This common man remains mostly faithful to the original and proves to be a clear winner!!
Remakes are always a tricky case to handle. All you have to do is just to imitate a proven winner, yet it’s no simple task. Recreating the same magic especially when you are adapting to an industry which is much different from the original is quiet a task. Especially when you are remaking a movie like 'A Wednesday' whose plot primarily revolves around terrorism and had a Mumbai backdrop to down south is a challenging proposition. Unnai Pol Oruvan proves to be a well worthy remake thanks to the exceptional performances from its lead cast, filled with brilliant dialogues and of course the original script by Neeraj Pandey.
The movie has a bit of bumpy start, the initial character establishments (with the exception of Kamal) of the ensemble cast doesn't really grab your attention. Just as you start to feel the bumps, the movie takes off and never turns back. As mentioned earlier the narrative remains faithful to the original and hence moves at a very good pace. One of the main back bones of the original was its crackling dialogues, the Tamil version matches it word by word. Most of Lals dialogues are satirical digs targeting the political and the governing system. Even the current CM of Tamil Nadu is not spared, who appears just as a voice over the phone. The dialogues are filled with smart witty one liners which are spread out throughout the movie. The original was so intense throughout with the pressure building up right to the throttle till its end, but here with all the witticism and sarcasm in the dialogues makes it less intense and a tad less serious. Am not sure how technically the red one camera works but the visuals looked stunning and appeared very rich. The cinematography was top notch. The BGM given by Shruthi hassan was apt nothing more or nothing less.
When you work on a script that was already made, there is always scope for improving on it and tweaking it to fit to the local flavor. Here they give it a bit more detailing and simplify it for our south audience and have played it safe. And thank god they replaced the solitary bench in the climax with a jeep, as it looked very amateurish in the original. They also reiterate the fact that terrorism needs not to be associated with one religion alone with instances like best bakery highlighted. One of the terrorist is a weapon pimp is a Hindu and confesses it’s all pure business and nothing else. But the terrorist footage's where more realistic in the original and the fact that known faces playing them doesn’t help it either. The emotional twist in the original would have never worked here as soon as you had someone like Kamal hassan playing Naseers role. So they keep it pretty simple right from the first and don’t try to misguide the audience. Lal gives it away right in the start that it was common mans work and the screen immediately cuts to Kamals introduction where he is seen preparing on a bomb. Hence the climax is not much of surprise here.
Inspite of these few glitches what makes UPO fantastic is its lead cast. The movie starts with Mohan Lals voice over and his Tamil diction looks a bit odd initially then you understand that he plays a Malayali police officer and just as you settle down you start realizing why many term him as India’s most spontaneous and natural actor. He is simply fantastic as the Commissioner. He is given the most screen time and has the most of the best dialogues in the movie and he makes full use of it. Many felt Mohan Lal was misfit and would not do justice to Khers ( outstanding in the original) performance, and I wonder where even those people would hide their faces. The biggest success in Lals performance to me is that there were not even a single iota of Kher in it, he completely played it in a different way. Kher was all serious, upright and very commanding, here Lal plays the character a touch less serious yet you could see all the frustration, sarcasm, anger and at times the helplessness just with his expressions. Hats off to him.
'Am a limelight moth' declared Kamal in one of his recent interviews. But here Kamal the producer has to be lauded for giving an another star much more screen time than him which was the only way the script could have worked. And when punch dialogues, over the top heroism, 5 songs, 5 fights and one senseless comedy track has become the norm of the day he shows us the guts time and again it. He remakes a movie with no such ingredients and yet makes it work. Naseerudin shah fit the bill of common man to perfection in the original. Easily would be among the top three performances of last year. He played rather lived on screen like any other common man and brought in the subtle frustration and anxieties brilliantly. He delivers one of the best monologues during the climax, which for me is the whole crux of the movie. That one single scene takes the movie to higher levels. So what does our man do. Well Kamal plays the role as Kamal. His common man is not the insecure tired frustrated type, rather he is an angry and had enough of all this happening around him type. He plays it with his own flair and is a delight to watch. Throughout the movie as much as you enjoy him, you kind of doubt if Shah does have the upper hand over him. By the time the all important monologue starts and ends all the doubts are sent back to the cleaners. Kamal wallops Shah in that one single scene. Listen to his narration of the gruesome story observe how he slowly breaks down and that single tear that drops at the right moment, then he regroups himself and wipes of his tear with his pistol ( A nice touch, looked like a brilliant improvisation from Kamal which simply reiterates the theme of the movie). He is as magnificent as always. Wish we see an another glorious 50 years of him.
On the whole the people who watched the original should be mostly satisfied that it sticks to its original, while the others should really enjoy this one. Two legendaty actors hit it off and at the end of it, you wish the 100 odd mins was slightly longer.
