Story:
Kuselan is the story of how the life of a poor, simple and honest barber Balakrishnan(Pasupathi) gets affected by the arrival of a movie star, his childhood friend Ashok Kumar(Rajinikanth) in his small town. The film takes us though how the behavior of people around Pasupathi change when they come to know that he is superstar’s friend. and the grand finale where the friends meet.
*Review:
*P. Vasu has directed Kuselan for K.Balachander and two other producers. It is hard to understand how can a experienced director screw up when all he needs to do is follow the original Malayalam version scene to scene.
Kuselan stars Pasupathi, Meena, Vadivelu and Rajnikanth in a cameo appearance. Rajni is the biggest asset as well as liability of this movie. For some reason P Vasu thinks that vulgarity in the guise of glamor, crassness in the name of comedy track and stupidity in the name of punch dialogs are required for Rajnikanth movies. Does Rajnikanth also believe that? - Only he knows!
So, what has happened is that a simple touching story has been remade with doses of Nayanthara, Vadivelu and painfully extended scenes of Rajnikanth and it lost its flavor. The end product is half baked and disjoint. It does not evoke the same sensibilities of the original.
Acting:
Rajnikanth has acted well in this cameo but he must have put his foot down and kept his role as a special cameo. It would have retained the surprise element. But, with the extended role, the movie gets buried under the weight of the superstar.
Pasupathi as the lead character should have been given more screen time. He does fairly well. Meena, with such nice sarees and lipstick hardly looks like a poor barber’s wife. Vadivelu is noisy and stereotyped. Nothing much to write about the rest.
Verdict:
I read that the movie has received lukewarm reviews and response at BO and lot of theaters have reduced the number of shows drastically. In my opinion, Rajnikanth should stop acting with the likes of P.Vasu(maybe even Shankar). KS Ravikumar is a better bet and maybe some new and young directors. I read somewhere that it was Rajni’s idea to make this movie. he selected a good story and a bad director. Rajni fans have to begin their long wait for Robot.