Buzzing Movies

One of the many 'small' movies this season, Saroja is a kidnap flick starring Srihari, Prakash Raj, Vaibhav and others. Four guys on a trip from Chennai to Hyderabad get entwined in a kidnapper's hideout. The various events that lead to it, the girl's story and the escape lead to a final and almost predictable twist. The four friends' repartee and relationships add to the humor element of the movie. Because it's a bilingual, some of the humor is lost in translation and the lip sync is obviously not too good. The music is not bad and the protagonist is a teenager who acts her age. The rest of the cast is tolerable with Prakash Raj and Srihari stealing the show along with Vaibhav as part of the foursome.

Plot Saroja is businessman Vishwanath's daughter, with loads of money but parental neglect. She is kidnapped and the kidnappers demand a huge ransom and double it after they figure out he got cops with him, headed by do-gooder ACP Ravi. A group of four friends traveling from Chennai to Hyderabad stumble upon the hideout and their adventure and Saroja's fate intertwine.

Story, Screenplay and Direction The screenplay in most of the first half shifts from Saroja and her family's standpoint and the four friends journey till the kidnapper's hideout. Then it's a relentless run and a quest to escape them, till they meet the girl. Then the drama focuses on a few other things, some humor and romantic inclinations included. Their escape forms a good part of the story, but the twist at the end somehow pours cold water on the attempt, making it seem unnecessary and weak as the identity of the kidnappers is exposed. There's no good or bad anymore, just grey. The pretext for the kidnappers is (yawn!) not believable.

The whole Tamil TV industry turns up for a song, which good old Telugu people fail to recognize, obviously. Actually the first 30 minutes are essential to build up the plot, but not unavoidable. It establishes the characters though, and their relationship dynamics. The movie starts off a good note, then remains shaky for a good 20 minutes of Telugu-Tamil all-around confusion and when the real plot begins, it picks up immediately. We have that in our movies especially-buildup plot and real plot. And in some movies, the latter never begins till the last 30 minutes (HAHK, anyone?). Here thankfully, it begins after the initial introduction.

The locations are perfect. There are a couple of editing glitches and repeated shots that could have been avoided. The cinematography is good. Amaran and his Dancing Goddesses is funny. Brahmanandam does a brief but grin-inducing cameo. Ajay is a TV actor and his character also has some humor in it. Ranga and Chinni are Tamilians and that variety in the group is interesting.

Performances Srihari is well cast as a cop, and with his tough guy body language and extremely refined Telangana dialect makes for good characterization. He is controlled, placid and has come a long, long way in terms of acting and career. Prakash Raj and he have parallel roles, and he adds to the movie's asset list. One look with his saucer eyes and a single gesture is necessary-somehow the director drags it in the end with him breaking down. Still, it's a role that he performs like the pro he is, in a brief but important role. Amongst the four guys, SPB Charan as a family man with mixed feelings about the trip does pretty well. Vaibhav has improved from his debut. Amaran with his several love tracks and dancing Goddesses provides the humor, which would have been better in Tamil surely and Shiva as a wimpy TV actor does a decent job. Vega as Saroja has a brief role, but she is a natural. Sampath as Sampat is good.

Song and Dance The first song is heavily influenced but good. The rest of the music is decent. For some reason, Sampat and group break into an impromptu and mandatory Item number after which the movie becomes more or less predictable.

Last Word The screenplay is the strength of the movie. Despite some setbacks like the kidnappers pretext, dubbing glitches etc the movie is watchable and interesting for a one-time view.


End Credits :

Starring : Vaibhav, Srihari, Prakashraj, Vega, SP Charan, Brahmanandam, Siva, Premji, Kajal, Nikitha, Saran and Others.
Action: Selva.
Art: Videsh.
Cinematography: Sakthi Saravanan.
Dialogues: Vennelakanti.
Editing: Praveen KL & Srikanth NB.
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja.
Story, Screenplay & Direction : Venkat Prabhu.
Producer: T. Shiva.
Banner: Amma Creations.
Release Date: 5th September, 2008.

Labels: brahmanandam, Prakashraj, SP Charan, Srihari, tollywood, vaibhav, Vega

Posted by Raj on Saturday, 27 September, 2008 at 12:55 PM | Permalink