Uttama Villain Movie Review
Legendary actor Kamal Haasan’s Uttama Villain faced many hurdles to make it to the theaters. This is one of Kamal Haasan’s dream projects and raised curiosity among his fans right from the day it was announced. Kamal himself provided the script for this film and it is directed by actor turned director Ramesh Aravind.
Story :
Manoranjan (Kamal Haasan) is a film superstar, who ditches his wife for his career. He has an affair with a young doctor Arpana (Andrea) despite having a teenage son. When everything is going so well for Manoranjan, he gets diagnosed by a brain tumor. He wanted to do a film called Uttama Villain under his mentor Margadarsi (Balachander) direction before he dies.
Perfomances:
Kamal Haasan’s towering performance in the lead role acts as a driving force for this film. He is superb in emotional scenes and this is easily his best performance in recent times. His comical performance in the character Uttama is also endearing. Andrea is fine. Pooja goes overboard in few scenes. Balachander is good as the mentor. K. Vishwanadh and Urvasi are in their elements. Nasser is alright as the comic villain. Rest of the star cast did their bit.
Technicalities:
Kamal Haasan’s script is impressive with lot of emotional depth in it. However, mixing of reel life character and real life character of the lead isn’t done to perfection. Ramesh Aravind did a fair job in handling the film well. There are many scenes that show the maturity levels of the director.
Ghibran’s music is in tune with the genre of the film. The movie is an art house kind of and Ghibran didn’t get any scope for commercial music. Cinematography is topnotch. Editing could have been fine in the second half. The film boasts of rich production values.
Thumbs Up:
Kamal Haasan
Emotional scenes
Thumbs Down:
Slow pace
Lengthy
Analysis:
Uttama Villain is a film that will please Kamal fans for sure. He is so brilliant in the lead role. There are few scenes that only he could pull off. The real life bonding between Kamal and Balachander also played big role in elevating the movie. The balance between the two setups (film and real life) is almost perfect in the first half.
Second half is not as engaging as the first half. There are some bright moments in between, but the filmy subplot disturbs the flow of the movie many a time. This film will appeal to very limited audience and those who don’t connect with the movie will feel exhausted by the end of three hour long movie.
Kamal Haasan shoulders the film in spite of its weaknesses. He is there in almost every frame and that is the biggest asset for this one. The treatment of the movie is sluggish and it will be a great disappointment if you expect something special from Kamal Haasan. The movie may seem okay if you go with nil expectations. We have seen many great films from the superstar and Uttama Villain will not have place amongst his best. The film may not do that well on the commercial front as it is a strict no-no for the masses.
Verdict: Kamal Haasan’s Show
