Oru Kal Oru Kannadi movie review

Director Rajesh must indeed be a lucky man. He has solely banked on current comedy king Santhanam to dish out a close to 3hrs long movie that is entertaining only when our comedy king is on screen. The story is the same old "hero pursuing heroine with the support of Santhanam", like it was in SMS and BEB.

While Jiiva was a super match to Santhanam in SMS and made it a cult, Arya tried his level best to make 'Nanbenda' a memorable affair too. Here Debutante Udhayanidhi's only plus point is his pretty decent voice. He is funny at dance and poor at emoting. Blessed with boyish looks and shitloads of money, a new hero has arrived. His dance moves need serious addressing. He is much better producing blockbusters, personally speaking.

But OKOK has become the biggest hit among Rajesh's 3 movies so far. Strange fact. The quality is dipping with every movie but the collections are almost doubling.

There are some needless cameos for a fat,jaded Sneha, the sexy Andrea and the charming Arya. The movie has really been extended thanks to these cameos. The sequence in the plane is one big drag. The editor has seriously slept off while working in his FCP or whatever.

Harris' songs are on the money. His luck and good time seem to be never ending. That said, the Venam Machan song looks good on screen.

Saranya turns in a typically delightful performance as the mother of our hero. Her attempts at passing her degree exams since 20 long years and her relationship with her stubborn husband are a nice sub-plot in the movie.

Hansika has been taken for a ride. In the 'Azhage Azhage' song, she runs around the screen all through the song exposing her ample cleavage in extremely tight, low neck gowns. The intentions of the director and choreographer are obvious in this song. Her fat body, her makeup sense, her dresses etc have been made a mockery too, through some dialogs in the movie. She looks perplexed all through the movie. It seems young heroines can do anything for a good pay package. A sad performance after a delightful one in Engeyum Kadhal.

Finally our man Santhanam. With colorful clothes, a Brahmin slang to his English, terrific one liners / one words, a funny profession, a hilarious car etc etc. this man is a riot and a superstar in his own right. This movie is another feather in his already decorated cap. It would not be off the mark to say that OKOK would have been a headless dead body if not for Santhanam.

VERDICT: Only Santhanam ... nothing else. The entire team must be indebted to this one-man army.

Pudhupettai (2006)

Whats it about:
This movie tracks the life of a gangster Kokki Kumar. How he gets into it, how he slowly picks up the tricks of the trade, how he becomes big, how he gets consumed by his greed and lust for power and how he settles in life finally.
     Kumar leaves home fearing for his life after his mom gets killed by his dad. He accidentally gets mixed up with Anbu's gang. He gets into the drug business initially and slowly becomes a dreaded gangster thanks to his expertise with the sword. He kills Murthy's (another big gangster) brother. He goes to the extent of even killing his father for his mother's sake.
     He has an affair going on with Veni, a prostitute. At the same time he also marries Selvi, his friend's sister in a bizarre wedding. Later he marries Veni too learning about her pregnancy.
    He isn't able to control his urge for power and he kills Anbu and heads the gang in no time. He works for Thamizhselvan, a politician. He helps Thamizhselvan many times and but he is refused an MLA seat. His reaction at this, irks and pisses off many.
   He loses Veni and escapes with his baby. He drops off the baby safely and returns to finish off all his remaining enemies and just when we believe he is about to be hung, he is taken away by the ruling party and he joins the party as a replacement for the very same Murthy that he killed.

                                                                   
Hits

• YUVAN. One of his all time best scores. His BGM is scintillating, mesmerizing and suits the mood of the film perfectly. It enhances the movie. That too, the title credits score is something out of the world. And the songs are all cult classics. No need to elaborate more on these songs :)
• Dhanush scores big time too. Initially as the afraid young kid and later as the ruthless and lusting gangster. All expressions are so easy for this national award winning actor. 
• Sneha as the helpless prostitute gets our sympathies. 
• All the other characters coming as gangsters also look and play the part. 
• The action scene with the sword in the first half is classy. But the same sword fight in the climax becomes too unbelievable. 
• The scenes showing how Kumar gets into the gangster world are so full of impact. 
• The final sequence showing Kumar becoming a politician is a nice spoofy take. 

Misses

• Kumar's transition to a feared gangster becomes too soon and abrupt. 
• Some of Kumar's greed and lust doesn't gel with the movie. His marriage with Selvi is one such ridiculous sequence. 
• Dhanush's pencil thin frame doesn't make him look like a gangster though he more than makes up for it with his perfect lingo, body language and expressions. 

VERDICT

With some more fine tuning, this Selvaraghavan film could have become an unanimous favorite.