VISHWAROOP | 2 February, 2013

Wisam enters the terrorist group of Omarbhai (Rahul Bose) who works for Osama bin Laden. He trains Omarbhai’s men in terrorist activities and wins the confidence of Omarbhai and everybody else. However, Omar­bhai’s trusted lieutenant, Salim (Jaideep Ahlawat), realises that Wisam is not what he appears to be. But it is too late because Omarbhai’s family has been killed in a bomb attack by the US army.

Omarbhai’s man, Farukh, nabs Wisam and Nirupama but Wisam proves too smart for him and kills Farukh and all his deputies and escapes with wife Nirupama but not before Dipankar is killed by Farukh. It turns out that unknown to Nirupama, her boss and lover, Dipankar, was an associate of Omarbhai.

It’s now Omarbhai and Salim gunning for Wisam. Even as Wisam and his colleagues – Jagannath (Shekhar Kapur), John Dawkins (Miles Anderson) and Ashmita (Andrea Jeremiah) – are trying to prevent Omarbhai’s terrorist activities in the USA, the FBI arrests Wisam, Nirupama and Ashmita. Soon, the FBI realises that the three are working against terrorism and they now join forces to combat terrorism. But what is Omarbhai’s game plan? Does Wisam and group succeed in unearthing the hideous plan and stopping it in time? Or are they too late? What happens to Omarbhai and Salim? And what happens to Wisam and group?

Kamal Haasan’s story is too complicated and has so many characters with such difficult names and unrecognisable faces playing them that the drama gets too confusing as it becomes difficult for the viewers to remember the characters and their names. It keeps going into flashback, only adding to the confusion. What’s worse is that screenplay writer Kamal Haasan adopts a technique which withholds from the audience what exactly is happening so that the viewer is left wondering where the film is headed. In other words, the audience very often gets confused with the many happenings because the writer chooses not to reveal all to them. This starts testing the viewers’ patience after a point of time and even puts them off. Things do fall into place ultimately but that often hap­pens so much after the confusion has arisen that it would serve the purpose of clearing the doubts if and only if the viewers have the patience.

Frankly, the audience of today is not at all interested in the details the writer has gone into, to present the terrorist activities of jehadi Muslims. For the womenfolk, several of the action scenes are so violent and the killings, so brutal that they would feel repulsed! The light scenes, especially after interval, fail to evoke laughter. Another big minus point is that the film has too many subtitles in Hindi when the characters speak in foreign languages. This makes it cumbersome for the audience. Also, the climax is unsatisfying and seems to have been written with the sole aim of making a sequel to the film!! Some portions of the climax (like Nirupama diffusing the ticking bomb, with an electronic appliance) even look rather unbelievable.

On the positive side, some of the twists in the tale are interesting and have shock value. Also, a couple of scenes offer edge-of-the-seat excitement. Some action and stunt scenes are very mass-appealing. In particular, the action scene of Vishwanath/Taufiq killing Farukh and his men is worthy of applause. Dialogues, penned by Atul Tiwari, are appropriate.

A word here about the authentic atmosphere created. The writer-director ought to have appreciated the fact that creating an authentic ambience is great when and only when what’s being shown holds the audience’s interest. Otherwise, the authenticity is quite worthless – and that’s the case in this film too.

Kamal Haasan lives the role of the secret service agent on a mission. He gets into the skin of the different characters he plays and shines in each and every one of them. In one word, he is extraordinary. As his wife, Pooja Kumar is adequate. Rahul Bose does an absolutely fine job in the role of Omarbhai. He looks every inch the terrorist he plays. His get-up and voice modulation deserve distinction marks. Shekhar Kapur is average. Andrea Jeremiah is quite nice in the role of Ashmita. Jaideep Ahlawat is adequate in the role of Salim. Nasser, Zarina Wahab, Atul Tiwari (as detective Peter Parwani) and the rest lend the desired support.

Kamal Haasan’s direction is good but his narrative style does confuse the viewers at places. Also, his script holds very limited appeal. Music (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) is not of the popular genre. Javed Akhtar’s lyrics are alright. Pt. Birju Maharaj’s choreo­graphy is fine. Sanu John Varughese’s cinematography is first-rate. Madhu Sudhanan’s visual effects are praiseworthy. Stunts and action scenes, choreographed by Kecha Khamphakdee and Lee Whittaker, are death-defying and will appeal to the masses but many of them will be found to be too gruesome by the ladies. Sets (Lalgudi N. Ilayaraja) are authentic. Mahesh Narayanan’s editing is good. Production values are grand. Technically, superb.

On the whole, Vishwaroop is too long and tedious to entertain. It has a subject which not many would be interested in watching. It will, therefore, have a very limited run in the cinemas and will bomb at the box-office. The controversy surrounding the ban on the Tamil version by the Tamil Nadu government will not give the box-office collections of the Hindi version much boost. Collections may pick up in the weekend as the film opened to dull houses but the jump will not be too much and it won’t last for long.

Released on 1-2-’13 at Regal (daily 1 show), Eros (daily 3 shows), New Excelsior (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd. Publicity: good but not very effective. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was pathetic at most of the places.