Point and counter-point by Venkatesh Krishamoorthy
Recently, Times of India carried a small piece of article that said men cry over losing women and quoted some films to substantiate the claim and some psychologists also said women no longer think men are needed in this digital age. Whatever you call it, women have evolved in relationships. They can get off a relationship with less emotional baggage than men and that seemed to the centre point of the argument.
One of the films quoted in the article was Vinnaithandi Varuvaya directed by ace director Gautam Menon. First of all, Gautam Menon’s class as a director is evident, in giving life to each one of his characters. Sans violence, sans sexy numbers, sans gyrations and oomph that flows in Tamil cinema, Gautam Menon has crafted a film bereft of all this but packed in a substantial emotional element to sustain viewer interest.
Jessy (Trisha) lives in the first floor of the house where Karthik (Simbu) lives. Karthik falls in love with Jessy on first sight. At one point, he lets out the love and then travels all the way to Kerala to apologize for it. Jessy stays neutral (or seems to be staying neutral). After a while, Jessy also reciprocates and breaks her marriage, right there at the church. Till then you don’t know that she is also deep in love. Karthik is mad and crazy in love and Jessy only fears that her father, an Orthodox Christian, would never agree to his daughter marrying a Hindu. This tears her apart, with Karthik on one side with whom she is deep in love and her father, to whom she promises she will never see Karthik again. But their rendezvous continues in many restaurants.
Karthik, an aspiring director, travels to Goa for a shoot and in a moment of crisis when Jessy’s father insists on marrying a man of his choice, Jessy decides to leave home but Karthik, in far-off Goa, cannot fufil the request right away. The emotional roller coaster that Jessy goes through wanting Karthik at one moment and not wanting him at another in favor of her father’s wish not to marry a Hindu finally results in Jessy deciding to dump Karthik.
So here comes the analogy to a startup. Karthik makes a plan to love Jessy (B-plan) and executes it to get her concurrence (funding and operations). Like any startup, there are problems at multiple levels (maybe emotional upheaval, father’s resistance, unable to take decisions at the crucial moment). But Karthik rides on them hoping to achieve stability (marrying Jessy). But a stream of events leaves Karthik high and dry. But like any startup entrepreneur emotionally attached to his original B-plan, Karthik does not make a Plan B or a possible exit strategy. He carries on with blind faith and anonymous belief. But he does make use of his B-plan’s fall out to rise in career as a director (changing course and achieving success) but still doesn’t leave the original plan of marrying Jessy. Unable to forget her, he is entangled in an emotional turmoil, even rejecting another sweet proposal. That’s what I would call a poor exit strategy. When things are not looking up or have become impossible, it is always good to move on to Plan B. Sticking blindly leads to more problems that multiply. Startup entrepreneurs also at times refuse to leave their original idea if it doesn’t work out. But that’s not wise. It’s better to have a Plan B or an exit strategy to save yourself all the trouble. Agree?
