Cast: Dulquer Salman, Nithya Menen, Prakash Raj
Rating: 3 stars
After a couple of lackluster flicks, master story teller Mani Ratnam is back with a bang with a feel good complete romantic movie O Kadhal Kanmani.
OKK narrates the story of two lovely individuals who believe in live-in relationship. Adhi (Dulquer Salman), a computer game developer who relocates to Mumbai chances upon Thara (Nithya Menen) at a strange situation as soon he lands in the railway station. Adhi stays with his brother’s ex-colleague Ganapathy (Prakash Raj) whose wife Bhavani (Leela Samson) is a former ace carnatic singer now an Alzheimer patient. Thara an architect by profession lives in a ladies hostel and is awaiting admission from a Paris university for higher studies.
Adhi subsequently meets Thara at his friend Ananya’s (TV anchor Ramya) wedding at a church. They exchange phone numbers and soon become close friends as they share similar thoughts. Soon they realize that they are in love. Since both don’t believe in the institution of marriage and are career driven, they decide to ‘live together’ without any commitments. Thara moves to Adhi’s room although initially Ganapathy does not approve of their idea. All goes hunky dory until Adhi gets selected to go to US on deputation. A stage comes when things start to change and they feel that there’s something more to their relationship than a casual affair. Now they have to take a vital decision. Whether they enter wedlock or part ways forms the rest.
The entire movie revolves around the two lead actors Dulquer and Nithya and both have delivered a solid performance. And for a film shot in live sound technology, Dulquer’s dialogue delivery is perfect and his Tamil diction is also good. Nithya with her subtle expressions breezes through her character of a highly independent girl who knows what exactly she wants in her life. Prakash Raj has done a fabulous job and Leela Sampson, ace dancer and former director of Kalakshetra in a new avatar of an actress is impressive. It is her character which actually takes forward the story. Newcomers Ramya, Buddy Prabhu are also there. While the first half moves a bit slow, post interval the movie picks up momentum as it takes a serious direction. Mani Ratnam’s simple yet powerful dialogues are a major plus which would go well with today’s youth.Though there’s no separate humor track, it is inbuilt in Mani’s writings. One gets the feeling that most of the scenes end abruptly without any finish or is it a deliberate style that’s being adopted by Mani. When it comes to the collaboration of AR Rahman and Mani, it is bound to create the musical magic. Here also ARR’s songs which are already chartbusters elevate the entire proceedings. PC Sreeram’s cinematography should be lauded for capturing the right mood of the film with his color and lighting compositions.
There are a few overall glitches, nevertheless, watch OKK for its fresh approach and feel-good entertainment it offers.
