Bommalaattam- A review

I am forcing myself to write this review. Reasons being my long absence from my blog and my determination to review all movies i watch.

The Plot:

If i say much about the story here it'll be a give away. I'll just stick to the outline. The story is about Rana( Nana Patekar) a film director. He is an accomplished movie maker and expects perfection from his artistes. He gets annoyed at people who have airs about them. The film begins with him, chucking a heroine out from his movie for her denial to do a scene the way he wants her to. He ends up going in search for a heroine. He finds one in Trishna (Rukmini) and starts shooting for his film. But a lot of unfortunate events take place at his shooting spot and two people die under suspicious conditions. And after the movie is released Trishna dies too. This ultimately points the fingers of suspicion at Rana and he is taken into questioning by the CBI officer Vikram Verma (Arjun). There is Anitha (Kajal Agarwal), a tamil poet who is Vikram's love interest or rather Ex interest who likes Rana's movies a lot and worships him. Ranjitha is Rana's wife and she provides another angle to the already intriguing plot. The movie takes interesting turns and even as u start guessing who the killer could be, you are in for a surprise. This part is really novel if not believable. But in fact i thought it was quite a bold thought to make a film on. A challenge as Rana himself puts it. A challenge Bharathiraja has taken upon himself.

The film addresses a lot of issues about the film industry and the kind of misconceptions about relationships within the industry. Though the Director doesn't totally deny such things he is careful to add that there are honest people and honset intentions as well.

One major let down about the movie is that it looks made for a Hindi speaking audience. the name of the actors, the locations, the dialogues, the lip sync etc. this could have been looked into. In fact in a particular scene Arjun is shown riding a bike with a Maharashtra registration number. Not that u can't drive such a vehicle in Tamilnadu but it defies basic logic. Also the music is totally pathetic. Himesh is a bad composer. The background score adds to the woes of the already irritated tamil audience.

The Cast:

Nana Patekar as Rana is jus pure excellent. He fits into the role like glove. In the scene where he shows his film's lead how to perform a particular scene, he almost outdoes a real director. Though he is a Hindi actor his acting transcends the language barrier. But the lip sync gives the character a very odd feel. Nizhalgal Ravi's voice is a strong point to the role.

Arjun as Vivek Verma does a nice work. For a change he is not bashing up baddies. He looks cool. But his looks have been changed to make him look a North Indian.

Rukmini as Trishna. she is the pick of the lot. She has pulled off her role with ease. She has a nice future and will have to chose her roles to suit her image. A bold decision indeed to have taken up the character.

Kajal Agarwal as Anitha has nothing much to do except show up at intervals and help us show the real character of Rana. She is this guardian angel to Rana. But she doesn't fit into the character of a Tamil poet. it seems ridiculous.

Ranjitha has done a nice work as Rana's suspecting wife.

Vivek has a very small role as a village guy who keeps pestering the director for a role in his movie. There is not much in the name of comedy. infact after some time it seems like a dampener.

Manivannan has done a nice job as a village head who keeps troubling the herione of the movie crew. His role though is a little too crude to digest.

Other small artistes have done nice work too.

Editing could have been a little crisp for a thriller movie.

On the whole a welcome change from the regular run of the mill movies. The movie is different even in it's own genre. Bharathiraaja should be commende for making a comeback. I would say this is a nice offering from the Director of one of the greatest pupl movies of his times Tik Tik Tik. Bharathiraaja may not have exactly made a blockbuster but he has surely proved that he is still a versatile and innovative film maker.