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

[vikatan]

Mohanlal, in the late 80's and early 90s perhaps gave some of the finest movies that India has seen...(my opinion). Movies like Chitram, Bharatham, Surya Gayathri, TP Balamakumaran MA had Lal essay the role of the common man, the normal guy next door, a caring brother, a regular husband...And again in my opinion, nobody has matched him in these kind of roles.

Kreedam for example. Lal's greatness can be understood by looking at how bad the remakes in Tamil and Hindi were.

Having said that, I would rate Kamal's performance in Papanasam a notch higher than Lal's Drishyam.

George Kutty was a role tailor made for Lal. But I felt that it did not bring out the best in him. The master actor just breezed through his role. Nothing special for him. The story and screen play were the real heroes in Drishyam.

Bharatham would be example, where Lal did something extraordinary in his common man's role. It was a scintillating performance which haunted me for weeks after watching the movie. Karthik who himself is not a bad actor, would have realized that there some roles that only Mohanlal can do, when he reprised Lal's in Seenu (the pathetic Tamil remake of Bharatham).

The reason I think that Kamal's performance is better, is because he has truly breathed a lot of life into Suyambulingam. The scenes where Suyambu assures his scared daughter that he will protect her, hugs her and then looks at his wife with utter helplessness and also fear, looked much more realistic than the George Kutty. One would expect a father in that situation to behave exactly like that.

The final scene too. People say that Lals' performance reflects George Kutty's inherent coldness. I don't know. Again, here I felt Kamal's expression and words showing his guilt were much more realistic. Though Suyambu has a ruthless calculating side, he also can empathize with the feelings of another father.

As a Mohan lal fan, I would say that Kamal has outdone Lal in this movie.