Abiyum Naanum

A father daughter relationship is something that has always inspired me and Abiyum Naanum is one of those movies that hold a special place in my heart. In the scene where Abi goes to school for the first time, these lyrics play in the background,

பிள்ளை நிலா பள்ளி செல்ல,
அவள் பையொடு என் இதயம் துடிக்கக்கண்டேன்.

These simple yet powerful lines describes the pain Raghu felt during the first day of Abi's school. Raghu and Abi had an intertwined character arc and they grew together throughout the movie.

When Abi brings in a beggar and gives him a home and a name, it describes how she sees people for who they are. When she protected the mentally unstable girl with his shirt, Raghu feels proud even when he was shirtless. Each time Abi said, "I know what I'm doing", Raghu has an epiphany that her little girl is now a grown woman. When she fulfilled Raghu's crazy wish in the middle of the lake on a full moon, she portrayed how much she would do to fulfill his father's wishes.

Throughout the movie, we see the little, sweet girl grow into an independent woman who even chooses her own life partner, Joginder Singh, and her character arc completes. Somewhere along the years, we lost our childhood and became an adult slowly, just like Abi did. Even we, as a spectator of Abi's life, must have felt emotional during the final departure scene with her father in the airport.

When Abi went to school for the first time, Raghu cried. But he didn't when she was married off, because he understood that it is her own life and that she should live it in her own terms. He came to peace with his own character at the end, even when it was hard to let her go.

Abiyum Naanum is one of those movies that can make you feel at home instantly and it will remind you that everything will be okay in the end. The characters are easily relatable and each character has it's own arc that will stay with you for a long time to come. The movie ends off spectacularly with a quote, "The Child is the father of Man."

மார்புதைக்கும் கால்களுக்கு,
மணிக்கொழுசு நான் இடவா.