Saroja - Scissors Nikalo

The decision to watch my first Tamil movie since Dasavatharam on a freezing Chicago night over hot bajjis turned out to be a good one until ...the bajjis got over.

Venkat Prabhu who gave us a simple, yet entertaining film, Chennai 28, has tried a different genre for his next offering. But having made the decision to dabble with a thriller in Saroja, he should gone all out at it and not confined himself to the rules of Tamil cinema - comedy and songs. If you take out the songs that act as brakes and a climax that promises to take you to Tokyo but lands you in Thoothukudi, the ride is not bad.

The plot is a cocktail of movies like Dil Chahta Hai, Easy Rider, Little Miss Sunshine and Home Alone and spans one day in the lives of four laymen visibly heading towards their thirties, Ajay (Shiva), Ganesh (Premji) and the Babu Brothers (Charan and Vaibhav), who have planned to see a cricket match in Hyderabad. They set out on their bizarre vehicle on to the Hyderabad highway with booze in hand, songs on lips and friendship in their hearts. The group comes to a scene of accident and is forced to go through a different route. Thanks to the chutzpah of the lead, they take a wrong turn and so does the story.

There is also a parallel thread involving troubled businessman Viswanathan (Prakashraj) whose daughter, Saroja, the nocturnal titular character, gets kidnapped and he solicits the help of police officer Ravichandran (Jayaram) to save her. As events go from bad to worse, the story threads knot and the four friends try to save their skin and return home alive, in the process meeting the hostage Saroja (Vega).

The screenplay is racy to an extent and Premji's comic sense lightens various tense moments in the movie - different, yet effective. Close friends addressing each other as "sir" was initially confusing and might even set off a trend, replacing meaningful words like "machi" and "machan" in the collegiate's lexicon. Cinematography, background music and lighting (or the lack thereof) contribute heavily to the mood of the movie and the director keeps the audience guessing the next direction the movie would veer into. Unfortunately, the climax doesn't quite live up to the built up suspense and the movie fizzles out. Jayaram is loud and his overacting kills the twist in the tale, which was a tad too trivial. The songs are a huge dampener and are out of place in a supposed road thriller.

Overall it is a good attempt at a different cup of tea albeit diluted with excess sugar and unnecessary spices (read myriad songs and unnecessary scenes).

Verdict: Overpaid Editor
Score: 2.5/5