Kuselan Experience

My hard core Rajnikanth fan project manager booked tickets for Kuselan Movie at Greater Union Cinemas and ordered us all to report to him at 9:00pm sharp at the theater. With no time left for going home, preparing food and having dinner, we headed straight to the theater grabbing a quick bite of veggie supreme burger at Hungry Jacks. After the attendance is over, we were handed over the tickets. I was expecting huge number of people (girls) to come to the movie, reading about the huge expectations the movie has among the Tamil film fans. However the response from them (at least in Sydney) was very less. Not finding anyone that can make an impact, I went into the movie hall. Our seats are in the second row from the front. And to my bewilderment people were already making preparations for the big bang entry of the super star. While one group are busy tearing pieces of news paper the others were practicing whistling and dancing. After around 15 minutes than the prescribed time with more than three fourths of the theatre filled, the movie is on and along with it the shouts, roars, whistles, etc. Finally the name of the super star appeared on the screen in graphics prepared by his daughter’s company and all the front rows went into a tizzy. May be having never seen such an excitement in the multiplex, one of the supervisors came into the theatre and requested the viewers to go back to their seats. When all this is happening the movie continued.


Though the movie is about the small world of Balu woven around his antique barber shop, his noble wife and kids and never ending poverty Rajnikanth mania dominated all through the movie. After all, had it not been for him the movie would have never been materialized. Ashok Kumar aka Rajnikanth comes to the tiny village of Maraiyur, for a movie shooting. Balu happens to be the childhood friend of the super star. The status of this impoverished barber changes overnight when everyone comes to know about it. The pressure to arrange a meeting with the star, mounts on him day after day. However a timid introvert balu can never do that. Except his noble wife everyone starts speaking badly of him. Finally, the super star himself in a “tears from the eyes speech” speaks about his childhood friend and how he helped him to come up in life. The super star himself visits the house of his childhood friend, hugs him whole heartedly and the movie is over.


The director was unable to handle the story properly. Actually he was unable to know what to do till the star gives a speech in the school. So, he started filling it up with scenes that were not at all necessary including the mandatory Rajnikanth walking, Rajnikanth giving punch to the heroine and the villains (though as part of the shooting), Rajnikanth saying that he is simple human being, etc. There are a couple of scenes making him explain why he goes to the Himalayas. When you think that the movie has finally gathered momentum and you start enjoying it, it is suddenly over. The comedy by vadivelu is yucky. Nayanatara sizzles completely drenched up in a rain song that is absolutely unnecessary. However it adds up to the glamor quotient. Meena is too beautiful to be a wife of impoverished barber. Your heart will miss a beat when you see meena clapping among thousands of people seeing Rajnikanth. After all she is the one along with the super star in Muthu, who set box offices across Asia on fire. She makes us remember one eternal truth about Indian Movies. It is the heroine that age up not the hero. Pasupathy gave an authentic performance in the limited canvas provided. All that is needed in Rajnikanth is to live it up as him and he did it at ease. Prabhu is really funny as a chubby police inspector though his character is intended to be a serious one. There are a number of guest appearances by Mamta Mohandas, Bramhanandam, Tanikella Bharani, Surya in a “blink your eyes, miss them” kind of characters. The song “Cinema Cinema” is good.


Finally, will the movie pull it off or not? It should be, given the coverage it was given in the media and the way it is propagated. Rajnikanth, Sizzling Nayanatara, authentic performances should help overcome the deficiencies.