I used to think about ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ a lot while watching Star. It’s not only because of Kavin’s early looks, as Kalai, or his dance moves. There is more to it than that. There is a phone call he makes from an alien city, as he breaks down and shares his loss with his parents. Here the death is not of a person, it is of a dream. The story feels too personal here too, almost autobiographical, one romantic relationship ends another begins and the new girl helps heal the protagonist here too. Above all there is this whole ‘supportive dad’ angle. But the big difference, of course, is that Kalai doesn’t seem thankful or grateful not verbally anyway.
In fact, if it were not for Kavin if it were not for how Elan channels his love for our cinema via all those homages in the first half Kalai would be really difficult to root for. But then again I guess that can be said about any man whose existence revolves entirely around one thing. I want to be a star. This pursuit of being an actor but also not just any actor. THE ACTOR WHO IS ALSO A STAR surely needs narcissism on some level. At one point his first girlfriend Meera asks him why he stopped being about them and turned into being all about himself. I wanted to ask Meera when was Kalai ever about her. He seeks not a girl or wife but a ‘heroine’ for when he becomes a ‘hero’. That’s why it surprised me that Meera never gets her due from the film after she breaks up with him.To give credit where it is due Elan does way more than average filmmaker would have done. He lets Meera register her love for biking. He gets aggressive Kalai dressing up as woman and blushing too. In that moment looks be damned, he truly expresses emotion without any insecurities. And that is why Meera, in that moment calls him beautiful. But almost never like this is Kalai in the film. His thankless quest for money and opportunities fill himself up with self-pity and bitterness.
For example, it surprised me that he is never shown to react to his dad’s cardiac issues even after his mom points out that his acting aspirations are part of the financial problem. At one point Kalai claims to be trying to please his family by wearing garb of responsibility but when he can not do it anymore I find myself feeling worse for the people around him than for Kalai himself. While on the middle-class, Aaditi Pohankar as Surabhi feels rather miscast here, and the lip-sync issues do not help either.
The relationship’s cute beginning with Kalai fails to brighten the proceedings as planned. At one point, it even threatens to steal the story entirely from Kalai himself. It wanders after the interval and brings us into her home life drunk father™, quirky grandmother™ et al. But Elan covers up narrative shortfalls with some impressive filmmaking. When Kalai is heckled during his performance, we see him raise a guitar. And then, cut. We see the aftermath of the fight. In another scene, Kalai has just beaten up a bunch of seniors and when in the next scene, we see his mother raising a ruckus, we think it’s about the fight, but no, it’s about Meera visiting him. Or how about when Elan utilises a funeral scene and does enough to get you both laughing and later, being moved by the complexity of it all? After interval there are lovely repetition of circular shots, as we keep going round and round seeing what Kalai once was, so we can register the misery of what he now is.
Maybe my favourite part in this movie is when Elan springs an absolutely beautiful surprise by paying homage to Yuvan Shankar Raja himself (whose work I thoroughly enjoyed in this film). I caught myself dwelling on every moment of this song, singing along, finally satisfied that this lovely song now has a video. Also enjoyed some hints of commentary on acting itself in this film – on when acting becomes over-acting, on how life experience is necessary for becoming a better artiste – but I wish there were much more all of this; ‘Star’ IS about acting as an artform after all. For example, what does Kalai think of playing non-hero roles? Would he consider that beneath him? Would his vanity allow it? There is barely any exploration into these basic threads. If he can’t help himself, could we atleast have a rare glimpse of his goodness? I do think the film loses direction, especially when it forces Surabhi and her family dynamics into the fold. She talks about how his college speech on women inspired her, and yet not once do we ever see Kalai engaging meaningfully with his mother or sister. What were/are their dreams exactly? He does ask this to an interviewer though and gets some financial assistance there and I liked that many others have to make such unselfish contributions for a man to fulfil selfish goals.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that ‘Star‘ is a movie about Kalai’s dad Pandian who also wanted to act but gave up his dream for the sake of family. Eventually he achieves his aims through his son and so the film makes more sense when it ends with Pandian’s scene at last. However, Kalai turns out to be the main character while Pandian remains just the opposite. Until the very end we see him as nothing more than a man in love with an unrealizable ambition, a person who doesn’t seem to understand what he is doing for himself. This is a story about how much widens its heart for stubborn men; still Jim Carrey said once: “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
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