Vaastu Prakara - Good movie nan prakaara!
I went to Vaastu Prakaara (VP) with many of the negative reviews and mixed reviews in mind. I have watched all movies of Yogaraj Bhat (YB) right from Mungaru Male, Gaalipata, Manasaare, Pancharangi, Paramaathma (except: Mani and Drama). Everyone started comparing this VP with the previous movies of YB. Pawan went on to make a Yotube video to tell that he didn’t like Paramaathma, but liked VP. So, these prejudices were all sowed into me.
Let me jump into the movie. I went 5 minutes late (as usual) and missed the initial “thamte dance”. The first scene reassured me that YB is well within his zone of son who is a rebel and doesn’t agree with the father’s ideas, but mother stands as support to him (Comparison: Mungaru Male - mother <same Sudha Belawadi> supports son, but father hates the son. In Pancharangi, both father and mother hate the unruly / rebel son).
Once the son escapes to Vastenia (a fictitious country where Jaggesh lives) I felt for about 30-40 minutes, the movie turned out to be completely taken over by Jaggesh. So much that Rakshit Shetty (RS) looks dull. There have been several reviews that RS is dull / hasn’t acted effectively. In My Honest Opinion (IMHO), I felt that RS has been passive for about 30-40 minutes in the first half. I am not that an expert to tell whether the script demanded it. Just observe the script: for some time after reaching Vastenia, RS is not interested to do the mosquito bat business of Jaggesh. One part of me tells that his “passiveness” is due to this fact in the screenplay. But another part in me tells that he could have showed that “disinterest” in a better way. It seems he has not immersed into it completely. (A friend told me that in an interview, RS said he said that he was confused for some time about the script because YB was filming the scenes randomly and he was totally confused. Later, YB advised him to stop thinking like a director and blindly involve in the movie. I think I can join the dots ;) here! Again not fully sure)
The first 30-40 minutes are enjoyable. There is one song for Jaggesh “Simply Met Her Sometime Back”. Some comments about this song. Yes, Hari Krishna irritates as usual, but YB could have used Jaggesh’s real voice and tongue twisting talent for that BGM dialogue “gottirodu gottilla” and shot that one scene with real time voice capture. This song, I could observe has been shot with minimum budget when it comes to graphics, but looks pretty decent. Jaggesh steals the show in this song and thereafter in all the scenes.
Then comes the role of Parul Yadav. Some people said her character and the vichitra language were irritating. I didn’t feel so. It was fine. Her inability to speak Kannada clearly has been very well used as a character trait by YB. He is so unconventional and can work out the things with whatever he has. Parul has done a pretty decent job all over the movie.
In a few minutes, we are introduced to Ananth Nag’s family. Only with the arrival of Ananth Nag, the flow of Jaggesh and audience complete attention on Jaggesh is broken. Ananth Nag with his presence brings a change to the ambiance of the movie. RS continues being passive, but improves a bit. (If my analysis that he acted passively due to the script, then this point supports the fact).
Sudha Rani plays the role of fighting wife. I do not feel like saying anything more about her character. She does lot of screaming and gets irritated easily. It is Ananth Nag who complements her character so well. Ananth Nag is such a wonderful artist. Respect for him.
Their daughter is the poor innocent kid Aishani who just wants some peace in her life and is fed up with the fights. Aishani has given a performance which I feel is better than what I expected from her after watching her in posters and trailer. She speaks like she is reciting poems before a school teacher. But, that accent and speaking style goes in sync with her character who has been out of India and has been influenced by the western accent. Her Kannada is clear (spashTa) and she speaks similar to how Chetan (Aa Dinagalu) speaks. At least doesn’t spoil the language. In a couple of scenes, she is more involved than RS. People may say she doesn’t have good features or is not perfect etc etc. She is fine, dresses decently (unlike Jaathre Amulya) and looks good. I think this is a character so well suited for a newcomer. Not really challenging. Many of the scenes, she has to show a poor face and puppy face. Let me tell you, Ananth Nag’s character, much like all other characters is not that challenging, but he impacts so much. (Ok, I must stop praising Ananth Nag now).
I am not sure, when the love track between Aishani and RS starts (before or after intermission). That starting of the love simply made me feel a cool breeze during a hot summer night. Fine, a disclosure was not made in the beginning - I am a fan of YB and his format. So, you should be aware of my bias. It is special the way YB writes his romantic scenes. Yes, he repeats some of his earlier romantic ideas here too. Mostly the romance that he used in Pancharangi and other films. But for me, it was fine! (I remember how some amateur blogger reviewers were happy with the train romance scene in Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya, even though a train romance was already made for Varanam Ayiram, just because they liked Goutham Menon. I am as biased as them. One more thing, I have told this several times, please don’t kill me. Mungaru Male had a scene where Ganesh kisses her feet. Again, there’s a scene in Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya, where the hero gets “feetish”. Their frequencies match. In fact, Gowtham Menon said somewhere he watches and liked YB movies.)
I would simply watch this movie again for those 2-3 romantic scenes. I mean these are the very scenes our mass audience simply cannot withstand. These are the scenes, most of them find useless. I am too useless a person to find these scenes worthy! I am also too useless to find most of the action movies useless.
Romance Scene #1: When Aishani asks RS to help her reach her footwear. I really liked the way he joins his hands for her to keep her feet. This scene gave a mild kick to me. I just wished Santhosh Rai Pathaje should have focused her feet in a better way. Her feet looked cute in that 1/10th second shot. YB shows romance slowly graduating from scene to scene.
Romance Scene #2: Where Aishani tells RS that they need to go for a walk and takes him to a church where they are singing and playing violin. The violin music reacting to the feeling in his mind - good idea YB. Again, her words all carefully studded with conditionals (much better than a lawyer) is something I liked. YB heroines have spoken this way earlier also. Reverse talks by the heroine is not the first time. But even then, it was fine with me. There was one dialogue said by Aishani in this scene which I liked and made me emotional for a second, but have forgotten. I need to watch the movie again to observe that.
Romance Scene #3: The scene where they both sit on an old horse chariot. DId YB make Radhika Pandit sit this way in one Drama song? (Not sure, I haven’t watched that movie). This scene reminded me of the Titanic scene where Jack and Rose get into an old wagon ;) Now, let me come back to this scene, Vaastu is imperfect, but romance can happen amidst such chaotic settings. Lighting was pretty good in this scene, but could have been better, if they had reduced the yellow hue. Santhosh Rai made a similar lighting in one of the romantic scenes in Paramaathma. I must say, for these soft romantic scenes, soft hues could have been used.
This scene is important because of the kiss. This kiss almost disappointed me (Hi5 to @Chutneypudi I agree). This is a “covered smooch kiss” (my own term). As in, the boy and girl show us as if they are smooching, but have covered their mouth part. This scene looked kind of artificial to me. I am not saying, the boy should have eaten the girl’s lips like how Emran Hashmi does. Within the scheme of “covered smooch kiss”, they could have executed in a better way slowly. The girl submits herself to the boy. But, the boy does not do his duty well! RS didn't have any major romantic scenes in UK (Ulidavaru Kandante) and SOLS and he had to get into the romance, but he doesn’t. Not that he doesn’t know (I assume), but may be he has his own beliefs / values and does things as per them. Going by his UK script, I assume he has a different way of romancing - that scene where he teases TV9 Sheetal (that scene was so well written and perfectly executed in the movie). Despite all this, I still feel the kissing could have been done better. I liked what Aishani says “idukkinna jaasti, rakta barbaardu”.
Romantic Scene #4: The scene where Aishani takes RS to her old home and shows him the moon. Okay, what is newly romantic in a girl showing the moon to the boy. Nothing much, but the scene was good for me ;) Aishani explaining how she would sleep between her parents during the childhood immediately reminded of past heroines of YB - Aindrita in Manasaare taking Digant to her broken house and telling him about her troubled childhood and some good times with her mother; then Nidhi in Pancharangi recalling her travel to the island with her now dead parents. In every YB movie, you have the heroines opening up to the heroes in peculiar ways and the heroes have to silently accept whatever the heroines say.
Romantic Scene #5: This I feel was the best of all. She asks why he kissed her. He first doesn’t accept and then accepts that he kissed once, then says twice! She says she was well awake, but didn’t show him. Then she tells she kissed him in the early morning and he says he was awake! Confessions all the way. Again, let me point out the earlier YB movies De Ju (new word: “YogaVu” - feeling of having seen a similar thing in a previous Yogaraj Bhat movie). Recall the scene in Pancharangi where Nidhi kisses Digant in the temple and again in the beach. Those scenes were really much better man. Okay, let me come back to Vaastu. Finally, Aishani starts hitting Rakshit and scolding him... and she hugs him. Still she doesn’t accept that she hugs due to love! (Girl traits...they’ll never ever so easily accept their love.) I forgot to mention about her earring getting stuck to his shirt. I liked the dialogue “idu ishtu sulabhavaagi biDisoke aagalla”. And the way she walks along with his shirt. Somewhere I feel that RS has treated Aishani like a kid! I am guessing his romantic quotient would have been better if the girl was nearby to his age (cannot say, not sure).
Harikrishna has very less work due to just 3 songs. Within the given work, he’s given the best and worst. One good romantic song “besara kaathra” and one song from his own nasal! (I know kids love his songs and will have commercial value. Jaggesh would have sung it better). Besara Kaathara has typical YB lyrics and I have a couple of favourite lines there:
“daasvaala langagalu, putt putta topugaLu, innenu bEku naav badukalu?”
Biddalli bEroori song is the one with soul philosophy of the movie. Need to reproduce every line and play it to the people between the morning debauchery sessions on Kannada TV Channels. The lines written by GS Shivarudrappa recited by Ananth Nag (the wife doesn’t even listen fully to these lines):
ಹತ್ತಿರವಿದ್ದೂ ದೂರ ನಿಲ್ಲುವೆವು ನಮ್ಮ ಅಹಮ್ಮಿನ ಕೋಟೆಯಲಿ ಎಷ್ಟು ಕಷ್ಟವೋ ಹೊಂದಿಕೆಯೆಂಬುದು ನಾಲ್ಕು ದಿನದ ಈ ಬದುಕಿನಲಿ
I wonder how many people in the audience noticed these lines. YB even tells a few words just before the intermission. People already stood up to run to loo and spoiled my interest to listen to those lines.
Towards the end of second half, the movie gets intense. I feel this is where we start liking every character (including TN Seetharam and Parul) and start feeling for them. No one is wrong. Everyone needs to forgive each other and recoup or refocus their life. The one who stole my heart.... no prizes for guessing - Ananth Nag.
He fills life to this character, which would have been a normal character, if it was not for him. There are several scenes where you feel for his character. The scene where he is made to go out of the bedroom. There is one scene where he tells his wife “I have done everything for you, without questioning. You asked for divorce, I have given you happily. At least during this short time, we can be happy with a smile.” The wife doesn’t agree even for that. There’s a scene where Ananth Nag’s face is shown close up and he tells a dialogue. That is so good. He looks so handsome even at this age wearing that black suit in one scene. If it is Jaggesh who steals the show in the first half, during the second half, Ananth Nag engulfs your mind silently.
A few words about Jaggesh. I must say, Jaggesh has done a honest job with what was assigned to him. People have commented about his looks and his stomach / tummy. To make it clear, he doesn’t play a college boy role. He plays the role of a 45+ or middle aged man going through a crisis in his life. He has dressed well with good clothes and his looks do not even matter. He gives such good performance. Heard he is hitting the gym - good for his health. Anyway we are ready to accept the way he is! We accepted him the way he was all these years.
One interesting thing I observed. There is a kind of “wrong deed, suffering, accepting and forgiving” cycle between many characters. We have seen several movies where innocent characters who never harmed anyone suffer and die (for example: Duniya, Sanju Weds Geetha etc). The message which common audience get out of these movies is that “innocent and good people suffer; while the bad people are happy”. I understand films may not be that influential. But such movies strengthen the belief that goodness has no value in life. I see that this pattern has been broken in this movie.
I will tell you how. Observe the transactions between Jaggesh and Parul Yadav. Jaggesh initially suffers due to Parul and we feel he was unfairly slapped with a sexual harassment case. But, later we realise that he really kissed her! So, Parul was right in putting a mole-station case on him. Then, we have this Parul deceiving Jaggesh. She suffers from her to be wedded man! Later, both forgive each other and things are solved. I could observe a kind of law of karma being played here. YB has tried to put one philosophy here also silently. Most common audience wouldn’t get this hidden philosophy of YB! (Pancharangi has many philosophies. Some other day, I will write on Pancharangi).
There’s one scene where Aishani and her mother come to know about the fake work of RS and Jaggesh. Aishani scolds both of them. This scene is YogaVu (like Deja Vu) with the scene in Pancharangi where Ramya Barna scolds Digant in front of Nidhi. That scene where TN Seetharam says “everything is perfect, even a grass cannot shake”, immediately their roof shakes. I personally felt like whistling when Sudha Belavadi says “nim maga iddiddre, eega shiLLe hoD-dirounu”. This scene reminded me of the scene in Pancharangi where Sundar Raj says “kemmange illa” and Pawan Kumar starts coughing!
That scene where TN Seetharam is in a deep mental dilemma and mentally disturbed, observe the response of the people. This scene fully reminded me of the scene in Manasaare where Digant is made fun of by the people of his locality when he comes back from the mental asylum.
We can observe one more interesting thing in this scene. TN Seetharam in the beginning tells about Vaastu and people believe him like God, later when he contradicts, the same people are even ready to send him to mental hospital or chain him! Osho said many years ago, “if people can worship you, they can even stone you to death if you do not live up to their expectations” (something similar). This is very much true, and due to the blind belief of people, men are made to do things just to live to the expectations (Eg: RK Narayan’s Guide). YB has created this scene where people speak so badly about the same person whom they totally respected earlier. If at all, any of these “morning TV gurujis” watch this movie, their heart will jump a beat during this scene. I am sure most of these so called Gurujis have told people 101 lies for the sake of popularity. If they confess, people will never spare them.
I have to deal with one more scene. Sudha Rani getting a weird dream and her doubts getting cleared with the continued dream. Many people have said it is illogical. I suggest them to read Sigmund Freud (though I have never read him). It may clear their doubts on what is logical and what is illogical about dreams. There are so many forms of dreams. There are all sorts of logical, illogical and aimless dreams. YB has deliberately not ventured into explaining the problem and solution within this dream. People now in 2015 probably still expect the director to explain things clearly like Vishnuvardhan does in Apthamithra (or the original Manichitratazh). Come on, when can we think if the director explains each and everything? (Pawan Kumar knew the audience problem and explains Lucia effect clearly as a scientist in a lab!) Each one of us can understand in different ways. What I understood was - Sudha Rani had everything in her life, but had trust issues with her husband. That appeared as dream. She should have solved this by speaking to her husband openly. Whereas, she allowed the doubt and the dream to aggravate. She had no specific reason for divorce. Main reason being the dream which is not accepted in any courts. Due to the disturbance of construction and the noise, the pattern in her mind breaks and her mind is able to see herself there. Observe one previous scene where her face is shown on 3 mirrors. You need not even think too logically about this dream and all. When it comes to matrimonial cases, divorces (many times) are filed for no logical reasons, and even reunions happens for all illogical reasons!
One scene is good. Where RS asks philosophically “Whether we should love the girls? Or not love? Or stay neutral?”. Jaggesh answers “Love honestly and don’t worry with the outcome” - this is exactly what Shri Krishna says in Bhagawadgeetha “karmanye vaadhikaarasye...”. In this scene, Rakshit Shetty’s best performance can be seen.
The climax scene in the TV studio was filmy... heroine coming back to India and getting through the call. That scene after Jaggesh pulls the curtain reminded me of the climax scene in the Tamil movie Boys. I really liked the focus on the Vaastu God while the boy and girl are kissing. YB’s style of sarcasm!
The advise that Rakhit gives to the audience on TV was very sensible. Many said, even after having the name Vaastu, nothing about Vaastu Shastra has been shown. People, would you keep quiet if he had shown real Gods and real vaastu? By now, like PK, people would have filed several cases of “hurting religious sentiments”. That’s why our YB has gone to a distant land and has dealt with all fictitious things. What people have not understood is that the word Vaastu here in this movie is a representation for several other blind beliefs that we follow. Many people have found it difficult to accept the movie because it is questioning their beliefs. YB is an intelligent man. He makes us laugh all over the movie and in the end, questions our beliefs! This is where people found it difficult to accept.
For a YB fan like me, it is easy to connect to these things. These YBisms, his philosophy and dialogues I like. But for common audience, these very things have become irritating! This is not the best movie of YB. YB has not done any oscar level movie or even Udaya tv or Suvrna tv award winning movie. This is a very normal movie. As fictional as the mass movies. As many flaws as the mass movies (I tend to completely agree with Pawan Kumar in this regard. I thought he was not honest. Not really, what he said in the video matches with the movie content). I will not recommend any one to watch this movie. No one watches on anyone’s recommendation. People anyway watch movies if they feel like. No one should force them. (I am fed up of people blaming “I watched after reading your review, but the movie was so bad”). Is YB incapable of doing better movies by coming out of his safe zone? I feel he as the potential. But, he may not do it for next few years. There were good number of audience in the theatre. Movie will easily make good profit. YB will make another safe movie after a year. I just hope he makes Carvalho soon. RS will be back with Rikki, GodhiBanna and Wanted. Waiting for Ananth Nag in PLUS and Godhi Banna....
One more thing I want to add. In this movie, Jaggesh speaks so much against Vaastu. A year ago, there was controversy regarding prohibiting blind beliefs through a law. Jaggesh as a member of BJP tweeted “Astrology is cosmic rays and it is scientific” (something similar). I replied “sir, Swamy Vivekananda has said in his works not to believe in astrology”. He blocked me! Not one word of abuse was used by me. I understand the fact that - what an artist believes in his real life need not be same as what he preaches on screen. Nothing much to say, i hope he unblocks me, so that I will be able to tweet this link to him! When Jaggesh was tweeting that “astrology is cosmic rays”, there was one man who was sharing the draft of Superstition prevention law. That man is Giriraj BM.
Rating: You need a rating after reading so long? No rating. Movie is good for me.