SAKALAKALA VALLAVAN REVIEW

SAKALAKALA VALLAVAN  (2015)

Director: Suraj

Casts: Jayam Ravi, Trisha, Soori, Anjali
Music: S.Thaman
Language: Tamil
Genre: Comedy

Coming from the school of Sundar.C, director Suraj is also known for his comedy entertainers laced with the right amount of action, sentiment and generous amount of glamour. In a critical time where Indian cinema is changing its colour to appeal universally with innovative themes, will ‘Sakalakala Vallavan’ manage to stand against time?

Synopsis

Sakthi (Jayam Ravi) and ‘Chinnabuthy’ Chinnasamy (Soori) are relatives cum foes from a village in Tenkasi. It’s love at first sight for Sakthi when he sees Chinnasamy’s ‘athai ponnu’ Selvi (Anjali). After few duets and tussle, Chinnasamy gives up and falls in love with Sakthi’s, ‘athai ponnu’, Divya (Trisha) who returns from overseas. As Sakthi and Cinnasamy come to agreement to unite their respective love with each other, the story forces its way to a twist where Sakthi marries Divya due to circumstances. The clash of cultures and how the couple survive the marriage forms the crux of the story.

Story – Screenplay

Suraj publicly announced in the press release that ‘Sakalakala Vallavan’ has no story and it’s clearly evident from the first frame that this is a film that we shouldn’t take seriously. However, Suraj has clearly forced a message through hill old sentiment scenes duplicated from the 90s classics which kills off the intention completely. From the start, the film flows with illogical scenes to an extent where the audience might question the motive of the scenes.

Even though a notch lower than his previous films, Suraj yet again becomes a culprit in crafting mindless crass comedy. There are plenty of aimless scenes written just to objectify women. In a time where good-natured women-oriented films are taking course in the industry, Suraj’s eye of showing women is degrading. None of the characterization is strong, making the twists look rather puzzling.

Enough said about the wafer thin story, the only saving grace of the film are the dialogues and its perfect placement. Suraj certainly scores in them as usual.

If only the double meaning crass nature and weak characters were avoided, ‘Sakalakala Vallavan’ might have ended up as a family entertainer.

Casting & Performance

Jayam Ravi cakewalks his role and he oozes with energy, be it during the dance sequences, stunts and comic timing.

Soori and ‘Motta’ Rajendran are certainly the pillars of the film with the latter impressing with terrific comedic timing. However Soori’s dialogue delivery is becoming repetitive. Vivek in a guest role comes on screen with a bang but fades out again due to weak writing. Suraj-Vivek magic is unfortunately missing here.

The lead ladies Anjali and Trisha share screen equally with the former being extensively used for glamour purpose. It’s a pity to see a 3 times Filmfare award winner and a National Award Nominee, Anjali, wasted in such a feeble character. The ever young, Trisha looks ravishing as usual but again lacks scope to perform in an underwritten role.

Suraj has carefully chosen big names for all the characters but fumbles to utilize them to the fullest of their potential.

Technicality

Cameraman U.K. Senthil Kumar overloads each frame with plenty of colours and high-key lighting, aiding the Telugu flavour envisioned by director Suraj. However, to aid that vision, editor Selva has opted for flashy editing which does become tiring to watch after a while.

Music director, Thaman recycles his Telugu hit tunes that do pump up the mundane story a little. All the songs are shot and choreographed with full of energy.

In overall, Suraj has presented the film with heavy Telugu flavour that at times backfires.

Bottomline

'Sakalakala Vallavan' is nothing but another tiring extension of Suraj's crass comedy laced with his regular (women objectifying) masala elements that blatantly forgets an important ingredient called 'logic'.

Verdict: Tiring watch

Movie Rating:  2/5

Director’s crown – SURAJ : 

By Kannan Vijayakumar