Ko (film)

Plot

Ashwin Kumar (Jiiva) is a photojournalist working for the private newspaper Dina Anjal. He witnesses Naxalites robbing a local bank. He chases them and manages to click photos of the robbers. When he tries to escape, he is stopped by a young woman Renuka 'Renu' (Karthika Nair) who assumes he is the culprit and helps the robbers to take his camera. However, he is able to secure the memory card of the camera. The police catch him, and to prove that he is a press photographer, he shows the photos to them, who identify everyone except the gang leader (whose face is covered by a mask). At his office, he again meets Renuka, who has newly joined as Article Editor. Saraswathi 'Saro' (Piaa Bajpai) also works in his office and has feelings for Ashwin, who does not reciprocate.

Settled in her new job, Renuka writes a cover story about a politician Aalavandhan (Kota Srinivasa Rao), describing his attempt to marry a minor. Enraged by this, Aalavandhan barges into the newspaper office and shouts at Renuka. The audio recording of her interview disappears (courtesy Aalavandhan), and she is fired from her job for falsified reporting. Ashwin later risks his life to capture the pictures of Aalavandhan who actually engages in child marriage in a temple at midnight. Later the story with the photos is printed in their newspaper and this makes Renuka to fall in love with Ashwin, which the latter reciprocates. Saro is initially jealous of the love between Ashwin and Renuka, but later accepts it and gets over Ashwin.

Meanwhile, Vasanthan Perumal (Ajmal Ameer), a recent graduate and engineer who is Ashwin's former college mate, strives hard to enter the politics by contesting the upcoming election. He is contesting against more experienced politicians who capture the people by giving freebies and money. No one cares about Vasanthan and his team of graduates, who promise a healthy government to people. Their party name is 'Siragugal' (feathers). Ashwin and Renuka find out about Vasanthan's election campaign, and they and the entire Dina Anjal team extend their support to the campaign, covering it extensively, much to the chagrin of Aalavandhan and the Chief Minister Yogeswaran 'Yogi' (Prakash Raj).

One night, Vasanthan's party organises an election campaign meeting. Ashwin, photographing the event, receives a text message from Saro that states there is a bomb underneath the stage where Vasanthan is speaking. Ashwin manages to save Vasanthan just before the bomb explodes. Later, Ashwin finds Saro fatally wounded near the blast site. Saro struggles to tell something to Ashwin and Renuka before she dies. Ashwin, through a video clip recorded by another photographer, finds out that Saro was intentionally killed by someone. He later notices a resemblance between the leader of the bank robbery and this unknown killer, concluding that the Naxalite leader killed Saro.

A few days later, Renuka notices that Vasanthan's photo in their newspaper was cut from a college class photo, where Ashwin is also present. Confronted by Renuka, Ashwin tells her that he and Vasanthan studied in the same college and were best friends. He also tells her that he is happy for Vasanthan's success and is wholeheartedly supporting his election campaign.

In the election, Vasanthan's party wins by a huge majority and Vasanthan becomes the Chief Minister. He orders the release of 20 naxals on Republic Day, citing humanity. Shocked on hearing this news, Ashwin rushes to the secretariat to meet Vasanthan. In Vasanthan's office, Ashwin notices that the Naxalite leader who killed Saro is there, talking with Vasanthan. Ashwin airs his grievances to Vasanthan, who ignores him. Ashwin then follows the leader to his hideout. At the same time, Vasanthan orders the Tamil Nadu Police to go kill the Naxals at their hideout and the Police Commandos surround the perimeter of that place. Ashwin, already at the hideout, confronts the Naxalite leader, whose name is Kadhir (Bose Venkat) and finds out from him that Vasanthan had made a deal with the Naxalites to help him win the election. They orchestrated events such as the burning of a hut and saving the woman in that hut (who was also a Naxalite) in order to win people's sympathy. In the same vein, they had planted a bomb on the stage where Vasanthan was speaking during his meeting. Saro had found out the truth about Vasanthan, but was fatally assaulted by him so that she does not reveal his character and intentions to anybody. Ashwin realises that Saro had tried to warn him and Renuka about Vasanthan's true character before dying and also that now Vasanthan is double-crossing the Naxalites and is planning to kill them as a show of achievement. Ashwin records this confession using his mobile phone camera and sends it to Renuka, who plans to publish this story in their newspaper. Vasanthan then arrives and kills Kadhir. He also tries to kill Ashwin. However, Ashwin triggers a land mine there which explodes, killing Vasanthan, while Ashwin manages to escape.

Vasanthan's party members arrive at the hideout on hearing the news that Vasanthan had died. Seeing their innocence, Ashwin forces Renuka not to reveal the truth about Vasanthan because his party members would get into serious trouble and lose their seats just for supporting Vasanthan. They did not know about Vasanthan's true character and intentions and supported him, believing his false claims of a "healthy government". Instead, Renuka publishes an article saying that Vasanthan had sacrificed his life fighting the Naxalites and died as a martyr. Ashwin and Renuka submit their resignations to the Chief Editor for falsified reporting, but he rejects their resignations and tells them to cover the upcoming election.

Cast

Casting

Initially the film was rumored to have Karthi in the lead. However, it was later officially announced that Silambarasan would play the lead in the film, but was later replaced by Jiiva. Actors Ajith and Suriya were also considered for the role. The lead female role was initially supposed to be enacted by Tamannaah Bhatia, who was replaced by actress Radha's daughter, Karthika Nair. The trailer of this film was played during the screening of Manmadan Ambu and got a favourable response.

Filming

The film was shot on location in Chennai, Harbin in China as well as in Western Norway at Trolltunga, Stalheim, Bergen and Prekestolen, becoming the first Tamil film to be shot in Norway.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album is scored by Harris Jayaraj, who had previously worked with Anand on Ayan. The composition of the songs took place in Macau. During Diwali 2010 a short teaser was released which featured the song "Enamo Aedho" which received acclaim from critics and audience. Another song, "Aga Naga", featured special appearances by several Tamil film personalities, including composer Jayaraj (see under cast). The album was launched on 19 January 2011 in Chennai.

Tamil track list

Telugu track list

All lyrics written by Vanamali.

Critical response

The soundtrack received mixed reviews from critics. C. Karthik from Behindwoods.com gave 2.5/5 writing: "Overall, Harris has tried to re-create the Ayan magic in KV Anand's latest and has achieved it to an extent [...] There are a couple of songs that give bragging rights to Harris but the others fail to scale the same height. Ko is worth having in your personal collection!" Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave a 2/5 citing that "aside from the sweetly melodious Ennamo Edho, the other numbers are all mish-mashed versions of his earlier hits." Indiaglitz said "Ko's music is vivacious with different genres of romantic songs, hip hop and nevertheless even poetic."

Release

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Kalaignar. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board and released in nearly 2230 theatres worldwide, making it Jiiva's biggest release ever. It is also being released in multiplexes across metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Vadodara with English subtitles to attract the non-Tamil audience.Ayngaran International released the movie on DVD and releasing soon on Blu-ray.

Critical reception

The film opened to positive reviews. The Hindu described the film as a "tale with a realistic twist" and praised Anand who "strikes gold with Ko. Blending the commercial with the realistic is a challenge, but K. V. Anand proves adept at it." The Times of India gave three and a half citing: "With Ko, director Anand gives notice of his immense talent once again, making a movie that is all set to lord over the box office this summer". National Film Award-winning critic, Baradwaj Rangan wrote: "If someone wants to make a case for the abolishment of song and dance from our cinema, Ko would be Exhibit A." He also went on to state that Ko was "a series of big scenes with no transitions, no segues, no scenes that just stop to smell the scenery."

Box office

The film opened 95–100% occupancy on first day collected ₹ 25 lakhs s.The film first weekend collection is ₹ 74 lakhs.The film first week collection is ₹ 549 million. In Chennai, it collected ₹ 73,39,000 in the opening weekend. After 9 weeks, it collected ₹ 79.9 million in Chennai The film's total worldwide collection is ₹ 25 crores at the box office thus being biggest blockbuster ever in Jiiva's career. and completed 100-day run at the box office.

The Telugu version, Rangam collected ₹ 209.5 million at the box office and also declared Blockbuster, with distributors organizing celebrations in Tirupati on its 100th day of theatrical run.

Remakes

The film was remade in Bengali as Kanamachi by notable Bengali director, Raj Chakraborty. It stars Ankush Hazra, Srabanti and Abir Chatterjee in the lead roles played by Jiiva, Karthika Nair and Ajmal respectively.

Sequel

A sequel to the film released on 13 May 2016 with a different crew and cast starring bobby simha in Ko 2 directed by Sarath. Prakash Raj is the only actor to reprise his role from the original.