Here's another glimpse into our India trip: a music video from the Tamil movie we saw--Vaaranam Aayiram. The song is "Yethi, Yethi, Yethi" and it features the best dance moves in the whole 4 hour movie. Watch it in high quality if you can.
You've probably heard of Bollywood. This is not a Bollywood movie, which would be filmed in Hindi, the language spoken in northern India. Since every state in India has its own language, each has its own separate movie industry. Tamil movies are made in Tamil Nadu, where Brent and Connie live. Like Bollywood movies, they are epically long, always crazy, and feature music videos complete with elaborate dance scenes embedded in the story. As you yourself saw.
Here's a plot synopsis of Vaaranam Aayiram. It's a love story, as they all are. But it is also the story of a father's love for his son and a son's love for his father. Movie begins. Father dies. Movie all in flashback. We see father falling in love with mother. Son falling in love with a woman. "Yethi, Yethi, Yethi" tells us all about how you have to change your style, like Michael Jackson and Karate Kid apparently. Woman moves to San Francisco for a masters degree. Son follows. She finally falls in love with him. She goes on internship in Oklahoma City, where she's killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. (Intermission involving spicy popcorn.) Son returns to India, brokenhearted. In the course of another music video, son becomes an alcoholic and a heroine addict. Father catches him shooting up. Cue redemptive tough love. Son goes on heroes quest to rescue a kidnapped child. (Weird.) There's a sword fight. (Super weird.) Son shaves his jerry curls and joins the Indian Airforce. Cue an hour-long recruitment video. Son's much younger sister's friend falls in love with son; pursues him. Unlike previous woman, she wears traditional Indian clothes and has no masters degree. He falls in love with her; they marry and have a child. Son leads troops on a Rambo-like commando raid against terrorists who kidnapped an American. (Holy crap this is weird.) Father dies. They scatter his ashes in the ocean. The end.
A new Tamil movie was coming out just after we left. Brent and Connie were going to go see it with Elaine. It starred the biggest Tamil movie star, Whatshisname, who is rumored to have learned like 200 new dance moves for the film. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm sorry we missed it.
