Uttama Villain

The problem with Uttama Villain is that the content looks too uninspiring due to the lengthier and distinct stories that happen on screen. We expect the cinema within a cinema type narration to be a gripping one or an intellectually triggering one. But sadly both fail to create a good equation, making it a less clear interpretation of the idea.

Manoranjan is that Tamil superstar who is used to or forced to do the exaggerated masala movies. Her wife’s father, who is an established producer in the industry, has created a ruffle in the relationship between Manoranjan and his mentor Margadarshi. At one point of time the health of Manoranjan worsens to a critical level and he aspires to work with his mentor for one last time. The movie basically narrates the parallel happenings inside the comedy movie they plan to do and also the developments in the real life of the superstar.

The Chaplinistic comedy we find in the Uttama Villain story (the movie within the movie) is fun to watch as it breaks the typical style of Tamil movies. The sentimental depth of Manoranjan’s story is also quite heartening and gets some great support from the actors. But the problem I felt was in linking these stories to establish a cinema with a remarkable content. The director Ramesh Aravind might have kept it realistic in many portions, but the movie demanded much more from a director to take us closer to Manoranjan and that was sadly not here. The tiring length also makes the movie a bit dragging.

The Theyyam performance, the dance in the opening sequence, the emotional life of Manoranjan, the humorous portrayal of Uthaman; Kamal Haasan offers the fans of his acting enough and more through his performance. I would rank Nassar as the second best performer who did the character of Muttharasan in an absolutely hilarious manner. K. Balachander was really good. Pooja Kapoor as Karpagavalli was awesome. It was an impressive performance from M. S Bhaskar. Jayaram was okay in his small character. Urvashi, Parvathy and Andrea did well in their characters.

As a director Ramesh Aravind could not pitch the movie to that engaging level of drama. A movie like this somewhere demanded more perfection in scripting and direction and Uttama Villain seems to be lacking this.  The disjoint nature of the script is actually a major villain of Uttama Villain. Dialogues were pretty good. Cinematography was nice. The music and BGMs from Ghibran were also really good. The visual effects are deliberately underwhelming.

Watching it with a limited audience would be the best idea to get more clarity on the movie. Overall Uttama Villain could have been a great film if it had a better director and a fine tuned script. The rating is 2.5/5 for this Kamal Haasan film. I don’t think the movie would make debates in the future, but some scenes do have that Kamal magic.