Director: Shankar; Writer: Shankar; Producer: K.T. Kunjumon; Cinematographer: Jeeva; Editor: B. Lenin, V.T. Vijayan; Cast: Prabhu Deva, Naghma, Girish Karnad, Vadivelu, Raghuvaran, S.P. Balasubramanyam, Aachi Manorama, Allu Rama Lingaiah, Ajay Ratnam, Dhamu, Madhoo, Subhasri
Summary: Tamil megahit and trendsetter continuing the
90s phenomenon of big budget musicals,
associated mainly with composer Rehman,
reaching an audience far exceeding the
traditional scope of ‘regional’ cinemas. The film
established the breakdancing Prabhu Deva,
known until then mainly as a choreographer
(e.g. the Rukmini song in Roja, 1992). He
plays Prabhu, the son of a policeman
(Balasubramanyam) and a student leader who
falls in love with Shruti (Naghma), daughter of
Kakarla Satyanarayana, the corrupt Governor
of Tamil Nadu (Karnad). The reference is
evidently to Tamil Nadu’s controversial
governor M. Chenna Reddy, who had a public
feud with the state Chief Minister Jayalalitha
(to whom the film is dedicated). The love story
develops alongside the Governor’s nefarious
plans to bomb various public places. From the
opening number, ‘Take it easy Urvashi’, set
partly in an illuminated glass vehicle, the film
announces its ‘postmodern’ intentions using
computer-aided animation and elaborate
special effects as well as costumed dance
numbers, all of which set the stage for
numerous comments on contemporary politics
and the new mass culture. The heroine,
resembling sketches from a book on traditional
norms of Indian beauty, falls out with her
beloved when his breakdancing comes into
conflict with her devotion to the Bharat Natyam
dance form. During their motor-cycle escapade
to the temple town of Chidambaram, they foil
the Governor’s plan to bomb the place, after
which the hero is incarcerated and tortured by
a female cop. His release triggers a wild west
dance number and the film’s megahit, Mukkala
muqabala. The film makes several references
to earlier Tamil hits (e.g. to the Roja star
Aravind Swamy) and Prabhu on one occasion
pretends to be N.T. Rama Rao (leading to an
extract from the latter’s Lavakusa, 1963).
Dubbed versions of the film in Telugu
(Premikudu, 1994) and Hindi (Humse Hai
Muqabala, 1995) were also hits, esp. Rehman’s
songs. Hindi lyrics were by P.K. Mishra.
Tejaswini Niranjana and Vivek Dhareshwar
analysed the film in ‘Kadhalan and the Politics
of Resignification: Fashion, Violence and the
Body’ (1995).
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