Debutante Gnanavel has attempted a shout out for the middle bencher in school and the trials and tribulation the average Joe faces in life and love. Whether this good intentioned film with many contrived sequences will connect with the audiences remains to be seen.
Aravind (Ashok Selvan) is “middle” in everything, he is sandwiched between an elder sister and a younger brother, he is the middle bencher in class whose name even the class teacher doe not remember and always ignored by his parents and sidelined at even a ration shop queue. The first spark in his self dejected life comes in the form of plus two girl Janani played by Priya Anand who praises him for a random good deed at the beach and then its love at first sight for the boy. Janani becomes a state rank holder in plus two and on TV announces that she is joining a journalism course and the hero too goes to the same college hoping to meet her. When Aravind proposes to Janani she rejects him saying that there is nothing in him for her to show interest in. Aravind decides to end his life but ends up saving the son of a dreaded gangster Sathya (Samuthirakani). Then starts a bonding between Sathya and Aravind with the former creating situations for Janani to fall in love. Whether the web of lies is exposed and whether the hero makes it big in life and gets his girl forms the rest of the story.
Ashok Selvan, who has proved his talent in films like ‘Soodhu Kavvum’, ‘Pizza2’ and ‘Thegidi’ gives a sincere performance as Aravind but the badly etched and inconsistent characterization lets him down. Priya Anand looks too mature for a college going girl, but otherwise does what is needed of her in a stereotypical role. Bala Saravanan cracks up the proceedings with his well timed counters and is a huge relief whenever he appears( He completely disappears midway) . Samuthirakani gets yet another good hearted gangster role and plays it the way he usually does. Marimuthu as the hero’s father is apt while John Vijay as the bad cop overdoes it to the point of aversion.
The big plus of ‘Kootathil Oruthan’ is the pre-climax, which connects to the audience and is emotionally moving. Bala Saravnan’s comedy too works out well. The film is decent without any vulgarity and also gives a nice message in the end though not what was intended.
If one sets out to tell the story of an average guy it will be more rewarding if the hero fights against all odds and wins, but here everything that happens in Aravind’s life is coincidental and unbelievable like a dreaded gangster turning cupid and helping the hero to woo the girl. The love between Aravind and Janani is so fake that at the end when he claims that it is she who made him to be a better person evokes some unintentional laughter. The screenplay suffers big time due to the contrived eighties flavored dialogues and most of the characters ending up as are mere caricatures.
There is nothing much to complain about Nivas K Prasanna’s music, P.K. Varma’s cinematography and Leo John Paul’s editing T.J. Gnanavel ‘s heart is in the right place wanting to convey a truly relevant message to the society and also bat for the average guys, but the story and screenplay that he has woven do not justify him.
Verdict : Go for it if you fancy a good message and an emotionally moving pre-climax.
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