The title Uttama Villain (Uttaman- Good Samaritan, Villain – Baddie) itself
is an amusing choice, rarely do we come across such contrasting words coined
into a title and to those who don’t know—Kamal initially started the film with
a working title—Bitter Chocolate which is again a coin of words
with two contrasting qualities.
Not just the title, the entire film
and its screenplay have been written in such a way that the transitions between
the present portions of the Superstar Manoranjan who is battling with his death
and the make-believe ‘Mrithyunjayan’ Uttaman who cleverly or luckily escapes
from all forms of deaths –Snake bite, stick blow, king’s sword and the
poisonous nail from the disguised Narasiman in the climax are cleverly
fabricated in a screenplay that has minute detailing with emotional transitions
between these two worlds!
One such example – Arpana (Andrea)
who plays as the dignified woman who falls for the married Manoranjan says she
cares for his wife Varalaskshmi (Urvashi)who is her patient but she too wants a
respectful life—Arpana asks the other two men, a doctor friend and the driver
to keep the secret and then both Mano and Arpana hug each other—may be they
moved to a ‘love’ state , cut to the next shot—we are shown ‘Kadhalam’ song
with Pooja Kumar which sums up what has happened in the previous scene. These
kinds of transitions were present throughout the movie.
In another scene Uttaman is kicked
into the river with his hands and legs folded, there is no way he could escape but a
fisherman pulls him out with a net and there he is alive, now the film’s
director K Balchander appears and ask the crane to pull over, here comes the
Manoranjan Kamal who is bleeding from
his nose which indicates that he is slowly dying and the camera moves to a
freshly caught fish which is about to die—such symbolic representations prove
that this film is not your regular commercial cinema with eye candy songs and
racy fight sequences—it demands all your attention!
Another wonderful shot in the film
is when Manoranjan asks his biological daughter Manonmani (Parvathy Menon) to
read the original letter which he had written to her mother Yamini. As Parvathy
reads the letter, she slowly gets to know the truth that his father actually
loved her mom so much and he is not the cruel person as she thinks—in a symbolic representation Kamal
removes his Theeyam make-up and now his clear innocent face appears in front of
her daughter
(Wow, this particular scene was so much endearing that it
will inspire many future filmmakers to conceive such poignant shots)
In the next shot, Kamal’s son
Manohar asks whether Manonmani wants a hug as she is emotionally moved and she
nods with her moist eyes—there comes Manohar’s girl friend Parvathy who does
not believe that both Manohar and Manonmani are actual siblings. When Manohar
asks his father to reveal the truth, he mischievously moves out of the room and
When Jayaram (step dad of Manonmani) asks him what’s this all about—Kamal says ‘go
inside and watch it for himself’.
Apparently Kamal sees the whole
site of Jayaram, Manonmani and Manohar through a glass window with a satisfying
smile – there goes the dialogue “En Uthirathin
Vithai… En Uyir Vithaitha Sathai… Veroruvanai Pagavan enna Poruthudivena” which conveys the meaning “ She is
my daughter, she came from me, how on earth I would allow to call someone like
you as her father” (Earlier in a scene, Parvathy tells Jayaram is her real
father and not Kamal, as she always thought him as an opportunist who ran away
from her mother).
The same
phrase ‘En Uthirathin Vithai’ also comes as the opening line in the Iraniyan
song which is about the demon Iraniyan who doesn’t want his son Prahalnathan to
call Vishnu as lord.
Even the characterizations in the
present and fantasy portions have some common factors, for example – in reality
Kamal’s manager Chokku(MS Baskar) betrays him by not sending his letter to Yamini
and also hides Yamini’s letter from him but in fantasy Uttaman or Cheran
Senguttavan’s spy is very loyal to him that he keeps the secret until the
climax where he says – “Engal Raja dhaan
Uttaman aga nadithu ungal Mannaney kondrar”.
The screenplay writer Kamal Haasan
maintained the logic in the fantasy portions as well—In a scene when the
minister Gnanasampantham yells at the spy that whether his king is actually
helping them and Uttaman immediately interferes ‘Rajavidam Amachair ippadi kettal enna solvathu enna ketu vanthrika
vendama?’ and the spy humbly look down and tells him ‘Mannaridam naan ivalavu pesiyathey athigam’ –this is a lead for us
to understand that Uttaman is the actual king.
The climax of Uttama Villain also ends up with the battle between the fantasy and
harsh reality—in real life Kamal(Manoranjan) undergoes an operation to escape
from brain tumor but he ends up dying. In fantasy, Nassar (Mutharasan) wants
Narasiman’s role which was actually planned for Uttaman and he even placed the
poisonous nails for the character, later they (Uttaman and Princess Pooja
Kumar) throw honey bees at the king and when he starts scratching his own skin,
he dies thus Uttaman’s ‘silly yet clever operation’ actually works out in the fantasy world.
But in the last shot, both Uttaman
and Villain ( Manoranjan)—in fact they have amalgamated into one as the dream
film is released now and as an artist both have truly become ‘Mrithyunjayan(s)’,
they are immortals through the applause of the audiences .
-Rajasekar S
You can find the edited version of the article here ---> http://www.sify.com/movies/uttama-villain-the-battle-between-fantasy-and-harsh-reality-news-tamil-pffsFGidcjdjg.html
