After showing his versatility with a mass film like ‘Dasara’ and a class film like ‘Hi Nanna’ last year, Natural Star Nani has arrived with a mix of class and mass this time. He reunited with his ‘Ante Sundaraniki’ director Vivek Athreya and made ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’ which is an action entertainer. The vigilante drama with good mass moments has shown a lot of promise through its promotional content. Let us dive into the review straightaway to find out if the movie reached its expectations or not.

Story:

Surya (Nani) is very angry since his childhood. His parents struggle to control it. But his mother takes a promise from Surya that he needs to show his anger only once a week. After that, she passes away. To keep that promise, Surya controls his anger throughout the week and takes out everything on Saturdays. In this process, he fights injustice and beats baddies on Saturdays. At one point, Surya gets angry with CI Dayanand (SJ Suryah). But Dayanand is a ruthless man and highly evil. Surya finds it tough to challenge him. What are those problems? How did Surya overcome them and bring justice? Answers to these questions form the rest of the story.

Analysis:

A new story and a commercial cinema are two different entities. They usually don’t mingle. When you take a new concept, it should be treated in a separate way. When you try to give a mass touch to it and narrate it in commercial fashion, the movie’s intensity may take a severe beating. There is a high chance of the movie getting backfired. Only a few exceptional directors manage to narrate a new concept in a commercial style and score super hits. Murugadoss did it with ‘Ghajini’. He took a unique concept and said it in a commercial meter with tight screenplay. Though ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’ cannot be compared with ‘Ghajini’, it is also a commercial cinema with a fresh concept. Vivek Athreya succeeded in presenting a new idea in the most crowd-pleasing fashion.

We have seen a lot of characters where they deal with anger issues. ‘Naa Peru Surya’, ‘Arjun Reddy’, ‘Dear Comrade’ and others are just a few examples. Hero has a similar problem in ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’ too. But he is entertaining than the others and his anger gets a twist attached to it which makes it quite special. It is the story of a guy who controls his anger due to the word given to his mother for six days and takes out everything in one Saturday. Though it sounds crazy, it is a huge challenge to make a 3-hour long film with it. Unlike other movies where the problem is shown in a funny way at the start and things get serious only in the second half, this movie managed to give us intense drama along with entertainment right from the start. Vivek Athreya did a wonderful job. He managed to prepare the audience right at the start regarding the reason for the hero having the ‘Saturday’ condition through an emotional touch. He engaged the audience quite well but the only flaw in the movie is that it gets dragged in a few instances. Zero songs and a runtime of 2 hours and 54 minutes is also a big reason for it.

We usually see the audience getting hyped up after the interval but things go South in the second half. But ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’ doesn’t belong to that category. The movie runs in a gripping fashion for the initial 40 minutes in the second half. Hero’s sketch to beat the villain and the drama surrounding it is quite amazing. The curiosity levels of the audience go up. Hero gets in trouble in the process of trying to land the villain in trouble which makes things even more gripping. But the film suddenly becomes slow in the pre-climax portion. We get a feeling that the movie is getting deviated and the director seems to have spent some time unnecessarily on other aspects. Even the climax is a bit lengthy but it is well executed. Saikumar’s entry elevates the climax and things become interesting again. Despite having length issues and slow narration at places, there are more positives than flaws in ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’. The film is a right mix of freshness and mass elements which will impress all sets of the audience.

Performances:

Nani is known for effortlessly essaying class roles but there were doubts about him doing mass entertainers. He tried to do it with films like ‘MCA’ and ‘Krishna Arjuna Yuddham’ but he was a bit unconvincing. But he lived in his raw mass character in ‘Dasara’ and cleared all the doubts. Though his role in ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’ is not an oora mass one, he brings whistles during mass moments with a touch of class. Without a lot of overacting, Nani pulled off this role in a subtle manner. He looks very calm and shows his ferocity only when required. Nani’s style in Surya’s character is quite well portrayed.

But it is SJ Suryah who dominates everyone with his performance including Nani. He showed his specialty in portraying a borderline psycho character with eccentric behavior. Vivek Athreya gave him a perfect character and SJ Suryah excelled in it. More than the hero, it is SJ Suryah’s role and acting that stays with the audience. The viewers will get engaged whenever he appears on the screen and he did a fantastic job. Murali Sharma was wonderful too. Despite being seen in a few scenes, he did amazingly. Priyanka Mohan got a good role and she was good. She looked adorable on the screen as well. Sai Kumar as the father of Nani and Aditi Balan as his sister are perfect choices. Abhirami appeared as a mother only for a few minutes but she leaves a mark. Harshavardhan, Ali, Shivaji Raja and Vishnu along with others were adequate in their roles.

Technicians:

‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’ is a technically sound film. Jakes Bejoy was exceptional with his background scores. Though the music was a bit loud in places, he gave a racy feel to the movie through his pulsating music. His work during the action scenes and elevation scenes was exceptional. Though there are no full songs in the movie, the bit songs are quite decent too. Murali G’s cinematography is fantastic. He showed his creativity in many fight scenes including the one in the hero’s house as well as the climax sequence. They give a new visual experience to the viewers. The production values are amazing and the editing is decent too.

Coming to writer-director Vivek Athreya, he rediscovered himself with ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’. Though his movies had new stories and good entertainment, the commercial factor was missing in his movies till date. But he converted a new idea into a wholesome film with the right mix of masala. The way he designed his character and ran the screenplay is quite interesting and engaging. The movie was a bit slow at places in the first half and during the pre-climax in the latter half but Vivek did a terrific job both as a writer and a director. This film will take him to the next level as a filmmaker.

Verdict: ‘Saripodhaa Sanivaaram’ – Delivers As Promised!