'Masala' experiment. Review on Mumbai Xpress - Tamil Movie

Kamal Haasan has had a long and fruitful association with Crazy Mohan and they have churned out numerous hilarious comedies. After about a decade and a half, Kamal chooses to write this comedy himself. He also teams up with another long-time associate, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao (Pesum Padam a.k.a. Pushpak, Apoorva Sagodharargal, Michael Madana Kama Rajan). With this background, one can expect to get a different kind of movie.

The basic story though is not earth-shattering. A kidnap goes all wrong and we see how it changes the lives of the various people involved. The main sub-plot is of a police officer and his illegitimate family.

As if suggested by the name, most of the movie moves quickly. It is so fast that some scenes whizz past before you can digest them; similarly, no character is focussed upon. It hits the brakes after the interval and chugs a bit slowly towards the end. The number of characters could have possibly been cut down to achieve an optimum length.

The type of comedy is new, atleast to India, with the lack of slapstick and all characters being serious most of the time. Nevertheless, the movie is peppered with situations where you might roll on the floor laughing. The use of the horse for comedy is brilliant. Some small portions of the humour could have been avoided though. There is no real domination by the hero, the ensemble cast getting sufficient scope mostly. Here and there, you also have subtle pondering on aspects of society like materialistic greed and spoilt children.

Kamal is quite subdued as demanded by the script. He is there to perform some usual heroics and some unusual ones too. Koirala has a relatively small role; she looks good and does just enough. Pasupathy is a surprise in a comedy movie; he excels as the boss who is driven to his wit's end by everyone around. Vaiyapuri, Nasser and Kovai Sarala are adequate, all of whom get to do variants of their usual roles. Master Hardik is confident and impressive. Santhanabharathi fits his part well. Ramesh Arvind is another person who gets something different; he is good, but possibly needed more screen-time.

Illaiyaraaja, another Kamal favourite, does a decent job of the background score and the few songs. Cinematography (done in digital format) is good while editing has a few tricks on display. Art direction, costumes and the minimal make-up contribute heavily to the down-to-earth feeling of the movie. Special effects are possibly overdone and even tacky at places. It's almost shocking to see a shot of Vijay Raaz (who features in the Hindi version) in the end!

With hardly any songs, no scenic locations, an unusual kind of comedy, interesting action and little bit of emotions, MX seems more like an experiment of a masala movie. Kamal dares to be different, as usual. Keeping him good company is old pal Rao.

[3.5 stars]