I saw OK Kanmani recently and have been itching to write about it for a while. The movie was a breeze and a nice watch. It doesn’t try to persuade you one way or the other. And it has very little content. But for Nithya Menon, Prakash Raj or Leela Samson, the movie would have fizzled out too fast. I know Nithya Menon is a fantastic actor from her role in 180. But this one is probably a crown jewel. Her eyes speak so many dialogues that are best left untold! Hats off to her for bringing the character to life.
Dulqer was ok too. I liked him better in “Vaayai Moodi Pesavum”. Maybe that is his character. He trying fit into this role wasn’t the best IMO. But again, I really don’t know who else will suit it better. The romance between Adi and Tara seemed to blossom in a rush. I felt it all happened too fast or rather the narration didn’t give enough time for it to happen. If you think about it, even Alaipayuthey probably gave only that much time between Karthik and Shakti to fall for each other. But if you see the movie, you’d buy Karthik-Shakti story better than Adi-Tara story. Or perhaps, this is what generation gaps are all about. I grew up with Alaipayuthey. Perhaps my kids will find OK Kanmani to be a tad too slow to build up.
The highlight of the movie, apart from Nithya Menon, is the Bhavani-Ganapathy pair. I think they could have had the story build around them. You can feel the intimacy in this pair – more then the intimacy in the lead pair. Like I say, maybe the lead pair is just too fast for my generation. Leela Samson played a wonderful Bhavani. Having lived with my grandpa who used to forget things at the blink of an eye, Bhavani was very convincing. And you needed to be a Ganapathy to handle that. Losing patience or temper is not going to help. Because Bhavani doesn’t realize she is at fault.
The third best part of the movie is the background score. There was plenty of carnatic music just flowing all over the movie and it felt very good. It wasn’t the least interfering with the narration. The game was a tad obnoxious. And having your niece play through a mature-themed game is a bad choice. I was happy there were no lectures. The movie does not try to teach you. And I liked the epilogue. No one loses and all is well that ends well.
Someone said the movie is a lot like Alaipayuthey. Nope – completely incorrect. This movie is on its own. For me, its not better than Alaipayuthey. That said, comparing the two is not fair either.