10 years for the magic of Jessie and Karthik and the world created by GVM and A R Rahman

When Ye Maya Chesave released on February 26, 2010, I’m in the first year my of bachelors, living like an amateur waiting for magical things to happen. I and my friends at the time were already disappointed that all that’s shown in Happy Days (a Telugu movie) is a big lie and Engineering life is not as dreamy as shown in that. So as disillusionment has happened but there are hopes somewhere inside like a trembling fire.

We went to watch this movie on its release day, I, mainly for watching Kundanapu Bomma song on the big screen and to compensate for the regret of not watching Surya s/o Krishnan in theatre. Audio released just 10 days back and as usual, as for a Rahman album, all songs didn’t appeal instantly except that one song. When the movie started in the church and BGM took over, the experience is all different.

The titles were rolling and that BGM itself gave pangs of emotion that this movie is going to stay with me forever for the humming of ‘Hoo Sonaa’ combined with gentle piano chords. And in the church scene, Jessie is revealed in the narrative of Karthik with his ever-lasting question ‘When there are so many girls in this world, why did I fall in love with Jessie?’. How many of us have had the same question by that time regarding our first love, we knew and it struck the heartstrings of many lovers across the state with that simple yet introspective question.

Then after Jessie (we don’t even know that her name is Samantha by the time) is shown in the wedding gown, the movie rolls back into Karthik’s flashback. I’m going by the screenplay in detail because the movie offered that much life that we are talking about even after ten years where the lead pair became a real-life couple. That’s the proof for the magic it created. And I also want to take the reader into that emotional state when he/she watched this movie for the first time.

So when Karthik is leading a wander-boy life, a dry and boring one, writing scripts and waiting for directorial chances, spending time with a friend, an angel enters his life, named Jessie. This is the moment the BGM made us take rebirth in the theatre when Karthik narrates in his voice ‘Jessie, nannu padesindhi aa maaya’ (Jessie, the magic that made me fall in love)

It’s her eyes, that even today, even the present Samantha can’t match that godly effect created by Jessie, partly due to her surgeries, she lost the charisma she had in Ye Maya Chesave. But the main point is you should again go back and listen to Jessie’s intro BGM which is the foundation for ‘Ee Hridayam song’. One blog post is not enough to cover the entire emotion it created but the baseline I wanted to establish is the combination of Music, Ambiance, Beauty, and Emotion which made Ye Maya Chesave an all time special movie. In Telugu version, the movie has a happy ending after ‘Manasaa’ song but it’s different in Tamil. Jessie and Karthik get separated and she marries someone of her father’s choice, heart-wrenching, but Tamil audience like that pain and tragedy (which is close to real life).

After 10 years, Gautam Vasudev Menon, Trisha, Simbu, and A R Rahman collaborated and made an extension for Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, a 12-minute short film where Jessie and Karthik talk as friends. A heart-touching conversation, almost a relief for those who love this movie and characters. Here’s the film.

So after you watched it, you might have understood what happened, they ended up good friends, well-wishers, and Karthik can’t love anyone else except Jessie because he is stuck with her in his mind. This is again appealing to the one-side lovers who love one girl and can’t forget her whatever may happen. Quite painful but some eternal love stories have that nature.

Hypothetically, If I make an extension to this film, it won’t have these compromises and the heroine saying we, I and my husband, had kids only after we loved each other. If a sensible girl and a reasonably decent boy stay together for a while, some compatibility getting built is natural, no one needs to force that. But the magic is the question. Will it have that unexplainable passion, those inexpressible romantic vibes, that language-less understanding, and many more? These are the things that make a great love story, not a few practical things that can be made up for convenience. So in my extension of Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, the story shown in this short film happens and then they meet in the US and the Anbil Avan song then happens. Jessie realizes that she has to live with Karthik to make justification to her life, divorces her husband, and marries Karthik finally and starts a new, extremely happy life.

So to finally reach the eternal love, as one has to experience many struggles, Jessie passes through a wrong marriage and Karthik spends a decade of loneliness but their unbridled magical love brings them together in the end. This is my first attempt to campaign for divorces for unhappy spouses.

If you have a Karthik or Jessie in your life but unfortunately are bound by a mediocre marriage, take the leap, take divorce, marry that one person, and lead a fulfilling life. Whatever someone might say, you only get to live once. It’s better to take this small risk than living a full life in compromise. No one will value your sacrifice and that kills you a lot.