Noted Theater owner, distributor and producer Abirami Ramanthan has emerged as a story writer with ‘Unnodu Ka’. While white-clad celebrity’s previous films-released during the summer holiday season-have targeted the kids and family audience , this summer’s outing from the production banner targets family and youth with a mix of comedy, romance and family sentiment cocktailed in a story set in urban as well as rural locales.
Siva (Aari) is the son of Jayavel (Prabhu) and Abhirami (Maya) is the daughter of Keerthyvasan (Kai Thennavan) who are neighbours and close family friends. Jayavel and Thennavan and also their wives (Urvashi and Sriranjan) belong to the same village separated by a family feud, spanning across many generations. They have escaped to Chennai to lead a peaceful life, while the villagers
separated as two groups are baying for the blood of each other. The parents wish to have their children to get married to each other which they see as the only way to put an end to the family feud.
But Siva and Abhirami are always at loggerheads. The duo’s friends Bhagath Singh (Bala Saravanan ) and Sundarambal (Misha Koshal) are separated by Sundarambal’s greedy smuggler father Kasinathan (Manmathan). A plan executed by Siva to help them unite leads to more problems and confusions.
The rest deals with how Siva solves all the problems and successfully marries Abhirami and also helps his friend unite with his lover.
‘Unnodu Ka’ directed by RK is a film that aspires to be funny in every scene and make you leave the movie hall with the satisfaction of having laughed out of your heart. The intentions are clear. You have to forget the logic. Cinematic liberties, predictability of the script from start to end, convenient turn of events, and all characters behaving freakily.. all are there. Most of the intended jokes don’t serve the purpose. But despite all these the film manages to keep you engaged and passes through as a decent light-hearted entertainer.
While the first half moves around with a lethargic pace with mostly neither intolerable nor enjoyable scenes, the last 20 minutes when the story shifts to the village and the interval block with the detailing of the family feud makes up for that. This particular part that extends for the first 20 minutes of the second half is the highlight of the story written by Abirami Ramanthan. That Mr.Ramanathan hails from a village or a small town, has really helped these scenes and settings look authentic and interesting while watching it as a film. The children’s song to save the hens in the village has been well conceived and executed. The song can be termed as a treat.
Once this family feud is somehow settled, the incidents that follow in the second half are indeed cinematic but they do not fail to keep you hooked until you start feeling that the film is lengthy. This is mainly because the humour that works out in this part to a good extent. Most of the situations involving Bala Saravanan in these sequences and the dialogues uttered by him make us laugh out loud. The mismatch of couples, entire family dancing for the wedding song, the modern wedding broker finding suitable matches through Facebook profiles, kidnapping the purohith conducting the wedding… ideas like these work out well.
Aari suits the role of a care free young man and has given his best. Maya has given a really cute and impressive performance as a girl who is more attracted towards bravery of men. But it has to be said that her character falls under the ‘loosu ponnu’ heroine mold of Tamil cinema. Bala Saravanan provides the much needed comic relief. Misha Koshal who has been elevated as the second heroine with this film has done her job well. Prabhu, Oorvashi and Mansoor Ali Khan as usual prove their acting prowess while Kai Thennavan and Sriranjani are adequate in their respective roles.
In Sathya’s music, a couple duets and the village song are catchy. Re-recording is pretty functional. Sakthi Saravanan’s camera work is impressive. The film is visually pleasing and that speaks for the high production values. N.Senthil Kumar’s Editing could have been crisper as he could have done away with a few scenes in the second half.
Verdict: 'Unnodu Ka' is a decent time-pass entertainer for this summer season.
