Movie: Oru Kanniyum Moonu Kalavaniyum
Director: Chimbu Devan
Cast: Arulnithi Azhagiri, Bindu Madhavi, Bagavathi Perumal, M.S Bhaskar, Mohan Raman
Rating: ***
Heavily based on German thriller “Run Lola Run”, Chimbu Devan’s comedy-drama “Oru Kanniyum Moonu Kalavaniyum” is one of those smart comedies that we seldom get to experience in Tamil cinema. It’s one of those Tamil films that don’t mind acknowledging the film it is inspired from (regional films rarely give credit to the western films from which they are copied). It’s one of those films where the hero and his friends are all given equal screen space (from start to finish). It’s one of those films where the songs don’t break the flow of the narrative. Finally, it’s also one of those films we shouldn’t mind watching.
Highlighting the importance of time, the film narrates the story of Tamizh and his associates, who embark on a mission to kidnap Isabella (Tamizh’s girlfriend) on her wedding day. What if they embarked on the mission at 9 am? What they did it all over again at 9.01 am and again a minute later? Will the change of time have any impact on the course of the mission?
With films like “Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi” and “Arai En 305-il Kadavul”, Chimbu Devan has proved that he can make thought-provoking comedy films. And the best part is that he need to have superstars to do it; he can pull it off even with the most unexpected and underrated actors. He collaborates with Arulnithi, Bindu and NKPK fame Baks here and extracts the best out of them in roles they comfortably fit in and do complete justice.
With an interesting screenplay and reasonably good performances, OKMK is impressive when we see the story unfold for the first time, but it gets slightly boring the following two times. This is precisely because of the fact that we are not convinced when we see drastic changes in the course of events just because of a minute’s delay and another reason being the film’s extremely lengthy narrative vis-à-vis “Run Lola Run”, which was almost half the running time of this film.
OKMK may be an offbeat film, but it doesn’t get spared by some clichéd melodrama in the form of sentiment. There’s an ailing mother who needs to be operated, a mountain of debts that need to paid and a family’s reputation is at stake. I really don’t think audiences want all this in our films anymore because several recent films have proved that we can still get people to watch our films without all this. I’m pointing this out not to criticize the film or its filmmaker, but because we are taking about a film that has five songs like any other Tamil film and yet doesn’t leave us exhausted because none of the songs disturbed the flow of the narrative.
Even with its share of flaws and some impressive aspects as well, OKMK is definitely a cut above all the recent Tamil comedies. With tighter editing, it could have been an excellent film, but nevertheless one can still watch it and appreciate the fact that here is a filmmaker who has the knack to entertain with offbeat comedy.