The trailer for the Hindi remake of "OK Kanmani" is out. Starring Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor, "OK Jaanu" tries to replicate the magic that Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menen brought to the Tamil romcom.
While Mani Ratnam dared to explore a live-in relationship in a relatively conservative state like Tamil Nadu, he played it safe by making it as vanilla as it gets. The film barely had any "adult" scenes although Aadi and Tara proclaim that they're in it together for lust and not love.
The Bollywood version, directed by Shaad Ali, appears to be much bolder going by the shots we see in the trailer. This is not surprising considering Bollywood has comfortably been showing premarital sex and non-monogamous relationships for a while now, "Befikre" being the latest in the bandwagon. Even if the hero and heroine inevitably get married in the end, the relationship doesn't begin with marriage as the foregone conclusion.
However, "OK Jaanu" simply doesn't seem to have the same flavour as "OK Kanmani" did. Dulquer and Nithya shared a kind of electric chemistry that made "OKK" work despite a sketchy plot. Aditya and Shraddha, on the other hand, scream Bollywood with all the satin sheets and forced sensuousness.
"OKK" clicked among Tamil audiences because the theme was relatively new and the actors were great. "OK Jaanu", on the other hand, is not exactly in new territory for a Hindi audience and unless the plot has been made more substantial or if the performances are way better than what we see in the trailer, it might end up sinking. Hard to tell if AR Rahman's music alone might be able to save it!
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