Vishwaroop hai vo!. Review on Vishwaroopam

Please note: This is a review of the Hindi "Vishwaroop".

Well my initial plan this weekend was to watch ‘David’ instead of the controversial ‘Vishwaroopam’ or Hindi ‘Vishwaroop’, but the cheapest theater of my city which is at the backyard of my house (walking distance!) planned to play my 2nd option instead of playing any of the 3 Davids, and how could I resist to watch a movie this weekend as well, even when the option was my 2nd choice, not the 1st, so I bought tickets for the show which was housefull. As per my knowledge the regional language version is facing a ban, so it was released here in Hindi, and this is what I would say about the movie in 2 lines “A good movie, watchable once. A lot of efforts Kamal Haasan has put in it, so do watch, nothing that much controversial in it, you all have seen many more than that, and if art-makers are not provided freedom then what’s the use of that art, yes, one should not misuse that freedom but many-a-times it’s not what the other 3rd grade movie makers gave you, but a good movie, though slow and long, but good, and do watch Rahul Bose.”

SPOILERS.. Vishwanath (Kamal Haasan) is a RAW spy in disguise living as a Kathak teacher in New York suburbs and is married to a nuclear oncologist Nirupama (Pooja Kumar), but he is there for a mission, to save New York from a Caesium-bomb planted by terrorist Omar (Rahul Bose) and his aid Salim (Jaideep Ahlawat). And Vishwanath aka Wiz’s team consisted of Wiz’s student Ashmita (Andrea Jeremiah), Wiz’s uncle (Shekhar Kapur) and an american Dawkins (Miles Anderson). We also come to know that Omar has an old score to settle with him, and why, we’ll come to know in the movie through a flashback.

Now-a-days agent movies are on a rise, but I must say that this is one of the best agent movies of today’s time, looking that it came from an Indian film-making factory. The movie is made by an Indian, but it has its international feel intact, it feels like you’re watching a Hollywood flick instead, infact, I must appreciate Kamal Haasan for actually showing good acting skills from foreign actors too, which we always missed In other movies (English Vinglish was an exception). There are 2-3 foreign actors in the movie and they acted well alongwith their Indian counterpart, which is led by the great Kamal Haasan, he has also produced and directed the movie, wow! What a showman he is, he has put a lot of effort and money in it, and he has acted very very well. This time he didn’t went overboard like ‘Dashavatharam’, and he was fully likeable in the whole movie. 2nd best performance comes by a surprise package Rahul Bose. I think he has done the villain role for the first time, and God! He looks so awesome in his role and the getup he got, he looked a naturalist in every scene, and you should watch the movie for him if not for Kamal Haasan. Also I was surprised by reading Shekhar Kapur’s name in credits that he is also in the movie, he got a short role but he pulled it well. Miles, Andrea, Pooja, Jaideep, Nassar , Samrat Chakrabarti & James Babson all did a decent enough role, so on the acting front, the film doesn’t fall short on your expectations. The story is normal, like a terrorist plan which unfolds as the film progresses, but I found the setting too real, that make the movie watchable, real locations, situations are the plus points, and well supported by special effects. Special effects are less but used brilliantly. I especially like s 2 of them – when a jeep falls on top of a person while he was shooting at the helicopters, and when a guy’s above half falls on land after blown in a bomb. Yes, the movie has some gory images, not that much but some are there, if you can handle those.

Action scenes are good too, especially the starting action scene, where the Vishwanath’s characters hunt all the bad man in one go and it was showed in a fast-up manner or rather we can say in a real-time, but then the scne repeats itself and goes in a slow-motion 2nd time showing all the moves of him step-by-step, with the Vishwaroop’s title song playing in background, it just had a wow effect on me. Dialogues are good too, maybe some of them have created controversy and I am not aware of how many scenes have been cut from the movie. I would like to quote when the FBI agent ask Pooja’s character about which God she prays for, do she also put crucify him on cross, she replied, no, we immersed him in water, well, a very deep meaning there. Though many scenes put a good impact on you, the scenes showing the training camp of terrorists with the setup were good. Full points to Kamal Haasan for the movie, but then with a package comes some –ve points also. Well the film seems a bit lengthy or rather you could say that it was a bit boring (editing: Mahesh Narayanan) in the middle of 1st and 2nd halves, 2nd half was though less effective than the 1st one, and then the climax could be better, if they make it more taut, it would become one of the great spy movie. And then background score was missing from many scenes, which make them feel boring. There was one song in the movie “Radha” which was okay and suited to the situations and give the movie a nice start, and the other song, the title one, came in the background.

So all-in-all Vishwaroop is a good entertaining package, which you should watch once for the efforts put in it, and appreciate the art. My Take 3.5/5, and BTW part 2 is also coming as per the end scenes shown (this movie left huge parts to carry over for the sequel).

GRuchirG.

Jai Raam ji ki :)