Akku

Cast: Ajay, Sreeji, Rakshai, Anu Hassan, Riaz Khan, Jaishree
Language: Tamil
Banner: On Life Network
Director: Maamani
Camera: Chittibabu
Story: Maamani
Screenplay: Maamani
Dialogue: Maamani
Music: Sriram
Year: 2008

Akku is an experimental thriller in Tamil which is only 90 minutes and features newcomers and has no songs, comedy, or fights- still it works! It has many good twists and turns that will keep you interested and on the edge of your seat.

'Akku' is a vowel used to denote pronunciation not natural to Tamil usage, a more popular usage is 'Ayudha Ezhuthu', but Mani Ratnam has already made a film with the same title! The debutant director Maamani has been influenced by situational thrillers like 'Speed' and 'Phone Booth' and he reworks it to suit a big city like Chennai milieu perfectly.

If Speed told the story of a cop (Keanu Reeves) who must save the passengers of LA city bus that has a bomb set to explode if the bus goes below 50 MPH, Phone Booth narrates the story of a man trapped in a city public phone booth who picks up a ringing receiver and is told is that if he hangs up, he'll be killed by a sniper bullet!

Both these films worked big time with the audiences because they were edge of the seat thrillers for all of their adrenaline-pumping 90 minutes. Maamani has tried something similar with Akku, not anywhere near the tension created by the original Hollywood thrillers but at the same time a bold and daring film for a Tamil viewer.

Siva (Ajay) is an IT professional and an orphan who falls in love with Bhanu (Sriji) a chirpy girl whose brother a long haired bearded guy (Rakshai) is a big time terrorist (!!) who is planning to bomb Chennai city! One day Siva and Bhanu elope, but are caught by terrorist big brother. The guy a bomb maker things of a unique way of taking revenge on Siva and also putting his plans to bomb the city. He plants a shoe bomb on Siva and dumps him in the city center and asks him to start running and if he slows down it will explode killing all the people near him!

Siva starts running through Chennai city and soon the police led by Asst. Commissioner (Riyaz Khan), bomb squad officer Anu (Anu Hassan) are behind him trying their best to defuse the bomb and save him and the city. How the bomb is defused after a lot of twists and turns is what the rest of the film is about.

It is not a great film by any yardstick as the story and screenplay are riddled with anomalies. How come such an efficient force like the Chennai Police had no knowledge of a smart and intelligent terrorist living in the city? The thing about a shoe bomb that will explode if the runner decreases his speed is a bit exaggerated. Does that mean the hero is constantly clocking the same speed throughout his nearly 24 hour run is hard to digest?

Still Akku is an attempt at a different type of thriller not seen in Tamil film genre which has human emotions and cinematic heroism to keep the audiences engrossed. Maamani and his cameraman Chittibabu has been able to craft a thriller that will provide maximum tension for the viewers nervously waiting for the final outcome.

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