Kodiyil Oruvan Review - Yet another pretentious political drama in the backdrop of “Local Madras"

D Meera Chithirappaavai

Kodiyil Oruvan starring Vijay Antony in the lead is a political drama set in the crowd-favorite flavor of “Sadhu mirandal kadu kolladhu” (roughly translates to - When an innocent man is provoked he will turn around to be havoc). Written directed by Ananda Krishnan, the film does add to the list of films that pickup template scenarios to weave them together to make it one complete film that lacks fresh ideas whatsoever.

Vijay Antony as the protagonist is portrayed as this multipotent uber male who chooses to conduct himself in a calm and collected manner. His performance in some key moments when he is made to deliver lengthy dialogues does seem a little like a nursery rhyme as he uses way too many hand gestures to deliver his dialogue. Actress Aathmika as the lady love does what she needs to do - dance one step behind the over sincere and focused hero who wouldn’t realize her “bubbly and cute” behavior as she dances her way into falling in love with him.

Divya Prabha as the distressed mother delivers a clean performance that largely helps the movie. However, to accept her as Vijay Antony’s mother could be a real-time challenge that the audience has to face in every scene that is devoted to the “amma sentiment” factor.

Despite the familiarity shown in the storyline and screenplay, the film does manage to engage the viewer. The music department helmed by Nivas K Prasanna and the work behind the lens by NS Udhaya Kumar must take the larger part of the credit for the same. Lip sync issues and dialogue improvisations in the dubbing process often lead to distraction and the team seems to have taken it lightly.

The film sufferers a bit as the writing is pretentious and exploits cinematic convenience to every level possible. Vijay Antony struggles to match the image the character is trying to lift him to. A particular fight sequence in the second half seems to have treated the heroine as one of the set properties. She is present just for the frame-beauty. This isn’t surprising for a film like Kodiyil Oruvan but can’t be overlooked just because this is yet another commercial film.

Kodiyil Oruvan isn’t a film that offers anything new but does score some points on the engagement and aesthetic front. The film is Vijay Antony’s attempt at becoming mass(ter) Vijay (Antony) but one knows that it is an ambitious attempt as the actor has a long way to go for that.

Bottomline

Kodiyil Oruvan - Yet another pretentious political drama in the backdrop of “local Madras”

Rating - 2.25/5