Pushpaka Vimana

Pushpaka Vimana, the 1987 black comedy by director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, has become something of a classic. It stars Kamal Haasan, Samir Khakhar and Tinu Anand. The plot of the film centres on an unemployed man with ambitious dreams who discovers a wealthy, drunken drunkard in the sewer. Determined not to let the opportunity slip away, he imprisons the man and takes his identity for himself, only to discover unexpected ramifications as he enters a rip-roaring new world of wealth created by lies.

An unemployed graduate in Anand Bhavan fantasises about fortune and flaunts his pathetic fortune to a dhobi. Nobody Who Chose the Night. He encounters a beautiful young woman who confuses him for the owner of a high-end motor vehicle. Upon finding one such man drunk and passed out one night, the graduate kidnaps him and assumes his identity and wealth. The rich man’s wife starts an extramarital affair with her husband’s best friend, who hires a contract killer to take her husband out. Ultimately, the killer does target the graduate, but in her hotel suite, the graduate meets the same young woman. As they are paired together, perhaps unwittingly at first, they develop a romantic relationship.

The killer does not succeed in killing the graduate. The graduate figures out the killer’s secret. When the rich man’s wife discovers her lover’s betrayal, she too deserts him. In becoming a graduate, he remembers who he used to be, a destitute, poor person, people who are being grievously harmed and hurt by this thing, and he begins to interrogate what they’re doing. He rescues the wealthy man, and as he tells all that has passed to the magician’s daughter, she absolves him. The art piece represents how the graduate leaves the ceremonial hotel, but the paper is displaced and blown into a gutter. Later, the same graduate is pictured waiting in line to compete for public sector job openings.

Pushpaka Vimana remains something completely distinct, a darkly comic achievement that opens new doors to the kind of cinema you’ve never actually seen without sound. The movie is notable for its inventive visual storytelling, showstopper performances and scabrous satire on sucking up, self-defining and bullshit artistry. Through its intelligent interplay of humour and suspense, it opens a dialogue with the audience about the fragile boundary between aspiration and ethics, positioning itself as a classic and challenging film to watch for generations to come.