In Apoorva Sagothargal, the villains would inhumanely
force the heavily-pregnant Srividhya to drink poison. This particular scene
kept playing in my mind throughout the screening of GV Prakash’s 6th
experimentation, Bruce Lee. I have no idea why watching Bruce Lee reminded me
of Srividhya and the bottle of poison. If Srividhya were asked to watch this
film, she would have voluntarily drank the poison and asked for another bottle,
killing both Kamalhassans. The story would have ended there.
There wouldn’t have been a Apoorva Sagothargal.
We wouldn’t have known what great acting is. We wouldn’t have known what a
magical story/screenplay Tamil cinema has produced. We wouldn’t have seen the
best. The blunder Tamil cinema made- it has produced classics and at the same time, many
unforgiving crap.
Do we have skyrocketting Baahubali-expectation on films like Bruce Lee? Definitely no. Why do I even put myself through this torture? We have to reboot our minds and erase any trace of watching good cinema before taking a life-threatening decision to watch Bruce Lee. It is not a matter of how bad it would turn out to be, it is how much sanity we can retain at the end of the film.
Do we have skyrocketting Baahubali-expectation on films like Bruce Lee? Definitely no. Why do I even put myself through this torture? We have to reboot our minds and erase any trace of watching good cinema before taking a life-threatening decision to watch Bruce Lee. It is not a matter of how bad it would turn out to be, it is how much sanity we can retain at the end of the film.
Now, every Tom, Dick, Harry unashamedly tries his
hands in acting. I don't mind crawling around to find the remaining ounces of poison left by Srividhya of Apoorva Sagothargal. Every Friday, when a new film is released, we have no choice
but to digest unapologetic acting on screen. Bruce Lee or Bruise Lee that I prefer naming this film, has
been promoted as a black comedy film. Black humour which is also called black
comedy involves writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghastly elements with comical
ones that underscore the senselessness or futility of life.
Here, we see no evidence of black humour. What we
witness is a scarcity of humour in ‘Bruise Bruce Lee’. I wonder, if black humour was misinterpreted
as Black Monday by this cast and crew. I don’t see any humour other
than the fact that GV Prakash is a leading hero in Tamil film industry now and
has a line-up of 8 films. Usually, Black comedy challenges norms and pushes boundaries
with a litany of clever one-liners that often include a signature sociopathic
twist. For instance, in films like Soodhu Kavvum, characters play serious roles
but it makes us think and laugh.
Bruce Lee challenges the normality of a patience level
that any civilised human can attain and pushes us to the boundary of the
theatre exit. Paralyzing boredom was what I was severely diagnosed with,
as a result of Bruce Lee. There are all kinds of murky plot debris involving some
time-bomb suspense, dancing by desi hero GVP, bizarre romantic scenes, and lots
of failed humour.
In one scene, GVP quizzes as a plate of fish is
served to him, “Ithu enna Meena?”
Comedian bala saravanan replies, “illai, Nagma.”
The scene continues as they are well-settled at a
spacious, city-view rooftop and all ready to open a bottle of beer. With legs placed on each side of the
bench-like sofa, seated like a typical pattasu balu, GVP stretches his right
arm, “Iniku interview poga mudiyalai!”
Nuances of acting are well-exhibited in the
stretching of hands and in his dialogue delivery, all scattered in a modulation
that compels you to be wary of sins from your previous births and this sin- watching Bruce Lee- to be added to that existing list.
He stretches his left arm next and weeps, “Car
kannadi udaichutaanga. En aalu moonjile acid ooti irunthaana?”
Comedian Bala Saravanan’s responds, “Already
adicha maathiri thaan da iruku”
Hero doesn’t react for an insult made on his
girlfriend.
Upon hearing the degrading comment, heroine doesn’t get furious.
The heroine completely not bothered by the earlier comment made, simply flashes a smile, “oru vellai unmaiyile acid adichu
irunthaana?”
The hero answers, “Naan odi poi irupen.”
This is seemingly a comical scene in Bruce Lee, written and directed by
debutant director Prashant Pandiyaraj. Calculate the number of jokes cracked and
the number of times you laughed in the above mentioned scene. If your answer is
not zero, then your mind is monitoring your body reactions which is going
through a psychological phenomenon and has almost given you the green signal to
watch the next appalling phase of comedy where Mottai Rajendran imitates like
Baasha Rajinikant and dances for ‘naan autokaran autokaran’ song.
Bruce Lee, unsurprisingly, is a horrendously produced movie and it could not be more damaging to the career of everyone
involved if it had been made as a documentary by someone who hated GVP. The
fact that GVP, in all his interviews and promotions, outwardly believes this
movie is worth seeing is lugubriously miserable, indicating that he not only
lacks a sense of humour, but also ordinary human decency.
GVP thinks he committed a murder, only in the film
they claim. To escape from all these troubles, Bala Saravanan wants to go back
to his hometown immediately just like how many people in the theatre would have
felt. Heroine retorts to Saravanan’s demand. She approaches GVP, lifts his chin
up, claims that he is too innocent to commit a crime and says “intha moonjiya
paratha siripu varalaiye”.
“illai veruppu thaan varuthu” was what my mind
voice was screaming in pain, 20 mintues into this hopelessly
incompetent groan-inducing film.
The
director of Bruce Lee has worked as an assistant under National Award Winning Director Pandiyaraj who
has given us classics such as Pasanga. I can’t fathom what went wrong in the
learning. These are the students who you know learnt nuts from a Guru who
probably have juggled balls and blew fire in the class, in an attempt to make learning fun and meaningful. This would have been the Guru who gave his heart and soul teaching
all those 21st century competencies, instilling values and skills. This would have been the Guru who geniunely believed every student has learnt one or two from his painstakingly well-prepared lessons. Sadly,
nothing was learnt.
Bruce
Lee’s director was indeed honest enough to put up the disclaimer in the
beginning title credit stating that this film was copied and inspired from
several films. Thanks for the warning. Please add that you also copied an entire dance sequence from another film.
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