As much as we appreciate class and directors that display out of the box thinking, we should also take time to praise people who make commercial films, which believe me, is the hardest thing for any director to do. You know that there are always fans who are ready to hate on any film when it goes horrendously wrong and critics who always say “Same old, same old. Tamil directors can’t take new scripts blah blah”. Hari is a director who comes under one such category.
To do it once is good. To do it twice is great. But to do it thrice, makes him clearly one of the top directors in the Tamil industry. Si-3, another rare 3rd installment to a film series after the Muni series, is surely a film that will entertain audiences for its loud and fast paced nature. Singam 1 was a massive hit. Singam 2 was a blockbuster. Will Singam 3 be another one? Let’s find out.
THE STORY:
It’s a story of a police officer who goes to Vishakapatnam to investigate the murder case of a commissioner, which in turn leads to tracking down a medi-waste and e-waste import expert from Sydney whilst going through many obstacles and also people from the department who have contacts with the illegal dealing of export and import of wastes.
THE HITS:
Surya is the backbone of the film. He carries the film on his shoulders. Right from the first entry scene to the last shot where he finishes the villain, he shows a lot of energy in carrying out the job. Robo Shankar as Subbu (assistant to Duraisingam) isn’t an outright comedian in this film, which would come as a surprise to many. But in some scenes, he does entertain the audience and in one emotional scene, he did make the audience shed a tear.
The villain, Anoop Thakur Singh, plays the role of Vittal Prasad, a big steel import and export billionaire, does well in his first Tamil film. He carries out his role well. Although he struggled with a few Tamil lines, he does manage to give that villain feeling similar to what Prakash Raj did in the first part.
Nithin Sathyaa plays a role of a hacker, who helps Duraisingam with people to be called, traced and subsequently, knocked down. It was also a heartening sight to see veterans Radha Ravi and Nassar on screen, even though their roles weren’t big, as well as Sarath Babu, who played the home minister of Andhra Pradesh. . Sruthi Haasan too did a decent job of playing the small role of a journalist.
Hari’s screenplay is the biggest plus of all. FAST, FAST AND FAST. Can we imagine any other director doing a racier screenplay than this? The movie picks up speed right from minute one to minute 155, leaving the odd comedy scenes and the songs. It never dropped in intensity, and was engaging the whole time. Even if you want this guy to give a 255 minute film, he will deliver it without lags. Harris Jeyaraj also worked well with his background music. Although they were not as effective as the original one by DSP, these were good too.
THE MISSES:
Coming to the negatives, Soori’s comedy is a major drawback. Comedy scenes didn’t work out as it had earlier parts in the earlier parts. They rarely evoked laughter. Anushka could have been used more. Her scope is less compared to the previous films.
Danny Sapani was arrested in the Singam 2. That dead end kept the audience curious of what had happened to him.
Songs too were a big letdown. Though picturized well in good locations, it tends to disturb the flow of the film.
Fight scenes were over the top, random people hitting and random people flying with things all over the place- did they really mean to break all those windows? Pheww.
Logical loopholes ae another thing. But we tend ignore them in commercial movies don’t we?
Is that it?
No.
Post the end credits, Home Minister of Tamil Nadu, played by Vijayakumar, calls Duraisingam to speak to him again, followed by a single line ‘SINGATHIN VETTAI THODARUM‘ (Lion’s hunt will continue). As long as commercial masala films are watchable, don’t be surprised if 5-6 parts of this series come.
Bottom line: Another Singam film that will please the audience. Another blockbuster for the Hari-Surya combo.
Rating 2.75/5
