K. Ramachandran and Janaki
Devi, two adolescents profoundly in love with each other, meet again after a
long span of 20 years. 96 (2018) is a Tamil romantic film of these two friends
who pass one evening together reliving their memories, reminiscing of the past
and trying to understand why things possibly didn’t work out for them. Set in
the adolescence and early youth of the protagonists, the first part of the film
talks about a suppressed love of Ram for Jaanu – a feeling and an un-expressed
desire left to bleed alone. Although the second part mostly covers the evening
spent together (the present), it also shows the past as potential but unfulfilled
moments of change in life for the two. We wonder if the two lovers will now
unite again against the flow of their respective lives set apart by their
choices in the past and the current circumstances. This is what the film tries
to find a solution to. However, owing to the expected solution the film points
to, it is unable to make an impact beyond the screening time.
Ram’s Inhibitions
- The film starts with Ram as an accomplished photographer, passionately
exploring different geographies – deserts, oceans, sea beaches, etc. and he
seems to be completely immersed in his photography - at times, living in the
wild and at times, training students in his art. After being distanced from his
childhood beloved, Ram has invested himself in photography and (t)his art seems
to have become a means of forgetting her. Photographer as a career choice goes
well with this character that we discover as extremely introvert and emotional
when it comes to his love, Jaanu, his school friend. The first part shows the
lighter moments of the film so as to underline the strong feelings between the
two. Completely enamoured, Ram misses Jaanu sorely and his world seems empty
when she is absent from school. Unlike stories where love is unrequited, here,
we have two adolescents who know they love each other. The thorny part of the
affair is Ram’s lack of will and his lack of courage to express his feelings. Ram’s
inhibitions vis-à-vis Jaanu form the crucial point and remain a constant
throughout the film. This is brought to light through two incidents, both repeated
in the second half. In the first incident, Jaanu is seen standing in front of
the class. She is a good singer and it appears that Jaanu is willing to sing a
song of Ram’s choice provided he communicates the same to her, which doesn’t
happen (in either of the parts). As the timid Ram doesn’t take the required initiative,
Jaanu then sings a song than the one in Ram’s mind. In yet another scene, Ram’s
timidity is exemplified when Jaanu touches him and unable to bear her proximity,
he falls unconscious. Even after twenty years, he is unable to master his
feelings for her and becomes breathless on Jaanu’s touch. Thus, Ram’s
inhibition vis-à-vis his beloved remains unchanged despite so many years.
The bold Jaanu
- Ram’s inhibition is cast in opposition to Jaanu’s overt expressions of love
and the two are completely different in terms of their handling of emotions. If
Ram’s inhibitions haunt him (and Jaanu too!) forever, Jaanu’s character is a
welcome mix of boldness and love for Ram. There was something good and
interesting about this character. Unlike the usual girl characters, Jaanu is
different – self conscious, affectionate, caring, bold but obscene. She wants
to acknowledge her love for Ram and is waiting for him to express his feelings.
The choice to sing a different song acts as a deliberate provocation at the hands
of Jaanu and in a way, mocks at Ram’s inhibitions. She is unperturbed by the
societal gaze and doesn’t shy away from looking at Ram, touching his chest or (in
the second half) from spending a complete evening alone with him in his house. Moreover,
she commits certain acts of transgression that I found worth taking note of.
The first act of
transgression happens over the bridge before the onset of vacations. As Jaanu
and Ram approach the bridge, Jaanu is supposed to continue along the road while
Ram has to cross the bridge to reach his house. Jaanu unexpectedly decides to
continue along with Ram and stops at midpoint of the bridge where she spills
ink over Ram’s shirt. Bridge as a unifying element of two sides opens the
possibility of creating new destinations for paths not destined to meet. This
is therefore an interesting scene given its location – the bridge used as a
symbol of crossing or transgression. Then, the act of spilling ink is symbolic of
Jaanu’s intent of doing an act otherwise reserved for boys. Such a sexual
transgression is welcome as it changes our ways of perception about acts deemed
‘masculine/feminine’. Some other transgressions, although not as strong, occur
in the second part of the film. For example: Jaanu is shown wearing Ram’s clothes,
something that symbolically helps her feel Ram intimately. She is keen to touch
Ram’s hand as shown in the scene where she deliberately puts her hand on gears
while Ram is in the driver’s seat or in the metro. All these incidents reveal
that Jaanu is ready to go beyond her set borders and reach out for Ram. She
anticipates the same from Ram but is kept waiting in the first part. And what
happens in the second constitutes the climax.
Realist or not?
a) After the film, some
of my friends (Balaji, Pushan) felt that the film’s climax was very realist in its
portrayal of Ram and Jaanu. Jaanu is still the same. She is bold, affectionate
towards her friends, a good singer, etc. Importantly, as a married woman now, she
bears the weight of the promise of love and fidelity towards her husband. As a
friend suggested, as a ‘good’ Indian wife, she is expected to follow our
traditions and maintain the sacrosanctity of marriage. Similarly, Ram has
barely changed. He has always been very emotional about Jaanu. A world with any
other than Jaanu is beyond him. An evening without electricity in Jaanu’s
company can make him ill at ease or just her touch can make him breathless. A
sexual friction with Jaanu hence remains unconceivable in his scheme of things.
Love (Jaanu) for Ram is ‘purity incarnated’ and any physical contact is akin to
breaching that trust of love. Given Ram’s sacrosanct notion of love and Jaanu’s
personal disposition, it is but logical and realist that the two lovers bid
goodbye without consensual sex and without any effort to change their life
paths. According to this point of view, the relationship remains as it was, in
fact; it becomes clearly an impossible relationship (all things remaining
constant). This point of view is indicated by the title of the film. At the
surface level, ‘96’ indicates the reunion of pass-out students of the year 1996.
However, at a deeper level, it represents an incomplete (sexual) union of Ram
and Jaanu. If 69 is a number laden with sexual connotations, 96 is its inverse
- the two characters need to be seen as two digits that will never walk along
the same path together, or even if they were to be together, it wouldn’t be a
fulfilling union, there will be something amiss. Incompleteness will be the
permanent characteristic of their relationship.
b) A few others (Deva,
Naveen) were of the opinion that the film wasn’t realist enough in its climax. The
argument was the two like each other’s company despite their circumstances.
They happily eat a meal together, take a metro or train in each other’s
company, spend one complete evening away from their friends gaze. Their
togetherness is genuine and reciprocal. Despite their strong feelings for each
other, how was it possible for them to abstain from a physical union? From 1996
to 2016, Tamil society and in general, the sections of the society the lovers come
from, have certainly changed. Especially with the characters growing old and
given their attraction for each other; it would be a huge disappointment to
witness a continuation of sexually barren relationship. Like the other climax,
a sexually gratified union seems an equally logical climax either to close the
relationship or to keep it going at a different level.
The two scenarios of climax
- as a) an impossible relationship and as b) an open ended but a sexually
gratified relationship – both have solid arguments in their respective favours and
each can claim to be true. While one could always ask what realism means, if it
can be compared and to what extent does the film’s climax goes closer to
‘real’, ‘more-real-than-the-other’s realism’ is a position both the sides can
have recourse to and it is therefore very difficult to side with one particular
climax. So, I propose to resolve this issue in the following way and my
judgement goes in favour of b). If there are multiple solutions provided by
realism and all being equally convincing, we need to resort to the role of Art
(cinéma) as a medium of change.
In many Indian films (Tamil
or otherwise) and in the typical Indian middle class cultural ethos, the
feminine becomes the seat of emotions and women/girls are shown to be shy,
decent, and modest. Women/girls are custodians of traditions, culture and are
therefore expected to be pure. Any stain to their purity or to their ‘pure’
bodies incurs wrath of the dominant sex (male) and leads to a disastrous world.
Our films have taught our girls to discipline themselves and have conditioned
them to behave/act as per accepted norms. Baring certain films daring to
portray scandalous and provocative characters, a considerable number of our
films have shown, time and again, the shyness, docility and tolerance of female
characters, whether it be serving their husbands/fathers/brothers or in their ‘good’
behaviours in school/college or in their suppressed sexual behaviours. The desperate
need for transgression and a sexual one at that hints at the skewed relations
between sexes and the transgression becomes an act of personal politics and
liberation. What we therefore need in Indian society are uninhibited female characters
like Jaanu willing to transgress. While being a reflection of our society,
cinema can create such real-life like characters. It can also imagine different
stories, different societies and pave a way for different trajectories,
alternative destinations for our future.
Just as much as we need more Jaanu in our society,
in this context, we also need emotional, lonely, male characters like Ram. He
has healthy relationship with his other female friends and his students. He
gets along well with the gateman of his school. He carefully keeps all
belongings associated with his love. However, let us also be aware that individuals
like Ram can be quite tricky at times. Ram’s character can fall in the trap of
being too puritanical that considers love in the form of biblical guilt. While
Ram’s loneliness in the film is welcome, I feel the continuous upholding of
love as a sacred/pure object could have undesirable consequences in our male
dominated society. A consequence of such passionate love for instance could be to
treat the object of his love as his sole property, an exclusive right. Unlike
Ram, Jaanu has been bold enough to cross certain barriers. Her part of
transgression is mostly commendable baring one – the physical union. Some may
argue that a complete union doesn’t necessarily always require a sexual union
and a platonic relationship can be as gratifying as any other. Moreover, a
physical union with Ram may perhaps be unimaginable realistically. However, such
an act could have suggested a creative end (or opening) of a complete, willed
transgression.
