Chennaiyil Oru Naal (A day in Chennai) is another classic from Tamil Cinema with an ensemble cast. The movie proves the fact that you need not have stars, inane comedy tracks, double entendres, or heroines in skimpy costumes displaying everything which is not suitable for public exhibition, and the only thing you require a good and entertaining script.The movie revolves around the fact that how a small incident can change the lives of people who are hitherto not related to each other. The incident in question is a hit and run accident caused by a terrified girl driving her car, who is chased by a bunch of biking eve teasers.
The makers ensure the audience go through a nervous breakdown by letting them know someone from the main characters is going to meet a fatal end in the accident, but does not reveal who it is, till 25% into the movie.
Gautham Krishna played by Prakashraj, a reigning superstar, whose daughter lies almost in death bed as she requires a heart donor.
Sathyamurthy played by Cheran, a traffic constable who begins his first day in his job after being suspended on charges of corruption.
RObin played by Prassana, a doctor madly in love with his wife and making arrangements for his first marriage anniversary a memorable one for his wife by giving her a surprise gift.
Karthik played by Sachin a young boy beginning his first day at his dream job as a television reporter and making plans of introducing his girlfriend to his parents.
Sundarapandian played by Sharat Kumar, a traffic superintendent who is faced with an unduanting task of controlling a rare traffic event by blocking 100% chennai's traffic in brief intervals.
The incident above triggers a major change in the lives of the 5 people mentioned above.
Thus begins a journey from Chennai to Vellore a 170 km route to be covered in 90 minutes to save one person from death and one person's supreme sacrifice, and one person trying to prove to his family that he is not a total loser and one person trying to create history The entire traffic of Chennai is brought to a standstill to allow one vehicle to travel the required journey in a near impossible time.
The best thing of the movie is it is shot in real time wherein events are portrayed at the same rate that the audience experiences them.
The movie moves back and forth in time, giving us surprise galore as characters change their behavior, bad guys become good guys and good guys become bad guys.
Lots of sequences strike a chord like the parents waving their offspring a final goodbye when they realize death is imminent, or like the dialogues by Gautham Krishna's wife played by Radhika who summarizes the rise and fall of superstars in a single sentence.
Cheran is at his best performance as a has been corrupt policeman who has to prove to his family that they can be proud of him. His expressions are worth a mention particularly in the sequence when his school going sister insults him and also in the sequence when one of his co-passengers tries to jeopardize the mission.
PrakshRaj is awesome as the arrogant superstar and is especially hilarious in the scene where he back flips his daughter's questions to his advantage.
Prassana is awesome especially in the two scenes where he discovers his wife's infidelity and his decision which almost jeopardizes the mission.
Sachin as the the young man with stars in his eyes and his tragic love story brings tears even to stone hearts.
The scene where a father picks photographs from a family album and decides which of the photograph would best suit his child's in memory.
The direction by Shaheed Khadir is awesome and keeps you tied to the awesome plot. The screenplay does a full justice to the wafer-thin storyline, giving the audience moments of joy, tears and excitement.
Well! the songs are bad, but the background music simply merges into the story and engulfs us into this intense movie.
The accident sequences are picturized so well that you forget for an instant its a movie.
Surya's appearance at the fag end also pushes the proceedings forward and his character also plays a very important role which contributes to the proceedings.
All in all another pearl from the Tamil Oyester.
