Anbe Sivam

After viewing this movie, I sent SMS messages to a couple of friend, "Anbe Sivam is smashing! Kamal is back!" Poor friends, they might be wondering why I said Kamal is back.

Well, for once I was beginning to get worried of Kamal's career. See City By The Sea review, and you'd see the same dilemma with Robert De Niro. In fact, there is a parallel between De Niro's career last decade, and Kamal's career in the last couple of years. Both started looking at commercial direction very desperately. Known as greatest actors of their generation, they somehow have gotten comfortable with their prowess and were bent on making only entertainment movies. I got no problem with that. I liked the movies Kamal made after Hey Ram, but by Pancha Tanthiram I somehow got tired of the comedy shticks which are wearing off. Sure, I laughed at them and still do, but they sound like the routines on the final season of a well-run sitcom. And I asked myself, what happened to Kamal the Actor who gave us the performance of his life in films like Guna, Mahanadhi and Nayakan? Well, friends, he's back in top form in Anbe Sivam.

What is this movie about? Love? War? Drama? Comedy? Questions arose to us when the film was still in the production itself. Kamal was not the PR man for this movie as it has been for the last couple of his films. Therefore, we are bereft of information. It was shush-shush all along. My brother sent me some stills from the movie - Kamal and Kiran in various romantic (meaning not so harmful to kids) pose - and that's it. Later, rumours on the movie started streaming in. One says it's a comedy/road/mismatched couple genre. And some says it's a serious piece ala Mahanadhi addressing social issues. Suddenly another news appeared saying that Kamal will appear with a thick reading glass, with his face split half by scars. And you know what, all these rumours are right!

There are plenty of irregulars or firsts in this film if you consider contributors to Kamal's film the last decade. Here, he is working with director Sunder C. for the first time. He is co-starring with Madhavan (currently heartthrob, but also underrated as an actor). For composer Vidhyasagar, this will be his first Kamal film. So would it be for the heroine, Kiran. Instead of Crazy Mohan, the dialogue is by cartoonist Madhan. Bless Crazy Mohan, but of late his dialogues has been redundant (see my review of Pancha Tanthiram). With fresh collaboration, we get a fresh film. An original Tamil film never seen on the screen since Hey Ram

The story in a nutshell: The first hour of the story borrows loosely from the Steve Martin/John Candy hit Planes, Trains and Automobile premise of mismatched couple. Kamal, deformed looking, slightly matured man meets Madhavan, who, though not clearly indicated, is an NRI, a regular bloke, whose is impatient with almost everything in his home country. The comedy routine takes place when he keeps bumping into Kamal, a gentle but slightly irritating good hearted guy. There are a couple of slapstick routines, and this might be another good comedy in the making. Or that is what we might think. When Kamal's character, Sivam, narrates his flashback, the movie takes a different tone altogether. What we thought of as a road movie about a mismatched couple, takes a new turn and goes into deep character analysis and examine loudly ideologies and religion. Yes, there is Kiran as romantic interest, but she is also in the core of the story - not there to just dance and shake her body parts. And then, there is Nasser, always reliable as the bad guy.

The film takes fun from providing many cliches of Tamil film and at the same time jerking the carpet under our feet. You have Kamal as a Union member who spreads messages through street performance, who falls in love with the boss' daughter. What should have taken place are classic brave lover/evil dad confrontations and cliche ridden love stories that have been featured in Tamil movies since the crowds were amazed by moving images. Yes, there are confrontations but not the way it should turn out to be. Yes, there is a fight sequence, which is very entertaining (reminded me of those fun movies of Kamal's during the eighties), but it lands Kamal in hot water rather than the bad guys, even though he manages to beat all of them up. I can see Kamal, the scriptwriter, laughing his behind off playing with the stereotypes and formulas of Tamil films, and turning them against our expectation.

There are so many things to say about this movie, and, as you could see, I had trouble in beginning them. Performance? Well, Kamal is Kamal. Audiences saw Vikram as Sethu and Kasi and were amazed. Audiences saw Ajith doing double roles then in Vaali and later in Villain and made premature announcement that he is as good as Kamal. Bullshit! Just because the giant was sleeping (actually making all-out commercial movies), it doesn't mean the little people can come out and play. Check out on my article on young actors and you'll get my analysis of these actors and I stand by it till this day. With Anbe Sivam, Kamal takes several more notches up in the ladder is now only a couple of steps below Sivaji The Great. A true successor. He is now the genuine article. He had long taken over Sivaji when Sivaji was in his semi-retirement, and he is now doing a great service to Tamil film industry, proving that this very industry is capable of producing great actors for generations. Phew!

Here, Kamal takes on the role that even Sivaji rarely did in his career - playing himself. No, not that he plays actor Kamal Hassan, but the brain of Kamal Hassan. In real life he never admitted literally that he is an atheist though he is a sympathiser of Periyar's Atheist movement. Here, we get a full-blown picture of his political and theological belief. This is the role that M.G.R. and Rajini did in most flamboyant way. There is the internal Kamal, who is himself, and the external Kamal, the great actor. I don't think we will be seeing this performance again. The last time I saw a performance of this magnitude from Kamal, where he gave himself up to the role, was in Guna, an underrated and underappreciated gem.

And the surprise revelation of the year would be Madhavan's versatility. Good lord, he really worked his butt off in this movie. You've got to, with Kamal around. He is actually the comedian of this movie, not Kamal. And Mathavan, on the whole, represents us, the audience, as we get to know Kamal's character, his past and his ideology. We witness with him several tragedies and when he is grieved by the death of an accident victim, boy, we could relate to that. And Madhavan did a fantastic job. He was not only playing the pretty boy, but also a pretty boy with plenty of flaws like any human being. He realises he is a hypocrite when he refused to give blood. By the end of the film, for someone who thought the whole world should revolve around him, realises that he is just another insignificant persona, standing beside many conflicted individuals - the real sufferers whom he meets after getting to know Sivam. It was an eye opener for Madhavan, and he did it for us audiences. Kudos to Madhavan. I wish him all the best.

Someone got to watch out for Yugi Sethu. He almost stole the show in Pancha Tanthiram and by god, he almost did in his cameo here. He makes a great character actor, and I hope he doesnt stereotype himself like Raguvaran, who is a capable actor gone redundant lately. Sandhana Barathi, a regular collaborator with Kamal since the Michael Madhana Kama Rajan days (On and off screen) is a delight here - the typical right hand man of the boss, who actually do have some heart. Watch out for his line, they come out of nowhere and are very funny. Nasser is well, Nasser. Kiran has a song sequence with Kamal, and they don't dance on mountaintops. Their love blossoms as they work together on a painting. It was well shot scenes, though the end product - the painting is not at all about their love. Rather it's a cheeky depiction of Kiran's dad as hypocritical tyrant and also Marxism. The painting indeed shows where Sivam's real leaning is, the faith, not his love affair.

I could totally relate to Kamal's ideologies here. Yes, we are not atheist. We have faith and there is god in all of us. If someone is confused by my belief, I will tell them to watch this movie.

Somehow, this movie seemed to be a total opposite of Rajini's Baba, and yet the similarities are glaring. Both are about religion, seen from different angle. Baba is fantasy, mythical, and is a comic book superhero movie. Anbe Sivam, is a realistic, down to earth story about real human being. And yet, they both tells us about faith. Rajini carries a knife in that movie, Kamal carries an umbrella. Rajini represents some restless youth fighting corrupt politicians and never really gets the girl. Kamal represents a more organised union, fights tyrant boss and also never gets the girl. Baba gets a chance to become a politician himself, and yet he merely appoints someone. In one scene in Anbe Sivam, Nasser suggests that Sivam could be a politician, yet Sivam bemusedly notes that he is merely a tool. Whoa, guys! What's going on here? Did both of them collaborate when writing the scripts? Both wrote the story and the screenplay for sure. Both employed each other's collaborator of past. Sunder C. did Rajini's Arunachalam and Suresh Krissna, the director of Baba and earlier Rajini hits (Annamalai, Veera and Badsha) has worked with Kamal in Sathya (Krissna's debut) and Alavandhan.

This film deserves close inspection the way Mani Rathnams Iruvar does. Every line, every movement deserves to be enjoyed and analysed. And heres my bet about the performance of this movie in the box office - its gonna flop. The audience in India - sorry, I dont mean to be accusing - may not exactly know what the whole movie is about. There are no sexy gyrations. No dance on mountain top by the alps. No Althotta Poobathi crap. Kamal does not even indulge in his passionate lip kissing, Madhavan does go topless once, but thats all the female audiences will get, otherwise he does serious acting (serious acting, not acting serious) the rest of the movie. This is a serious movie about belief, faith and love for fellow human being. And also, one hell of an entertainment.

Other Reviews

I think I am saved from the task of looking for and providing other reviews for this movie, because of this unique Kamal's fan site. It imbues good write up, news and art. Kamal fans, rejoice!

Maran's Kamal Haasan Site