Unnaipol oruvan (tamil)-film review

film: Unnaipol oruvan (tamil)
theatre: rani dts qube, nedumangad, thiruvananthapuram
date & time: 19-09-09. 11 am
theatre status: 55%+

Unnaipol oruvan, which is basically an adaptation from hindi film 'A wednesday' is a pointer to present day social realities. The film speaks about terrorism, its effect on locals and the difficulties in tackling it.

The story begins when commisioner Raghava maaraar (mohanlal) recieves an anonymous call claming that explosives are installed in five major places in Chennai city. The caller (kamalhasan) shows his strenght by placing a bomb inside a major police station in the city. He demands the release of four terrorists before de activating the bombs. Then the game is on and Maaraar and his team with permission of chief minister and chief secretary (lakshmi) starts the action to trap the caller. But he has to surrender before the terror caller and was forced to release the terrorists. Then comes the real twist and during that time only viewers are able to identify the real objectives of the terror caller.

Direction by Chakri toleti was not bad. But other than handling the shoot, i think he had nothing to do more because it is a remake. Performace of Mohanlal and Kamalhasan needs special mention, because in my view, they have done their job far better than those who handled these characters in original version. Both were strong and cool as their characters. Eventhough these characters meet only during the climax, we could feel the combined effect of these men from beginning to end. Lakshmi as Chief secretary also did a great job. Maraar's trusted officers Arif and Sethu were perfect. But Poonam kaur (as Sethu's wife) was wasted. Background music was also decent.

As a thriller, this does not offer any fight scenes, punch dialogues or super hero performance from heroes. But it is just a pointer, an eye opener, which expresses the feeling of a common man (like you) about terrorism and its effects on our system.

theatre response: There were claps from the crowd when Mohanlal and Kamalhasan were introduced. Also i could hear some giggles when that IIT dropout fellow was shown.