unnaipol oruvan movie review

Avamanam (what a disgrace).

Enna Kodumai (What Agony)
Compared to A Wednesday (as it inevitably will be), Unnaipol Oruvan is a crude piece of shit with none of the suspense, none of the drama, and most importantly none of the sui generis acting of the Bollywood stalwarts Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher.
Kamal Haasan (in a vain attempt at reprising Naseeruddin Shah’s role) and Mohan Lal (who plays Anupam Kher’s role here, i.e. the Police Commisioner) are podi pasanga (kids) compared to their Hindi counterparts.
Kamal Haasan - Utter Farce
Completely oblivious to our howls of pain, merciless in his cannibalistic orgy of the audience’s flesh, and heedless to our repeated pleas for relief, Kamal Haasan in Unnaipol Oruvan delivers a horribly bad and totally unconvincing performance.
With his ridiculously phony accent when he slips into English, too much blah blah blah in every call to the police chief, affected gestures and gross overacting, Kamal Haasan just does not allow for the buildup of the suspense and tension the way Naseeruddin Shah did so beautifully in A Wednesday.
If Unnaipol Oruvan is our reward for supporting this bozo for 50 long years in films, it’s the occasion not for celebration but time to gather the logs for the funeral - of art.
Mighty Poor Execution
Unnaipol Oruvan’s story hews mostly to the original plot of A Wednesday but it’s in the execution that director Chakri Toleti, Kamal Haasan, Mohan Lal et al stumble.
They trip right into the opening scenes, fall flat on their faces into the mud, and never recover.


The final scene in A Wednesday had a touch of class. Au contraire, the meeting between the Police Commisioner and our common man in Unnaipol Oruvan at the end had a touch of crass.
As a young boy, Chakri Toleti messed up the pictures in Salangai Oli. As a grown up, Chakri Toleti messed up the full picture in Unnaipol Oruvan.
How’s that for continuity?
Mohanlal - Depressing
A veteran of dozens of Malayalam movies, Mohanlal is a big letdown here.
Anupam Kher brought a sense of urgency to the Police Commissioner’s office during the terrorism crisis adding to the tension.
All that Mohanlal brought to Unnaipol Oruvan was a perpetual frown. And a bad one at that.
Mohan Lal has taught us one key lesson - Not to think highly of all actors from Kerala.
Others - A Joke
As our neighbor said outside the theatre, even the side actors did very well in A Wednesday
Shruti Hassan = Zero
it would be a waste of bandwidth, your time and ours.
Skip This Movie
stay away from this wanton insult that goes by the name Unnaipol Oruvan.
Hesitate not to extend the middle finger to this bunch of dilettantes.