Spoiler alert- the below post may give away the most important part of the movie "Ekk deewana tha". So if you haven't watched the movie and if you are planning to do so, please stop right here. Also, this is not a review of the movie.
Having watched "Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya" umpteen number of times for its simplicity in story-telling and also for its charm, i expected the same from its hindi counterpart "Ekk deewana tha". I was a tad disappointed and for a long time, i was wondering what went wrong(no, i am not talking about acting skills here!). The ending of the movie was revamped to "suit" the Hindi audience. The lovers end up together which is a happy thing of course..only thing the impact seemed much less. Through the course of 2 and 1/2 hours, you are made to believe that they are never going to get together with all the differences in their attitude, religion,families etc. and when they finally make it, you are left to wonder what was the movie about..if the girl really ends up going against the family in the end, she might have as well done it before(could have saved a lot of time and patience!). I begin to understand why the tamil one was more successful. Apart from the realistic approach in the movie, it definitely strikes a chord in the end. You feel for the protagonist when his relationship fails, you feel his pain, you are angry with the girl for leaving him nowhere, you wonder why he still loves her. Well, sometimes(only sometimes) unfulfilled love gets more credit(lack of a better word!) than the successful ones. Take for instance, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Had they gotten together in the end, would they still be remembered today and referred in every other love story or even closer home, Devdas , the epitome of break-ups, i am sure his story would have been a normal one otherwise(only fictional stories please!). With that inference in mind, i think "Ekk deewana tha" failed for me not even 'Aaromale' could save it.. call me a sadist if you want to :)
Having watched "Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya" umpteen number of times for its simplicity in story-telling and also for its charm, i expected the same from its hindi counterpart "Ekk deewana tha". I was a tad disappointed and for a long time, i was wondering what went wrong(no, i am not talking about acting skills here!). The ending of the movie was revamped to "suit" the Hindi audience. The lovers end up together which is a happy thing of course..only thing the impact seemed much less. Through the course of 2 and 1/2 hours, you are made to believe that they are never going to get together with all the differences in their attitude, religion,families etc. and when they finally make it, you are left to wonder what was the movie about..if the girl really ends up going against the family in the end, she might have as well done it before(could have saved a lot of time and patience!). I begin to understand why the tamil one was more successful. Apart from the realistic approach in the movie, it definitely strikes a chord in the end. You feel for the protagonist when his relationship fails, you feel his pain, you are angry with the girl for leaving him nowhere, you wonder why he still loves her. Well, sometimes(only sometimes) unfulfilled love gets more credit(lack of a better word!) than the successful ones. Take for instance, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Had they gotten together in the end, would they still be remembered today and referred in every other love story or even closer home, Devdas , the epitome of break-ups, i am sure his story would have been a normal one otherwise(only fictional stories please!). With that inference in mind, i think "Ekk deewana tha" failed for me not even 'Aaromale' could save it.. call me a sadist if you want to :)
