Thiruvananthapuram: The most dramatic of our filmmakers must have tormented their brains to come up with unique settings for lovers to reveal their secret for the first time.
If Mani Ratnam’s lovers in Alaipayuthey were wrapped in the dense embrace of the southwest monsoon as they made their telepathic confession of love, Aditya Chopra took Raj and Simran to the sunny Church-infested meadows of Switzerland.
This Valentine’s Day on February 14, lovers willing to visit Kovalam are promised an experience the country’s legendary screen couples had been denied.
They can pop the life-changing question, ‘Will You Marry Me’, deep down in the psychedelic interiors of the ocean.
“We will take couples underwater escorted by expert divers. There, in the watery stillness, the man can kneel in front of his dream girl and propose or hold up a card on which will be written ‘Will you marry me?’,” said Peter Jackson, the managing partner of Bond Safari, the adventure company that also conducted the first underwater marriage in the country last month. The man, if he is keen, can also present a rose bouquet to his girl. But there could be a problem, Mr Jackson warned. “Just remember that even the simplest aquatic plant can outshine your rose for sheer beauty and glow,” he said.
The ‘Underwater Valentine’ programme will be held off the Grove Beach in Kovalam. Before going down, the couples will be decked up in full scuba-diving gear, complete with masks and flippers. “Couples will be offered a pre-dive training on the day itself,” Mr Jackson said.
While couples express their love under water, Mr Jackson said that Bond Safari would pledge its love for nature. “We will clear the sea bed near the Grove beach of plastic,” he said. “It is not just on the beach that plastic is strewn about, mounds of plastic are found underwater, too,” he said. A UN report recently has said that by 2020 plastic shreds will outnumber fishes in the ocean.
