Director: Nelson Venkatesan
Cast: Dinesh, Mia George, Ritwika, Nivetha
Oru Naal Koothu is the debut film by director Nelson Venkatesan and it takes up a topic that is very poignant in this day and age. The movie features three women in three different lead and predictably enough, the topics swerve towards the challenges faced by women right here, right now. The main subject being marriages and the enormous pressures faced by the fairer sex in getting married and having a future that they would look forward to.
Three women, Lakshmi (Mia George), Shusheela (Ritwika) and Kavya (Nivetha Pethuraj) all have their marriages incoming. Several prospective grooms are sought for them, each one having their own agenda as well as the agendas of the girl’s parents. Lakshmi is a shy girl from Trichy and very traditional in her approach to marriages. Each time a promising boy enters the scene, she’s ready with her homely looks. Susheela is a radio jockey and she comes from a disordered middle class background. Desperately trying to find a match, challenges abound plenty, as Susheela is without a dad, in addition to which she has a dusky skin and a career in the media. And finally, Kavya is the proper upper class type who is rich and savvy. She has a boyfriend, Raj (Dinesh) who has big psychological and personality issues as he hails from lower middle class.
This is the premise of Oru Naal Koothu and the delight is to be found in the way in which these obvious issues were tackled. To be frank, this film truly deserves the title Iraivi. Dinesh has the lead role, but the focus is on the three girls and all have given fabulous performances. Mia has been perfectly cast and she has done total justice to her role, Ritwika is a natural performer and has given an awesome feat. Debutant and former Miss Dubai Nivetha is equally impressive and she is here to stay. Bala Saravanan continues his good comic act and tickles our funny bones with his timely one-liners. Ramesh Thilak, Karunakaran, Charlie, Nagineedu in play small yet significant characters and lend their huge support.
With his quirky plot, which has been narrated in an appealing manner, Nelson undoubtedly proves that he is a filmmaker with a substance. Though all the characters remain unconnected till the climax, Nelson infuses a twist and fate interlinks all of them. Justin Prabhakar’s music is topnotch and his songs elevate the situations. Gokul’s cinematography is a big plus to the movie and Sabu Joseph’s crisp and neat editing warrants mention.
Overall, with an engaging screenplay, powerful dialogues backed by intense performances by the entire cast, alluring music, ONK is a film with a message and not to be missed.
