A milk-selling teenager, Annamalai, is walking calmly on the road. A car coming besides him splashes mud on him and goes past him. He gets angry and throws a stone at the car. A fight unfolds between this boy and the rich kid that travels on the car. In a sweet twist, they go on to become friends from there and there is a lot of drama around their egos that arise because of the financial barrier that separates them. Once the best friends would become arch-rivals and Annamlai would take the challenge of raising himself above the status of his friend to prove a point that money shouldn’t interfere in pure relationships. Him being the protagonist would go on to achieve unprecedented heights teaching his friend great lessons, and inspiring millions of Tamils with the journey. A true rags-to-riches story.
On the other rags-to-riches story, we have Chinraasu, A Perennial loser. He goes to school, he fails. He does something to inspire his father and he fails even more miserably. He has a ray of hope that his love with his girl would turn his life round. But that becomes the biggest of all failures when she leaves him stating he is just unfit for anything. Chinraasu loses his heart. He convinces himself that he is a loser and starts accepting the way life is. Except, he finds a new love who instils belief in him and boy, Chinraasu would work out of his skin and with this new lady luck (literally and figuratively) he would go on to become a successful business phenomena himself and would gain more on more laurels from his family that originally abandons him for his earlier misdeeds.
Annamalai is the protagonist of the movie “Annamalai” released in 1992 and “Chinraasu” is the lead character of the movie “Suryavamsam” released in 1997. In a sense both are true reflection of the state of the youth, or society or even our country for that matter in those years. I am reminded of “Varumaiyin Niram Sigappu” another gem in Tamil cinema which was released in 1980. The hero “Rangan” (One of Kamalhaasan’s memorable roles) could never become an Annamalai or Chinrasu. The times he lived in was not suitable to explore his skills. You can also argue that Rangan was impractical and he should have learned to create his own ways of becoming successful. But in theory his opportunities were limited. Let’s stick to that.
The booming economy of 90s aided by globalisation unlocked the opportunities for Annamalai and Chinraasu. And to dream of such success is a story of every household. Having personally seen such success stories, I am never short of inspirations around me. But to seem them in movie, with all the drama and presentation, it was surreal. I often have this discussion with my father what is success. It’s very bad that most often the financial success is what people think success is. But it is not a bad yardstick either. One thing I can vouch for sure, once you take the financial insecurities out of the equation, the world you could explore becomes even larger. It’s unfortunate that many that work their hell out don’t get out of this shackle and end up being termed as losers. You may call it a luck. Well, it could be!
Coming back to our heroes, Yes, they were fantasies. But they taught a lesson of values. They never took any shortcuts. Annamalai is reluctant to get money from politician as a capital investment and only after convincing that he would repay from his business returns he agrees to borrow. So is Chinaraasu when his peers come up with a strategy for his transport business to allure local travellers with a female conductor. Chinraasu makes his point clear that it is a cultural violation and stops it straight away also incorporates innovative strategies to stand out in his business. In a stark contrast, The Mangathas, Pokkiries, Sullans and Rajini murugans go on to any extreme to compromise all their values to gain something in life which is a paradigm shift to their predecessors. This is wrong and I call them social evils.
Get back to the track. The most convincing aspect of Annamalai and Chinraasu is how they handle success. They remain the same as they were earlier. Annamalai is quick to embrace and support his friend when he loses all his assets and offers to save his family that is sinking in debt. So does Chinraasu when he offers a job for his ex lover’s spouse in his company. Man, the choice of words is a stir of emotions. Chinrassu remains unscathed. Not emotional with his old love. Gently says, if your husband doesn’t have any prestige issues in working with me, I don’t have any concerns offering this job. Funnily though, Chinraasu’s wife (A district collector herself, A real cliché!) takes a real dig at her. Could have avoided, but we all need that kick, ain’t we?
For a reason, movies are representation of the state of the society we live in. Annamalai and Chinraasu are true reflection of what those 80’s and 90’s kids were born and brought up with. We longed for success. We believed hard work would mean success. We believed values are something you can never compromise on. That defined us and that, dear boys and girls, is a copybook definition.
