Viswaroopam - review

By the time this post sees the light of the day or browser, there would be a million reviews floating around :) The controversy about the movie have brought out the writer in all. Either they want to register their protest against those opposing the release by watching it or want to show off saying that they've seen the movie when others couldnt. Than muyarchiyil satrum manam thalaratha vikramaathithan mathiri..mokka padamnalaum nalla padamnaalum sambrathaaya padi naanga review potruvomla.

Last saturday went to watch the movie, that had released without much ado in US. I've been to almost ten movies in the past ten months in 5 different theaters. Even after the movie theater massacre on the release of the 3rd Batman movie, i never saw policemen on the theater premises. But for this movie, there was a cop who was standing along with the ticket checker at the very entrance to the theater!!

First few minutes into the movie, i was wondering whether the wrong organisation was protesting. It had the usual barb's against Brahmin's that has become typical of any Kamal movie and it continued till the time the action sequences began. Infact, the only instances of comic interlude in the movie, which were barely a handful of minutes in close to 2.5 hours of running time, almost all of those scenes were aimed at mocking them. It sounds funny once a while. But repeating the same thing again and again gets on your nerves and is irritating at best. Is mocking one particular sect of people time and again is the new definition of being secular?? And for all his shenanigans on the way he played around with Hindu belief's and custom in Dasavatharam, wonder if the government would've been so prompt and swift in its response as it had done now. A different topic to be discussed at a different time.

Whatever said and how much ever one can get critical, one aspect of Kamal always stands out even on a mediocre movie - his performance. Be it the kathak song sequence or his feminine nuances while rushing to switch off the oven or while running on the streets of NYC, its cute to say the least. All three songs of the movie come in the first half itself with the title song picturisation and the situation where it occurs taking the honors. That scene almost reminds of Basha - the Rajni starrer minus the "enakku innoru peru iruku" dialog :)
From then on the story takes wings and its flies all around Afgan. Right from the first frame, pigeons are shown repeatedly to the point of raising the question on everyone's mind - why the hell? Which is satisfactorily explained in the end.

The story is something that had been done to death in Hollywood and by our own folks from Ajay devgn to Vijay kanth. Al kaida theeviravaathees (if you imagine thaadi vacha muslims saying prayer and udambula bomb vachitu trying to blast americans to simtherness that means you wouldnt be bothered about the content of this movie) try to trigger dirty bomb in NYC. Namma aalu infiltrate that organisation, get trained by them and infact even manages to see Osama. Ada..George Bush, Dasavatharamla tamizh thaai vaazhthu paadalam, Bin Laden kamal paaka varakoodatha. The much talked about portions shot on Jordan/Afghan  situations are so old and predictable that, i guess they scenes would've written themselves. Just like any spy movie kamal carries a transmitter to thuppu kuduthufy theeviravaathis edam and manages to survive all the bombing attempts which kills only the theeviravaathis and leaves kamal without any harm. With the help of Andrea, Shekar Kapur, one vellakaaran whose name i couldnt get and Pooja kumar -who plays his wife, he manages to save NYC. Seri padam mudinjidichi paatha ennada "the end" podama ennamo pesitay irukaanga and  sambandha sambandham ilama scenes varuthay paatha..inoru part irukaamam padathuku. And its supposedly set in India.

Padathula Kamal is portrayed as a Indian jihadi from Kashmir, who doesnt speak afghan. Athukaga subtitle kooda podama savadicihruka venam. Middle portions of the movie were full of Afghan dialect and Kamal polavay naamalum thiru thiru nu muzhichitruka vendi iruku till the time someone translates. Oru varusham TNla suthina theeviravaathiye avlo nalla tamizh pesaraan. Varusha kanakka kooda irukara Kamal kadisi varaikum afghan kathuka matengarar. Tamizh kathukarathu easya ila afghan kathukarathu kashtama therila. Kamala thaan kekanum.

Pooja kumar has a meaty role and has done well for a first comer. Her tamil accent is worse than any dirty bomb that kamal can diffuse. Zarina wahab plays the psychiatrist and has a blink and miss role. That brings the point of Kamal's fetish to involve hindi makkal in his movies. I often fail to understand the reason. Tamizh tamizhnu sutha tamizhla pesi saavadikara manushan, why the hell always employs hindikaranga in his movies? Zarina wahab and shekar kapur panna roles anyone could've done. Not that they bring in any star power to those roles so that padam could have a decent run in hindiland or a sense of authenticity. Infact, with their tamil, it makes the movie look more goofier. Rahul Bose plays the villain to perfection. He almost looks like MN Nambiar in some scenes. Andrea chellathuku roley illa :( i strongly condemn this. Ozhungu mariyathaiya second partlayachum nalla role kuduka solanum. She hardly has any dialog in the movie and only notable scene being removing kamals trousers. Well, ithu kooda illati kamal padathula nadichi enna prayojanamnu maybe she might've accepted i guess. The movie has a hollywoodish look and feel. But screenplay is still typically tamil.

I never missed item song on a movie so much!!! I often used to wonder why the heck they've such stupid songs which hinder the flow of a movie and craved for movies sans songs. But this one was bit too much to chew i felt. There was never any change in tone and like our bowlers who start as medium pacers and slowly become line and length'ers loosing all their pace, the movie starts with a bang and comes to a crawl in the later stages. With bare little comedy and no songs, there is literally no relief. That the movie drags towards the climax doesnt help either. And towards the end, namma MMS..athaanga mr.manmohan singh, avar defaulta oru phonea poatu kamala paaraatidraaru. Ithanaikum appo domb diffuse kooda panala. Irunthaalum MMS'a ivlo peria kaamedi piece aakiruka venam tamizh cinema. Maatran Suryalenthu Tamizh padam Siva varaikum elaarum kalaikaraangapa. Paavam manushan.

Gils verdict - I felt the story was nothing new and same old aracha maavu. But from the shoes of a muslim, it does get a bit difficult to digest. People might argue that, whatever shown is true and is actual facts happening in those places. But having never bothered to highlight the positives or the sufferings of the victims, it only stands out as another lame attempt to make a quick buck on a dead horse story flogged already a zillion times. Ivlo selavu panni padam edutha manushan kathaiya konjam kavanichirukalam. Athey gundu athey theeviravaathi. Idam porul mattum vera. DTHla poatta pazhakka doshathula channela mathiruvanga nenakren.