THE COCK-TALE, YET AGAIN!

DIRECTED BY K.V. ANAND

STARRING: JIIVA, KARTHIKA NAIR, AJMAL AMEER, PIA BAJPAI, PRAKASH RAJ, KOTA SRINIVASA RAO, JEGAN, D. SURESH and SONA HEIDEN

That ‘Ko’ is a sloppy political drama is obvious at many levels. On the other hand, I do not see it as a convincing action thriller as well, something along the lines of a ‘Rambo’ or a ‘Commando’ where we take a vow of ‘no questions asked, none answered’. A shame, actually, considering the amount of effort put in production value, I just demand a little more in perspective. It is miserable to see a thing fail at its strongest point, and K.V. Anand as a third-time filmmaker (after ‘Kana Kanden’ and the preposterous ‘Ayan’) had not defied logic as much as his peers do. As commendable as that sounds, it’s hurtfully abused – be it in the convenient blast radius in multiple instances, a total undermine of the armed forces and an ill-painted picture on Chennai city’s mobile reception. 3G or no 3G, you should try getting good signal on voice calls, let alone video of such quality!

Nevertheless, the film is intelligent in its own regard. And well-explained, considering it did answer a few of my questions – quite interestingly at that. The staff photographer Ashwin (you never need to laud Jeeva for adding value to character, for he does it almost like a duty) is not just excessively proactive, it’s the coy girl reporter Renuka (Karthika Nair, whose tall stature is so obvious that it had to be pointed out!) who’s misunderstood. The jabs at self are appreciated, but it would have been better suited to ‘run’ an English language daily than a Tamil one although the plotline could suggest the contrary. The household is warm, spirited and you find yourself part of the scenario – a rare feat for a Tamil language feature film these days (something reminiscent of Radhamohan’s entertaining ‘Payanam’).

It’s always enticing to watch cinema as a critical medium, even exciting to watch it being self-critical. Plagiarism is never tolerable, and that the film should open in nearly the same way as Ben Affleck’s riveting ‘the Town’ did is inexcusable; a loud laugh. Who cares if it came out as critical to the plot, that’s how it was written in, in the first place! The music score is sleep-worthy and yet a nightmare in excess. Composers should learn the art of keeping quiet, they’d be surprised to know how much it works. The sequences are too hazy, it would’ve been nice to have punctuated them with some amount of poise. More focus on the drama than the action would have made this a winner – the photographer is unwittingly made a poster-boy than a succinct centerfold.

The world can swallow its own ashes, but the Hero returns unscathed. Not only that, but he also makes the wisest of decisions in the most accurate of times. He romances not one, but two dazzlingly-clad women of which one conveniently dies to clear the route. So does the other male, a typical closure to sexual tension. But then again, it’s good that the writer-director sought to accessorize such clichés instead of letting them play around unexplained, as is the usual case with films around here. I shall not explain that anymore, for spoilers would definitely hurt – the twists are more or less what constitute the reign of this mildly-tolerable ‘Ko’.