A1 (accused no 1) movie review

A1 is directed by a “Nalaya Iyakunar” winner Johnson K and hence there is more expectations. Santhanam is the hero and music is by Santosh Narayan (for a change in a comedy film). The trailer of the film was very average with typical Santhanam and Rajendran comedy.

Saravanan (Santhanam as usual in a jobless “no purpose other than love rich girl” character) falls accidentally (or may be intentionally) in love with Divya (Tara Alisha), a typical orthodox Brahmin. Divya has two conditions in finding her partner – he needs to be of the same caste but brave like Surya of “Thalapathy”. Her parents refuse the marriage as Saravanan is from a different caste. Further Divya challenges Saravanan to find out atleast one wrong doing of her father, who is a do-gooder in the society.

With a simple story-line like this, to make a viewer sit patiently for 2 hours is not easy. Director Johnson manages to pull it off to some extent, largely because of the humour added to a serious event in the second half. The movie has typical Santhanam style counters and crass humors in plenty. For a difference, even his side-kicks play an important role in the comedy. The intro of these characters are also funny for eg, the bike repair scene.

Santhanam is in his comfort zone and does it with ease, aptly supported by other actors. But he needs to shed away his ambition of becoming an action hero. The heroine (Tara Alisha) has a typical "loose ponnu" character. I still wonder why we can’t have some real and natural characters in a comedy film. Infact this character can be given the "Best Loose Ponnu" award.

The second half has an interesting premise and the comedy added to the happening in a funeral is good. Especially the drunk character who comes towards the end. The scene where he uses a banana to kill one person being the highlight. And we also have "Motta" Rajendran adding more laughter to the proceedings.

Santosh Narayan mentioned that he agreed to do this film because of the message in it. There is no scene to justify any caste based message in the film. It’s just used as a reason for breaking off the marriage which we have seen in many films. BGM is just ordinary, thankfully the film has only two songs and “Malai Neram” is instantly catchy. Nothing much to talk about the cinematography or editing.

If only the director had added some “sense” to the lead characters, this would have been a much better film. Overall A1 (Accused no: 1) is an average comedy outing which will make you laugh at some moments and wince at others.

Rating – 2.5/5