குசேலன் - திரை விமர்சனம்

Another much anticipated movie of தலைவர் was released yesterday and the movie had the usual hype and marketing that you will normally associate with Rajini films. Kuselan is an attempt to blend commercial elements and real-life emotions in equal proportion and still provide a family entertainer. Did P.Vasu succeed in doing that?

The movie kick-off in a beautiful village setting trying to establish Pasupathy's approach, attitude, social status - all in one letter that he writes to the local government officer. The first few scenes of the movie revolve around Pasupathy and his family and immediately you get an idea on his whole state of affairs. Right after that, too many characters gets introduced and finally after 20 minutes or so, you get to see Rajini with a very promising intro song.

What really follows after that is pesky screenplay and a lot of loose end events. The rest of the movie revolves around Pasupathy's several attempts to reach his old friend and how other characters flip-flop their attitude towards Pasupathy and his family.

Superstar as always excel on screen but he has only a handful of scenes in the entire movie . His only scene with Vadivelu creates enough laughter and the scene where he confront R.Sundarrajan really shows his versatility.

Pasupathy plays the simpleton quite admirably. Nayanthara was "effectively" used by P Vasu. Some of the camera angles and scenes picturized on her are atrocious. Meena as Pasupathy's wife fits in her role perfectly. Vadivelu's comedy is pathetic and talented actors like Livingston and Santhanabharathy are made to look like jokers in the movie. There are a whole bunch of stars who gets an appearance in the movie either as "real" or "reel" characters.

Now to the much hyped climax of the movie. Was it emotional? - Yes. Did Rajini and Pasupathy excel? - Absolutely yes. Did it justify watching the whole movie just to understand Rajini-Pasupathy's friendship? - Heck NO. What's the big deal in keeping the width and depth of friendship as suspense till the end? I really feel that the movie would have worked if they had established deep friendship upfront and then give a gap and then re-establish the friendship in the climax.

P Vasu had let everyone down with his shoddy screenplay and not so great dialogues. This movie equals his earlier offense "Seenu" (remake of "Bharatham") when it comes to Malayalam movie remakes. If you are a Rajini fan and watch the movie either as a typical or a non-typical Rajini fan, you will be little disappointed. You will be even more disappointed if you are a regular filmgoer.