UTHAMA VILLAIN - an "AutObituary"

UTHAMA VILLAIN - an "AutObituary"

Cast - Kamal Hassan -Uttaman/Manoranjan; Andrea Jeremiah - Aparna; Pooja Kumar - Princess; K.Balachander - Marghadarsi; Nassar - Mutharasan;Jacob - Jayaram; Urvashi - Varalakshmi; MS Bhaskar - Chokku Chettiar; K.Vishwanath - Poornachandran and many others
& Crew - Director - Ramesh Aravind; D.O.P -Shamdat; Music - Mohamaad Ghibran; Edit - Vijay Shankar
Producers - Kamal Haasan, N.Linguswamy & Subash Chandra Bose

Uthama villain from the start to finish was like watching Kamal Haasan's autobiography in bit's and pieces. The 3 hour long 'autobituary' saga labors constantly between the present and the fantasy. It is a sketchy depiction of Kamal's life story, his acting talent, his way of storytelling, his singing & dancing prowess, his brand of humor, his style of choreography, his agnostic religious beliefs bordering on atheism and revulsion to Brahmin rituals, chants and  prayers. All in all if you are an ardent Kamal fan you will watch this film with mixed feelings of love and toleration. For the rest like yours truly watched it with sadness in my heart as Kamal touches the final frontier to simply plead to his fans and viewers. 'I am still there and can do what the younger heroes can do and much more ; so please do not write me off as yet ! I am still 'Kamal' in my own right the eternal legend of Tamil cinema !' The problem is age has caught up with this highly versatile and talented actor. He should now take a leaf out of big B Amitabh Bachchan's life and start acting his age by doing more meaningful roles. If he does not mend his ways then another legendary Indian actor will be walking away into the sun set without much fanfare!  

Premise - Kamal as Manoranjan portrays the character of a typical 'Kollywood' hero and the film starts with a bang - a dance sequence with all the moves of a 'la' Vijay and Suryaa, but as the scene progresses you start feeling sad for him; as he vigorously shakes a leg with a younger heroine your mind simply refuses to eliminate the age factor that the visuals automatically conveys and conjures in your mind. Anyways in the first half our arrogant, conceited, egoistic, narcissistic but highly talented aging hero showcases the mass support he has among his fans though most of the visuals are created graphically using archived and technique of computer graphics used over a decade ago. A typical Tamil hero who has all the traits of a minor villain but deep inside a noble and likable one. He then goes on to establish the other characters in his present life as an actor in the film (through all these actors feature in his inner circle in real life too!) like Urvashi who plays his wedded wife, Andreah Jeremiah as his love quotient and personal physician. Kamal during the course of becoming a superstar is forced into marriage by his producer father in law to Urvashi and begets a son through him and at the same time has a passionate extramarital love affair  with a much younger Andreah and uses her for his 'sexapades'. Doesn't this 'reel' scene have a similarity to Kamal's 'real' life? Anyways the story then moves on to the pathos mode; a typically Kamal like move as he suddenly discovers that he has a brain tumor and has very little time left in this mortal world. To add to his woes he discovers that he has a daughter through his old flame and lover Yamini, Jayaram's daughter, once again a page out of Kamal's own life story? So what does he do? He reaches out to his mentor KB (K. Balachander) and pleads with him to do his last film before he dies! KB initially refuses but finally succumbs to the sympathy factor and agrees. Once again Kamal typically brings in the father in law character , a leading producer & Kamal's greatest benefactor and his long drawn feud with KB his mentor, though the reasons of hatred between the two aging characters is rather shallow. KB and Kamal then team up to make a historical/mythological period comedy. In this fantasy part of this film Kamal introduces himself as 'Uthaman' a character based on the mythological character 'Prahaladan' and can never be killed. He also brings on board his long time fan and buddy Nassar as a king to play the character which bears a similarity to 'Hiranyakasipu'. His love interest in KB's fantasy comedy film is the young doe eyed Pooja Kumar. The imprisoned and shackled princess who 'Uthaman' rescues by enacting a Tenali Raman kind of role. This portion for some reason reminds you of Vadivelu's '23 aam pulikesi'! This transition into the fantasy acts as the main comedy quotient and garners a few smiles laced with occasional laughs; once again the typical Kamal kind of humour!

& the climax - The merging of the two halves; the present and the past as Kamal the hero goes through the notions of his advancing brain tumour and towards the jaws of death and the film shoot half wherein the killing of Hiranyakasipu by Narasimha is being enacted by Kamal which is being directed by his mentor KB; After almost 3 long the film reaches it's finale.....

What worked for me- Though past his prime Kamal's acting talent simply cannot be faulted; Portrayal of a lonely Hero's life is believable and one can truly empathise with the character; especially the scenes involving his wife, son and daughter; Pooja Kumar essays her role well in the comedy quotient half of the film; Kamal's screenplay ( I have deliberately avoided mention of director Ramesh Arvind's name in my review as in my opinion he had very little to do in directing this film). Visuals are acceptable but the CG work deplorable; especially the scenes with fake 'life with pi' like tiger scenes; choreography plausible but nothing new or exciting; humour worked in parts and keeps you from drifting off to sleep.

What failed - The long at times dreary 3 hour saga to watch Kamal's 'autobituary'; The crass depiction of the brahmin rituals does not reflect the class we normally expect from seasoned and classy actors and directors like Kamal Haasan; Choreography and dialogues a cliched repeat from a number of Kamal's earlier films; A 45 minutes edit cut would have brought great relief to the discerning viewer; KB's portrayal was like watching a tiger without its claws and teeth! Camera work adequate no great shakes though! Edit under Kamal's control?; BG score and songs orchestrated entirely by Kamal; Gibran - KMV (Kamal Masters' Voice)

Bottom line - Is this Kamal's grand finale film???

Finally a quote - "An aging actor should never try to reinvent himself by aping a younger actor but should move to higher ground commemorative with their age so that younger actors can continue to watch their awe inspiring performances and ape it!' hC

My Rating 2.5/5 (.5 for Kamal's sake)

Until Next Time,

Director Haricharan

6/5/2015