Return of the Raj
RETURN OF THE RAJ
After picking up his National Award, this year’s Best Actor will be coming home in more ways than one.
SEP 13, 2009 – AFTER A SHAMELESS (AND QUITE SUCCESSFUL) series of legal potboilers, when the director SA Chandrasekhar embarked on an uncharacteristic romantic melodrama, named Vasantha Raagam, he remarked to a Tamil publication that the films he’d made thus far were to satisfy his “vayittru pasi,” whereas the one he was making now was for his “kalai pasi.” (He was referring, in the former case, to a very literal physical hunger, and in the latter, to a philosophical hunger, that for art.) Priyadarshan didn’t declaim anything quite as dramatic, but it was evident to anyone who sat through his National Award-winning Kanchivaram that, after years of churning out potboilers to keep the kitchen fires burning, the hunger to create art finally consumed the director. In its sensitivity, in its silken understatement, the film was practically an act of atonement – an oblation to the filmmaking gods for having strayed so long (and so far) off the good path.
Something similar could be said about National Award-winning Best Actor, Prakash Raj, whose default performance mode – in commercial cinema – is to leak nervous energy from every pore. He is one of those actors who can never stay still on screen. He always needs to convince us that he’s acting. The eyes dart when required to think, the index finger jabs the air when required to emphasise, the tone quivers when required to traverse emotional octaves – and these are the quirks that have led to a long and successful, if somewhat one-note, career. In all fairness, this isn’t the actor’s fault. How can you (but more importantly, why should you) play subtle when the rest of the film is being played at a decibel level that can cause tremors on the moon? You could make the argument that these quirks are, in fact, what makes Prakash Raj so valuable, for being able to attune his histrionics to the hysterical tone of his films.
It isn’t just the villains he’s portrayed (most memorably in Gilli) – even the comic characters (Mozhi, Vasoolraja MBBS) and the dramatic turns (Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu) brim over with the kind of theatrical zeal intended to reach out to the audience member in the last row. (Like a great many Indian actors, Prakash Raj would be excellent on stage.) But every once in a while – a long while, I’ll admit – Prakash Raj will allow us a glimpse of the actor he’s really capable of being, the kind of actor that cinema needs, someone whose pauses and inflections and delicate shadings are all that the camera has to pick up in order to convey what his character is going through. He did that in Iruvar (and came away with a National Award for Best Supporting Actor), where he pitched his performance ever so slightly above the marvellous Mohan Lal’s, simmering and seething in silent resentment over a friendship turned sour.
And he’s done that again in Kanchivaram, playing an impoverished weaver who squats amidst silks all day and yet finds it impossible to marry his daughter off in one of his creations. When Prakash Raj picks up his National Award for this evocative portrayal, it’s not just his fans in Tamil Nadu who will be celebrating but also those in Karnataka, whose associations with the actor hark back to 1983, when a very young Prakash Rai joined Abhinaya Taranga, the theatre-training course. His forceful performance in plays like Dhanvantriya Chikitse, Miss Julie and Ahalye Nanna Thayi fetched him several offers in television (the serial Guddedha Bootha remains in the memory even after two decades, not only for its authentic regional flavour, but also for its handsome young protagonist) and the cinema, beginning with KSL Swamy’s Mithileya Seetheyaru, where Rai was cast as a doctor. In 1992, he received a promotion – he appeared as one of the two leads in Harakeya Kuri, alongside superstar Vishnuvardhan.
These were the films that catapulted Rai to his present stardom. Geetha, the heroine of Mithileya Seetheyaru, informed the director K Balachander about her promising young costar. A role in the veteran filmmaker’s television serial followed, and the rest is a well-seen, well-documented career that has enticed Rai far away from his roots. The actor’s fans from back home have increasingly learnt to make their peace with mere memories of past performances – in the superhit Nishkarsha, where Rai held his own in a small role against the stalwarts Anant Nag and Vishnuvardhan; in TS Nagabharana’s Nagamandala, where Rai’s machismo had the audience swooning – but there’s a silver lining. Rai will debut as director with the Kannada film Naanu Nann Kanasu, produced by long-time professional associate and personal friend B Suresha, who directed Dhanvantriya Chikitse and whose perseverance was responsible for Rai being cast in Harakeya Kuri. It appears that Naanu Nann Kanasu will be a homecoming for Rai in more ways than one.
- with inputs from Jyothi Raghuram
Copyright ©2009 The New Sunday Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Is it Prakash Raj Or Prakash Rai..?
Coz you’ve called him both.. Just wondering..
Pradyumna: Originally “Rai”. Now called “Raj”.
Wonder why this article appears against your name. 75% of this is his kannada career highlights, of which, you re unlikely to know anything about. You’d probably know ranbir kapoor’s pet cat name than these details
In the end credits of Maniratnam’s Bombay, his name appears as ‘Prakash Rai’.
here is the proof – http://i30.tinypic.com/15do2s2.jpg
My eyes nearly popped out while watching “Tropical Heat” on Skinemax one night. Prakash Rai has come a long way from there.
As an aside, the plagiarism allegations on KAnchivaram have started seeping out.
He was theatrical in vettaiyaadu vilayadu? I thought it was sort of understated compared to his other roles
he seemed quite good in mozhi..not sure why you included it with the rest of the overacting roles..
Deepauk M: Tropical Heat? Plagiarism? Links please. Thanks.
Prakash Raj is talented, no doubts about that…but I feel that most times, he hams like crazy…ala SRK. Maybe that’s his style, but it does get too stereotypical.
Shankar: Yeah, just replace “Iruvar” with, say, “Swades” and the article could easily be swapped for a piece on SRK, especially with the bit about the default mode being leaking “nervous energy from every pore”
I wonder if Prakash Raj was as fidgety in his Kannada roles as well.
Tropical Heat – A Jag Mundhra film starring, of all people, Iceman’s copilot Slider – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103124/
The supposed ‘plagiarism’ – http://inioru.com/?p=5114 .
Now how the hell would YOU, a chennaivasi, know about Guddadha Bootha ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLmTkQuI-24
seri paapa bidu.yen bekadru bari, naan yenu helalla.
u left out kannathil muthamittal…. another neat performance….
“Wonder why this article appears against your name. 75% of this is his kannada career highlights, of which, you re unlikely to know anything about”
“Now how the hell would YOU, a chennaivasi, know about Guddadha Bootha ?”
Yep, nothing like a little blast of negativity liberally tarred on with the brush of provincial bias.
How do you know about any cinema?
You read, watch, research, think, ponder and then form an informed, cogent opinion that’s then expressed (by the few that have the talent)in an interesting and erudite manner.
Now excuse me while I go and berate myself for loving The Godfather, not being 3rd generation Sicilian by birth:-)
someone also acted in a movie called ‘vidukadhai’ with all the restraint, compose etc etc., somehow only Mani saar movies are remembered by people. I have no complaints, but when you are writing about a person winning a national award and also with the care to point to his earliest roles in Kannada, theatre and screen, a little longer and deeper article about him would have made guys like me happier. And pls dont give the excuse of saying you could have swapped the article for SRK – for he is yet to win a national award.
Side note:
What is it with cinema reviewers these days who start jotting the word ‘ham’ even if one eye brow starts to arch in a scene? Why is it that we have started seeking western style of acting in our actors acting in our movies.
Jaiganesh: Reg. “And pls dont give the excuse of saying you could have swapped the article for SRK – for he is yet to win a national award.” — Seriously, what is it inside you that a remark made in jest (and not even in the article, but to a commenter) sets you off? People accuse me of reading too much into movies, but oh sweet Jesus, the things that are unearthed from my comments and articles!
Jabberwock is so right. The comments say more about the people who are commenting — their complexes, their biases — than about what they are commenting on.
And please don’t pin the “ham” accusation on me. I am a huge fan of melodramatic acting (and melodrama in general), but not in the context of films that otherwise pretend to be realistic. Read “How can you (but more importantly, why should you) play subtle when the rest of the film is being played at a decibel level that can cause tremors on the moon? You could make the argument that these quirks are, in fact, what makes Prakash Raj so valuable, for being able to attune his histrionics to the hysterical tone of his films”
>>People accuse me of reading too much into movies, but oh sweet Jesus, the things that are unearthed from my comments and articles>>
Nice piece BR. >>in its silken understatement>>
P.S: One of my friends studying journalism always had a list of events that made me go red feeling jealous. The latest addition to that list was your session. I heard great comments about it
Any plans of posting it here? Would love to read it.
u give out sessions? wow!! will like to know wat u said to them…
Just out of curiosity how does Prakash Raj’s performance compare with Om Puri’s in Susman.
Nobody seems to remember it but that was the film which made me tilt towards Om as a better actor vis a vis Naseer.
Aravindan/Harish: There isn’t anything to post, as it was a presentation (to a journalism class) about reviewing. But if you’ve been following this blog, a lot of what I said would be familiar to you — that reviewing is hardly a science, there is no such thing as an objective reviewer, that it’s more important to present an informed perspective on the film rather just simply talk about it in surface terms, that no two people will “see” the “same” film, so on and so forth.
There was good participation from the class. And quite a few of them raised their hands when I asked how many saw themselves as future film critics
His acting was subtle in most of the scenes in the movie ‘Saroja’.. I think he underplayed it quite well, compared to his usual standards..And stood out in the movie because of that..
Mr kaykay should understnd that I speak as someone who knows that bardwaj is unlikely to have watched those kannada movies. Have you, BR ?
Baradwaj is a bolly nd world cinema critic with limited knowledge of indian regional cinema except tamil. This is not a criticism of him but a fact.
I find the piece hollow because he doesn’t seem to know prakash raj as much as he would probably know ranbir kapoor. I feel jyoti raghuram should have been given the whole piece.
Alternatively, I’d have appreciated if the rticle had been devoid of jyoti r’s inputs and expanded on baradwaj’s view of prakash raj through the prism of movies baradwaj had actually watched,
Really, this feels like a for-hire job – like say per sollum pillai
awaiting your music review for Rahman’s ‘Blue’
“You read, watch, research, think, ponder and then form an informed, cogent opinion that’s then expressed (by the few that have the talent)in an interesting and erudite manner”
Houda maharaya, gotte irlilla. Halkat, Guddada Bootha was a TV serial aired some 20 years back on the only tv channel available in karnataka those days – kannada dordarshan. There was no youtube, google, DVR or any archiving medium whatsoever . The only memory people have of that are from crazy people like me who recorded the BGM on cassette tape by placing tape recorder in front of television, or some very rich people who had VCR and made a copy though those days even that as not possible because people only had VCPs, not VCRs. It is clear the author has not seen the numerous kannada works he has so deliberately named. Pointing that out is only par for the course alva ?
so many bloggers flocking the electronic media; each uploading their take on the movie; more importantly many are unique in their own way – funny, critical, cynical, descriptive, terse … oh lot of talented amateurs… no wonder you could see the hands pointing the sky
BR: Heard there was a preview show of Unnaipol Oruvan yesterday? Did you go? And comments!?
Raj, I believe this was a piece done for the boss. Left to himself I wonder if BR would have the urge to ink a piece on Prakash Raj, the national award notwithstanding
PR’s “body of work”, at least in Tamil films, is limited to just two noteworthy performances at best.
Kanchivaram was good and PR’s performance was good too, but if this got the NA then it speaks more about the quality of competition overall or maybe about the rabid regional lobbying/politics. But then I have stopped figuring out national awards long long time back.
Adithya: Preview show? This is the first I’m hearing of it
BR: Heh! I came to know because Sudhish tweeted about it when he was there.
Sudhish Kamath reviewed that movie after seeing the preview
so i guess there was indeed a preview
‘Blue’ Music Review Please!
I downloaded it.. am listening to it like for past 4 days… unlike other rahman albums, its not growing on me.. i don’t think it is going to..
..
but then am waiting for your review, cos am not qualified enough to make a judgement on Rahman’s music!
but somehow feel blue is no way meant for the ipod, its suited more for the gym maybe, please do write ur POV!
Movie is good. Remains faithful to the original. Anand Kamal has played it like Kamal..not like a common man. This round goes to Naseer!!
Lal’s performance is fantastic. As the time goes by, he shows glipmses of helplessness, whereas Anupam Kher remained confident throughout.
The best part was the BGM…Welcome to the tinsel world Shruti, you have done a great job in the BGM(though I did not like any of the songs).
Boss, Prakash Raj is soo much fun in Wanted. Seriously.
Vijay: not having seen Kanchivaram, I doubt I would begrudge it or Prakashraj an award given that Saif Ali Khan won it for…Hum Tum! I doubt Saif would include that among his own three best performances…
Looking forward to Dev Benegal’s Road, Movie. Heard some good things about it…plus it has Abhay!!
Vijay, that is exactly what I am saying. Baradwaj should be asked to write on rishi kapoor whence we’ll get a masterpiece of an article. I don’t think he cn appreciate a mohanlal or mammotty let alone nasser or prakash raj whereas rishi kappoor will be haled as a great natural actor:-)
Hack job really this article and it shows.
raj, freeya vidu!!
I have to say your comments are getting stereotypical…almost a one point agenda. I say this as someone who has usually enjoyed reading your comments and participated in wonderful discussions. freeya vidu, machchi.
Ok, I’ll lie low for sometime. Konja naal adakki vaasikkaren.
But I think what I was rationalising was that br is best enjoyed as a bollywood critic with exposure to tamil cinema. I don’t think he understands the tamil ethos as much as he does the bolly – which is reflecrted in the sheer joy you can see in articles bout something as ordinary as main hoon na, simply because of references to 70’s masala bollywood. Obviously, it is his personal association with certain memoreis that is inflating its value for him
Henceforth, I will only muffle my smile at people craving for his opinion on tamil cinema. As a tamil cinema critic, he is as good as any other decent blogger, thts all.