Ko 2

Ko 2
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Sarath
Produced by	Elred Kumar Jayaraman
Written by	Bakkiam Sankar (dialogues) Raja Ram (dialogues)
Screenplay by	Sarath
Story by	Sarath Anand Ravi (base story)
Starring	Bobby Simha Prakash Raj Nikki Galrani Bala Saravanan
Music by	Leon James
Cinematography	Philip R Sunder Venkat M.
Edited by	Kevin
Production company	R. S. Infotainment
Release date	13 May 2016 (2016-05-13) (India)
Running time	128 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	30 million

Ko 2 (English: King 2) is a 2016 Indian Tamil political thriller film written and directed by Sarath, who earlier worked as associate director/ screenplay writer for Unnaipol Oruvan, Billa 2 and few uncredited Telugu/ Tamil movies. The film is being produced by Elred Kumar and features Bobby Simha and Nikki Galrani in the leading roles, while Prakash Raj reprises his role from the first film. A stand-alone sequel to the successful 2011 film Ko, the film was planned to release in April 2016. The film was released on 13 May 2016 and received good reviews from critics. ^{[1] [2] [3]} Ko 2 is listed in the best of 2016 by The Hindu. ^[4] It is based on the Telugu film Prathinidhi.

Plot

A common man named Kumaran (Bobby Simha) kidnaps the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Yogeeswaran (Prakash Raj) at a private old age home event in Chennai. The news goes viral and everyone from the local to the Central cabinet starts taking the issue personally. The Home Minister Thillainayagam (Ilavarasu) appoints Santhanapandian (John Vijay), the Police Commissioner of Tirunelveli, to rescue Yogeeswaran. Santhanapandian questions Bala (Bala Saravanan), a minister's son who was discovered unconscious at the scene of the kidnapping. Bala tells that he and Kumaran had become friends when Kumaran has saved him from a group of thugs, but are shocked to see that they both love the same girl named Priyadharshini (Nikki Galrani). Bala also reveals that Kumaran willingly allowed him to pursue his relationship with Priyadharshini in exchange for making arrangements for Yogeeswaran to attend the old age home event. Meanwhile, as Santhanapandian and his deputy Arivazhagan (Bharath Reddy) strive to get clues about Kumaran, Kumaran explains to Yogeeswaran his motive for kidnapping him.

Kumaran was an orphan, but due to the efforts of an honest politician Kumaraswamy (Nassar), who had sponsored him, he got a good education and became a journalist with the News7 TV channel. When he went to Kumaraswamy's house to thank him for his contribution to his life, he found out that Kumaraswamy had gone missing for many days. On further investigation, he learnt that Kumaraswamy had been buried alive by Thillainayagam and his sons. Thillainayagam had contested against Kumaraswamy in the last election and had defeated him by rigging the vote, which forced Kumaraswamy to file a case against him and demand a recount. When Kumaraswamy refused to withdraw the case against him, Thillainayagam and his sons buried him alive. Kumaran filed a case against Thillainayagam and asked Kumaraswamy's mentally retarded son Kumaran (Karunakaran), who was unaware that his father had been killed, to give the statement to the police inspector. However, the police inspector was Thillainayagam's aide and informed him about Kumaran. Thillainayagam's sons took Kumaran on a bus and pushed him out en route. Kumaran then was run over by a lorry, killing him. In order to avenge the death of Kumaraswamy and his son, Kumaran hatched a plan with Priyadharshini and Bala to kidnap Yogeeswaran to expose Thillainayagam slowly through false media reports based on false replies by Bala while being interrogated by the police. In the process, Thillainayagam's sons are taken into questioning. After being tortured, they eventually give in and expose Thillainayagam as Kumaraswamy's murderer, even giving them the location in Thillainayagam's lawn where Kumaraswamy was buried. Thillainayagam is arrested, and Kumaran releases Yogeeswaran. Kumaran also escapes from his hideout and poses as a journalist, while Yogeeswaran says he cannot identify the kidnapper. Even Santhanapandian gives up on pursuing the kidnapper as he had kidnapped Yogeeswaran with good intentions.

Cast

• Bobby Simha as Kumaran
• Prakash Raj as Chief Minister Yogeeswaran
• Nikki Galrani as Priya Dharshini
• John Vijay as Police Commissioner Santhanapandian
• Bala Saravanan as Bala
• Karunakaran as Kumaran
• Nassar as Kumaraswamy
• Ilavarasu as Home Minister Thillainayagam
• Mayilsamy
• Bharath Reddy as Deputy Commissioner Arivazhagan
• Shan as Kishore
• Gowtham
• Ravi Venkatram
• Crane Manohar

Production

Following the success of Ko (2011) directed by K. V. Anand, the producers had floated the idea of a potential sequel with pre-production work beginning on a follow-up film featuring co-producer James in the lead role.^[5] The film, however, failed to take off and in April 2015, Elred Kumar announced that he would be producing Ko 2 and that the new venture would be made by an entirely different team. New actors and technicians were added to the team to replace those involved in the original, with Sarath announced as the director.^[6][7] Bobby Simha and Nikki Galrani were revealed to be the lead actors, while it was announced that Prakash Raj would play the role of a Chief Minister.^[7] Leon James, who made his debut with Kanchana 2, was signed on to compose the film's score and soundtrack.^[8]

In June 2015, the team released a motion poster and announced that the film was 50% complete.^[9]

Soundtrack

The film's score and soundtrack was composed by Leon James, in his first solo venture. The song "Unnai Matrinal" was released as a single track song as a tribute to ex-president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, it was released on 14 August 2015. The album was released on 1 October 2015, but a promo for each song was released a week before. "Kohila" promo was released 22 September 2015, "Kannama" promo was released on 23 September 2015 and the song "Vidaadha" was released on 24 September 2015. Behindwoods rated the album 3 out of 5 and called it "The album stays true to the film’s theme and also vouches for novel experimentation and musical feast!".^[10]

References

External links

• Ko 2 on IMDb