'KATHA Parayumbol' was a sweet little Malayalam film that had earned both critical acclaim and commercial success. Taking inspiration from the Krishna –Sudhama friendship saga, it depicts the bonding between a small-time barber in a little village who struggles to make both ends meet, and a superstar who was in the neighbourhood for a shoot.Its simple narrative style, clearly etched screenplay, lively characters, inherent subtle humour and satirical look at the world around, had all made it a splendid fare. And the icing on the cake was Mammootty in a cameo, whose superlative performance in the crucial closing scenes, had lifted the film to a heightened level of emotional intensity. And now the film comes to Tamil as 'Kuselan'. Mauled, mangled and barely recognisable. Its feel and essence lost.
The adaptation
The re-worked screenplay meanders into irrelevant characters and situations and loses its focus soon enough. Many of the characters that were so lively in the Malayalam version are all reduced to stereotypes here. The tilt of balance to favour the character of Ashok Kumar, the superstar, works to the detriment of the theme and robs it of its essence.
For, whatever you try, Ashok Kumar was a character that could never enter the story, till it pulls him in, in the closing scenes. And so the extended cameo looks like a forced entry before it’s time. Slipshod and shoddy are the director’s approach at many places. Even simple matters, like the confusion on what film the unit had come to shoot near the village.
At one time they say it’s 'Chandramukhi-2', and at another time it’s supposed to be the 'Annamalai' sequel! The narration peps up at times, like the scene where the superstar has this humourous exchange of words with a braggart (Sunderrajan), who had come with some nuns to invite the star to preside over their school function. The song on the Superstar and Nayanthara is lavishly picturised , the bit with the exotic bamboo-forest backdrop straight out of the Chinese film House of flying daggers.
The Rajini-Ashok Kumar factor
They are both superstars, the real-life and reel- life at times overlapping each other. Ashok Kumar’s character was meant to be a cameo on the sidelines, which would enter the story at the crucial moment with an impact that would take one by surprise, and put all the others to shade.
But Ashok Kumar being played by Rajinikanth, the character is given so much exposure earlier, that when the time to spring the speech where hegoes nostalgic about his childhood buddy comes, the surprise element, and the impact in exposing the humane side of the character, is not as forceful as it should have been. But on the flip side, Rajini looks much younger, trim and good.
Pasupathy and others
Each time the script meanders and then returns to base, we keep getting more and more alienated from the central character of Balu and his plight, the character soon losing out on the sympathy factor. But it’s to Pasupathy’s credit, that he ploughs on bravely and manages to leave his mark. Graceful is Meena as the barber’s wife, re-enacting the role she had done in the earlier version.
If extending the superstar’s role was to appease his fans, there is no reason why Nayanthara who plays herself, as the heroine who happened to shoot with Ashok Kumar at the village, should have got so much of footage. Its her glamour quotient that is exploited here and she even gets a solo romp-in-the-rain song. Prabhu is totally wasted in an insignificant role.
Vadivelu is another long distraction, just a couple of his antics working out. At the end of it all, one wonders whether the story was about a superstar who had lost his childhood buddy. Or about a poor barber who had finally found his! Katha Parayumbol was truly an ode to friendship. But this version seems more like an ode to a superstar. And we are not talking of Ashok Kumar here! ....
