The unbearable lightness of being!

One for the Romans!

In the magical world of Asterix and Obelix, a small Gaulish village defies the rule of mighty Romans with the help of a magic potion brewed by an old druid, Getafix. This potion gives the Gauls super human strength for a short span but long enough for the Roman soldiers (whose very sight triggers the Gauls to take a swig at the potion) to make a round trip to Hell!

This druid, Getafix, suddenly experiences temporary memory loss due to an accident and forgets how to make the magic potion (in the episode titled "Asterix and the Big Fight"). The Gauls sense a problem, 'what if the Romans come to know?'. So they keep urging the druid to cook it up again, fast. Battling with his memory, the druid keeps experimenting with all sort of herbs found in Gaul to make THAT potion again.

To test the effectiveness of this magic potion, Gauls catch hold of the Roman soldiers that pass by and force feed them with the cooked up soup only to find strange results like one soldier turning blue, another solider going airborne etc... but not the magic that gave them invincible strength.

One such soldier who witnesses what happens to his fellow soldier who is force fed with the potion, attempts to take a u-turn and run back to his base crying 'Mummie!!!!'.

This was exactly how I felt after sitting through 142 minutes of Maniratnam's magic potion making attempt - only I was a volunteer unlike the Roman soldier I described above :-(  

In the comics, the druid eventually gets back his memory and helps the Gauls to keep up their legacy.

I wish Mani does the same soon for his own! 

P.S : For those intrigued by the title of my post (which I believe is the apt translation 'Kaatru Veliyidai'), it comes from a book written by Milan Kundera with the "Prague Spring" as backdrop. This book was later made into a movie starring Daniel Day Lewis who has already won 3 'Best Actor' Oscars in just 20 movies!