Shriya’s sizzling dances is only saving grace

Films with economic offences in the backdrop have already come on the silver screen. The latest one on this theme is ‘Sivaji’ with Rajanikanth as hero which was a blockbuster. Again Susi Ganeshan penned another story on those lines, of course, this time with a little change that the hero himself works in the CBI in economic offences wing and robs the Peter to pay Paul. Vikram played the lead role and he sported different get-ups in the film and he donned all the characters with equal ease. Shreya with her slim attire is the only asset and saving grace for the film is the dances by her.

Mallanna (Vikram) is an officer in CBI under economic offences wing. Krishna Rao (Krishna) is his boss. Krishna Rao always feels that though he booked cases against several millionaires who swindled people’s money in thousands of crores, his department could not recover the money from them as they deposit the money in foreign banks whose details are always missing. Had the money could be recovered, our country could prosper in all ways and poverty could be totally erased. Mallanna decides to bring cheers in the face of his boss and uses his intelligence to collect such data. In order to help poor people, he chooses the God’s name. He makes to spread a gossip that anyone who wants to resolve his/her problem, he/she should write it on a chit and hang it to a tree. Surprisingly, all those who pleaded the God with such chits, get benefited.

So, the number of devotees who visit and tie chits to the tree grows. The police start investigation into it under the leadership of DIG (Prabhu). Mallanna raids the house of Asish (Asish Vidyardhi) a millionaire and with the help of a mole, finds where he concealed the money in his house. However, Asish conceals more money in the form of deposits abroad. After the raid, Asish pretends to have got a paralysis stroke and this irks his daughter Subbalakshmi (Shriya), who wants to take revenge against Mallanna for the raid. After a few turn of events, Mallanna gets caught by the police that it was he who is helping the poor and this prompts Asish to force Mallanna to share the booty with him. Mallanna accepts to this proposal as it would indirectly help him to find the hideout where Asish is depositing the money.

As per the plan Mallanna finds the account number and also the password of that foreign account number and transfers the entire money into his account. Later, he catches another big shot and also brings to light how he swindled the public money. However, the court could not punish Mallanna, despite his self-confession that he only robbed the big shots and is helping the poor, in the absence of any evidence. The film ends on a happy note with Subbalakshmi marrying Mallanna.

PLUS:

The highlight of the film is the sizzling glamour of Shreya and the versatile performance of hero Vikram. After a long time, the hero of the film sported different attires, like the heroes in 70s and 80s. Though Vikram sported over 12 different get-ups on various occasions, he was able to perform all the roles with equal ease. Like the Batman and Spiderman, the hero of the film plays Roosterman. Vikram was perfect in that role with a typical mannerism and body language. He made the audiences spell bound with his performance. Shreya’s glamour is another highlight of the movie. Almost all the songs in the film were excellently choreographed and she too flexed her body with equivalent ease. Next comes the music. Devisri Prasad should be commended for giving tunes which have become very popular among the masses even before the release of the film. Almost all the songs are foot-tapping and gelled well with the audiences. Direction in the first half is also equally good and made the film worth watching. Asish Vidyarthi, Prabhu, YG Mahendran and Mukhesh Tiwari and others did justice to their roles. Brahmanandam’s comedy is average.

MINUS:

The director lost grip on the film in the second half. Though the first half has several mind games and the hero sporting different get-ups and the heroine moving after the hero, teasing him and the songs made the first half watchable, the second half went haywire and the director unable to maintain the same pace and groped in the dark many a time. He could not move the film in an interesting way and the common man could not understand what was going on and how and why the hero is going? What made him to go abroad? How the money circulation was done? What made the hero to go all the way to Mexico as he could do the same in India by cracking the password and other such things. The entire foreign episode is a big mess and beyond the mindset of the common audiences. All these questions remain questions and the director failed to explain all these things. Even the technical crew behind the screen failed to contribute much to recoup from the situation.

ANALYSIS:

Of course, Vikram took the character a challenge and emoted well in every frame. Shriya too did not show any inhibition to expose her glamour. Her ‘zero size’ would definitely attract the youth mass audiences. The kissing scenes and romantic scenes with the hero may also help bring the audiences to the theatre to some extent. However, the film failed to match the expectations and it was proved that the hype created on the film is only hype and has no great subject. The audiences felt bored after the interval bang. Despite taking two years’ time for shooting, the film proved a dud ultimately. The entire second half testing the patience of the audiences.

Cast: Vikram, Shreya Saran, Asish Vidyarthi, Prabhu, YG Mahendran, Mukhesh Tiwari, Brahmanandam and others.

Credits: Dialogues and lyrics – Sahiti, Camera – Ekambaram, Producer – Kalaipuli S Thanu, Story, screenplay and direction – Susi Ganeshan.

Banner : V Creations

Released on: August 21, 2009