O2 movie review

There's a naive sincerity in the way the film's director tries to insert themes of eco-activism into his survival thriller. On the surface, it's your standard issue genre film about a set of passengers who get trapped in a bus under the weight of a landslide. With falling levels of oxygen and increasing levels of tension, these passengers don't look like they'll make it through the night, but the film never forgets to add a point or two about how their plight is a result of larger environmental issues. Some of these, like how a rescue worker explaining the landslides as a result of mass deforestation, feels too forced like it was shoehorned into the screenplay to fit the larger theme. But others, like how a small houseplant is brought back to make a larger point, get you feeling all fuzzy inside, appealing to the part of the brain Pixar films are made for. The idea, one guesses, is to use the strengths of the genre to plant within it concepts you'd otherwise not pay attention to. And there are only so many new ways you can get people to plant more trees and live green. So instead of making one new pamphlet, the makers choose the survival thriller to make points you already know. At first, you feel the film's going to make this point by making it all about a boy with a complex breathing problem. Strapped to him is an oxygen cylinder that functions as the ticking time bomb of the screenplay. But with the aforementioned bus getting trapped under the rubble, there's not a lot ...

Travelling is memorable not just because of the destination, but due to the journey. Bus trips, for instance, are special because of the many kind of people en route to a destination. Parvathy (Nayanthara) and her son, Veera (YouTube star Ritvick), who has a breathing disorder, are embarking on one such trip. So is a politician who has lost elections, a man whose love has been rejected by the girl's family, and a policeman involved in a shady deal. It is a six-hour trip - from Coimbatore to Kochi - but this group, along with some other characters, get caught in a landslide. Will they be able to escape? The good thing about O2 is that it does not waste a lot of time in setting things up. Barring an emotional mother-son song, which contributes towards showcasing their camaraderie (which is fantastic), it jumps straight into the premise: how a group of strangers deals with a life-threatening situation? Storyline: A group of passengers in a bus journey get stuck in a landslide On paper, O2 comes across as a survivor drama with interesting elements. But, such a subject needed far more tension to work. After its initial setup, O2 becomes much like Squid Game, which too showcased how individuals react to certain situations thrown at them and how group dynamics work. But here, the characters stuck inside the bus are a tad too many - with each of them having multiple problems - that we stop caring for them, unlike a Helen (2019) that focussed on a single person's travails. The moth...

Language: Tamil | Rating: 2.5/5 ‘How far will a mother go to save her child’ is a loaded dramatic premise, opening opportunities to present superhuman capabilities, especially when it’s headlined by a superstar like Nayantara. Writer-director GK Viknesh’s biggest success is in restraining that temptation and keeping her character realistic. O2 is a survival thriller about a group of humans stuck underground, buried by a landslide. Parvathy (Nayantara) is a biologist of some kind, whose son Veera (Rithvik) is suffering from a lung condition that forces him to remain on oxygen support. They are travelling to Cochin for a transplant. Also in the bus are a young couple in love, and the girl’s father who opposes their relationship; a superstitious politician and his allakkai (helper); a prisoner returning to his mother after serving his sentence; a crooked cop transporting drugs; the driver and so on. If a survival thriller set almost entirely within the confines of a bus depends on its characters, O2 fails. These characters are generally monotone, demonstrate no emotional depth or intelligence, frantically wailing at the first sight of a crisis. It is as if Parvathy is the only one with her wit intact. While their desperation at the heels of near-certain death is understandable, as a cinematic experience, everyone turning loud and wailing their lungs out makes for a grating watch. The film also does little to use the potential allies. Rafiq (Rishikanth) is a doctor-in-training...

Nayanthara starrer O2, directed by GS Viknesh and produced by Dream Warrior Pictures SR Prakash Babu & SR Prabhu is getting premiered tonight on Disney+ Hotstar. On an unexpected turn, when a bus commuting its passengers from Coimbatore to Cochin gets trapped inside a landslide, a mother (Nayanthara) must not only survive the situation but battle against the notorious cop (Barath Neelakandan), who wants to grab the oxygen cylinder from her ailing 8-yr old son (Ritvik), who cannot survive even few seconds without it due to severe lung disorder. There are three substantial reasons that O2 kept us awaited over its release. The first one is Nayanthara, whose screen presence in these visual promos assured us that she has something substantial to deliver. The second factor is the production house Dream Warrior Pictures which consistently churns out neat content-driven movies including its recent outing Taanakkaran. The third is the making style and the story backdrop, which looked something new to the Tamil movie industry. Okay! If these were brimming in you as expectations, let us analyze the movie based on these aspects. Yeah! Nayanthara shines as a stellar performer. Even in movies like Aramm, her performance was good, but she didn’t have so much scope as other characters too had their play emphasized. However, in ‘O2’, we find her giving the best in every single scene. Moreover, her appearance as a lovely mother and her combination with the child artiste Viknesh is very conv...

Survival dramas are not easy to execute. The Nayanthara starrer, O2, now out on Disney+ Hotstar, despite an interesting premise, fails to impress or sustain its dramatic appeal. A bus from Coimbatore to Kochi gets trapped in a landslide and slips so deep inside the earth that its eight passengers are left in a rarefied zone with very little oxygen. It will last only a few hours, and there is a sick child travelling. Parvathy (Nayanthara) is taking her little son, Veera (Ritwik) for a complicated surgery to a Kochi hospital, where he would be cured of his congenital problem. He cannot breathe without an oxygen kit. The bus has a motley group of passengers: Rafiq is planning to elope with his girlfriend Mitra, who is in the same bus chaperoned by her father. Police Inspector Karunai Rajan has a bag of cocaine which he plans to sell. And there is a just-released prisoner. When these people get stuck under mud and rocks, it is question of life and death, and with a cylinder of oxygen in Parvathy’s care, a fight breaks out amongst the passengers. We know how the two-hour long film would wind up, but with a rescue operation that not only appears amateurishly executed, but also has been written most unconvincingly, O2 may well slip to the lowest depths of audience appeal. Nayanthara’s earlier Aramm about a child being rescued from a deep open well was scripted with singular focus and had her playing a District Collector. The movie was gripping, and was lauded for the way it staye...