ORU NAAL KOOTHU MOVIE REVIEW

“The perfect marriage begins, when each partner believes they got better than they deserve”, said someone.

India spends around 100,000 crores a year on weddings. It is one of those highly flourishing industries that never go out of demand. Here, a wedding is much more than just a ceremony where two people unite in marriage and it is not always about the preferences of the bride or the groom.

Over the years, we have seen a lot of films talking about weddings and the difficulties faced in this process of the social event. Oru Naal Koothu is a film that talks about the hardships faced by people, especially by the brides or brides to be, before a wedding. Because in India, it has mostly been the women folk who get directly affected in case of a failed wedding or even a delay in wedlock.

Oru Naal Koothu revolves around 3 women who want to get hitched, but they are not able to for their own reasons. While few people have the luxury to select a perfect bride/groom, for many it does not happen. The director has used Mia George’s character to beautifully capture the emotion of a bride-to-be, who keeps seeking for a husband, for years. Similarly the pretty newbie Nivetha plays a character that gets stuck in a tricky situation to choose between arranged and love marriage. The difficulties while deciding to get married and its consequence have been adequately explained through Ritwika’s segment.

Oru Naal Koothu gets cheesy and a little over the top at times but what works well in its favor is that many people could actually relate to it. The pace of the film is definitely a concern, especially in the second half where there are a couple of restless moments.

Except for one song, all the other songs come in as montage tracks. Over use of montage tracks could give you a musical feel which might go for or against the film. However Justin Prabhakaran’s work deserves to be appreciated. He has given an excellent score and ‘adiye azhage’ is already a crowd favorite. The editing could have been better and it looks hurried upon. Visually the film is quite appealing where Gokul’s cinematography comes in handy. The art department could have been a little shrewder as the film travels in 3 different time frames. A poster from Dhanush’s Maryan which released in 2013, feature as a set prop at Mia George’s college hostel in the 2007 segment. Things like these could have been avoided.

Dinesh’s makeover is refreshing after seeing him in clichéd bearded rough looks. Ramesh Tilak as an RJ is a surprise choice and Charle with limited time space proves his worth. Balasaravanan provides the occasional laughter. Mia George does not have too much of talking to do, so has to convey all the emotions through her expression.  Even though all the leads have done their bit, one feels some of them could have emoted better, especially during few heart-rending scenes which look flat.