Uttama Villain

Ramesh Aravind's 2015 Tamil film is about a film star who is dying. Manoranjan is diagnosed with a brain tumour and, learning he has little time, goes to the director Margadarisi, the mentor he fell out with years ago, and asks him to make one last film. What they shoot is a folk tale about a jester who keeps escaping death, and those sections form a separate layer inside the story. At the same time Manoranjan has a daughter he has told nobody about and a marriage falling apart. The film asks what an artist leaves behind in the face of death across two layers, the tale in comedy and the present in drama. Kamal Haasan wrote the screenplay. It is long and the balance between the layers was much argued over. Who it's for: viewers who like Tamil cinema and layered storytelling. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a plain story; the film is built as a complicated one.