Roudram

Movie Review: Jiiva and Shriya Saran make a great onscreen pair, there’s no doubt. That the two can light up a frame just by the sheer force of their features alone, is quite to the credit of the actors. Jiiva’s brooding intensity is complimented rather well by Shriya’s chiseled perfection, and that keeps your mind off the bad lip synch that comes with most Tamil films dubbed in Telugu. But even their collective screen presence fails to salvage “Roudram” that suffers from fundamental flaws in its script and execution, turning out to be a yawn, a couple of great performances notwithstanding.The film starts off in the eighties where a young Shiva (Jiiva) is growing up with his grandfather (Prakash Raj) who seems to be an exponent of some form of native martial arts. Prakash Raj has a single-point agenda in life — to fight injustice. Named after his grandfather, Shiva grows up to become a courageous young man who takes after his grandfather in his fight for injustice. His “fight-injustice-no-matter-what” attitude keeps landing him into trouble time and again causing great grief to his family that is made of a doting brother, sister and parents (Jayaprakash and Lakshmi Ramakrishna). Shiva’s family wants him to lead a peaceful life. The first half of the film is a routine mix of comedy and great family bonding. Shriya Saran plays a law student who is also the daughter of the assistant commissioner of Police (Babu Anthony). She sees Shiva beat up a gang of rowdy students on the road and falls in love with him. A predictable love track ensues before things take an ugly turn for Shiva. He gets embroiled in brawl that earns the wrath of two warring goons in the city — Kittu (Ganesh Achraya) and Gowri.Jiiva plays the brooding young man who is waiting to clean the society of evil. His acting seems to be getting better with each film. But sadly the script is too run-of-the-mill for his acting prowess to contribute to it effectively. Shriya Saran playing the bubbly love interest does her bit convincingly. Jayaprakash is brilliant as the hapless father of a prudish son. There are a bunch of nasty looking ruffians, starting with the much-vaunted Ganesh Acharya, that come and go in the many elaborately orchestrated fight sequences.Music by Nikki Prakash is passable. Written and directed by debutant Gokul, the film looks like a first timer’s flick. The screenplay is swift and loaded with the proverbial twists and turns but they just fail to add up to make a great viewing experience. The cinematography is soothing on the eye. The banal script, lackluster dialogues, mono-chromatic characters and innumerable flaws in the plot just prove to be too much to endure. By the end of it, you are just glad it’s over.