There is a fundamental difference between James Bond and his
Indian avatars. While the Fleming’s Bond and his various manifestations in/by
different macho actors could unscrupulously bed several women, his Indian
versions are forced to stick to one woman who claims all his virility and
life-long ‘bonding’. Heroines in the Indian Bond movies bond with the best and
never leave them to take rest. Kamal Haasan has tried several times to come out
this forced monogamy on screen several times, each time failing pathetically.
In his Tamil Bond flick, ‘Vikram’ he has two heroines namely Lissy and Dimple
Kapadia. The last scene of this movie is quite telling; after the crisis
management, that means the ultimate decimation of the enemy in a foreign land,
in a desert Kamal is claimed by both women. And he finds a solution (rather a
funny solution); he runs away from both of them and disappears into the horizon
in a freeze shot. Kamal earlier too had circumvented multiple relationships
(both in real and reel lives) by multiplying his identity (as in double or
multiple roles or the same person masquerading as different persons). Examples
could be seen in Sakalakala Vallavan, Michel Madana Kamaraj, Punnagai Mannan
and Indran Chandran.
Viswaroopam, the latest venture of Kamal, which has now hit
the theatres after a prolonged religious controversy, is nothing but an Indian
Bond movie shot in foreign locations (the US and Afghanistan). This film too
has two women to accompany Kamal (Viswa/Toufik); one his legally wedded wife
and the other a devoted police officer under cover. The legal wife has an
office romance because she thinks that her husband is not ‘man-enough’. The effeminate
Kamal who lives as a Kathak dancer and Guru in the US has a soft corner for the
other woman who is disciple (who is also an under-cover officer). While Kamal
does not commit to both of the sexually, by proving his ability to kick the
balls of the villains in a sudden revelation of his original identity through a
carefully choreographed fight scene, he gives a sexual tension to both the
ladies. After all this Bond is an Indian Viswanathan who cannot sleep with two
women at a time (Kamal had tried three women at one go in a non-sense film
titled Tik-Tik-Tik in 1980s). But he wants the loyalty of both women (both
mental and sexual) so despite having an affair with her office boss, Kamal’s
legal wife does not sleep with him (Pativrata). Her abstinence is underlined in
the first few scenes where Zarina Wahab asks a few personal questions to her
and she denies having sex with her lover. Even if she has a fling with the
office boss, her body belongs to Kamal. Similarly, the other woman also does
not commit sexually to any other man. In one go, Kamal in this movie endorses
the conventional Indian thinking that while a man can have multiple affairs,
the woman’s body belongs to him.
(Vikram Poster)
Kamal has played Bond like characters even before. In those
movies however, the story happens either in an island (generally anti-Indian
activities happen in an island- that’s a formula in Indian movies) or in a
place where a common language is spoken. Kamal’s Kaakkichattai, Vikram and
Vetti Vizha and many other movies have been the sites where Kamal played the
role of the representative of the state. Perhaps in Oru Kaithiyin Diary (later
it was remade Andha Kanoon in Hindi with Amitabh Bacchan in the lead) Nayakan and
Mahanadi, Kamal spoke against the state. Amounting to childishness several
times, these movies had a Kamal protecting a nation from nuclear explosions and
foreign invaders. As we know that each film has to be understood in its context
of production, this childishness was the general reflection of the popular
mindset of the movie going public of those years. I too grew up watching the
movies of Kamal and Rajnikant and surprisingly when Viswaroopam was released in
Delhi, as I could watch it on the first day itself, most of the patrons who
came to watch the movie were forty plus in age and I could feel the die-hard
nostalgia of 1980s lingering around in the cinema hall. Some fathers were even
apologising to their young daughters that they would compensate with another
movie soon.
That does not mean that Viswaroopam was or is a bad movie.
It is an ambitious movie with all Kamal effects in it. We have a hero in a
camouflage role-Kathak dancer. He is effeminate – that satisfies his fans’ wish
to see him in ‘difficult roles’ (for the actor who has done Avvai
Shanmukhi/Chachi 420 this is a small thing to do). He is a classical dancer-
Kathak guru (till the advent of a new breed of actors Kamal was the ultimate
dancer of Indian movies- Sagarasangamam/Silangai Oli, Punnagai Mannan). He is a
fighter- RAW Agent (He has performed the best fights in India movies. In 1980s
if suddenly everyone in the shot was seen with a pair of canvas shoes,
including the hero- suddenly from leather shoes he automatically changes into
canvas shoes- we knew a fight was in the offing (we never thought of continuity
issues). He is a great actor- he acts
well as an ‘plant’ amongst the Talibans in Afghanistan (we have seen his great
histrionics in Chippikkul Muthu/Swati Muktyam, Moonam Pirai/Sadma, Ek Duje
Keliye, Appu-Raja, Nayakan, Sagar). So it is a complete Kamal movie. But
something is lacking in it. What is it?
(Kamal in Vishwaroopam)
In most of his movies, Kamal is introduced as Ulaha Nayagan,
the world hero. In fact it was just a marketing counter ploy which was inevitable
for him to pursue as Rajnikant was introduced as ‘Superstar’ in Suresh Krishna’s
‘Annamalai’. Though both Kamal and Rajni are superstars there was a need for
distinction. Ulaha Nayagan became Kamal’s logo as he set up his own production
company, Raj Kamal International. Viswaroopam, is a world/international movie
as it fits to the qualification of Kamal for the first time in its truest
sense. Till the end of the movie we do not come to know that Kamal is a RAW
agent. The story line is perhaps simple: Kamal is an undercover agent with a
past. He was in Afghanistan and was a plant of the RAW. His mission is to
finish Osama Bin Laden. He was almost there. He saves a few American captives
from Taliban’s custody. He grows fond of a young Taliban leader (Rahul Bose)
and his family. Once back in the US, the Talibans are behind Kamal. For some
reason the FBI is also after him because his uncle (Shekhar Kapoor) is a wanted
man for the FBI. Finally, with the help of FBI, and also with the help of his
two women, he saves America from a series of bombings planned by the Talibans.
But the villains are not completely finished off. They parachute to Kashmir.
There the film ends with an implication that Viswaroopam could be a franchise
and the future editions of the same could be anticipated. Perhaps, the action
would shift to India.
Now, an Indian film with an international theme (as Talibans
are equally a problem for India) and an international setting heralds the arrival
of Kamal as a pioneer of making Indian made Hollywood movies. This film except for
the languages (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu) is an international film with an
international feel. As viewers we think we are watching a Hollywood movie with
Kamal in the lead (I remember Rajnikant’s much celebrated but sparsely seen
Hollywood debut ‘Blood Stone’). Till then everything is fine. But the story
line is filled with loopholes. First of all, we do not have any clue why a RAW
agent should be working with the US Army in Afghanistan because the sensors
planted by Kamal do not invite the Indian Army to act instead it get the US
Drones and Marines there. Even if we could agree that a RAW agent could work
with the US Army, there is no logic falls in place when we see the same person
is trailed by the FBI. May be as a viewer I do not understand the clandestine working
patters of both the FBI and the RAW. Also there is no suggestion given why all
of a sudden Kamal’s wife turns into a nuclear physicist who could excel a
nuclear expert from the FBI Bomb Squad. Suddenly Kamal goes back to his days in
1980s where a sort of childishness in script was permissible.
(Kamal as Bush Jr. in Dasavathaaram)
At times we feel that Kamal is slightly in confusion when it
comes to his stories and the ideologies that they promote. Though Kamal is a
declared atheist he was very much hurt when he was detained in the US and
frisked as if he were a ‘terrorist’ from the Middle-East. Kamal and Rajnikant
started off their careers towards the end of the Dravidian Movement in Tamil
Nadu. Both the actors maintained a sort of secular identity during their
formative years and portrayed the characters that defied the social norms. But
slowly we see Rajnikant becoming a follower of Swami Raghavendra (he acted in
the bio-pic also. Baba was an attempt to try out his spiritual meanderings) and
Kamal moving slowly towards Vaishnavite Hinduism (though he has not proclaimed
it the strong characters he has created in Hey Ram, Dasavatharam and so on tell
us about it). I will not accuse Kamal of harbouring any ill will for Muslims or
followers of any other religion. But somehow, politically Kamal appears to be a
confused creative artist.
In Vishwaroopam it becomes too palpable. Until Vishwa/Kamal’s
identity is revealed as a RAW Agent we obviously think that he is an American
soldier. And there is no reason why we should think against it. He is seen
almost helping the American militaristic acts in Afghanistan, throughout the
movie. And Kamal makes a lot of effort to wriggle out of the situation because
it is necessary for him as well as for the success of the movie that his
character is seen as an Indian agent not as an American stooge. When he saves
the American captives from Talibans we almost think that he is doing a Rambo
act. And Rambo represents the American Imperialism. After saving the situation
somehow, Kamal has to do multiple balancing acts in script to make the film ‘Indian’
and not so critical against the Muslim community in general. First of all he
has to resort to his Vishwanath (Maha
Vishnu-Viswaroopam-Krishna-Vaishnavism-Bhagavat Gita) identity by singing and
dancing to a song that praises Krishna (Vaishnavite Hinduism) but in the next
scene he has to balance it with him turning into a Muslim devotee who sneaks
into a mosque to make do his prayers. He reiterates the fact that despite his
affiliation with Hinduism by birth, he is happy with his adopted religion (even
if he has done it for the purpose of the State), that is Islam because that has
taught him love and affection. All the religions are alike, he seems to say.
But eventually, after all these balancing acts, the Islamists caught Kamal;
that is the irony of it.
(Kamal as Kathak dancer in Vishwaroopam)
As a person who has faced racial discrimination at the hands
of US (skin colour, name and eyes made them think that Kamal Haasan –Hassan,
was from the Middle East), Kamal as an intelligent film maker also should have
attempted detailing how it feels like a Muslim without falling into the Islamic
fundamentalist trap. But then a film like Bond-Viswaroopam would not come out
of such thinking. Kamal had tried to do this balancing act even in Dasavatharam.
But there also he was not sure whether he was too critical about the Shaiva
king or George Bush Junior. This makes some of his characters a caricature of
its possible outcome than round characters. Kamal is an entertainer and a great
actor, there is no doubt about it. He is capable of provoking thoughts through
is films even when they operate within the commercial entertainment mode. He is
always there to make good films. And only thing is that when he tries to create
universal themes with an international feel, he thinks that it is pertinent to
take the American side. Viswaroopam could have been taken a different narrative
mode even while following the Bond style. It would have been a different film
with an absolute Kamal Haasan touch. But now we have to wait till the next
edition of it comes.
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