite channels.
She : No. He is watching Vaaranam Aayiram. For the 1000th time ....
Vaaranam Aayiram (VA) is a Tamil movie which has Surya, Sameera Reddy and Divya Spandana starring in it. The title literally means "Thousand elephants". Inspite of having
spent more than half my life in Chennai & taking pride in knowing Tamil like a Tamilian,
it was quite a blow to my ego when I realised that I did not know that "Vaaranam" was
Tamil for "elephant".
Some posters of the movie that I got from the net.
a) Surya teaching Sameera how to play the guitar in the movie.
b) Surya and Sameera.
c) Surya and Divya Spandana in the movie.
Anyway, since me & my wife like both Surya and also find movies directed by Gautham
Menon interesting, we bought a DVD of VA. We loved the movie, especially the father-son bonding, the subtle acting by Surya, the charm of Sameera Reddy & Divya Spandana. We
would have watched the movie some 5-6 times, and since Aman would be with us, I guess
he got hooked to the movie.
We have no idea what it is in the movie that he likes, but he needs to see it atleast once
daily. Actually it is more like 3-4 times a day - not the whole movie, but he makes us
play the songs from the Menu.
His favourite song from the movie is the one that starts off as "Machi Machi..". He sings
the first few lines in his baby-tongue and my MIL did not know what he was singing till
we translated it to her. He also likes the "Mundhinam paarthene" song and one fine day,
he told his Mom "Mundhinam paarthen Amme", which she found to be both hilarious
and complimentary.
Even after having seen the movie so many times, he watches it every time as if it was
the first time - a perfect picture of concentration. Its no surprise then that after seeing
the movie countless times, he now knows what scene is going to come next. So, you can
hear a running commentary from him, which goes like :
Amme, uncle is going to remove his shirt now. // In the movie, Surya removes his shirt.
Amme, Uncle is now going to lift Aunty. // This is when Surya lifts Sameera in his arms.
Amme, Uncle is going to cry now. //He will point to Surya on TV & ask him not to cry.
After seeing Surya play a guitar in the movie while wooing the girl, he wanted a guitar.
My wife got him a toy guitar yesterday which he slings around his neck like Surya does
and acts as if he is playing it.
We are not sure if this addiction to VA is OK or whether we should wean him away from
the 1000 Elephants. To me, it looks like a harmless interest that he will grow out of soon.
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