Two stories

There are times when you happen to hear beautiful, tragic stories and you simply fail to notice. We are just a part of creation. We are unable to contemplate by ourselves the supreme idea behind the whole exercise of creation.

One evening I was sitting in my favorite hangout, a juice shop near my home. It may not be the expensive place ideal for couples to hang out but the guy there is so dedicated with his work that the quality standards are really high. So I go there most of the days after office. Another aim of me going there is to read the evening newspapers to get an idea of what happened in my city when I was busy at office.

That is when this story caught my eye.

Sabarimala is a pilgrimage centre down here in Kerala. There is a season when the temple will be open and there is a throng of devotees from Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra and Tamil Nadu. Traffic will be heavy in these routes during these days. Special buses ferry passengers to and fro during this season. There are many historical and unhistorical temples lining this route. Devotees stop and seek the blessings on the way to Sabarimala.

It's on this route that the incident had happened. Kerala has got many people friendly and eco friendly laws that are never meant to be kept. Some of them are 'Do not smoke in public', 'Do not drink in public' and 'Do not spit in public'. Elephants are integral part of temples in Kerala. There are many households, temples and societies who keep elephants. It's a matter of prestige and sign of wealth for them. Owning an elephant is tough in terms of costs and most importantly it's tough to get a good mahout (known as pappaan in Malayalam). Since elephant is blessed with the intelligence of a human but cannot speak out, pappaan must be highly qualified, experienced and be close to the animal to understand its emotions. He must read when elephant is getting sick of the noisy processions and when he is not feeling well. A misinterpretation can cost many a lives.

Elephants and pappaans have been in the news in recent times for the wrong reasons. 'Elephant kills Pappaan'. 'Pappaan hurts the elephant'. Everything is because of the lack of mutual understanding between man and animal.

This is a story with a difference. After a temple procession pappaan stood smoking his beedi. (For those who don't know, beedi smoking is the ritual for unskilled labourers.) The elephant was standing nearby silently munching the food he was given as part of the festivities.

Policemen are the ones around who has the privilege to enjoy most number of bad days at the office. An interfering boss or a politician can piss him off. He may get punished for the wrongs some others did and others may get rewarded for some good deed he did.

Unfortunately there were a couple of pissed-off policemen in the vicinity. The cops called him over. A shiver passed through his spine. He put out his beedi as he went over to them.

'Don't you know that it is illegal to smoke in public?' He stood there silently. The policemen gave him the necessary medical treatment (typical police treatment- bending the patient down and planting heavy blows on the back). As if this wasn't enough our pappaan was taken to the police station and an unheard of case filed in his name.

But our policemen failed to saw the other guy standing and watching the whole episode- the elephant. He didn't like the incident a bit. Elephant raised a frightful cry as his pappaan was beaten and dragged by the policemen. May be he understood that something was wrong in the entire episode. Onlookers were frightened and ran for safety. If an elephant gets mad virtually nothing can possibly stop him from destruction and death. But the elephant wasn't mad. He went and stood in middle of the road. The entire traffic to Sabarimala got disrupted. Different mahouts came and tried to coax him with delicacies to move out from middle of the road. He didn't bother. Then efforts to frighten him by beating of drums and fire was tried. Still nothing big deal changed.

News spread like a wildfire that an elephant is fighting silently for the justice of his master. The superintendent of police came. He took stock of the situation. Of course, if it was a human who was in question diplomacy mixed with strong words could have solved the issue. But here SP can only be a spectator like others. He ordered the release of Pappaan and reinvestigation of the entire episode.

Anyways elephant ended his agitation on seeing his master.

I was thoroughly enjoying the story along with my juice when my eyes caught a guy whom I have seen at the gym. We exchanged smiles and got into the introduction part. We warmed up pretty soon to each other. I realized that he is pretty older than what I thought him to be. He was married with a kid (or two).

While we were exchanging details about our professions, personal lives, etc. he told me his story. The interval between his first and second child was pretty close. His wife was working in an IT firm. When she applied for the second maternity leave soon after the first, her employers were pissed off. They decided to squeeze the maximum out of her. So while pregnant, she was made to work long hours and always blamed for poor performance. Thanks to the extreme pressure she lost her baby. The company saved the cost of her going on leave.

An animal standing up for justice when other men failed to.

We had seasons in the sun

That week was a tough time at the office for me. It sucks when you do a slogging work knowing really well that you will never really get appreciated. The only good thing was I learned some Photoshop. I love the tool. Really high end stuff for a fresher.

In between two weeks of utter distress came a weekend I will cherish for many reasons.

Some nine guys who studied together for some 4 years came together at that city and spent some 2 days together, completely forgetting the heck of a life they are in. One of them was me.

As years go by reunions are getting more and more precious and a lot more nostalgic. When the time comes to say 'good byes' and 'see yous' we never know when the second part is going to happen. There is a silent cry in our hearts.

None of us are fully settled into our lives. The world seems to be more miserable than what we thought it would be. Everything is for sale- relationships, jobs, abilities. It's a bad, mad, sad world.

One among us got married. Very few of us are hitched. Many were ditched. In the end we turned out to be the same ol' gang enjoying the same old jokes.

It is difficult to plan for reunions. It is nearly impossible to get some 60 people together at the same place and at the same time. When you study together for 3 years it is not necessary that you develop the same mindset as the others. There are impenetrable gang of friends, politics, dislikes, dissensions and enmities. When you graduate you carry the same feelings buried within you. It takes someone with great patience and persistence to push people to come together.

Ours was not a reunion just a get together of friends who met during their journey of life at a college. They played, ate and joked together for three years and went apart to earn their livelihood. They learnt that memories are too precious to let it go wasted and so met again at the place that made them what they are.

The hero of the meeting was Vattu. It was because of him that entire exercise was happening. Vattu and his aunts has happily hosted us many a times before at his place, Palakkad. Palakkad is the most beautiful place down here in Kerala. You won't believe when I say there are innumerable trekking spots, waterfalls and not the least really beautiful girls. Unlike the metro-city bred ones these girls do not need heavy makeup or tight shirts or any props to make them look beautiful.

When I say his aunts played happy hosts, it is not that easy. Especially when you have a bunch of guys who get hungry all the time. The tough part is two of them are veggies. Unlike the other veggies they make no consolation in terms of food. For these two veggies a separate menu card has to be prepared.

For a change we decided to invite him over this time. We never expected he will go ahead and book the tickets straight away. When an e-mail came that he is going to be here on 6^th of November (Friday), we were caught out of blue. Vattu had moved to Chennai and was doing something related with IT. He befriended a cash rich NRI who was too eager to dispense with the extra cash she had. We guys used to boil with jealousy on his exploits. But sadly losers are always losers when it comes to girls. He found a greener pasture, dumped the NRI and went after her. As he started weaving his future plans with her, he learnt that her favorite dish was raw meat (literally). He claims he escaped with his life and balls intact (no guarantees on the second part).

Antony readily agreed to play the host for Vattu. That means his place is going to be the control centre for the entire operation. Antony stayed with his dad and he was on the lookout for someone to taste the dishes he expertly cooked. Vattu was expected to arrive with an empty stomach.

Kuruvi was the first one among us to escape from the clutches of IT. The famous folklore is that his former employers were more than happy to see him go and held a farewell party for the first time in the history of I-Flex. Needless to say the loss of Indian IT industry turned out to be gain of BEML. Out there he is expertly using up all the leaves he gets as a government employee. And when he is not drinking he is in Trivandrum.

Kuruvi has got a car here and more than willing to go for long drives. He didn't think twice when we told him that we are planning to meet. So the transportation plan was solved to some extent.

Another famous character in our gang is Kalam. Please don't think that he is a geek or studious. He is a genius but only uses his brain for purposes others would not dream of. The last thing Kalam wants to have is a job. So in order to occupy his time he enrolled for a computer course and went on and on until the computer centre informed him that there is nothing left to teach him. With a heavy heart he boarded the train to Bangalore for his next course. Today he has no idea of which course he is doing. There is a good chance that he might be doing his masters even though he is not aware of that.

In Bangalore his exploits became so famous that his room-mate started a blog http:///memisan.blogspot.com/ exclusively dedicated to him. His recent exploit happened a few weeks back. We had the great privilege to hear it directly from him. He was on a train to visit some cousin of his. Mistakes happen to genius but they turnaround them to a real genius idea. He learnt from a fellow passenger that the train doesn't stop at the place where his cousin stays but the next station, which is just a few kilometers away. Kalam didn't stop to think. He took out his baggage and jumped out of the moving train. If you are thinking how brilliant the idea was, wait till you hear the rest of the story. Kalam was suffering from pain all over. He went out and took an X-ray of his body. We ordinary mortals would have gone to a doctor. But he hated doctors with big syringes and knives. Kalam went out and Googled for the X-ray of a normal man. He compared his X-ray and Google X-ray and self diagnosed that he was quite okay and there was no need for a surgery or plaster. He just has a side effect that he can't raise his arm much. But geniuses have to make sacrifices for the human race.

Ashad switched jobs, switched locations and at last settled here in Trivandrum as ATM installing head. Something that hasn't changed about him is eating habits. If the costumes are changed he can easily be mistaken for a lady.

VR is another one who resigned from the great Infy only to return and make lives miserable for Trivandrum by digging the roads in the name of pipeline. The only difference that has come over him is the scraggily beard.

Jino was known as the 'Sir' during our college days because of the neatly ironed shirts he wore. We guys never wore a shirt expect for our campus interviews and never wore ironed ones and never ever tucked in. He rarely wore a T-shirt and always tucked in.

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Challenges seemed never ending. And that what made this outing beautiful.

A bachelor's party was planned on the Friday night. Lots of food, booze, movies, reminiscences and little sleep was on the menu. But heavens opened up the Friday night. Rest of the guys made it to the party but I couldn't.

The next day morning rain continued as a drizzle. We were supposed to start @ 10 in the morning. Braving the weather, a broken specs , two erratic guys and one still suffering from yesterday's hangover we started 3 hours after the schedule.

The next big challenge was the lunch. Jino systematic as always had been ready from morning, had his breakfast and lunch. After some arguments decision was made to stop at Attingal. We walked around the place looking out for a restaurant. Found one at 3 and ordered a heavy lunch. Wonder what the waiter would have thought about a bunch of guys walking in when they were about to clean up for the afternoon.

Anu had been waiting for us the whole day. He too was part of our class and his house was on the way to beach. He was doing his MBA and thankfully came down with a chickenpox two weeks before the trip. So he was there at his home and had recovered when we informed him about the plans. He was waiting with juice and cake from the morning . He kept the cake on table and to our surprise saw it emptied within seconds. Ashad who was suffering from yesterday's hang over made a remarkable recovery and finished the entire cake.

After picking all the shorts we could find from Anu's home we set out for the beach.

At last, the very last we reached the destination of our dreams. Varkala beach is really beautiful, white sand, surrounded by cliffs. It is not crowded and unlike Kovalam young tourists come there and locals don't bother much. We ran to the beach with the football. Before getting down we stripped ourselves to T-shirt and shorts. The smelly clothings were deposited in Kuruvi's car

It had started to drizzle. But that wouldn't stop us from running wild into the sands. The game started by showing off the skills. I haven't played football for years. Thanks to the 9-hr office jobs guys had developed pot bellies. As soon as the game started our yester year star striker Ashad went down and lay in the sand throughout the game. Game went on. Kuruvi had slimmed down and was playing beautifully. VR was our college football team member and not even the paunch could stop him from doing some stunning moves. Vattu was deadly. He is lean, fast and athletic. Kalam was playing with his PUMA shoes on while rest of us played barefooted. Since someone stole his branded shoes from his Bangalore apartment he even went to bed in the new ones.

The game went on in full swing when two foreigners came to watch us. They had the looks of good footballers and we invited them in. Xavi and Pettit were from Barcelona. They were athletically built and had no ounce of fat in their body. We were quite ashamed of ourselves when they covered the entire field and didn't seem in getting tired at all. Something that touched us were these guys introduced themselves as from Barcelona rather than Spain. They might have got quite surprised that we played football in somewhat Spanish way. Thankfully we put the Spaniards in different teams or else there would have been a complete rout,

When we got tired, we called for interval. The Spaniards seemed surprised. We talked with them and came to know their Catalan spirit when they spat on the ball with Madrid inscribed on it.

After the interval teams was reduced to 3 per side. Rest were too tired to get up. We played for good one and a half hour when the guards came and stopped us. There was a plan to hit the toddy shops but Kalam had to get back to home and he can be a nasty driver when he is in a hurry.

We got back to Kuruvi's car to change back. I was the first one to put my head in and boy it stank. Kuruvi was pissed off but what could he do except to open the windows and put on the fans. We dragged in the entire sand from the beach on to his car. He would have a handful of car washing to do the next day.

We reached home in the evening damn tired after some physical exertion after years. There were vague plans to have lunch together the next day. I had to go to office the next day.

But reaching the office I realized nothing worthwhile is going to happen there and so I silently walked out. Antony and Vattu was at Kalam's. Since Kalam forced us we had a (light) lunch from his home. And no one was hungry enough to go out for lunch again. Our topic was how much Kalam had changed since college. Kalam had been addicted to anime, manga etc. etc. By sheer stroke of coincidence he got over all that, wrote all his back papers. He is still allergic to jobs. But he is sure looking out for one.

There was a great story from college. Kalam was a lean guy with a slight stoop and due to lack of sleep during the night he slept throughout the classes. Unlike us all the teachers were thankful to him because he troubled none. Our college is the battleground of two gangs in the name of politics. The main leaders of these fights are in our class. Regularly some one's head gets broken. Someone gets beaten outside the college and there are revenge battles. So there is an air of uncertainty always. Teachers have no clue about how to control the situations.

Once all the teachers complained about our class. The Head Of Department summoned our parents. HOD knew he was in a precarious situation. If he stir things up situation could get worse. To 'everyone's surprise HOD caught Kalam pushed him to front and announced 'This is the ring leader behind all the gang fights'. Even the real culprits were surprised. They were ready with propaganda if they were blamed. Teacher's got busy trying to protect and the attention diverted from the real problem. What an idea Sirji.

Time came for Vattu's train. Antony had an idea about the dessert. We went to the nearby shop and brought three ice cream family packs. The shop keeper said 'I think two would be enough for you guys'. We said 'No uncle, you don't know our appetites. We don't think even this is going to be enough'. Wish we had listened to the wise. In the end two of us had to finish it off. Needless to say for two days my digestive systems worked overtime.

When Vattu set off from Antony's home the skies had begun to darken. Surprisingly Sunday morning was blessed with clear skies. As we saw him off at the train, I doubt if we felt a tug. We said we would meet like this soon again. But god knows when that is going to be.

As soon as Vattu's train started rain started. Another excuse for the rest of us to have a tea together, Life is beautiful.

I dedicate this to all my friends who made my years in SCT wonderful. Its that special feeling that me do this blog

Afterword: Special thanks to Sarah and _Anish A who did the review for me and encouraged me to go ahead. I was plagued with doubt on doing this and felt it might turn out to be a crap.

Lend me thy ear

Many a times we are not bothered about how much others will have to put up with you to keep you happy.

There are people who cannot stop themselves from talking. They go on and on about something which is of least interest to the listener.

A week back one of the unforgettable character from my history books walked back into my life. He studied with me in my school. Surprisingly years hadn't changed him a bit. He is a pretty nice guy and means no harm. But he has got no clue when he has to stop the chatter. He goes on and on about his college, work, students, old mates and things he has repeated million times before.

And he never speaks standing in front of you. He stands at the side and begins his non-stop express into one of the listener's ear. Due to his peculiar sound the listener literally developes a head ache which he will have to counter by turning around voluntarily so that the other ear will take the strain as well.

He is a pretty harmless, straight-forward guy. So on sighting him there develops a feel good phenomenon which later turns into 'Shit!! This guy hasn't changed a bit.'

It feels good to sit in the judge's seat and do the judgment. But there is someone special who has to endure some 30 minutes of my chatter almost every day. I don't know if she will read this post ever. If she does I would say I am not sorry and am going to bother you until you throw me out or go and sit with someone else. Something I would definitely say is

THANK YOU for bearing with my boring chatter.

Pazhassi Raja- A review

I am of the firm belief that Malayalam film is on the path to ascension. It may be a slight trickle now. But soon the change will turn to a drizzle. A promising bunch has already started claiming their rightful place in the food chain.
But before that the old guard has to find its way out. More importantly a new bunch of producers who love cinema has to come in instead of those who see film field as the place to wash their black money white.

Most of the reviews had claimed ‘Pazhassi Raja’ as a path breaker in Malayalam cinema. So on a drizzling Saturday morning I stood on the queue for the ticket. This movie was about to change the face of Malayalam cinema in the same way ‘Chemeen’ did years back.
Pazhassi Raja was released with much fanfare and controversies. It was claimed that the movie brought bad luck to the producer in terms of money and lives lost. Many crew members lost their lives during the period and so did his son. Later he demanded higher rates for tickets because of the huge production costs. The movie boasted expert technicians including Resul Pookutty (his first Malayalam movie).
I was late by 10 minutes. From the first moment I realized that movie was far away from what I expected. This is a strictly personal review.

In my view the negatives outweigh the positives. So positives first. The music was exceptionally good.
I feel proud that great Illava Raja was accepted with both the hands by Malayalam audience when Tamil seems to have forgotten him.

Another positive from the other side of border is Sharath Kumar (Kunkan, Pazhassi’s commander). The movie is tailor made for him even though the credits must have gone for the king rather than the commander. Blame the script.

Yet another positive from the Tamil side is Padmapriya who looked vicious. She slimmed down to perfect figure for a fighter. She showed her versatility to do roles other than the stereotype housewife. She looks fast and fearless while doing her part of the action. The reason I appreciate her is there was this Hindi movie ‘Gunaah’ with the gym fanatic Bips playing a police officer. There was a scene where she runs on a roof and it seemed that she is finding it tough to keep balance on the roof because of the heavily bouncing boobs. Women are cast in action sequences in Indian movies merely for the sake of sensuality . Padmapriya did a path breaking performance and it was genuine.

Cinematography was good in parts especially the shots in forest. The reflections on water, rays of sun falling through the trees are fantastic shots.

Coming to the negatives.
Producer is not just a financier. There was a loss of purpose throughout the movie. Pazhassi was a strategist and not an action hero. He devised the guerilla warfare against the British. But the movie was given (or attempt was made to give) a ‘Brave heart’ touch and it failed at that point. Mammooty was made a spectator while Sharath shone.

Stunts were okay but for the flying part. It is pretty indigestible to see fat guys doing a vertical take-off. Besides the flying motions were made too slow and thus looked funny.
In other words it should have been a script based movie. But MT’s script was sidelined. MT is a proven veteran and he delivers consistently. Even though Malayalam fell short in terms of finance compared to its South Indian counterparts, it could proudly say that it comes second to none when it comes to quality. Even now I believe script need not be sacrificed for the sake of big budget flicks.

The main players seem too old for the movie. When I saw Hariharan’s ‘Mayookham’ I thought he was about to retire from the industry. No matter how veteran you are the treatment has to match with the times. Hariharan failed to convert an ‘epic in paper’ to ‘epic in reality’.

Mamootty carved a niche for himself in the industry with his character, talent and hard work. He is incomparable in terms of his achievements. While watching the movie I wondered if anyone ever told him he is too old for the role. If not, I would say humbly ‘Move on’. It seemed that he is too tired to do this. The ineffective punch dialogues too didn’t help the cause. Throughout the movie Mammootty walks around in silk dresses holding the sword in a peculiar fashion.
The worst part was the climax fight. In all the period films there would be a war where the hero will die. The spirit of the whole movie lies there. In this case, I haven’t seen a more funny fight. It resembled mock wars we did as kids in school ground. Handful of people on both the fighting sides. A few guys standing around as audience to watch the fight. Interestingly British wanted him alive and sent people to take on Pazhassi in sword fight. But Pazhassi finished them one by one just by the swing of his sword. At last British got bored and shot him. There was a fiery speech in English by Mamootty before the fight. It’s supposed to boil your blood but you will surely fall out of your seat laughing.

An essential ingredient in war based films is action and thrills. It is mostly stimulated by the camera. The post production masala gives the finishing touches. But in our movie cinematography was so sore in shooting the war sequences. Camera work was ordinary, inexperienced and amateur. The jungle fights was so boring to extent that many a times it seemed that the entire jungle warfare was made to exhibit the tree climbing skills of Manoj K Jayan.

Dialogues and mannerisms looked as if the cast came out of a stage drama. I don’t understand why there is a tendency to paint the characters in period films as idealistic rather than realistic.
Social, religious and political scenarios were totally ignored in the film. I doubt if audience is able to connect with the environment. The entire films revolves around Pazhassi and his compatriots
And the unforgivable sin is introduction of an unwanted character- wife of the Asst. Collector. I doubt if she is there in the real life story. She appears as half lunatic. When she leaves him with the dialogue ‘I pray convey my best wishes to Pazhassi’, it seemed that director was too eager to get rid of her. Why was the need to fall into this familiar cliché, when you have no much substance for the character.

The Englishmen in the movie resembled a jobless lot from UK with their funny beards, sideburns. They could have done well as a bunch of clowns.

Other than Padmapriya the entire feminine characters are sidelined. The only women actors in the movie is Kaniha and Padmapriya, two aunts appear now and then (one of them with heavy lip gloss and lip liner), a few women fighters. Out of these Kaniha’s job is to cry and exhibit the beautiful figure.

Overall if I am asked to name the movie in a phrase it would be –‘Opportunity Lost’

Love- A different perspective

‘Blessed be the one who gets his wages on Friday, for he gets a weekend to burn his money.’

This weekend I found out that I was running low on my movie stock. So I went to the usual piracy centre.
After picking out the usual quota of classics, I moved to the Tamil section and found a DVD with cover picture of a hot lady finding it difficult to hide her assets (read cleavage). As usual good senses failed to prevail. I picked out the DVD.
When rest of the world went to bed I remained awake to satisfy my carnal pleasures.
The movie satisfied my desires and gave me a few good lessons on sexuality.

I couldn’t make out what was written in DVD cover, so could make out the title only when I started viewing the movie. It was the much controversial ‘Velu Prabhakarin Kadhal Kathai’ (which literally means Velu Prabhakar’s love story. Velu P is the name of the director). This movie got into the news for Censor Board’s reluctance to let it go through. The news had floated around that it had complete exhibition of nudism. Velu had to edit the movie to get the nod. Hmmm! How sad.

But guys before entering into the details let me tell you it’s a movie with some content and controversies are no public gimmicks.

The movie opens with a dedication to motherhood. A baby is shown being formed from the embryo and its delivery. Right from the scene where a baby is breast fed so openly, you will realize it’s a no holds barred movie.

First things first. Technically this is a real crap. Amateur acting, cinematography resembling a soft porn and poor dialogue presentation are the trademarks.

If you ask me to tell the reason for the singular reason for failure, I would say director didn’t have much clue on why he made the movie. Initially you think it’s his way to educate the common masses on sex. Then it seems the director wants to portray his difficulty in making this movie. Then it is about evils of caste, inability to accept lust and love. Then in the end you feel it’s a semi autobiography.

He could have made a sensous classic like Kamasutra or a ‘Rathinirvedam’(Malayalam). At times he goes on rambling about his difficulties in making the film, the next moment about casteism, the next moment about lust inspired love.

Through out the movie director appears on the screen delivering his sermons. Films are meant to give a message whether good or bad through characterization. Director couldn’t help but show his utter lack of creativity.

The film opens with a crowd chasing a young guy and beating the hell out of him for peeping in when a woman is changing her dress. Director makes his grand entry and lectures the crowd of this neo morality.

Relevant parts of the sermon:

‘You accuse him of perversions. But in act he is one among us. We all have our own perversions. But this guy gave into a moment of weakness.
Why does people like him have to succumb to these circumstances. Because he has a sexual need suppressed in him. We do not find women doing these sort of things because right from their childhood they see the body of men in various forms of undress.
Allow boys to grow up in a similar way so they find that women’s body is also natural’

You may find this a bit amusing, but I found it true to an extent. If you put in front of me the same woman in two forms- one perfectly naked and other barely covered up I will pick the second one. It is because we go after something that is prohibhited to us. In the same way Eve went out for the fruit prohibited to her.

There is another good one when he is accused in the court by the opposite lawyer for making a film depicting Indian women as sexual objects while culturally they are considered as goddesses. To this Velu remarks ‘Please don’t say that we consider women as goddesses. Even before ascending to the post of President of India the woman has to touch her husband’s feet. We can at least consider women as humans’

Coming back to the movie, people standing on higher moral grounds can call it a soft porn. I am a bit immoral. So I am not going to judge. But there are many instances when director fell below the standards. As mentioned director was not sure about what to do.
He tried to touch upon everything and in the end ended up doing a bit too amateur work.

There are three heroines in the movie based on whom the entire plot turns. The story happens in a small village torn apart by caste differences.
As you suspected hero hails from the upper strata and the lady no.1 from the lower one. They fall in love with each other. The guy acts without much pretensions and hence does a decent job. The girl is also good enough in the acting department.
The only good portion in the film is the relation between the two. She tries to hide his love for him which burst out at last, resulting in a hot dance number. In fact it is one of the rarest occasions where the heroine appears totally nude in a song. The song is sensuous. The censor board tried to label the movie as ‘XX’, but since the director raised the trump card about sexual freedom the board settled for an ‘A’.
The boy and girl decide that it is not possible to get married in these difficult situations and decides to take the easy way out- suicide (after some intimate sex). The director appears again under mysterious circumstances and lectures to them on love and courage. The couple agrees to fight it out.
Sadly the narrow minded villians who finds about the relation beheads the girl. The guy out of blind rage beats his father to death. Typical to modern Tamil Cinema this scene is shown in all gory violence. May be, director wanted to say that when love is denied to someone he turns a maniac.

As for the second heroine there is no connection with the caste. She is just a hot hot village maiden who goes to work in a teacher’s house. The teacher is single and ready to get hitched. The poor guy couldn’t keep his eyes off the ample bossoms when the pallu drops off, and so couldn’t I.
Mind you the lady is a real good character who was cheated by the man she loved. She was labeled as a prostitute by the village. But she worked hard to feed her girl through honest means.
A peculiar mixture of love and lust is shown. The guy is concerned about her well being too. She asks her to marry him and the guy is shown as pretty serious about it.
I haven’t seen many Indian directors portray lust as a positive quality. So may be this feature of director trying to draw the similarity between the two and his philosophy of lust coming out of love and vice versa is pretty interesting.
But sadly the guy expresses his inability to marry her after having plenty of sex sessions preceded by a rape. The woman spits on him which he accepts meekly. Regarding the rape scene, I haven’t seen such a kind in a long time. It used to be the regular feature in Malayalam films of 80’s.
If the director had treated the story with little more creativity and sensibility the treatment would have been different and hence a new dimension could have been shown.

The director completely loses the plot when he comes to the third lady. She is a beautiful one married to a poor lower caste. She wants a good life and develops an illegal relation with a high caste elder who is the father of the boy mentioned above. He enjoys his sessions with her in spite of his tough stands on caste in public. And as usual the husband finds out about this at last.
The only positive out of this is the hypocrisy shown by the society elders when it comes to their sexual pleasure and the ample bosoms of the luxury searching heroine.

There are innumerable movies which can be dubbed as opportunities lost. The film maker gives into the commercial success sacrificing the art and message.
There was a school of thought in psychology that said sex is the emotion that motivated men to live.
The film caters to the average tamil staple of violence and cleavages.

So to sum up I would say it is a bit above a porn movie. In the end it would give you some sexual fulfillment and some message to carry to bed.