Uttamamana
Villana?
NO
This
is the story of marvellous actor whose life is fading away with brain tumor. He
has to make the most of the time he has left. He comes up with the idea of
acting in a movie before he’s been ordained to pass far and away. He approaches
his mentor (“Balachander “)and the
person who gave him his first chance at glory, to direct him. They
join hands to create a play named Uttama Villain – “The best of archer”.
The
plot of the play goes as under and down under;
The
Character Uttaman is made to be an actor who has supposedly gone through the
ordeal of actually being believed to be dead more than once but has been
brought back to life by fate. He’s
believed to be the person who has shook hands with the clutches of fate and is “Mruthyunjayan”
– The Conqueror of Death. The one who is believed to be immortal, presumed to
have drunk the secret elixir of life. On the other side of this play lies the Minister,
who has pushed the ruling king into oblivion and has become the ruler, who has been predicted a horrendous death by
soothsayers. The former king has a beautiful daughter protected by a pet tiger.
The ruling king desires for this beauty
while the beauty unleashes the beast in her to kill the ruler.
So
ends the prelude,
The
ministers suggest that the ruler should approach this Mruthyunjayan as he might
have a chance at avoiding the prediction . Uttaman is called for and passes the test of
Conqueror of Death. He’s believed to
know a mantra which can help the ruler obtain immortality. Owing to Uttaman’s demonstration of
immortality, the king starts to believe that he has a chance to save his life.
As
Uttaman extends his stay at the province, he suggests certain ways to the ruler
to romance the beautiful princess and win her heart. His suggestion earns him
the post of a minister in the court of the ruler.
The
Princess meets Uttaman in the dungeon where she’s imprisoned for her act of
insanity. She plots with Uttaman to create a play of Bhaktha Prahaladha to assasinate the ruler and succeeds. Kamal plays Hiraniyakashibu,
The princess plays the part of Prahalada, The ruler plays the Narasimha avatar.
But
here Hiraniyakashibu character (Uttaman) plots to kill Narasihma Character(Rules) by poisoning the
nails of the Narasihma Character. Uttaman makes sure that Narasimha character scratches
himself by transporting a few irritable insects onto the body of the ruler. The
poisoned nails aide the irritability caused by the insects, as the poison
drains every bit life left in the ruler. The ruler is ruled out of his life and
Prahalada survives. Uttaman turns out to be the ruler of the neighbouring land who
wanted to kill the ruler himself.
Thus
ends the play within the play with the hope that the audience have been played.
Uttama
Villain because Uttaman – Hiraniyakashibu turns out to be the Villain to the
ruler (Narasimha Avatar) in the play (maybe). Also because in bits and pieces manoranjan(kamal)
tries to restore his image of a villain in all the erstwhile affairs of his
past and that of his present in the movie. Also played well is the ensuing
melodrama of his impeding flight away from humanity.
Kamal
tries to combine the art form of Villu pattu for story telling and Kathakali
for enacting the story of Bhaktha Prahaladha. The colours presented to us in
the art form are memorable. The historical bit enthuses and the art form
enlivens the movie throughout. Except Kadhalam Kadavul munn, “bagabagabaga......”other
compositions bugbugbug . Background score ain’t that good. The Screenplay could’ve
been better as we walk away applauding this humongous effort of difference. Some
of the tamil words used in the movie weren’t understandable to people like me
who’ve migrated from Sangam/pure tamil
literature. This is a puritan Kamal movie for Kamal Fans.
But hats off to Kamal for the courage in difference. Watch it as it ain’t mass and isn’t masala. Not a short one .....Sorry.(Not so short as the blog name claims)
Pic Courtesy:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Uthama_Villain.jpg
