The master of classicism has this time remade a classic out of a classic for the silver screen, remaking the bollywood’s hit “a wednesday” with regional flavour and presenting it to the south Indian audience. The cast is enthralling and is a delight to watch them perform onscreen.
Kamal Haasan being the protagonist disappointingly doesn’t have too much scope for acting, so its Mohan Lal to watch out for most of the times. Just sample this, his acting prowess justified when he is being asked whether he needs centre’s assistance when things go out of control and he expresses his pride being hurt a little but responds with a firm no!
When you remake something, there is a normal tendency to compare it with the original, rate it up on some scale and declare whether it earns up to it or not. It’s a little subject to curiousness when a film like ‘a Wednesday’ is remade by an artist like Kamal Haasan. It is understood if an all time classic of Godfather is reinvented as a Nayagan, a Mrs Doubtfire in the form of Avvai shanmugi to quench a satiation of performance for an out of the world role playing, a Vasool Raja MBBS from MunnaBhai for pure and complete entertainment, a svelte cinema in the form of Anbe sivam drawing inspiration from Planes Trains and Automobiles.
Then why remake the Wednesday? Is it to invent the proven hit all over again with the same script and claim to have made an avant-garde classic? Unlikely. We have seen commercial films and admit sometimes it feels good to see the hunk of a hero bashing up the baddies. Because it remains a prominent fantasy of ordinary people around us who feel helpless when they witness injustice in real life. When we witness again something in multiple folds in the form of terrorism and yet get more shocked and frustrated and yet feel helpless again. The feeling is common. So it’s a feel good factor again to watch just an ordinary man, devise stuff and give vent to his frustrations, and it’s a slight provocation in itself. This provocation is good and everybody needs it, no matter in what form it is brought about, no matter whether a Neeraj Pandey or Chakri Toleti captures it, no matter a Naseeruddin Shaw or Kamal Haasan brings about it.
So its inspiration again, an inspiration to poke and make us look up with some clarity . So whether you watch “a Wednesday”, “Unnai pol oruvan” or “Eenadu”, no matter where you are, which is your geaography or what your actual name the dumb conscience needs to be fed with some suggestiveness and that’s what Kamal Haasan has executed.
If you have watched the original you may not be so bowled over, but still you may want to watch it again because we here always require a bout of realization and no matter how many times or whatever forms we watch it, it is always good.