Like a gentle smile...

Kuttram Kadithal has been awarded the National Award for Best Movie - Tamil, this year (2014). Awards, especially before the release of a movie, are quite dangerous. It is the equivalent of too much marketing which brings in hyped up expectancy. From my view point, it is a movie that certainly and thankfully deserves the honour it has been bestowed with. The movie has been released online (in legal online forums like HeroTalkies and TentKotta) along with the normal theatrical release - I am really glad for the producers' decision. I just hope that it can become a norm and not a rarity.

This isn't the kind of movie where the unexpected happens, but I would suggest watching it without knowing the storyline or even the actors. I am not an authority to talk about the technical aspect of any movie, but the cinematography of this movie is something to behold.

The narrative just sucks you in. Even when you know and can guess the storyline and even the reaction of the people involved, it keeps you going to see what exactly they do: this is mainly because, these people actually do what normal people do. It is infact, a blasphemy to call them characters. There are some movies where the normalcy of the character is mounted and made to stand center stage, here they just are.

I cannot remember the last movie, which wasn't directed by Mani Ratnam, where the characters actually do normal place things while they are delivering dialogs:

• The daughter packs her lunch box and doesn't forget to take some pickle for her curd rice, even while she is pleading with her mother over phone to stop fighting with her.
• Something unusual and disturbing has occured, but the wife who comes back home doesn't forget to grind the soaked rice for next morning's idli. And this is not shown to us with pointers, but by simply making her walk with her batter soaked hand to open the door for her husband. She tells him to not to worry and in the same breath asks him to have his dinner and not to forget to take his pills. You know that the man is diabetic because of this and the fact that in a previous scene they both were out for their regular morning walks. And the beauty of  it is, neither the batter nor the Diabetes is actually relevant to the context of the movie, but it is relevant to the character themselves.
• A man goes to a mother's place to find out about the whereabouts of her offspring. She is running a prayer meeting, he waits. He decides to have a smoke and then stops, he might or might not be atheistic, but that doesn't mean he is going to 'disrespect' her faith. Wow!
• An inspector is conducting a case, she is making some calls from her home. Amidst her calls, she eats Maggi. It is only after seeing the Maggi that I remembered her asking her son in a previous scene, about what he wants for dinner. When was the last time a movie showed us that normal people make plain, no vegetables Maggi for dinner?

There are many, many more of such little gems. They are never on your face and never distract you from what is actually happening, but these little things tell you that all these people have existed before this and will continue to do so after the movie is going to be done.

Bharathiyar's Chinnanjiru Killiye, which runs as a background song to the amazingly done visuals, is probably when I gave my heart to this movie. The scenes corelating to his Kannathil Muthamittal and Un kannil neer vazhindhaal part of the song actually brought a lump to my throat. The last movie that I actually cried for is Mahanadhi, and that was over a decade ago.

This is probably the only movie ever made where the women are normal. Yes, really. A mother, who lives alone, actually has a life that doesn't require her grown up daughter's presence. She drives a two wheeler and has an agenda for everyday. An inspector beautifully juggles her job and her house. A mother, one half of a couple who lost their child, is actually the stronger one. She hasn't lost her compassion, but she has hardened her heart better than her husband. Another mother, who is a widow and frail looking, is anything but. She actually drives an auto for her living, this isn't to make a statement, but it is her humble livelihood, she has her son to take care of.

In complete contrast to these women, it is the heroine who is actually frail. I call her heroine for the lack of a better word. The movie isn't about her, but she is the one who drives a bigger chunk of the story. She has married outside her religion and she herself isn't very sure about that. She loves her husband, but is confused about embracing his religion or not; it is amusing, because her husband is not a religious man. It is she who gets confused about whether or not to hide her thaali, it is she who insists that he has to put the sacred vermilion on her forehead and in the next breath insists that they need to go to the church next day. He doesn't give a damn either way, he says as much: edhukku idhelaam? He doesn't tell her to wear any religious signatures, but she wants to. And then when something untoward happens, she is convinced that it is because she has betrayed her religion. This layer in her character is quite beautiful: it doesn't judge her, but just shows that she is confused.

So, with all this obvious beauty of this movie, I was quite jarred to see a caricatured Tam-Bram character. I mean, this is a movie that doesn't vilify any religion, which is pretty much an impossible feat, because the whole movie has the Christian imagery running. (Er, ok, I am not a Christian, so maybe my feelings on this subject doesn't count.) It doesn't even vilify any characters, no one is judged or punished, and then this. But, it wasn't quite distracting as I feared, the said character doesn't have many scenes, so all is well.

Oh yes, let me not forget. The circus which is shown as the media! The media has been portrayed as very on the face and downright annoying, but in the current context of the things, I am not very sure whether this was right or wrong.

Altogether, an amazing, amazing movie.

Notes:

Bharathiyar - An epic poet of pre-independence era. His song 'Chinnanjiru Killiye' is an ode to a daughter by a parent, mostly a father.

Kannathil muthamitaal - If (I) kiss (your) cheek...

Un kannil neer vazhindhaal - If tears fall from your eyes...

Thaali - Mangalsutra. Tamil films of a certain era are known for their 'thaali sentiment' scenes.

Edhukku idhelaam - This is unnecessary.

Uttama Villain

Tamil Movie - Review

In short:

Contemplating about mortality is not new - from Hindu mythology to X-Men, it is a concept that has been dealt with fantasy or practicality. Salangai oli was probably the first movie that I saw in which the concept of "immortality through art" is achieved. After that, I am seeing the same in Uttama Villain. If you think I have spoiled the movie for you, I haven't. The How's, Why's, What's are still very much what makes this movie special. Salangai Oli did not deal with this premise directly, but passed it off as an after-thought. But here, the premise has been unabashedly embraced. Is this a good movie? It has the best possible actors (barring Pooja Kumar) in the best possible roles and they have all done their parts beautifully, the screenplay with the movie-within-movie weaving in and out is beautiful, it has got beautiful wordplay, Kamal Haasan has acted his age and is a treat to watch, but... Yes, there is a but, the problem with KH is that he always tries to bring in too much. You know how we all used to have library hour in our school days? If you were a book lover like me, do you remember how one would try to cram up on as many chapters from a book as possible in that one period? Kamal Haasan is exactly like that. And somewhere in between all that cramming, he loses focus on what he is trying to say. It is not an under cooked effort, it is an effort that has been cooked, and tasted, and spices adjusted, and tasted again and again and again that at one point of time your tongue goes numb to take in the flavors.

In long:

This contains spoliers...

Where do I begin? Kamal Haasan has acted his age, yes, yes and yes. It is so wonderful that there is no pancake to disturb us when he is emoting, it really helps to see Manoranjan with his warts and all. It is cliched to say KH has acted wonderfully, when hasn't he? But here, the acting is so seamless that only when we are seeing Uttaman, the character which he plays in the movie within this movie, do we actually feel the acting. But that is also the problem. Since the present day narration (let me call it Manoranjan's portion) is so nice and happening that when we cut to the Uttaman's portion, it is a little jarring. It is as much caricatured as against the Manoranjan's portion which is so natural. And the biggest letdown of this area is Pooja Kumar. One cannot simply take her in the slapstick, it is so artificial. Take Nasser, his character is the showcase of what a comic villain caricature looks like, but he does it so effortlessly that Pooja Kumar's acting stands out like a sore thumb. The scene where Pooja Kumar (as the princess Karpagavalli) meets Uttaman and teaches him to ride her pet tiger (no, I am not kidding), I literally closed my eyes and wished the scene to end. It was boring and such a dampener on the happening story. But the wordplay of Uttaman's portion and the Crazy Mohanish dialogues are so funny, it leaves you cackling throughout.

One of the great things about this movie is that, even though it is the chronicle of Manoranjan, some of its best scenes are those in which Manoranjan is not present - the space that has been given to co-artistes sans KH is pleasantly surprising. And all those who have been credited with such scenes have done it so beautifully. Urvashi (as Varalakshmi, Manoranjan's wife) and M.S.Bhaskar (as Chokku, Manoranjan's manager) are outright awesome. Andrea, quite surprisingly does her role justice. Parvathy Menon (as Manoranjan's illegitimate daughter) has been given a small role but she is perfect for it. Jayaram, in that one scene where he asks, ungallai Ranjannu koopdalaama, naan en magallai dhaan Mano nu koopduven (can I call you Ranjan, because I call my daughter Mano), proves what one dialogue with the right nuance can do. KB is a little staccato in some scenes but when he tells Manoranjan oru dhadava naan solradha kellen (just listen to me once), you know the caliber of the man who created Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan. K. Vishwanath has no such consistency issues, he is the right mix of the shrewd businessman and loving father. Who is that guy acting as KH's son, after the trailer and even in the beginning of the movie I never really expected him to act, but he wows you with his performance.

It has so many beautiful moments that it is difficult to pick one. Take the scene where Chokku (M.S.Bhaskar) comes to know about Manoranjan's Brain Tumor, he tells Arpana (Andrea) he knows why Manoranjan didn't tell him the news himself. And she asks him why, the way he says adhu engallukkulla (that is between the two of us - himself and Manoranjan) is a sheer treat. The guilt combined with the helplessness is perfect. So, is the scene between him and Varalakshmi (Urvashi) where he breaks the news to her unknowingly. It is just perfect, nothing else can be said about it.  Parvathy (as Manonmani) has really less to do, but is just right for her role. She tells Manoranjan that she is not like him at all and that she takes after mother. And immediately after that she realizes that the stance in which she is sitting is the exact replica of Manoranjan's and immediately shifts, it is so subtle, you would miss it in a blink of an eye.

And despite all this, the movie is neither flawless nor is a seamless watch. It tries to do too much in too little time, much like the protagonist: Manoranjan needs to make up with his wife, son, daughter, father-in-law and his mentor, he needs to ensure his immortality, he needs his fans' adulation, the Uttaman story needs to unfold and wrapped up in a satisfactory way. There is the sheer volume of poetry and prose that this part involves, it is difficult to take it in a single go. And it is not because that it is bad, but that it is too overwhelming. There is just no respite, every single scene right from the beginning till the end has a footnote that you start to feel suffocated. Epiphanies don't make a movie.

This is the story of a prima donna. Yamini loved him enough to bear his child and dream a life with him but couldn't, Varalakshmi loved him like a child loves candy - she wanted him and went after him without a sense of right or wrong and got him, Arpana loves him despite the cynicism that he has garnered over the years and the fact that she would never get him - she knew that she can't be his Varalakshmi but it is indeed sad that she can't be his Yamini either. It is not that he didn't love any of these women, it is just that he always loved Cinema more that he couldn't put any one of them or even himself above it. So much that when he wants immortality, he decides to gain it through his love - Cinema. If his love towards anything can be compared to his love for cinema, it is probably the love for his children. It is because that Arpana understands this, that she hugs his kids when she feels like breaking down in the end.

Of that which makes you smile...

There are moments when you watch some movies where your emotions simply overwhelm you and you feel one of the following: strangling the director/actor in question; laughing uproariously with the said director/actor; or very, very rarely, holding their hand, simply holding their hand for a second and thanking them for giving you such a wonderful moment.

I had not just one, but two such beautiful moments when I watched the movie Nerungi vaa, muthamidadhey (come closer, but don't kiss: usually a sign written on trucks)

The first was when the survivor of a gang rape says that you should live the life the way you want it and thats the only way to survive (it's not verbatim). The words or even the meaning is not what made it a moment for me, but the placement of it. It is not a moment that's bludgeoned on your head with its relevance: a neon sign crying "here is how you survive rape". Rather it's thrown beautifully in a random sequence, a small slice of real life in which two people affected by an incident talking about it in an offhand way. In a patriarchy entrenched industry which makes movies that are outright misogynistic, naturally every single movie made tells the importance of virtue over life to women. There are very few movies which talk about the women who have been raped as survivors and not as victims, this is definitely one of them.

The second and a much more important one: a group of friends take a fun trip and have a grand time - yes, I swear it was a moment. Why? Because the group is a mixture of boys and girls and no one is in love with each other, no one tries to seduce another...well, you get the picture. Please, I am not saying friends should not fall in love with each other, but God how many movies have those normal group of friends who just remain that without killing you with the importance of it? (The recent movie that I remember is Ko which handled this part quite well) This is not the first movie to handle this, just that there are a boy and a girl in this mix thrown into a difficult situation and they survive it without them falling for each other, oh thank you! This is immensely important because, after seeing about 20 movies, you actually start thinking that two people who are in a troubling deal always come out of it falling for the other (provided their sexual orientation lies that way, of course) - so, it is really nice to see otherwise.

Thank you, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan, for giving these!

P.S: This is a good movie, not great or outstanding but worth a watch.