O2 Tamil Movie
Indian films at large have never shied from taking inspiration from the west. We always compare our cinema and technicians with an international benchmark, which is often Hollywood. Given the constraints our filmmakers are subjected to, we contend with whatever makes the audience tick. Sadly, the most vital element of any movie, the script, that encompasses screenplay, has been ignored.
For a screenplay to work, one needs good writing skills that can adapt to a storyline for a feature film. Dialogues should strike a chord with the audience. In current-day cinema, directors often play the role of a writer. So, we need good storytellers to engage and convince today's audience, who are rapidly evolving thanks to OTT platforms.
After watching O2, the direct-to-OTT release, I felt a great idea was wasted with over-the-top staging and insensitive execution. The movie is about a congregation of vastly different characters who are at different stages of their lives and are subjected to a situation where each of them is trying to save themselves and their loved ones at any cost.
The premise was good. We see a doting mother who wants to save her son who suffers from lung disease. A couple who are desperate to elope to have their own life. A politician, a wicked cop, a released prisoner, and others. The bus they travel submerges into the soil because of a landslide and they should find a way to escape.
While the script on paper could have sounded like a great idea, execution is the key for such genres. Believability is another factor. Imagine, after being stuck deep into the soil, Nayanthara emerges with an unperturbed makeup and hardly any scratches. She even gives the number of hours people could stay alive by counting the number of people on the bus. We get that the director wants to put the characters in a spot, but how he goes about was haphazard.
We get random characters now and then telling us about what would happen when O2 levels go down and how people could be subjected to hallucinations among other things. Then, we see people behaving like zombies, trying to kill each other. There is no conviction in the execution too.
None of the performances stood out in the movie. Nayanthara's face was always tense and thanks to Deepa Venkat, she was able to bring out some emotion through voice modulation. The kid, Rithvik played his part well, but again the screenplay made it hard to believe in the things that he does.
In the end, the rescue and recovery was another laughable drama that lacked depth. Overall, the movie was a mockery of the disaster genre which is the bread-and-butter of many Hollywood studios. Such genres demand an in-depth script and pre-production. This one deserves to be buried deep under the debris!
O2 is a direct to OTT feature film that streams on Disney+Hotstar.
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