Vanessa Joy Dacuan Lagan

Grade-11/RUBY
Chennai Express (Indian Movie)
Directed by: Rohit Shetty
Story Written by: K. Subash

There Is No Fear When It Comes To Love

Have you ever experience that someone is willing to take a risk and

fight for you? How do you feel afterwards? How do you feel when you realized that

you’re in love with the person that you meet accidentally? But, I do believe that

everything happens because it is intended and destined to happened. It is already

written at our palms. Sometimes, we don’t immediately feel that the person destined

for us is already at our side because we’re expecting something different may happen

for us in the near future. Sometimes, we don’t expect something to be happened but

unexpectedly it happens and we don’t give ourselves a chance to try and explore

something new for fear. But sometimes, we don’t expect also that our fear will turn into

courage to fight for what is right, on what will be better for us and we don’t expect that

fear will change into braveness. In some situations, we didn’t expect to get easily

attached to someone who always contradict what is our likes, notices every moves and

gestures that we’ve made and that attachment ay lead to a strong bond and love.

Simply because it is already destined and bond by strong connection and especially

love.
 Why am I talking about love, destiny, fear and braveness? Am I going

to write a novel or literary piece that its main theme is all about love? Of course not,

I’m privileged to watch a movie entitled Chennai Express which is directed by Rohit

Shetty and a story written by K. Subash. I didn’t have intention to intendedly watch this

movie at channel eighteen in Zee Sine because like what I’ve said earlier, everything is

destined to happen. The two main characters are Rahul Mithaiwala presented by Shah

Rukh Khan and Meenamma Azhagusundaram which is presented by Deepika

Padukone. It is a story that narrated by Shah Rukh Khan The story begins with Rahul.

Rahul Mithaiwala is an orphaned at the age of eight and raised by his grandparents

named Neetu, his grandmother while his grandfather’s name is Bhishambhar. They

living peacefully at Mumbai. His grandfather Bhishambhar had so many confectionery

shops. His grandfather died because of disappointment that his idol in cricket match

get dismissed on his 99th run. After his grandfather died, Rahul’s grandmother named

Neetu requested to him that she wants the ashes of her husband to be scattered and

divided into two parts which is one part will be in the Ganga and the other part will be

immerse in Rameswaram. She requests Rahul to take the ashes of his grandfather in

Rameswaram to scatter and disperse them. Despite of unwillingness, Rahul accepts the

request of her grandmother but he is eagerly wanted to attend in their Goa trip with

his best friends. Bobby, Baman, and Rahul plan to dispose the ashes at Goa but his

grandmother wants to see him off, forcing Rahul to enter and travel by train. He even
books a single to take a single ticket on the Chennai Express, planning to meet his

friends on his way in the Kalyan Junction station. Accidentally, when Rahul leave the

train, he definitely forgot the ashes of his grandfather inside the train because on his

excitement to meet his friends and have a trip to Goa. He almost misses the train when

he goes back to take the ashes. When Rahul tries to leave the train, he notices that a

young woman trying to go inside of the train and was determined to board in it. Rahul

immediately fell in love in the young woman’s beauty that’s why he helps her

voluntarily. As he helps the young woman, he notices again the four fat people running

eagerly to get board in the moving train. Unfortunately, the train leaves the station

before Rahul can get off. At first, Rahul became disappointed because he is still inside

the train and loses the chance to their Goa trip. He stays at the train and sits in front of

the young woman the he helped earlier. Rahul tries to flirt the young woman, who

starts communicating by singing parodies of Hindi film songs. Through singing in Hindi

language, the young woman explains that the four fat people that Rahul helps lately

were the people that chasing her and trying to kidnap her. Rahul lends her his mobile

phone so that she can contact her friends, but one of those fat people immediately

grab it and throw it from the train. Rahul became irritated but he remained calm

though annoyance is written in his face. He chose to go back on his own sit and chose

to never fight because the four fat people were carrying weapons such as guns and

knives. Rahul tries to tell the Travelling Ticket Examiner about the four people, but they
suddenly push the inspector into a river below the bridge. Rahul and the young woman

started again their conversation through singing in Hindi language and Rahul

discovered that the identities of four people behind them are cousins of the young

woman and the young woman’s real name is Meenalochi “Meenamma”

Azhagusundaram. She is hiding and trying to escape from a forced arrange marriage to

a ruffian named Tangaballi. Meenamma’s father, Durgeshwara “Durgesh”

Azhagusundaram, is a powerful leader of the mafia in Tamil Nadu. He is considered

also as one of those people who had a strong influence. Meenamma takes Rahul to

Durgesh and introduces Rahul as her lover. When Tangaballi, knew that his rival in

Meenamma is Rahul. Tangaballi challenges Rahul to duel and have a one on one fight.

Rahul unknowingly accepts that challenge of Tangaballi because of his lack of

knowledge towards Tamil language that used by Tangaballi when he challenged Rahul

to have a duel. On the night of the duel, Rahul escapes with the help of a local

policeman named Shamsher that assigned in that place, but he ends up on a ship with

Sri Lankan smugglers and terrorists. A gun battle ensues between the police force and

the terrorists. When the police officers investigated Rahul and take into custody, he

tells his story but the police officers misinterpreted it and he ends up back in Komban.

A place where Meenamma is living, together with his powerful father and his

constituents. A place where he is trying to leave because he eagerly wants to go back

at his best friends to pursue their Goa trip. Terrified and once again surrounded by
Durgesh’s sickle-wielding henchmen, Rahul pretends to take Meenamma hostage and

escape with her in Durgesh’s car, battling Durgesh’s men. When the car breaks down,

Rahul and Meenamma quarrel and part ways. Rahul, not knowing which way to go, he

decided to returns to Meenamma, who takes him to Vidhamba village. Meenamma

tells the villagers that they are married couple who needs protection and rest, to which

villagers agree. Meenamma then realizes that she has fallen in love with Rahul. When

Rahul plans to sneak away, she argues, not wanting to earn the villager’s distrust and

to be disappointed with them. When, Rahul leaves the village, after a several minutes

he came back in Tangaballi’s hand. Tangaballi catches Rahul as he tries to leave, but

the people living in that village help them to escape from them again. Meenamma

persuades Rahul to disperse his grandfather’s ashes and travels with him to

Rameswaram, where they complete the rites. On their way back, Rahul realizes that he

has fallen in love with Meenamma, and does not tell her where they are going. He

takes Meenamma back to Durgesh and tries Meenamma back to Durgesh and tries to

make him understand and honour Meenamma’s wish. He also tells Meenammas that

he loves her. Rahul tells Tangaballi and his goons that he is ready for the fight this

time. In the fight that follows, Rahul is severey injured but emerges victorious. Durgesh

and Tangaballi reform, accepting that love of a common man like Rahul is bigger than

their physical ability and political influence. Durgesh allows Rahul to marry Meenamma

and they live happily ever after.

 Generally, the title of the movie which is Chennai Express doesn’t gives

an idea to what it means and doesn’t portray on what will be the flow of the movie. At

first, I think that maybe this movie is all about the passengers of the train named

Chennai Express. If we analyze the flow of the story projected in the movie, the two

main characters learn to fight for their fate despite of Durgesh’s strong disagreement

and through their journey with each other, they found their own self through their

strong attachment that leads to a strong love build by the both of them. At first, they

didn’t realize that they are destined to each other but, when there are so many signs to

believe that came in their lives. It made them awaken that they are destined to meet

and be together eternally. The characters involve in the movie portrays well the role

that they were assigned to act especially the two main characters which is considered

as the main couple at the movie and the center of the story were on them. Rahul, who

present the character of a person who is a funny one, immature, does not really gave

an importance to his family and a happy go lucky one while Meenemma portrays the

character of a woman that really gives an importance to her dignity and morality. She is

a fearless lady to be describe and easy to get comfortable with, because of her

approachable and politeness side. Tangaballi which is played the role of being

Meenemma’s fiancé, played the character of being strong physically but so weak

emotionally. He portrays the character of being greedy, belittled others, underestimate

others and didn’t consider other’s feelings. Durgesh as the father of Meenemma,
played the role of being a powerful and have influence ruler but didn’t do properly his

duty and responsibility as a father to Meenemma. He is the one who manipulates

decision for Meenemma, he taken away the right of Meenemma to made a decision on

her own. He didn’t give Meenemma the freedom that she wants but he is strictly

controlling and using his power and position to rule over the life of his daughter,

Meenemma. The imbalanced societal power scene is also evident in the movie in the

form of the treatment of the characters based on their class. This concept takes place,

when the father of Meenemma chose Tangaballi to be the future husband of his

daughter because of his economic and social status and he thinks that if he chose

Tangaballi for his daughter, he will remain his power and influence to rule over their

community. When Durgesh saw Rahul introduced by Meenemma as her lover, he didn’t

accept him but he kept forcing Meenemma to Mary Tangaballi. The imbalance societal

power scene takes place also, when Durgesh doesn’t treat Rahul just like on how he

treated Tangaballi.

There were so many Indian culture is also portrayed in this movie. They

used to sing using Hindi language and dance to express their feelings and their

opinions. The movie even presented some rituals, marriage rituals to be specific that

literally performed by the two main characters. The Indian cultures that portrayed in

this movie really caught my interests and made me feel amused. But, there are some
cultures of India that presented in the movie that made me feel disappointed. It is their

tradition that the parents are forcing their children to marry someone even if they

didn’t know each other and it is called arrange marriage and their parents didn’t

consider the feelings and emotions that undertaken by women in India. The movie

presented that the freedom between men and women are not equally distributed.

Women does not have the right to made decisions on their own and they didn’t pay

attention to hear women’s voices and opinions. Another culture that illustrated in this

movie, when an Indian died, the family and close relatives used to burn the body of the

deceased person and putting it all together in a small jar. The ashes that collected were

used to disperse in a certain place that chosen by the family. Another culture of India

that presented in the movie is about performing a ritual for a married couple and this

culture takes place when Rahul carry Meenemma in newly wed position while hiking

the 300 stairs in order to go to the top to complete the ritual for a married couple. In

this scene, I feel the determination of Rahul to take Meenemma safely at the altar

through overcoming 300 stairs of a stairway, even though they are not truly married

because in that time they are just pretending as a married as couple to get accepted in

that village and to have some protection and care from the villagers while they were

hiding and escaping from Tangaballi and Meenemma’s father. When they already

reach the top of it, there is an old man that looks like a priest that cheerfully declared

that Meenema and Rahul are bond to each other eternally and they both have the
courage to take care each other from the rest of their lives. It is considered as an

emotional and dramatic scene because when the villagers gave the red powdered-like

marker, Rahul immediately accepted it, have a little touch on it and heartily mark the

forehead of Meenemma. For Indians, it is serves as the sign that a man accepts his

responsibility take care his woman and love her from the rest of his life. I’ve notice that

in this scene, Meenemma admits to herself that she is already fallen in love to Rahul

despite of there were so many times that they’d encountered misunderstandings.

In the scene that Meenemma was trying to enter in a moving train

then Rahul hold Meenemma’s hand to push and to get inside the train is considered as

a romantic scene. The shot is against the sun that makes the scene have more sparks

and a romantic one. The transitions in every scene were always in timing. I noticed that

the quality of camera that used in this movie were very simple that makes the movie

more realistic and convincing. The production team of the movie really chose the right

places and background to use to make the movie more convincing and attractive to

the audience and it perfectly fits to the different situations that taken shots in movie.

The shots that been taken from the movie clearly presented and describe the emotions

and the message that they want the audience to understand. They even use musical

scores that provides transitions between scenes and an emotional point of view for

scenes and the movie as a whole. The music used in the movie helps the audience to
identify a character as suspicious when there is nothing visible on the screen to

suggest such as characteristics. The clothes that used by the characters definitely

describes and made the audience to think and have a first impression about the

characters’ behavior throughout the whole movie. In this movie, they used two

languages. The Tamil language is the primary language used by the female lead

character and the Hindi language is the primary language of male lead character. But,

overall they used Hindi language because Meenemma knows how to speak in Hindi

and almost of the characters in the movie were assigned to used Hindi language. That’s

why Meenemma and Rahul understand each other. Meenemma adjusted in order to

have a clear communication and connection with Rahul and to made them understand

each other. It seems like one of the conflicts of the movie is the opposite languages

that used by the main characters and had been solved in the scene that Meenemma

adjusted and speak Hindi language just like Rahul.

One of the temperaments that reflects in the movie is braveness that

takes floor when Rahul didn’t hesitate to go back to Komban together with

Meenemma to face Meenemma’s father and fight for their love and for their freedom.

He didn’t hesitantly accept the challenge of a duel with Durgesh’s goons and

Tangaballi also. In the fight that follows, Rahul is severely injured. He got so many

wounds and deep bruises but still, he managed to remain standing. I feel the Rahul’s
unconditional love towards Meenemma to the point that he was willing to take a risk

just to get the permission of Meenemma’s father so that he can marry Meenemma and

spend his life with her. This scene was so emotional and I admit that I cried because I

really feel on how determined Rahul was. The way that Rahul still managed himself to

stand and see Meenemma despite of the body pains that he got from the duel but he

emerges victorious. Durgesh and Tangaballi reform, accepting that love of a common

man like Rahul is bigger than their physical ability and political influence. I feel so

amazed on Rahul’s braveness just because of his love for Meenemma. Eventually, I wish

someday that there is someone who will willing to take a risk for me just like Rahul’s

did for Meenemma. Despite of his fear from the first part of the movie, he overcome

his fear because of love. His statement that marked in my mind is, “Don’t

underestimate the ability of a simple person”.

It proves that love makes us strong. That love knows no regional or

language barriers and that with a strong heart, there is no limit to what the common

man can add. Through love, you can find yourself and it will make you to be brave and

strong enough to conquer and strive to all imperfections and problems. It doesn’t

matter if you came from the other sides of the world. Always escaping and hiding from

a problems and challenges is not a solution. The best way to overcome your fear to
face it bravely. Even though we tried to escape from the things that we didn’t want to

face, we can’t stop the destiny and fate that already written at our palms. The movie’s

peppered with humorous set pieces and colorful locales and songs. It has all the

ingredients that you’d expect from a big commercial masala film-big star cast, drama,

action, comedy, songs, the car chases, portrays Indian cultures and presents so many

characteristics played by the characters involve in the movie.