Pushpak is a unique movie in the sense that it shatters the barriers of language in cinema. A truly experimental effort in Indian cinema, it is a wordless, though not soundless movie. Though the movie delves around a serious central theme of love against the backdrop of urban issues like unemployment, the tone is replete with with black humour and satire. It makes social statements about the glaring disparity between the rich and the unemployed middle class without ever being dramatic or acquiring a documentary tone.
A poor and unemployed youth (Kamal Hasan) makes a foray into a life beyond his means after stumbling across a rich drunkard lying by the wayside, holding him captive and impersonating him. He moves into the hotel Pushpak where the rich man resided and gets to experience the lifestyle he always dreamt of, meets a beautiful girl (Amala) and falls in love with her. However, he also gets runs into potholes intended for the rich man in the form of an assassin hired by his wife’s paramour. How he deals with the mess he is sucked into, forms the rest of this movie. There are scattered scenes which are richly philosophical like the scene, when the body of a dead beggar is cleared and his life-long savings fly out from below the rags making the attendants drop the body and make a mad scramble for the money. The ending of the movie is quite touching and makes one sit up and think.
The direction is undoubtedly superb (there’s not a moment in the entire movie where you feel the absence of words and at the same time you don’t feel that the communication is forced) and is the backbone of this movie. Ably complementing it are first notch performances by the entire cast. The background music blends in perfectly without being obtrusive. The only drawback in the otherwise flawless movie is the unnecessary reliance on toilet humor to evince laughs. But, all in all, it’s one of those rare movies which reaches straight for the heart and makes a lasting impact.
Cast: Kamal Hasan, Amala, Tinnu Anand, Farida Jalal & Sameer Khakkar
Director: Sangeetan Shriniwas Rao