Veera Sivaji

I kind of got confused when I entered the theater to watch the latest Vikram Prabhu movie Veera Sivaji. It had the same producer of Kaththi Sandai and I was definitely not in a mood to bare a second of that film. Gods heard me and after the production house’s signature film, came the title Veera Sivaji. The amateurishness and shallow social preach of Kaththi Sandai and Veera Sivaji is pretty much in the same zone, but because of the comedy pair Robo Shankar and Yogi Babu, the film has giggle worthy jokes which apparently makes it more of a poorly made boring cinema rather than an extreme torture.

Sivaji is this orphan who lives with a lady (whom he considers as his elder sister) and her daughter. He is a call taxi driver and life was going smooth. One day Sivaji’s niece (the one I mentioned) collapsed in the school and the diagnosis showed that a major brain surgery which will cost a big amount of money was necessary to save her. The film mainly focuses on the events that unfold in Sivaji’s journey to get this amount within the short span of time.

No offence to Vikram Prabhu, but the guy doesn’t at all look like an action hero material. Even those heros in Tamil industry who may not physically look convincing enough to punch 10 guys, has that screen presence and swag to make us believe that they are this action material. This guy here is still stuck in that simple boy charm. And the movie is also pointlessly worshipping the hero. You have him saving a foreigner from goons, he is serving food to slum kids, he is fighting fake currency and somewhere in between all this, the real dilemma of the plot gets lost.

Ganesh Vinayak doesn’t have clarity on how to treat the movie. At some point it’s a pointless romantic comedy, then it shapes like a heist movie and at the end it is a convoluted mix of sentiments, social preach and spoof thrill. The screenplay follows the usual clichés of selfless heroism, shallow instant romance and logic less thrills. Songs have no real sense of timing; hero’s sweet niece is in the hospital bed and he is dancing to “Swapana Sundari Naan Thaane..”.  The stunts are shot without any elegance.

Like I just said, Vikram Prabhu just isn’t convincing as a typical hero material. He looks way too artificial. Shamili’s character is just there for the sake of having a heroine. She should have some control over her makeup. John Vijay and Motta Rajendran play the goofy antagonist set and they are just okay. The only people who made this movie bearable were Robo Shankar and Yogi Babu. Even though it is this irrelevant track comedy, there is a grace and flow to their rendering which offers some moments of genuine humor.

Veera Sivaji in my opinion is only a pinch better than Kaththi Sandai. A very juvenile thread pampered by modern day clichés cannot be saved by two comedians.

Rating: 1.5/5