'Ko' and its king-size victory

Cinemimi [Sunday, May 16, 2011]
Two types of success stories are there in Tamil cinema. One is scripting history, and the other, rewriting it. 'Ko' fits well into both these categories, and we are not saying this without reasons.
The Jiiva-starrer directed by K V Anand penned a history of its own by shattering all box-office records in the very first weekend of its release. And it fulfills the second criteria by rewriting age old formulae of commercial cinema. In other words, the film is very much within the commercial format, but at the same time it is different too.
When we asked a film pundit to comment on 'Ko' and its success, he said, "At a time when directors prefer to handle the story, screenplay and dialogue departments too, Anand was clear that his job was to wield the megaphone alone. He had a solid backup on this front in the form of Subha, who are established writers. They came up with a superb script which was executed well by Anand."
He added: "Though he is a popular cinematographer, Anand stayed away from this task too. He asked one of his former assistants (Richard Nathan) to take care of photography and gave his entire attention only on directing the film. And the result was there on screen."
The movie's most important asset, needless to say, is Harris Jayaraj's music. Knowing well the pulse of the audience and the needs of the script, the music composer came up with sizzling songs and scintillating background score, which helped a lot to the success.
If the above things are the hidden strengths of 'Ko', the visible one was the performance of artistes. Most media persons who had watched the film were perhaps ready to accept Jiiva as their colleague, as the actor played beautifully the role of a press photographer.
And from Karthika, Piaa, Ajmal and Prakashraj to those who had appeared in one or two scenes (the woman who played the mother of an innocent school going girl could be a good example) provided enough support to the film.
Last but not the least, Anand himself was a press photographer years ago. For obvious reasons, this crucial factor could have provided him more interest on 'Ko', besides enabling him to hold a firm grip while picturising the script.
All these things, coupled with the support from the media, has made the film produced by R S Infotainment and distributed by Red Giant Movies, a landmark movie of 2011.
A good picture is equal to a thousand words, they say. 'Ko' is just that.