Sarabham

My review: Sarabham

C.V. Kumar's Thirukumaran entertainment is fast building a reputation for itself as a brand that is reliable, off-center and avant-garde as far as its products are concerned. It has come to a point that if they are involved with a movie then that one is bound to be good and a safe bet for your money. In this background comes their latest release "Sarabham"quizzically with subdued promotions for which the company is known for. Yet another talented youngster is being introduced by Kumar with this movie, Arun Kumar. 

A "Con movie" in its real sense unlike the imposters that we have seen in the recent past, "Sarabham" has one of the neatly written suspense thriller screenplay of the year so far. If anyone could have guessed the story right then he must be one of those ultra smart persons with sky high IQ. Such is the unpredictability of the screenplay that there are twists and turns that keeps you engrossed without a moment of laxity. The pace that the director has stuck with is just about perfect for the story to be told.

SPOILER ALERT : It is just refreshing to see how the youngster has sculpted the female protagonist's role (who actually ends up being the lead protagonist with everyone else playing second fiddle) , giving it so much prominence, shades and a rounded arc. In the days when female leads are used (or rather misused)  just as the eye-candy of the male lead and off course the frontbenchers, it needs guts and vision for Arun to write such a role which is not only bold but also that has numerous shades that are well conceived. And to opt for a unknown face for the role is just about supreme confidence that he has on his script though it turns out to be a blessing in disguise for not only Salony Luthra nails the role to the T, a known face would have surely failed to do the justice to the script.

Naveen Chandra is okay in his role of the greedy architect Vikram but at many crucial sequences maintains the same quizzical expressions. He needs a lot of honing to do as far as his histrionic ability is concerned. Meanwhile Salony Luthra is just terrific in her role. She is effortless, seems to have mastery over her methods and perfectly fits the character that the writer has etched out for her. She is at ease with various shades of emotions and relaxed with her Tamil dialogues (lip sync, I meant ). With the variations in her body language and emotiveness with her expressive eloquent eyes, she is sure a promising introduction to Tamil cinema. One wonders how Tamil cinema uses her in the future. Naren gets to play a substantial role this time and he is one of those supporting actors who surprises you with the amount of improvement he shows with each of his movies. Here too he is apt and gives a brilliant performance, taking recourse to subtlety when many would have ventured into overdramatics.

In Britto Micheal's music all the songs are terrific while his background score is class apart. It is quiet surprising to know that such a new entrant to cinema has come out with such a brilliant work. His background score definitely elevates the movie to a higher level. Cinematographer Krishnan Vasanth is another strong pillar who provide for the magnificence of the end product. His lighting, especially in the interior and night scenes,  are of international standards. It is quiet an astounding feat that these youngsters are capable of getting such high quality output with the economical resources at their disposal. Technically movie is topnotch. 

On the whole, Arun Kumar is yet another promising and exciting new talent that has graced the Tamil cinema over the past couple of years. It would be a great shame if "Sarabham" goes unnoticed submerged under the deluge of better marketed and promoted movies with whom it is competing. Unmindful of the end result, "Sarabham" will be remembered as one of those perfect movies that graced the Tamil cinema, for that Arun Kumar and C.V.Kumar, take a bow. 

Bottomline: That's how you make a con movie, peepol.      

4/5