This is a first for UberDesi. In spite of Tamil being in a majority here at UD, we have resisted joining the quest for Tamil domination in the desi blogosphere. But, perhaps it is time to give in to our baser instincts. And what better way to hitch our cart to that bandwagon than to review the latest Thalaivar padam (i.e. Rajinikant film)!

If you know your Hindu mythology, you will recognize the name Sudama. Kusela / Kuchela is another name he is known by. As childhood friends, Lord Krishna and Kusela were never apart. Later though, Lord Krishna moves away from his cowherd days and becomes the kingmaker that we all know him to be. Kusela stays where he is and lives a life of poverty and refuses to cash in on his friendship with Krishna.

But finally one day his wife convinces him to go to Dwaraka and ask for some monetary help from and so he goes. Knowing Krishna loves puffed rice (aval arisi/poha), Kusela offers it to Krishna who is very happy to see him. Though he spends a day at Krishna’s palace, he is never able to bring himself to ask Krishna for help. But later when he gets back home, he finds that Lord Krishna, with his divine powers had turned his hut into a mansion and given him untold wealth overnight. It is said that while his family enjoyed the wealth, Kusela lived a simple life till the end of his days.

Kuselan is also the name of a new Tamil flick that presents the same mythical story with a modern twist. The god in the original myth is replaced with the closest equivalent from Dravidian Tamilnadu – the film star and not an average one at that. But the screenplay is not really original. This movie was originally made in Malayalam, featuring veteran actor Srinivasan (who also was credited for the story and screenplay) as a barber and reigning Mallu superstar Mammooty in a cameo as the movie star and old friend of the barber. Having watched the Malayalam original, one went into this Tamil remake with a few expectations. While all of them were satisfied, I still haven’t been able to digest some of the additional parts that have been added to the Tamil version. I will come to that later.

Kuselan is essentially a movie that you could separate into two distinct parts. One part is a largely faithful, almost scene by scene remake of the Malayalam original. It is this part that totally sold this movie to me. Pasupathy, a veteran of the Chennai theater scene and an up and coming character artiste takes up the role of the simple village barber Balu, while Tamil Superstar Rajinikant takes over Mammooty’s role as Superstar Ashok Kumar and makes it own. Meena reprises her role from the Mallu original as the barber’s wife while a whole bunch of actors appear either as themselves in cameos or in other small roles in this movie that uses the movie industry itself as a plot device.

Balu toils daily as a barber holding on to his principles about making an honest living and fails in the act, while his erstwhile assistant overshadows him by going through a not-so-straightforward path. Every day is a struggle, till a film production unit lands in their small village with a bunch of actors in tow. Among them is Ashok Kumar, the reigning superstar of Tamil cinema (Rajini essentially playing himself here). Naturally the whole cinema crazy village wants a glimpse of their matinee idol. And when the villagers come to know that the barber, whom everyone treats with contempt usually and the superstar were once classmates and best friends, his life turns topsy turvy.

From the greedy local money lender to the nuns who run his children’s school, everyone wants use Balu to get closer to the movie star. And Balu’s reluctance (and later his inability) towards meeting Ashok Kumar gets under everyone’s skin and soon there are murmurs that he might not exactly be as close to the movie star as they think he is. How Balu’s reputation is redeemed forms the rest of the story.

Well, that’s only one side of the story, the part that stays very true Srinivasan’s original screenplay. On the other side however is the movie star. And while his characterization is also plays true to the original, a number of gimmicks have been inserted to play to the masses and Thalaivar’s fans (yours truly included). And the film suffers because of this.

Rajini effectively plays himself (just like Mammooty in the original). Every line he speaks as the matinee idol Ashok Kumar is a reflection of his own life (except probably the parts towards the end where he refers to his friend Balu). There are a few lines that answer a few questions that probably every man/woman/child in Tamilnadu has asked at least once in their lifetimes – about his real life political ambitions etc. And these play well to the hardcore fans in the audience. A number of the clumsily executed set pieces showing the unit shooting the movie in the village draw inspiration from Rajinikant’s famous roles.

While the set pieces are probably the ones that hold the audience’s short term attention in the midst of the sobering sequences involving Balu, these are the same sequences that pull down the movie. An unrelated sexual innuendo laden comedy track involving Balu’s competitor (and in one sequence Nayanthara) is a prime example. Nayanthara’s presence is baffling because she plays herself, but does not have any lines (except in the movie within the movie). Also equally baffling is the song in the rain involving her, a rather abrupt exercise which neither had a lead in sequence (save for a random one line phone call) nor was it followed up with anything substantial. However the redeeming quality of that sequence is that it is shot tastefully. You can’t say the same about other sequences involving her where the camera lingered longer than neccesary on her cleavage and bare thigh.

A bunch of regular character actors from Tamil cinema either play themselves or appear in short cameos. And some of them are wasted. Prime example of this is a sequence involving comedians Chinni Jayanth and Brahmanandham. Chinni Jayanth’s voice gets dubbed (which for a mimic is an insult) while Brahmanandham does not get a line of note. And those glaring mistakes, IMHO, encapsulate what I think was wrong with parts of this movie.

Kuselan for the most part is the telling of a simple story of two friends. This is a story that had potential for understated and yet effective performances, considering the caliber of the leading actors in the mix. And my expectations in this regard were mostly satisfied. While I am still the diehard Rajini fan, I usually a story at face value and mold my expectations accordingly, even if it is a Thalaivar padam. But that is just me. I can’t speak the same of the other members of the fan fraternity.

From what I saw around me in the screening in the premiere last night here in Jersey, if this movie tanks in the box office, it will be because of misplaced expectations. And one can only blame the promos of the movie and the creators of these promos for creating false notions of this being a standard Thalaivar padam. In reality though, this story was (at least originally) not about the Superstar. It was/is all about his friend the Barber.

But the promos (the official website) have so far featured only Rajinikant with rest of the cast relegated to mere footnotes. Even the music CDs that were handed out yesterday for everyone at the premiere, have only Rajinikant’s image on the cover. That, IMO, is a great disservice to the other cast members, especially Pasupathy and Meena. Their’s might not be award winning performances, but they played the characters that the movie was about. And those are the characters that I will recommend that you watch this movie for.

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