Film Review: VISHWAROOP

THE FILM IS A DAMP SQUIB

Cast: Kamal Haasan, Rahul Bose, Nassar, Shekar Kapur, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah,
Director: Kamal Haasan

It has been a while since I watched a film in the theatre as I find that most of them are too violent for words. I have kept away from the big screen since four months which is some kind of a record.

I was to have seen the Tamil version of this movie on the day of its release at Chennai. Well, the plan fell apart when the film was banned from the theatres. Yesterday, Kamal’s interview with Arnab Goswami was quite moving with the actor doing his best to hold back his tears. That’s when Venkat and I thought that we should watch it if and when it released. Well, it did today and we went for the evening show.

THE STORY: Nirupama (Pooja Kumar) has a doctorate in nuclear science and is married to Kathak dancer-teacher Vishwanath (Kamal Haasan). It’s a marriage of convenience for both of them as Nirupama had been keen to move to the USA to complete her PhD while Vishwanath appears to be a Transgender. Nirupama plans to ditch her husband for her boss. She hires a private detective to find something against her husband that would help her file for a divorce. The detective is killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and Vishwanath and Nirupama are kidnapped by terrorists. That’s where Nirupama discovers that her husband is not quite what he appears to be.

I will stop here to avoid giving out spoilers. The film belongs to the crime fiction/thriller genre.

MY PERCEPTION:

Well, let me give the positive feedback first.

• The film is not too long and runs for about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Thank God for that!
• There is but one song that has been choreographed by Birju Maharaj and the 58-year-old Kamal Haasan’s Kathak performance is excellent. All other music is only in the background.
• The cinematography is superb.
• Editing by Mahesh Narayanan is perfect.
• Rahul Bose has done quite well as the villain.

Now that I am done with all that, let me get to the minus points.

• I am amazed that Kamal Haasan and his brother had the gumption to invest about a hundred crores in this film. Well, one cannot deny that it has been well-researched. But it ends abruptly, leaving the audience wondering what the hell they paid Rs. 220 for! And to think I waited four months to watch this one on the big screen!
• The film is totally violent after the first couple of scenes. At the end of it all, if we had good triumphing over evil, it would have still been worth a watch. But…. ?
• I can accept that there is no glamour at all as that could have taken away from the film’s main story. But the end is so lame that one wonders what one had been waiting the whole time for.
• Actors like Nassar and Shekhar Kapur have been wasted with minuscule roles that have no impact.
• While Kamal Haasan has acted well, he looks too old for the role of an active RAW agent. Why don’t you grow up, man?
• Films like Ek Tha Tiger and Agent Vinod are drawn on similar lines. While Salman’s flick went on to mint more than 100 crores, Saif Ali Khan’s thriller did not do that well at the box office. Well, both these films are way better than Vishwaroop. They definitely had much more entertainment value. Need I say more?
• It’s best that I don’t say anything about Pooja Kumar and Andrea Jeremiah. You can’t call them sidekicks nor can you call them glamourous. I wonder where that leaves them!

A sequel has been planned. Is Kamal turning senile?

VERDICT: After all the hype with the ban and tearful press conferences, the film is a damp squib.

RATING: **Shaky

*Silly
**Shaky
***Smart
****Snazzy
*****Super