Oram Poo - Review
Cast : Arya, Pooja
Direction: Pushkar Gayathri
Music: G V Prakash
Production: V Palanivel, A C Anandan
A new effort nonetheless, Oram Po is part satire, part spoof and full entertainment set in the milieu of auto drivers’ lives. It is a two-hour auto rickshaw ride with all its bumps and swerves and unexpected curves. The movie has only a wafer thin story line but what lies between the wafers makes for all the entertainment.
Arya plays Chandru, an auto racing freak, who whiles away his time at Bigle's shed, much to the ire of his sister played by Ashwini; Lal plays Bigle. They are friends who race together and Jagan who plays Supply is also a part of the gang. They meet up at Bigle's garage as he’s considered the master mechanic when it comes to tuning autos for races. When everything seems picture perfect, a gang, smuggling stones, precious ones, accidentally place them in Arya's auto in a hurry as they escape from the cops. The story takes off from there and the rest of it is all about the gang tracing the stones using the guy who last saw the auto - another leading auto racer Pitchai who calls himself Son of Gun, played by John Vijay - the show stealer. How the villains trace the auto where they left the stones and how Arya, who seldom pays the dues for his auto, gets even with his financier forms the story. Ultimately it isn't the story that is interesting but the flow of events that happen matter-of-factly.
A series of interesting events and auto races with the search for the stones leading to an unexpected light hearted climax makes for 130 minutes of fun, to put it colloquially it is a 2 hour Lollu Sabha. Now for the flip side, there is something missing, guess it isn’t engaging throughout, but the director duo of Pushkar and Gayatri have intelligently punctuated those scenes with songs that come in for applause for its humor both in choreography and lyrics.Arya is at ease playing Chandru, his chemistry with Pooja in the romantic scenes brings the screen alive, and Pooja, sans makeup, still manages to steal hearts. She plays Rani, daughter of a biriyani vendor, who moves into the locality Chandru lives and it was love at first sight. Pooja’s brilliant expressions are a delight to watch.Lal plays a different character from the usual Villain roles that he is often seen in and excels in it. But wait before you come to any conclusion, the film truly belongs to John Vijay who is a revelation
He adds punch to Kumar Rajan's words. John Vijay's antics bring the house down. A special mention for Kumar Rajan's dialogs, he has worked really hard to get the lingo of the auto drivers right, of course that brings in a lot of profanity, but he carries it off with so much ease many would seldom flinch at his lines.G.V. Prakash Kumar’s score has proved yet again that his success is no flash in the pan and that he is going to be the one to look forward to in the future. The songs are fresh and have enough variety so does the background score which has a Spanish flavor brought in by the use of acoustic guitar. Nirav Shah captures the happenings as honestly as a TV news coverage and the locales are very well chosen. Chandru's auto with a sunroof shows the detailing that has gone into making every small object in the frame.
It is a delight to see such a fun filled film made honestly, it does have it's flaws but hey! You wouldn’t go to the halls expecting pure cinema from a movie titled ‘Oram Po’. Would you?Warning: Your girl friend might not digest the profanity all that easily, though it plays safe by not sounding vulgar. Or how else can one explain it being spared by the censors.
Verdict: A movie aimed at the youth that almost hits the Bull’s eye