Under The Spotlight: OK Kanmani

This marks my debut as in officially writing reviews based on movies that I have watched. Been a big movie buff for a very long and I am take the opportunity to use my blog to start writing my reviews on Tamil movies that I have watched. To start it off will be Sukesh Pandian's take on OK Kanmani

*Spoiler Alert: Don't read if you haven't watch the movie"

Story Review

After watching the trailer, I was a little skeptical that OK Kanmani is going to be another version of Alaipayuthey due to the similarities in the trailer. 15 minutes into the movie and all of those thoughts are broken. OK Kanmani is a breath of fresh air. It's a not your normal love story told in a Mani Ratnam way. Its a story about boy meets girls and they immediately hit off thanks to the similarities in thoughts they have. What better place to hit off than a wedding. But the difference is, this is about a girl with baggage from her family issues and a carefree young boy who both dont believe in the institution of marriage and wants to excel in their career. Now that is a rare plot to have in a South Indian movie where the general audience could be a little sensitive about this issues. The couple soon moves in together and start a live in relationship. Over time they realize that they want more than just this as they start to fall in love more and the thought of separation haunts them. Living with a landlord old husband and wife, they start to understand more about love, relationship and marriage. Some twist comes in here and there to alter the pace of the way and than shapes up to climax well. Whether will they sacrifice their careers to get married or put their relationship on hold and work towards their career or do they end everything and move separate ways is for you to watch to find out. The only drawback for me is that at one point of film, things becomes a little predictable and a couple of scenes seems to be in loop as if they were out of idea on what new scenes they could do to portray the couple.

 Rating 3.75/5.0

Director Review

"You are always judge by your last film" is quote most directors live by. Taking that into context, Mani Ratnam previous film, Kadal failed to meet any expectations of your classic Mani Ratnam film. Therefore the expectations are high on Mani Ratnam to silent his critics and show that he still has what it takes to be up there with the best directors of current time. OK Kanmani was the perfect way to make your comeback. Hats of to Mani sir for choosing a sensitive plot and yet portrayed it so elegantly and beautifully. From start to end he manages to make you smile throughout the movie. It was a beautiful love story portrayed in his classic style. He got absolutely right with his cast and technical crew. One of the biggest strength the film is the on screen chemistry between the hero and heroine. They look like the perfect couple and they will never fail to make you smile. The characters of Ganapathy and Bavani was another treat to the film The dialogues were so realistic where at times you are able to guess what the characters are going to say before they do. It gives you a sense of belonging in the film. The master is back with his golden touch

Rating 4.5/5.0

The Cast & Crew

The Hero

Indian cinema, remember the name Dulquer Salmaan! He is here to stay for a long time. For those who don't know him, he is the son of the legendary actor Mammoothy  and he has shown that he has the qualities to live up to his father's name. This is his second Tamil film and he nailed it to perfection. Portraying a cool, care free, jovial youth and he look like a natural. He makes it look so convincing that you may tend to think that it was real and not acting. He has the looks and charms to win over the ladies and the qualities to climb up the acting ladder. His expressions were on cue let it be fun or sadness. The emotion changes were good scene to scene.

                                           Rating 4.0/5.0

The Heroine

Nithya Menon has been in the Tamil film industry for 4 years now and this will defiantly be her biggest break of her career. It's rare heroine these days gets huge scope in a film like how Nithya was given in this film and she showed so much of maturity in her acting. Her on screen chemistry with Dulquer was extremely cute  and it was a treat to watch her perform. Let it be emotional scenes, prank scenes or song sequence she was there at her best justifying why it was right for Mani Ratnam to pick her for the film. She emotes her emotional well and handles the scenes of dilemma in the climax to perfection. It was a very heavy and mature character to play and she did justice to her performance

Rating: 4.25/5.0

Ganapathy Uncle

Once famous for villain roles only, Prakash Raj has now transformed himself to one of the best character artist in the industry right now. His versatility has no limits. In this film he plays an old landlord who is strict and rigid but a very loving husband to his wife who is having  Alzheimer. As the play film moves on, his character relaxes a little and become a little more open till the point he accepts a living in relationship. The way he portrays his love to the wife will make you believe that true love still exist even at old age. 

Rating 4.75/5.0

Bavani Aunty

Leela Samson makes her acting debut as a former carnantic singer star who's aged has already caught up to her and is now suffering from Alzheimer. Her portrayal will make you touch the emotion side of you. How her Alzheimer gets worse and how she struggles to cope with it. She performed like a seasoned artist instead of debutant complimenting Prakash Raj scene to scene. One of her most beautiful scene is when she asks Prakash Raj to tell Dulquer and Nithya about their love story

                  Rating: 4.5/5.0

Music Director

AR Rahman, the name speaks for itself. His songs are a treat to music lovers. If you loved the audio, wait until you watch it on screen. The picturization of each songs elevates the song to a greater height. But what stood out more for me was his rerecording. The background score scene to scene was amazing. How he mixes and matches the song tunes as the background score for different emotions was amazing. It was AR Rahman weaving his magic wand and songs gets craved beautiful. Focus on the scene where Dulquer explains to his boss about the a new gaming ideas he has and try to listen to the background score AR Rahman plays when Dulquer explains word to word. That is detailing at its fines

Rating: 4.75/5.0

 

Cinematographer

Another big highlight for this film was the camera work of PC Sreeram. You can have a beautiful plot and songs but it will never reach the audience if your cinematography is poor and Mani Ratnam made no mistakes here by working with PC Sreeram. He proves once again why he is the best in the industry and a host of top directors are eager to work with him. There will be a scene which is shot in a lodge. It is an empty lodge room with minimal things in it, yet thanks to the genius works of PC Sreeram and the art director, they made that whole entire shot so beautiful. His shots of the song were amazing which makes the songs all the more better to hear.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Final Verdict: It's not OK Kanmani, but FANTASTIC Kanmani!!!!
4.4/5.0