Most of our trips to our native during our childhood used to be short ones. Typically we would first visit our paternal grandparents and on the same day evening or on the next day morning we would start to our maternal grandparents home by bus. It was roughly about 45 minutes to 1 hour travel by bus. In the absence of mobile phones on those days, our arrival would be sweet surprise to our grandparents. Most of our trip to our native would be a 2 or 3 days trip max.
While I was doing(or completed???) my sixth standard we had an extended trip to our maternal grandparents home. I think it was during our annual holidays. One day while we were in our native, suddenly parents asked us to get ready. Normally we used to get ready only on the day we start from our native. But on that day we were not starting from our native. So, without knowing the reason we started getting ready. Our getting ready process starts with our grandfather boiling the water for us to take bath with the help of a make-shift three stone stove and a big Andaa (A big round vessel).
[Image : Make-shift three-stone stove to boil water]
We got ready and we(Parents and my 2 little sisters) came to the bus-stop. As usual our grandparents and our uncle came to the bus-stop to help us in getting the bus. We went by bus to the nearby town - Gobichettiapalayam (popularly known as Gobi).
[Image : Arch at the entrance of Gobi]
We got down in a bus-stop and parents took us to a nearby theater by walk. It was the 'Jeyamaruthi' theater in Gobi. I understood that we are in-fact going to a movie, a rare occasion during our native trip. It was for the matinee show and the theater was heavily crowded, but our Dad managed to get tickets for us in the balcony. The movie was 'Pudhu Vasantham'. This movie was unique in my life, since it was the first movie in which I understood the story from the beginning to the end and I enjoyed watching it. It also had good songs with fast dance sequences. "Ithu muthal muthala varum paattu...", "Gowrikku thirumanam..." where some of the songs I used to hum for a long time after that. I believe my sisters would have just stared at the screen, as they were too young to understand the story at that time.
[Image : Pudhu Vasantham]
The movie had a straight forward simple story. It was the story of 5 road side musicians who raise to fame, due to the intervention of a lady in their life. The heroine Sitara caught my special attention at times for which I could not understand the reason during those days. Now I can understand that it was a sign of growth and maturity :-). In the interval Appa got us samsa (Not samosa, samsa without the 'o' :-)...) and ice-cream. In those days, the best thing I like in every movie was the interval, when we will get pop-corn, samsa, ice-cream, murukku, something or the other.
[Image : Sitara]
Another one I enjoyed was the dance by Anandababu, whom was believed to be the best dancer during those days. As far as I can remember, his dance consisted of steps in which he frequently sits on the floor does some swinging movements at about 1 foot from the ground. But now with Prabhu Deva and others, Anadababu's moves have been reduced to laughing standards. Almost everyone who acted in that movie dis-appeared after sometime, except Murali.
Later(after 15 years or so) I came to know the movie was directed by a new entrant Vikraman, who made a mark with that movie and continued to create a lot of wonderful movies after that. Recently I came to know that even "Poove Unakkaga" was a Vikraman movie. All these days I was thinking that it was Vijay's movie :-). This Vikraman has a charming face, bubbling with a positive enthu which charges those who see him.
[Image : Vikraman]
I am hoping to see this movie again sometime soon and will again write about it soon.
- Pavala.
