Surya in Aaru
The picture above is a screenshot from the Tamil film Aaru, starring Suriya. In this scene Suriya’s character Aaru is at a Vinayaka (also known as Ganesh) temple, taking a ritual bath.
I started watching this film yesterday – which was my birthday – so when the subtitles were a few seconds out of sync in the first few scenes this gave me a really good, delighted laugh :)
It also made me think of Indian street stalls, the kind where they sell postcards, stickers, posters etc. They always have an interesting and colourful variety of pictures on display, and you’ll find that paintings of deities and photos of movie stars (“heroes”) are often sitting next to each other. This was one of the first signs that I noticed during my first visit to India some years ago, when I was only beginning to explore Indian cinema; and it’s one of the things that quickly made me realise just how deeply revered and respected movie stars are among Indian people, and how incredibly important cinema is as an invaluable part of Indian culture.
Quietly breathing through the bittersweetness of Shiva's tough love; discovering the art of becoming empty, disentangled, being undone... ॐ
ooh!! dharma!! beginning good ... middle good... end good...
