OOTY

A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam

Some movies surprise us. They involve us quite successfully throughout the duration of the movie though we wonder how when we think about them later. Ooty is one such movie. The credit for its effectiveness largely goes to director Anwar who has fashioned an interesting movie out of a story and situations which we have seen before.

Balu(Murali) is the doting father of Roshan. When Roshan exhibits some problems at school, Balu takes him to a child psychiatrist, Dr.Kumar(Ajay). Kumar finds out that at the heart of Roshan's problems is the fact that Balu has been neglecting himself while showering care and affection on Roshan. Talking to Balu as a friend, Kumar finds out about Balu's sad past. Balu had been in love with Charu(Roja) but circumstances had forced him to marry his uncle's daughter instead. His uncle(Rajesh), angered by his betrayal, had driven him out of the house and his wife had subsequently died after delivering the baby. Kumar soon finds out that the woman(whom he knows as Latha) that he has been pursuing relentlessly for the past six years, is none other than Charu(her full name is Charulatha) and that the person she is carrying a torch for is Balu. Afraid that a meeting between Balu and Latha may reignite their old love, he tries to make sure that they never meet.

Good pacing ensures that the movie never feels like it is slow and issues are resolved quickly without dragging. One example of this is the speed at which the doctor realises that he and Murali are talking about the same girl. Once Murali's flashback about Roja is done, I expected the director to milk the suspense arising from the viewer knowing that Murali and the doctor both love the same girl while they themselves are oblivious of the fact. Instead, the doctor finds this out soon and the direction of the movie shifts to him trying to keep Murali and Roja from meeting.

The second half contains lots of similarities to movies Aasai and Vaali where someone tries to damage another relationship while posing as a good person. Here its the doctor, a good man and a child psychiatrist to boot, who gradually turns into a villain because of his love for a woman. The initial scenes where he talks with Murali and his son or pursues Roja very decently work very well in building up his character and we keep hoping that he would reform at some point and realise his mistakes. It is shocking to see him then metamorphose into a villain as his ploys to separate Murali and Roja gradually turn more sinister. The direction during these scenes is excellent and there is palpable tension in scenes like the one where Murali attends Roja's call on the doctor's phone. Sure there are contrivances but the way in which the sequences have been handled goes a long way in reducing our disbelief. The climax itself is well-executed and the script is sharp with some nice lines.

The romance between Murali and Roja is rather low-key with them not even exchanging too many words. But it is a pleasure to see Murali not bottle up his emotions and for once, actually tell the heroine that he loves her (though he returns to his standard role of pining for the heroine once the flashback is done). These parts move along with more than a little help from Murali's friends Chinni Jayanth and Vaiyapuri. Chinni Jayanth has many funny lines and his reaction, in their friend Ramji's house, to the kind of wife Ramji has got, is truly funny.

Murali and Roja are their usual selves. Debutante Ajay makes an impression as the doctor. Though his face is not very expressive, he is effective as the sheep in wolf's clothing. The boy playing Murali's son has done very well. Chatty without being irritating, he plays an important part in the proceedings and handles the load impressively. No mentionable songs in Deva's soundtrack with the dabbanguthu song being especially out of place.