Losing sleep over ‘Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam’

Sometimes it takes a good sleep to figure out a sleepy take like NNM. Coming out of the theatre, it felt light and elusive. Only the stills and imagery stuck. Well, I did not expect Hareesh/LJP to make it easy either.

Mandyukya Upanishad is the smallest and perhaps the most powerful of all Upanishads. There is the story of King Janaka (King of Mithila, Father of Sita, https://vedicmystics.com/2015/09/20/mandukya-upanishad-states-life-is-but-a-dream/ ) who had a dream in which he was captured by his enemies and killed in conflict. Upon waking up, he summoned the learned ones in his kingdom and described the agony of torture being ‘real’ and asks them ‘Is this Real or was that dream Real? (Because both felt real when it was being experienced)’ Ashtawaka, a scholar explained “Neither this Nor that is reality. Neither are you alive as a king, Nor are you dead as a defeated King. It is also true that you are alive as a king, and you are killed by your enemy” In 12 stanzas, Mandyukya explains 4 states of consciousness and reality.

(1) Waking State - when we are fully awake and perceiving world through our five senses. 

(2) Dream State - when we dream, the same five senses are projected inwardly and we get personally involved as we dream; even perspire, often waking up in sweat and fear!

(3) Deep Sleep State – when the five senses shutdown and the mind see nothing at all.

(4) Nothingness State (Turiya) – samadhi or spiritual awakening. Let’s assume we do not know this one. Only the enlightened have reached this state.

LJP/Hareesh quotes Thirukural instead “Death is sinking into slumbers deep, birth again is waking out of sleep”

NNM seeks to question our notion of Reality by exploring the first two states through a simple story. In sleep we easily transit between waking state and dream state. James (denoting waking state) passes by a village and (enters a dream, one fine afternoon) walks in as Sundaram (dream state) into a village (dream land).  He interacts with villagers, his family (his blind mom, confused wife/dad and angry daughter) unassumingly. How many times have we entered into such dreams (in some alien setting) as ‘ourselves’ or some assumed identity and interacted with strange characters in our dreams? In such dreams, we encounter both alien characters (like the villagers or a new family) and our own characters of our waking state (family members like Sally, a.k.a James’s wife and her dad, relatives). With such day dreams, we have no problem when we wake up. But when we see LJP/Hareesh’s NNM, we get frustrated (trouble finding a logic) because here, both waking state and sleeping state seemed to have merged into one frame (or perceived reality).

Also, whenever we return from our dream, it is not that we always come back unaffected or empty handed. Our mind has been through a new ‘experience’ and it often comes back enriched with a new idea or thought. In the final shot of NNM, you see a pet dog from village follow the van. Sundaram’s dog (denoting an ‘experience’ of the dream world) accompanies James into his waking state world as the van sped away.  Here, LJP/Hareesh is uses ‘dog’ as an archetype image – perhaps to remind us of our myths – that dogs/cats can sense spirits or souls from another reality/parallel universe. We even start to wonder whether NNM is yet another matured attempt by LJP/Hareesh to re-explore the same concepts of Churuli (time travel and ultimate nature of reality).

Perhaps the imagery of dog was picked from Kummati (G Aravindhan’s master piece – a fascination for magical realism that Hareesh shares) where, a sorcerer (mythical) transforms a boy (Chindan) into a dog (!) and he needs to wait another season to transform back to a human boy. What is poignant is, in a scene, when Chindan returns home as a dog, his mother recognizes him instantly and cuddles him while struggling to hold back her tears (https://alablog.in/issues/47/kummatty-magical-realism/).

Similarly, in NNM, we see the ‘blind’ mother ‘recognizing’ Sundaram when James enters Sundaram’s world (village) unlike all other villagers (including his wife and daughter). The irony is stark, deprived of a sense (her sight) his mother seems to be surer of her reality than everyone else! The blind mother’s experience denotes three distinct layers – (a) Sundaram’s existence appears vindicated in his blind mom’s world (b) Sudaram’s existence is questioned in his villager’s world and (c) Sudaram’s existence denied (outright as a ‘dream’) in James world (of his relatives). What is the actual reality – LJP/Hareesh seems to ask us?!

Then again, within the dream world (Sundaram’s), LJP/Hareesh peels many more inner layers (1) we now see Sundaram taking a siesta (starting a dream within a dream) and wonder whether he has transformed into yet another life/identity within it (2) we also see an inebriated Sundaram transforming into some historical Tamil character (for a brief moment) belting out film dialogues and slaps another character of that film (the slapped onlooker who walks away insulted). And finally, his mother’s constant movie watching (including about alien spaceships) stands for all intoxicants of Mankind (art to alcohol to television/mobile) that disengages man from Reality! LJP/Hareesh joins Sundaram’s mother, laughing at us – at the ignorance (human condition). Very early on, James narrates a story, Britishers deciding to shoot his wife’s grandfather who was defying Science (the new religion) by out-living normal expectancy. A mock again at human’s refusal to accept reality as it is. 

As a viewer, we suddenly realize we are all perfectly okay when we enter into our new identities (like Sundaram) in our regular day dreams every afternoon, but, only when we are shown a James becoming Sundaram in waking state itself (when James’ world merge into Sundaram’s world in one movie frame), we ‘wake up’ and question the logical disconnect. In the last shot, by showing James wake up in van with all others asleep (bored to sleep by old songs), LJP prods us further, was it James’s dream after all?

Perhaps it’s a final throwback to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, were we - the viewers – were made to realise that a movie (like NNM) – reflects shadows upon shadows upon shadows – groping for truth. We (our story/experience/state) were watching a movie NNM (another story/experience/state) where the protagonist (James) enters another story/state/experience (Sundaram)…just like an eternal soul transitioning through many layers – (1) it enters and exits several lives and (2) within each life, it further enters dies (during each sleep) and awakens as a new life (Thirukural reference). 

On a lighter note, as one of my colleagues noted, maybe the simplest take away from NNM is not to take siesta! lest you…