KO

KO

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 11.15am, 23-04-2011
Status : Balcony Full, FC 99%

After Suriya starrer superhit AYAN, K.V.Anand is back with his new movie which also has an interesting title like AYAN(meaning THE ONE)- KO(which means KING) with Jiiva in lead(Karthi & Silambarasan were offered the same role). The movie is a political thriller.

Story
Ashwin(Jiiva) is a press photographer working for Dina Anjali newspaper. His co-workers include Renuka(debutant Karthika - daughter of yesteryear actress Radha) & Saro(Pia Bajpai). It's the election time & the main candidates are Yogeshwaran(PrakashRaj) who is the present chiefminster & Aalavandhan(Kota Sreenivasa Rao). In between comes Vasanthan Perumal(Ajmal Amir) who believes in clean politics. In an election campaign meeting by Vasanthan, a blast happens in which many of his friends & Saro gets killed. Ashwin & Vananthan's friends asks him to be in election.  In election he wins & becomes the youngest chief minister of Tamilnadu. After that Ashwin founds that Saro was not killed by blast, she was murdered. The rest is how Ashwin traps the killers of Saro.

Performances
Jiiva as Ashwin was safe in his hands. But when we watch the movie on screen, we may feel like a much more energetic & somewhat more mature in looks would have done the role. Suriya or Karthi were the perfect ones. Still Jiiva potrays the role in his own style & succeeds with his high voltage energy performance. Ajmal Amir lacks the fire that the character should have in many scenes. Nothing new is there for him other than a lengthy role. In some emotional scenes he was a bit bore too. Debutant Karthika is not that promising. Her expressions were bad at times. She was acting as if she's doing an 80's stage drama. Pia Bajpai was energetic as Saro but offers nothing new. PrakashRaj & Kota Sreenivasa Rao were wasted in not so well developed characters. But the scenes in which they appear belongs to them. PrakashRaj makes his mark on scenes he appear. Sona as Sumitha(spoofing Namitha) has nothing to do. Editor Anthony makes a cameo appearance. BOSE VENKAT steals the show towards the climax with smart dialogues.


Songs
Music by Harris Jeyaraj is not that impressive & most of the songs are rehash of his own music. Ennamo Aedho & Venpaniye is my pick of the lot though it reminds me of songs of same genre by Harris Jeyaraj in his previous films like Dhaam Dhoom, Unnaale Unnaale, Bheema...Picturisation of songs offers nothing new still enjoyable. Placement of Venpaniye song reminds us of Nenje Nenje song in Ayan. Gala Gala song was an unwanted one. Aga Naga had cameo appearances by Suriya, Karthi, Jeyam Ravi, Bharath, Jai, Shiva, Tamanna...Amali Thumali song had nice locations. Venpaniye song was badly picturised with graphics background. BGM was good.

Technical
Cinematography by Richard.M.Nathan was superb. Anthony once again proved that he's the best editor in Tamil Cinema. Art direction too was good. Peter Hein did a commendable job in action direction.

Script & Direction
Script was done by Subha & director K.V.Anand together. Basic storyline has slight similarity with hollywood flick STATE OF PLAY. The framework of the script is similar to same team's previous movie AYAN. Only the basic plot changes. The movie had an engaging script focussing the press people, media, politics, youngsters.... Everything was blended well in an interestng manner. There are no surprise twists for audiences as it is predictable for an average cinema goer. The final two scenes of the movie was superb & it showed the press people's commitment towards the society. The second half of the movie should have some more interesting with thrilling happenings. Gala Gala song would have been avoided in second half as it looks unwanted & acts as speedbreaker. It is the direction by K.V.Anand which makes the movie much more interesting. K.V.Anand the former photojournalist  presented the press related stuffs in convinving & realistic manner. Direction was racy & superb.

REELISM + REALISM = KO

Verdict : An interesting movie
BO Verdict : HIT

If compared with AYAN, KO is below only. Its the theme & presentation of the movie that makes the movie interesting.

Like for AYAN, you can carry your brain with you when going for this movie too, as it gives answers for many of your logic related questions.

One interesting scene I found is director question the logic of his previous film AYAN. Characters in this movie talks like a smuggler does his work well & in the end he gets job in Custom's department & the movie got 4 star rating.

CHINA TOWN

CHINA TOWN

Theatre : TVM Kairali
Showtime & Date : 6.25pm, 14-04-2011
Status : Balcony Full, FC 99%

After CHRISTIAN BROTHERS, another multistarrer, that too which comes on the LABEL of comedy on vacation season, CHINA TOWN entertains the audience in a very few scenes only.

Story
Story is a mix of 80's Hindi movies & hollywood flick THE HANGOVER.
Xavier(Mohanlal), Jayakrishnan(Shanavas), Shankar & Wilson Gomez(Captain Raju) runs a 4 star casino in GOA in 1986. All except Gomez & the kids of all other three gets killed by baddie played by Pradeep Rawat(Ghajini fame).  After 25 years, Gomez returns to GOA with his daughter Emily(Poonam Bawja). He brings together the sons of his friends to handover his casino. All three - Maathukkutty(Mohanlal again) was a goon and now he's in the path of peace because of Rosamma(Kavya Madhavan), Zackariah(Jayaram) who is in run for money to rescue his mother & Binoy(Dileep) who is a failed romeo in every six months. Wilson brings all three & asks them to takeover the management of Casino. Things change when villain realises them. Rest is the story of HANGOVER mixed in a bad way & movie ends in routine mass fight.

Performances
There are no show stealers in this movie, only scene stealers at times.
Mohanlal as Xavier was good in looks of 80s with no dialogues. Mohanlal as Maathukkutty failed to evoke any laughter as the character was not a well developed & script didn't provide him to perform anything other than routine action sequences & the very same drunk guy in RafiMecarti's movie HALLO. Except a very few expressions, nothing special. At times you may find artificiality in his acting like he's trying hard to make audience laugh. Also his makeup was bad at parts & looks so fat, especially in first action sequence. Action reminded me final scene of Mohanlal in ChottaMumbai. Introduction scene was bad and the dupe was not a matching one for Mohanlal. Jayaram as Zackariah was safe in his hands. He did well with ease & his mimicry background helped him a lot. He steals the scene in which he imitates actor UMMAR, TERRIFIC APPLAUSE was there for that scene. Also his SureshGopi act in jail scene too.  Dileep as Binoy had a good start & he maintained it upto interval though went overboard at may parts. But in second half, he couldn't evoke any laughter.

If someone ask you who is the best dancer in the movie, you can blindly say it's SURAJ VENJARAMMOOD. He impresses us with his dance steps in "Aaranu koottu" song in second half eventhough Mohanlal, Jayaram & Dileep were there. Also his single step with Kavya & Poonam in "Innu Penninu" song.
Suraj as CV(Chandran Valavil) a wannabe DON tries his best to make us laugh. About 60% of that works.

Captain Raju as Wilson looks wooden & Pradeep Rawat was wasted. A sumo guy of 257 kg wwight, D'souza Libore was also introduced, may be to include in posters to attract children. PLEASE... our next generation kids are not so innocent or too liitle kids as we think to laugh at these kind of baffoonery. Kavya Madhavan, Poonam Bawja & newcomer Dipasha were there for namesake-songs & 5-6 scenes. Shankar, Shanavas, AppaHaja were wasted.

Jagathy Sreekumar in his cameo was impressive. He never looked so young in any of his recent movies. His looks reminded me of his role in THOOVANATHUMBIKAL.

Songs
Music by Jassie Gift had done justice as the music mixes well with the festive mood(as claimned by the team). Arikil Ninnalum song was good, but picturised badly & was a speedbreaker. All other songs were unnecesary. BGM by Rajamani really disappoints.

Technical
Everything as usual for a mass masala movie. Art director BOBAN needs special mention. Action was usual only.

Script & Direction
As I said, script by RafiMecartin was a mix of 80's hindi movie-kids after 25 years returns to seek revenge for killing their parents & last year's hollywood comedy flick THE HANGOVER. Problem was both were mixed in a bad way. First half had a good start & once the lead characters reaches Goa, script takes a break & ends up as a skit & once villain finds them again movi comes back to track. In between a so-called lovetrackand confusion making us remember Thenkasippattanam was also included with a song. Interval punch was like in Dharani's Vikram starrer DHOOL like hero threatening villain. But second half was horrible with HALLO mixed with THE HANGOVER. Actors & scriptwriters were totally out of idea what to do & what had happened. Somehow in between movie  comes back to its track & slips to unwanted sentiments, misunderstandings & a mass fight where hero wins. Climax reminded me the climax of CHOTTA MUMBAI. Why Asianet's popular programme IDEA STAR SINGER participants & Ranjini was included in a scene to start a song, HORRIBLE. A scene from VINAYAN's Dileep-Jagathy starrer ANURAGAKOTTARAM was lifted as such and used here which fails to create any laughs. Directon was not upto the mark. SHAFI was the best person to direct this movie. Many scenes lacked punch though it had element to make thrilled. In second half, no elements of revenge were there though the hero threatens villain in Interval. The lead characters were like they are not at all interested in any kind of revenge games.It is the editor who saved the movie at many parts I think, especially climax fight was included with final title cards which were clear baffoonery. Next time concentrate on script & better give direction department to Shafi.

Verdict : Average, at max
BO Verdict : In a state where movies like POKKIRIRAJA becoming superhit, this one too will enter the safe side as there are no big opponents on BoxOffice & movie comes with the label of COMEDY in vacation season.

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS was a SUPERB ENTERTAINER compared to this eventhough predictable.

At times we may think is this the same Mohanlal who was back in form like in 90s about a month ago telling NJAN CHAADUM SIR in CHRISTIAN BROTHERS trying hard to make us laugh by simply screaming at other characters in the movie. The answer I got is JOSHIY sir, I think that explains EVERYTHING