The Silent Masterpiece

I request anyone to read this post only after you have seen 'Pushpak'. The cd/dvd is available at Moser Baer's website.
Acknowledgements: Dr.Chandrashekar, 'G' and other members of the Kamal Haasan community at Orkut.

What film do you make when you have to satisfy people from a country with more than a dozen languages? Common sense says "A silent movie".

Pushpak (1988) was not exactly a silent movie if you consider the background scores and sounds, but it was definitely a film with no dialogues. A simple story and an even simpler screenplay made it appeal to all classes of audience.

An un-employed graduate (played by Kamal) lives in a room located in the chawls of the city. A chance encounter with a drunkard lying by the roadside presents him with an opportunity to take his identity and enjoy the stay in a star-hotel for a few days. How the incidents during these days transforms his ideas and perceptions about life is what the rest of the movie is about.

The humour in 'Pushpak' is both satirical and pitch-black. The film starts off showing Kamal living in Spartan conditions at the chawl. He is the typical unemployed-graduate. There is a shot of a retired person ogling at the maid-servant with the background sound of the AIR news reporting that "Retired people must be appreciated for their far-sightedness and sense of fulfilling their objectives with zeal".

The chawl has a theatre nearby which screens martial arts films at night. Kamal is shown sleeping at night even with the blaring sound of fight scenes emanating from that theatre.

His struggle for survival is shown by the way he cleans his shirt and brushes his teeth. Squeezing the last bit of toothpaste from the tube and making a paste of the last remaining amount of washing powder and applying it on the shirt so that it is just enough to remove any sweat odour is humorous and at the same time food for thought.


The best scene I like from this movie is when he meets a beggar on the road side. Kamal tries to show off by taking a few coins from his pocket and showing them to the beggar. The beggar then smiles and reveals many currency notes lying below the mat on which he is sitting. A perfect way of depicting that the protagonist is way worse off than even a beggar.


Also humorous is his encounter with a girl (played by the sweet and beautiful Amala) at an artifact shop. The romantic interlude between the two is captured very beautifully. The girl's father is a magician by profession and plays a part in the humorous scenes by performing few tricks inside the shop which Kamal tries to replicate in vain.


Kamal then is shown trying to search for a job with very few vacancies. The queue for candidates is long depicting the difficulties faced by a graduate in getting a job in India at that time. Now watch this perfect contrast. A rich man (played by Sameer Kakkar) comes in a luxury car and gets down. He is drunk. He has an ice-cream in his hand which falls down when he gets out of the car. Being in the drunken state that he is in, he steps over the ice-cream and keeps walking. The protagonist sees this and gives an expression which says everything about the contrasting lives of people in India. Some struggle for a day's meal while there are others for whom money is in plenty.

Then comes the chance encounter with the same rich man at a footpath. He is in a drunken state and has almost no consciousness. Kamal find the key of a star hotel 'Pushpak' in his pocket. The mundane life and desire for materialistic benefits takes over the mind of Kamal and he develops the plan to take the place of the rich man at his hotel and put the rich man tied-up at his room in the chawl.

So from there begins a new avatar for our protagonist. There is an interesting symbolism as he enters the hotel. The sign of the Hotel 'Pushpak' is that of a circle with 2 wings spread out from either side. As Kamal enters the Hotel, the camera is shown from behind the hotel sign. As he comes forward, the camera angle is such that the wings spread out from either shoulder.

'Pushpak' was supposed to be a chariot where everyone obtained what they wished for. Similarly the wings on either side of the protagonist symbolise the fact that he is getting to lead the materialistic life he believes will give him all comfort.

We then see the protagonist enjoy the comforts of the room in the hotel. Drinks, food, clothes, sunglasses and all such things. But at night he finds it difficult to sleep. The silent atmosphere of the hotel room is in deep contrast to the sounds at the chawl (fight scene sounds from nearby theatre). So he goes back to the chawl and records the theatre sound on a tape-recorder. He then comes back to the hotel and plays the tape to get sleep.

The rest of the film is about how the hero is made to change his perception on life. There is a very interesting scene where Kamal goes out with Amala. He asks her what she wants him to buy for her, like, jewellery, gifts etc. She says that she wants nothing of that sort and points to a flower at a high branch on a tree beside a dilapidated building. Two points are brought out here, One is that, money cannot buy everything. Second is that, the most treasured gifts might not always be found at the most magnificent places.

Amala then takes leave of him. As Kamal stands holding the flower in one hand and a bunch of notes in another, a wind blows them both away to the ground. Kamal runs to gather the money, and in the process steps over the flower, thereby crushing it. It is shown that in the pursuit of money he has forgotten other important values in life.

Another incident occurs when he goes back to meet the beggar. He finds that the beggar has passed away and the corporation people are taking away his body. Immediately they find the money under the mat and then they drop the dead body an rush after the money. Another point which shows how people consider money more important over other humane factors.

Also the rich man whom Kamal had replaced at the doesn't have the best life. His wife has an affair with his friend who arranges an assassin to kill the rich man. Tinu Anand excels in the role of an assassin. He has never seen the rich man, but is told the room number at the hotel. He uses an ice dagger for the mission. The logic is that the person will get killed and also the dagger will melt after some time leaving no clues!

He fails miserably the first time and Kamal follows him secretly and finds everything about who he is and why he is trying to kill him. In the next attempt the assassin gets killed in a very hilarious scene.

Also the hotel owner passes away and all his relatives shed crocodile tears at his funeral. Kamal sees the photos of the owners rise from being a humble tea-stall owner to becoming such a great hotelier. He understands that hard work is a must for success and that there are no short-cuts to it. There is a scene of dark humour, where Kamal and Amala go around the dead body as though paying respects while in reality it is a romantic interlude between them.

He puts back the rich man at the footpath where he found him and confesses everything to Amala the day before she is leaving the hotel. At that time her father performs a magic show at the hotel. So just like the magician is finishing his illusory tricks and leaving, the hero also is leaving the illusory world of material comforts. The climax scene is very touching. Finally the protagonist is shown standing in the queue of candidates applying for a job with a new found hope (The number of vacancies is shown to have increased).

Some critics said that the scene where Kamal wraps the enema of the rich man in a gift paper and disposes it was very gross. All I can say is that the director tried to show that it is not the external appearance (symbolised by gift wrapper) which shows the true-self but the inner character.

On the whole, Pushpak is 'Poetry in celluloid'.