KUSELAN - A Fantastic Family Entertainer

As I had already seen the Malayalam movie Katha Parayumbol, I knew that Kuselan, its reamke in Tamil, will give Rajini a great opportunity to showcase his acting skills & my hopes have become true. P. Vasu has utilised Thalaivar in a proper manner and brought out the "actor" in Rajini to the fore in Kuselan. A real surprise to me in Kuselan is that P. Vasu has refrained from resorting to any of the usual and typical Rajini-film ingredients like fights, punch dialogues & style, etc. since he has more or less adhered to the original story line.

The first half of Kuselan is moving a bit slowly & the comedy sequences do not inspire any laughter. Vadivelu's comedy is of so-so variety only.

Rajini gets introduced only in the 45th minute. But the intro has been handled well & was electrifying to watch. The BGM enhances the viewing experience of the intro scene wherein Rajini rides a horse on a desert & even in a Multiplex, the audience could not resist shouting, whistling & dancing in their seats. Thanks to P.Vasu for a terrific intro scene of Thalaivar. I found it a much much better intro than Sivaji.

The second half of Kuselan moves faster than the first half as Rajini's presence is more frequent in this part of the movie. I was eagerly waiting to know how P.Vasu would have taken the scene of Yhalaivar's meeting the school people at his guest house. P. Vasu has taken it intelligently and used it to convey Rajini's point of view on some questions plaguing the minds of Rajini-baiters. Yeah - more than Rajini fans, his detractors are more interested or rather worried about Rajini entering politics, his frequent trips to Himalayas, etc. Rajini answers these questions in his own inimitable style & when the questioner keeps on showing-off his political connection to Rajini, at one point Rajini even warns him that he will beat him. I thoroughly enjoyed this part.

The last two scenes of Kuselan climax are simply fantastic & moving. It is quite a while since Rajini acted in such an emotional scene where he has to shed tears. In Kuselan, Rajini has stolen the hearts of every viewer with his stupendous acting. Hats off Thalaivaa - please give us such off-beat performances once in a while.

I felt Pasupathy displayed more or less the same expression throughout the movie & I found his acting very artificial. Nayantara does her part neatly. Meena, Prabhu & others are just add-ons only. Livingston & gang are trying to induce laughter but fail miserably due to poor dialogues. However, dialogues in some other scenes & the climax are well-written.

Arvind Krishna's cinematography is excellant & goes with the mood of the film. Songs have been picturised very well and G.V. Prakash's re-recoding is also very good & in tune with the mood of the movie.

P.Vasu has done a neat job. If he has concentrated well on the dialogues of comedy sequences and edited out some unwanted scenes in the first half which are a drag, the movie would have been more taut.

Of late, P.Vasu is becoming a climax specialist - at least as far as Rajini movies are concerned. He is making the audience to go into total silence in both Chandramukhi (out of fear) and now in Kuselan (due to emotion). The climax scenes in Kuselan (about 20 minutes towards the end) will melt anyone with a kind heart. And Rajini scores well in the climax of Kuselan & people will come out of the theatres only thinking about Rajini's close-up expressions.

Overall, I think Kuselan will be lapped up by ladies & family audiences all over. However, anybody who goes to watch Kuselan thinking its a Rajini movie, may be disappointed.

I am happy that Thalaivar has boldly tried to give a different movie & through Kuselan he has taken a risk like Raghavendrar but it is upto the fans & general public to give their verdict whether they want Rajini to try out different characters & move away from his usual larger-than-life characters. Since the investment in Kuselan is rumoured to be very less (around Rs. 6 crores without Rajini's fees), what better occassion for Rajini to try out something different than now?

Over to the fans & public to give their verdict on Kuselan.