Directed by Varsha Vasudev, Chinna Chinna Aasai centers on a character who was denied happiness or even failed to realize she was being denied several things for much of her life. There is a sort of freshness in seeing such a character at the center of a drama. But the movie is taking a huge risk by making us feel for this character by framing it as a one-night story. From her past trauma to present happiness and a possible romantic equation, the film tries to squeeze in too many things in a short span of time, and at times, it becomes too wordy. With some tracks landing smoothly and others landing a bit too preachy, Varsha Vasudev’s Chinna Chinna Aasai is a mixed bag that needed refinements on a writing level.
Leela, a woman from Tanjavur, has arrived at Varanasi, and she gets lost from her tour group. Madhavan, a teacher from Kerala who visits Varanasi frequently to see his daughter, saw a distressed Leela and offered to help her. What we see in the movie are the moments between these two strangers over the course of one day in Varanasi.
Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise actually has a very similar structure. Two strangers meet, and they sort of talk and talk, visiting places, and a sort of intimacy organically develops between them. In the early parts of Chinna Chinna Aasai, there is a scene where Madhavan Mash offers tea to Leela, she rejects it, and Madhavan swiftly takes her glass of tea without making any fuss about it. That was the first moment of laughter in the movie, and it sort of gave me hope that the conversational bits would have such a subtle sense of humor. Unfortunately, the screenwriting is making the characters stiffer as the movie progresses. The beauty of movies like 96 or Meiyazhagan is the fact that we read the characters from whatever hints the screenplay gave us. Somewhere, Chinna Chinna Aasai is not giving us that space to understand the characters in our own ways.
As a director, Varsha Vasudev has given respect to silences, and the visuals actually help the movie to be engaging even in those scenes that are heavily conversational. The structure of Leela’s story in this movie has that blend of melancholy and hope. But as I said, the developments are too fast. The momentary separation between Madhavan and Leela at the interval point is a huge deal for this movie, as it becomes a talking point for Madhavan’s daughter. But when we watch the movie, it never comes across as a hefty moment of regret. The evolution of the dynamic between the two is happening a bit too fast, and somewhere, I felt they could have emphasized the understanding part in that equation more than romance.
The dialogue writing of Hindi portions is too much in that Government ad kind of zone. And there are moments like the scene between Leela and the character played by Jaffer Sadiq, where Leela is explaining her mental state, and I thought it should have been something the audience read rather than the character explaining too obviously. Govind Vasantha’s signature orchestration style that uses flute and violin matches the movie’s tempo. The placement of a certain misdirection towards the end of the movie was designed in a very impressive manner.
Indrans, with his sweet charm, is a great choice to play the part of Madhavan Mash. In those sporadic moments of humor, his performance really lights up the movie. But the rigidity of the dialogues, especially the Hindi ones, at times takes away the believability from his performance. Madhoo Shah as Leela was convincing in portraying the insecurities of her character. As I said, the movie wants to do so many things and develop a chemistry between them in a short span of time, and because of that, the speed with which these characters evolve at times becomes less convincing. I felt the reason why Varsha added the one-scene character played by Vishnu Agasthya was to speed up the process of this duo dealing and seeing the world together. But it isn’t fully achieving its purpose. With very organic dialogue delivery, Aparna Balamurali helps the film, even though that song was pretty much a music label’s demand. The market-widening inclusion of Thambi Ramaiah was a burden to the film. Jaffer Sadiq was fine in his role.
Using the backdrop of a place like Varanasi, which sort of changes for you depending on your perspective, Varsha Vasudev intends to make a story about hope and understanding. But somewhere, a teenage love story like cheesiness is kicking in, and that sort of dilutes the heftiness a movie like this should have. Chinna Chinna Aasai is a character drama with an interesting setting, but it needed a slightly more nuanced writing and execution.
