Release date: 1st August 2008
Staring: Rajinikanth, Pasupathy, Meena, Vadivelu, Nayanthara, Sona, Mamta Mohandas and others.
Directed by: P Vasu
Screenplay by: P Vasu
Cinematography by: Aravind Krishna
Music by: GV Prakash Kumar
Choreography by: DKS Babu, Ragavendra Larrence, Brinda, Ashok Raj
Editing: Saravana
Lyrics: Vaali, Pa Vijay, Yugabarathi, Dr Kirdhayaa
Produced by: Pushpa Kandaswamy, GP Vijayakumar (Kavithalayaa & Seven Arts Films)
Remake of Malayalam film “Katha Parayumbol”
MPAA Rating: G (General)
Running Time: 158.52 mins
Genre: Family / Drama / Comedy
Rating: 40%
Summary: A movie that should have been a mega hit is a failure because of the direction, screenplay, too many unwanted characters, unnecessary graphic gimmicks and vulgar scenes. What a shame!
The plot is simple. Balu (Pasupathy) a barber who has a small old-fashioned barbershop is finding the going hard to make a living. His old school friend Ashok Kumar (Rajinikanth) who is known as superstar comes to the village for a film shooting. Everyone gets to know that Balu and Ashok Kumar were childhood friends. The villagers try to be friendly with Balu, so that they can meet Ashok Kumar. But Balu feels ashamed of his current position in life and feels that Ashok Kumar would not want to meet or not even remember him . The whole movie is about how Balu meets Ashok Kumar.
Acting - Pasupathy as Balu acted out his role well, can’t say this is his best performance though especially when compared with Veyyil. I believe Vasu did not know how to get the best out of him. Rajinikanth as Superstar Ashok Kumar didn’t really have to act as such, as he just had to be himself in this movie. Meena acts as Sridevi (Balu’s wife) and her acting was very artificial and she didn’t manage to portray the character to the audience. She reminded me of characters in TV commercials. Her childish peepsy voice did not help either. She just did not fit the role of a mother with 3 children especially with the oldest daughter being around 15 years old. People broke out into laughter when she says “naangallum alluthutom”. I too almost cried when she said that. Vadivelu as Shanmugam is the main comedian in this movie. Again Vaduvelu did act his role out well, but nothing outstanding about it. The comedy at times included a lot of vulgarity which is very unlike Rajini movies. Nayanthara acted in a role that I would have imagined the likes of Silk Smitha in. She degraded herself to that level and that is all I can say about her. Nothing else.
Santhanam in certain places gave a relief from the monotonous screenplay. It was beyond my understanding why this movie had to have to many comedians in it. Noone had a real opportunity to deliver. And the little that was delivered was tasteless.
Direction – The P. Vasu who has given many hit movies in ‘90’s couldn’t be found in this movie. He was not able to remake an already established and successful script that proved to be a hit movie in Malayalam. Even with stars such as Rajinikanth and Pasupathy he managed to fail miserably. First of all he has to learn to caste for a movie, it’s not about how many stars that you have in a film, but about whether they add any value to the story. P.Vasu has not paid any attention to artists’ dialogue delivery to make it realistic ensuring that it’s shot again and again till it’s right. In this movie, there are many scenes where the dialogue delivery and acting were below par. There are so many instances where computer graphics have been introduced for no apparent reason. The artificial blue colour of the sea and dolphins were very unreal. In fact there are scenes that gives the impression they were introduced only to add computer graphics. Not sure who came up with this idea, but who ever did as well as the director who let this happen are to be blamed. The ultimately worst scene is where Rajinikanth slits his neck and pulls his head off his body which then flew around the room (this was supposed to be “Chandramugi 2” shooting). There are many scenes like this that have ruined Kuselan. Pasupathy’s characterization was insufficient because of that the movie did not have the impact on the audience that the story really deserves. Direction is an art, and P Vasu has showed, how it shouldn’t be done!
Screenplay – Character development lacked everywhere especially for Balu (Pasupathy). There were so many unnecessary scenes and dialogues. There are big holes in screenplay and most audience in the theater could see that it was not up to the standard and hence there were a lot of comments and laughter during serious scenes. It was truly emberassing considering it being a Rajinikanth movie despite the fact that it has him in a guest role. After all the marketing was done for it as if it was a typical Rajini movie. Therefore the expectations got crushed.
Settings / Locations – Were realistic and the landscape was beautiful.
Cinematography – Most parts cinematography was impressive. It was a treat to the eye. Composition were easy on the eyes. However, there was a scene where Madhan Babu’s head was cut off as he was talking from the balcony of the Superstar’s guest house. This is a big flaw in cinematography and I can’t believe the director, cinematographer and editor all missed this. Makes you wonder how much effort and dedication went in to the postproduction work. A highlight in the camera work is that the lighting suited the situations. Especially the scene where Balu is repairing his barbershop’s old chair was taken very well with artistic flair. Finally, the camera angles that were trying to show Nayanthara and Sona’s body are very disturbing and too intrusive.
Background music – Another aspect that let down the movie is the background music, which was distracting as it was often too loud. At times it did not suit the situation. Some were even copied from other movies.
Editing – There was nothing that looked out of place, however, it can’t be called crisp and I could not identify any particular patterns. The background music had taken a lot of the blame and because of that the editing couldn’t be reviewed properly.
Songs – Refer to the "Kuselan" Music Album Review in this blog itself.
Special effects – Almost all of the computer graphics was unwanted for this movie. The special effects removed the emphasis and realism of the story. The special effect work was very amateurish in many places.
The message told by this movie was good and showed how a good friendship could be a big turning point in ones life. This movie is a remake of a hit Malayalam movie called “Katha Parayumbol”. I did watch some of “Katha Parayumbol” and think that movie was much more realistic and it had a lot more importance to the story. The direction was true to the story line. There was a lot of publicity about Kuselan but it didn’t live up to all the hype that was created around it.
This movie might be a “good lesson” for many artists and technicians. P Vasu should understand even if he was to remake a hit movie, he has to pay attention to screenplay and direction. There is no point in adding more characters (big names) and adding more comedy if you are going to sacrifice the main characters development. This movie makes us appreciate other directors and artists who are remaking hit movies in a successful way. A hit from a different languagee is not an automatic hit film inTakil, it has to have the right touches. Probably Pasupathy for acting and Aravind Krishna for camera would be talked about for the right reasons. Definitely Nayanthara and Meena for their lack of acting, P Vasu for bad direction and screenplay, GV Prakash Kumar for loud and unsuitable background score, Soundharya for amateurish and unwanted additions of special effects will be talked about for the failure of this movie. Audience expects Rajini movies to be family entertainers. Selective comedy scenes and the ‘Charal’ song do not let Kuselan qualify for “General Audience’ certification but somehow it has managed to do it.
Producers, distributors, theater owners (for financial reasons) and superstar Rajinikanth (for his reputation) are the losers from this project.
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