Singamalai - Review

Arjun is well known among the Telugu audiences as action king. Many of his films were packed with action. Especially, his films like Oke Okkadu, Gentleman are silver jubilee hits. Most of his action dramas that were made in other languages too were dubbed into Telugu and all of them did well at the box office. His latest Singamalai is a dubbed version of Tamil hit Marudhamalai. Lakshmi Ganapathi Films, which is known from bringing out several other language films into Telugu had presented the movie. Suraaj is behind the story, screenplay and direction, while Himalaya Films produces it. Nila played opposite Arjun as the female lead.

Singamalai (Arjun) is the son of a retired head constable (Nazar). His father gets Singamalai graduated in law and at the same time wants him to join the police department. Accepting his father's wish, Singamalai joins police force and gets posted in Narayanapuram as a constable. He falls in love with a girl called Divya (Nila), daughter of a circle inspector. There is a history for Narayanapuram. There were no elections for about 20 years at the place, as the government declares it as a reserved constituency. While some caste people were more than 80 per cent, there was a minimal 20 per cent from other caste. However, the government decides to reserve the constituency to minority community. Hence, a local goon called Baji Rao did not allow the elections at the place. Whenever the Election Commission orders elections, Baji Rao used to kill those who go to file nomination papers. So the polls gets canceled. Once the Chief Election Commissioner Suryanarayana (Raghuvaran) in order to implement the Supreme Court order to conduct election comes to Narayanapuram. He convinces people to file nomination and conducts elections. But Baji and his men disrupt the election process. Singamalai's father prevents Baji from killing Suryanarayana. Irked over this, Baji thrashes him. Learning this, Singamalai reaches the spot and teaches a lesson to Baji and arrests him. His higher officials at the DGP office, who are convinced with his dashing nature, promote him to inspector and post him at Narayanapuram again. Baji, who was behind bars masterminds a plan and kills Singamalai's father. How Singamalai took revenge against Baji for killing his father? How he teaches a lesson to his henchmen who blasted the car where his father was traveling? Answers to all these questions form the part of the climax.

PLUS: The action scenes in the film is the major plus point in the film. Especially the mind game that was portrayed on the screen was a highlight. Director Suraaj, who gave a big hit like Talainagaram in Tamil brought out the film in a racy manner. However, there were several unnecessary scenes in the first half and the editor should have sharpened his scissors further to make it further racy. Especially the director wasted several meters of film only to establish the love between hero and heroine. Arjun had completely shouldered the responsibility to make the film interesting. Keeping Arjun's action hero image, Suraj skillfully scripted the screenplay around his strength. Vadivelu left no stone unturned to tickle the funny bone. Performance of Raghuvaran and Nazar is adequate. Neela is gorgeous. She perfectly filled the glamour slot.

MINUS: The minus point is the film is the director's tardy movement of film for the sake of establishment of love between the hero and heroine and the comedy scenes involving Arjun and Vadivelu. The Telugu audiences could not enjoy such a lengthy comedy scenes. The director in the first half shows the hero's family, but completely ignored the family in the second half. There is no mention about the family in the second half.

REMARKS: Cinematography by Senthil Kumar and Vaidya is adequate. Vanamali's songs, though not very melodious are just okay and their choreography is also good, of course, with Tamil scent. The action scenes are worth watching. Arjun is at his best, handsome and agile. He is a delight to watch on the screen and the hero's character is like a tailor-made role for Arjun.

Producer: Lakshmi Ganapathi Films
Banner: Himalaya Films
Director: Suraaj
Cast: Arjun, Vadivelu, Nazar, Nila, Charan Preethi, Raghuvaran
Dialogues: Rajasri
Lyrics: Vanamali
Cinematograpy: Senthil Kumar
Music: D Imaan
Editing: Sai Krishna
Action: Power Soft
Release date : November 30, 2007