Unnai Pol Oruvan
Language: Tamil
Director: Chakri Toleti
Writers: Neeraj Pandey ( Story ), Ee.Raa.Murugan ( Dialogues )
Release Date: 18 September 2009 (India)
Cast: Kamal Haasan,Mohanlal
Producers: Rajkamal Film International, UTV
Music: Shruti Haasan
Cinematography: Manoj Soni
Enter your reviews and rate the movie in the comments below. Movies are opened for Guerrilla Reviews 12 hours before their release date
Tags: Chakri Toleti, kamal haasan, Mohanlal, Neeraj Pandey, Shruti Haasan- Share this Blog! »
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Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Excellent movie after a long time. If you want 5 songs and 6 fights and some romance scene’s this is not a movie for you.
vvvvv excellent movie ,,kamal acting was superb
grt movie..must watch film..
Catching up with it on sunday.
A great relief to watch kamal without latex.
so what do you think?
an exclent movie from superstar ulaganayagan kamalhasan i had watched all the four shows in big cenima at pondicherry. great great its really a one man army -a good documentary film …..we again expecting something new in the fore comming movies…. all the best for urs work. and for the fore comming urs creatives….
“i had watched all the four shows in big cenima at pondicherry:– LOL! what are you trying to prove!
“a good documentary film”???????????
How is Unnaipol Oruvan a documentary film? Is it a true story? Is it verite? Were real events shot as they were taking place? Or were there testimonials?
Do you even know what a documentary film is? Do you even know the difference between a documentary and narrative fiction? Don’t use terminology you do not know the definition to.
PFC pe aise comments dekhne padte hai. Kya zamaana aa gaya!
Movie was very good. Watching Kamal and Mohanlal is a treat for every cinema lover. In the end the differentiating factors between Hindi and Tamil – Mohanlal and superb background score by Shruti Hassan.
Great Movie After Long time. Sathyaseelan is correct.
Its worth watching all the 4 shows and still you will feel like watching more. its thrilling.
Sundar
whoever did the background score needs to be sacked. and edit out the reporter part the movie will be fine.
BGM is by shruti hassan’s…
Watchable..
Kamal could not recreate the subtle frustration expressed by Naseer.. Mohanlal does not fit the bill, which Kher pulled of so beautifully…
For these reasons, and dramatic dialogues towards the end..it is just watchable… I preferred A Wednesday as the better version… The only solace is that, the original was not tampered around with much… confused whether to give a 2 or 3..
Dont give it any star. Leave it untouched :D
I TOTALLY DISAGREE!!! I PERSONALLY HAVE WATCHED A WEDNESDAY FIVE TIMES!!! WHEN I WATCHED UPO I WAS OVERWHELMED AND AM GONA WATCH IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!! HONESTLY IF UPO HAD RELEASED BEFORE WEDNESDAY NO ONE WOULD HAVE PREFERRED WATCHING A WEDNESDAY!COZ KAMAL AND TEAM ARE SIMPLY INCOMPARABLE!!! FANTASTIC MOVIE -DEFINITELY BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL IN EVERY ASPECT-MY VERDICT THIS MOVIE IS A MUST WATCH-ITS PROBABLY THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!!!
Shouting doesn’t help my friend. Kamal Haasan bhakti is acceptable, but without reason just degrading the performance of the actors in the original is not. Do you have any other reasons why Kamal and the team are incomparable?
Haha Goto Ram V blog to know the truth behind his post. A Mammotty fan !
Sunil.. Ha ha ha…Read Ram V blog carefully again for post on Bhramaram.. A mohanlal movie…
Well the movie is a honest remake of A Wednesday and yes some of us may not be fully satisfied.But thats because the shock value for us doesnt exist,having seen the original.Another plus about the movie is the almost equal balancing between Kamal Haasan & Mohanlal’s characters unlike in the original.I’m going with a 3.5 rating out of 5.
It was a week of remakes. Hindi in Telugu and vice versa.
excellent movie kamal and mohan lal is a treat for cinema lovers.ulaga nayagam is great
Completely agree with Sethu. Naseer’s performance stood out because of the script’s shock value. I thought Mohan Lal was fantastic. The discussion with reporter about her order of introduction was a lovely touch. Technically a better film than Hindi as the camera work and editing/sound editing was superior. I liked the way Kamal approached the character. He plays a younger character (about 10 years younger than what Naseer played). This character is not frustrated, he is angry – and that anger is there throughout his discussions with the Commissioner. And he clearly tries and dominates his discussions. One scene where he tells the commissioner about how to diffuse the bomb is vintage Kamal. He exactly knows how much time is left and teases the commisioner by speaking slowly thereby clearly communicating who is the boss.
Another Kamal special in the script – the IIT ‘Brahmin’ boy who comes to help the Police talks on the phone to his grilfriend and says ‘Korean sounds fine’!!
Totally agree with you. Kamal’s signature touch is all over. Very good observation with regards to Naseer’s frustration vs. Kamal’s anger. Very, very true.
Anand, I agree with most of your comments. But, why do you have the quote ‘Brahmin’ in your comments. Could have just said, IIT boy … No reason to bring caste. Dis-tasteful!
Relax man. What is so distasteful about mentioning a caste? Did he do so in a derogatory way, or in some sort of supremacist way? Don’t think so.
One can stand against caste-based discrimination, but stop being so touchy at the very mention of the word.
Anand made a keen observation, so leave it at that.
No….idea is this..Brahmin boy, but he says Korean sounds fine, which means he prefers korean food!! And you generally know what korean food comprises of :-)
Korean cuisine surprisingly contains a lot of vege stuff too. I’m a vegetarian and I love korean food, so much so, that i used to get korean for lunch in New york City. there is bibimbop, kimchi ramen, vegetarian sushi and several others. so if it is just interpretation that the Brahmin boy likes Korean because of non-veg, the interpretation may not be correct. if the director included that for that reason, the director might be mistaken. :-) or may be the Brahmin boy really liked non-veg!! :-)
Jay: Thanks for the info. We have a Korean joint in Nungambakkam, Chennai where the speciality is pork. They also serve sojo, a korean liquor. Fantastic stuff. I have not come across anybody who eats vegetarian there. Since the movie is based out of Chennai, I thought it was obvious!! :-)
Anand, actually have been in Korea for a year, and have 1st hand experience of Korean food. In Korea though there is no concept of Vegeterian food, even their more Vegggie dishes like Kimchi, Bibimpap come with some amount of meat. Actually when u gave that “Korean” reference, i was thinking his gf may be Korean, considering most of them are good at tech.
Despite having seen “A Wednesday”, Kamal’s taut remake kept me hooked throughout. The biggest question when the remake was announced was whether the concept would hold as much significance to people in Chennai as much as it would to the terror-stricken denizens of Bombay.
Kamal thankfully addresses this issue and how! Not only does he point out how Tamil Nadu has experienced its share of terrorism, he also sticks a mirror up asking why people forget so easily. He asks why people in Chennai should not be affected by terrorist acts in Bombay.
The dialogues were simply brilliant, and packed the punch that dialogues in “A Wednesday” lacked. Kamal packed in a superb performance. Naseer was brilliant in his portrayal of the common man, but Kamal adds that little bit of extra personal touch to the character.
Another pleasant surprise was Shruti Haasan’s score. It had that maturity never to be overbearing, but impactful enough.
That said, I wish the Commissioner character was improved upon from what it was in the original. I always felt the character lacked strength and depth. The commissioner needed to be something more than a puppet to the common man, especially with someone like Mohanlal playing it. I really wanted to see them go head to head instead of Mohanlal simply following Kamal’s instructions.
Oh well, cant have it all. Well done though! Hopefully the success of this film sets a healthy trend in the Chennai industry to eschew songs in films where they are not warranted.
1st things 1st—-
A Wednesday – Seen
UPO – Yet to watch
i too have been worried how the terror aspect would be played out in Chennai in UPO, would it be as effective and compelling a catalyst for the protagonist’s acts it was in AW? Would ‘terror’ resonate to the extent it would for a denizen of Mumbai…
To me this was the biggest concern, and i felt right from the movie’s announcement that Kamal, Mohan lal (or anyone) for the matter would not be able to do anything if the underlying reason didnt work.
Your comments have only made me more determined to watch the movie and rest my concerns!
Looks like some hardcore Kamal fans are not giving the due respect for the original “A Wednesday”. “A Wednesday” was a classic and Nassurdin Shah and Anupam Ker were sensational. Kamal and company had to beat that performance in the remake and it looks like they did. So, in my HMO, both movies stood on their own grounds. It is a new subject for tamil audience tho’ (as most of us don’t watch Hindi movies that much). It is like the comparison folks made about Munnabhai MBBS Vs Vasool Raja MBBS. Both are a great movies … let us enjoy the show.
2 stars out of 5 doesnt make me sound like Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN and not any worse critic available in industry today.
But truly being a Kamal fan all through these years, the film came as a let down to me. The reason was – the bit and pieces of the movie, which if when edited well could have made it a compelling watch.
* No comparisons with Wednesday – Wednesday always had a novelty edge of presenting the story first to audience and hence surely created the awe with characters – be it Anupam Kher or Naseer.
* Tamil had a different game. The takes of different scenes in the movie seriously had been left as it is otherwise would have surely gone into number of re-takes. I am not sure, whether its because of the paucity of time with the 2 mega stars dates. To explain a few – Mohanlal’s conversation with Lakshmi surely had unscripted sentences coming off-hand from the malayalam superstar
- Similarly Kamal’s discussion with both the news reporter or Mohanlal sounded unscripted, off-handed.
- Reporter shooting the a scene before anna-salai police station, and the inspector driving them off..was such a bad example. And suddenly they land in commissioners office was even worse.
- When the inspector had to present about the terrorists, the 2nd one (cant remember his name) who was trained in taliban and stuff, had 2 persons accompanying the photograph. The photo is so pathetic that, the beard created using photoshop or coreldraw looked shit. Looked like a Ist standard school kid use MSPaint to create one.
Guess the director felt happy for the takes I guess.
* Cant trace a bit of Chennai in the movie except for the Taramani road shown here and there, Gemini flyover shown once or twice, mentioning seven wells and places. Neither the police commissioner’s office or the anna-salai police station looked appealing enough to a normal audience. Probably these are minor hiccups, but i guess it has to do with Venkatesh dates who would be otherwise busy in Telegu movies. (I guess the major of the sequence is shot in Hyderabad or surroundings); Buildings and places that one can identify will always add more mood to the movie. Kudos for taking shots in CM’S house, mimicking his voice, but looks like there is big hollow in rest of the places.
* TV Reporter with a cigarette for Tamil audience could be considered as a bold move, but it looks such a cliche when she holds one cigarette for every seen in which she appears
* Tamil Actor seeking security for his house, fan club scene, looks like one being shot in 30mins without re-takes. Very bad portrayal. Very bad dialogue delivery. Gaurav kapoor seems to score so easily and convincingly with his cameo in wednesday.
* Intermittent phone calls (apologies for not recollecting the first inspector – Jai’s role in Wednesday movie) from her wife – She carries the same posture all through the train journey. Sure, the story proves a point using the phone call, but cant it more lively?
* Ganesh Venkatram impresses with his scenes, looks like a promising star in the industry; but the gripping scene to get details of the RDX transaction is a bad one. Lipsync of dialogues, trying to threaten doesnt create the needed impact
* Kamal’s final conversation with Mohanlal using references of Meenambakkam bomb blast, coimbatore bomb blast made me think – did the script writer forced himself to use only Tamil Nadu references here..if thats the case, why did the next line jump to some unknown North East India example which a common man couldnt relate
I am probably one of the less brainy guys in movie world having seen very few of world movies (Trying to catch up with what people mention in comments, Kashyap’s references of movies – trace them, then rent/buy those movies to watch and understand them).
If I can spot such obvious (not errors, but perfection), I still dont understand how such an intelligent audience in this forum can digest and go with 5 or 4 stars for such presentation. If u trivialize such things, then why appreciate kieslowski or some other biggies smallest of things??
I guess, even PFC is getting into idolizing heroes and big directors, just like any other forum or had stopped educating right stuff to people which the founders would have wanted.
Hi Anhar,
I agree with your points….I think Kamal Haasan lost the whole point of the movie!!
If you rememeber…In hindi Nasseruddin shah has a dialogue “Koi madar chod button dhabake mere jaan nahi le sakta”…which translates like : No motherfucker can just press a button and decide when I should die!!. This is what the whole purpose of movie is!!!…that no one has the right to decide my death ..or any innocent person’s death!!….kamal missed the point!!!
I am sorry….unnai pol oruvan is a big disappointment!!
Few of the points you raised are very true. Even the police station was as clean as a five star rest room. Authenticity is missing.
The most versatile actor and he is an encyclopeadia kamal’s last ten minutes dialog was very exciting and good speech of terrorism I love that passion of speech.
Enna 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.
Not remotely credible as the terrorist and comically unconvincing as Unnaipol Oruvan (common man), it’s incredible that this Ulaga Madayan oops Ulaga Nayagan Kamal Haasan is marking 50 years in films. Only in Incredible India.
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.
When Kamal Haasan’s character tells the Police Commissioner in the first call (??): I’m sure you are aware of the Czech state of the art explosives C4 we felt like crying at the stupidity of it all.
If Naseeruddin Shah was a treat in every scene he featured in in the Hindi version, Kamal Haasan proves to be a torment.
Naseeruddin Shah brought charm and elan even to simple scenes like standing on the terrace of the tall building, calmly replacing a SIM card, disposing off the old one down a long pipe and pouring himself a cup of tea from a flask.
In not one scene in Unnaipol Oruvan did Kamal Haasan deliver the acting goods.
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 clashes between Mohan Lal’s character and Lakshmi’s character of Chief Secretary at the height of a terrorism crisis just didn’t fit into the movie at all. Plain silly.
None of the dialogs in the Tamil version pack of punch of the muscular words in A Wednesday. Completely effete, particularly the conversation between the Police Commisioner and our ‘Terrorist.’
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.
How True.
Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir and Deepal Shaw brought credit to themselves in A Wednesday. Even the four terrorists, who had a limited role in A Wednesday, turned in a good job.
The bozos in Unnaipol Oruvan just drew sniggers.
God, what was the necessity to introduce that hag Lakshmi here. A total waste of film stock. The woman was tolerable when she was young because there was at least the blossom of youth to ogle at. That grimalkin now belongs in a kennel.
Shruti Hassan = Zero
To write any more about this coasting-on-her-connections little twit would be a waste of bandwidth, your time and ours.
Skip This Movie
Folks, unless you’ve taken leave of your senses, unless money is burning a mighty big hole in your pocket, unless you suffer from mastilagnia, stay away from this wanton insult that goes by the name Unnaipol Oruvan.
This is the same review i saw on SearchIndia.com.
http://indiablogs.searchindia.com/2009/09/17/unnaipol-oruvan-review-unnaipol-oru-madayan/
Dude even if you had written that Review on SearchIndia.com, the least you can do is put up an URL stating that this review was published elsewhere, so that it does not come off as a copy.
wont comment on the movie… but u have some vocab man ….phew!
(Ed. note: comment – partially deleted. please refrain from making objectionable remarks against other participants).
I think this is one of the finest movies released this year.
If u can find so much of mistakes in a kamal film(jack of all trades in films and a perfectionist).
then u can find millions of shit in any other film.
learn to appreciate and admire the greatest actor in india,DR.kamal hassan.
I do not think Unnaipol Oruvan matches up to the original. I agree with the shock factor and everything. “A Wednesday” had a punch to it and UPO lacks it totally. As someone observed, “koi bhi madarchod…” in the original was the whole point and I dont think it was conveyed. Several things were unnecessary. There was no need to introduce the reporter as a smoker. The small story that Kamal narrates about a victim of terror in Gujarat was way too Gory while Naseer simply stole away the scene with a simple story; an incident that affects a common man. It is consistent with acts of terror by so called Jihadis. The incident that Kamal narrates sounds more like something that happened in the Hindu/muslim riots.
Shruti’s background score and the occassional belching by Kamal was a big (-) to the movie.
In my opinion, the time and the prior knowledge of the original must have been used to their advantage by UPO & team. I would say they failed to do that. This remake may be given a 3, at best.
If you had to say like the Top 10 movies episode on Sun TV, “A Wednesday – Treat, UPO – Beat”.
Unnaipol Oruvan might not impress everyone like “A Wednesday” but its not bad.I agree with Sethu that it is an honest remake and about the shock factor.A few of my friends who hasnt seen “A Wednesday”,told me that the movie(UPO) was fantastic
its a great movie
its a diff movie. no romance, no dance, no CRAP… its just few interactions and acting talent thats displayed conveying a message.. honestly speaking kamal cud have put in more expressions and cud have made his role meaty …hats off to mohanlal who actually overshadowed kamal with his acting excellance and brilliant expressions and unlike the usual shouting and roaring police officers he has shown the maturity of a commissioner.. wud rate the film better than the original…hats off to mohanlal for a fantastic performance..hats off to kamal for doing the remake and bringing in meaty charecters for the roles including himself…nd honestly speaking shruthi hassan’s work is also not so impressive…she cud have done it better as it was pure acting which got the croud at the tip of thr seats nd music did not help much..!! all in all worth watching it..!! 4/5 for the movie as a whole..
strange the reviews r positive here.
i saw the telugu version which is not dubbed but made simultaneously and it sucked big time. very bad direction, couldnt copy a movie properly.
the same director made the tamil one too..so it must suck too. but maybe kamal took control for the tamil version
by the way, the film is called ‘Eenadu’ in telugu. and how come there is no page for that?
what a movie…….!!!!I loved the climax portion……where they meet….and the background music lifts the movie to great heights…Mr.Kamal+Mr.Lal=like a worthy combo meal at Marry brown…awsome../!!!!!!
UPO nowhere comes near to A Wednesday.
Nasser and Anupam’s acting was very apt, very natural compared to Kamal and Mohanlal respectively. The substance of the movie lost when remade in Tamil. Common man is no longer a common man in this revised version. Kamal’s problem is over exaggeration- he sacrificed the naturality / substance of A Wednesday by this exaggeration. Another thing I repeatedly pointing Kamal is his interest in adding some unwanted low level dialogues- he did the same in Dasavatharam.. Please avoid both these issues in future.
Now with regards to Mohanlal’s acting- Sincerely, Iam disappointed for the first time, YES FIRST TIME, seeing an improper, inadequate acting from this acting legend. Don’t know what happened him this time. He seems very weak here. He can’t do justice to this role that Anumpan did superbly. May be his low command on Tamil language, but… seeing class acting you did on Maniratnam’s Tamil film Iruvar which had more tough dialogues than this- cant able to justify you.
Any way I predicted this before the release of UPO, So Iam not surprised
Better than ‘A Wednesday’ original in a plenty of places and as a whole … But both films have their tiny flaws , which were bigger in Hindi version …