(Jeeva is natural in his roles as far as I can remember and he gets better in KO. He holding the camera rather proper as well. Image source: Indiaglitz)
KO has 3 good things going for the movie – the talented actor Jeeva, creative director KV Anand and inspirational music director Harris Jayaraj.
The Plot
Jeeva plays Ashwin who is the star- photographer at a local daily. He and his colleague, Saraswathi (played by loveable Piaa Bajpai) soon joined by Renuka (Karthika Nair – daughter of yesteryear actress, Radha). At the very beginning, Ashwin manages to took snapshots of bank robbers but unable to identify the mastermind.
At the same juncture, Ashwin college friend Vasanth (played by Ajmal Ameer who we last saw in Anjathey) runs for political office and through a series of blunders caught on camera by Ashwin and a major bomb blast that kills Saraswathi and 30 other people. Vasanth after initially wanting to pull out from the election decides to go for it and wins the election and becomes the Chief Minister.
Ashwin in the meantime finds out that Saraswathi was not killed by the bomb blast but was killed by an unknown person. He continues to hunt for the killer who killed her and managed to link the unknown man with a scar on the face with the earlier bank robbery. One day, he goes to see his friend Vasanth and surprised to see the man with the scar in the office. Only then he realised that Vasanth is not the man he claims to be but rather someone who is evil, who do not stop at anything to achieve his political ambition.
The climax is where Ashwin follows the man with the scar to his hideout, unknown to both of them; Vasanth had ordered a police assassination of the man with the scar. But the police operation goes wrong and the both the man with the scar and Ashwin still alive with Ashwin manages to sent the information back to Renuka. Vasanth in the end gets killed but Ashwin decides to keep the real story away from the public because he realizes that only Vasanth is the bad guy whilst the others who were in the same party with Vasanth in election are still good guys and determine to make positive change in the Government.
Acting
In Tamil movies, I hate to see actors (including the so-called superstars) doing their part without doing their homework. You would have seen them – musicians who do not know how to hold or play the music instruments (often the guitar or the piano) or the policeman who do not know a shit about police tactics or weapons and more.
In KO, it is a different ball game – Jeevan who plays a photographer not only holds the camera in the correct way but also plays with the camera settings to get the right snapshots (like the time where he increases the ISO setting for a night shot or when he changes the lens for the right angle)
Jeeva is funny, serious and loveable and is the main star in this movie. Jeeva have always been so natural in his role in past movies (last being Siva Manasula Sakthi). He looks younger in KO. Renuka who is the new “heroine” in this movie, fortunately was given less role time so that the “romance” scenes are kept to the minimum. Renuka, despite being a newbie here is at ease in her role but given the short screen time and the complexity of role she has in KO, she did quite alright.
There is Prakash Raj as politician in this movie but his acting prowess was not capitalised to the maximum – he comes in at the start, more as news piece for Jeeva’s role as photographer. KV Anand could have linked him to the real villain in this movie, Vasanth and made a more interesting climax.
Ajmal Ameer had his moments in Anjathey but in KO, it is not his movie to boast eventhough having a prominent role in the movie. Something seems to be missing and it could be due to the nature of his character in KO.
(One too many - we need more story line, not female line. Image source: Indiaglitz)
Direction
We last saw cinematographer turned director KV Anand in action in Surya’s Ayan which was a well made and he is back in KO with an equally made storyline and direction.
But if you ask me if KV Anand is a great director, I would say no – he still makes the same mistakes that you can find in low quality Tamil movies – illogical scenes, poor police tactics (hundreds of police cannot even take down a couple of poorly prepared criminals), the hero end up portrayed as super heros (able to take couple of villains all by himself).
KO’s strong storyline had somehow redeemed KV Anand’s minor flaws but there was plenty of room for improvement. I personally thought Ayan was of a better quality compared to KO despite having a strong and well known crew. KV Anand have the right substance but he needs to be a bit consistent and he needs to discard the hero is the superhero mentality that plagues Tamil (and mostly all Indian) movies.
And then there is the issue of redundancy – Jeeva pairs with 2 ladies who are interested in him and works in the same office but KO is not a pure love story. So why waste screen time on them? Then there are 2 politicians (played by 2 main actors) portrayed as the evil, dirty politicians but Jeeva do not fight them in the climax. So why need 2 dirty politicians when in reality, 1 is more than enough in most movies.
This issue of redundancy causes less screen time for the crust of the story and a lost of focus on part of the audience. It is a shame because KO has a strong storyline and rest of the components seems to fit together just nice. More time could have poured on Jeeva - Ajmal Ameer cat and mouse game and a better climax.
Music
If you ask most of the Tamil movie fans, the key players in Tamil movie music would usually fall on two big names – A R Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja. But there are other good music directors in the industry (Illayaraja still composes music for new movies) and after A R Rahman and Yuvan Shankar, very close in the race is Harris Jayaraj.
Harris already had good tracks in the past – Minnal, Anniyan, etc and more recently, Engeyum Kathal and now in KO, he maintains the same good to hear soundtracks. Strongly recommended soundtracks would be Venpaniye, Gala Gala and Ennamo Aedho. The good use of instruments does not overcome the lyrics and it is not loud (even the fast track numbers) – a well known signature of Harris. Nothing experimental and probably that is why Harris Jayaraj is a winner here.
Final Say
KO is one of the better movies in recent years but it is not the best – it is logical in its main plot but also plagued with illogical scenes.
Pros: Strong storyline (with interesting outcome), Harris easy listening music and Jeeva adapting his character very well.
Cons: Too much minor distractions in the storyline (2 female characters, 2 rotten politicians, etc) waste screen time, KV Anand is better than some of directors out there but he needs to be consistent – his Ayan was better than KO.
The Plot
Jeeva plays Ashwin who is the star- photographer at a local daily. He and his colleague, Saraswathi (played by loveable Piaa Bajpai) soon joined by Renuka (Karthika Nair – daughter of yesteryear actress, Radha). At the very beginning, Ashwin manages to took snapshots of bank robbers but unable to identify the mastermind.
At the same juncture, Ashwin college friend Vasanth (played by Ajmal Ameer who we last saw in Anjathey) runs for political office and through a series of blunders caught on camera by Ashwin and a major bomb blast that kills Saraswathi and 30 other people. Vasanth after initially wanting to pull out from the election decides to go for it and wins the election and becomes the Chief Minister.
Ashwin in the meantime finds out that Saraswathi was not killed by the bomb blast but was killed by an unknown person. He continues to hunt for the killer who killed her and managed to link the unknown man with a scar on the face with the earlier bank robbery. One day, he goes to see his friend Vasanth and surprised to see the man with the scar in the office. Only then he realised that Vasanth is not the man he claims to be but rather someone who is evil, who do not stop at anything to achieve his political ambition.
The climax is where Ashwin follows the man with the scar to his hideout, unknown to both of them; Vasanth had ordered a police assassination of the man with the scar. But the police operation goes wrong and the both the man with the scar and Ashwin still alive with Ashwin manages to sent the information back to Renuka. Vasanth in the end gets killed but Ashwin decides to keep the real story away from the public because he realizes that only Vasanth is the bad guy whilst the others who were in the same party with Vasanth in election are still good guys and determine to make positive change in the Government.
Acting
In Tamil movies, I hate to see actors (including the so-called superstars) doing their part without doing their homework. You would have seen them – musicians who do not know how to hold or play the music instruments (often the guitar or the piano) or the policeman who do not know a shit about police tactics or weapons and more.
In KO, it is a different ball game – Jeevan who plays a photographer not only holds the camera in the correct way but also plays with the camera settings to get the right snapshots (like the time where he increases the ISO setting for a night shot or when he changes the lens for the right angle)
Jeeva is funny, serious and loveable and is the main star in this movie. Jeeva have always been so natural in his role in past movies (last being Siva Manasula Sakthi). He looks younger in KO. Renuka who is the new “heroine” in this movie, fortunately was given less role time so that the “romance” scenes are kept to the minimum. Renuka, despite being a newbie here is at ease in her role but given the short screen time and the complexity of role she has in KO, she did quite alright.
There is Prakash Raj as politician in this movie but his acting prowess was not capitalised to the maximum – he comes in at the start, more as news piece for Jeeva’s role as photographer. KV Anand could have linked him to the real villain in this movie, Vasanth and made a more interesting climax.
Ajmal Ameer had his moments in Anjathey but in KO, it is not his movie to boast eventhough having a prominent role in the movie. Something seems to be missing and it could be due to the nature of his character in KO.
(One too many - we need more story line, not female line. Image source: Indiaglitz)
Direction
We last saw cinematographer turned director KV Anand in action in Surya’s Ayan which was a well made and he is back in KO with an equally made storyline and direction.
But if you ask me if KV Anand is a great director, I would say no – he still makes the same mistakes that you can find in low quality Tamil movies – illogical scenes, poor police tactics (hundreds of police cannot even take down a couple of poorly prepared criminals), the hero end up portrayed as super heros (able to take couple of villains all by himself).
KO’s strong storyline had somehow redeemed KV Anand’s minor flaws but there was plenty of room for improvement. I personally thought Ayan was of a better quality compared to KO despite having a strong and well known crew. KV Anand have the right substance but he needs to be a bit consistent and he needs to discard the hero is the superhero mentality that plagues Tamil (and mostly all Indian) movies.
And then there is the issue of redundancy – Jeeva pairs with 2 ladies who are interested in him and works in the same office but KO is not a pure love story. So why waste screen time on them? Then there are 2 politicians (played by 2 main actors) portrayed as the evil, dirty politicians but Jeeva do not fight them in the climax. So why need 2 dirty politicians when in reality, 1 is more than enough in most movies.
This issue of redundancy causes less screen time for the crust of the story and a lost of focus on part of the audience. It is a shame because KO has a strong storyline and rest of the components seems to fit together just nice. More time could have poured on Jeeva - Ajmal Ameer cat and mouse game and a better climax.
Music
If you ask most of the Tamil movie fans, the key players in Tamil movie music would usually fall on two big names – A R Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja. But there are other good music directors in the industry (Illayaraja still composes music for new movies) and after A R Rahman and Yuvan Shankar, very close in the race is Harris Jayaraj.
Harris already had good tracks in the past – Minnal, Anniyan, etc and more recently, Engeyum Kathal and now in KO, he maintains the same good to hear soundtracks. Strongly recommended soundtracks would be Venpaniye, Gala Gala and Ennamo Aedho. The good use of instruments does not overcome the lyrics and it is not loud (even the fast track numbers) – a well known signature of Harris. Nothing experimental and probably that is why Harris Jayaraj is a winner here.
Final Say
KO is one of the better movies in recent years but it is not the best – it is logical in its main plot but also plagued with illogical scenes.
Pros: Strong storyline (with interesting outcome), Harris easy listening music and Jeeva adapting his character very well.
Cons: Too much minor distractions in the storyline (2 female characters, 2 rotten politicians, etc) waste screen time, KV Anand is better than some of directors out there but he needs to be consistent – his Ayan was better than KO.
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