Film: Iruvar Ondranal
Director: Anbu G
Cast: P R Prabhu, Krithika Malini, Akhil, Deekshita, Shravya, Karthika
Tracking the romantic interludes in the life of a youngster through his high school and college days, debutant director Anbu G depicts the attitude and mindset of today’s youngsters towards love. The film is about how youngsters perceive love. Some wait for their true love, while most move on when a love affair doesn’t take off. The director (apprenticed with Murugadoss) has weaved a fairly interesting tale with instinctive understanding. The movie is insightful in its take and realistic in its feel.
The protagonist is Kaushik, a high school student, who has many girls falling for him. Disha, his school mate, expresses her love to him only to be turned down. Kaushik says that he considers her only as his best friend. A couple of more such proposals come his way, and he rejects them all. For, Kaushik believes that he will meet his true love some day. Adolescent love, the change in feelings with the passage of time, those rejected losing no time to find new partners — all of these are depicted with subtle humour.
Kaushik gets a taste of his own medicine when he chances upon Oviya (Krithika) at a traffic signal, falls for her at first sight, and starts hounding and professing his love to her. She rejects him outright, even berates him in public for his immature behaviour. The rest of the story is about the course Kaushik’s (P R Prabhu) love takes. The brother-sister relationship is very naturally depicted, and so is Kaushik’s home ambience. The cast has a lot of freshers in it who fit in neatly. Debutant Prabhu, with his charming demeanour, a pleasant screen presence and an expressive face, is a promising find. Newbie Krithika has a fresh appeal. The debutantes are students of a dance academy.
The first half is neatly scripted but has a slow pace. It’s in the second half that the narration picks up momentum and has many interesting moments. The songs (by Guru Krishnan) are peppy and youthful and well placed. The realities of life are reflected through the changing attitude of the characters, and in the dialogues, with admirable understanding by Anbu. There are a couple of twists and a bit of a thrill and suspense towards the end. There is an amusing line where Oviya’s friend makes a remark — “Ithaivida kevalamaana Twistai naan.... endha padathileyum Paathadhe illa!’. The director was probably pre-empting a similar audience reaction here. But the scene was a cute and believable one. The film has an appropriate tagline, ‘In the midst of many ghost-films comes a love story’. With a viewing time of a crisp 114 minutes, the film is refreshing in its take, and a pleasant watch.