Review: Attagasam
Baradwaj Rangan
Baradwaj Rangan
(C) The Economic Times, Madras Plus - Nov. 18, 2004
In 'Aboorva Sagotharargal', Kamal and Kamal played twins, one of whom
was the carefree dude who dealt with automobiles and the leading lady,
while the other handled mother issues and his father's murder. In
'Enga Veettu Pillai', MGR and MGR played twins who swapped places and
brought about changes in each other's environment. Now, in
'Attagasam', Ajit and Ajit play Jeeva and Guru, twins who, in some
form or the other, do most of what Kamal and Kamal and MGR and MGR did
-- so this brand-new twin-story is essentially built on age-old
foundations.
That's fine, really. No one goes to a movie named 'Attagasam' to
witness path-breaking screenwriting nuance. Original, duplicate,
whatever -- all that's needed is a 'masala' mix that packs in every
ingredient off the spice rack, while we pack in the popcorn.
On paper, 'Attagasam' has it all. There's action, the kind in which
the hero belts out a solitary 'dishoom' to the bad guy's underlings
-- easily identified by their attire, the two baggy cylinders of
vertical-striped cloth peeking out from under a bunched-up 'lungi' --
after which they spin in mid-air in a manner that could fetch them
visiting professorships at Russian gymnastic schools. There's comedy,
the kind in which the heroine's dog is in heat, the hero's dog
swallows a pill of Viagra, and... you really don't want to know. And
there's the mandatory heroine (Pooja) who exists solely to show off
her (admittedly very pretty) belly button during the song sequences.
There are directors today who are infusing fresh, furious life into
the time-worn action-comedy -- Dharani, for instance, knew that he had
to have a fight in the climax of 'Dhool', but he made it fun by
setting the segment to an irrepressible Paravai Muniamma folk number,
and Lingusamy, with 'Run', showed that it's possible for a hit action
movie to showcase a hero who uses brain as much as brawn. But Saran,
here, is content with the same-old surefire formula of
fight-comedy-fight-dance-fight-comedy-fight-dance... but even this
doesn't exactly work because there are too many inconsequential
villains cluttering up a plot that has too few consequential
developments.
As a result, whatever entertainment value there is in 'Attagasam' is
entirely due to Ajit's handling of the twin roles. Jeeva is the
standard hero-type, assigned the duties of romance and comedy, while
Guru is the standard 'dada'-type, who sports more gold accessories
than KR Vijaya in her 'amman' roles and whose job description entails
tough talk, tougher action. It's no surprise that Ajit scores as
Jeeva, but it's his portrayal of Guru that shows that there is, after
all, some grit beneath the chocolate-face. If only he didn't feel the
need to label himself 'Ultimate Star' -- sounds like the biggest mass
of hot gas in the universe, no? -- and morph into multiple copies
during fight sequences... Then again, what's a 'masala' movie without
a hero wanting to be larger than life!