Ko

<p>Ashwin Kumar is a working for the private newspaper . He witnesses robbing a local bank, chases them and manages to click photos of the robbers. When he tries to escape, he is stopped by Renuka “Renu”, who assumes he is the culprit and helps the robbers take his camera. However, he is able to secure the camera’s . The police catch Ashwin, and to prove that he is a photojournalist, he shows the photos to them. The police identify everyone except the gang leader (whose face is covered by a mask). At his office, Ashwin again meets Renu, who has newly joined as an article editor. He slowly falls in love with Renu. Saraswathi ‘Saro’ also works in his office and has feelings for Ashwin, who does not reciprocate. Settled in her new job, Renu writes a cover story about a politician Aalavandhan, describing his attempt to marry a minor. Enraged by this, Aalavandhan barges into the newspaper office and berates Renu. The audio recording of her interview disappears (courtesy of Aalavandhan), and she is fired from her job for falsified reporting. Ashwin later risks his life to capture the pictures of Aalavandhan, who actually engages in in a temple at midnight. Later the story with the photos is printed in their newspaper, and this makes Renu reciprocate Ashwin’s love. Saro is initially jealous of the love between Ashwin and Renu but later accepts it and gets over Ashwin. Meanwhile, Vasanthan Perumal, an engineer and recent graduate, strives hard to enter politics by contesting in the upcoming election. He is contesting against more experienced politicians who capture the people by giving freebies and money. Nobody cares about Vasanthan and his team of graduates, who promise a healthy government to people. Ashwin and Renu find out about Vasanthan’s election campaign, and they and the entire team extend their support to the campaign, covering it extensively, much to the chagrin of Aalavandhan and the (CM) Yogeswaran. One night, Vasanthan’s party organises an election campaign meeting. While photographing the event, Ashwin receives a text message from Saro that there is a bomb underneath the stage where Vasanthan is speaking. Ashwin manages to save Vasanthan just before the bomb explodes. Later, Ashwin finds Saro mortally wounded near the blast site. Saro struggles to tell something to Ashwin and Renu before she dies. Ashwin, through a video clip recorded by another photographer, discovers that Saro was intentionally killed by someone. He later notices a resemblance between the leader of the bank robbery and this unknown killer, concluding that the Naxalite leader killed Saro. A few days later, Renu notices that Vasanthan’s photograph in their newspaper was cut from a college class photograph, where Ashwin is also present. It is revealed that Vasanthan is Ashwin’s former college mate. Confronted by Renu, Ashwin tells her that he and Vasanthan studied in the same college and were best friends. He also tells her that he is happy for Vasanthan’s success and is wholeheartedly supporting his election campaign. In the election, Vasanthan’s party wins by a huge majority, and Vasanthan becomes the CM. He orders the release of 20 Naxalites on , citing humanity. Shocked on hearing this news, Ashwin rushes to the secretariat to meet Vasanthan. In Vasanthan’s office, Ashwin notices that the Naxalite leader who killed Saro is there, talking with Vasanthan. Ashwin airs his grievances to Vasanthan, who ignores him. Ashwin follows the leader to his hideout. At the same time, Vasanthan orders the police to go kill the Naxalites at their hideout, and the surround the perimeter of that place. Ashwin, already at the hideout, confronts the Naxalite leader Kadhir, and learns from him that Vasanthan had made a deal with the Naxalites to help him win the election. They orchestrated events such as the burning of a hut and saving the woman in that hut (who was also a Naxalite) to win people’s sympathy. In the same vein, they had planted a bomb beneath the stage where Vasanthan was speaking during his meeting. Saro had uncovered the truth about Vasanthan but was fatally assaulted by him so that she could not reveal his intentions to anyone. Ashwin realises that Saro had tried to warn him and Renu about Vasanthan’s true character before dying and also that now Vasanthan is double-crossing the Naxalites and is planning to kill them as a show of achievement. Ashwin records this confession using his and sends it to Renu, who plans to publish this story in their newspaper. Vasanthan then arrives and kills Kadhir. He tries to kill Ashwin, who triggers a landmine; the explosion kills Vasanthan, while Ashwin escapes unharmed. Vasanthan’s party members arrive at the hideout on hearing the news of his death. Seeing their innocence, Ashwin forces Renu not to reveal the truth about Vasanthan because his party members would get into trouble and lose their seats just for supporting him. They did not know about Vasanthan’s intentions and supported him, believing his false claims of a healthy government. Renu publishes an article saying Vasanthan sacrificed his life fighting the Naxalites and had died a . Ashwin and Renu submit their resignations to the editor, S. Krishnakumar ‘Krish’, for falsified reporting, but he rejects their resignations and tells them to cover the next CM. After the success of (2009), the director had begun working on a story idea based on his early life as a freelance , before transitioning to films. Having worked on magazines such as , , and other publications, as a photo editor, Anand felt that a newspaper scenario was something new to him. This resulted in him visiting the headquarters of the newspaper office in and interact with editors, sub-editors, photojournalists and editors to know about their working style and pattern. Afterwards, he then collaborated with the screenwriting duo for writing the script which took them six months. The film was initially announced with as the producers, but the company backed out and was eventually produced by ‘s . Music composer , cinematographer , editor , art director and action choreographer were involved as a part of the technical crew. The film’s title was derived from an ancient Tamil word which means “king”. Anand initially thought of casting or in the lead role. He eventually approached , and the actor accepted after being impressed with Anand’s script. was cast as the lead actress, in her Tamil debut, as Anand wanted “an actress who looks like an ordinary journalist and not a ” and cast her after being impressed with her performance in the Telugu film (2009). However, Silambarasan opted out of the film, despite having shot a few scenes and done a photoshoot, reportedly owing to differences of opinion with the director; partly due to him being unconvinced on Karthika’s casting and requested Anand to replace her with , which the producers declined as the actress had charged hefty salary at that time. Anand then narrated the script to , who eventually agreed to be a part of the film. Upon his casting, Anand attributed this to his versatile performances, even with his sophomore (2005) adding, “He is one of the most talented young actors in Tamil, a dark horse, I would say. He can do comedy in a film like and also serious roles like a real versatile actor. He is a very simple person also.” accepted to play Saro, and believed people would accept her character rather than focusing on her looks or costumes. was cast as the student leader Vasanthan after Anand was impressed with his performances in (2008) and (2009); he is secretly the main antagonist. Anand approached ideologue for portraying an undisclosed role, but the latter declined after showing initial inter- was cast as the chief minister, and Anand sought to make this character more practical and morally ethical than Vasanthan. was filmed predominantly in Chennai during early 2010. Like his previous film , Anand wanted to film the songs in various locations across the world, and as a result, he and cinematographer Richard searched the internet for the picturesque locations and discussed with tourism ministries and frequent globetrotters before finalising the appropriate locations. The songs ” ” and “Amali Thumali” were filmed across in places such as , , and , becoming the first Tamil film to be shot in Norway. The song “Venpaniye” was filmed at in China. Part of the film was also shot at the , . Other locations of filming included , , Pollachi, , and Bengaluru. Richard shot an action sequence using the camera. Anand stated that the demo model was first used for (2002) and the camera can shoot in the at 2,500 frames per second as opposed to the ordinary camera which can shoot 24 to 150 frames per second in a normal speed. Filming had wrapped by December 2010. After filming completed, entered into an extensive post-production phase by late-December. By early March 2011, the film entered into the final phase of post-production which involves, re-recording, sound mixing and editing. The title sequence of the film that runs for three-and-a-half minutes featured around 1000 photographs. Anand encouraged several photographers to send their best pictures for the title sequence, attributing it to setting the mood of the film. The film’s soundtrack and score were composed by Harris Jayaraj, with lyrics written by , , , , , Sricharan, Emcee Jesz. It was distributed by Sony Music India which released the album on 12 January 2011 at the Image Auditorium in Chennai, with the presence of the cast and crew. was earlier scheduled for theatrical release on 25 February 2011 but was postponed to 8 April 2011, due to Jiiva’s other film which was releasing on the same date and the being held during that time. The film was further postponed due to the and was eventually released on 22 April. opened in nearly 230 theatres in Tamil Nadu, making it Jiiva’s biggest release to that point. It was also released in multiplexes across metros like Delhi, , , Chandigarh, and with English subtitles to attract non-Tamil audiences. The Telugu dubbed version was released on 13 May 2011. It was presented by in . released the film on DVD and . The film was later dubbed and released in Hindi as on in 2018. opened in 15 theatres across Chennai, with major multiplexes , , and providing main screens for five shows in the opening weekend, and 36 shows in . At the opening weekend (22–24 April; and Easter) the film netted (equivalent to 9.6 crore or US$1.1 million in 2023) across Tamil Nadu. In the United Kingdom, the film collected ( ) in its opening weekend. completed a 100-day run at the box office, both in its original and dubbed Telugu versions. According to trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai, the film, made on an overall cost of (equivalent to 29 crore or US$3.4 million in 2023), collected (equivalent to 52 crore or US$6.1 million in 2023) as of October 2011, including non-theatrical revenue. Malathi Rangarajan of described the film as a “tale with a realistic twist” and praised Anand who “strikes gold with Ko. Blending the commercial with the realistic is a challenge, but K. V. Anand proves adept at it.” N Venkateswaran of gave four stars out of five citing: “With , director Anand gives notice of his immense talent once again, making a movie that is all set to lord over the box office this summer”. wrote, “K V Anand is an ace lensman himself but his Ko, whatever it might mean, is like a newspaper with just banner headlines and posed pics. No body text. The intro lies in the tailpiece”. wrote, “Anand impresses us with his eye for details in one sequence but soon manages to irritate viewers by resorting to archaic screenplay”, appreciating the background score, editing and cinematography. wrote, “If someone wants to make a case for the abolishment of song and dance from our cinema, Ko would be Exhibit A.” He also went on to state that was “a series of big scenes with no transitions, no segues, no scenes that just stop to smell the scenery.” Pavithra Srinivasan of stated that “K V Anand’s screenplay moves swiftly during the first half, courtesy the dialogues, and lags slightly in the second. Still, with its basic plot of politics, it has enough twists and turns to keep you occupied. Best of all are the light touches of sarcasm and humour that make it work.” wrote, “For an audience numbed by predictable Kollywood potboilers week after week, here is an original offering from KV Anand, a fearless filmmaker who doesn’t insult your intelligence. He is able to cater to the needs of both the elite as well as mass audiences, which should be applauded”. A titled was announced in 2015 by the same producers which features a different cast and crew, except Prakash Raj, who reprised his role from the original. The film was released in May 2016. The song “Ennamo Edho” inspired the title of a . Brahmanandam performed a parody of the song in the Telugu film (2013). The placement of the song “Venpaniye” in was widely criticised, and Anand made of it in his next film (2012). Karthika’s looks in the film, especially her eyebrows, became known as the “Karthika Look” and was also a popular choice for beauty parlour customers, but also generated rumours of the actress performing cosmetic surgery.</p>