Unnai Pol Oruvan - Review

"A remake of 'A Wednesday'. 'A Wednesday' is a superb movie. Kamal is remaking this master piece into tamil. It was the best movie of the year 2008. Oscar winning performances from the leads Nasser and Kher. Two legends joining hands in a movie.

Excuse me! I have at last watched 'A Wednesday' last wednesday."

Before I get into my review, one should thank, the legend, Kamal Haasan for choosing this movie to remake when we are in a period of stealing (remaking) masala blockbusters from other region. With his star value, he needn't choose to remake this movie but still he did and I congratulate for the passion this man has for Cinema. But the same HERO image has also been a disadvantage for him to choose this movie but at least, a few bunch of audience are always ready to accept a neat movie from anyone and Kamal is no exception.

Often when you remake a movie, the audience who has seen both versions, tries to draw a comparison and sometimes the audience can skip the comparison as well. But 'A Wednesday's comparison cannot be skipped. Hats off to the Story man, Neeraj Pandey whose original product was so honest and reliable though it had an another version release. And I am no exception that, I cannot stop myself comparing between the two. Having said that, 'A Wednesday' is not a *GREAT* movie. It's just a *GOOD* movie. It's a NEAT movie. The whole movie was carried by some stunning performances from the lead characters Nasser and Kher which added flavour to the movie and of course the script, the main strength for the movie. Alright, it's not a place to review the original! Move ON!

Story
Remaking a suspense thriller is one big risk in the industry and none seemed to care for that. Well, yes, people who witnessed both, it's sheer a frame by frame makeover. But the actual story as such carries a great momentum to the movie thought it starts dull with no clue of what's going on. The twist in the story steals the movie completely away from the performances of the characters. Talking about the changes been made to the story, there are pros and cons. There isn't much change in the main plot of the movie but a few changes were made to the screenplay.

I am completely against the opening scene. Why on earth one would show a common man preparing explosives? I agree the star value of Kamal being the reason, but does it make any justice to the story's suspense? Another introduction is that of the journalist or rather the Televison news channel, telecasting Bush-Musharaf models was irritating. Though the intention behind the scene was to give a justified answer to the journalist being called for the HEADLINES of the DAY, highlighting her with this example, dragging the scene was in deed irritating. On the other hand, the original had the 'Electric Baba' episode which was again irritating, but it at least shows how these news channel earn TRP for their channel with such cheap shows. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu's voice was one pathetic take. Adding to that is our Lakshmi, the Chief Secratariat. Especially the conversation that she will be having with Lal, the commissioner. Thought it was good only at some places, it was more irritating overall. Another good aspect was the names of the terrorists with an inclusion of an Hindu's name instead of having 4/4 Muslims. But again, the Hindu terrorist was a meare comedian when it comes to live or die situation and that's unlikely with the muslim terrorists.

Performances
Initially, after watching 'A Wednesday', I was seriously thinking if Lal could give a performance that was given by Kher. Lal showed his middle finger to me! One big minus he had was his accent when it comes to Tamil and English. But it was a good choice to make him as a native of Kerala who can be excused for his MTI. But this man has more screen presence in the movie just like the original version had. But there is a difference between Nasser and Kamal. Kamal being a popular artist let Lal steal the show and of course Lal did a great job. He was rough and tough as well as soft and jovial at places.

Kamal, who had one major portion of the picture in his hand had delivered it with his TOP NOTCH acting. Other than that piece, he did not have much scope to vent his talent but what was done by him was always perfect. But the so called *common man* picture which I saw very clearly in Nasserudin Shah, was not visible in Kamal. Thought this man had done minute corrections to that of a common man, I still cannot the see the clear picture. Though his body language tells him that he is just a common man, his star value overrides. Small corrections and additional gimmicks makes him NOT a common man. But isn't there a difference between Kamal and Nasseruddin Shah? The place where the ACTING between the two compete, Kamal steals it completely away from Nasser with his emotions and the non glycerine tears. Thought the short story that was rendered by Nasser had more connection and justification to what and why he does, Kamal's acting just makes the audience to AWWWWWE.

Another notable performance is Aarif, played by Ganesh. You must have seen this tall man with beard with a punjabi look in Abhiyum Naanum. It was a perfect casting for the character played by him. He has done a neat job and doesn't overreact being too discipline. The other cop has also shared a decent space and done his role perfect.

Dialogues
Dialogues though most of them are copied from the original version, it was Kamal who added the regional native to the dialogues tieing them with the incidents related to the native. Dialogues were more powerful especially during the major portion of the picture where Kamal had to speak about for 15 mins. It had some message being conveyed to the audience and it carried the pace and fire to make the audience realize what is what! Of course, it too had it's humour content as well. Lal has done a good job though some of them were little hard to accept the slang.

Shruti Haasan, she definitely needs some time to breathe before she touch any instrument and gives a name called BGM. Good that the movie did not give her a chance to do music. BGM was very bad in most of the places especially in scenes where a content based dialogues were rendered. She just mute the voice and turn on the karoke. She definitely needs time.

RED camera
It was quite funny and shocking that I forget RED camera was used throughout the movie and I got reminded because of the end credits. Well, I seriously didn't any difference in the camera except for some resolution change which is very much negligible change. But certainly it wasn't a bad show at all for the audience.

Direction
1) You have a Great Script. 2) You have India's best actors in front of you. 3) You have a DVD of the original version with you. Why the hell did you choose the third option?

Verdict 1 : For freshers, it can be a fantastic movie with a thrilling experience and some good performance.
Verdict 2 : For experienced, boys, you have Kamal Haasan and Mohan Lal. What else you do you need?