Ko (2011)

Country: India

Language: Tamil

Actors: Jiiva, Karthika Nair, Ajmal Ameer, Piaa Bajpai, Prakash Raj & Kota Srinivasa Rao

Director: K V Anand

Story: Suba (D Suresh & A N Balakrishnan) & K V Anand

Cinematography: Richard M Nathan

An action thriller about politics, the role of youngsters in it. The protagonist is a photographer in a local newspaper who becomes the champion of investigative photography thanks to his daredevil photographs of a bank robbery. The field now shifts to another youngster who wants to make his mark in politics, he fights election against two giants. The ruling party and the opposition do what our current central government does best, spoil their own chances by doing the improbable. Taking advantage of this the youngsters come to power and the photo-journalist figures a link between the bank robbery and certain people who are close to the youngster (new) CM.

Is there a real link ? How does the CM respond ? That is the movie

Jiiva and Ajmal Ameer have done exceedingly well. So have Karthika Nair and the rest of the cast. Piaa Bajpai fills in the blank as the mandatory Mumbai export required for a masala, populist Tamil movie to round things off.

As usual my pet theme of the role of songs in Tamil cinema comes to the fore. Though the songs by Harris Jeyaraj sound nice and the picturisation in foreign locations by Richard is amazing we need to question the need for them. I personally feel KO would be a hit even without the songs and foreign locations just on the merit of the story & screenplay.

This movie has all the ingredients to be a super-duper hit it has become. A straight superwatch for the story, screenplay, cinematography, music, acting & direction. Although my prejudice against the unnecessary songs, dance & foreign location would call for a downgrade to a goodwatch.

For once I will go with the popular sentiment and call this a superwatch. Could have been a real knockout but KO wins on points !!