Kuselan

Disclaimer 1 : This is not a Thalaivar movie, hence I will be critical
For ignorants Thalaivar = Rajini and will be referred that way throughout.

Every movie is as good as the expectation is. So when everyone kept telling me that Kuselan was not a Thalaivar movie, I was like “Duh! don’t tell me you are a tamil movie buff and dint know that!”. Right from the time the movie was being shot, everyone who follows movies knew that it was not a Rajini movie and he was playing a guest role. I do not blame the movie makers for using Rajini for publicity. Rajini sells. Even if its one scene, he sells. Just like how Kamal Hassan does, Shah Rukh does and for some weird , unexplainable and unfortunate reason Vijay does. So if you don’t go prepared for that, well I am sorry its sort of your fault.

So I went fully aware for i was spending my 15 dollars for. A movie where Thalaivar played a role thats it. It was not a Rajini movie. So here goes Kuselan ’s review. Pasupathy is a poor barber with a nice family. Though he battles poverty he leads a principled life and refuses to cheat to earn easy cash. Meena plays his better half supporting him through their life’s struggles. His life almost turns upside down when the entire village comes to know that superstar is in their town and that Balu(Pasupathi) was childhood friends with Super Star. Everyone in the village flock to Balu asking him favors to help them meet the superstar, each with his own reason .

Balu is worried if his friend will recognize him and even if he does whether he will misunderstand that he is doing so for monetary help. He therefore tries to turn down all the people but gets caught in a quagmire of a situation which causes his entire life and relationships fall apart.The movie concludes with the superstar talking to children telling them the importance of friendship and talks emotionally about the one best friend he had. THe movie ends with the childhood friends uniting.

Performances wise, pasupathy does a good job. Note its not great. I think pasupathy is a gifted actor, but this performance was not great. It did not make me go “wow”. It was good.But thats no enough for him. Meena does a decent job. She has put on a few pounds but it looks good on her. She pulls off a good performance as the devoted wife and a village woman who uses any opportunity to raise her and her husband’s reputation among the eyes of villagers. The kids are ok. The consolation is they are not the usual movie kids who are just outspoken and all you want to do is give them a nice spanking.

Screenplay , something Vasu is generally good at is ok. The scenes were definitely well connected. The only but huge problem was the absolutely unnecessary addition of commercial elements. It was not at all a wise decision. It was irritating at places. Contrary to all the reviews I read, I found Vadivelu quite honestly irritating. There was probably one or two places where he managed a laugh out of me. But at all other times,he was down right irritating and not to mention cheap. Santhanam did a better job.There were many aspects of the movie which they could have easily done with. Vadivelu’s wife was “ugggh, irritating” and so was Nayanthara, the damsel was absolutely not needed in the movie and certainly did not need so much screen space.The scene with her and Vadivelu made me sick. And am sure everyone else did too. They should given people paper bags when they went in to the movie.

The movie had a really nice storyline to it and good performances , but what totally pissed me off was the absolutely unnecessary commercial elements and need to titillate people. Listen up. Stop underestimating people.People need a good movie not unnecessary titillation.

The only absolutely awesome thing about the movie was, yeah you guessed it right was Rajini. It was absolutely amazing to see him riding a horse in the introduction to see him play a mellowed down person . It was like getting a glimpse of him in his everyday routine and he was Cool! He looked young, wore super designer wear from Guess to what not! Good job Soundarya. He did a good job in the climax too. How many times do you get to see superstar cry! Not often. It was refreshing to see him play a character. I loved him absolutely!

Kuselan Plus
-Well Rajnikanth(Duh!) . He rocks.
-A good storyline in the times of Kuruwi and ATM.
-A few laughs

Minuses
-Unbearable toilet humor
-Irritating songs absolutely misplaced(Especially the one with Nayanthara and the kids. I was almost going to write to Hindu about it. Please girl, you really needed a Tee)
-Bad and really bad background score.
-Stupid unnecessary graphics( Dolphins, Really! In a river in Tamil Nadu.I absolutely have no words. You just made a fool of yourself guys)
-Average performance. no one really touches you with their performances.

So, watch it, if you want a decent movie and are dying to see Thalaivar before ROBO shows up. That is why I went and am glad I did. Its amazing what 3 scenes of Thalaivar can do to erase a few other total disasters.