Billa

Source: www.billathemovie.wordpress.com

Looks good, but doesn't take off

There are two movies which I believe are milestone movies in Tamil film-making, for their presentation, not substance. One was Minsara Kanavu – the glossy triangular love story by ad director/cameraman Rajiv Menon revolutionarised film photography.

The other definitely has to be Billa. Director Vishnuvardhan (VV) had showed his mettle in his Arinthum Ariyaamalum and gangster flick Pattiyal. In Billa, he takes the theatrics to the next level in Tamil cinema.

The major contributors to VV’s vision are undoubtedly Nirav Shah (DOP), VV’s wife, Anu Vardhan (costume), and Yuvan (music). They helped to make the concept palatable and believable, to an extent. True that many, many shots were inspired from inspirational Hollywood movies – but you have to note that not everyone watches all Hollywood movies. (If you’re one of those, then this movie, along with countless others (eg. Anniyan) would appear to be wholesale pastiches of Hollywood).

As for casting, the script was written for Ajit, and he pulled it off well. He did not play psycho-villain Billa or the talkative and uncouth Velu that Rajni did in the original. Ajit’s Billa is more restrained, and more ruthless because he gives no indication he is going to kill you. Ajit’s Velu is definitely not the talkative sort – there was a lack of character development here.

The two heroines were completely wasted – Nayantara was not the EQ-drenched Sri Priya. She was just drenched. In never-seen-before-in-any-Tamil-movie skimpy attire, sans make-up. Not a good combination. Namitha – she’s a big-boned lady who’s trying to make a decent living. She had her 10 minutes of fame prancing about the same way she did in ATM.

Prabhu gave an inspiring performance, but he really needs to lose the weight to prevent his body from swallowing himself. Rahman the actor looked good – I liked his moustache. That’s pretty much the only thing I liked about him, because once again, the character wasn’t developed much.

I wonder what is in this story that has so far spawned four movies: First came the Hindi Don in 1978, with Amitabh. Then came Rajni’s Billa in 1980. Then recently Shah Rukh did his cover of Amitabh’s Don last year. And now Ajit’s cover of Rajni in 2007. Maybe it’s the idea of having one actor play both a ruthless, violent criminal and a simpleton, innocent stage performer.

Having said all that, all the versions are the directors’ and actors’ own interpretation of the core story. Different actors do it differently, different technicians do it differently. I watched a bit of Shah Rukh’s Don – it was technically one of the best Hindi films I’ve watched, extremely slick and well packaged. But it’s not on par as the current Billa, and I don’t think it’s fair to compare those two. It’s best to see Billa 2007 as a film by itself.

But it’s not completely successful. One can see the director’s inspiration– it is something like what the Wachowski brothers did for Hollywood through the first Matrix. But Billa’s appearance on the Tamil movie scene is not smooth – at some points, the movie was teetering on the edge of ridiculousness (read: too many sunglasses).

And it’s not always about the form – substance has to matter. VV had solid substance for Arinthum and Pattiyal. For Billa, I think he’s compromised on the script. A person who has not watched the original will notice the slipshod and incomplete character development and the slow second half, and the potential for, but disappointing lack of a jaw-dropping twist.

I do hope Billa 2007 sets the stage for Tamil cinema to put more thought into packaging, but I do hope it does not set a precedent for a sub-standard script.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billa_(2007_film)