Pushpaka Vimana (1987 film)

Summary

The film follows an unnamed, almost penniless and unemployed youth (Kamal Haasan) whose fortunes change when he stumbles upon a millionaire drunk by the roadside. He takes the millionaire prisoner in his house and assumes his identity to taste the luxury of a five-star hotel. Suddenly a lady (Amala) luck smiling upon him, when he takes up the Identity of a rich man. The young man gets to live in a five-star hotel. A hired killer (Tinu Anand) has set his eyes on the young man, having mistaken the young man for the rich man too.

Posing as the rich man, the youth meets a girl, who is the daughter and assistant of a magician (K S Ramesh), who is residing in the hotel with his daughter and wife (Farida Jalal). Unknown to everybody, the rich man's brother has ordered a hit on him. The brother plans to usurp the whole estate by later killing his sister-in-law (Ramya). The hired killer too thinks like everybody else that the young man is actually his target.

The killer comes up with ingenious ways to kill the young man, but falls in his own trap. All this time, the young man remains ignorant about the dangers in his life. One day, however, the young man figures out that the killer is in the hotel to kill someone, but is unable to find the identity of his target. Suddenly, the hotel owner (Loknath) dies in his own hotel of old age. In a montage shown about the owner, the young man realises that the owner was a poor man, just like him. Seeing what the owner achieved by fair means, the young man begins to question his actions.

Some days later, the roadside beggar dies and municipality people come to take his dead body. However, seeing the beggar's stash, they nearly throw his body on the pavement and start stealing the money. The young man decides to make things right. Meanwhile, the killer and the rich man's brother realise that they were targeting the wrong man all the time. At this time, the rich mans wife learns of her brother-in-law's treachery, upon which he locks her up in the bungalow.

The young man figures out the killers plan and sets the rich man free. He explains the situation to the rich man. The rich man goes back to his bungalow, where he learns the truth. While the rich man and the young man are able to rescue the rich man's wife, the police arrest the villains. After the matter has been taken care of, the young man decides to come clean to the magician's daughter as well. He learns that the magician's daughter's family is about to leave the hotel.

The young man confesses the truth to the magician's daughter, but to his surprise she forgives him. While leaving the hotel, she drops a rose wrapped in a paper from her car, meaning that she has given him her address. However, before the young man can get the paper a gust of wind takes it away and it rolls all the way down the gutter implying the lovers never unite. The young man is not able to get the magician's daughter, but some days later, he is shown in a line for a job vacancy, although this time he has a rose in his hands and hope in his eyes. While it is not clear that the young man got the job or not, it is certain that his outlook towards life has changed.

Cast

Development

Pushpaka Vimanam was touted to be the first full-length silent feature film in Indian cinema. The film was produced by Kannada actor Shringar Nagaraj and remains his only film he had produced in his whole career. He agreed to produce the film after he heard the script and also Singeetam couldn't find the right person. Singeetam revealed that the idea of the film came during the shoot of a film while assisting K. V. Reddy in which there was a scene where comedian had to emote fear without dialogues. Kamal agreed to work on the film after being impressed by the script.

Casting

Since the film had no dialogues, Singeetham cast actors from all over India like Tinu Anand, Farida Jalal. P. L. Narayana was cast as a beggar and Samer Kakkar who became popular with Television series Nukkad portrayed a rich drunkard. Amala was selected as lead actress after attempts to sign Neelam has failed.

Filming

Thotta Tharani constructed a street set for the film, beside the Hyland Hotel in Bengaluru. The little ramshackle room where Kamal lived, and the building itself, was constructed above the hotel. Most of the shooting was done in Windsor Manor Hotel in Bangalore.

Awards and recognitions

The film was premiered at the International Film Festival of India, 1988 Cannes Film Festival in the International Critics' Week, and retrospective at the Shanghai Film Festival, and Whistling Woods International Institute.

Release

The film was released in Kannada and Telugu under the same name. The film was also released in Tamil and Hindi as Pesum Padam and Pushpak respectively. Telugu version was distributed by Sravanthi Ravikishore and Hindi version was distributed by Rajendra Kumar.The film was also dubbed in Malayalam as Puspakavimana.

Legacy

Amala listed Pushpaka Vimanam among Vedham Pudhithu (1987), Agni Natchathiram (1988), Siva (1989) and Karpoora Mullai (1991) as her most memorable films. The film is listed among CNN-IBN's "hundred greatest Indian films of all time". The film was listed by Rediff in its list "Singeetham's gems before christ". On Kamal's birthday, 7 November 2015, Latha Srinivasan of Daily News and Analysis considered Pushpaka Vimanam to be one of the "films you must watch to grasp the breadth of Kamal Haasan's repertoire".