According to Hindu mythology/scripture - Bhagavatham, there were at least three theophanies of Lord Vishnu.
1. During the Vamana avatar, to get Mr Mahabali understand his folly of granting three paces of land to the Lord
2. In Mahabharata, when Krishna terrifies the Kurus, as the 'evil' cousins refuse to yield even a square-micron of space to Pandavas
3. Just before the start of 'the' war, to act as the morale-booster to Arjun as he develops cold feet
In his new offering, Kamal Haasan has tried to provide three such thespio-phanies (Is there such a word, Jeeves?) at a whopping cost of 20 million US buckeroos!
Along the line, he has invited the wrath of many a people - theatre owners for the DTH saga (AHEAD of its time; but soon it will happen), Muslim organizations (I have never seen a movie with so many exhortations of Allah & perhaps somewhere the last straw broke the proverbial camel's back; beware Kamal - there will be others who will follow suit!), the TN government (actually, he did that much before when the Chidambaram speech happened!). So, if he escapes with seven cuts, he should count himself lucky. Such are the times!
Story: Please don't insult your (and mine too...) intellect by asking about that. Al-Qaeda-trainer/trained-RAW-major-officer-Wisam masquerades as effiminate-Kathak-teacher-Viswhanath to find & diffuse the dirty bomb in NYC + kill the baddies. He pretty much manages all, except for the last bit - just so that you and I will be hooked on for Part Dua.
Technicals: And to go gaga about the technical excellence of the movie is kind of unnecessary. These days, the Indian audience are exposed to almost all the 'good' Hollywood action movies with great production values through the dubbing route. As a result, even the Indian movies are forced to show a step-change in making movies. You should feel the accidents; the blood spurting out should look real; guns should sound real. Even the tandoori chicken from the oven should look yummy! It is the new normal. So, it gets a 3: Fully Meeting Expectations. Yet, the rippling of blood according to the phone vibrations in the last scene was, wow!
His first roop as the Kathak teacher is excellent. Even though we have seen him as Shanmugi 16 years ago, the current effeminate portrayal by this man is simply amazing. Right from the fantastic Kathak steps to the transmogrification in the warehouse is a scream! For long Rajini fans used to swear by a similar scene from Baadsha; Kamal has successfully added his version to the lore. [Oh, by the way, for those - some respected reviewers too, who quote Kamal's character's names as Tawfeeq, Nazar etc., plissszzz learn to appreciate the subtleties of why Kamal uttered those names while getting hit!]
The second roop is incomplete. Here is where Kamal as a writer and director gets a number of half-volleys to dispatch to the boundary. But for whatever reason, he shows restraint and only hits a few out. Be it getting into Al Qaeda or getting queasy about the barbaric acts of the jihadis or working with the youngsters, Kamal has shown a good 'documentary' side of the life in an Afghan village - and a very good US-backed documentary at that :-}
Some deft directorial touches are worthy of mention:
- the swing scene - as it unfolds, something bodes ill inside you... good catch!
- the old woman of the village shouting at the jihadis - 'first it was the Russians, then the Americans, then you guys! Men are all the same, monkeys with the tails in the front!' [Shows that only old people and young children can say something without much of a fear of retribution in this sensitive world!]
- the one that I loved most: the bee on the gun nozzle [Where do you get honey in a land where the flower-beds are watered by blood? Even bees change their taste!]
A number of questions are left open - so wait until V2 next year (unless Kamal decides to do a Marudhanayakam on it!)
Finally the Gitopadesha part. Let us face it. The Gita is boring. Who likes advices, anyway? So how do you handle such a case? By being patient and grinding it out. The act of finding and cleaning up the dirty bomb was written in a bumpy way. The situations go kind of haphazardly and one has to be extremely careful in understanding how the movie is flowing - leave alone what the director is saying.
Some nice stuff in this section as well:
- the meticulous execution by the terrorists creating two layers of misconception
- the fact that jihadi-ism is not just about instant martyrdom, but also about giving their life for a cause, even though the loss-of-life is not instantaneous but through the long and painful cancerous route.
All these can't be because of religion. As a friend recently wrote on her FB post, "No religion is so fragile to be lost because of a movie or a book or a cartoon." True. But repeated portrayals of a singular dimension can begin to cause that fragility. There is a deeper malady that has to be understood and removed. Thanks for this roopam to sow the thought in people's mind. [Was watching Hey Ram today; again the message from Kamal was the same in that movie as well. AHEAD!]
The Gita Viswharoopam also was done to empower and embolden Arjuna to get the Lord's work done. Similarly, Lord Kamal gets Nirupama to do the job in the end through the simple and unassuming microwave oven! [It was the common salt in Dasavataram; is life that simple, ultimately?]
Otherwise:
1. One of the slowest thrillers (?) I have watched; though the family/theatre seemed too engrossed into the movie in spite of its slowness. (They were busy trying to figure out where the plot was going to perhaps?)
2. Everybody and his uncle were there - though not to the extent of Hey Ram! Blink, you would have missed Zarina Wahab [And Kamal did not hog the frames!]
3. The simple Kamal-brand humour throughout the movie [The police interrogation scene with Nirupama is hilarious!]
4. The entire Afghanistan portion looked like a strong US-backed documentary, including the US marine swearing after killing a non-combatant :-()
5. If you don't have subtitles, you need a translator for this movie. English, French, Pashto, Arabic, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu... (thank God, the Nigerian did not get any dialogues!)
6. No kisses from Kamal to any of the lady-leads. Fret not, V2 promises to have more than its share of such non-platonic acts!
In the end:
Kamal has pitched this movie to propel him to the wider reach of Hollywood. (yeah, bollywood is not for the silly madrasis!)
In reality, there have been 50 other similar movies made pandering to the US sentiments.
My sincere hope is that, even if Viswharoopam is to be his business card to Hollywood, let it enable Kamal to reach out to the true heights that he is capable of.
To help him do that, watch V1 in the theatres!
