Ko Movie Review

Starring: Jiiva, Ajmal Ameer, Karthika Nair, Piaa Bajpai, Prakash Raj

Direction: K. V. Anand

Music: Harris Jayaraj

Production: Kumar,jayaraman
Ko is the story of the entwined lives of an adventurous, honest, astute photo journalist Ashwin (Jeeva) and an aspiring young politician Vasanthan Perumal(Ajmal). Ashwin happens to be a photo journalist with the Dina Anjal Tamil daily, and is the sought-after lensman in his newspaper for his images speak a thousand words and bring awareness. He is literally trampled on by Renuka Narayanan (Karthika), the chief reporter for Dina Anjal, who has been newly transferred from Madurai. There’s also bubbly Saro (Piaa Bajpai), who happens to be another reporter, and has a soft spot for Ashwin.
Vasanthan Perumal is a symbol of modern Indian youth who believes in clean politics. He is the embodiment of all that is necessary to turns politics around but he lacks public support and finances.
There’s Alavandhan (Kota Sreenivasa Rao), leader of the opposition party, who washes his hands discretely with dettol once he touched a baby, and tries to marry a 13-year old because his horoscope predicts a great future if he does.
Then there is a power-lust Chief Minister Yogeswaran (Prakashraj), who sets the ball rolling.
A battle begins in Tamil Nadu as Assembly elections are announced. It becomes a direct war between Chief Minister Yogeswaran and opposition leader Alavandan As typical politicians, as they are portrayed, they do everything under the sun to come to power.
Ashwin, impressed with Vasanthan’s ethics, begins to do everything he can to throw the spotlight on his newfound friend, and a third force led by Vasanthan emerges as the front-runner. Fellow journalists Renuka and Saro also get sucked into Vasanthan’s political aspirations and election campaigns.
Of course, just when it seems like everything might fall into place, disaster strikes. At an election rally of Vasanthan, a bomb goes off killing Saro. Vasanthan goes on to win the polls.
Now the onus falls on Ashwin and Renuka to find the real culprits behind the attack. Get ready to watch an unpredictable climax.

Movie: Vaanam

Cast: Simbu, Anushka Shetty, Bharath, Prakash Raj, Sonia Aggarwal, Vega

“Vaanam” is a simple tale of five different people told in an extraordinary way. The movie is based on how these five completely unrelated people converge towards the end of the film. The film follows a multi-narrative concept, which is new to Tamil cinema.



Plot
The movie revolves around Cable Raja (STR a.k.a. Silambarasan) who is in love with a rich girl, a rock star (Bharath) who wants to make it big in his field, a poor widow (Saranya) who tries to save her abducted son, Rahim (Prakash Raj) who tries to find his lost brother and Saro (Anushka) who is a commercial sex worker. All these characters come to Chennai for various reasons and meet at a common place in the climax. The climax is brilliant and will surely leave a lump in your throat. The major plus factor is its shocking and realistic climax.

Performances
This is easily STR's best performance so far. He sparkles in the scenes that lead to the climax and commands applause spontaneously. One wonders why he is not taking up such roles often. Bharath has given a stylish and commendable performance. Saranya as the helpless mother is brilliant. Prakash Raj is at his usual best and Anushka does justice to her role. Santhanam and VTV Ganesh as STR's friends bring the roof down with their witty one-liners. Vega as Bharath's girlfriend and Jasmine as STR's girlfriend have done a neat job.
Director Krish steals the show with his impeccable command over his narration. There is a smooth transition between parallel tracks and not even one scene confuses the viewers. His characters are realistic which is an added advantage to the movie. I've not seen any other movie in the recent past which has dealt with diverse human emotions, this deftly. The dialogue writer Giri has written powerful dialogues. For instance, in a scenec Bharath defines God in a poetic way. Nirav Shah's cinematography is admirable and Yuvan's music is quite apt to the movie, but the song No money, no honey could have been avoided.

Bottomline: “Vaanam” is a trend-setter and is almost flawless.