I still recall many years ago...after my arangetram finished, Muralidaran sir looked at me and said when you do the Sanchari I can't see the difference between Vishnu and Brahma..
He was referring to my Sanchari in Aadi Aadi Mahilnthaar where we narrate the story of Brahma and Vishnu going in search of Shiva's hair and his feet (respectively) to prove who is the greater god. In this competition Vishnu fails to find his feet and surrenders to shiva saying that he is the greatest. Brahma goes in search of his hair but is unable to sight it, however, he does find a Ketaki flower falling down from his hair. He quickly grabs it and hands it to Shiva saying he has seen the top of his head. The flower serves as a false witness of Brahma. Knowing this was a lie Shiva is enraged that Brahma would stoop so low..he curses him saying there will be no temple for him and curses the Ketaki flower that it will never be used as a pooja flower.
So back to me... how do you show the difference between Vishnu and Brahma other than the poses and the hand gestures. Sir's comment has travelled with me far and wide. In fact it wasn't until 6 months ago that I sat down and really decided to solve this puzzle for myself.
I did what any storyteller would do.. That's right I psychoanalysed by characters.
Profile Vishnu - huge fan following.. god who is loved, god who is rich, god... who gives me bragging vibes.. If I were to put him in a high school rom com he'd be the popular guy full of himself, but with a good heart you know
Profile Brahma - although known as the creator among the Trimurti.. kind of feels like he's not as popular as Vishnu and Shiva.. People know him but not as much celebration going on.. So you know.. he'd kind of feel a little neglected and brutish.. kind of emo vibes.. also sensitive
Shiva.. gives me Rasta feels.. like Bob Marley you know cool chilled, smoking ganja.. but in this story.. I can't help but think he's all knowing about what is going to happen.. but maybe he bet against it personally...
So the fight starts between Vishnu and Brahma.. and Vishnu being the teaser that he is would be off on a bragging spree about all his avatars, how he took the vishwaroopa, how he's everyone's favourite, how he had 2000 lovers
Brahma.. I think would've just been pushed to the edge, his ego hurt and clearly he didn't love himself if he felt he had to prove himself at any cost, even lying. Honestly, I feel that argument would have triggered him, brought up all these self confidence issues and then boom he decides to lie about everything.
In a woke high school film the audience may have actually sided with Brahma but this is a varnam sanchari and there is a moral of the story.
whats the moral of the story??
Moral of the story is... love yourself and heal your inner wounds so you don't get into fights with gods who like to mess with your mind and then you end up doing things to prove yourself and you don't need that external validation from no one.
And Shiva.. you know.. I'm guessing he was secretly hoping his friend Brahma would pull through and not lie to him.. but the moral of the story had to be told. Don't let your ego rule over you. So I'm guess in that whole scene, he would've just been disappointed at Brahma.
Now that I have clear distinct characters I can differentiate the gods in my Sanchari
Ha!
