Varumaiyin Niram Sigappu epitomized the late 70s and early 80s of semi-socialist India. We grew up in hard times - with the spectre of unemployment and poverty always in the background.
My mother's premonitions like.."you will get nowhere in life if you don't study well" used to used to bring forth images from movies likes these to mind.
"Step cut", "bell-bottom wearing" graduate men carrying files, looking for a job was our worst nightmare.
So did we grow up into the world we so feared ?. NO !
Not only did we leave behind the bell-bottoms and step cut, but along with it the misery of the mediocre life we tried so hard to get on top of.
So what's changed ?
Visu doesn't make movies like "Samsaaram Athu Minsaaram" anymore, not because he does not want to, it's just that the theme is irrelevant today.
The tense relationships between brothers in a joint family and tales of selfishness and sacrifice are all gone. Joint families are rare these days.
Those days, owning a car, and having an AC jutting out of your bedroom window, were signs that you have "made it in life". These don't mean a thing today.
Flying was a privilege those days, reserved for "the few".Today, you see flights queueing up on the tarmac for take off. I've even seen some fellow passengers complain about the occasional 30 minutes delay, often tempting me to say "buddy, ask your dad, he probably took 36 hours to reach Delhi from Chennai and endured delays of several hours".
Those days, the roads used to look deserted at 8:30 PM on Fridays. People were home to watch the 6 to 7 songs our Doordarshan played in the name of "Oliyum Oliyum". Some even took the pain to write to "Ediroli" complaining about the old songs that were played the previous week. The host was always polite promising new songs the subsequent week. Now my bluray player has a youtube app, I can watch millions of songs of my choice.
Doordarsan's National program. The cultural invasion planned by Delhi, to ensure everyone tries to learn Hindi. Sorry Delhi, these are meaning less today.
Vacations those days meant, going to your grandparents or aunts place for a get-together. Today, people prefer to go to Europe or at least a plush Holiday resort inside India.
OK. The decade of high GDP growth in India has made us wealthier.
But are we happier ?
I don't know. I think we were as happy doing the old things.
