Palm as a symbol of love in the movie Ohm Shanti  Oshana.

    Love means different to different people. There is no perfect definition of love. All are our assumptions out of the experience. But there are certain conventions that have been believed without any question. Like the heart symbol, we use to express or symbolize ‘LOVE’. We have seen lovers gifting their loved ones with heart-shaped products, especially on Valentine’s Day. But there are also other forms which can symbolize love as love means different to different people.

    Such a kind of varied and quite interesting symbol could be witnessed in the famous Malayalam movie Ohm Shanti Oshana. This movie portrays the love of a teenage girl named Pooja Mathew(Nazriya). Though this movie has a conventional love story, when you have a keen observation you may discover the beautiful hidden symbol of love. To no surprise, it is the Palm Tree. In this movie, Palm becomes the symbol of love in the love story of Pooja and Giri. When Pooja falls in love with Giri after an unplanned meet they had in a theme park, She plans to pay a visit to Giri’s house and gets stuck in the heavy rain. Giri scolds her for drenching herself and offers her an umbrella made up of palm leaves which pooja preserves as a memorable gift throughout her life. Later on a Palm Sunday Pooja decides to propose Giri as his birthday also falls on the same day. 

    As Pooja follows Giri to the hilltop with a red velvet box in which a keychain representing a Palm Umbrella is found. When she prepares herself to confess her love, Giri stops her and refuses her proposal as she is very young to fall in love. Dejected Pooja leaves the place with a heavy heart. Later after four years, it was on the same Palm Sunday Giri accepts Pooja's love at the same hilltop. So throughout the story Palm plays a silent romantic role in the love life of Pooja and Giri symbolizing their love.

    In general, Palm symbolizes victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life. Even in Pooja's love story, she got the victory. Though she was rejected in love initially she did not leave her first love and the memories of it,  as she carried her love and its symbols wherever she went and along with her , her love also started growing, like the Palm tree which has the specialty of growing straight towards the sky without any bent. This Palm tree also has greater reference in Christianity and in the scripture, as Christians celebrate Palm Sunday to proclaim the victory of Jesus. According to John Gospel, "They took palm branches and went out to meet him". There are also other references about Palm tree in the Bible, in Psalms, there is a reference to the palm tree, "The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree..".Even in Islam, there are references to Palm. The presence of palm trees around an oasis showed that water was the gift of Allah. There are also many martyrs with Palm branches in their hands which shows the importance of Palm. 

    Love could be understood even without expressing by the very sentence 'I Love You', as one can see in the case of Pooja and Giri's love story. And the symbol of love is also not the same one for everyone, as love means different to different people. And for Pooja and Giri it is a Palm.