Paradesi (2013)

In a tiny village located in the outskirts of the 1930s Madras lives a naive town fool named Raasa (Atharva) who is taken for granted by everyone in the hamlet. He lives on the charity of the few willing fellow villagers to fill his stomach. When a mysterious rich man arrives with prospect of employment, half the men and a few women and children in the village sign up to work for an year. As they leave their village and loved ones behind in hope for a better tomorrow, little do they know that a harrowing future awaits them. 

Paradesi is only Bala's sixth film but we all have a fair idea what to expect from him. Bala makes tragedies like it's nobody's business. Sethu still remains my favorite but Naan Kadavul's ending had this indescribable effect on me. If you walk in to Paradesi expecting the usual trademark Bala pain and suffering, beware for you were warned. Just the thought of the amount of agony the movie thrusts on its characters sends a chill down my spine. This is torture porn raised to the power of cocaine. In this film, Bala is like a Dementor of sorts, sucking every last bit of happiness out of us. 

Just like our body responds to a bleeding bruise by initiating hemostasis, I think the mind too flicks a switch somewhere deep down inside us to protect our sanity when it is subject to extreme stress. After being exposed to the film's emotional pounding and walking through the corridors of despair for 53 days, a significant part of me stopped responding. I grew completely numb and couldn't make myself react to the carnage unraveling on screen. I have learnt one thing about myself from experience; I have a fairly normal threshold for witnessing cinematic suffering. But there's only as much I could take without some periodic breathing space.

When death of major characters appears like just another page in a never-ending book, there's some problem with the movie. I'm a very easy weeper. At movies, I cry at the drop of a hat. But Paradesi and most of Bala's films are loud, where everyone on screen is crying their eyes out. I don't think I have ever wept watching others weep. That's not how it works for me and, I believe, for others. You slit our throats with subtlety or you don't. 

Said to have been based on true incidents which took place in pre-independence India of the 1930s, just the idea of this story is enough to rip my heart out. The tea-plantation slavery is so meticulously planned by the perpetrators that it becomes a labyrinth one could never walk out of.  Every time the film dangles a tiny piece of hope before the suffering slaves, it immediately thrusts something far bigger and further deepens their torment. I could see what Bala was going for and it should have worked and chances are you responded well to the film, but I sadly did not. I guess it is a subjective thing.

The first act is free of any physical pain, and that's just Bala beefing you up for later. It's a happy village where everyone know everybody. The town's head has a weakness for women; there's a beautiful wedding, complete with song and dance; there's pre-marital sex in pre-independence India; Then right before the interval, Bala smacks you on the head with a stick and my heart sank. That one shot (you'll know when you watch it) is probably one of the most evocative frames in our film history.

There are certain thematic problems as well. The religious angle near the end is handled very amateurishly. It kills the film's grim mood and doesn't even fully realize its intentions. Large scale forceful conversion to Christianity probably was a significant thing during that era but the placement of the said event is completely wrong in the film. If it was placed there to lend some much needed respite, it doesn't even manage to give us that. That entire portion is just plain unnecessary. I have no good things to say about the stereotyping of English plantation owners. It's things like these that will make sure the West will never take our brand of cinema seriously. 

The craft in Paradesi is one of our finest technical achievements ever. The attention to detail and the impeccable period recreation will make your jaw drop. The sepia-ish visuals lend the film a tragically nostalgic tone about a long lost era. While the closing moment has an earth-shattering dramatic weight and is something which I didn't see coming, the impact was lost on me. Paradesi is an haunting piece of work which, if it works, should leave you with a heavy heart. 

Vathikuchi (2013)

Well, well. One can never tell which movie will spring a surprise, can we? Produced by Fox Star Studios and A.R. Murugadoss, Vathikuchi is Writer/Director P. Kinslin's first film. And what a debut it is! With a fairly realistic story sprinkled with some very rousing action sequences, Vathikuchi gives a much needed face-lift to the age-old Man vs. Social Evils tale. 

The first thing one would notice straight up about Vathikuchi is the lead hero. Newcomer Dileeban is someone who is not particularly easy on eyes- an opinion I share with the film's lead female character. We have got used to seeing pretty faces running around that even an unconventionally good looking person is having a hard time landing lead roles. I think about this every time I see a movie starring the very talented John C. Reilly. Dileeban plays Shakthi, a share-auto driver and he is tailor-made for the role. It takes some to get used to him but his character is so darn likable that he completely wins you over.

There are three unrelated people who are nursing a deep drudge against Shakthi. We don't know their story but we understand they all want this seemingly harmless auto driver dead. Right when I feared an over-the-top back-story was in the offing, the film took me by surprise. With two very good flashbacks featuring Sampath and Jayaprakash and one not so bad flashback featuring Jegan, the film impressively lays all the motives and sets up a strong foundation for the final act. At the end of Sampath's story, I feared two more back to back flashbacks would break my spirit. Thankfully, the film immediately utilizes an effective non-linear narrative to slowly dole out the rest of the story. Maybe it's because of I'm a huge fan of Aaranya Kaandam, but Vathikuchi is so level-headed in its portrayals that even during the climax fight, in spite of every thing I saw, a big part of me wished to see Sampath- the primary antagonist- live.

When scenes carefully build up to them, fight sequences stir something deep inside us -- a feeling to see someone undo the wrongs in the society. There are nearly five prominent actions scenes and they all work wonderfully. Judiciously using slow-motion, the action choreography are one of this film's high points. They often get over-dramatic with bodies flying higher than gravity would permit, but I didn't have any problem. I was having too much fun to complain. 

This is a film which gets the milieu and this is a director who understands the importance of shooting scenes in the very same locations which are mentioned in the movie. The story happens in certain specific places in and around Chennai, like Pallavaram, Soucarpet, Velacherry and Vandalur. So when the Shakti is driving his auto from Tambaram to Velacherry, he is shown travelling on the very same road. Maybe it's just because I live and work in a few of those places, but this attention to detail pleased me very much. 

Pattimandram Raja and Saranya Ponvannan play Shakthi's parents, but the film never tries to squeeze some inane humor from them. Anjali's character could have been written better and, even though the love story is largely entertaining and better than we see in most action films, it pales in comparison to the rest of the movie. The final scene at the hospital made me cringe and the film closed on a slightly dull note. But that shouldn't take away anything from the rest of the film's good work. 

Vathikuchi is a solid action film that features some nifty writing and risky directorial choices which truly pay off. The pacing is just about right and the songs are never a hindrance. Vathikuchi is recommended. 

The Attacks of 26/11 (2013)

I have seen only one Ram Gopal Verma film in my life: Rangeela. I never got around to watch his critically-acclaimed crime dramas, his spate of horror films or even the universally hated recent misadventures. I do not understand the praise or the criticism he has received. Oh boy. I do now. The criticism. 

The film opens with a Joint Commissioner of Police, accused of mishandling the fightback and botching up the subsequent investigation, deposing before a committee set up to uncover discrepancies. There are numerous ways to make a film around this historical event. Ramu could have made a film from one family's point of view; or about a slew of strangers caught in different parts of the city, struggling to stay alive. Instead, he chooses to make the all encompassing version which starts in the Arabian Sea and goes about,  procedurally, creating mayhem in all the places we now associate with the terror attacks. There's nothing wrong with Ramu's choice, per se, but the way he makes his movie. Leaving us with no one to relate to or root for, he insensitively turns most of his characters into mere props- bag of flesh and blood just waiting to take a bullet and spill their guts out. By taking this route, it never quite finds its unique voice. 

The film claims this particular terror attack was far more shocking than 9/11 because of its "sheer audacity". I don't think I agree. I believed there was a massive intelligence failure and a major botch up by the city's Police, fueled by intrusive media coverage. The film's job was to convince me to believe otherwise; to consider the Joint Commissioner's account and reassess my views. It has clearly failed miserably. In its attempt to give some sort of catharsis, the film colors the cop clean while only coming across as a movie about one man saving his ass by telling us what we already knew. No one asks him any hard questions. The 'committee' is basically a bunch of suited extras, who have vowed to never open their mouth, giving reaction shots. 

I expected the film to put the lone captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab on a pedestal. Ramu does exactly that, and more, by turning Kasab into a poster child. His representation of terrorists is so basic that I couldn't believe someone once considered this guy a great director. With terrorists putting on their best scary face, shaking their guns in fury as they pump bullets into all the underpaid extras, the whole atmosphere becomes very caricaturish. From the CCTV images, Kasab looked like an excited kid out on a field trip. But Ramu's Kasab is all Bharat Mata ki Maa ki, foaming at the mouth with fury. He was lucky enough to find a guy who sort of resembled Kasab, but he tortures the poor guy to act when he clearly can't. 

The direction is so bad you wouldn't believe. This is the kind of vision which was passable in the 90s Bollywood. But at a time when we are getting movies like Zero Dark Thirty, it is mind-boggling to have Ramu expect us to keep a straight face while looking at a shot of terrorists walking around, with a statue of a Hindu deity in the foreground, and dhoom tana dhoom tana music playing in the background. 

The Attacks of 26/11 is an insensitive, amateurishly directed film. Ramu is the only filmmaker in the entire world who got an opportunity to visit the ruins of Taj Mahal Palace. It's a real shame he couldn't make a half decent movie out of his first hand experience. It is grim and grotesque just for the sake of it. Avoid at all costs. 

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

Like everyone, I do not expect greatness from every film I see; especially not from a Summer movie releasing in early March. I try to look at a movie by keeping in mind who it is playing for and see if it at least manages to do what it set out for. With all due respect to kids, Jack the Giant Slayer is a movie for undemanding kids. We get a good two dozen films like Jack.. every year and they somehow manage to make obscene amounts of money. In my view, these kind of films are the chalta hai fares which are dumped on us despite the makers' understanding that they are of substandard quality; where one-dimensional characters are chalta hai, as long as there is enough visual spectacle acting as a pillow to smother our senses. I almost wrote 'I expected something better from someone like Bryan Singer', but that would have been more appropriate during the release of Superman. That ship has sailed. 

It is time for movies like Jack.. to up the ante. They will soon become a dying breed if they continue to peddle out such mediocrity. We are in the golden era of television; shows like Game of Thrones are many times more spectacular than many of these films put together, and feature immensely superior writing. It is almost embarrassing to pay and knowingly watch something like Jack..  when a better way of spending time is only a few clicks away.

The guy sitting next to me was having his first 3D experience and was understandably excited. I too get curious every time an auteur attempts a movie with an extra dimension, but I would still prefer my movie the usual way. I'm afraid the word 'usual' may not mean the same anymore. See Life of Pi was gorgeous but it would have been so even in 2D. Sitting through these mega-budget Computer Generated orgy has become such a chore that even the occasional good ones are ruined. Unfortunately, I think we have reached a point where bitching about the futility of 3D is no longer in vogue. I would go out of my way to watch a 2D version but every cinema house around has changed allegiance. Enough of my troubles.

Jack the Giant Slayer does manage to get a couple of things right. Nicholas Hoult is pretty likable and Eleanor Tomlinson will have your attention. But the writing lacks the wit and humor necessary to keep one hooked. At times, it becomes so unengaging that you wouldn't mind if everyone just died and the lights came on. Like I said in the previous paragraph, the chalta hai apathy creeps in ever so often and Singer goes all Valkyrie on us. I have always believed that Fantasy should use CGI as a tool and not as a handicap; this movie thinks otherwise. 

At a time when everyone is re-imagining children's fairy tales for adults- filled with sex, profanity, violence and anachronistic soundtrack- there's this quality about Jack that makes it want to remains true to its roots. It is both a commendable exercise and something worth criticizing. It is a film for kids and I think it lacks the magic ingredient to keep the adults invested. 

The music is noticeably uninspiring. Maybe its the source material itself which is to blame here. A princess with an itch for adventure, a poor peasant boy with a heart of gold, an ignorant King, a scheming minister, giant creatures ugly enough to let us know we are supposed to hate them.. Jack the Giant Killer has it all. It is as silly as you'd expect a film titled "Jack the Giant Killer" to be. If you are still interested, remember to take the kids along. They'll probably have fun cause they don't know better. Sorry, kids. Oz: The Great and Powerful releases next week and it wouldn't make a difference which one you choose to go to. They are all just the same. Others can happily skip this without thinking twice. 

Ameerin Aadhi Bhagavan (2013)

Aadhi Bhagavan is a mistaken identity movie with a twist. Here's the catch. Unlike all such films where a nobody finds himself lured into a vast trap, this film takes a person who is a gangster in his own right and throws him in the mix to fend for himself. And what follows was pretty interesting. 

I make it a point to bitch about the so called International films we have been making of late. Aadhi Bhagavan falls in the category but, thankfully, Jeyam Ravi is not trying to save the world here. It is a well written film, but in spite of being original, it will often remind you of many other movies. There are shades of Samar and even the recently released Special 26. Until the big reveal which comes very late into the first half, the movie feels completely lost. There are a couple of puny villains but nothing too serious. The entire Mother-Sister angle, which is reminiscent of Scarface, adds little value to the already dull first act. It relies too heavily on its twist to make up for the dullness. Thankfully, the twist works and sets up an interesting premise for the second half.

[Spoilers ahead]

Even in an industry where actors count their double roles as achievements, it is not often that we see two characters share a same face without being biologically related. And to see them fight each other for reasons above material gains brings a fascinating amount of intrigue. The good thing about Aadhi Bhagavan is that even though it is partial to Aadhi, it doesn't paint Bhagavan as too bad a person. It gives the character enough gravitas to ensure the audience at least consider siding with him.

The film is very ambiguous when it comes to Bhagavan's sexual orientation. Is he just an effeminate male who is strongly attracted to women or is there something more to him? If not, why even bring up his sexuality in the first place? It becomes a mere gimmick in that case.

[End of Spoilers]

Ravi doesn't have a fan following. He never tasted success as a mass action hero. Actors like him have to build from scratch for every role they essay. It is good that he got to do this film and I am sure this will do good business. But there were so many moments where I couldn't convince myself he was the right person for this film. In the hands of some other actor, this film could have felt more full. Ravi has spent a good three years of his life on this project and the effort shows. But despite being bulky as a Spanish bull, he comes across as a very awkward gangster. 

This is a film which could have really managed to appear more intelligent by saying less. But it resorted to spoon-feeding- to spell out all its twists to the lowest common denominator. Instances such as these really disappoint me.

Most Tamil films truly suck at closing a film with an open ending. They explicitly mention a sequel which never ever gets made. In that regard, I found the ending of Aadhi Bhagavan interesting. It doesn't lend us the comfort of closure and leaves room for speculation. This unsettling quality is what defines an open ending and I am happy Ameer went for something like this.

All the songs except the Bhagavan rap, are very poor and eat up a lot of runtime. It could do with some trimming. The action scenes are choreographed well but the Christopher Rouse style rapid editing doesn't bode well. There are some lean patches but, on the whole, Aadhi Bhagavan is a satisfying watch.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Silver Linings Playbook, true to its name, is sort of a dreamy manual to help get one's life back on track. It uses all the known elements which we tend to associate with romantic comedies. From Football, dance competitions, to using  festivals to denote passage of time, it knows it belongs in the rom-com territory and isn't ashamed of it. By the end, it elevates itself to much more, while adamantly sticking to the genre's aesthetics.

Bradley Cooper's Patrick belongs to the world where the concept of lying hasn't been invented. Forget white lies, he is incapable of uttering niceties. And his flaws make him flesh out into a very real person. What makes him worthy of being rooted for is his undying positivity to get out of the mess he finds himself in and restart a life with his wife.

Tiffany's arrival makes the film more interesting. When mutual friends Ronny and Veronica decide to set these two broken, vulnerable people up in the hope that they could feed off each other, Russell puts the viewer in Patrick's place by holding back with certain parts of the story and investing in coincidences. Is Tiffany for real or a figment of Patrick's wild imagination? How does he keep running into her? And what are the odds of her being an equally broken person?

The film is handling an icky subject of mental illness and you don't see any of those scenes which milk the sentiment. We are not provided with any directives and we come to root for our leads on our own accord. One of the interesting aspects of the movie is how it hints at Pat Sr.'s own struggles with mental problems but doesn't go the distance to shed more light on the topic. It gives you a hint that Patrick's problems may have deep hereditary roots and it was going to burst out in open one way or the other.

There are cliches and then there are comforting cliches. Silver Linings gives us exactly what we want to see. It didn't inspire me as much as it did a few others, but it was always, you know, nice. In Patrick's words, the world is a pretty messed up place as it is and we don't need another sad Hemingway ending.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

While The Hurt Locker periodically offered potent doses of thrills, Zero Dark Thirty brings out the frustrating and hard ways of gathering intelligence and constantly hitting dead ends. The film follows breadcrumbs, sparsely sprinkled across the length of the breadth. The trails are so thin, there are times when the story appears to be going nowhere. It's a densely written work with a lot of facts and names. We all know how things end. The important task for Bigelow was to keep us invested in the process and sustain our interest till the very end. I must say she has managed to do exactly that.

I must confess I was most excited about the final scene. Honestly, I was a bit curious to know how the leads appeared but I didn't care much for them next to the actual raid. That was a historical moment. It's like recreating the Kennedy assassination. We've all read about it and seen animated representations on CNN but the picture never came clearly to our head. The fact that they are selling it as "the greatest manhunt in history" itself underlines the importance of the subject. The film sears you with boundless thrill as two choppers stealthily fly low over a dark and sleepy Pakistan. In that moment, I had this photograph appear in my head; the one that was splashed on newspapers across the world; the one with Obama, Clinton, Biden and other top staffs attentively watching a television screen showing live-feed from the cameras on the Navy Seal Team's head gear. How much this one event meant to them, not just politically, and to the world in general was what that made watching the climax all the more special.

During the raid sequence, the film sticks to minimal action and known facts. I remember reading that one of the two Navy SEAL choppers crash landed inside the Abbottabad complex. It was just a piece of information whose gravity didn't get to me. But watching the dramatized version made me realize how absurdly wrong things went. Zero Dark Thirty is an action film but unlike any other. In the film's most important juncture, Chris Pratt's character whispers 'Osama' in a fake accent hoping to lure his prize out. I hope it was intended to be funny, because it was hilarious. Just because the trick worked for him once before, him trying the same once again turned the moment into something so funny that every last bit of tension was diffused. Even the most important bullet in the film is fired without any dramatic build-up and OBL lays dead before you know it.

It is not a cheery movie. In its closing moments, it doesn't fill us with optimism and leaves our veins pumping with patriotism. The film actually continues with the "The rush of battle... for war is a drug." theme previously explored in detail in The Hurt Locker. Here is a person who was recruited to CIA straight out of high-school, is not an easy person to work with, has no real friends and has a career solely defined by this one single mission. She cannot afford to fail. And the inevitable sense of loss that washes over her at the end is palpable. She's the superhero who lost her nemesis and couldn't help but shed a tear. Once the weight gets lifted from her shoulders and she comes face to face with the sudden closure, the magnitude of the emotions bears her down. 

William Goldenberg, who also worked on Argo, has co-edited this film and the pacing is very good. Boasting a stunning ensemble cast, Zero Dark Thirty is a very well crafted film. It may not break my top 10, but I am glad I caught this on the big screen.

Mama (2013)

Mama is my first horror film on the big screen, discounting Pizza and the awful Charulatha. At the cost of sounding boastful, I must say horror movies don't easily scare me. I even criticized Pizza for falling flat when it came to scares, scares which largely worked on most of the people I discussed the film with. Despite knowing how well films of this genre open at American box-office, I was unsure if they were actually effective when, in spite of the great sound, one is surrounded by hordes of people. My Mama experience has left me with mixed thoughts.

Because watching the trailer beforehand marginally diminished the film's impact, I will refrain from going into the story and try to be vaguer than I usually am. After being rescued from the cabin in the woods, the girls take a long time to get used to civilization. The older one is closer to society, but the little one appears to have been scarred beyond recovery. Their uncle Jaime Lannister and his girlfriend, played by a delicious looking Goth Jessica Chastain, devote their time to rebuild the girls' life.

Mama has a decent story and is a generally well made horror film which avoids the genre's cliches. It doesn't go for cheap thrills and never ceases to be interesting. It is also supported by strong crafts. Yet, ultimately, it doesn't deliver on the scares even as much as I would have liked it to. So, again, like with Pizza, I think I should be recommending this film nevertheless.

The back-story about this particular person who the kids refer to as 'Mama' presents itself to the many lead characters in the form of dreams (nightmares, actually). It makes sense that characters take their time before realizing that they are in a horror movie where weird things can happen. But everything is pretty apparent to the viewers who know what they have got their selves into. So once the revelations stop being revelatory, it is up to them to go all out on the scares. I honestly don't know how films belonging to this genre work. I am just telling you what could have made this far more interesting for me.

On more than one occasion, we are made to believe everything we witness in a static frame is normal, and then, by the introduction of newer information, we suddenly understand that things are not okay. It is of the more interesting devices the film uses, and to great effect. Sometimes, the joke is on us; rest of the times on Chastain, who happens to be our only connection to this story where strange things can happen.

In our movies, we don't like to see good people get hurt. From the little horror I am accustomed with, I understand the world works in such a way that people get hurt/die when they are not particularly affable or are a little too curious. This rule holds true in Mama, where generally everyone is good in their own way and make their own share of sacrifices to look after the girls' betterment. But in order to have some sort of catharsis, we have a circumstantial antagonist in the form of the girls' grandmother who is out to secure their custody from their uncle. So even though she's not a bad person, people were very pleased to see her come in harm's way because she is placed relatively low on the goodness scale.

I saw it in a theater which boasted fancy Dolby Atmos sound system and I am still not convinced these films work better on the big screen. I think Mama is definitely a film worth checking out. I leave it up to you to decide how you want to watch this film. 

Lincoln (2012)

In the film's opening scene, a black soldier comes up to Lincoln and respectfully asks for equality for his race. He hopes: "in a few years perhaps they (White people) can abide the idea of Negro lieutenants and captains. In fifty years, maybe a Negro colonel. In a hundred years - the vote." He couldn't have imagined in his wildest dreams that in a little more than 150, America would have a Black President. Lincoln's cultural and historical significance is astonishing. It makes sense why the release date was played around with, so it won't be used as a vehicle by either parties to gain political mileage during the recent Presidential elections. And Lincoln was a Republican.    

It is not often that a film makes you respect a character who you knew almost nothing about. I would liken my experience to watching Devar Magan, where I couldn't keep my clasped hands from going up with reverence during the final scene. Lincoln is like that. You don't see the grey sides to him, but do we really have to see some negative traits when, chances are, they never prominently existed? 

An interesting attribute to Lincoln is that he has a story for every argument or discussion. This is not a movie about Lincoln's childhood or about his losing the many elections before finally becoming the president. He has seen the horrors of war and the underbelly of Washington politics. He has even lost his son to one, making him all the more protective towards his youngest. The man has lead a full life now. His stories are such good companion pieces to the point he is trying to drive home. There's even a funny scene where one character shouts out in bewilderment as Lincoln begins to tell another one of his stories.  

There were some complaints about the film's length and that kept me from watching it at home. But surprisingly, the pacing is excellent. The dialogues are so well written that your attention never wanders. Opening with the presidential inauguration, the film immediately jumps into Lincoln's plans to table the 13th amendment in the house of Representatives. He may be the most loved person in every room he's in, but his first term was completely shrouded by the devastating Civil War. This one historic piece of legislation could be his legacy. Like this year's Argo, the film leads to a nerve-wracking high, where despite knowing the outcome, you hang on to every last syllable, with your heart beating like crazy. 

Lincoln is an important movie. It focuses on only a few months of his life but it still is the Gandhi of this decade. It needed to exist so the world could know what a great man he was. I think we can trust Kushner for depicting the events with sufficient accuracy. Like many of Spielberg's previous films, the victory is balanced with a sense of loss. Enough blood has been spilled. The fact that this bill wouldn't have passed for a long time if not for Lincoln gives the whole aspect an extra gravitas. This is a wholesome movie. That the movie delves deep on Lincoln's relationship with this wife Mary Todd was itself a nice touch and makes for some truly marvelous scenes.  

Daniel Day-Lewis gives a performance to last for eternity. From the slight slouch to the voice, he nails it on all points. His imposing stature could make anyone go weak in the knees as he lovingly places his hand on someone's shoulders or refers to them by their first name. He *is* Abe Lincoln. He is supported by an excellent cast, one of the best ever assembled. I don't recall seeing so many known faces in a movie before. Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Haley, Tim Blake Nelson,  Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Michael Stuhlbarg, Lukas Haas, Dane DeHaan, David Costabile and Adam Driver. Phew. I simply had to write that down.

Kaminski, Williams and Kahn.. they all deliver. This is a great movie. Damn. It really is. Lincoln is the most fun you'll have in a history class. It is enlightening and wildly entertaining for such a wordy movie.  

Vishwaroopam (2013)

Hmm. Where.. do we begin? I took my time to write about this film. Pushing off my initial reactions, I gave the film a lot of thought because I wanted to be really sure. My views haven't changed a bit. Vishwaroopam is disappointing. 

The film opens with a beautiful Haneke-ish static shot showing a few pigeons fluttering and cooing in their shelves. A mysterious looking man, who could be Kamal under heavy makeup, appears and sets a few birds free. What is happening? The action quickly shifts to a woman confessing about her marital and extramarital problems to a psychiatrist. When asked to go in detail about her husband, she takes more than a moment to say something. And then we see the man himself- dancing more gracefully than ever. The first 30 or so minutes of Vishwaroopam is great fun. The film is heavy on Kamal's trademark humor and fills you with a lot of curiosity. Sadly, the film peaks too early. Everything goes downhill from here, ending in a dull climax.   

Tamil Nadu is a small state in a big country. We have a thriving film industry but we don't have the muscle of Bollywood in terms of eyeballs. In recent times, we have started making a lot of international films. By international, I am only referring to using foreign locales not just for dancing in colorful clothes but also to drive the story forward. There are so many logistical issues when a Tamil film is set in a foreign place. With some films, the story is such that they cannot but be set in a foreign land. Shankar's Jeans is a fine example. There has been a significant rise in number of such international films. Most have faltered due to their inability to handle the scale. Vishwaroopam's problems are not because it bites more than it can chew. It's because it fails to keep the thrill alive after the halfway mark. 

In the league of balls-out campy absurdness, Dasavatharam is up there. After watching Kamal's latest, I have begun to like his previous film better. It has aged well and slowly slipped into the So-Bad-It's-Good territory. The writing is decent enough and there's a proper story arc to most of Kamal's avatars. I have yet to watch it again after the first time but the memory is still fresh. Though it appears to have been cut from the same fabric as Dasavatharam, it is too early to look at Vishwaroopam in the same light. After all, it is a movie which thinks of itself as high-minded action film which looks at the developing tissues of terrorism.

In spite of what I said in the previous paragraph, Vishwaroopam is not an easy movie to label. It doesn't follow the same mood throughout. It starts off as something and becomes something else before ultimately turning into a one-man-saves-the-world movie. It is constantly evolving and unable to make up its own mind as to what it really aspires to be. It can be a good thing and bad thing. I don't know if this aspect of the movie has made it any better but it certainly wasn't problematic in any way.

A huge chunk of the film is set in Afghanistan where one Wasim Ahmed Kashmiri joins al-Qaeda. Rahul Bose's Omar, who is running the operations, accepting Wasim with open arms only pays off when he sees how highly skilled he is. His nationality and knowledge may come in handy if ever al-Qaeda decides to plan attacks on India in the future. It is here that the movie begins to lose steam and is unable to capitalize on the established mystery. The film recreates the time and place very well but the entire portion is too long for comfort and never particularly enlightening.

When it comes to action, Vishwaroopam leaves you wanting more. Not because the action is so good but because it never gives you much in the first place. There's a Guy Ritchie style real-time/slow-motion fight which is very entertaining. Then there's a car chase which is special in no way. The big set-piece takes place in the Afghan training camp when the natives are bombarded with aerial attacks. Okay, this kind of action has never been seen before in an Indian movie and I am sure it required a lot of hard work, given the budget constraints. But is that a reason good enough to celebrate it? Especially when it is so ordinary? Maybe we shouldn't write sequences which we couldn't materialize.

This new fad (old?) of showing villains with deformities hasn't gone well with me. And Kamal whose legacy itself is prosthetics has tried a couple of things. In spite of it all, Rahul Bose's Omar is a very tame, toothless villain who is not menacing in the least. After the point which I'll simply refer to as the 'transformation', there's never a moment where Kamal's Vishwanath appears vulnerable. 

In a movie about butterfly effect and chaos theory, there is ample space for coincidences. Talking about Vishwanath's relationship with his wife Nirupama- after his stint in Afghanistan, he is hibernating in the States under an identity of a classical dancer from India who couldn't hurt a fly. He is harmless and wouldn't raise even slight suspicion as to who he really is. To appear even more, for want of a better word, respectable in the society, he decides to get married. From Nirupama's confessions to her shrink, we know that her marriage was a one way ticket to fulfilling her dreams. There's no love in the relationship but just an understanding- a mutual agreement of sorts. Such is his devotion towards his work that he transforms himself into an effeminate person who is an embarrassment to his own wife. His closest confidante is another undercover officer named Ashmitha who becomes his student to stay close and communicate better about their operation. He may or may not be screwing her. I guess not. Everything's okay till now.

After reaching shore, Nirupama decided to do her doctorate in Nuclear Oncology. After years of study and research, she now works for a company headed by an Indian man who she is romantically involved with. Turns out the company is under Vishwanath's watchful eyes for channeling funds which may be used for something dangerous. Now how convenient is that? Or are you are telling me the marriage was just an excuse to get a student from India who is likely to become a Nuclear Oncologist and may just happen to work in the said company to gain an 'easy' access to the dirty inside workings? Wow. In that case, their plan is at least ten times more elaborate than even the terrorist's plans.

Nirupama coming around and instantly developing feelings for this newer, improved version of her husband is actually very understandable. It is said that some women are turned on by violence. Remember Maria Bello having passionate, rough sex (rape?) with Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence, right after she sees who he really is? Nirupama slowly turns into another Iyer lady with a big mouth - very similar to Asin in Dasavatharam, though, thankfully, never as annoying.

See, I love Kamal Hassan. My respect for him has grown manifold over the last few days. It's this instinctive feeling to support a man who has become a victim of the system. Travelling all the way to Bangalore to watch the film was in itself our own little rebellious way of giving the finger to JJ and showing solidarity with Kamal. But my not liking Vishwaroopam is my opinion. Though it sounds like it. I am not being defensive. With all due respect, people around me are so blinded by the controversy that they are mixing two things up. Their romanticized views have no place in a healthy discussion. I am happy if you liked the film and have valid reasons for it. But immediately questioning someone's judgment because that person didn't like a movie as much is plain silly.

Kamal as a director has a taken up a project which is working on a very big scale. I still think he ghost-directed Dasavatharam, or had more than necessary creative control. He still continues to use clunky looking props. Here, he abuses the Bullet Time technique to little effect; it leaves no impact whatsoever. The dialogues are not particularly good with instances where they are very bad. Remember that female cop during the interrogation? It's a tough movie to make for an Indian crew and the strains show. Sanu Varghese has done a good job. Vishwaroopam could have been better if the sequence of exposition were tweaked a bit. The final act is devoid of any sort of thrill and monotonously reaches an end. Like Dasavatharam, which ends with sympathy porn montage of Kamal getting his makeup applied, Vishwaroopam too overwhelms with some fast-cut, high-octane shots from action sequences, which we quickly learn belong to the sequel.

In all honesty, I am not at all excited to see this evolve into a franchise. I hope this genius who made Hey Ram would spend his time and talent on a better world. But do go and watch Vishwaroopam on the big screen. For Kamal's sake.