Jun 18, 2008 06:22 PM
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It is 3 years since a review appeared on this movie by Sureshmehcnit, and only now I had a chance to view this film. Santosh Sivan is always associated with good films whether they were directed by Priyadarshan, Shaaji Kailash, M.F.Hussain, Kalpana Lajmi or Maniratnam and as a cinematographer his excellence is widely known. As a director he has always ventured to give different kinds of films like'Terrorist' or'Ashoka' and this'Navarasa' has also bagged the National Award for the'Best Tamil film of 2005'.
Eunuchs or transvescites have always been badly treated by the cinema medium. Though bitter, the truth is nobody likes these people, because of their rude behaviour in trains and other public places in extracting money. In movies mostly they will be made fun of, or they will involve themselves in teasing others sexually . Remember the prisoner in'Sholay' or the super comedian Surulirajan of Tamil films, or most of the T.Rajendar films. Here Santosh has taken this subject and blended footages from real life celebrations along with fiction, and whether he has succeeded or not is another question.
In the peak of summer every year, eunuchs from all over the country, irrespective of their religion, gather at Koovaagam village, near Villuppuram, Tamilnadu to celebrate the temple festival of God Aravaan. Every euncuh craves to visit here, and they plan all over the year for this golden day, and one of the characters in this film too wishes the same. Swetha is a 13 year old girl from a middle class household. A typical Maniratnam type family, where the dad always deepens himself in newspapers and the mom is busy flying on her scooty with arm length white gloves, for shopping and ladies clubs. Swetha is closely attached to her paternal uncle Gowtham, who lives with them. Later Swetha discovers that her uncle leads the life of a man in the daytime and dresses like a woman in nights. She is quite confused. And being from a typical Tamil household, her attaining puberty is celebrated with great fanfare and her dad always dreams to marry her at the age of 22 to a fine groom. Gowtham caresses her jewels, secretly adorn them and also reveals to Swetha, that he will surely attend the Koovagam festival this year.
When the parents leave to a village to attend a family marriage, leaving these two at home, Gowtham vanishes. A desperate Swetha leaves the home in search of her uncle. Villupuram is a strange place for her. Eunuchs throng the place. She meets Bobby Darling from Mumbai, who has travelled all the way to participate in the beauty contest for eunuchs. They become strange partners in travel. After booking a room, she searches for her uncle, while Bobby prepares for the contest. She has her own tale of sorrow of being kicked out of house because of her strange behaviours. Swetha meets different types of people there; A field worker, documentary film makers, rogues and plenty of eunuchs.
The beauty contest is a great hit. Beauties heavily made up walk on the romps graciously and the film maker repeatedly asks them the same question-'What colour do you like'? Bobby declares, she won't act in commercials that glorify soft drinks, cigarette smoking, fairness creams and of course POLITICS. Another one retaliates with this silly question and asks the irritated film maker, whether he has probed into the other side of the eunuchs. She also gives some explanations on the wild and indecent behaviours of the eunuchs in public.
In Koovagam, as per the legends, the eunuchs take the role of Mohini aka Lord Krishna, and the pujaris as Aravaans tie the marital knot around their necks. The scenes are loaded with colours and celebrations and music. The next day, their mangalya sutras are cut off, bangles smashed and adorning white sarees, they go into mourning with'oppaari' songs. And only now Swetha meets Gowtham, no, Gowthami in white sarees. She refuses to come home and after persuasion from the girl she returns. After explaining her feelings to the family she leaves, and the film ends with Swetha waiting for her to return one day just to meet her.
What I liked most in the film was the neat performance by Swetha and of course, Bobby darling, who stole the show. The movie has good cinematography, and editing and in some areas, music. I remember a brilliant film'Woodstock' released in the 70s. It was a documentary on the gathering of Hippies at the Woodstock music festival. The movie focussed on music and life of hippies and had some hot scenes in the open. Koovagam is also famous for this and youth from all over the districts throng here to have fun with eunuchs. And Santosh has conveniently forgotten the sexual aspects and practices of Eunuchs. Had the budget not been too tighted, I believe he would have given one more'Woodstock'.
Ps. The title is from a poem uttered by a character in the film.
