Oru Kal Oru Kannadi

<p>One morning in , V. Saravanan receives a wedding invitation from his ex-girlfriend, M. Meera, along with a note asking him not to attend. Undeterred, he and his friend Parthasarathy “Partha” drive to to stop the wedding. Along the way, Saravanan recalls their past. Saravanan, a carefree young man working at a film theatre with Partha, comes from a dysfunctional family. His father Varadharajan, a college professor, stopped speaking to his wife Shenbagam the day after their wedding upon learning she was uneducated. Shenbagam now studies to earn a degree and win back his affection. Saravanan falls in love with Meera, a trainee air hostess, after spotting her in traffic and begins pursuing her despite warnings from her father, Mahendrakumar. Meera challenges Saravanan to change himself—shave, dress well, drop Partha, and be punctual—if he wants her love. Saravanan then prioritises Meera over Partha, straining their friendship. Eventually, Saravanan reunites Partha with his lost love, and the two follow Meera to , where Meera admits she loves Saravanan. Meanwhile, Varadharajan reconciles with Shenbagam after Saravanan confronts him. Later, a misunderstanding causes Meera to believe Saravanan never truly loved her when he jokingly calls their relationship a “project” during a phone call she overhears. Heartbroken, she ends her relationship with him. In the present, Saravanan and Partha arrive at the wedding, drunkenly sharing their story. Meera sympathises, but Mahendrakumar refuses to let her reunite with Saravanan due to the wedding costs and because she consented to the wedding. Just as Saravanan and Partha are about to leave, a local bigwig Rajini Murugan arrives with his girlfriend and a pregnant girl, revealing that Meera’s groom Ashwin had abandoned the pregnant girl. Ashwin initially denies knowing her, but confesses after being cornered. He reunites with her, while Murugan promises to cover the wedding losses. As Saravanan leaves, Meera returns and reunites with him. After being impressed by director ‘s debut film, (2009), producer of wanted to act in the director’s next film but was informed that he was already directing (2010). Udhayanidhi ended up buying that film’s distribution rights. After he met Rajesh, both decided to collaborate on a new project. Rajesh suggested the title ( ), which Udhayanidhi rejected. Despite reports that the film was titled ( ), it was later revealed to be (OKOK), after a song from . Cinematography was handled by , editing by , and dance choreography by . Rajesh said, “I have shown mistakes committed by both genders in . Having said that, I must admit that in real life, most men I know are at fault when it comes to relationships”. Though Udhayanidhi made a cameo in (2009), is his first proper acting credit. To prepare for his role, he observed ‘s mannerisms in . Rajesh cast as the lead actress after being impressed with her performance in (2011). Motwani, a non-Tamil speaker, learned the language at Rajesh’s requ- Comedian renewed his association with Rajesh for the third time. Rajesh noted that while the character of Partha was merely created during scripting, it was only after Santhanam’s casting that the character was fleshed out after the actor and director . Santhanam revealed that the character’s mannerisms were inspired by one of his friends. , who plays Udhayanidhi’s mother, said that since the film was a comedy, she was insecure and doubted she could meet the pace of Santhanam and Rajesh who specialise in that genre, despite herself having tried comedy in (2005) and (2010). briefly appears as a potential suitor for Motwani’s character who ends up ridiculing her. He said Rajesh initially considered or Jiiva for the role, but later decided on Narayan as he wanted to give the scene a “fresh feel”. Arya, who made a cameo in and starred in , made a cameo near the climax, and joked that he was Rajesh’s “lucky mascot”. was cast in another cameo, which was reportedly offered to , and reportedly received (equivalent to 19 lakh or US$22,000 in 2023) for her cameo. Vibhu, who later gained fame for the TV series , appears briefly as Motwani’s groom. A photo shoot featuring Motwani and Udhayanidhi was conducted in February 2011, while began in mid-March at Chennai. Prior to this, the team conducted rehearsals with Udhayanidhi; Rajesh said, “[Udhayanidhi] acted like a pro. We shot all the scenes on a and were impressed with his performance. He is now clear about his dialogues”. The first scene was shot in . Motwani started filming her scenes on 21 March. Rajesh shot some scenes at in Chennai due to his affinity for the theatre, having previously filmed a scene there for . By mid-May 2011, the team had completed two schedules of filming, which took place mostly in real locations across Chennai, rather than sets. In June, the team travelled to for filming a major sequence. Rajesh revealed that though Motwani lost some weight for her role, she later gained additional weight, leading to the inclusion of dialogues about her weight increase. The team returned to Chennai for filming the climax sequence, held at a resort in . During this schedule, shooting was interrupted due to Chennai-based technician union members’ objection to using a -based makeup artist for Jeremiah. Udhayanidhi then intervened and asked the makeup artist to leave the set, resulting in the shooting being delayed. The final schedule was held at Mumbai in mid-July 2011; though this coincided with the , Rajesh that they shot at a suburb which was 70 km (43 miles) away from the city. By August, the team shot few patchwork sequences and spoken portions at the –OMR stretch. Since they were denied permission to shoot on road because it would obstruct traffic, they shot at . By October, filming was mostly complete, except for a few sequences set to be canned in overseas locations. That December, the makers travelled to Jordan to shoot a song sequence. Another song sequence was shot in Dubai. By February 2012, filming was mostly complete except for a remaining song sequence. The album features five songs, composed by . The audio launch was held at Sathyam Cinemas on 5 March 2012. Udhayanidhi distributed via Red Giant Movies. The film’s was attached to the theatrical prints of Udhayanidhi’s production (2011) and subsequently released on the internet on 26 October 2011, coinciding with . The teaser was viewed 300,000 times and received praise for Santhanam’s comic punchline. was scheduled to release in theatres for weekend (14 February 2012) but was delayed as production was not complete by then. The film was then released on 13 April 2012, during (Tamil New Year). It was the sole release during the weekend as other films were delayed due to a standoff between the and the . Ahead of release, a petition was filed by the Hindu Dharma Sakthi demanding the removal of scenes that allegedly hurt Hindu sentiments, based on what the secretary N. Devasenathypathy had seen in the trailer. However, the petition was dismissed, with the judge saying the film had been “certified for universal exhibition” and noting the vagueness in the allegations of the petitioner. The film opened in 300 screens across Tamil Nadu. It received a from the (CBFC), but was not given exemption, despite being eligible. Udhayanidhi blamed this on the seven-member committee having a “political vendetta” against him. The film was dubbed in Telugu under the title and released in on 31 August 2012. called the film a “rollicking comedy”, stating: “If all you’re looking for is a relaxed time at the movies, then, this is Good Fun. Go with your buddies, you’ll laugh till you have tears in your eyes”. N. Venkateswaran of rated it 3.5 out of 5 and said: “M Rajesh is a rarity in Tamil cinema. How else does one explain sitting through almost a three-hour-long movie without realising the passage of time?” A reviewer from wrote “OKOK may fall short of the director’s earlier films. But nevertheless it’s a fairly enjoyable fun ride.” A critic from wrote that Rajesh proved “that his two earlier successes were no fluke and he does it again by sticking to his tried and tested formula”. The critic appreciated the performances of Udhayanidhi and Motwani, and said the “show-stealer” was Santhanam, lauding his humour and one-liners. Malathi Rangarajan of criticised the film for glorifying misogyny and body shaming, finding them unfunny, but concluded, “Repeating the run to the winning post consecutively for the third time isn’t easy. Rajesh could achieve it — of course, with a huge contribution from Santhanam”. R. S. Prakash of summarised “OK OK is a time-pass affair without the need to rack the brains much.” However, Pavithra Srinivasan from rated it 2 out of 5 and said: ” is a slightly torturous friendship story of two guys and that’s pretty much it”. SV of wrote, “it’s Santhanam’s show all the way, who incidentally is OKOK’s only saving grace. Minus the man, the movie is the pits. Shy away from this mundane mirth, and if a stone is handy lob at the mirror of loony life and living it showcases”. opened at number one at the Chennai box office. According to , the film, made on a budget of (equivalent to 25 crore or US$2.9 million in 2023), grossed around (equivalent to 47 crore or US$5.6 million in 2023) worldwide. However, said the film was made at a cost of less than (equivalent to 3.8 crore or US$450,000 in 2023), and grossed over (equivalent to 30 crore or US$3.5 million in 2023) from both the original Tamil and dubbed Telugu versions. ‘s success, along with that of other contemporaneous Tamil films such as , and , initiated a short-lived trend of becoming successful. Trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai noted a shift in Tamil cinema from violent revenge-based films to comedies, which were found to be more commercially viable. The film established Udhayanidhi as a leading actor in , and propelled his successful acting career until his eventual retirement from acting in 2023 to focus on politics. Udhayanidhi said he intended to quit acting after , but decided not to do so due to the film’s success. He said this was unfortunate as it made him believe comedy was his comfort zone, so he acted in more films in that genre. Udhayanidhi eventually found the genre boring, and began acting in more serious films such as and (both 2016), hoping to experiment and reinvent himself. Santhanam’s comedy was considered a trendsetting one and was considered important for the film’s success. Suresh Kannan in his column for called Partha a modern-day version of the character Ambi with his customs, body language, costumes of varied colour combinations and English standing out from Santhanam’s earlier films. emerged a breakthrough for , who played the character of Jangiri, and she became known by that name. The film also fetched significant recognition for Narayan. Despite its success, the film also received criticism for its apparent glorification of misogyny, stalking and body shaming. In a 2024 interview, Rajesh said, “I took cognisance of my comedy scenes not being regarded as funny anymore. I sincerely regret having thought of body shaming and mocking religious beliefs as a way of evoking laughter”.</p>