‘96: Of Nostalgia, Missed Opportunities, Sound of Memories and K. Ramachandran's Closure

Johannes Hofer, a Swiss medical student in his 1688 thesis coined the term 'Nostalgia' and categorized it as a form of disease, which according to his research is driven by a form of pain which a person might feel, when they are far away from their home, or through a fear, driven by the belief that they might never be able to cherish that feeling of comfort of being in home. With time, Nostalgia evolved into something more layered and complex, from a disease, that it was earlier believed to be, it turned out to be more of a fundamental emotional state, additionally bringing several other feelings with it. It's like that vehicle which drives us away from confined space of reality and time, and take us into that zone with which our subconscious mind is so closely associated with. When the nostalgic stimulation hits the right nerve, it is often accompanied by loneliness, stubbornness, feeling of detachment with the world, and most probably meaninglessness.

When I think Nostalgia, the instant reaction that comes in my mind is how extensive its functions are in our life, at some point we may feel our life has become ordinary and mundane, at that point, nostalgia serves the purpose of providing us with a clear perspective of our existence, that much required direction is what it provides, leading us to understand life through a larger context. This context is basically us understanding or rather I should say treating life as a collection of moments crafted in a long narrative, once we start to understand this aspect, what comes next is fairly easy realization on our ends, that once there were certain crucial moments, and those became important part of our lives, and continued to remain intact in that narrative, and nostalgia takes us back into those moments. The other side of the coin, which functions almost similar to nostalgia is 'anticipation', both these entities needs to calibrated delicately in order for a more well clear narrative, one takes us into ethereal times, while the other serves to gives hope that the moments that are to come by in the near future will be of love and happiness, or as per our desires, that hope is what helps in difficult times. That feeling of sweet sadness in our hearts is what nostalgia is all about, the amalgamation of sadness arising from the loss of something very crucial, be it a person or the moments spent with that person, and a hope in the form of a feeling of contentment of being able to be in those moments. 

In the first scene of the song 'The Life of Ram' we see our protagonist, K. Ramachandran (Ram) jump into an ocean to capture the life under water, this is just a simple straightforward thought that very smartly establishes what we are going to witness throughout the film. Ram (Vijay Sethupathi) will be given an opportunity to jump into his ocean of memories, but before we are taken directly into his memories, we are introduced with the character through a beautifully narrated song, that lays the foundation for the protagonist for us to connect with him on a certain emotional level, his mental state is what is shown in the song, the song is staged in such a manner that on the first viewing it might primarily look as a song to let us get familiar with his lifestyle and his occupation, but it feels like a deceptively staged move on the director's part to let us try and understand Ram more closely rather than the life of Ram.

'96 (2018) is a Tamil film written and directed by C. Prem Kumar. The IMBD synopsis of the film goes like this "Two high school sweethearts meet at a reunion after 22 years and reminisce about their past over the course of an evening" It is somewhat accurate, but in some ways, after watching the film, it doesn't do justice to the broad experience it gave me, the experience is too abstract and difficult to capture in words, and that is when I decided to write a long post about this endearing and heartwarming film. It's certainly about 'Their' reminisce, but somewhere it's slightly more about Ram going back to his native place, and rediscovering those old, unforgettable memories which for years, he has kept very safely close to his heart. The film is about an opportunity that is being thrown to K. Ramachandran and Janaki 'Jaanu' Devi (Trisha Krishnan) to sit and ponder about the missed chance that they have lost over the course of their life of not ending up together. Both the central characters forms a crucial part of the narrative, but the narrative feels more diverted towards the perspective of Ram, who hasn't found his closure in life, and hence this aspect of the film finds a mention on the title of this post.

Ram is a travel photographer, he travels throughout the country on exotic locations, the song 'Life of Ram' starts our journey to know him more closely, the song is shot in spectacular fashion by Mahendran Jayaraju, and N. Shanmuga Sundaram, but apart from the visually aesthetic images, the more important thing that has been given major importance is to establish the psyche of the character and the theme of the film with subtle hints of how he perceives life. Ram is seen roaming inside Jungle, trying to find those perfect frame which he could capture and later on define, as we proceed further, we see him traveling ahead in his journey, water getting removed from the windshield of his car giving a more clear picture of Ram, thus signifying how he is lost between the world of his memories and real world. We see him traveling in water, feeling lost, but always in search of his perfect frames.

Water, Desert, Mountains, Jungle, Sandstorm, Waterfall, Monumental Locations, these places constitute the entire life of Ram, and how he finds moments in these places to be captured in his camera. The seashore he stands around indicates the level of how deep he has stored those memories of school inside him and how desperately he wants to immerse himself into those memories, yet he doesn’t, he just stands at the edge between the two worlds, the real one and the one he has created for himself, the burning sensation he feels in the hot sand of a desert brings him back to face the reality of his present life, he faces a sandstorm all alone, highlighting how tough it has been for him to reach at this point of time in life where he always fights alone, he finds a moment of solace under a water fall, and keeps looking at the Sun with an optimistic view, perhaps somewhere, searching for a light of hope that he knows he needs, but is unable to locate. He is seen driving his car in a desert, he finds a certain euphoria in driving his car and creating impressions of a loop, it's such a beautifully captured moment, he yells, and when we see him come out of his car, and gets a moment of peace, the loop is almost parallel to his present mental state that he is constantly wondering around (the memories from his school days). He moves from one city to another, finds simple moments and captures them with his own rationale that makes them appear extraordinary. At one point, he is walking with his baggage, alongside the Kolkata's hand driven rickshaw puller, Director C. Prem Kumar clearly tells us that Ram has been carrying an emotional baggage with himself for years, and he still continues to do so, both literally and in a metaphorical sense. Similarly, he lifts a heavy stone from the edge of the river, and tosses it into the river, he wish he could just lift the heavy baggage of his memories, and toss them somewhere deep in his heart. There is no stopping Ram and his life, he may catch a moment of pause, but the world around him is constantly moving ahead, that what drives Ram to get out of that pause mode, and go ahead with his life, a perfect example to prove this assumption of mine is one shot, where Ram is quietly sitting near a river, and it's raining, comes a boy from behind and makes a big jump straight into the river, that clearly points out the pattern in which Ram leads his life.

It's quite ironic that Ram's profession was written as a travel photographer, I mean we are knowing a man's story who appears to be so lost and out of focus in his present life and regularly travels back to his past life, and yet despite these qualities he teaches young kids about finding the right focus to capture a photograph, and continuously travels to different places, I found this aspect of '96 very clever, a man who is so out of ‘focus’ in his own life is teaching young kids to find perfect focus in an artistic sense, I agree that these two situations are entirely independent from one another, but I just need to admire the beauty of this irony. He tells his students that photography is that rare form of art where one can actually freeze time, another big hint here is that Ram's definition of photography feels so close to his idea of love that he shared with Jaanu, those moments he spent in the school are not present in a physical form via a photograph (except one group photograph), but somewhere the negatives of those memories are still kept intact in his mind. It might not be entirely a wrong idea to assume that Ram choose to be a photographer solely because of this reason.

A YouTube user by the name M. Sathis Kumar has compiled the list of places Ram visits in the song

We observe a sudden change in Ram's behavior as he approaches his native place, it's almost as if he has been waiting to come back home, he tells his student, to feel the air of the dawn, and experience the utter joy from it, obviously she cannot relate so easily with Ram's excitement, that euphoric tone with which he starts describing about each of the important locations of the city resonates a childlike response from Ram, who till that point in the film had been quite formal with all the people around him.

Ram's entry into the school is one of the most endearing and heartwarming sequences I saw on the big screen in 2018, He opens the gates of All Saints Matriculation Higher Secondary School, and as he enters, there is a phenomenal background score that illustrates his anxiety, happiness and nostalgia. Notice how smartly the director has avoided the usual rush in the school, almost giving a feeling that the emptiness in the corridors and the playground of the school were anticipating the return of K. Ramachandran. The freedom in his walk, him feeling the texture of chalk powder assimilated around the notice board, recalling his name from the roll of honor board, where he was a winner in High Jump and Short Put, him listening to the sound of the school bell, it still sounded pretty much same to him, he quench his thirst for the water of his native place by drinking the tap water from the school, now this is where the magic of '96 lies, recall the song 'Life of Ram' on two occasions we observe am unusual thirst from Ram, one inside the Jungle where water from his Bottle is finished, and yet he isn't satisfied, and the other scene where he opens his mouth, and anticipate that the rain water might satisfy his thirst, but when he drinks water from his school, one can sense that fulfillment of missing satisfaction. The athlete who left the school has grown old, and when he visits his classroom, there are two specific benches he goes toward, Jaanu’s seat and his own, from where he used to see her.

The screenplay then takes back in the past when Ram and Jaanu were school friends, The young Ram is played so brilliantly by Aadithya Baaskar and the Young Jaanu played  so confidently by Gouri G. Kishan. Ram is shy and anxious to talk to Jaanu that even a mere physical closeness with her increases his heartbeats and results in him fainting away. The affair between the two is kept simple and sweet, the emotional attachment I felt as a viewer is simply driven through the straightforwardness of their connection, Ram is in awe whenever Jaanu sings, and constantly requests her indirectly to sing a song "By the banks of River Yamuna (Yamunai Aatrile)" from 'Thalapathi', which she never agree to sing, only because she wants Ram to request her personally, and not through anyone else. Their connection ends abruptly when after the vacation, in a new class, when everyone is answering their regular attendance, Ram is not seen, Jaanu is left all alone when she comes to know that Ram has left the town and the school, she is devastated because she didn't get a proper goodbye from Ram. Her longing for Ram continues in college also, she then decides to pack her emotions in a bottle and move ahead in life. It is in these scenes that Gouri G. Kishan steals the show, and for a moment makes the film and the story all about herself and her desperation to see Ram. She infuses confidence of being in an indirect relationship and sadness of separation with great maturity, easily making her performance one of the highlights of the film.

A reunion of the batch from 96 is planned through a WhatsApp group, and Ram, who although appears excited about the prospect, does somewhere expects to see Jaanu, and the moment he hears her name, that introvert Ram turns into the shy teenager Ram, and when Jaanu, finally arrives at the reunion, and one can feel that her presence is marked by a soulful background score, and C. Prem Kumar holds the delicate moment very carefully, it's over two decades, since Jaanu saw Ram, the image of Ram in her mind is still the one with White Shirt and Blue trousers, just standing away at a certain distance, again not able to express what he feels for her, and this is reason when Jaanu meets Ram, for a brief period we imagine Ram from her perspective. In my opinion, that few seconds of Jaanu imagining Ram as the same guy who requested her to sing Yamunai Aatrile is one of the best cinematic moment from an Indian film in 2018. Ram might have changed physically, but the dynamics between them hasn't changed even a bit, Ram's heartbeats keeps on increasing, and when she tries to feel those heartbeats again after all these years of separation, he faints, yet again. One can say that the director is repeating the scenes, and argument can be given that when Ram and Jaanu meet, the moment should have been more dramatic, but it's not, and C. Prem Kumar doesn't even try to make it loud, and that holds a key here, because as Ram has kept her memories safely guarded with himself, the moment, which is meant to be special is very intelligently changed into something which feels very real and personal.

Another important aspect that deserves a discussion is the two important supporting casts, which acts as catalysts as well as anti-catalysts of sorts in the love story of Ram and Jaanu. Murali (Bagwathy Perumal) and Subhashini (Devdarshini) play the this unusual friends who try to bring Ram and Jaanu together yet keep them apart, and almost every time both of them reminds these couple about their individual realities. I say Anti-catalyst because they are aware of the fact that it's too late for both of them to get back together. They are the voice of Ram when he is unable to express his feelings. I got a feeling that throughout the reunion event, both Murali and Subhashini acted as Guardians for bunch of nostalgia hungry adults, who might be bored from their life, and wants to get fresh air of their beautiful memories, they are ones who made sure apart from drowning in their memories, the mirror of reality and present time is kept moving around in front of Ram and Jaanu. 

There are numerous points in the film, where the director takes Ram's eating and sleeping habits and juxtaposes them with the longing he feels in his life for Jaanu. In the introduction song, we see Ram eating all alone in a restaurant, and once out in wild forest we see him trying to grasp a fruit out of a tree, and when he is tired from his constant traveling, he finds a space near the trunk of a tree and get some sleep, now later on in the reunion event, when Ram brings Jaanu a well cleaned plate of food, and after eating a bit, she offers the food to him and insist him to eat, the camera slows down for a bit, and as Ram takes the first bit, it's a high point of the film, because Ram was tired of eating alone, he wanted to share his food with someone, that moment of sharing food with Jaanu brings him an internal satisfaction, later on when Jaanu cooks him dinner, he tells her that the taste reminded him of his mother's food, which leads Jaanu to throw a slight smile, that smile is a valid proof of what she thinks about the present day Ram, he later sleeps on the floor with utmost calm, perhaps that short nap is the deepest he might have slept in years.

I feel the most captivating part about the film is how C. Prem Kumar and Editor R. Govindaraj constructs a long solid narrative, I can imagine a lot of people complaining about the film to be boring, and dull at times, but here is the thing, once Ram and Jaanu decides to spend more time together, what follows is plain conversations, the high point or the dramatic peak so to speak that we have been made so accustomed to see on the big screen have totally made us the forget the beauty of a long, uncomplicated narrative that simply relies on the unspoken conversation between two people, the nuances of the actions between two people, how the camera moves during those conversations. Jaanu tells Ram that how she waited for him to come back, and how she felt his presence most of the time, and when Ram starts speaking to her how he believed that she refused to come and meet her, there was a moment where I believed that this could lead to a dramatic end, but this is where the film won me as a viewer, C. Prem Kumar kept on giving the characters a reality check, that it's too late now, all they could do is talk and ponder over about "What if" scenario. It could have been a totally peculiar end, where he could have given these two characters a colorful shape, but he decides to not do so, and kept it real. ‘96 represent that “What if” moments/phenomenon of our lives through the story of Ram and Jaanu. No one is wrong, nor they are right in anyway, it's plain sad illustration of destiny that they were not meant to be together. When Jaanu starts singing inside Ram's apartment, while he is searching for a torch, and as soon as he hears her sing, that chaos, and panic mode he switches into, that's another poignant moment of the film which made me realize the beauty of relying on simple things to drive your character in a story. Also, notice the names of the lead characters, Ram and Janaki, feels a strong mythological association with Ramayana.  

It's quite interesting how Ram's sexuality is represented in the film, I believe that all these years of loneliness had made him sexually dormant, when one of Ram's students tells Jaanu how strict he is with them that he doesn't even allow them to wear sleeveless dress, and when Jaanu inquires to him about his virginity, that further gives me a more strong reason to believe this. I haven't seen such a honest and pure character written for the male protagonist in recent times, and the reason I felt this is because he how often we see our lead "Hero" show his back to the camera, he doesn't want to be in the center of the frame all the time, he wants to be left alone with his own thoughts, He can take 'No' for an answer, considering the times we live in, that quality is on the top of the list to make him a desirable man. 

For a film that starts with life of an individual and slowly morphs into thinking over "What If" between two people, I was quite impressed with the soundtrack of the film and the way it was used as a strong supporting aid to build the narrative, Govind Vasantha's music is therapeutic in every sense, the high moment in a romantic film is usually placed through a dramatic climax, or by letting the people in the story reach their point of catharsis, but how does one lead to a high point in a film like '96, C. Prem Kumar and Govind Vasantha's soundtrack helps in building that high point in the narrative, instead of giving the moment on screen a dramatic touch, the sound is given that artistic liberty to have a pause and when no is expecting, burst out all the emotions, it wouldn't be wrong to say that the music of the film might have been composed keeping in the mind a thought that how would memories and Nostalgia sound. I still don't understand a word that's been sung, but its music about love and language cannot restrict it from conveying its meaning. Kalyani Menon's version of "Kaathalae Kaathalae" is that kind of song which initially seduces you with its tune, but later on captures your mind with feelings behind the lyrics. “The life of Ram” feels sad, despite the visually pleasing cinematography, because the sound is conveying the lost frame of Ram’s mind, yet during the end portion of the song, when after a slight pause, Ram continues his journey, the sound is really up there for us to feel the longing to belong to someone in Ram’s heart, but even with that burden, he goes ahead with his work. My favorite song from the album is "Anthaathi", the song which I feel is the song of nostalgia, and it’s the kind of song that fills the tiny little gap between feeling sad about the old time and hopeful that you might just be able to relive those moments again in life. The modern beats representing the modern times which has meteorically changed the meaning of love and romance, yet the song retains the charm of old school romance when “Kaathalae Kaathalae” is brought into it, the fusion of both these themes gives a beautiful outcome.

The relationship between Ram and Jaanu is like a love song composed by IIaiyaraaja, which instantly grabs your attention, an A.R. Rahman soundtrack, which will grow exponentially with time in your subconscious mind, a Mani Ratnam film, which no matter how many times you come across in life, it will give you a new aspect to discover each time you watch it again without any motives, a perfect frame captured from the lens of P.C. Sreeram, which will convey a thousand words through a still image.

Love constitute different meanings to people, each one in their own world will surely come up with an accurate definition of their own, it's a feeling that will be contradictory, hypocritical, beyond one's mind, full of hypothetical scenarios and conversations that if you are lucky enough will occur in real life too, it is something that is too hard to explain, but that's how it is, and that's how it gives us a sense of purpose in our lives. Ram is still living with that incompleteness in his life, Jaanu also feels that emotional void, but she has moved into a cosmopolitan culture of Singapore, she tells Ram that most woman would love to have a guy like him, she feels guilty when she learns that Ram is still alone, I wonder how marriage can be regarded as the proof of a person moving on over someone they once had feelings for, but C. Prem Kumar doesn't let his characters take cinematic liberties and construct a false notion of lost love, he stays honest with his subject, he holds a sense of respect for both of these individuals and their respective personalities, rather than giving them false hope to be together, he gives them a platform through a realm of silence, and leaves them in their own privacy. Perhaps Ram is destined to live in that incompleteness, and longing, his closure comes in an alternative form, when he gets to spend some time with Jaanu, I don't think he will ever be able to move on in his life, because if he had to, he wouldn't be waiting for this long. Just notice the difference in the color of clothes that both Ram and Jaanu wear throughout the film, it also reflects a major character trait of their individual personalities, Ram is seen in mostly dull color clothes throughout the movie, whereas Jaanu is seen in bright yellow color dress, the colors are truly symbolic of their specific points in life, her being in a more optimistic, stable, whereas him being in those dull colors mirrored a thought that he is just getting along with each day of life as it brings new challenges. When she wears Ram's clothes, for a brief period we see her in dark shades, I could totally relate to her emotional outbursts towards the climax once I realized this point, because for that brief period she might have felt how colorless Ram’s life has become and worst part of this whole situation is that she cannot bring those colors back in his life. 

The film does not have a quintessential climax to be honest, it's just that at one particular point, C. Prem Kumar leaves you with a moment in which Ram seems to have accepted his incompleteness which actually appears quite thoughtful, because Ram gets his moments with Jaanu, and the time in those moments will stay in his memory forever, similar to the ones he has been capturing in all of his photographs. '96 is a film, which deserves our time and attention solely because C. Prem Kumar crafts a magic show with his strong narrative of unfulfilled love, he makes an actor like Vijay Sethupathi who is so versatile with his choices of roles blush so genuinely which is so rare to be found in films, and in those moments of him feeling shy, the pure cinematic joy of ’96 is felt. 

Exploring the world of "Her"

In one scene, Charles reminds Theodore of the popular theory that you’ve got to eat your fruits and juice your vegetables, he explains to him that by juicing the fruits, it loses all the important fibers which the body wants, and otherwise it’s simply sugar.

Does this advice from Charles suggest that Theodore should apply this rule in life and love also?

Theodore unknowingly juices his romantic relationship, the underutilized fibers of which does not help his appetite for care and attention, what remains is complete overflow of sugar in the form of anxiety, whereas eating away the important moments of life in silence, overthinking, and revisiting past does not help him too, because those wasted important moments are not absorbed into his memories. In the imbalanced chaotic gap between these two states lies Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix).

Spike Jonze’s 2013 film “her” is an unsettling work of art, which left me wondering about lots of questions. It’s a film that feels so personal at every level, be it the optimistic future it projects, the melancholic state of mind of a person who is not able to get over the person he loves, or what it feels like to be human. It is an astonishing tale of a writer falling in love with an operating system and in process understanding the meaning of what it feels like to be human and the actual meaning of love. On paper, the idea sounds too abstract, and virtually difficult, but the way it has been shot, projected and performed by the actors, it makes us believe in it thoroughly, that this could possibly be our future.

Theodore is a letter writer who acts as an unacknowledged mediator between people who are too busy in their work, that they do not have time for their loved ones. He makes sure the kind of letters he writes feels authentic and genuine, he puts a lot of effort in finding small details in their relationships, and then crafts lines based on those fine details, because he understands and values the impact his words are going to have on the person reading those letters. There is a cruel irony of that situation, because he is able to endure the pressure of delivering heartfelt words to someone’s love, but he is not able to resolve his own personal relationship, and that inability to resolve those issues is forcing him to a state of loneliness. The interesting thing at this point is how Theodore is able to believe in love through his work, that sadness in him does not drive him to develop bitter feelings about the idea of love, instead he lets an aura of heedlessness built around his mind, lack of care, in terms of living his life in a manner that he desired, be it socializing with his friends or society, trying to feel more positive about himself.

The initial scenes involving Theodore made me instantly assume, that he is going through a near state of depression, but on repeated viewings, I found it a sort of deception on behalf of Spike Jonze. Theodore wants us to believe that he is lonely, but I felt that it was purely his perception towards his present state of mind, he listens to a melancholic song on his way back to home after work, and when the song does not suite his idea of melancholy, he switch to other melancholy song, that might be more compatible to his current mood of sadness. The disconsolate posture of his hands and his slow walk adds another layer to this deception of loneliness, and once when he is listening to his emails, and clearing his inbox without giving a second listen to the ones from friends, he pauses down for a moment when he hears a news about a television star revealing erotic pregnancy pictures, he takes out his phone, and gives them a glance. He plays a game, where an alien is left in an unknown place, and is looking to found a way out, that perfectly sums up Theodore, the game is simply a visual metaphor, in reality, he is the one who is lost.

The reason of my speculation that Theodore in those initial scenes is trying to lead us into believing that he is lonely, because Her, is a film that on surface is a love story, but I found it more of a character study, and those initial scenes are laying the foundation for us to familiarize with Theodore, and feel empathy for this person because he is so isolated and does not deserve to live his life in such a state of anomaly. The beautiful character arc created helps us to understand Theodore more deeply. This establishment of character is amalgamated with narratives techniques in film-making, which helps us get more familiar with the emotional purgatory that Theodore is experiencing, and once we feel associated with that emotion, we see a reflection of ourselves and our future in Theodore.

Editing plays a vital role in establishing the context of love from the perspective of Theodore by focusing on his past, his present and the outcome that result out of the friction between those two events. Editing is one of the integral processes in creating the arc in the minds of viewers about this character. Theodore remembers moments from past with his wife, and then we cut back to his present state on several occasions, the idea behind this is simple, to convey he is still stuck in that time period of his life where he lived those happy moments. The montage created between Theodore's past and present is not merely used in an impermanent terms between the scenes, the montage represents Theodore's wreckage of delicate thoughts, about his desires. In his mind, the past moments are the time he actually wants to go back to, and relive despite knowing how much it will hurt him, but that's just his desire.

Notice the contrasting nature between the two phases of his life, there is brightness along with darkness, in one he is smiling so openly, in other he is just overthinking about those moments, this beautiful scenario created by fine editing helps us to get an insight into the internal struggle that he is facing. So, without much elaboration through dialogues and actions, we can at-least assume about the desires of Theodore, merely through editing.

The next important technique which helps us understand Theodore is how the camera reflects his internal presence in front of us, in a lot of instances in the film, the manner in which he is placed in a frame is symbolic of his state, he is always isolated whereas the people he is having conversations with most of the times are couples, also the people he writes letter for, their photographs are also together, this emptiness of the frame alongside Theodore represents his quest to be in love with someone enthusiastically, and feel that magic of being in love with someone yet again, the way Theodore walks in a different direction as compared to the one people around him are walking towards, the brightness of the color of his clothes makes him stand out in the crowd , all such points add up-to the portraying of his character.

I cannot help but recall the line from Gulzar Saab, when he said that Films are made on two tables; Writing and Editing. Spike Jonze might have written these scenes keeping in mind about creating a motive of inner conflict for his principal character, but it's the fine editing that gives the character a deeper illustrative meaning to the sense of perception about the world, life and love that Theodore has, which helps us understand his character more closely.

The plot actually kicks off when Theodore is intrigued by the idea of having the world's most sophisticated operating system, to simply wave off his sense of isolation. He is in a random state of mind, where one cannot predict what his next action is going to be. When Theodore sets up the operating System, little does he realizes at that point about the monumental change it's going to bring in his life, I am deliberately using the word Monumental, because it represents the large magnitude of change his interactions with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) brings in his life. Recall that game which Theodore plays late at night, where he is lost, once he has Samantha, she helps him find a path, this is actually what she does in his life too, that is too give him a direction where he feels more comfortable and can be more of himself. Theodore finds solace in those moments of constructing letters for the people who are supposedly in love with each other, that same love which Theodore too once had and now he longs for. Theodore's purpose in life is to be in that sort of love, and when he meets Samantha, he starts finding that purpose to be in love once again. 

Recall the scene when She tells him to go on a date, and he reluctantly agrees, because at that point despite longing for a human connection, he is still living in a state of isolation, and have his world around the circle of technology, he wants to be associated with  human interactions yet his separation with Catherine (Rooney Mara) makes him cynical of losing out on yet another  relationship, this is a tricky and contrasting situation but very relatable to our present state because we know what's his dilemma, yet we cannot state it in simple terms. He does eventually go for the date and starts having a great time initially, he tells her that he does not want to be considered a puppy, he wants to be a dragon, it seemed fun initially, but that line tells us a lot about what random thoughts are going through his mind, he does not want to be considered merely cute but rather be a representative of a more intense form of masculinity, which he might be assuming what works in a relationship, the origin of these thoughts might be related to his separation with Catherine, the pain of which still troubles him. 

We cannot refuse the fact that he'll always be a form of puppy, in search for an enriched emotional compatibility in his relationship. He ends up hurting his date without any fault of him; I mean that's just what has been happening with him in his relationship, expecting that someone will understand his emotions without him having to put any effort to express those emotions. When she says that she expects him to be not like other men that she went out with before who'll just have sex with her and vanish, one would expect Theodore to capture this opportunity and tell the girl that he longs for emotional intimacy rather than merely physical one, but those thoughts playing in his mind about all those moments from his past, prevents him from going ahead with the moment that he is currently sharing with the lady and his silence and his words are misconstrued giving out a meaning that he is just not ready to give his commitment in a relationship.

When Samantha starts having romantic feelings for Theodore, that's seems so pure and organic that we totally forgets that the whole idea is near to impossible, but Spike Jonze tricks us a step ahead, and creates a defining moment of the film, where Theodore and Samantha engage in virtual intimacy through their voices and the deep feelings behind those voices. The scene in which Theodore and Samantha indulge in sex is my favorite scene in the film, because the build to that scene is beautiful, the moment of intimacy which cannot be observed physically yet can be felt through their voices, and once things begin to get more intimate, the camera fades into black leaving us imagining the whole scenario in our minds. It left me wondering that the mere idea which sounds so absurd on paper can be projected so aesthetically, again the brilliant editing, music and direction which forces us to delve into that moment is a superlative work of art. The camera then cuts back to a wide shot of futuristic Los Angeles, probably signifying the possibility of such close interactions between humans and artificial intelligence that are changing the meanings of our lives and relationships.

Samantha rejuvenates Theodore like anything, she takes active participation in his work, and starts noticing the subtle observations he writes in those letters, we see a different Theodore, a happy one, who smiles genuinely and is enjoying the gift of life. I am assuming that he was touched by her gesture that someone finally noticed his writing craft, and gave their close attention to it. Recall the wonderful line which she tells him that the past is just the story we tell ourselves, that moment in that line something is triggered, something very personal in Theodore's heart, maybe she hints him that he should finally find his closure, and end this chapter in life, and start a new one. Samantha understands his fixation with the past, and she knows that it won't take him anywhere; instead she tries and gets him out of that space of painful memories. 

What a wonderful line this is, we all at some point of our lives are stuck in a phase where we are fixated onto our past memories, no matter the form they are in, happy or sad, what makes sense is that we wrap it up, I know I am making it sound so easy, in reality how things are lot different, but this idea of considering our past as the stories we tell ourselves makes me wonder that we should really consider our past simply as an illusion, as if it never happened, as if we all were going through a deep sleep and dreaming those moments at the back of our minds, and when we are awakened, we are left wondering around a jungle of those moments, which is covered with a thick fog of consciousness, preventing certain moments to be recalled exactly, while clearly giving out a view of the few.

The relationship between Theodore and Samantha is bound to be questioned, not merely by us, but by Theodore himself, because the love they have cannot be viewed in physical form, it's a distanced love created simply in his mind, which is vulnerable at any point ahead. When Catherine questions Theodore about his involvement with Samantha, the seeds of doubt are scattered very easily, he finally comes to this realization that Samantha cannot be contained in a human form, and when this question arises, we also starts questioning whether the feelings she has developed are real or simply coded in her system to make user experience more easy. The validity of their relationship is questioned, but Samantha tries to overcome this issue by suggesting that they opt for a surrogate partner, where he can feel her more closely in a physical form, but that puts Theodore in an uncomfortable position. Now, there is a pattern here which hints about the flaw which Theodore suffers from, the inability to express himself more openly about what he feels at certain stages in a relationship. 

I wonder many different scenarios in my head about the surrogate scene, and how differently it would have played out, what if she never told him about this idea, and one day lands up in front of his door, and tells him that I am Samantha, what if Catherine came out as the surrogate for Samantha, that would have been Catastrophe for Theodore, the girl in front of him that he always wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and the voice that comes out of her is Samantha’s, the one who has given him the purpose of his life; to unconditionally be in love with someone. The fascinating thing about surrogate angle is how beautifully Spike Jonze juxtapose the irony of the relationship between Theodore and Samantha, when she does not have a body, she appears more natural, and when she decides to go a step ahead, and overcome this inability to be as close as possible to being a human, Theodore feels a sense of artificiality in her existence.

Samantha feels so human, she gets upset, she is embarrassed by looking at some of Theodore's mails, she gets angry at Theodore for not opening out to her about what he actually feels, she is frustrated by his lack of ability to express, yet she gives him time and personal space to ponder about his own shortcomings. Samantha helps him discover his lifelong dream of being a published author, and amidst all these activities, she makes a valid point from her own perspective, that love should not be contained merely for human bodies, and that is evident from the scene on the beach where there are hundreds of humans, and we see lots of shots of random human body parts, her point can be argued, but we know this for a fact their relationship is not what we can call true love, because it was Theodore who set-up the operating system according to his needs, so it is can be argued that the human emotions she starts developing are nothing but a feature that has been coded in her to understand the emotions of the user and starts behaving with them accordingly. Samantha sense his condition with his hesitated nature and through his mails, she helps him get over that lost state of isolation, he starts having a great time, he is more confident about himself. 

It is only a matter of time before reality burst their bubble of relationship, in a moving and heartbreaking scene of the movie, Theodore in a panic mode is unable to get in touch with Samantha, he starts running aimlessly, he finally gets in touch with her, and notice the people around him are all synced in to their devices and pay no attention to a man in a panic state, he is devastated by the fact when Samantha tells him that she speaks to thousands of people while talking to him, and is in love with hundreds out of those thousands of people. Their separation is subtle, she tells him that all the other OS are leaving, where, we don't know, but this marks a respectful end to their relationship.

Notice how indifferent Theodore behaves about Samantha's exit from his life, in a way he was prepared about this day somehow, compared to the previous occasion when Catherine left him, he went onto live his life just for the sake of it, whereas the departure of Samantha catalysis that transitional change in him as a person, the separation of Samantha is much different from the one he faced with Catherine, this time he has found that closure, and it is through this form of closure he is able to get over Catherine, and for the first time in his life, he writes a letter purely dedicated to the romantic involvement of his own life, the character arc that starts from the first shot of the film is almost on the verge of completing its course, those hypnotic eyes of Theodore in the first shot of the film, that dilates in excitement because of finding that one perfect line in someone's else life behaves in a very sophisticated fashion. He goes to his friend, Amy (Amy Adams), who we see on regular intervals throughout the film going through her own relationship issues, perhaps Theodore realize that Amy is going through a similar problem that he once was going through, he takes him out to the terrace, and they just sit in silence, or perhaps I should say in solitude.

The ending of the film is left open to viewers, what happens to all the other OS, do they come in a more advanced form some time later, do Amy and Theodore gets involved romantically. The pessimistic inside me believes that Theodore and Amy sat in silence and looked at each other, and then decided to end their life, that is the first thought that comes in my mind, I know it sounds too depressing but retrospectively speaking, they do not end their lives, and decides to look at love through a different perspective, it's quite an emotional scene that resonates Catharsis of their emotions. You have to let go a person that you deeply love, yet you cannot bring yourself to realize that decision, that sadness of letting go someone you love so unconditionally is extraordinary and almost numbs your senses, and once that you tell yourself that no matter how close they were to you, you have set them and yourself free, it is quite painfully hard, but somewhere in that pain lies our catharsis. The last shot of her is Theodore's catharsis.

There is not a single particular theme which the film primarily focuses on, it's staged in phases, and I found that aspect to be really fascinating because at the end of the film, when Theodore has gone a transitional change in him as a person through his journey in a span of couple of months, those themes significantly resonate with us, simply because of the subjects it deals with, and more importantly how they are projected to us through the medium of the relationship that Theodore and Samantha share. The principal themes in her are loneliness, isolation, purpose of life, melancholy, love, being human, desires, needs, the optimism to our future, our approach to sexuality, our identities, yet the film never feels too preachy, philosophical and confusing at any point, it remains very human and very relatable, and that's the beauty of the film. So how are these themes projected visually with storytelling and film-making, and keeping in mind the narrative structure that is being used to create the character arc for Theodore? Colors, Music, and the meticulous production design (By the genius K.K. Barrett) forms the backbone for all the themes.

Colors play a significant part in conveying about the mental state of the characters, and the situations they are going through, most of the time we see Theodore wearing red color or of similar bright shades, which are more appealing to the eye, whereas people around him are dressed in more dull colors, that is a visual metaphor in terms of Theodore's deep longing for romantic love, when we see flashback from the time Theodore and Catherine set up their home, we see an orange couch being set up by them, cut to the present Samantha is also enclosed in a similar bright color. In the last scene of the film, Theodore is wearing a white shirt, whereas Amy in red color, by this point he has realized what love actually means for him, while Amy is still trying to figure out love. Notice the way characters are dressed in the film, the guys wears pants quite high up their waist, does that represent a connection that futuristic world of “her” tries to tie up with the past.

Music or more precisely the notes from a piano also gives away the mental state of the character, the scene when Theodore has sex with Samantha, we hear a dramatic sound, signifying the defining moment between the characters, whereas the sound we hear at the time when Theodore is lying near a beach is slow, and expresses the stable moments he is having with Samantha, whereas the same sound comes out through different instruments, in a more quicker rhythm in the last shot when Theodore and Amy are sitting together as the end credits rolls up, clearly a way to convey that he has finally found his closure. 

“Her” also highlights how disconnected we humans have or will become in future with each other, the advancement of technology have clearly taken the top priority in our lives that we have forget the fundamental rule of nature that we humans are not metaphysical in our existence, and we are constricted in a physical body that will ultimately die, that's what Samantha also mentions in the film. The world of anonymity has become our focal point of validation that we have started to shape our lives based on those validations. The theme of disconnect in Theodore's life can be observed through the way many of the scenes involving him in isolation are shot, Theodore is always on focus, whereas the surrounding around him are blurred, that represents how disconnected he has become of the world around him, and as the development of the character progresses, we see him and the surrounding very clearly, this gives away the meaning that whenever he tries to overcome the detachment with the world around him, and feel more comfortable in himself, the blurred surroundings are cleared. The wonderful scene where he is sitting alone in front of a giant screen, and an owl comes from behind, the predator is actually his inability to express himself when it matters, that scene completely justifies his disconnect with everyone and everything around him.

It is quite amusing that a film titled "Her" is a character study of man trying to find purpose and the real meaning of love in his life. “Her” represents the three women that shape his life, Catherine, Samantha and Amy. Catherine is the first woman in his life that he dreams of spending his life with, Samantha is the one who gives him a direction of a path where he can be more of himself, Samantha also makes him understand the importance of being human, through flaws, and accepting those flaws, while Amy gives him a sense of closure that everyone else is also going through some form of loneliness. Theodore's separation causes him to be lonely, but he finds solace in the work he do, while Amy does not share the same dynamics, her work on a documentary is not acknowledged by Charles, and that void of acknowledgment troubles her to some extent.

I really like the representation of sexuality in the film, Sex-Chats are easily accessible, and when Theodore decides to indulge in one such session, he visually imagines the pregnant TV star with him, in that zone, in that moment, the physical needs of his body have taken over his senses, and are only brought back when a weird sexually loaded obsession is brought into that moment. Recall Paul's girlfriend telling Samantha about his fetish for her feet when they go outside for a picnic, the whole conversation appears so natural. Amy changing the entire premises of his household game, and turns into something full of sexual innuendo, that might be because deep down she is fed up of being lonely and wants a passionate physical intimacy with someone. Samantha describing Theodore about the Surrogate services for OS, that in fact is a subtle clue at that point of the film that Samantha could also be involved with other people romantically, the service might be a new start-up considering the wide usage of OS like Samantha, where a lot of users also might have felt that need to be connected with a human body and experience their OS more closely. The representation of sexuality in the film is a positive one, but to some extent is a bit sad, because of the fact that how disconnected people are with each other as shown in the film, everything is conveniently placed near us, unfortunately or fortunately, love and sex also are also being considered to be contained in that metaphysical space.

“Her” released 5 years ago, and sometimes I think how closer are we getting to that time of future, which Spike Jonze portrayed, I don't think it will be as warm and less cynical as shown through the lighting of the film, Alexa has already made her way in our lives, the metamorphosis of her cousin, Samantha have already begun, but it would be too optimistic on our part to expect her to resolve our personal issues and make us less flawed people. It will still be totally dependent on our realization and acceptance that we are flawed, and how we can be less flawed.

“Her” asks us some difficult yet very important questions, what is the true meaning of love in our lives, how important it is to be with someone that you love unambiguously, to realize the significance of being human and interacting with other humans through emotions, I wrote all the answers of these questions through my own understanding, but the questions that still troubles me comes from the advertisement endorsing Samantha,

Who are you?

What can you be?

Where are we going?

What's out there?

What are the possibilities?

I was not able to decipher the answer to these questions, yet somewhere, sometime I hope I am able to find concrete answers to those questions.