Saroja Movie Review (2008)

The much hyped up Venkat Prabhu, who rode into success post Chennai 28 has a lot in stock here. Usually, new directors bomb badly with their second release. Like Nikhil Advani of first timer hit, Kal Ho Na Ho bombed miserably with Salaam E Ishq.

Saroja is touted as a thriller but like any thriller there are flaws. Namely, the cat-and-mouse chasing. As seen in Kamal Haasan's DASAVATHAARAM, the cat and mouse scenes can be irritating and dragging but Haasan succeeded in keeping our interest alive with the Bio Vial. Coming back to Saroja, there are times (mostly the second half of the film) where the plot becomes highly irritant of chasing around and such that it really tests your patience.

In the end, Saroja becomes an O-K film. A one time watch. Still, Venkat has done much much better in keeping you fastened in your seats from start to finish.

Meet Ajay raj (Mirchi Shiva), Ganesh (Premji Amaran), and brother duo Jagapathi Babu (Son of SPB, S.P Charan) and Jagan (Vaibhav). The foursome decide to drive down to Hydrabad for a cricket match, while concurrently, a kidnapping takes place before their departure and their arrival. Business Tycoon Vishwanath (Prakash Raj) finds that her daughter Saroja is kidnapped and enlists his friend, Inspector (Jayaram in a negative role) to trace the wherabouts. As the foursome reach Hydrabad, series of horrific events occur leaving the boys having to deal with the kidnapping gang and there forms the rest of the story.

Like Chennai 28, Venkat succeeds in budding up comedy and friendship. For instance, Premji Amaran was promising in Chennai 28 as the comic relief. Here, he's taken his comic to the next level. Unlike Vadivel and Vivek, his comedy isn't sidetracked from the plot nor does it deviate it. Moreover, he's usurped better here than he was in Satyam/Salute. He's sure to bring the house down with his women fantasies and his confusion with actress Saroja Devi.

The story is no different. In fact it's a copy of JUDGEMENT NIGHT (1993, Michael Douglas). Though the closing proceedings seem to be a lift from Malayalam laugh Riot, Ramji Rao Speaking and Babu's plan of action is nothing by Home Alone.

Another flaw the the dubbing. I've noticed that since Saroja is a billingual, most of the characters speak Telugu, but in characters like Telugu comedian, Brahmanadham, is really awkward speaking tamil though you can easily tell it's Telugu dubbed over. This the same problem that Kathanayakudu went through when Rajnikanth is partially dubbed in Telugu (though SPB has dubbed for him in Telugu) and partially is reshot synched.

Yuvan Shankar Raja bounces back with Saroja with pleasant numbers, but besides Aaja Mere Soniye and Dosth Bada Dosth, the rest of the numbers seem forced or stick like a sore thumb.

Performances. Out of the four, S.P Charan stands tall in his acting debut. Like his legendary father S.P Balasubramanian, he's extremely talented and one hopes he gets good roles like this. Second, Premji, hands down. Other directors, please take note of his comic performance. That's how you do comedy, not sidetrack us from the plot! Mirchi Siva is good but is limited. But his spoof on Serial acting is class. Vaibhav is good and his interaction with Premji is the highlight. Prakash Raj hams the usual while Malayalam actor, Jayaram seems to be only doing Villian roles after DHAAM DHOOM and trust me, he looks awkward doing it. But this isn't the first time since he was the villian in THENALI (1999). Vega hams as well but it's Kajal Agrawal that disappoints the most as she serves NO PURPOSE in the film. The cameos by the Chennai 28 team was a nice touch and good to see them again.

Overall, Saroja is an average film that's worth a look.

Rating: ***