'Vishwaroopam' Review

The poster of 'Vishwaroopam'

‘Vishwaroopam’ (Tamil, Hindi, English, Afghanistani language)

Director: Kamal Haasan

Cast: Kamal Haasan (the rest simply come and go)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a CIA agent who maintains the cover of an insurance salesman. His wife, Jamie Lee Curtis, is so bored of their uneventful marriage that she ends up having an affair with a used-car salesman who pretends to be a CIA agent.

When all hell breaks loose, Arnie and his wife are kidnapped by the terrorists from the Middle East. During the ordeal, the wife discovers what a macho man her husband really is and they diffuse a bomb or two.

Replace the supersexy Curtis with Pooja and Arnie with Kamal Haasan, add lot of clips that look like Afghanistan news coverage and lot of confusions and a pressure cooker later, we are told that there is a sequel to it.

Of course, this one was not copied from ‘True Lies’. It just reminded me of the Hollywood blockbuster.

In ‘Vishwaroopam’, Kamal Haasan is a RAW agent who pretends to be a Muslim who pretends to be a Brahmin almost-effeminate Kathak dancer who pretends to be indifferent to the fact that his wife, a very confused doctor (played by an actress who isn’t sure until the very end if she is acting in a comedy or an action film), is having an affair with her boss.

Nasser comes and goes.

Andrea comes and goes.

Shekhar Kapoor comes and goes.

Rahul Bose comes, pulls a face to the camera, keeps it throughout the film, keeps balling his eye socket, and is likely to get killed in the sequel’s climax.

Oh, and there is that phone call from a voice that sounds suspiciously like that of the Prime Minister of India congratulating Kamal Haasan on his fabulous job...

The baffling question is – what difference would it have made to the story if the entire Afghanistan segment was removed? In fact, it would have saved costs and avoided lots of controversies. The story would have been much easier to follow and many wouldn’t have slept through the segment. My colleague did, during the 6.30 PM show.

People who should also have sued the film:

·                Tamil Brahmin community for the ridiculous way they have been portrayed in the film.

·                Indian American doctors for the silly way they have been portrayed in the film.

·                FBI and CIA for the dumb way that they have been portrayed in the film.

·                Pooja, the heroine, for being kept under the misconception that she was starring in a comedy film.