Film: Saroja
Cast: Srihari, Prakash Raj, Vaibhav, SP Charan, Siva, Premji, Vega, Kajal, Nikitha, Saran and others
Dialogues: Vennelakanti
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Cinematography: Sakthi Saravanan
Editing: Praveen KL and Srikanth NB
Action: Selva
Art: Videsh
Produced by: T Shiva
Banner: Amma Creations
Written and directed by: Venkat Prabhu
Release Date: September 5, 2008
CBFC Rating: U/A
Whats it about!
Saroja is a kidnap drama. Industrialist Vishwanths daughter Saroja (Vega) is kidnapped by unknown group and the ransom is 10 Crores. Police Commissioner Ravi (Srihari) tries to catch the kidnapper. On a parallel story, a group of four friends in Chennai - Ramaswamy (Vaibhav), Rangaswamy (SP Charan), Ganesh (Premji) and Ajay (Siva) leave for Hyderabad to watch Indo Pak Cricket match. But a tanker is collided on the highway, so they take short cut to Hyd through a forest and enter the den of the gang that is kidnapped Saroja. How they rescue the girl and who really kidnaps her is told in the end in thrilling climax.
Analysis
Saroja is a bilingual movie directed by Tamil director Venkat Prabhu. Taking basic storyline from Hollywood movie -
Judgment Night (1993), Venkat Prabhu weaves this suspense thriller. Though it is not a chilling suspense thriller, it has its moments and well-crafted with parallel-screenplay, good camera work and the twist-in-the tale.
The first 45 minutes induce nothing but boredom. The real momentum comes after that and then it holds your interest till the end. It has too many loopholes and the jokes among the four friends are too bland. The episode of how these four friends come out from kidnap gang along with the Saroja is shot very interestingly.
Biggest problem with the movie is that the director tries to concentrate both on the kidnap drama and as well as with the comedy part on the four friends. But the comedy doesnt work. And also the director incorporates unnecessary technical gimmicks (like in-your face editing, time ticker on the screen), just to make the film look different as the story is very simple one.
First half needs to be trimmed for 30 minutes nearly and the second half is interesting.
Performances
Srihari as honest police commissioner is okay. His real screen presence and performance are seen in the climax scene only. Although the movie revolves around Saroja, actually Vaibhav, SP Charan, Siva and Premji get more footage.
Vaibhav has proved that he is good actor. He is very promising. SP Charans act is fantastic. Premji in the role of a guy who dreams about any girl that he sees evokes laughter but after a point it is very irritating. Siva as TV artiste is okay. Nikita as girlfriend to a villain looks sexy. She does a very sizzling number. One wonders how does Kajal agreed to do this miniscule role which can be done by any junior artiste. Prakash Raj and other actors have done neat job.
On the technical side, the movie scores in a big way. Sakti Saravanans camera work is splendid. His work and flashy editing are big plus points to the movie. Songs by Yuvan Shankar Raja are mediocre but his re-recording has added value. Director Venkat Prabhu seems to be good at screenplay and holding suspense.
Bottom-line
Saroja has good storyline but it needs urgent trimming. On the whole the movie is average.
Some observations
1. The four lead actors are shown as good friends but they address each as saar (sir).
2. The director shows the tankers starting point in Orissa. The purpose of the tanker is show to that it is collided on the national highway and caused traffic jam. What is necessary to show where it is coming from?
3. Saroja goes out in the midnight and dances in a pub. What purpose does it serve to the main story?
Rating: 3/5
