Saaradhi

The main flaw in the movie Saaradhi is its direction. A movie that should have been kept in a very realistic zone has been unnecessarily dragged into clichés and commercial flavors by the director. May be because of the underwhelming start the movie has, you will feel it as an overall good cinema by the time you see the climax. With some good moments towards the climax and a quality enhancement by Gopi Sundar through his music, Saaradhi becomes a watchable one.

Christi is an ambulance driver. The story narrates a pivotal incident that happens in Christi’s life. As usual Christi gets a call from the hospital to take a dead body. The journey starts off in a very usual style, but soon things get complicated as there were certain suspicious things about the dead body and the people came along with it. The troubles Christi had to face and how he finally escapes from all that is what this yet another “one day” thriller showing us.

There is an annoying “Kuthu” song (disgusting lyrics) that introduces Sunny Wayne as if we were watching a mass masala Tamil movie. Well that surely was a blow for me as I was expecting a much matured content. To make it more uncomfortable, there is a preachy and sloppily executed introduction scene for Sreenivasan. Rest of the first half where the journey begins also wasn’t that pleasing as all the actions from almost all characters looked pretty amateurish and a good director was clearly missing. The movie gets better towards the second half as it becomes more realistic about the characters and more focused about its content. The scripting somewhat succeeded in creating certain good inter linking which helps it in convincing the practicality of the issue. Dramatic dialogues and inability of actors to express the emotions has certainly reduced the quality, but still you will feel an improvement in making part as the movie reaches its destination.

Sunny Wayne wasn’t that great in his portrayal. The first half coolness at times becomes an overacting exercise. Certain emotional scenes in the second half were also not great. Sreenivasan surprisingly disappointed me with his flawed dialogue delivery. That laugh in the first half was worse than the mimicry artists. Vishnu Raghav was good in his character. I found Baiju’s role too funny were as he was supposed to be a negative character. Nedumudi Venu was good in his role. Vinutha Lal was just about okay. Rest of the cast including Sunil Sughadha, Madhupal, Thalaivasal Vijay and many other channel comedy show artists did their part convincingly.

As I said, direction is the weakest part of the largely weak movie. It should have been treated in a more intriguing way but the treatment was a letdown. Even the nicer parts of the script were conceived poorly. Dialogues were too dramatic. Screenplay gets a grip towards the second half. Music and background score from Gopi Sundar was really nice. Cinematography was disappointing.

Overall Saaradhi manages to be a watchable flick because of its improved second half. With play, pause and fast forward options for your convenience, you might like it in a DVD, but as a theatrical watch, it’s a letdown. The rating for this Gopalan Manoj movie is 2/5.