Director: Gnanavel
Cast: Ashok Selvan, Priya Anand, Saudhrakani, Balasaravanan
Yet another journalist Gnanavel takes to wielding megaphone with Kootathil Oruthan which has a good message in it.
Right from childhood, Arvind (Ashok Selvan) is an average boy and is the middle in his family where his elder sister is bright and younger brother intelligent and his dad (Marimuthu), a schoolteacher who pays all attention towards them. Even in school, he is the middle–bencher and crammed between studious frontbenchers and spoilt brat backbenchers and being sidelined by the teachers as well.
And he gets his first appreciation from a plus 2 NCC student Janani (Priya Anand), who praises Arvind for his good act of picking up garbage in the beach and dumping at the dustbin. For Arvind, who is on cloud nine, it was love at first sight. Janani on the other hand is always a winner in life and comes state first in plus 2. But when she chooses to pursue a course in journalism out of passion for the profession, Arvind also takes up journalism, hoping to meet her.
When Arvind develops courage and proposes to Janani, she declines his love and asks him to achieve in life and that there’s nothing in him which impresses her. A heartbroken Arvind attempts to commit suicide, but he eventually saves a boy, only disabled son of a local thug Sathya (Samudhrakani) who was about to drown in the sea. In reciprocation, Sathya who comes to know of Arvind’s predicament wants to help him. He creates fake situations and events by which Arvind becomes a hero overnight. All seems good until one-day turn of events expose Arvind.
Ashok Selvan has given a praiseworthy performance and perfectly suiting the character of a naïve mediocre guy sporting average clothes, with a pair of old fashioned spectacles, oiled hair etc. Priya Anand’s character is something similar to what she portrayed in Ethir Neechal. Nevertheless, the pretty actress in a solid role scores in most parts of the film. Samudharkani as usual proves his versatility in a limited screen space, although what he does to help Ashok Selvan looks unrealistic. Balasaravanan is in full form and he evokes laughter with his witty healthy one-liners.
The first half moves in a light hearted manner with campus life and romance of a mediocre guy and anyone can connect with it. The proceedings gain momentum just before the interval. The second half travels in to a different direction with the film ending with a socially relevant message although these scenes give a documentary feel.
On the technical front, Nivas Prasanna’s music especially the BGM, PK Varma’s cinematography and Leo John Paul’s crisp edit time help the film to elevate few notches.
