Sathuranga Vettai

My review: Sathuranga Vettai

"Sathuranga Vettai" written and directed by debutant H.Vinoth with self-proclamation by the makers themselves that it is "an indianized con movie", one wonders whether such a genre existed in the first place. The movie is certainly not a bad film, but neither it is a path-breaking effort as many proclaim it to be. As a director Vinoth is self-assured and has done his part with aplomb. There is hardly any glitch as far as direction is concerned. But as a writer he is both terrific and annoying. 

Screenplay is so good, movie flows lucidly from one episode to another without any undue detours or speed-breakers (except for couple of poorly placed songs). So as a script-writer Vinoth comes out unscathed. Where he falters is as a dialogue writer. He clearly overdoes things. In his over-zealousness he tries to make the actors mouth all that he wants to convey endlessly. which though sugar-coated, gets a bit preachy. Also his over-reliance on dialogue oriented drama rather than to convey part of his story visually gets into one's nerves. It is as if watching a dialogue driven  stage drama of the yore than a feature film. There is unnecessary emphasis on explaining each and every thing to the audience. Also many of his dialogues look artificial, as if a tasteless benign translation of certain English concepts or anecdotes.  

Natraj is good as the antagonist/protagonist which ever way you see it. He has always been easy on the camera be it cinematography or acting. His forte is casual acting and dialogue delivery. He continues in that vein this time too. The support cast made of largely unknown faces have done terrific job. Ishara is pretty okay in a minuscule heroine role.

Sean Rolden's songs are not that endearing to hear but he has done a great job in his background score. It is one of the pillars of strength for the movie. The making is tacky at times, more a function of budget than the talent of the technical team I think, K.G.Venkatesh is the cinematographer.

On the whole, it is a decent attempt attempt by the debutant, his ideals are good but his execution is what which needs more sharpening.  

Bottonline: Chatterbox 

3/5