| |
|
|
A Tamil thriller that really thrills |
|
| Behindwoods
Movie Review Board |
|
|
|
|
|
Akku
Cast:
Ajay, Sriji, Anu Haasan, Riyaz Khan, Rakshai
Direction: Maamani
Music: Sri Ram
|
|
|
A
bomb is strapped to the hero’s shoe. The terrorist then
dumps the hero right in the middle of Chennai city, and asks
him to start running. If he stops running, or even slows down,
it will explode. This is the simple but chilling premise of
this 90 minute Tamil thriler without songs and without an
interval. Directed by Maamani (making his debut), Akku is
the first true thriller in Tamil cinema. Even if the movie
does not work always, the courage and inventiness to breakaway
from the song-dance formula is heroic in itself, winning Akku
high marks for pushing the envelope of innovative, risk-taking
contemporary Kollywood cinema even further. |
|
|
Akku’s new hero and heroine are Ajay and Sriji.
Very much in love, they plan to elope. The heroine’s
brother (Rakshai), a terrorist, grabs the hero, plants
a shoe-bomb on him, takes him to the heart of the city,
and abandons him. This is no small bomb but made from
uranium, and if Ajay stops running the city will explode.
An Assistant Police Commisioner(Riyaz Khan) and a bomb
diffusing expert (Anu Hassan) are called in to find
a solution. Can they come up with an answer and save
the city? And how long can the hero keep running before
he collapses?
The movie references are obvious – from Speed
to Phone Booth to Cellular (and a little bit of Run
Lola Run?) – but Maamani makes the movie his own
with enough original thrills in the plot that are not
derived from other movies. The action sequecnes are
handled with aplomb. Everything that happens, happens
while Ajay is running, making Akku feel like a Hollywood
thriller: the police keep him supplied with oxygen,
steroids and even scan his shoe to find out what kind
of bomb he’s carrying .
|
|
|
|
Chittibabu’s
camerawork is exceptional, as it weaves through the
city shooting the running hero. Riyaz Khan and Anu
Hassan, who do fine work here, are the only known
names in Akku – the others, including the crew,
are new, and very talented. The new couple, Ajay and
Sriji, are impressive in their debut. Rakshai playing
the villain (apparently a rank holder in biochemistry)
is especially effective. Also worth mentioning are
the crew: Venkatesh’s dexterous editing and
Sriram’s background music score (which has to
cue the audience on what to feel at different moments)
is evocative.
In a Wikipedia interview the scriptwriter-director
Maamani said, “Since I did not want the screenplay
to slow down, I decided not to have an interval.”
For this thriller to really work effectively, and
to make the audience feel the heat of time running
out, it will have to play without an interval. Let’s
hope that theatres everywhere realize how crucial
this is to Akku’s time-bomb-ticking-plot and
run it without the interval. There are some holes
in the plot, the
|
|
|
acting is uneven (since it involves so many novices) and the
climax goes a little wrong. But these are minor flaws in an
otherwise deftly concieved and shot thriiler. Akku could blaze
a new trend in Kollywood of taut genre thrillers, minus songs
and dances. Perhaps with a bigger budget and stars it would
have been a mega hit, but even as it stands, it deserves to
be a hit.
|
Verdict: Go see it - run, don’t walks
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
