Kolamaavu Kokila movie review: Nayanthara delivers applause worthy performance
Kolamaavu Kokila movie review: Nayanthara’s film is a good mix of loss, love, money and power.
Kolamaavu Kokila
Director and Writer: Nelson
Cast: Nayanthara, Saranya Ponvannan, Yogi Babu, Jacqueline
Rating: 4/5
How does a family deal with losing a loved one? Kolamaavu Kokila starring Nayanthara, Yogi Babu, Saranya Ponvannan and Jacqueline is a dark comedy that asks such difficult questions and yet makes you laugh as you think about how torturous life can be for a certain section of people.
Director Nelson has managed the right play of emotions by underlining certain scenes and being subtle about others. For instance, this film has an iconic scene where Yogi Babu’s Sekhar proposes to Nayanthara’s Kokila. As Anirudh’s music plays in the background, we are shown how Sekhar fell in love with Kokila. When he finally confesses his feeling to her, Kokila simply says that her parents might get a heart attack on hearing this and asks him to keep his emotions to himself. The straight face with which Nayanthara shuts him down is the most memorable part of their encounter.
In fact, it is her straight-faced innocence which firmly establishes her character in the film. She comes across as innocent and timid, but Kokila is no babe lost in woods. As someone who is smuggling narcotics, she would happily have her detractors killed despite her fear of guns. In fact, she uses her fear as a weapon. This contradiction plays out beautifully against the plot of the film. After all, who would have thought that a girl with fake bravado can smuggle 100 kg of cocaine?
Can desperation really change people? Kolamaavu Kokila answers this question in the most entertaining yet thought provoking manner. Nelson has not broached topics that are new, but steeped them in reality. When Nayanthara asks her boss for a raise, he wants to discuss it outside the office. She wonders why something official needs to be discussed outside and tells him, “If I were the type to talk to you about this outside office, I would choose to do it directly with the general manager and take your position away from you.”
It is not just Nayanthara who scores with this film, but the supporting cast’s colourful performance has audience roaring with laughter. Watch out for Yogi Babu, the boy who plays Sekhar’s assistant in the shop, the man who is obsessed with Kokila’s sister and Saranya Ponvannan as Kokila’s mother have performed brilliantly. That one dialogue delivered by Jacqueline in the van about what the family is really doing (smuggling) is a class act worthy of applause.
Anirudh’s music elevates the film and the real winner is the background score. The scenes of Kokila distributing goods with the instrumental version of “The Gibberish Song” playing in the background works really well.
While it does take time for the characters to settle down and there are certain hiccups before the interval, the progression of each pivotal character makes up for this. This is not just a Nayanthara’s film alone, but she is surely the star.
Above all, Kolamaavu Kokila proves what spectacular writing can achieve. What could have otherwise been macabre becomes a great piece of black humour.
Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC
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