Kodi Movie Review
Direction & Writer : R. S. Durai Senthilkumar
Producer : P. Madan (Presenter), Vetrimaaran
Cast : Dhanush, Trisha Krishnan, Anupama Parameswaran, Saranya Ponvannan
Music : Santhosh Narayanan
Cinematography : Venkatesh S
Editor : Prakash Mabbu
Production company : Grass Root Film Company
Running Time : 140 mins
When we name the genre ‘Political Drama’, which is a rarity among mainstream league of actors and directors, it would be actually an intense one, where the commercial aspects has to be completed avoided as the plot has to travel perfectly etched with the main premise. Filmmaker Durai Senthil Kumar has tried to blend them up on equal proportions with ‘Kodi’ and let us see how far it works out well.
The onionskin plot revolves around few characters – Twin brothers Kodi, a politician and Anbu, a professor (both played by Dhanush), Rudra (Trisha) – The member of ruling political party and girlfriend of Kodi and then a young beautiful egg vendor (Anupama of Premam fame), who is in love with other twin. Situations play an intriguing and crucial role in creating chain of events among these characters that turn their lives Topsy-Turvy.
Just as the movie commences, we are directly introduced to the plot, where we find the speech and hearing impaired father (Karunaas) of twin babies sacrifice his life for a good cause. From then, we are kept intact with the premise, but somewhere in attempts to impress family audiences, Durai takes a different route for a while with some humour and sentimental quotients. But just as the film travels closer to interval, when you’re about to think there could be a tragic twist, we are teased with a surprise. The sequence between Dhanush and S.A. Chandrasekhar is a fantabulous twist by the interval, which gets applause. But sooner post interval, there are some sluggish moments followed by a predictable yet convincing twist followed by racy moments. Almost every dialogue in the teaser is justified, especially the monologue of Dhanush in First look motion poster – “Once a Twin, is always a Twin†is very well justified with mass re-entry of Dhanush. Trisha has given her best till the date in her career and she has to be appreciated for taking up such a role. Anupama of Premam fame deserves kudos for her decent debut and she has given her best into the role. Saranya Ponvannan as usual sleepwalks with usual pattern of mother role. S.A. Chandrashekar gets a meaty role, but suddenly disappears by second half. But the ultimate showstopper is Dhanush who gets into to heart and soul of dual characters.
Background score and songs by Santhosh Narayanan are appreciable. Venkatesh has given some pleasant visuals too, but editing looks too disconnected with the scenes, where the flow seem to be vague.
Had the director avoided few scenes by the initial moments and tried to add more impact into the political drama, ‘Kodi’ would have definitely been a milestone movie. But even now, with strong characterizations, best performances and above average technical quotients, it manages to win the attention of general audiences.
