OK Kanmani Review

If you're in the mood for a light romantic film, I think you would really like this Mani Ratnam modern Tamil romance. This is the movie with the song Mental Manadhil which I adore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryD8BqVexJI

It is the sweetest movie, and I am now a little in love with Dulquer Salmaan who plays the hero. Nithya Menen as the heroine was adorable, too.

I watched it on Google Play last night, thinking I would just watch half since I started way late, but ended up watching all the way to the end in the wee hours of the morning. There is no huge angst or deep conflict, and that's what makes it kind of amazing that this sweet love story is still so captivating.

Dulquer plays Adi, and the first encounter he has with Tara is when he sees her on another train platform in the Mumbai station breaking up with her boyfriend and threatening to jump in front of a train. He yells at her that she's a fool and to get back (Mani Ratman really has a thing about people meeting with trains. ;))

He then sees her at a friend's wedding and they flirt outrageously all through the ceremony in an adorable scene.

Adi has come up to the big city of Mumbai to make his fortune writing video games. He's living with the friend of his brother, played by Prakash Raj. He was the villain in Singham and other movies, but here he plays the devoted husband of a former famous classical singer who has early Alzheimer's. Tara is some sort of architect -- who wants to study in Paris on scholarship.

Adi and Tara have just THE sweetest courtship. Tara goes on a business trip to see this famous architect, and Adi follows her (there's a joke about stalking, but she's rather pleased.) They miss the train back, and have to share a hostel room which leads to this very cute AR Rahman number where Adi plays with a sampling music app on her iPad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Puf-BVRUQ

Shortly after that, they come to Prakash and want to live together in his house. Prakash is against, but the Alzheimer wife calls him old fashioned, and Tara moves in. There is a comedy sequence when Adi's brother comes to visit and they have to hide that she is living there because the conservative brother would throw a fit.

So the conflict is that Adi wants to move to the US, and Tara wants to go to Paris to study. They vow to not talk about goodbyes and live for the moment, but Tara is not interested in marriage. They don't believe in it, but what they are shown is the decades long devotion of Prakash to his wife. She goes missing, and Tara says no one could be as devoted as her husband, and Adi looks at her and says yes, I could. Be still my heart!!

So all ends well, and she doesn't have to give up her career ambitions, and A R Rahman seems to preside over their wedding which was just so funny! Mani Ratnam is just a master at these romantic films, and it was a really enjoyable film. I really appreciated with all the misogynistic messages that are more typical of some Indian films, that here, Tara's career is just as important as Adi's, and she does NOT have to give it up for the relationship.