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.
