Arya — The Glory Of Unconditional & Unrequited Love

The norm of the Telugu cinema is to show a plot of love beneath the main plot, no matter what the genre is, but it becomes the central plot in case of a love story. It could be either because the directors revel in the sell-off value of the universal emotion or because they want to tell a different story about the emotion. Sukumar’s Arya belongs to the latter. Sukumar turned director with Arya in 2004 and came up with a compelling love story that is novel and refreshing in many aspects.

Arya is on the exterior a story of a guy who falls in love with a girl at first sight but what sets it apart is the theme and characterization of the protagonist. Sukumar perhaps wanted to tell a conventional tale of love through a unconventional story telling.

The best parts of the movie are the intros of male and female leads. The story starts with a scene where Geetha (Anu Mehta) is on a college trip to Kanyakumari. She is seen scampering away like a child, before sea tides, perhaps metaphorically indicating that she is reachable but not easily gettable.

Arya is being introduced to us rescuing a pup from a septic tank. This not just satisfies Sukumar’s quirk but also conveys to us the characterization of Arya. He is not reluctant to jump into the filth to save a life. This tells about his unconditional love. This is one of the best characterization intros I have seen in Telugu cinema.

At the beginning of the movie, the conversation between Jogi brothers brushing the love story of Ajay and Geetha off as yet another routine love story c is a back-handed insult for the existing story and a self-referential compliment about the novelty of the upcoming love story Unlike many love stories, where the protagonist proposes his love at the end or when the relationship blossoms, Arya does it at the beginning of the movie, the moment he sees her, which indicates his expressive nature.

The relationship trajectory starts with the female lead' despising him to empathizing with him to liking him to finally loving him. Sukumar has infused his sensibilities, eccentricities, idiosyncrasies into the character design of Arya and the narration making it engaging & lively, although we know how it is going to end given the tone of the story.

There are many scenes in the movie where Sukumar’s logic, sensibility, and sagacity are showcased. Some of the moments in the movie are:

Arya is quirky and unpredictable but isalso emotional and big-hearted. In a conversation with Geetha, Arya urges just to feel his love and nothing else. This theme is a detour from the rest of the love themes in the Telugu cinema.

In the beginning, he seems to be a fun-loving, easy-going chap and convinces the audience to believe so. Only when he is provoked by his college mates, his aggressive nature is revealed. But , given his hidden aggressiveness, he chooses not to fight Ajay for subduing Geetha because Geetha loves Ajay. He does not even mind being beaten up by him as the scars left are cheridhable memories.

Allu Arjun has undergone a drastic makeover for the role. He groomed himself for the uber-cool urban youth, after creating a distasteful first impression and embracing criticism for his first movie. This movie was a litmus test to prove for Allu Arjun, as the audience are too quick to write off someone as incompetent and don't give many chances for someone to show off their acting mettle.

Rathnavelu’s visuals are a breath of fresh air to the vibrant love story. In his words, he played with colors to make an impact. He used blue color for the subdued Geetha’s character and used energetic colors for Arya’s character and dark colors for Ajay’s character. He ensured that the movie looked pleasant to the eyes, so he has used soft-lighting to achieve that.

DSP’s scintillating music is the spine of the movie. The songs are upbeat, soulful and the BGM immerses into its thematic world.

As Sukumar explains to a question ‘When the character just urges the other party to feel his love, why do you have to unite them at the end? Is it necessary?’ to which Sukumar retorts ‘ You just wish for pass marks in an exam, but won't you feel happy if you get a distinction’?

Arya means pure and precious, Geetanjali means a collection of poetry. Together they make a precious collection of poetry.