I used to be a fan of KB's women characters at one point. I loved their flashing eyes, their innate craziness, their ability to grapple with whatever life threw at them, their dignity, even their white-teeth-flashing laugh barely covered by four fingers. They were larger than life, the woman's equivalent of a mass hero.

And then, there was Mani Ratnam, with his subtlety and realism. His women came painted in all styles and shades - the bubbly Divya (my all time favourite Revathi in my all time favorite Mouna Ragam), the steel spined fresh-as-a-rose Roja, Tabu's character in Iruvar, Meera jasmine's in Ayitha Ezhuthu, Alaipayuthe's girl-next-door Shakti, Amudha in KM. I loved the shades, the spectrum, the gamut of everything Woman.

I will say this for Gautam Vasudev Menon - I love the women in his movies. More precisely, their style. Even more precisely, their wardrobes.

When Kaakha Kaakha was released, I was sixteen and it was a movie that made tremendous impact on us in terms of style. You could see girls in school walk around in deeply-kohled eyes a la Jyotika, and the tight-kurta-over-jeans (OK, loose, if you are not Jo-plump) was something of a rage. And we needed Jo to tell us that cotton sarees, that stock-in-trade apparel of schoolteachers, could actually look professional and sexy at the same time.

Varanam Ayiram marked the advent of the whole Sameera Reddy style - subtle make-up, and long, layered hair. It is amazing how casual his heroines look - it is a look that we can approximate within the limits of our own budgets, they look so girl-next-door-ish, yet the style they flaunt is awesome.

The best part of Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, IMO, was the 'style' Trisha flaunts that makes us understand why Simbu's Karthik is so crazy about her. She's dressed in sarees throughout, the light chiffon-georgette types that clings and waves about. Personally I'm a fan of the saree as a garment, and Gautam has the taste to make the magic of the saree work - Trisha looks really, really attractive. It makes me want to wear a saree and walk around!

As far as the movie itself goes, I have not much to say. The reason is that it is obvious the work is extremely personal, and I don't know if you can talk anything more about something that's so personal other than say that it's personal. It is not that nobody has made a personal story into a film before - certainly Bhagyaraj did, Cheran did. But there's an element of difference - their stories were stories, with the fiction overriding the fact. With Gautam, whose heart is worn on the sleeve of his directorial shirt, the details are of paramount importance. that he was a mechanical engineer and hated it. That his father was the biggest figure in his life. That he was an obligate church-goer. That his lady-love liked Math, even if she did not go to IITM or UC Berkeley. In the face of such gentle reminiscences when memory is wrapped up in little nuggets of details, and the details are strung together to make a story, I prefer to let the logical part of my brain rest and take the story for what it is- an ode to a former muse.

However, it is a rare man who can have ARR score the music for his personal rant!!