SUDHANDHIRAM

A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam

Remakes make some aspects easier for the director. The story has already been tried and tested(with success I assume since its only the hits that are usually remade). The script and the screenplay are also available readymade. But the director should not be carried away by these and present, what seems like, a dubbing of the original but with a different cast. Care need to be taken to make sure that the characters and sequences fit into the culture that the movie is being targeted for. Director Rajkapoor seems to have forgotten the latter need. His Sudhandhiram is a frame-by-frame remake of the Aamir Khan starrer Ghulam and loses a lot of its effectiveness due to the loss of nativity in the translation.

Vishwa(Arjun) is a goonda and an aspiring boxing champion. He does the typical goonda jobs(like scaring a batsman of the local cricket club to make sure he becomes out) for Sopraj(Sharad Saxena), the local dada. He is usually bailed out by a lawyer(Radhika), who believes that there is still good in him and he just needs to be given another chance. Sopraj is aiming to build a colony in the area after vacating the people already living there. Vishwa's brother Raghu(Raghuvaran), is an accountant on Sopraj's payroll. Love blossoms between Vishwa and Divya(Rambha), the girlfriend of the head of a local gang. When a social worker Vikram(Ranjit) intrudes in the affairs of Sopraj, he asks Vishwa to bring Vikram to him. Vishwa does so thinking that Sopraj is just going to talk some sense into him but Sopraj brutally kills him instead. This makes Vishwa turn over a new leaf. Though his love for his brother prevents him initially, he finally decides to turn approver against Sopraj.

One of the higlights of the movie is the stunt that Arjun and Babloo perform in front of a speeding train. It involves running towards the train and then jumping off at the last minute and is very well executed. If Arjun performed the stunt himself he definitely deserves a pat on the back (even if graphics have been used, they have been done seamlessly). But this whole sequence is also where the lack of nativity is most obvious. A gang of leather-clad guys on bikes, with a leader who sets records by running in front of trains, just doesn't fit into the tamil milieu.

The two flashbacks raise more questions than answers. Arjun's flashback of how is father died (Director Rajkapoor, who also appeared in Ezhaiyin Sirippil, has a brief cameo during this segment) reveals that his father betrayed some of his friends during the freedom struggle. But Arjun still walks around repeating what his father taught him. Raghuvaran's contradicting appraisal of their father seems more right. The other flashback shows that Radhika also has her own axe to grind against the dada. But once again, it is unclear why she never went to court for him killing her sister. Especially since Radhika herself is a lawyer.

Credit must be given for an uplifting climax. The usual ending for movies of this kind tends to be the hero taking the law into his own hands and mowing down all the bad guys. The climactic fight here too has all the usual ingredients. The hero gets battered initially and then reinvigorates himself before bashing the villain. The villain too falls down only to get up once the hero has let down his guard. But the ending itself is sensible and provides a more permanent solution to the problem facing the people.

Vivek and Vaiyapuri provide their share of laughs in a separate comedy track which has Vivek playing a goonda named Surfraj. There is an explosive scene where a Kerala girl reveals her name and Vivek interprets it in tamil and other encounters (like their bullying of the shopkeeper) manage to evoke laughs too. But their dance with Alphonso could have been avoided.

Arjun is fine as the goonda though his monologue during the climax, where he shouts at Saxena and provokes him to come out, could have been delivered with more emotion. The action king is given more oppurtunity than in Mudhalvan for stunts and fights impressively. He is also on the receiving end during the boxing match and the make-up man deserves mention for Arjun's bloodied face after the fight. Rambha provides the usual oomph. Raghuvaran underplays his role with dignity as usual while Sharad Saxena is suitably ruthless as Sopraj. After her sharp-tongued roles in Jeans and Taj Mahal, Radhika has the chance to play a more dignified role here. But that also reduces the oppurtunity for histrionics. Neena has a brief cameo as Radhika's sister. The songs are quite unlike the usual melodious fare from S.A.Rajkumar but are easy on the ears.