A.M Ratnam's done it.......he's successfully managed to expose me to a myriad emotions, successfully manipulate them and leave me utterly unsettled after the end of this 3 hour flick.
'7/G Brindavan Colony' aint your typical love story. Our hero aint the dreamboat of regular candy-floss and saccharine sweet settings. He is more in the genre of Quasimodo, pining for the woman that never could be his; with the underpinnings of unrequited love written all over.
The object of his affection, a stunning and totally convincing Sonia Agarwal is Ms. Goody Charms who can feel nothing but revulsion for the oddball of our hero, Ravi,who stays in the same housing colony. The ruffian grossly misunderstood and ostracised by the colony he stays in, our hero has learnt to fight failure with indifference and humiliation with aggression. His dad has given up on him, and the only loyalty he feels is for his wayward gaggle of friends. The obvious happens (to get the screenplay going!) and he falls for Sonia, who is disgusted by his antics and rebuffs him all along. Well, how he manages to get the heroine to like his sorry ass is what the movie about largely.
Love apparently can move mountains; it apparently prods our hero to trim his scraggly beard at the latter end of the movie! He does it all for her....turns a new leaf, gives up his ruffian ways, manages to get a job, make peace with his father, get a life...all for the bimbette who resides in 7/G, and she finally responds. But fate and a scriptwriter decide otherwise.
Turns out the girl is from another community which aint gonna let this have a happy ending. Her parents immediately shift base when they get whiff of the affair and start making preparations for her marriage with someone else.
They elope and stop at a hotel for the night. In what could truly be a pathbreaking moment in Indian cinema, Sonia and Ravi engage in a night of unbridled premarital passion. Well, that shouldnt be the pathbreaking moment, but rather the potrayal of the heroine. The traditionalists would be squirming with this potrayal of our 'indian' heroine. This one does not believe in fighting till the end for her love. Caught between her parents (Dad's got a tollywood heart, which has an attack every 2 reels) and the one man who could make her truly happy, she tries for a compromise. Not the ideal one perhaps, but maybe a more realistic one.
Turns out she plans the whole thing before hand including the encounter. It apparently is her way of showing her love, and the next day bids farewell to our hero. Ouch!!
The movie then ends with a very surprising and disturbing twist.
It just could have been another routine movie; but the taut screenplay, good songs and great acting makes for some real good viewing. There are a few hiccups in useless fight sequences though.
Our hero Ravi Shankar should be inducted into the great hall of fame of "L". He is one of the rare breed of actors who look convincing only in playing the loser. He joins my list of alltime filmi L's at the top with Tushaar Kapoor and Chandrachur Singh for company.
Sonia is simply superb.
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