Kasi (film)

Kasi is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language drama film written and directed by Vinayan. A remake of the director's own Malayalam film Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum (1999), the film has Vikram playing the eponymous character of a blind village singer, while Kaveri (reprising her role from the original) and Kavya Madhavan (in her Tamil debut) play supporting roles. The film was produced by Aroma Mani for Sunitha Productions. The film score and soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja.

The film was released on 14 December 2001. Vikram won the Filmfare Best Actor Award and Cinema Express Award for Best Actor – Tamil.

Plot
Kasi is a tale about the deception of appearances. Kasi (Vikram) is a blind poet and talented singer who supports his family by his songs. He lives in a village in Tanjore district and has an older brother Sevalai (Thalaivasal Vijay), who is a drunkard; an abusive, crippled father Valaiyapathy (Vinu Chakravarthy); and a younger sister Lakshmi (Kavya Madhavan). When the local landlord and former MP Raghupathi (Rajeev) returns to the district, he promises to help the locals. Raghupathi has a reputation as a god in the area because of his charitable works, and when a specialist eye doctor arrives, he promises to pay the fees for an operation to give back Kasi's vision. Elated by this news, Kasi learns that he has to find an eye donor. His lover Kaveri (Kaveri), who cannot speak, offers one of her eyes. Weeks later he receives Dinesh, the son of a powerful union minister, and his wife Radhika (Aishwarya). Unfortunately, the "god-like" Raghupathi and Dinesh are not what they seem. Blissfully unaware of the sadness of those around him, Kasi looks forward to his operation. One morning, on the day of the operation, Lakshmi was found dead, and it is figured out that she committed suicide because of Raghupathi. When Raghupathi comes to attend the funeral, Kasi explains to Raghupathi what the latter did as he kills Raghupathi by choking him.

Production
Simran was offered the role of Lakshmi, Vikram's sister but she refused the offer because she did not want to act in a supporting role. Then Malayalam actress Kavya Madhavan accepted the character after being impressed by its original Malayalam version. The shooting was completed in just 45 days.

While preparing to play a blind singer, Vikram practised drawing his eyeballs up into their sockets so that only the whites could be seen. Once the shoot started, he would roll his eyeballs up through the whole day on the set, and would subsequently do eye exercises at the end of the day's shoot so that he would not end up with a squint. His eyesight was later weakened as a result of his work on the film. To achieve a darker skin tone, he sunbathed on the terrace of his beachside home in Chennai for a sunburnt look.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack album was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. All the songs have been sung by Hariharan.

Release and reception
The Hindu 's Malathi Rangarajan applauded the offbeat attempt stating, "A film without predictable ingredients is a rarity. The Kasi team has to be appreciated for its boldness, in telling a story, in a simple, straight forward manner without the evitable distractions". While Vikram's portrayal was appreciated, "As a blind man, with his eyeballs completely in and with facial twitches so typical of the visually impaired, his portrait is realistic", the two lead actress too received acclaim, "Kavya Madhavan and Kaveri, have excellently expressive eyes, which have been put to good use". S. R. Ashok Kumar, also from The Hindu, said, "As the blind Kasi, he touched a chord". Sify noted, "Vikram, it goes without saying that he is the life and soul of Kasi. As the blind singer, he brings laughter, tears and a lump in one’s throat. Vikram has given an extraordinarily detailed performance, which only a Kamalhassan can do!" and summed up saying it's an emotionally powerful movie. Visual Dasan of Kalki praised the performance of Vikram, Ilaiyaraaja's music, Gokula Krishnan's dialogues and unpredictable ending but panned the director for adding melodrama in Tamil when he handled the original in a subtle way. Kasi was commercially successful as well.

Legacy
The song "Punniyam Thedi Kasikku" was parodied by Kalabhavan Mani (who acted in the original film) in the film Gemini, in which film he plays the main antagonist, while Vikram plays the titular role (Gemini).