To get an idea about what is really going on under the skin of this movie, we need to understand the outline of this story.
Story outline - A popular movie star comes to know that his time is running out and he wants to do one last film with his mentor.
The main theme of the movie is, 'even if someone dies in real life he can remain immortal through the body of his works'.
This movie slides between the things that's happening in the life of the actor and the story that is being directed by his mentor.
Few things that's being conveyed within this outline -
1 - Tribute: This movie is a tribute by actor Kamal Hassan (KH) to his mentor K.Balachander (KB).
KH's real life mentor KB has played the role of the mentor in this movie, unfortunately this was KB's last movie, he passed away before this movie could hit the screens. The roles were reversed in this movie to show KB in good health because that is how KH wants his mentor to be remembered by posterity.
2- The movie within movie: It is not a coincidence that the movie being directed within this movie is represented in the form of folk drama.
Folk drama has always been used to convey valuable lessons to the king and the population alike, by hiding those messages beneath the veneer of banal comedy.
So, what is being conveyed through this folk drama?
It starts with Arjun from Indian mythology getting a powerful weapon from Shiva after doing intense penance. Subtext is, KH getting graduation from his mentor.
Then few kids let loose snake in the crowd which bites four people before biting KH, since the snake has already spent all its venom on four other people, the bite was harmless when it comes to KH. Subtext is, snake is the symbolism for money spoiling the art.
Later KH is being brought to cremation ground where he awakens among the dead body to the horror of people who thought he was dead. The scene in which KH runs away from dead bodies with disgust, shows his aversion towards art succumbing to pure commercialization and thus stopping to do what it has to do, which is equivalent to death.
After this survival KH is known as immortal. At the same time, a power hungry person kills the king and queen, and imprisons the beautiful princess. Subtext, the princess can be seen as the representation of the language Tamil itself, which has grown for many centuries under the love and patronage of great kings and poets, but she has been hijacked by narrow minded power hungry racial fanatics.
Dictator is shown as someone who has lost one of his ear, because fanatics cannot listen to anything other than the things they would like to hear.
KH was brought to the presence of this dictator, since KH has survived longer than others the dictator wants to appropriate KH's glory for his own benefit.
On the way, kids question KH who is caged, about whether he is really immortal? some sell stones to the kids so that they could test whether he is immortal or not. This scene explains many constraints and hurdles an artist has to face.
The pet tiger of the princess has been imprisoned and fed with curd rice. Tiger symbolizes Tamil people itself, who are purposely kept ignorant and dull by power hungry dictator.
KH acts like a court jester to make the dictator and his cronies laugh but his real intention is to save the princess and her tiger from the clutches of the dictator. Meaning, his real intention is to save Tamil and its people from the hands of self-serving bullies.
Princess tells KH that 'he needs to be brave to save the country' for which he replies 'Can an artist save a country? Then he says, I will try if your Tiger doesn't kill me before that'. Meaning, he will try to educate people through his art if people support him.
3- Social satire: The controversial Iraniyan Naadagam play within the movie in which the god dies instead of Iraniyan is a vital voice against religious fanaticism.
Art and artist have right to mock, question and protest against the established ideals, because this is the only antidote against fascism and fanaticism.
4- Screenplay: Even though the film seemingly moves between the story of the actor in his personal life and the folk drama, it is in fact just one story, that is the story of an actor, not only that, each scene is beautifully linked to the other scene.
For example, when the actor has to console others about the fact that his time is running out, the very next shot takes us to folk drama where the artist sings in front of the dictator about 'life without end is a misery and no one wants to listen to a story which has no end'.
Yet shortcomings of the film do test the patience of a light viewer. To begin with it is ostentatiously self indulgent, then over the top theatrics in the folk drama parts is irritating to sit through, even though it is indicative of play acting in folk drama, it becomes insufferable quickly, further the main character in the movie comes of as a superficial person who does not really take responsibilities for his own actions and his excuses for not doing what he should have done, comes of as a feeble attempt to get some more attention for himself, thus as the film progresses audience tend to lose interest in whatever that happens to him.
Still this film will be a gem for movie students, as it can stand among the best in the craft of complex story telling.
Story outline - A popular movie star comes to know that his time is running out and he wants to do one last film with his mentor.
The main theme of the movie is, 'even if someone dies in real life he can remain immortal through the body of his works'.
This movie slides between the things that's happening in the life of the actor and the story that is being directed by his mentor.
Few things that's being conveyed within this outline -
1 - Tribute: This movie is a tribute by actor Kamal Hassan (KH) to his mentor K.Balachander (KB).
KH's real life mentor KB has played the role of the mentor in this movie, unfortunately this was KB's last movie, he passed away before this movie could hit the screens. The roles were reversed in this movie to show KB in good health because that is how KH wants his mentor to be remembered by posterity.
2- The movie within movie: It is not a coincidence that the movie being directed within this movie is represented in the form of folk drama.
Folk drama has always been used to convey valuable lessons to the king and the population alike, by hiding those messages beneath the veneer of banal comedy.
So, what is being conveyed through this folk drama?
It starts with Arjun from Indian mythology getting a powerful weapon from Shiva after doing intense penance. Subtext is, KH getting graduation from his mentor.
Then few kids let loose snake in the crowd which bites four people before biting KH, since the snake has already spent all its venom on four other people, the bite was harmless when it comes to KH. Subtext is, snake is the symbolism for money spoiling the art.
Later KH is being brought to cremation ground where he awakens among the dead body to the horror of people who thought he was dead. The scene in which KH runs away from dead bodies with disgust, shows his aversion towards art succumbing to pure commercialization and thus stopping to do what it has to do, which is equivalent to death.
After this survival KH is known as immortal. At the same time, a power hungry person kills the king and queen, and imprisons the beautiful princess. Subtext, the princess can be seen as the representation of the language Tamil itself, which has grown for many centuries under the love and patronage of great kings and poets, but she has been hijacked by narrow minded power hungry racial fanatics.
Dictator is shown as someone who has lost one of his ear, because fanatics cannot listen to anything other than the things they would like to hear.
KH was brought to the presence of this dictator, since KH has survived longer than others the dictator wants to appropriate KH's glory for his own benefit.
On the way, kids question KH who is caged, about whether he is really immortal? some sell stones to the kids so that they could test whether he is immortal or not. This scene explains many constraints and hurdles an artist has to face.
The pet tiger of the princess has been imprisoned and fed with curd rice. Tiger symbolizes Tamil people itself, who are purposely kept ignorant and dull by power hungry dictator.
KH acts like a court jester to make the dictator and his cronies laugh but his real intention is to save the princess and her tiger from the clutches of the dictator. Meaning, his real intention is to save Tamil and its people from the hands of self-serving bullies.
Princess tells KH that 'he needs to be brave to save the country' for which he replies 'Can an artist save a country? Then he says, I will try if your Tiger doesn't kill me before that'. Meaning, he will try to educate people through his art if people support him.
3- Social satire: The controversial Iraniyan Naadagam play within the movie in which the god dies instead of Iraniyan is a vital voice against religious fanaticism.
Art and artist have right to mock, question and protest against the established ideals, because this is the only antidote against fascism and fanaticism.
4- Screenplay: Even though the film seemingly moves between the story of the actor in his personal life and the folk drama, it is in fact just one story, that is the story of an actor, not only that, each scene is beautifully linked to the other scene.
For example, when the actor has to console others about the fact that his time is running out, the very next shot takes us to folk drama where the artist sings in front of the dictator about 'life without end is a misery and no one wants to listen to a story which has no end'.
Yet shortcomings of the film do test the patience of a light viewer. To begin with it is ostentatiously self indulgent, then over the top theatrics in the folk drama parts is irritating to sit through, even though it is indicative of play acting in folk drama, it becomes insufferable quickly, further the main character in the movie comes of as a superficial person who does not really take responsibilities for his own actions and his excuses for not doing what he should have done, comes of as a feeble attempt to get some more attention for himself, thus as the film progresses audience tend to lose interest in whatever that happens to him.
Still this film will be a gem for movie students, as it can stand among the best in the craft of complex story telling.