At first glance, the title ‘Chinna Chinna Aasai’ may come off as gimmicky given how it stars Madhoo as Leela, making the audience recall the song from Mani Ratnam’s Roja (1992) that made her a nationwide darling. But when you watch the film, set in near real-time during the course of a day in Banaras, you’ll realise there couldn’t have been a better title. What else do you call a film in which a 52-year-old widow from Thanjavur looks at her newfound companion Madhavan (Indrans) and politely asks him to take her to the famous lassi shop he was talking about earlier?
Theirs is a friendship that begins on the banks of the river Ganga on one of the many ghats that make the city special. When Leela gets separated from her touring group from Thanjavur after her handbag gets stolen, it’s the Good Samaritan in Madhavan who offers to help her find her way back.
They open up to each other like they’ve been waiting for months to speak, and there’s a liberty they allow each other that they’ve seldom allowed an outsider. This is broken down beautifully in the scene in which these two go to a saree shop to buy a Banarasi saree. She doesn’t appreciate that he takes the step forward to place jasmine on her hair. There’s a bit of awkwardness soon after, and you feel a certain distance cropping up. The very next moment, Leela demands that Madhavan say sorry to her. And when he does, the smile’s back on her face like a switch has been turned on again and they move along, like nothing ever happened.
It might seem like just another day for someone like Madhavan, but the day ends up being just as life-altering for both of them. But eventually, it’s a film that belongs to Leela for how much she’s allowed to just be on this day. If this were a movie about the Gen Z, the scene set in Madhavan’s apartment may have felt utterly generic. But the comfort with which the duo behaves feels so refreshing. Both Indrans and Madhoo are spectacular as this couple, and what adds to the film’s mood is the equally spectacular cinematography, painting Banaras in a manner in which the timelessness adds to their friendship. Written and directed by Varsha Vasudevan, Chinna Chinna Aasai is a reflection on how it’s always the smallest of aasai(s) that matter most when nothing else matters at all.
Released on June 19, ‘Chinna Chinna Aasai’ is now playing on Simply South.
