Vasool Raja MBBS – A lovable don…doctor…don

vasool raja is a treat
[Pic: vasoolrajambbs.com]

Who would require a movie review for Vasool Raja MBBS? Actually it’s a crime to write a review for a movie like this. Wait. Read the next line before you think of firing me. You don’t actually need to read/write a review for this movie. The primary aim of the movie, I believe, is not to do any lifetime achievement in cinema. Rather the aim (other than cinema business) is to deliver laughs. And Vasool Raja does it royally and rightfully. Are you convinced now. Take a breather. Among the numerous laughs the movie gives, there is also an obvious kind pat to the doctors reminding them that patients need to be treated as humans and not as just cases.

Crazy Mohan known for this indomitable verbal and situational comic sense, has done a fantastic job for Vasool Raja. The only point is that, this movie is like Kathala Kathala has innumerous verbal jokes. Not the kind of comedy that you can remember until weekend and yap with him/her on the beach and laugh again with them. They are ephemeral in nature. Jokes like Dim Dip Dim and Manamirundhaal Marghabhandu are absolute crackers. Crazy is the uncrowned king of Tamil film comedy. Let Mouli forgive me for that statement. He wasn’t all that comical in his latest Nalla Damayanthi.

Not much with Kamalhassan. He has not makeup stunt [except for the first few scenes]. No huge dialogues and no persistent pathos that would allow him to make a loud cry throughout. It seems that he has had his breakfast, took a walk around his house, saw the shooting spot and came inside to enact a role called Vasool Raja. Very casual like what we have seen before in Pammal K Sampantham, Michael Madana Blah Blah, Tenali and of course Panchathanthiram. It is an accepted fact that he has a flamboyant comic sense. He just underlines one more time.

Let this not make you think I’m fastidious, but Bharathwaj hasn’t been upto the expectations. Though he isn’t fully to be blamed for the not-so-good songs and their picturisation, he could have taken his time in the composition. I have really loved his music for his previous films and thought he could weave a magic, having Kamal as the cast.

I hate to compare the Hindi Bhai and the Tamil Thambi but it seems impossible. One reason, why I Munnabhai MBBS was because I saw a song clip in MTV. That song in the hospital where Sanjay Dutt expresses his romantic encounters completely blew me away with the music and the performance of Sanjay dutt. I was placing my bid on Kamal’s performance of the same song in the Tamil version. Instead of a similar song, it was replaced with a silly song called Azhwarpettai Aandava which sounds/resembles like that Kandasaamy song in PKS. A true let down. Also that belly dance song looked like a cheap insert unlike the hindi version.

We know that Airtel is the prime sponsor for the movie but every time anyone’s cell phone rings onscreen it has a loud AirTel tone. Annoying and the height of embedded advertising. It is very clear that the movie was super produced in two-three months. Kamal’s next film cop haircut is visible from that Switzerland duet. If only Kamal can ditch those absurd looking coolers that he keeps wearing in every duet of every comedy film, how nice.

Blessed are those who haven’t seen the original version. Yeah, if you haven’t seen the original, watch Vasool Raja for the sheer Crazy Mohan and Kamal combo. They deliver. If you are the unfortunate one like me, watch it still, for the Kamal version of the don-turned-doctor-turned-don. Limited Feast assured, still.

29 responses to “Vasool Raja MBBS – A lovable don…doctor…don”

  1. Narasi Avatar
    Narasi

    Yes, Geek I do admit this is not the usual extra piece from kamal. But still I think you can enjoy it If you just go without having anyhting in mind & watch the movie. Its just a time pass movie. But prabu performance was not even upto the character artist performance or not even upto dusyanth (Cousin).Shame…

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  2. ganesh Avatar

    common geek whats this , have you even seen the hindi version , first tell me this why do they need a hindhi amma and tamil appa why tamil amma is panjam in tamil nadu or what and i heard from u same website saying they dint copy scene by scene but its a utter copy from hindi film scene by scene , not even replacing anadh guy think they just had some scene from hindi whenever the anadh guy with the beard appears and when u see prakkash raj he is like copy cat of the year he is like laughing the same scenes as in the hindi movie atleast he can change the style anyway these are my opinion.

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  3. Pandya ! Avatar
    Pandya !

    Hey .. missed about cool bubbly sweet ‘Sneha’ .. no scope for acting much .. but, beauty ‘doll’ ..

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  4. Vijay Avatar
    Vijay

    Vasoolraja was absolutely terrible! The scenes were rushed in, the comedy stale(had enough of Crazy mohan’s ‘Body’ jokes!!) and the movie was completely on Auto-pilot..It had some really bad ‘cringing in the seat moments’, and the last straw for me was the stupid ‘Alwarpet Andavan’ song, at which point, I stormed out of the theater, mad at myself for wasting 45 minutes of my precious life and the 10$ I paid for the ticket:-(
    Why Kamal accepted this project is completely beyond me..Whilst I feel bad when gems of his like ‘Hey Ram’ and ‘Anbe Sivam’ fare badly at the Box office, I am game for turds like VasoolRaja.. sinking without a trace at the BO. This also goes to show that Charan was merely a flash in the pan, and is one of the most unoriginal directors working in Tamil cinema. My humble advice – Go watch the wonderful Munnabhai once again.

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  5. Kumaraguru Avatar

    >> Also that belly dance song looked like a cheap insert

    Yes, they are cheap. But it’s those things that make commercial movies sell eg: NEW. There’s a recent Telugu movie ‘Sri Anjaneyam’ which is supposed to be dedicated to Hanuman – the God known for celibacy. Yet, the Heroine – charmi, does a typical southie wet dress dance in the movie.

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  6. Lazy Geek Avatar

    Hey Ganesh, Thats untrue. I haven’t written that vasool raja is not a scene by scene copy of munnabhai. if you can just refresh I said that for gilli.

    I perfectly accept and I say myself that vasool raja is scene by scene re-make of munnabhai.

    Vijay, while you could have waited more to get some gems here too. My point is that this movie shouldn’t be confused with virumandi and hey ram types. if you have such high hopes even kamal couldn’t help it.

    we all know that the movie was rushed in 3 months. for three months in production, this is the prod value which you could expect.

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  7. Lazy Geek Avatar

    Very true KG. My personal irritation for these songs never die. ‘New’ wasn’t charming at all with those nasty jokes, expecially.

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  8. Ashwini Avatar

    Vasool Raja is a true blue entertainer. The only motivation of the movie is to make one forget the heat both weather & life and enjoy. Kamal as always has proved again he can be good, bad, ugly and funny!
    I totally second your opinion LG! Good Review!

    Like

  9. Ashok R Avatar
    Ashok R

    Vikram has won National Award – the real one – and Lazy has nothing to say? or did I miss it earlier. I think he deserves it…

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  10. Kiruba Shankar Avatar

    I’m calling up 96102 96102 right away !! 🙂

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  11. sankar Avatar
    sankar

    So thats the reason for that weird rings of cell phone. It sounded pretty awkward. The english movie Collateral released around the same time also has cell phone product placement in it. You will notice that all the main characters use Motorola phones except in the scene where one of the characters has trouble with the phone.

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  12. sankar Avatar
    sankar

    While crediting the original screen play writers in the movie’s credits dont u think they should have acknowledged ‘Patch Adams’ screen writers too. The basic plot is the same – a misfit teaches the medical fraternity to rediscover its humaneness. Especially, the last scene where the hero is interrogated is highly reminiscient of Patch Adams. But while Patch Adams was panned by the critics it atleast established that the protagonist was a brilliant student while being unconventional. So the differnce between Patch Adams and Vasool Raja will be that if you go to one you will get the full treatment along with a hug or two while the other will just hug you without any kind of medical treatment!

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  13. Tilo Avatar

    I did not like Munnabhai MBBS – and I thought the Tamil movie might be a wittier version but I guess that is not going to be the case.

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  14. sat Avatar
    sat

    That does seem like agood movie.
    Tooo bad I cant see the movie here, until it gets released on a DVD

    Like

  15. Badri Avatar
    Badri

    I don’t think vasoolraja is a good movie.Its also a scene by scene remake of munnabhai, which unlike many I thought was not impressive at all.In fact I thought that munnabhai had uniformly bad acting and
    the movie really dragged in the second half.I couldnt stand the movie in the end.Sure its mildly funny in the first half..but thats all there is to it.

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  16. Tilo Avatar

    Patch adams – OK I will check that out!

    Like

  17. Mukund Avatar
    Mukund

    yo ! I’d agree that Kamal sleepwalks through some of his comedies like Pammal K sambandham, kadhala kadhala etc. But to add Michael Madana KamaRajan is sheer injustice. Its one of Kamal’s crowning efforts as a comedian and Crazy’s best efforts.
    What an amazing comedy film. To add that to the list is… well to simply put it IGNORANT.

    Like

  18. gandhi Avatar
    gandhi

    me too felt a little bad that MMKR was blah blahed along with those other movies. Its ARGUABLY his best film.

    And like the other guy said Patch Adams also joins the list of uncredited hollywood movies that have ‘inspired’ desi ones.

    Like

  19. Lazy Geek Avatar

    hi mukund / gandhi,

    i never said MMKR is a blah blah just joked about the long name. and i perfectly agree with you guys that MMKR is one of kamal’s best but i have to say that he sleep walked through the movies.

    to say that he took serious pains in acting MMKR is to underestimate kamal’s inborn versatality.

    Like

  20. Sendhil Avatar
    Sendhil

    Different people have different opinions .
    But from my point of view I would rate Kamal as a
    living legend in Indian cinema who has done all the different roles .He is a versatile actor with a lot of talent and there is no compare to his acting talents .
    I am desperately waiting to watch Vasoolraja MBBS
    but very unlucky as not released in Bangalore yet .

    ******* Kamal is simply the best . *********

    Like

  21. heathcliff Avatar
    heathcliff

    I dont think this movie deserves this appreciation when compared to kamals prev movies. Most of the scenes reminded me of his old movies. while drinking with prabhu, he says ” appadiya avalaaa” he pauses for a sec n than says “onniyum panna mudiyaadhu….” resembles virumaandi “enakku vara kovathukku….ennann kettuttu vandhudaren” this is just a sample. Ofcourse there are few scenes which depicts crazy’s ususal stuff n were good. but I think its not up to the expectation.

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  22. Malhan Avatar
    Malhan

    I totally agree with geek and many other views, it might be gr8 for those who have not seen Munnabhai. It lacks the soul Munnabhai had, a depthless frame of movie. A far cry from the original

    Like

  23. Malhan Avatar
    Malhan

    I totally agree with geek and many other views, it might be gr8 for those who have not seen Munnabhai. It lacks the soul Munnabhai had, a depthless frame of movie. A far cry from the original

    Like

  24. faz Avatar
    faz

    haha.. sneha beautiful? u must be kidding me.. haha

    Like

  25. sankar Avatar
    sankar

    ur acting especially in comedy scenes is not good.we cant able to laugh at the scenes.it is not natural.it seems u r acting.songs are also not good.plz stop acting comedy movies that will spoil ur image.plz give any commercial or action movie.select ur pair in the film carefully.sneha is not good match for u.select story & director carefully.
    ur wellwisher
    sankar

    Like

  26. anitha Avatar
    anitha

    namma gundu buski prabhu pathi onnume sollalaye neenga…. :-((

    Like

  27. sadiq Avatar
    sadiq

    dear kamal,
    I am 36 years old. i like ur movies always, because there is some thing different from other movies.pls dont make remakes such like munnabhai. it will spoil ur bollywood image to the audience like me, who watch hindi and tamil movies. And prabhu in the role of arshad warsi… common kamalji…..
    wish u all the best and waiting for
    ur express….sadiq…..

    Like

  28. sujay Avatar
    sujay

    Kamal Hassan is a genius.Anbe Sivam -what a movie??what a classy actor??

    Like

  29. sujay Avatar
    sujay

    Kamal Hassan is a genius.Anbe Sivam -what a movie??what a classy actor??

    Like

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