Roudram Movie Review {2/5}: Critic Review of Roudram by Times of India

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 youngShiva (Jiiva) is growing up with his grandfather (Prakash Raj) who seems to bean exponent of some form of native martial arts. Prakash Raj has a single-pointagenda in life — to fight injustice. Named after his grandfather, Shivagrows up to become a courageous young man who takes after his grandfather in hisfight for injustice. His“fight-injustice-no-matter-what” attitude keeps landing him intotrouble time and again causing great grief to his family that is made of adoting brother, sister and parents (Jayaprakash and Lakshmi Ramakrishna).Shiva’s family wants him to lead a peaceful life. The first half of thefilm is a routine mix of comedy and great family bonding. ShriyaSaran plays a law student who is also the daughter of the assistant commissionerof Police (Babu Anthony). She sees Shiva beat up a gang of rowdy students on theroad and falls in love with him. A predictable love track ensues before thingstake an ugly turn for Shiva. He gets embroiled in brawl that earns the wrath oftwo warring goons in the city — Kittu (Ganesh Achraya) andGowri.Jiiva plays the brooding young man who is waiting to clean thesociety of evil. His acting seems to be getting better with each film. But sadlythe script is too run-of-the-mill for his acting prowess to contribute to iteffectively. Shriya Saran playing the bubbly love interest does her bitconvincingly. Jayaprakash is brilliant as the hapless father of a prudish son.There are a bunch of nasty looking ruffians, starting with the much-vauntedGanesh Acharya, that come and go in the many elaborately orchestrated fightsequences.Music by Nikki Prakash is passable. Written and directedby debutant Gokul, the film looks like a first timer’s flick. Thescreenplay is swift and loaded with the proverbial twists and turns but theyjust fail to add up to make a great viewing experience. The cinematography issoothing on the eye. The banal script, lackluster dialogues,mono-chromatic characters and innumerable flaws in the plot just prove to be toomuch to endure. By the end of it, you are just glad it’s over.