UlagaNayagan KAMALHAASAN in ||"UthamaVillan"|| Directed by Ramesh Aravind

[irir123]

Assuming out of the 60 locs, if the movie reports roughly 230K usd+ by Monday, then film will hit 1 million mark. Athukku mela solrathu kashtam because 36 vayathiley and Masss will release this eating up screens.

"one millionukkey indha mukkaa?" (in the style of "single kisske loveaa") - how much do Indian films make in the US to be considered a success?

[Russellbba]

Happy to hear about the box office collections and other stuff. Nalla padam jeyikkum. Kamal Haassar has been proving this for ages !!

[Russellbba]

But we really wanted the thread to go back to the nuances discussion. Edhuvume nadakkadhadhu pola ennala nadikka mudiyadhu. This thread is slowly being highjacked.

Where is Doctor-sir, Anban, and other Sagas? Could we please have them back? Can someone please give a reasonable explanation at least

[ufktrfKnicity]

2nd time night show @S2 perambur. occupancy was around 90%. lots of family among audience.

Uthaman meeting the princess in the dungeon was chopped off.

This time, I could really feel the performance by thalaivar. Subdued yet powerful. just wondering why manoranjan had to give the letter thru chokku when he could have simply eloped with yamini. Did he willingly sacrifice her for career ?

[ajaybaskar]

Finally managed to watch the film last night. Honestly, I didn't have any intention to watch the film but some unforeseen circumstances led me to watch the film. And how wrong i was in assuming the film will not be my cup of tea!

Kamal, take a bow!! பிறவிக்கலைஞனய்யா நீர். And i think they have swapped the title of Kamal's last two films. This film should've been titled 'Vishwaroopam'. The actor and story writer in Kamal has took giant strides in UV. And he stands tall among the great artistes like MS Bhaskar, Nasser, Urvasi, etc.

I dont know what wrong people found with Uttaman Kadhai. It was good and for people who've listened to Villupaattu before, the simple tale of Uttaman will be very appealing.

[PG2010]

படித்ததில் பிடித்தது....

நீங்கள் ஏன் கண்டிப்பாக உத்தமவில்லன்
பார்க்க வேண்டும்?

இந்தப்படத்தை தவற விடக்கூடாது என்று நான் நினைப்பதற்கு காரணம் நமக்கும் மரணமுண்டு என்பதை மறந்து மனிதர்களோடு உறாவடுவதை நாம் தள்ளிப்போட்டுக்கொண்டே போகிறோம். அதைப்பற்றி படம் யோசிக்க வைக்கிறது.

சாதிக்கிற வேகத்தில் சம்பாதிக்கிற
வெறியில் உடன் உள்ள உறவுகளின்
உணர்வுகள் நமக்கு புரிவதில்லை. அதை
கொஞ்சமாவது இந்தப் படம்
உங்களுக்கு புரிய வைத்துவிடும்.
கமல் இந்தப்படத்தை கொஞ்சம் தள்ளி
வைத்திருந்தால் கே.பி இதில் நடித்திருக்க முடியாது.

இப்படித்தான் நம் வேலைகளை காரணமாக வைத்து அப்பாவோடு மனம்விட்டு பேச முடியாமல் மனைவியோடு சிரிக்க முடியாமல் குழந்தைகளோடு விளையாட முடியாமல் என பல உறவுகளை நாம் கொன்று கொண்டிருக்கிறோம்.

சினிமாவில் கமல் செய்வதைப்போலவே
சாகப்போகும் நாம்தானே சாகாதவன்
பாத்திரத்தில் நடித்துக்கொண்டிருக்கிறோம்.

நாளை செய்து கொள்ளலாம்
என்று நாம் அதிகம் தவறவிடுவது மனித
உறவுகளைத்தான். நாமும் இறப்போம். நம்மைச் சுற்றி உள்ளவர்களும் இறக்கப் போகிறார்கள். அதற்குள் கொஞ்சம்
வாழ்ந்துவிடுவோம் என்பதை படம் அழகாகவே சொல்கிறது.

கமலுடைய வாழ்க்கைதான் கதையோ என்று பிரமைதட்டுகிற அளவுக்கு கமல் வாழ்க்கையோடு பொருந்திப்போகிறது நடிகர் பாத்திரம் முதல் இயக்குநர் பாத்திரம் வரை. இப்படி ஒரு கதையை ஏன் தேர்ந்தெடுக்க வேண்டும் ?

கதையில் நடிகனுக்கு கடைசி படம். நிஜத்தில் இயக்குநருக்கு கடைசிப் படம்.
தேவையான அளவுக்கு சம்பாதித்து விட்டுஅதன் பிறகு வாழவேண்டும் என்று நினைக்கிற. பலர் அந்த எல்லைக்கோடு எங்கிருக்கிறது என்று
தெரியாததால் கடைசி வரை சம்பாதித்து
கொண்டு மட்டுமே இருக்கிறார்கள் வாழமலேயே..

பல நேரங்களில் அன்பை சொற்களில்தான் புரிய வேண்டியிருக்கிறது. ஆனால் எந்த
சொற்களையும் சொல்ல
நேரமில்லாதவர்களாக மாறிவிட்டோம்.

நீங்கள் ஏன் கண்டிப்பாக உத்தமவில்லன்
பார்க்க வேண்டும்?

ஒரே ஒரு காரணம்தான், அது மனித உறவில் உள்ள புதிர்களை பேசுகிறது..
அதை எப்படி வைத்துக்கொள்ள வேண்டும் என்று விளக்குகிறது..

மரணத்திற்கு பிறகு நாம் மனிதர்களுக்கு
விட்டுச்செல்லப்போவது நினைவுகளை
மட்டும்தான்.. அவை இனிமையாக
இருக்கட்டுமே..

இந்த அருமையான அனுபவத்தை தந்த கமலஹாசனுக்கு எது வேண்டுமானாலும் கொடுக்கலாம்.

தற்சமயம் நன்றி மட்டும்.

நன்றி கமல்ஹாசன்.

[kumarsr]

Hindu Newspaper Journalist
https://chennaikat.wordpress.com/201...-for-the-ages/

Uttama Villain: One for the ages
May 3, 2015 / Karthik Subramanian

*Pls don’t read this if you have not watched the film yet. Stop right here, and just go and watch the movie, and then read this* …

It will be cruel to review Uttama Villain as a sum of parts. How some sequences were nice, how one song was wonderful, how one particular scene was well shot …

Uttama Villain works as an absolute whole.

This is not even a review. It is more a post on how I experienced the movie, given my disposition at the time of watching it. I think that’s how most movies work with audience, and even the reviews I suspect have a lot to do with what state of mind the audience member is in. (I have been accused of praising some not so good movies before.)

That said, very few films have the power to alter the collective mood of an audience inside a hall, and take them along on a journey. I think Uttama Villain will be long remembered as one of the films that managed to do that.

I think every one knows by now that Uttama Villain is about the making of a movie.

The protagonist reigning Superstar Manoranjan is ailing from a critical condition. And even before we scorn on how cliched that is as a plot point, one of the main characters the veteran director Margadarisi mouths it: “Ada poda, intha kathaya naane neraya tharavai pannitene da” (Get lost, even I have made this story into film several times. Even you have made it four or five times.)

Manoranjan corrects: “Ithu kathai illa. Ithu nejam”. (This is not a story (for my film). It is the truth.)

Margadarisi’s countenance changes. “Ennada solre. Paavi. Nee chinna payyanda.” (What are you trying to suggest? You are a young fellow.)

Somehow, we have come to associate cinema as an entertainment medium that must only make us laugh or feel entertained. Stark emotions are for real life. But that is a more recent development, say in the last two decades maybe as far as Tamil cinema goes. K.Balachander always packed his films with raw emotions and strong characters.

And so begins the cinema within the cinema, where Manoranjan strives to entertain his audience in a manner that they have come to expect of him: as the folk artist Uttaman in a story set in the 8th century, in a fusion of Villupaatu (for sound) and Theyyam (for dance).

(It is indeed what we have come to expect of Kamal too. Such an impossible feat managed so easily. Here is an actor who writes such songs, speaks such Tamil, dances so many artforms, and yet sometimes bears the brunt of criticism spun from the trade pundits hankering over the Rs. 100 crore club.)

The folkstory is riddled with cliches but ones that are a part of our traditional form of story-telling: a conspiring evil minister who kills a king to take his place, and his greed that drives him to seek eternal life.

And the King’s deliverance is in the form of an actor, who tells him that while physical immortality is absurd and that true immortality lies in being an artist and a creator.

The King knows that he is not blessed with any skills for any arts, and opts for seemingly the most easiest: an actor. But what good is the King as an actor who cannot remember his own lines. Surely that is the end of any actor. And so the actor dies, twice when he realises that he no longer remembers his lines. (That’s a spoiler but you won’t get it unless you have watched the movie.)

The underlying theme of Uttama Villain that a true creator never dies is conveyed succinctly. The only place where the hero lives on is on the screen. There is nothing novel about the message, but it takes nothing short of the genius, and the madness, of Kamal in trying to take it to the most common denominator.

At a time when Tamil cinema seems to be in the danger of falling away from the revival led by young film-makers over the last decade, and when even the few good directors are just rehashing their old stories again and again, Kamal and Ramesh Aravind have delivered a gem.

Kamal the actor has again outdone himself, but more importantly Uttama Villain seems to be a case where the story-teller in him has reached a state of self-awareness. For long, he has strived to bridge the gap between cinema as an art form and as an entertainment medium. Uttama Villain is easily one of his best attempts at that.

The established actors, even young stars in Tamil films at least, like to play it safe. But Kamal stands out as the rarest of rare who has made risk-taking his safety net.

Somehow, if Kamal acts in a safe, masala-grade material, even his hardcore fans would feel a bit disappointed. As a hardcore fan myself, I did not like Vishwaroopam or Dasavatharam all that much.

Which is why I absolutely loved Uttama Villain.

And what can one say about the scenes featuring Kamal and K.Balachander. The dialogues seemed so serendipitous. Bravo!

On the actors and the technicians: all of them delivered Kamal-grade performance.

(I don’t want to go in to specifics about individual actors or technicians in this post. I might do that again, after watching Uttama Villain a second or a third time.)

[kumarsr]

https://chennaikat.wordpress.com/201...s-an-audience/

How invested are you as an audience?

Some years back, I made a conscious decision to stop watching too many films.

The way forward was to become more discerning while choosing what to watch.

I do watch the blockbuster, masala grade cinema and enjoy all the instant gratifications it throws at me by the way of song and dance, meaningless fights and cliched dialogues.

But a few times, ever so rarely, with something exceptional like Uttama Villain, I engage differently

And once I chose to watch a movie, once I have paid Rs.120 to find a seat at the theatre, I don’t think throw the burden of entertainment or engagement squarely on what I see on the screen. Having given myself a situation to enjoy something or maybe even experience the rare catharsis, I do my bit by getting involved too.

I wont fiddle with my mobile phone when the film is playing, send out tweets from my seat. Not unless, what unfolds is something really horrenduous but that is the part where one has to be discerning.

I would always give someone like Kamal Haasan the benefit that he would take me to some places emotionally, even if he has a success rate of say once in seven or eight films. But hey, almost every one else has a much poorer strike rate when it comes to that.

***

Uttama Villain is one of those rare films that managed to strike some chords.

Today, when I watched for a second time, I sat next to a guy who arrived at the hall twenty minutes late, and kept attending phone calls, none of which he would cut short. He did not even have the courtesy to keep his voice down or apologise to me. And he probably tweeted that the movie sucked once he got out.

Sometimes I feel, it is not the movie that fails, but the audience too.

What do you think?

How invested are you, as an audience?

[pushpak]

Just saw uttamavillan...

....... Manoranjan prepares a fake letter in order to convince yamini’s daughter to unite his son and daughter......
.

Missed it !!!
I was thinking it was written at that time !

[kumarsr]

Just saw uttamavillan...

Manoranjan prepares a fake letter in order to convince yamini’s daughter to unite his son and daughter.

Fake letter? really?