I saw Chennai express yesterday and couldn't make much sense out of it. I am not saying i did not enjoy the movie. I enjoyed it throughly but there are a lot of things in the movie which are very confusing. I though about it a lot and here i have summarized the only way in which i think the film can be rationalized.
Chennai express opens with Rahul (SRK) standing with a confused look and a shovel in hand. His shirt is torn and there is blood all over his face. He also sees an image of hundreds of Madarasi gundas running towards him. At this moment a very important question flashes in his mind. "Why the fuck is a standing there in the first place and who are these people running towards him?. He pauses and starts to re-think his past.So, in essence what i am theorizing is that the entire film is deconstruction Rahul's Multiple Personality Disorder and hallucinations.
It turns out, when young Rahul who is actually the only son of huge sweet stall tycoon in Mumbai, looses his parents in a car accident. He starts to suffer from PTSD. .So, when his grand mother, the only other person alive in the family begins suspecting that there is something wrong with the boy, she takes him to a renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Alagusundaram, who discovers that Rahul has developed a lot of alter egos to cope up with the traumas.
He finds, that in his head, first there is Rahul himself, who is an Halwawala. His mental age is of a teenager who is obsessed with cellphones and anthakshari. He also has a deep bitterness towards Madarasi men but love towards Madarasi women after seeing films like Padosan. Like a lot of teenagers and young men, his goal in life is to go to Goa and dance with NRI women.
But to cope up the loss of his parents, his brain creates another personality which is the grand father Rahul has never seen. His mental age is 99 and is a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. In-fact, this is the alter-ego that created suspicion in Grandma's mind, when Rahul starts acting weird sometimes.
Then there a couple of friend personalities who got developed later, to cope with Rahul's self-esteem issues.This was a result of constant bullying in school for being totaly stupid. The role these friend personalities is to act stupider than Rahul himself so that he can feel confident.
For about 23 years, things were good. Sachin is playing for India, so his grandpa is alive. And whenever he does something stupid, his friends come for rescue, the do even stupider things and Rahul feels confident.
But all of this comes to a crashing catastrophic confusion when in 2012 Sachin Tendulkar announces retirement. Now, he doesn't know what to do with his grandpa. To add to the confusion, Rahul accidentally sees the Tamil film Pokkiri in Sun TV. He could not deal with the fact that a non-dhoti clad, non-vibhuthi clad Madarasi man beating up gundas. So, his brain goes into a limbo state while trying to process these two traumatic problems. In this limbo state he alternatively sees Sachin getting out on 99, his grandpa dieing and he being chased by vibuthi clad Madarasi rowdies.
Again his grandma calls in the doctor and in order to break this limbo state he develops a new method of psychotherapy and names it "Chennai Express". So, what we see in the film is a documentary of what happened inside Rahul's head when he put through this project.
The project begins by his grand mother planting the idea in Rahul's head that he has to go to Rameshwaram to dissolve the ashes of Grand Pa. This way he can actually go to South India and face his fears. And the psychiatrist puts him in a train along with his intern who is supposed to act like a Tamil Girl. This also explains why Meenamma speaks in a fake hindi and as well as a fake tamil accent. From here Rahul's head takes on.
It is a stack that is unwinding. So, it starts with the creation of a few Madarasi Rowdies who continuosly board the moving train. This is followed by a Nokia ad and an anthakshari. After this things go deeper. He start dreaming and in his dreams he creates a vivid image of an non existing village in Tamil Nadu and being chased by thousands of Dhoti clad rowdies. This process does not end till he meets his core "self-image" in his dreams in the form of a dwarf non-speaking boy forest boy.
By the time, he meets this "self-image" , Rahul is able to reverse the most of Madarasi confusion and able to see only Tam Brahms every where. But unfortunately it was never that easy because Tangaballi comes back with an vengence. Rahul escapes and wakes up from his limbo. By this time Rahul has a reasonably fixed mind. So, Meenamma takes him to Juhu Beach to get rid of the Grandpa Personality, which he does by performing the last rites.
The doctor then discovers that Rahul has developed a deep love for Meenamma. So, using this as a weapon, the doctor hypnotizes him back to the village in his head where he fights back all his fears and disappointments. He accepts Pokkiri in all heart and fights the Madarasi Rowdy face to face till he falls down. The doctor finally calls him a brave man and declares him cured as of now.
Chennai express opens with Rahul (SRK) standing with a confused look and a shovel in hand. His shirt is torn and there is blood all over his face. He also sees an image of hundreds of Madarasi gundas running towards him. At this moment a very important question flashes in his mind. "Why the fuck is a standing there in the first place and who are these people running towards him?. He pauses and starts to re-think his past.So, in essence what i am theorizing is that the entire film is deconstruction Rahul's Multiple Personality Disorder and hallucinations.
It turns out, when young Rahul who is actually the only son of huge sweet stall tycoon in Mumbai, looses his parents in a car accident. He starts to suffer from PTSD. .So, when his grand mother, the only other person alive in the family begins suspecting that there is something wrong with the boy, she takes him to a renowned psychiatrist, Dr. Alagusundaram, who discovers that Rahul has developed a lot of alter egos to cope up with the traumas.
He finds, that in his head, first there is Rahul himself, who is an Halwawala. His mental age is of a teenager who is obsessed with cellphones and anthakshari. He also has a deep bitterness towards Madarasi men but love towards Madarasi women after seeing films like Padosan. Like a lot of teenagers and young men, his goal in life is to go to Goa and dance with NRI women.
But to cope up the loss of his parents, his brain creates another personality which is the grand father Rahul has never seen. His mental age is 99 and is a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. In-fact, this is the alter-ego that created suspicion in Grandma's mind, when Rahul starts acting weird sometimes.
Then there a couple of friend personalities who got developed later, to cope with Rahul's self-esteem issues.This was a result of constant bullying in school for being totaly stupid. The role these friend personalities is to act stupider than Rahul himself so that he can feel confident.
For about 23 years, things were good. Sachin is playing for India, so his grandpa is alive. And whenever he does something stupid, his friends come for rescue, the do even stupider things and Rahul feels confident.
But all of this comes to a crashing catastrophic confusion when in 2012 Sachin Tendulkar announces retirement. Now, he doesn't know what to do with his grandpa. To add to the confusion, Rahul accidentally sees the Tamil film Pokkiri in Sun TV. He could not deal with the fact that a non-dhoti clad, non-vibhuthi clad Madarasi man beating up gundas. So, his brain goes into a limbo state while trying to process these two traumatic problems. In this limbo state he alternatively sees Sachin getting out on 99, his grandpa dieing and he being chased by vibuthi clad Madarasi rowdies.
Again his grandma calls in the doctor and in order to break this limbo state he develops a new method of psychotherapy and names it "Chennai Express". So, what we see in the film is a documentary of what happened inside Rahul's head when he put through this project.
The project begins by his grand mother planting the idea in Rahul's head that he has to go to Rameshwaram to dissolve the ashes of Grand Pa. This way he can actually go to South India and face his fears. And the psychiatrist puts him in a train along with his intern who is supposed to act like a Tamil Girl. This also explains why Meenamma speaks in a fake hindi and as well as a fake tamil accent. From here Rahul's head takes on.
It is a stack that is unwinding. So, it starts with the creation of a few Madarasi Rowdies who continuosly board the moving train. This is followed by a Nokia ad and an anthakshari. After this things go deeper. He start dreaming and in his dreams he creates a vivid image of an non existing village in Tamil Nadu and being chased by thousands of Dhoti clad rowdies. This process does not end till he meets his core "self-image" in his dreams in the form of a dwarf non-speaking boy forest boy.
By the time, he meets this "self-image" , Rahul is able to reverse the most of Madarasi confusion and able to see only Tam Brahms every where. But unfortunately it was never that easy because Tangaballi comes back with an vengence. Rahul escapes and wakes up from his limbo. By this time Rahul has a reasonably fixed mind. So, Meenamma takes him to Juhu Beach to get rid of the Grandpa Personality, which he does by performing the last rites.
The doctor then discovers that Rahul has developed a deep love for Meenamma. So, using this as a weapon, the doctor hypnotizes him back to the village in his head where he fights back all his fears and disappointments. He accepts Pokkiri in all heart and fights the Madarasi Rowdy face to face till he falls down. The doctor finally calls him a brave man and declares him cured as of now.
