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

[irir123]

Sakala anna.. dnt you even feel that creativity also better presented with something that excite people for a mass media like this.. ? Manasa thottu sollunga..!!

ஐயா - அடிப்படை அளவுல there is a HUGE GAP not only between Tamil cinema and Hollywood, but even Mexican directors make phenomenal strides - while we continue to insist on item songs, punch dialogs etc - something very weird about what we expect - நம்ம ஊர்ல எடுக்கற படங்கள்ல 'வச்சா குடுமி சிறைச்சா மொட்டை' கதை தான்..

Example: தசவதாரம் படம் ஒரு மாசத்துக்கு மேல இங்க ஓடுச்சு - எனக்கு ஒரு தடவைக்கு மேல போக விருப்பமில்லை ($15 ஒரு காரணம்) - UV is relatively a far better, nuanced film - and its taken off after 2 weeks just when I wanted to take some ppl with me to watch something far different from the regular bollywood fare they are all familiar with.

If such films are not encouraged by fans, then there is not much scope for Tamil cinema…

[irir123]

Venki,

I agree with you that uthama villain is not a wash-out in box-office. Kamal has experimented with audience with european style style of movie making(Fellini,Bergmen) of internalising the movie making in a auto-fiction style of flow. But his compromise of uththaman episode let him down badly with shoddy approach which lacked humour or sensibility. Kamal's strength is kamal and weakness also Kamal. Instead of making use of the talents around him ,he tried to do everything by himself. As an actor,he is becoming stale and lack freshness.(He didn't age gracefully)His drift from Selvaragavan,Miskin are all costly lapse for him distancing from young talents.

These are only my views as an ardent fan of Kamal.Uthama villain is brilliant in parts and not a complete Film.

Even if brilliant in parts, as a whole UV is a much better film than the standard fare we get from Tamil cinema - such is the huge gap between Kamal and the others..

[NOV]

Uthama Villain- The Revealed and the Unrevealed
May 4, 2015 by karthik S


In an era where social networking rules every day and every moment of our lives, where virtual contacts take precedence over the real ones, a life which we seemingly assume exists for eternity – What if out of the blue, you are told that eternity is indeed an illusion and that you might not even have sufficient time to bid people good bye. Uthama Villain explores this theme and much more and has an indelible impact long after we leave the screens.

Kamal Haasan plays the role of Manoranjan, a matinee idol revered by his umpteen fans. Aided by his influential financier father-in-law, he reaps the benefits of commercial cinema, only to be jolted by a life threatening crisis (brain tumor), which urges him to introspect and leave behind a legacy. As with success, even disaster hunts in pairs- Manoranjan gets to know from Zakaria (played by Jayaram) that he has a daughter Manonmani through his lover Yamini, who was unfortunately left in the lurch years ago, courtesy his father in law’s deceit. When you lose your way, who better to reach out than your mentor?

And who better than his also real life mentor K Balachander, who plays the role of the aptly coined ‘Marghadharisi’. The scene where KB misconstrues Kamal’s real life story for reel has been deftly handled. The same scene mocks how scripts are written on the fly and also takes a dig at how cancer has been beaten to death in cinema, long before the audience get to do so for this film. They decide to make a comedy movie called ‘Uthama Villain’ (Not only is the irony in the title, but also in making a comedy movie, which dates some centuries back, as Manoranjan’s last creation). As Marghadharisi narrates to the heroine Pooja Kumar, he very deftly explains to the audience what to expect in the movie within the movie (I shall term them as ‘Uthaman portions’ henceforth)- “Villu Paattu kathai sollum, Thaiyyam kalam sellum’’; True to his statement, we see Villu Pattu sequences narrating the story of Uthaman, a Thaiyyam artist who repeatedly escapes death and is believed to have attained the power of immortality. The soon to be dead artist playing an immortal artist- Irony continues.

The movie cuts back and forth between the Manoranjan and Uthaman sequences, but with real purpose. Uthaman escapes death after being pushed in water and we cut to witness Manoranjan bleeding profusely as he plays the role. How artists indeed depict roles that are in total contrast to what they experience in real life?

As the timid Uthaman character develops love towards the seemingly mad princess Karpagavalli played by Pooja Kumar, we cut to Manoranjan portions showing how he opens up to his family about his health crisis. As the thought of his inevitable death haunts them, we cut back to Uthaman portions which depict him singing the curse of immortality ‘Saagavaram Pol Sogam Undaa?’- Irony continues. After an emotional moment with his wife played brilliantly by Oorvasi, Manoranjan also reveals his affection for his doctored lover (lover doctor?), played by Andrea. We cut back to the Uthaman portion where we have a similar triangular love story -Uthaman, Karpagavalli and Mutharasan, the king played by Nasser. Uthaman wins the trust of the people around him, like how Manoranjan did.

The best part is yet to come- Manoranjan can never die peacefully till he is accepted by his daughter Manonmani; The moment it happens, it marks the completion of transformation of ‘Manoranjan, the Villain’ to ‘Uthaman, the hero’. To illustrate it further, we have the dialog panning out ‘En Uthirathin Vithai En Uyir valartha Sathai’ as Manonmani accepts Manoranjan as her dad, and we cut to a similar conflicting father child story in ‘Iraniyan and Prahaladhan’.

As they agree to make Uthama Villain, Manoranjan and Marghadharisi do not have a readily available script, the time was in fact running out. I assume that to address this, Manorajan takes inspiration from his personal story- The characters in the present day portions do not map exactly with the Uthaman portions, but their character sketches definitely draw a parallel. And what better way to summarize it than the climax- The soon to be mortal Manoranjan becomes immortal through art after playing the role of Uthaman, who was seemingly immortal to start with and transformed himself to the mortal king. The whole story is in fact how the Villain Manoranjan becomes a Uthaman in real life as he progresses playing his role.

This review would be incomplete if I fail to mention this gem of a scene- Manoranjan explaining his son Manohar about his imminent death. Manohar angry at his dad because of his rift with him mom Oorvasi throws the cricket ball hard at his dad. As his dad explains his medical condition, Manohar quickly reconciles and even volunteers to gather the ball for his dad. Death reconciles people, isn’t it? When Manoranjan enquires his son about his dream and his plans for life, the son politely asks him why he was doing so now. The dad replies he wanted to always, but never did so. That moment makes us really think -What a great leveler death is ? How we assume everyone and everything would stay with us, only to be proved on the contrary. And in that moment, comes out the lovely truth that despite his aversion, the son’s dream was to write a great script for his dad. The scene also depicts a few fans peeping over thinking it is some movie scene and remarking that Manoranjan would get an award for this- If you cannot cry seeing this scene, I doubt you would ever so.

Ghibran’s soul stirring music is as important as the screenplay. The Thaiyyam number, Saagavaram, Kaadhalaam Kadavul Munn and the folklore stories are an absolute treat to watch, and so are the background scores for Uthaman-Karpagavalli romantic scenes, Yamini letters, Guru-Sishya, Father-Son/daughter.

Uthama Villain indeed has its own set of flaws- the less engaging screenplay on occasions (First half party scene, talk show scene, second half Kamal Haasan-Pooja Kumar love sequences and some repetitive comedy); The VFX reveals itself on occasions; The sharp dialogs with amazing word play can be savored only if your Tamil language skills are good, which isn’t definitely an unfair expectation. Intense movies like this definitely take time to grow on you; The first time I watched, I was looking for a seemingly familiar format, and the randomness made me slightly disappointed. Only to realize, so is life. The movie made a huge impact on watching again; It was unfair of me to expect a movie depicting ‘a life cut short’ to be cut short to make a racy script.

Apart from narrating his artistic ambition of living beyond his life and creating a legacy, Kamal Haasan also succeeds in narrating how the ones whom we hold dear are all it matters over other commercial pursuits. Uthama Villain narrates that death is not one to be feared; Rather than living a life of death (monotony), it is better to find life in death, Let us celebrate death by leaving a lasting legacy!


https://karlara.wordpress.com/2015/0...he-unrevealed/

[PARAMASHIVAN]

there is a HUGE GAP not only between Tamil cinema and Hollywood, but even Mexican directors make phenomenal strides - while we continue to insist on item songs, punch dialogs etc - something very weird about what we expect

Couldn't agree more !

[Adox]

ஐயா - அடிப்படை அளவுல there is a HUGE GAP not only between Tamil cinema and Hollywood, but even Mexican directors make phenomenal strides - while we continue to insist on item songs, punch dialogs etc - something very weird about what we expect - நம்ம ஊர்ல எடுக்கற படங்கள்ல 'வச்சா குடுமி சிறைச்சா மொட்டை' கதை தான்..

Example: தசவதாரம் படம் ஒரு மாசத்துக்கு மேல இங்க ஓடுச்சு - எனக்கு ஒரு தடவைக்கு மேல போக விருப்பமில்லை ($15 ஒரு காரணம்) - UV is relatively a far better, nuanced film - and its taken off after 2 weeks just when I wanted to take some ppl with me to watch something far different from the regular bollywood fare they are all familiar with.

If such films are not encouraged by fans, then there is not much scope for Tamil cinema…

Beg to differ. UV is quite well received in the US ... just cannot be compared to VR or Dasa. Those are action oriented fast paced movies unlike UV. Despite, UV rated an average Kamal movie has grossed more than 1/2 million, $660k to be precise which is more than what the best next gen star movies have achieved in the United States. UV continues to do its 3rd week run in my location and a few others which is pretty good considering most successful movies baring a few from TN are out in 2 weeks.

[venkkiram]

As an actor,he is becoming stale and lack freshness.

என்ன இப்படி பேசுறேள்? முகத்தை கோரமாக்கிக் கொண்டு, தாடைகளை கடினமாக அசைத்து அசைத்து பேசும் நல்லசிவத்தின் நடிப்பை ஒத்த ஒன்றை நான் இதுவரை எந்த இந்தியப் படங்களிலும் கண்டதில்லை.

உத்தமவில்லனில் நடிப்பில் ஜொலித்த இடங்கள் நிறைய. நீங்கள் படத்தைப் பார்த்துவிட்டுத்தான் இப்படி பேசுகிறீர்களா?

[Adox]

Selva and Bala are waste according to me.

I feel he should collaborate with ARM. Gautham is good but only if his second half is tighter in storytelling. But ultimate is Shankar. He is the money maker. I would like to see Indian-2 following Senapathi's escape to Singapore.

Shankar could revive the 'Indian Thatha' ! Impact 'Indian Thatha' created that time ... wow!

[irir123]

Beg to differ. UV is quite well received in the US ... just cannot be compared to VR or Dasa. Those are action oriented fast paced movies unlike UV. Despite, UV rated an average Kamal movie has grossed more than 1/2 million, $660k to be precise which is more than what the best next gen star movies have achieved in the United States. UV continues to do its 3rd week run in my location and a few others which is pretty good considering most successful movies baring a few from TN are out in 2 weeks.

Really? thats not what our hubbers are claiming - if it has done/doing well in the US, then am happy

[ramdas2005]

Shankar could revive the 'Indian Thatha' ! Impact 'Indian Thatha' created that time ... wow!

If it happens that will be great. One thing is would kamal listen to other people's scripts, if he can open up himself a little there could be some interesting collaborations. Not sure why such things never materialize, he could have collaborated with crazy on UV for humor quotient...

[Cinemarasigan]

Ok Kanmani and Thuppakki would beg to differ

And TI hindi is going to floors from November. Already sometime back the Hindi producers confirmed the subject and going to floors date.

I meant Gangster movies... Thanks Nickji for the info.. Cofirmation on TI Hindi is a welcome news though, that too it is going to be done by Hindi producers..