Unnai Pol Oruvan is... A wednesday Pol Oruvan

First set first game, Shah to serve – The police station complaint scene – No return from Haasan. Shah leads 1-0. Haasan to serve – The first few rounds of phone calls – Shah breaks serve and wins the next game, leads 3-0. Now, the first half of the soliloquy , about the common man… Its becoming a one man show – Shah leads Haasan 4-0.. Now the second half of the soliloquy, narrating the story, alternating between emotion, pain ,intensity and wit. Haasan serves 12 aces and breaks thrice in 10 minutes. Takes the set 6-4.

The above lines , however are not the complete representation of the show that Unnai Pol Oruvan has been. They just cover the lead. Unnai Pol Oruvan is the remake of a film that was good but not great. To expect greatness from it is madness but to see how much justice is being done to the original essence and to observe how much of it is actually better is the way to go.

Places where Unnai Pol Oruvan is better done than A Wednesday

1) LEAD(Casting+Charecterization+Performances) – It is almost a role reversal of sorts. In a Wednesday, Anupam Kher is stiff throughout and Naseer comes up with wit and sarcasm now and then. Here, Kamal is witty but intensity personified while Mohanlal has plenty of political satire to play with, especially in the scenes involving Lakshmi where they make light conversation of highly complex issues. Kamal is as classy as ever and some of Mohanlal’s reactions leave your jaw open. Both in typical elements rock the screen all the time.

2) The look – I am a layman, I don’t know what to call it. The film looked a lot better than A Wednesday, Maybe thanks to the Red Camera – The resolution and the whole picture was top notch giving it an ultra slick look.

3) The Dialogues – A lot more politics, A lot more satire, A new dimension. If there is one area where A Wednesday is better in dialogues, it’s the tautness and the intensity which seems to be lacking in Unnai Pol Oruvan

4) The Music – Whenever there is Guitar, there is MAGIC. Especially when kamal is first shown on screen working on a drill, with a paper near him flying due to the wind there is complete hysteria as his name appears on the screen. However, his Allah Jaane is an ear-sore.. Rest of it is fine.

Places where Unnai Pol Oruvan just doesn’t come close to A Wednesday

1) The soul – Well the essence is an old helpless common man playing with the entire police force. This is virtually messed up in this remake… One sometimes feels they have missed the point, man.

2) The generalizabilty – No the theme is not universal. Its more mumbaish. No resident of Tamilnadu will feel the emotions of what Kamal describes. There are a few dialogue to rectify this flaw but doesn’t work.

3) Suspense – Its sad but when one remakes a thriller with a twist in the ‘tail’, once cant hope a person who has seen the original will like it… Even otherwise, I did try to view it from the perspective of a newbie to the Wednesday story but some scenes reveal this guy is a common man wanting to kill the terrorists – Especially the scene where he mentions that the addresses belong to the people who died in the blast

A THING THAT I OBSERVED ABOUT THE MONOLOGUE

in in a wednesday naseeruddin shah chooses one really suppa story of some guy he knows from train who died in a blast and does an amazing job narrating it. But namba Kamal has one ultimate emotional story to say and does mega brilliant job at it. It pretty much represents their career doesn't it? Nasser choses really suppa roles and makes them special through his performance... while kamal has to do really special roles and make them even more special.

Overall, a film that tries to be as sincere to the original as possible. Hence doesn’t get better. And since the original is a good but not great film, so is this one. One thing to look out for is the last 10 mins of the Kamal monologue about the 4 month old pregnant girl raped till nudity – A complete master stroke. Also watch out for some super brisk Mohanlal moments

A 3/5 for the slick flick