MONALISA – AN UNVARNISHED PAINTING

Short Film plays a quintessential role in the daily life of an ordinary human being. It is an emotional tool that people can become part of as it not only forges movements but breaks barriers and builds bonds also.  Short Film as a multi dimensional medium, with great potential to inform, educate, define, expose and transform social realities has extensive power to play with a man’s psychology. Being the cultural artifact of human life, it has carved a niche of its own by depicting the eternal verities which are universal in nature. It has become the rich heritage of man and we see the recordation of the heart- beats of the entire human race in celluloid form. Sometimes it takes a new environment; sometimes it takes a piece of literature or a short film to propel people to ponder over more deeply about things of real flesh and blood.  Everybody including a layman goes eloquent on the topic ‘love’ as ‘loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life’. But when it comes to ‘unrequited love’, it really exemplifies the words of the renowned metaphysical poet Abraham Cowley

A mighty pain to love it is,
And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain. 

Here comes an unforeseen short film Monalisa weaving the patterns of an unrequited love. The creative output edited, written and directed by Sreedev T S Nair from Trivandrum city unfurls the infinite curse of a lonely heart. If music is the food of love, we will have a tendency to play on for long in abundance. It may sicken our appetite and so we travel to the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns. The very short film by this budding director underlines the certitude that

Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest:
Love, hopeless love, my ardent soul encumbers:
Love, nightmare-like, lies heavy on my chest,
And weaves itself into my midnight slumbers!

Let’s have a glimpse of Sreedev’s Monalisa- a combo delight of jollity and adversity that transcends all mortal faces and phases of life just like the portrayal of Monalisa made immortal by Leonardo da vinci, the Italian Renaissance figure par excellence.

Love is heaven but it can hurt you like hell. Still, we must never lose sight of what we cannot see. Sometimes absence is required to feel a person’s presence profoundly and the heroine Sruthi epitomizes this. Her love (unknown love) is like a sinking ship and she senses it only when the waning light began painting patterns in her room. Her inner landscape is in pursuit of that portrait which was found lying with the dead body. The picture with smiling face as well as eyes was paramount for artist Vivek than his own entity. The artistic bend of Vivek’s inner imagination rendered clarity to the lines of his creative pencil which in reality turned out to be the lucid depiction of Sruthi’s sparkling eyes. Being in love with someone who doesn't even know you exist is not the worst thing in the world. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Almost like passing in a term paper that you know sucked, but having that period of time where you haven't gotten your grade back yet -- that kind of exhale where you haven't been rejected, although you pretty much know how it's going to turn out. Vivek becomes a day in her dark night. Sruthi yearns for an expression of love and in this arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing. Here the melancholy of Vivek’s demise becomes the object of desire for Sruthi.  Everything doesn’t need to be said and Vivek expressed his feelings of sparkling words via his lines of poetry and painting.  The lyrics endowed in fertile imagination and great clarity of vision acts as a solace to any loving heart that is hurt. Sruthi has emerged triumphant in finding the heart and soul of Vivek albeit they are in different worlds, geographically different and distant. Now she feels ‘more than ever seems it rich to die’as she has amalgamated herself into his soul. This ecstasy which his soul is capable of pouring forth ceases all her pain of unrequited love.

The short film Monalisa destroys the pre-conceived notions of mere candle light and popcorn love. Sreedev has successfully deconstructed the very semantics of usual romance in his unusual way thereby glorifying the sanctity of Platonic love in an ‘invisible presence’. It is a praiseworthy endeavor from this entire crew that they have given a new impression for love without discarding the expressions of love – something that is never lost and if not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and will purify the heart for sure. The very name Monalisa connotes the hopes and hopelessness of love. Here the short film alludes a love which we have all known but never sensed or experienced. Sruthi satiates the queries of her mind and the story ends with a note of optimism which the famous Victorian poet Alfred Lord Tennyson is capable of imparting us-

 I hold it true, whate'er befall;
 I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
 than never to have loved at all.

You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot and can never close your heart to the things you do not want to feel. Monalisa nurtures and instills hope to many healing hearts in search of love with a metaphysical submility.

A day with Sree Dev after Asianet News channel event 'YOUTH TUBE' ( 2014 memoirs from Trivandrum Hyacinth By Sparza)