By now, you should have seen a million posts in those facebook/twitter/orkut thingys that Unnai Pol Oruvan absolutely rocks, its a revolution in Tamil cinema, jabber, jabber.. Well, thats what i'd say too.. And with good reason as well..
First and foremost, lemme declare that i haven't got around to seeing 'A Wednesday'. So i'll treat this one as a completely fresh movie and won't draw any parallels with the original and stuff.. Let's get on with it..
This is a movie that shows the proverbial middle finger to commercial Tamil cinema.. Figure this for a feature list:
- No song sequences with the villain ogling at some item girl en route to the climax (ahem.. a recent K movie comes to mind;)
- By the way, no villain too.. Not much emphasis on any of the 'evil' characters anyway
- No separate comedy tracks to rupture the flow of the movie.. Just a few 'funny' scenes and lots of witty dialogues.. More on the dialogues later..
- No bombastic fight scenes with the hero taking on the villain in the middle of a mini Hurricane.. All the tension is built up just by the interactions between characters, and a few brisk action sequences.. Reminds me of Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation' novels..
- Surprise, surprise, no Heroine! I'm sure that alone will dither many people from seeing this movie (why am i reminded of monkeys?), but then they'll just be missing out on the year's best movie (critics willing)
- Our hero isn't a superhero, one who can jump from LIC to Spencers in a single leap.. Infact, he's not even a hero by movie standards, if you count a pouting family man as one (no offence meant to 'him'.. ) **MINI-SPOILER :P**Even more interesting is the fact that you never come to know his real name at any point.. Now that's a first all right!
Of course, 'A Wednesday' was the one that laid out the foundations, but UPO is actually more of a commercial venture, since it stars three superstars (including Venkatesh for the telugu version) and has a budget of around 24 crores.. So hats off to the director for resisting the 'formula' urge..
The first thing that strikes you bout this movie is the stellar acting.. Not just the two legends, every single person you see on the screen seem like living out their lives, not posing in front of a camera (well, the reporter does, but never mind..) Especially those two police officers, Ganesh Venkatraman (Arif Khan) and Bharath Reddy (Sethuraman), not just looked the part but acted really well too.. Arif's demeanour and acting, especially in the first half, makes you think he is the 'hero' of this story.. Supreme casting, all right.. Oh, and by the way, you don't need me to give the verdict on Kamal's acting, do you?
Actually, the first thing that does strike you is the picture clarity. Whatever technology they've used in filming (RED or yellow or something) has worked its magic.. There is none of that blurring you see with other movies on-screen, just crystal clear clarity.. Cliched, yes, but thats the best way to describe it..
Shruti Hassan, who didn't have Luck smile upon her entry into Bollywood, has struck the right chords with this one.. The BG score keeps us completely immersed in the movie, even when Kamal is munching his sandwich! Not to mention those commendable songs, which spring up now and then in the course of the film..
Then there is the plot.. The cards are laid down right away at the start.. In fact, every movie buff would know the entire story by now.. Still, you have to watch it to believe it.. Like Sehwag's 'upper cut' to Third man, the story takes a turn when you least expect it.. Not a one-mindless-twist every-few-minutes kind, but a perfectly believable-but-still-interesting way.. Even more impressive is the calm demeanour of the central characters.. None of the characters really shout out their actions out or run about like Usain Bolt just to attend a phone call.. It doesn't seem completely realistic, but thats just nit-picking..
Even with all the above, my favourite part of this movie is the dialogue. Nearly every single line of dialogue is either a to-the-point reply or a satirical poke on our current governance/society.. The writer's name doesn't seem particularly familiar in movies (he's written a good deal of books, it seems), but he's done a truly commendable job.. In a thriller movie relying on interactions rather than action sequences, the brilliant dialogue lifts it to an entirely new level..
There are one or two aberrations, like the phone calls between Sethuraman and his wife (what's the point?), and those bags placed by Kamal (oops.. spoiler..:P ), but you really wouldn't remember them amidst all the other brilliant stuff..
There is no need to sum up or anything.. This is the best movie of the year. Period. My only concern is whether the masses will accept this flick.. Coming out of the theatre, i heard a bloke saying, "மச்சான், கதையே இல்லாம படத்த நல்லா கொண்டு போயிருக்காங்க இல்ல?"(!!) The plot twists and rather generous use of English in dialogues may not necessarily go well with rural people, in spite of the Kamal factor. For the sake of better films, we can only hope that this one becomes a huge hit..
