Saroja Tamil Movie
Venkat Prabhu who won a lot of admiration for his "Chennai-600 028" is back with a thriller, "Saroja". This is his second directorial venture which makes you laud him once again.
The film is about four buddies who on their way to Hyderabad to watch a cricket match get themselves into a nasty situation. That Prabhu seems fond of cricket is evident that the story of "Chennai-600 028" too was built around cricket. Except for this common factor, cricket, "Saroja" is different. A tight plot, neat narration, in-depth characterization, natural performance, good dialogues, thrills and humour all go to make "Saroja" an enjoyable fare.
Viswanathan (Prakash Raj) is an industrialist of repute in Hyderabad and his daughter Saroja (Vega), a plus-two student, is kidnapped by a gang headed by Sampath (Sampath) for ransom. Assistant police commissioner Ravichandran (Jayaram) is on the job of rescuing the girl and nabbing the kidnappers. In the meantime, four friends, Ajay (Siva), an actor in a TV serial, Ganesh Kumar (Premji Amaran), a fun-loving guy, Jagapathi Babu ( SPB Charan), who is the senior of the four and married with a small daughter and Ram Babu (Vaibhav), who is Jagapathi Babu's brother, leave Chennai for Hyderabad to watch a cricket match between India and Pakistan. In the middle of the night, they lost their way and are forced to park their vehicle at an unknown place following an accident involving a tanker lorry causing traffic jam. They find a man (Bose Venkat) lying with bullet wounds struggling for life. To their shock, they watch hiding behind a tree villain Sampath arriving and killing the man. Scared by this, the friends leave the place in a hurry. Jagapathi Babu leaves his purse behind. They fear that the purse which contains his address and all other particulars would help the gang trace them and put them to death. They come back to retrieve the purse when they find the spot where Vega is held by the gang. They get ready to rescue Vega. Would they succeed? Could ACP Ravichandan apprehend the villain and his gang? The climax is engaging.
Venkat Prabhu proves he is a master story teller by making events unfold in a real time sequential order. The friends' adventure is laced with humour.
Charan who is worried about his family back in Hyderabad, Siva who is concerned about the life of his friends and Premji who runs holding his life in hand are all 'boost- up' characters.
Prakash Raj, for whom business is all important, is at his usual best. Jayaram's playing a police officer is unusual. In the climax, it looks he overacts.
Sampath as a bad guy is not as threatening as a villain should be. He also fails to infuse intensity into the role.
Episodes featuring Brahmanandam are a laugh riot.
All three heroines _ Veda (kidnapped daughter of Prakash Raj), Kajal, Nikhita (as villain Sampath's wife Kalyani) _ are there to provide glamour and they are used only in dance sequences.
Yuvan Shankar Raja's music and background score are the big strength of the film. "Dostu Bada Dostu" and "Kodaana Kodi" are in the 'once more' category.
Sakthi Saravanan's camerawork and Praveen-Srikanth editing are brilliant.
"Saroja" is sheer fun.
With his second outing Venkat Prabhu comes into reckoning as a promising director.
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