Can a set-top box and a puff of weed push one to convoluted plight? Says yes, the director duo Nishant-Jathin in their debut flick ‘Odu Raja Odu’.
With an uncredited usage of butterfly effect in the narration, the filmmakers have made this heist thriller in a Syuzhet structure screenplay.
It all starts with Mano (Guru Somasundaram) saying,”I never knew a set-top box would be this significant to run a life.”
But, the story is not just about Mano. There is a hyperlink as well in this multiple-timeline structure that tells stories of two kidnappers, two gangs and two notorious toddlers. If you keep a track of all these incidents it becomes a little simple to understand the plot. There are a couple of sequences where the toddlers come across the other three storylines just to create a conflict to take the narration to next level.
‘Odu Raja Odu’ seems to have all its links sublime. But, there are instances where we feel like they are placed forcibly.
However, at the end, when it connects back to any of the other three storylines, the filmmakers establish a fine-drawn justification. There are a lot of realisation moments filled in the narration. Say, the intriguing misplacements of a mole on the face of Kalimuthu (Nasser), and in the climax where Chellamuthu (Ravindra Vijay) and Gajapathy(Melvin) playing ‘dishkyoon’ with guns.
The cast-sheet of ‘Odu Raja Odu’ runs to pages, eventually making none of them has a longer screenspace.
Despite this, even a single character of the movie is not irrelevant. Even, the unnamed role of Powerstar Srinivasan has a very consequential part to play. And Guru, who is in the middle of all these has a driven the with his naive and innocent emotions.
Lakshmi Priyaa playing his opposite does not have much to do onscreen, but whatever she does reminds how natural a wife would demand something from her man, but actually is in an emotional need.
Was that just because of Guru in the lead, or a similar hyperlink, we feel ‘Odu Raja Odu’ to be similar with ‘Aaranya Kandam’. Though the latter was a serious neo-noir, this one totally is a quirky comedy.
But like ‘Aaranya Kandam’, and unlike other gangster stories we have seen in Tamil, ‘Odu Raja Odu’ opens debate on a number of societal aspects.
It touches upon polyandry and an unsatisfied married life in one side, and apparently deals with the quarrel between a couple who are made for each other.