MUGAM
A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam
| Cast: | Nasser, Roja, Manivannan, Dhamu, Vivek, 'Thalaivasal' Vijay |
| Music: | Ilaiyaraja |
| Direction: | Gnana Rajasekharan |
I have always felt that Nasser has been an underrated actor,
wasted in movies like Padaiyappa.
Rarely has he given a bad performance
and he is versatile, whether as the over-the-top villain in
the serious Thalaivaasal or the stern father in
light-hearted movies like Poovellaam
Kaettuppaar or Jodi.
More importantly, in the context of Mugam, I liked
both Avadhaaram and Dhevadhai, his previous
entries into offbeat
cinema. So I did expect something of value from Mugam.
But the movie proves that past performance cannot be used to as
a yardstick to gauge a movie.
To be fair, there are some topical messages that the director seems to be trying to convey through this movie. The falseness embraced by people, overemphasis on good looks instead of a good heart, idolisation of cinema stars - there are scenes that attempt to touch upon all these issues. But unlike Desiya Geetham, the handling here is ineffective and overall, the movie seems like a haphazard attempt that doesn't work at any level - neither as a satire nor as a social commentary.
Rangan(Nasser) is a poor man who has a badly disfigured face. But he has self-respect and this prevents him from living off of his friend Muthannan(Manivannan), a make-up artist. Rangan is rejected in all the fields he attempts to work in until he is given a small role in a film. But the final straw is when revolted moviegoers burn the screen when his face appears. Picking up an old mask in Muthannan's box, Rangan alters his face and becomes a big movie star. He also marries Malini(Roja), the daughter of a rich industrialist and one of his rabid fans. But Rangan loses his peace of mind because of his false life and decides to remove the mask, exposing his old face to all.
While suspension of disbelief is the norm for 'masala' movies, attempted art movies need to maintain some form of realism to affect the viewer. But the central point of the mask altering Nasser's face is so preposterous that it removes any involvement in the movie. How exactly can a simple, old mask (which even has its eyes closed) alter the face of man to the extent of straightening out his teeth?! And his method of applying the mask is to burn it on with whatever source of fire is nearby(both a candle and a stick of fire work).
The earlier scenes, where Nasser is ridiculed, somehow don't generate sympathy. While his rejection at other places seems sad, his action of holding the hand of a girl who is sympathetic on him actually works against him instead of earning him our sympathy. But while these are atleast acceptable, moviegoers burning a screen and beating up an actor because they are turned off by his looks seems too extreme.
Once his transformation occurs, the subsequent events aren't interesting enough to make us forget the absurdity of the transformation either. This is probably the movie with the most use of the title in the script as ever other dialog contains some sort of reference to Nasser's 'mugam'. But most of these are forced and cinematic. For instance, is there anyone who would say "Call the 'mugam' " instead of "Call the person"? Individual scenes like the ones involving 'Thalaivaasal' Vijay and Vivek, have no bearing on the story.
Nasser has only a couple of scenes to show his talent. Inspite of the oppurtunities when his face is disfigured, the only scene where he does well is when he talks in front of the mirror right after his transformation. His makeup is suitably gory but without the right screenplay to back it up, it just seems like a waste of the makeup artist's time and effort. In fact the whole movie is a story of wasted talents. Actors like Roja, Vivek, Dhamu and Fathima Babu are on screen too fleetingly to make any kind of impression. P.C.Sriram, behind the camera, and Ilaiyaraja, composing the music, are also wasted. The only actor other than Nasser to have an important character is Manivannan. As in Sangamam, he delivers in a serious character here too.