Siruthai

Movie Review: Rocket Raja (Karthi) and Kaatupoochi (Santhanam) are conmen, always on the lookout for a trick to make a fast buck.

While trying their luck at a marriage, Rocket Raja runs into Swetha (Tamannah), who mistakes him for a software engineer, and falls for her. But when a little girl, Divya (Baby Rakshana), makes an entry into his life and starts calling him daddy, it is time for him to change lanes in life and take care of the unfinished business of deputy superintendent of police Rathnavel Pandian (Karthi again).

The brothers are in roaring form. Suriya turned in a huge hit last year with ‘Singam’, and sibling Karthi has done it this year with ‘Siruthai’. The movie is a remake of director S S Rajamouli’s ‘Vikramarkudu’, which had Ravi Teja and Anushka in the lead.

Karthi is a natural when it comes to comedy, and the opening scenes featuring him and Santhanam are sure to bring in the laughs. And he is very convincing and eminently watchable as the fearless and almost indestructible Rathnavel Pandian too.

What doesn’t work though is the crassness of some dialogues and the bid by the baddies to overdo their villainy. Maybe the director should have effected some changes in the Tamil version, instead of opting for a scene by scene remake of the Telugu original.

Vidyasagar seems to be the most popular composer this year, with three big releases already. He is in form here with ‘Naan romba romba’ (a fun and pacy number by Ranjith) and the lullaby ‘Thalattu’ (sung melodiously by Srivardhini).

Karthi has gone completely "mass" with ‘Siruthai’, which is the first movie to feature him in a double role. But he will need to choose his projects carefully, like elder brother Suriya, if he wants to continue his dream run at the box office. ‘Siruthai’ does not do anything for Karthi as an actor; what it does is to cement his position in the Tamil film industry as an actor who is a big draw at the box office.