Greek mythology contains tales of dangerous semi-human enchantresses called Sirens. They seduce travelling sailors to their island using music and song to shipwreck on the rocky coasts. Odysseus wanted to listen to the song of Sirens. Heeding to the advice of Circe, he asks his crew to fill their ears with beeswax(so that they will not hear the song) and tie him to the mast of the ship. He instructed the sailors that they are to leave him tied even if he orders to do otherwise. Thus he could hear the song of the siren while escaping the treacherous end at the hands of Sirens. This idea is called pre-commitment and is a favourite of many self-help gurus.
The Tamil movie Deepavali gives an interesting twist to this story - the hero is not Odysseus but a crew member. Let me elaborate. The heroine in this movie suffers from post-traumatic memory loss. Troubled by the stressful experience of not recognising people she is supposed to recognise, she decides to go away from home. It is during this trip, she encounters the hero. After a series of cute moments, this secret is revealed to the hero. When the hero gets to know her condition, he takes her to one of his friends, a doctor. He says the situation is nothing scary, it can be easily cured, but there is a chance that she will forget everything that happened after the incident. This severely troubles the heroine. She says "If something like that happens, please do not leave me. Even if I forget you, even if I insult you or abuse you, please don't leave me. I will die without you.". At this point, he commits that he will not let anything separate them. Needless to say, later in the film, the heroine forgets the hero. Rest of the film revolves around how he struggles to keep his promise.
I feel this twist adds a lot of spice to the already interesting story. The ordeal this hero (or Odysseus's crew) had to endure was more challenging than what Odysseus had to go through. Do earlier desires take precedence over later desires? What about consent? This raises so many interesting questions. Thankfully, in movies, the end is always (almost) happy. However, in life, I would never want to be in the position of this hero or Odysseus's crew.
The Tamil movie Deepavali gives an interesting twist to this story - the hero is not Odysseus but a crew member. Let me elaborate. The heroine in this movie suffers from post-traumatic memory loss. Troubled by the stressful experience of not recognising people she is supposed to recognise, she decides to go away from home. It is during this trip, she encounters the hero. After a series of cute moments, this secret is revealed to the hero. When the hero gets to know her condition, he takes her to one of his friends, a doctor. He says the situation is nothing scary, it can be easily cured, but there is a chance that she will forget everything that happened after the incident. This severely troubles the heroine. She says "If something like that happens, please do not leave me. Even if I forget you, even if I insult you or abuse you, please don't leave me. I will die without you.". At this point, he commits that he will not let anything separate them. Needless to say, later in the film, the heroine forgets the hero. Rest of the film revolves around how he struggles to keep his promise.
I feel this twist adds a lot of spice to the already interesting story. The ordeal this hero (or Odysseus's crew) had to endure was more challenging than what Odysseus had to go through. Do earlier desires take precedence over later desires? What about consent? This raises so many interesting questions. Thankfully, in movies, the end is always (almost) happy. However, in life, I would never want to be in the position of this hero or Odysseus's crew.
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