Uthama Villain

After a long interval I am returning to my blog. It was a fairly long hibernation for about 10 months. Not that there were no compelling topics to blog about, there were plenty of them .But I was pre-occupied with my other commitments. Receiving comments on some of my very old posts and a fairly good monthly page views for a blog which was not active for quite some time,triggered me to wake up from my slumber and write blog posts again. Recently I happened to watch Kamal's new film 'Uththama Vilain' .What could be a better opportunity than writing a review for this film. I don't normally write film reviews; nonetheless I had written few reviews for films that made an impact on me.

I write this review only for one reason. I was very impressed with the way the screen play is written. I am sure there could be very few screen play writers who could have handled a story of this type so deftly and made it so lucid. And Kamal is one of them. I personally believe 'Jigarthanda' director would also be capable of handling a script like this. But the moot point is 'Is the film made for film buffs or a run-of-the-mill film fan?'

As usual one can see the exceptional histrionic talents of Kamal .His performance as an actor in this film is very subdued and I could see the self restraint he has exercised in portraying the character of Manoranjan. For a person who can do any role with ease, under playing a character is a cake walk. He is equally at ease in portraying the character of Uthaman who lived in the 8th century. Portrayal of the Teyyam artisit role is fiery and a  total contrast.

Characters of this film have many real life resemblances. Manoranjan played by Kamal resembles his own character as an actor. Margadarisi played by the late director K.Balachander resembles his own life and associations with Kamal as an actor in real life. In one of the scenes Manoranjan pleads with his mentor director Maragadarisi to make one last film for him, because he is suffering from brain cancer. Reluctantly he agrees after many persuasions. The irony is in real life is it happened to be the last film where Margadarisi (played by KB) directs Manoranjan (played by Kamal). Probably during the shoot of the film no one would have expected this to happen.

Now coming to the screenplay, it is exceptional. The viewer is conscious of the fact that he is watching a Kamal film titled  'Uthama Villain'. Since Kamal plays the roles of an actor, it is difficult to imagine he is playing the role of an actor. Actor Manoranjan has a past. He is not in best relations with his family members (wife, son and father in law).He also has an extra marital relation with a doctor who is attending on him.

Actor Manoranjan acts in a film titled "Utham Villain",in this movie. The story is about an 8th century folklore. It is visualised as a villupattu narration in the "Uthama villain" film by actor Manoranjan.

Actor Manoranjan plays the character of "Uthaman" in this folklore story. He is a naive villager with a sense of humour and by sheer providence he escapes from the jaws of death many times. People start to believe this guy is immortal.

There is another parallel story running around the same time in the folklore. A local king is dethroned by his  own brother in law ,with a view to marry his daughter (Played by Nasser and Pooja Kumar).Astrologers predict a doom for this king! .So to become immortal and marry his niece he brings  Uthaman to his fort and keeps him in captivity to learn the tricks of immortality . The princess and Uthaman scheme to escape from the fort .They enact a Teyyam (a cult form of worship) for this purpose. In the Teyyam Uthaman plays the role of Hiranyakashipu.

The screen play shifts between actor Manoranjan's personal life, Uthaman's 8th century role, and towards the end Hiranyakashipu's role. All these narrations have different backdrops. Easily a viewer can get lost in the frequent transitions between these stories. But the screen play deftly handles this and is seamless. I don't think this type of a story could have been narrated in a better way with clarity. Obviously I can understand the amount of editing that would have gone in to the film to make it coherent and at the same time comprehensible. Full marks to the screen play.The film also shows the contrasting emotions of an immortal man and a person who is expecting death any moment .Both roles are played by Kamal.

Lyrics  penned by Kamal are good as usual  and he has sung a couple of songs too . Music director Gibran has done a commendable work.The film credits say it is directed by actor Aravind Ramesh . 

No offence meant,but Kamal is all pervasive in every aspect of the film. 

I can understand Kamal's anxiety that the film may not get Tamil Nadu government's entertainment tax benefits because the film title has the English word villain in his film .Actor Manooranjan goes out of the way to explain and justify that the word villain is a Tamil word. May be Kamal hopes the authorities to buy his theory and give tax concessions!. He also has a dig at persons who blackmail film personalities.

On the whole this is a well thought out and very well executed project .But how far it will be received by the audience is a moot question. Kamal is an exceptional artist with a different percept. I am reminded of Oscar wild's quote “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” And the most interesting thing about Kamal is that he is not frightened by others perceptions.