[SOUTH ASIAN REVIEWS] கந்தசாமி (Kanthaswamy)

With super powers come super responsibilities.

If there's anything that India's insanely vibrant and varied film culture has taught us to expect, that is its continued defiance of any and all expectations. And when it comes to Kollywood, Tamil Nadu's own answer to the Bollywood onslaught, it seems that increasingly lavish blockbusters with budgets, stars and overseas location shots on par with its Mumbai brethren might be the new wind of change ruling the industry - but not necessarily the box office, as it's often the smaller budgeted films that have made an impact in 2009. Recipient of what is arguably the biggest hype since the incredible success of Boxing Day Tsunami-themed drama தசாவதாரம் (Dasavathaaram), Susi Ganesan's கந்தசாமி (Kanthaswamy) is one of the first bonafide superhero blockbusters in Tamil cinema history, and it doesn't seem content with breaking records alone - it also possesses one of the wildest premises of recent memory, from any country: let's just say that faithful believers of Murugan (the Hindu God of War) will never look at their deity of choice in the same light, after sitting through this three hour-plus baby.

Widespread poverty and the rich's corruption are amongst the most conventional of themes in any non-masala (from the famous Indian dish, indicating mainstream potboilers filled with overwrought histrionics, slapstick comedy, action, romance, and of course wild songs pieces) production, but for a huge blockbuster like this to tackle them so significantly might be an indication of how ambitious Ganesan's fourth film was. A protege and assistant director for दिल से (Dil Se)'s Mani Ratnam throughout the 1990s, Ganesan's first two films were of a much smaller scale, focusing mostly on new faces, limited budgets and an emphasis on storytelling over the usual pitfalls of the Indian canon. With his acclaimed third feature திருட்டு பயலே (Thiruttu Payal) - focusing on rogue youths and the influence that sex and money have on their generation - becoming a surprise hit, Ganesan got the chance to direct his first bonafide masala extravaganza, one which took a few years of lengthy and conflicted production-related vicissitudes to come into fruition, but is certainly not your everyday Bollywood blockbuster. By casting acclaimed stars like Vikram and Shriya (who has also starred in a few Hollywood pics, like The Other End of the Line), veterans like Prabhu and slapstick comedy king Vadivelu, Kanthaswamy was going to arouse interest anyway, but people still hadn't dealt with the film's most curious attraction: the fact we were dealing with a new brand of superhero.

During the day, V. Kanthaswamy is an officer for the CBI, India's equivalent of the CIA. He's impeccably dressed, handsome and tremendously efficient, demeaning himself with the panache of an Hollywood Golden Age A-lister and the perfect smile only toothbrush ads on TV would bestow upon you. He and his team are currently undergoing an income tax raid to follow the black money trail which is afflicting the region, and here's where our connection with Kanthaswamy by night begins. Those a little familiar with Hindu culture might recognize the name already, but Kanthaswamy was also one of the aforementioned God of War's names, which should set all your suspicions in motion. As throngs of poor souls flock to the temple of Murugan to ask for mercy, a little money to survive past the day and similar amenities, a man (or is he a God?) finally emerges, answering the wishes they write on pieces of papers tied to a tree. We make first contact with our superhero one night, as he appears from above, inside a temple where a corrupt local policeman was sleeping. He's wearing baggy harem pants, a laminated black armor in perfect bargain Batman style surrounded by a stylish cloak, and his most evident trait: colorful feathers on top of a very familiar mask. If his clucking war cries and fixed-head motions weren't enough to give you the idea, yes. We're in the presence of Man. Chicken Man.

Alternating between CBI agent by day and superhuman poultry specimen by night is a success for Kanthaswamy, until the day when two events risk to put an end to his noble efforts: one is the discovery of the black money trail they were after, which sends evil tycoon PPP's most sinister plans in motion; the other is the fact that his superhero persona, heralded as a God by the populace, is arousing suspicion in the eyes of the police, which begin an investigation to find who's behind the cock-a-doo mask, leaving feathers in his wake. Further complicating things is the sultry Subbulakshmi, PPP's daughter, who pretends to fall for Kanthaswamy to avenge her father's newfound paralysis, condition caused by our clucking hero. Little does she know that this is a masala flick, so they'll repeatedly misunderstand each other, fall in love, dance at a corrida arena in Mexico and much more, before the real theme of the film starts emerging.

If anything, Kanthaswamy is a labor of love which somehow oozes the same sensibilities as Kaz Kiriya's works - no frame (laboriously photographed by N.K. Ekambaram) is left untouched, with filter upon filter, bleach bypass and digital color correction, undercranking and overcranking madness which would make the Shaw Brothers proud, and the same over-produced maelstrom of visuals which makes you feel as if you're witnessing a prolonged trailer or music video. The sumptuous art work by Thotta Tharani is sublime, from the song pieces set in anything from near replicas of Milano's La Scala to wild shoots in the desert, Mexican escapades with Mariachi (want to see Vikram dressed as a Matador? This is the film for you) not to mention dozens of grown ass men dressed in red and yellow as delivery boys, singing and dancing the praises of pizza. And I haven't even mentioned the best part, our chicken superhero and his escapades. His first appearance, a sort of Bizarro-world dreamy rendition of Orson Welles' entrance in The Third Man which mixes wirefu action, insane film references (even wondered how a superhero can manage to kick your ass while at the same time not breaking the beer bottle you just threw at him?) and hilarious dialogue, is one of the most disarmingly funny ten minutes you'll ever experience this year, and that's only one of several moments of unintentional hilarity. This film simply explodes with energy, and the majority of those scenes are playful and visually arresting enough to erase the thought that what you're witnessing is completely, utterly ridiculous. But, alas, it seems like Ganesan wasn't content with "just" an insane masala flick, he also wanted a meaningful coda to his little jewel.

Halfway through the film, a big denouement regarding Kanthaswamy's "superpowers" changes the mood significantly, turning the rest of the film into a more predictable Bollywood extravaganza full of intrigue, action, love, and over the top sexual innuendo (which admittedly works, particularly when you possess the kind of explosive sex appeal as Shriya does). Coupled with the bathroom break-like quality of Vadivelu's slapstick gags, which serve no reason other than giving viewers a breather in the midst of all that bombastic frenzy, the film overstays its welcome by a good hour, perhaps more, which again goes back to a much too ambitious script, or perhaps too lazy. The idea behind this switcheroo, even the way Ganesan deals with it is pretty clever, but trimming a good 6-70 minutes out of this film would have done wonders, particularly as most of the song numbers are really catchy, and the action is mostly watchable in a tongue-in-cheek way, as long as you don't expect the kind of exploits Hong Kong would serve you with. Stars Vikram and Shriya might not be subtle thespians (then again, they're not asked to be, particularly in this kind of film), but they've got metric tons of screen presence, and show good chemistry. But even all those strengths can't help when you're dealing with such an interminable gorilla of a film.

Despite being nothing more than a collage of derivative pieces, Kanthaswamy just screams at the viewer with so much energy and enthusiasm that it's hard to dislike it - also, its Robin Hood-like thematic undertones and social commentary are delivered with the delicacy of an elephant, but it still beats going the lone superhero way with a too-cool-for-words finale. It's just a shame that nobody taught Susi Ganesan a thing or two about editing. There's a lot of charm in this film, but no matter how wild and out of this world your labor of love is, there's no superhero who will turn quantity into quality....

RATING: 6

கந்தசாமி (Kanthaswamy)
Director: சுசி கணேசன் (Susi Ganesan)
Screenplay: சுசி கணேசன் (Susi Ganesan)
Audiography: దేవి శ్రీ ప్రసాద్ (Devi Sri Prasad
Produced by: V Creations
Running Time: 194 Minutes
Release: 8/21/2009
CAST: விக்ரம் (Vikram), பிரபு (Prabhu), சிரேயா (Shriya), வடிவேல் (Vadivelu)