Virasat

The movie Virasat is a remake of the tamil movie Thevar Magan, which starred the legendary Sivaji Ganesan and Kamal Hassan. While Thevar Magan was an excellent movie with brilliantly etched characters and situations, and superb performances from all the actors (a rarity in most movies), Virasat gave me a feeling of being incomplete. True, it is impossible to match Kamal Hassan and Sivaji Ganesan for their acting capabilities, but Anil Kapoor comes no where close to Kamal Hassan. He completely lacks the grace that Kamal brings to the screen. All the other actors have put in average performances. A few changes (minor) have been made to the original to create it in Hindi, but the effect of the typical rural setting in Tamil Nadu to the movie as a whole goes missing. The adaptation could have been handled better. Without any comparisons, Virasat can be termed as a good movie that could have been made a little better, but juxtaposed with Thevar Magar, it comes a cropper. Watching Thevar Magan (even with subtitles) will leave you feeling more satisfied than Virasat.

Virasat is a film dealing with the archetypes of Indian rural existence. Shakti (Anil Kapoor) is an educated son of a landowner who returns to his village. Due to his education and city girlfriend, Shakti wishes to turn his back on the village and set up shop in the city. Because of unforeseen and unexpected events, Shakti becomes entwined in the affairs of the village -- caught in the bonds of duty owed to his village and aging father. Virasat is about ancient archetypes -- symbolism borrowed heavily from the Mahabharata. His arch-enemy -- and the cause of anarchy in the village is his cousin (an allusion to the Kauravs and Pandavas of the Mahabharat). The Mahabharat analogy is extended into the Gita -- as it becomes obvious that Shakti's dharm or divine duty is in the destruction of adharm -- as manifested/substantiated in the corporeal by his uncles family.

Excellent direction by Priyadarshan. Good all around acting especially Amrish Puri, Tabu and Anil Kapoor Movie brings out the realities of rural India and consequences of caste code violations.

What worked: -a beautiful setting, a peek into rural India

• powerful screenplay and storytelling
• great performances by the lead; Late Puri and Anil Kapoor. Tabu stole the show.

What did not work:

• songs are well choreographed but can be reduced or taken out
• I would have been pleased with alternate endings, with some legacy possibilities

Final verdict: Recommended

Priyadarshan makes amazing movies. An interesting drama told nicely. Anil Kapoor, Tabu and Pooja Batra are excellent. Music too nice. Shows life village in India and conflicts.