Uttama Villain (Tamil, 2015)

The one man central to the prospects of the movie is the inimitable Kamal Haasan. The versatile actor in him has been brought out in the gutsy portrayals of an emotionally rich and romantic movie star Manoranjan and that of Uthaman – a virtuous character well versed in folklore from the 8th century, which Manoranjan plays in the meta-movie. His reputation for painstaking facial transformations stands the test of time as he pulls off a scintillating show that brings to the fore his knowledge of acting, music, dance and poetry!

Kamal Haasan is known for his convoluted style of storytelling which nevertheless impresses the audience. This movie, despite having a fairly neat and relatively simple style of narration is nothing short of a wonderfully written and executed script that oscillates between the two stories with perfect cuts! The dialogues are of elite quality and bear the signature Kamal satire on politics and hypocrisy to produce quite a few laughs when mixed with his acting reminiscent of his Thenali.

The meta-movie being largely a musical narration of folklore, Ghibran’s music and background score fits the bill and has even exceeded the expectations of quite the many of us. They suit the inherent humour of the subject as well with a few hilarious chorus chants filling the action on screen. The chartbuster songs, part of the album and the few that feature exclusively in the movie, involve some unique state-of-the-art equipments that lend the required authentic, south Indian mystic elements in-line with our imaginations of fusion with 8th century music and art forms!

The entire ensemble support cast including the likes of legendary director, late K. Balachander (or was it the legendary Nagesh!!!) , Pooja Kumar, Nasser and Urvashi are at their expressive best and pull their weight around in each scene, bettering the previous ones. Pooja impresses with her playful portrayal of a beautiful and brave princess who raises a pet tiger! Nasser’s ability to excel at humour is also brought out well in his role of a love-struck, superstitious conspirator.

The Art direction, Visual Effects, Make-up and Costumes for the period era portions of the movie leave no stone unturned to achieve that perfect shot in every shot! The VFX could have been better; do look out for scenes involving river in spate and virtually generated Tiger where the effort shows. The grand and vast palatial residences are a visual treat which are further enhanced with apt costuming and unmatched make-up for the folklore performances.

The movie appears to be very personal to Kamal & a confessional autobiography of sorts; it’s very difficult to not see the resemblance to his real life and his earlier work. More than his confession; it appears as a regretful satire of what he wished to be and what he has become of sorts. If as in the movie, Kamal has indeed realized that, then for the next few years we sure are in for a treat!

A couple of songs in the second half that feature to narrate the period era story seem to stretch till infinity despite having fulfilled the purpose – which can only be attributed to commercial compulsions considering the movie already runs close to 3 hours. Some stricter editing could have helped maintained the focus better.

The way the period era story ends with a preposterous take on the religious sentiments of a particular section is a definite turnoff and probably an open invitation for unwarranted problems from troublemakers. As a team that has loads of experience, equal responsibility rests on them to handle such sensitive subjects with more maturity.