'Akku' is inspired by a Hollywood flick `Speed', which showed a city bus, full of passengers in the city of LA, having a bomb set to explode if the bus goes below 50 MPH. Here in `Akku', directed by debutant Maamani, we have a man in whose shoe a bomb is planted. He has to keep on running to avoid the bomb to explode.
Siva (Ajay), an IT professional, falls in love with Bhanu (Sriji), a bubbly girl. Her brother (Rakshai), a terrorist, is planning to bomb Chennai city. He plants a shoe bomb on Siva and dumps him in the city center and asks him to start running. If he slows down it will explode killing all the people near him.
Siva starts running through the city and soon the police led by Asst. Commissioner (Riyaz Khan), bomb squad officer Anu (Anu Haasan) are behind him trying to save him and the city. Maamani thrillingly narrates how they accomplish the task.
How a man could keep running for the whole day, you might ask. But the racy and tight script doesn't give any room for such queries. The police give energy tablets to Siva to keep him running without getting exhausted. They fix oxygen tube in his nose to compensate for the loss of oxygen. They scan his shoe to find out the nature of the bomb. Everything happens as Siva keeps on running.
The live telecast in the TV channels and the efforts by the terrorist gang to kill him so that he could stop running, take place to keep up the momentum.
Director Maamani has come out with a racy narration that brings you to the edge of your seat. Though the basic idea is inspired by situational thrillers like Speed and Phone Booth, Maamani deserves appreciation for bringing a fresh idea to Tamil screen. He has backed the idea with a tight script and smart execution.
Sriram's background music and Chittibabu's camera ably support the script to provide us a wholesome thriller. The sharp editing by Venkatesh deserves special mention.
On the flipside, the police, who follow Siva for the whole day, finally make him run on a treadmill. Why didn't they do it earlier instead of making him run for more than 24 hours?!
Newcomer Ajay (Siva) and Rakshay (the terrorist) have done their respective parts well. Ajay is quite credible in expressing the anguish, while Rakshay, with calm face and penetrative eyes, is impressive. Anu Haasan, as the bomb squad officer, adds value to the film.
`Akku' is a different attempt in Tamil by a set of newcomers. Maamani and his team should be commended for their effort to make a film which provides thrilling entertainment without adhering to the set rules of commercial films.
