Oru Oorla Rendu Raja Movie Review
Review Overview
Performances
Screenplay & Direction
Cinematography & BGM
The kings fail, but the queen stands tall!
The message director Kannan tries to convey through Oru Oorla Rendu Raja is laudable, but it needs to be backed by a better writing and an effective screenplay rather than the regular five-songs, two-fights template.
Cast: Vemal, Priya Anand, Soori, Vishakha Singh, Naasar, Anupama Kumar, Thambi Ramaiah, Singa Muthu, Iniya (Special Apprearance) & others
Cinematography: PG Muthiah
Music: Imman
Editing: Surya
Stunts: STUNT Silva
PRO: Johnson
Written & Directed by: R. Kannan
Production: Kannan Pix & Global Infotainment
Release Date: 07-11-2014
Run Time: 02:12:00
R. Kannan’s Oru Oorla Rendu Raja is stale, occasionally exciting and reeks of cliches. It’s a race between a corporate honcho and a socially conscious medical student, played by Priya Anand, who delivers one of her best performances.
Oru Oorla Rendu Raja is Tamil cinema’s first full-length travel story according to director R. Kannan. The film portrays the happenings of the travel experience of Azhagu (Vemal) and Michael (Soori) who depart from their hometown Tuticorin to Chennai. During their journey, they encounter Priya Anand, who helps a fellow passenger deliver her baby on board and Vemal, who plays an unemployed youth, falls head over heels in love with her upon seeing this.
The first forty minutes of the movie moves at a snail pace with tirelessly old-fashioned romance portions between Priya Anand and Vemal, but thanks to Soori’s occasional gags, one manages to overlook the half-baked romance. Then we learn through a flashback that Priya Anand is followed by a group of gangsters who desperately want her killed for a reason. Vishakha Singh plays an extended-cameo in the film and her role is crucial to the story. It’s in fact, an untoward incident which happens to her in the flashback, actually sets the story on track.
Nassar and Anupama, who play a couple, are the owners of a steel factory and Priya Anand’s fight against these two corporate honchos for neglecting the plight of workers suffering from noise pollution in the industry is what Oru Oorla Rendu Raja is precisely all about. Will Priya Anand, Vemal and Soori survive the mobsters’ chase and reach Chennai safely?
The second half is a never-ending cat and mouse race between Priya Anand, Vemal, Soori and Stunt Silva, a strong-armer hired to kill Priya Anand. The emotions are so manipulative and the scenes are contrived so directly in the second half that absolutely spoil the movie-watching experience.
Muthaiah’s cinematography has captured the rural milieu of Tuticorin so well and Imman’s background score does stand out in few scenes. Easily, Priya Anand’s best performance when you take screen space into account. She exudes charm in her role as a doctor and comes across as a girl-next-door convincingly. There was a time when Tamil cinema was gravely obsessed with grim third-acts. Now, it looks like the season of social messages. The message director Kannan tries to convey through Oru Oorla Rendu Raja is laudable, but it needs to be backed by a better writing and an effective screenplay rather than the regular five-songs, two-fights template.