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Tabu / Know More / Review / Virasat |
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CAST: Anil Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Tabu and Pooja Batra.
DIRECTION: Priyadarshan
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Viraasat allows you to be thankful for small mercies. In a village ruled by two warring Thakurs, it is a relief to find that there are no gory rapes.
Nor never-ending dialogues with the two chieftains plotting murder and mayhem. Nor audio-visual aberrations that masquerade as song-dance numbers, with hundreds of uniformed extras indulging in what looks like demented physical gesticulations. Shots are well-conceived, the performances are commendable, the music is soothing and the choreography is pleasant. Yet, the film isn’t exactly a masterpiece, tolerable only in comparison with the juvenile stuff dished out week after week. That the Tamil original, Thevar Magan, is a far more honest portrayal of the story is something one can’t help but notice.
Retaining Kamal Haasan’s story as faithfully as possible is probably the best thing producers Mushir-Riyaz could have done. Vinay Shukla’s screenplay and dialogue also jell with the basic framework. There’s no build-up (what a relief!) of the villagehead, Raja Thakur’s (Amrish Puri) son, Shakti’s (Anil Kapoor) return from England. The train stops at a near deserted station, the window shutter goes up and the pleasant face of Anita (Pooja Batra) pops out, wondering if there is any welcome planned by the villagers for her and Shakti. And almost immediately, the villagers descend in slow-motion from tree tops and surprise the couple with a refreshing son-dance welcome.
Son of an uneducated landowner Raja Thakur, Shakti has spent most of his time studying in Gwalior and London, yet all that he seems to have acquired is a few affectations like long hair or an occasional line in English with a marked preference for ‘yeahs’. And yes, the idea of starting a chain of fast food joints in small towns around Delhi, which his father interprets as starting some `chai ka dukaans’. When Anita cavorts around Shakti’s village in the skimpiest of costumes (because she’s air dashed from London), lugging a set of sophisticated cameras, we know there’ll be trouble soon. She’s fascinated by Gehna’s (Tabu) rangoli, but she realises she can’t interact with her much because Gehna belongs to the enemy camp.
Her next source of amusement is when Shakti is challenged by his childhood competitor, who’s grown into an expert ‘lathi wielder’, for a round of martial combat. However, the real trouble begins when Shakti decides to take Anita into the family temple which has remained locked for many years because of family disputes. All hell breaks loose when in retaliation, Balli Thakur decides to break the dam and let the village be carried away on a tide of destruction. Shakti is deeply affected by the whole episode and gives up his plans to join Anita who’s already left for town. He decides to stay put in the village, a gesture that brings Raja Thakur immense happiness. But the Thakur’s happiness is short-lived. During one of his many confrontations with Balli, a humiliated and infuriated Raja Thakur suffers a sudden and fatal heart attack. And Shakti is forced to take on the mantle of his father since his elder brother is permanently sozzled.
In another dramatic turn of events, Shakti offers to many Gehna after her bridegroom, terrified by Balli’s goons, flees and leaves her waiting forlornly in the mandap. And following this chain of events, Shakti is prompted to give up his dreams of a city life, a chain of fast food joints and even Anita, who he’s been sincerely in love with. For Shakti, the village and its people now mean everything. And he will do everything to free it from the evil grip of Balli. Balli’s animosity increases with each setback and eventually he plans a bomb attack during a rath yatra celebration. Balli behaves monstrously even with his own parents and the cops are after him soon enough. In the last of the dramatic confrontations between the two cousins, Balli and Shakti, Balli is accidentally beheaded by Shakti with a huge axe. Shakti is then full of remorse even though his act has brought relief to the entire village. Viraasat is a film which has every single ingredient of the senseless movies released week after week, and yet it manages to redeem itself somewhat. What doesn’t work, however, is Priyadarshan’s change of scene from a typical South Indian village to the MP-Delhi-Rajasthan surroundings. And this is simply because not enough care has been taken in the adaptation. How else do you explain the presence of the idli-dosa mortar, or the prominence of rangoli or a Jalandhar-Ludhiana girl writing her name Anitha with a ‘th’ (refer to the letter she writes to Shakti)?
Also, the architecture and the interiors of the spacious homes they live in aren’t very different from what they are in the South. These inconsistencies apart, the film has many plusses. There are quite a few masala sequences which are very engaging, the martial combat, for example. The performances are a major high point of the film. Tabu has excelled as the village simpleton and carries her complex role with great charm and subdued exuberance. Govind Namdeo as the paralysed younger Thakur has come up with a sterling performance as has Amrish Puri as the senior Thakur. Milind Gunaji, however, isn’t very impressive. And as for Pooja Batra, one can say a great deal about her liveliness, freshness and smile, but not much about her performance.
Anil Kapoor falls short in comparison with Kamal Haasan who played the lead role in the Tamil version. However, there is little doubt about Kapoor’s versatility.
- Brahmanand Singh in Screen June 6, 1997
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