#OKKanmani is vintage Mani Ratnam, even if it sounds like a cliche. The GodFather of modern romance at various points of time right from Mouna Raagam right up to Alaipayuthey has written a story that involves a man and woman of today, wonderfully played by Nithya Menen as Tara Kalingarayan and nicely portrayed by Dulquer Salman as Aditya Varadharajan.
Conversations over cell phones, professional aspirations and goals, values (some would say the lack of it) all have been woven into the story. He layers these troupes with those of an ageing couple faced with their own problems in day to day life. Its almost like a plant blossoming under a giant tree the two couples separated by age. The movie is also about Prakash's Raj's Ganapathy, in one of his finest roles ever, and Leela Samson's Bhavani though the trailers focus on Adhi-Tara.
The hip upper class crowd, for a change isn't portrayed as scheming and lacking in moral and ethical values. After a series of botched up female acting calls, the ace auteur nails it this time with his cast. Ramya Subramanian gets a good role to play in her first full scale movie outing almost like Swarnamalya and Medha got in Alaipayuthey. Buses, trains, rain, sea front, telephone calls, bikes all get a fresh take in this story. Though Mani's characters are mostly upper-middle class / upper class they always travel by public transport.
The story is light weight, entertaining and lacks serious drama or tension building moments. AR Rahman's re-recording (an Indianism for background score) has a higher amount of piano this time and the BGM is co-credited to Qutub-e-Kripa (KMMC composers). PC Sreeram's camera is inventive in it's angles, particularly featuring Adhi and Tara. The first series of conversations between the couple is beautifully staged and immaculately captured. Another Madras Talkies' regular Sreekar Prasad has edited the movie.
This movie is Mani Ratnam giving his fans a re-arrangement of his troupes, to people who felt he strayed away from his strengths as a story teller. [Asides: The movies didn't have to be rated U/A. "Pollachi Mahalingam", "Kalingarayar", the "TN-66 J" registered Audi and the name itself makes up a lot of references to Kovai aka Coimbatore. For some of us there is no other place like Cbe].
