UlagaNayagan KAMALHAASAN in ||"PAPANASAM"|| Directed by Jeethu Joseph

[kumarsr]

When the movie is good, everyone (including North Indians) appreciate unreservedly.

Here's what the same reviewer in Outlook feels about Vishwaroopam:
Vishwaroop kickstarts like a comic book. The ditsy slapstick routine in the midst of gory villainy in NY tells you: don’t take this seriously. But only for a brief while. As the scene shifts to bleak Afghan landscapes and Al Qaeda training grounds, the stereotype “Islamic terrorist” emb*edded in our collective consciousness post-9/11 gets reinfor*ced onscreen—the bru*tality, ort*h*odoxy, obduracy, it’s all there. It’s a cruel world where “zubaan koi bhi ho, boli jehadi hi honi chahiye”. Severed limbs, lifeless bodies, spurting blood—you wonder why you are seeing these killing fields images all over again, in yet another film. Meanwhile, our hero Tau*fik finds Buddha-like enlightenment. He is the one good Muslim taking on the many rogues from his community to save New York from the “dirty bomb” even as the rather daft FBI agents ask him, “Jeez man, who are you?” He is the one good Muslim who “redeems” the many who have gone astray.

Cut to Hansal Mehta’s Shahid. Based on the life of activist-lawyer Shahid Azmi, who was allegedly killed for defending Mumbai bombing accused Fahim Ansari, this too begins with protracted seq*uen*ces of Shahid in jehadi camps. But unlike Vishwaroop, it settles down to focus on the dilemmas of a lower middle-class Muslim family. No demonising, exoticising or romanticising. “My atte*mpt was to humanise,” says Mehta. After a few devastating episodes—riots, jeh*a*di camps, jail—Shahid prefers the path of the law, fighting for the accused in court, to going on Taufik-like revenge mode. The gentle Shahid stands on the fringes, and Vishwa*roop shows how the heavy-handed, sweeping Muslim stereotypes dominate our mainstream cinema.