Oru Naal Koothu –  A breezy little film that is actually more!!! 

Bharath Vijayakumar

Plot: Three tracks that follow the lives of people who are about to get married.

Cast:

The three female leads are very impressive. In fact two out of the three tracks are narrated through their POV.The three of them are very different individuals and the casting is spot on. Nivetha Pethuraj as the independent working woman who has enough freedom, Rythvika as a working woman under the burden to get married and Mia George as the timid and curtailed woman whose opinion does matter to her father are brilliant. It is not a film that might be spoken for the performances of these three girls simply because you cannot pick a scene where the individual stood out. But the film is a really good showcase of casual performance that stays life like from these three. Dinesh is adequate. He does seem a little unsure. But given his character in the film it does fit in. Charlie is very good as the middle aged man who yearns for female company.

Music:

Justin Prabhakaran is definitely a USP of Oru Naal Koothu. The Adiye Azhage number leaves you gaping.

Direction

After last week’s Iraivi this is another film which is more about the women. And unlike Iraivi this film actually travels on their shoulders. The film is never judgmental and paints no one black. The characters are well defined and what is more interesting is that the director has not tried to give any reason as to why these people behave this way. This aspect is extremely refreshing. So we have Rythvika’s fiancé who decides to stop the marriage. He is a confused personality and he decides to call the marriage off. But he is not the bad guy you would imagine him to be. He is simply reluctant as he is not sure if she is the right girl. There is this amazing scene where his colleague introduces his ‘wife to be’ to him and you can literally see our man having so many questions in him. In a follow up scene he keeps scrolling endlessly over Rythvika’s photos. He is plain confused and nothing else. This is the sort of treatment that almost every character in the film gets. The dialogues are simple but so effective. The exchanges between Dinesh and Nivetha Pethuraj in particular are impressive in that they seem so justified from their respective POV. This is the rare film where the two lovers do not really break up but just decide to not get married to each other. A lesbian joke is tossed off casually. So are subtle references to masturbation. When Charlie says that his salary would not suffice for him to travel to Thailand and hence he uses the toilet you smile and at the same time feel pity for the character. But none of this is done distastefully. The scenes inside the IT office too are authentic. Be it the terms used or the fact that the film shows that people actually do work here. !!!

Bottomline:

Oru Nall Koothu is a breezy little film. But it is not only that. It pushes the envelope almost invisibly and also keeps us entertained!!!

Rating: 3.25/5