Oh My Kadavule Review: Sensible and fresh romantic comedy

From the teaser and trailer, the story of Oh My Kadavule is quite clear. But what the movie is up to has some sweet surprises.

The movie is unique in some ways from the commercial or message-oriented movies of recent times.

And it is the freshness, plus sensibility of the characters and the screenplay that makes us connect with the movie.

As we know, Oh My Kadavule is about a young man who is locked in a “love-less love marriage”, as he calls it.

Arjun (Ashok Selvan), Anu (Ritika Singh) and Mani (Sha Ra) are thick friends.

One fine day Anu thinks what if she just marries Arjun, who is her close friend, instead of marrying a stranger.

And so she proposes the idea to him. As Arjun finds no reason to say “No” to her, he accepts the proposal. So they get married.

Arjun realizes that he is unable to see his friend as his wife. She is just a “noodles mandai” to him.

The couple decide to give it some time, but things don’t get fixed as they expected.

Added to the mix is the entry of Arjun’s long time crush Meera (Vani Bhojan) and this puts many things to test in their relationship.

As things are not well between the couple, the entry of Meera creates suspicions with Anu, and that adds to the frustration of Arjun.

Arjun originally has a dream of becoming an actor, but due to his marriage, he gets a job that he “has” to do.

He tests the quality of toilets by sitting in the posture – yes, that’s his job.

Even though a lot of fun is made on this, in the first half, there is a sensible thing to relate to, which is revealed later in the movie.

The movie takes a surprising turn with a fantasy element.

As Arjun narrates his story to the divine characters who are like hope to fix his issues, we get to see the “what if” side of the story.

What if Arjun had said “No” to Anu? What if he gets a second chance to right the (presumable) wrongs he did?

Coming to the performances, Ashok plays the role of a very casual person and it seems it is quite easy for him to do so.

He performs quite well in the emotional scenes too without adding so much drama – his controlled expressions speak well.

Ritika, on the other hand, is quite reasonable with her acting. Though, in some scenes her lip sync and robotic expressions stand out like a sore thumb.

Vani Bhojan has debuted on big screen with this movie, and we can nowhere say that she is a new comer.

She delivers apt performance – just what’s needed for the character – with much confidence.

Sha Ra, as Arjun’s friend delivers a different kind of performance, and it works.

MS Bhaskar, scores with his usual emotions.

Vijay Sethupathi does an extended cameo – as the superior element who fixes the issues in Arjun’s life by giving him another chance.

He just casually performs his role with his apt swag and with the right amount of expressions so he doesn’t ruin the character.

Oh My Kadavule starts off funny and romantic in the first half and builds up some intense emotions in the second half.

The screenplay is seamless for the most part, though we find some drags here and there.

Director Ashwath deserves applause for taking the very old and beaten-to-death concept of romance and has given it a nice spin.

He has chosen those aspects that would make Oh My Kadavule stand out from the rest of the conventional romantic comedies, or social message oriented movies, and has worked specifically on those aspects.

This is a big plus for the movie.

Not saying that Oh My Kadavule is perfect, but it is fresh and sensible.

Audience of any age (except the kids) can relate to the emotions, the characters and the scenes in the movie.

If you are looking for a fresh rom-com to entertain yourself, just go for it.