Cast: Silambarasan, Trisha
Music: A R Rahman
Direction: Gautham Vasudev Menon
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa is named after the lyric in ‘Vennilave Vennilave’ song from ‘Minsara Kanavu’, which was directed by Rajeev Menon under whom Gautham Menon worked as assistant director. The title is perfect justice to the plot of the film. The title translates to ‘Will you cross the skies?’ This romance drama revolves around Jessie. A Christian. A program analyst. A person who hates watching films. She likes Karthick. A Hindu. An assistant director. A person who wants to direct a film. Karthick falls in love at the first sight of Jessie. He proposes to her. She is skeptical. Though she likes him she doesn’t express it verbally and physically. That’s why this film is about Jessie.
A few minutes before Karthick’s proposal, she says how she is worried whether her dad will see them together. She is concerned about her family. Her father is against love marriage. She doesn’t want to hurt her family and get married to Karthick. In a beautifully hilarious scene where Karthick asks her why her dad so adamant and she replies “Sothu kooda eluthi tharuvaru aana ponna kalyanam pannikuduka mataaru” (He will even give you his assets, but will not let you marry his daughter). That’s why the film’s title aptly fits the plot. She has come out of her house in order to marry Karthick.
Jessie’s character is one of the complex characters ever written. It just takes one bad scene or a dialogue to make the character look bad and hate the character. But Gautham Menon makes this one of the lovable characters of Tamil cinema. Equal credits goes to Trisha for playing the character with elegance and conviction. The break-up scene in the end is just fantastic. Karthick keeps saying to run away from her house and get married. She denies every single time. But one time she is ready, Karthick isn’t. When they meet later, she says that one moment is gone. This dialogue and Trisha’s performance made this scene as my favourite in the film.
Silambarasan plays as Karthick and this is the best performance he has given in his career. The films starts with a voice over of Karthick saying “Of all girls why did I fall in love with Jessie?” This film uses the voice overs, the trademark of Gautham Menon, effectively. In a scene Karthick fights with her and she walks away. The voice over starts, “Adikadi kochitu nadanthu poiduva. Ava front eh vida back than neraya paathen” (She always walks off in anger. I have seen her back more than her front). This is such a heartfelt feeling that could only be expressed through voiceovers.
As much as voiceovers express the character’s feeling, A R Rahman’s songs and background express the feeling and mood of the character. Be it the title background score or Jessie is driving me crazy or even the ‘Mustafa mustafa’ song is just amazing used for the narrative. Each song is marvelous and the visual are a brilliant mix of montages, dance and actors singing. The film has a great climax which is heartbreaking and the way it’s written is brilliant. The concept of the climax, a pseudo togetherness of the couple, was later seen Damien Chazelle’s La la land.
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