The master storyteller Mani Ratnam returns to the romance genre almost after a decade with the story of a young couple Aadi (Dulquer Salmaan) and Tara (Nithya Menon), who mock the institution of marriage throughout the course of the movie only to realise that it’s simply inevitable.
O Kadhal Kanmani narrates the story of two young individuals who believe in live-in relationship. Aadi, a computer game developer by profession who relocates to Mumbai for work exchanges glances with Tara just as he alights from the train in a very peculiar situation. Aadi then proceeds to the residence of his brother’s ex-colleague Ganapathy (Prakash Raj) whose wife Bhavani (Leela Samson) is a renowned classically trained carnatic singer, but has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer.
The title sequence of the movie is worth crediting, as it has some great use of animation to communicate the theme of the movie and sets the tone for Aadi’s role throughout. The VFX & DI for the feature film has been delivered by the Chennai based studio Prism and Pixels; whereas the 3D animation has been delivered by Plexus, Dreamcatcher Studio and Firefly Creative Studios. Mani must be commended for promoting the use of animation in a full length feature film and also giving the lead character an off-beat role of playing a game developer, which is highly encouraging seeing the kind of progress the Indian gaming ecosystem has made in recent years.
The entire movie revolves around the two lead actors Dulquer and Nithya and both have delivered a rather convincing performance, to the extent it comes across as if the camera was just kept rolling as the actors improvised on set, which is a huge compliment for these young powerhouse performers. And for a film shot in live sound technology, Dulquer’s dialogue delivery is perfect and his Tamil diction is also well received. But, it’s Nithya who steals the show with her subtle expressions that breeze through her character of a highly independent girl who is focused on what she wants in her life.
This movie will probably go down as Prakash Raj’s most subdued but impactful performance to date, the way he acts and more often reacts in various situations allows the other characters to feed off his energy and performance. The first timer actress Leela Samson, ace dancer and former director of Kalakshetra in a new avatar is impressive and bowls you over with her impeccable timing and a tad bit of sarcastic (rather forgetful) humor. It is her character which actually takes forward the story and binds the characters together.
P C Sreeram has done an outstanding work behind the lens once again, locating a very rooted kind of beauty in Mumbai’s exteriors and interiors, which have been captured very aesthetically on camera and paints a true but rich picture on the large screen, the cinematographer has successfully captured the right mood of the film with his colour and lighting compositions. The music maestro A R Rahman’s tunes are so melodious that the entire soundtrack can be released as a stand-alone album itself, but when merged with the visuals and the chemistry between Dulquer and Nithya it takes the entire movie to a whole new level.
While the first half of the film may seem to be a little sluggish, post interval it gathers momentum as it takes a serious direction. Mani Ratnam’s simple yet powerful dialogues deserve a thumbs-up and will certainly go down well with today’s youth. Though there’s no separate humor track, it is inbuilt in Mani’s writings. You will often feel that most of the scenes end rather abruptly, but it is actually a deliberate style that’s being adopted by Mani to drive home the point that the movie is for ‘the thinking audience’.
The way Aadi and Tara slowly get influenced by Bhavani and Ganapathy is handled subtly, yet beautifully. Mani leads the audience to the point where you actually come to believe that the focus of the story isn’t actually about the young couple, but it’s about the older couple who sort of remind us that no matter what, we all need a life partner. By throwing the spotlight on modern India’s idea of romance (read live-in relationships), Mani has also succeeded in making the audience root for an older couple madly in love in O Kadhal Kanmani. The intention of Mani with this film was to remind everyone the importance of falling in love and living happily ever after, once again.
Another master-stroke by the director is to have the entire film set in Mumbai, while having all the actors voice their dialogues only in Tamil; this too has worked in the favour of the film and has also successfully showed that you don’t need to travel across seven seas and waste time and money on production if you have a good story to tell.
The simple dialogues that are the director’s trademark, the unique narrative style, realistic characters, and excellent performances coupled with great music and stunning visuals make Mani Ratnam’s O Kadhal Kanmani a must-watch for the youth of today’s country to get clarity on what true love is all about.