ORU NAAL IRAVIL MOVIE REVIEW

Many things can represent one’s life. Oru Naal Iravil (ONI) reiterates this statement by letting the film open with an animation of a rat trap. The entire story or rather in case of ONI, the complete incident that the narrator wants to narrate is easily represented by a rat trap.

Ace editor Anthony debuts with ONI as the director and has to be appreciated for the smart move of choosing to remake a Malayalam film like Shutter because such are the values, elements and nuances loaded in this tale penned by Joy Mathew.

Clean and natural performances by almost all the artists featured in the cast list augment our overall experience as a viewer. Further on, reviews may add a default sentence stating that “No comments on the range of performance has been added” whenever Sathyaraj is sporting a role. Such has become his mastery over performing or rather behaving the character to be precise.

Warm welcome to Anu Mol as she scores well through the narrative with her natural look, body language, dialogue delivery and what not. She is a new addition to the list of wholesome artists of our Tamil industry. Varun also extends a decent job as the assistant of Sathyaraj.

Oru Naal Iravil holds a custom made role for a person like Yugi Sethu. If you haven’t watched the Malayalam version then one cannot think of an alternative name to play that character. He has created his own set of parameters to play this role and showcases extreme consistency, making the audience accept the limitations of that character.  Dixitha Kothari as Sathyaraj’s daughter demands a special mention.

ONI might not be that film that captivates your attention from the first frame but it slowly grows on you and makes you want to know the climax. After watching the climax, one feels more than satisfied for having given 2 hours of his/her time for this film.

ONI is designed in a way that your attention does not get directed towards any technicalities involved in filmmaking, but that itself is a big plus for an attempt to narrate an incident that takes place in a person’s life in a span of 2 days. If you put on your evaluator glasses then MS Prabhu’s cinematography and Editor Anthony’s cuts have very subtly raised the film’s output.

In a sentence, Oru Naal Iravil is a worthy watch for what it does to you in the last 15 minutes. The climax is the highlight of this tale presented by AL Vijay.