OK Jaanu, a romantic film directed by Shaad Ali, is the remake of Mani Ratnam's Tamil film O Kathal Kanmani. The screenplay and story is by legendary filmmaker Mani Ratnam. The original version was a box office hit. Mani Ratnam had returned to romance genre after almost a decade with OK Kanmani. He drew a parallel in his movie through his protagonists – an old couple and modern-age couple. Two different perceptions were shown in the movie, without an effort to get preachy or judgmental. At one side, age-old concept of marriage and romance is shown – commitment for the whole life. On the other hand, contemporary romance and live-in relationship was shown, where the couple felt very much in love but did lack the confidence / trust to commit to each other. Mani Ratnam did not try to convey that one is superior to the other, but he very subtly conveyed that one has to be certain about his or her relationship, commitment definitely strengthens the relationship. O Kadhal Kanmani was a very light-hearted movie. It made one feel like falling in love. As far as remakes are concerned, it is bound to draw comparison to the original version in every aspect. Those who have seen the original may feel that the Hindi version is not at par with the same, but for those who have not seen the original, may find OK Jaanu enjoyable. When a remake is made, the filmmaker does face challenges – either it has to be at par with the original or at least a bit superior to the original. And, that is where, OK Jaanu falters. It has nothing new to offer, it is exactly similar to the original, which is still OK, but it fails to have the depth as that of the original.
Aditya/ Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur) lands at Mumbai Railway Station and that is where his first eye contact with Tara (Sharddha Kapur) happens who was standing on a different platform and appears to be troubled. Adi is a video game developer, who is in the process of making a breakthrough game. Coincidence brings Adi and Tara together in front of each other and both of them get amazed to explore that they are almost similar to each other, both of them happy-go-lucky people, both not believing in marriage, both not wanting to commit in relationship etc. Their friendship blossom, but a spark of a special relationship is silently handled and definitely felt right from the very beginning. Both of them are focused as far as their career is concerned, Tara wants to go to Paris to pursue her architect course whereas Adi dreams to be a rich man like Mark Zuckerberg and settle in USA. As is the trend in the films offlate, both want to just enjoy the togetherness, love, laughter minus any commitments, possessiveness, drama. Both have similar opinion about marriage that they don't want to fall in the trap of marriage. They decide to enter into live-in relationship before heading to pursue their careers abroad separately. They chose to stay with a old couple Gopi and Charu played by Naseeruddin Shah and Leela Samson (Leela played the same role in Tamil too). They happen to witness this couple enjoying 50 years of togetherness in marriage. What happens next is very much predictable.
Aditya-Shraddha are likable, look good together, but that is not sufficient. They are unable to regenerate the chemistry of Dulquer- Nithya. The movie picks up when Naseeruddin Shah – Leela Samson come on screen, they do add depth to the film. As the lead pair wanted no drama in their relationship, the film also lacks drama, twists and turns.
Music by AR Rahman is disappointing. Songs are not synchronized with the script appropriately. Even the energy of Humma Humma song is missing. Dialogues are very much ordinary.
OK Jaanu lacks the flow, passion and magic of its original version O Kathal Kanmani but certainly has to offer one-time watch simple story for those who haven't watched the original. Contradictory to one of the punchline used in its posters – 'Love can surprise you', it does not surprise you. A one-time watch.