Sigaram Thodu Movie Review

Synopsis: Chellapa wants his son Murali to become a police officer like him but Murali’s dream is a ‘safe’ bank job. However, a slew of thefts in ATMs affects them personally and changes the course of Murali's life.

Movie Review: By now, Vikram Prabhu must be able to play the action-hero-with-a-purpose role in his sleep. As in his past two films (Ivan Vera Madhiri and Arima Nambi), the actor plays a young man whose normal life goes for a toss because of criminal elements. If it was a gangster and a corrupt minister in the earlier films, here, it is robbers (ATM robbers, to be specific). The actor is still unconvincing when it comes to romantic scenes but seems to realize his limited range and does well in what he can do — action.

Murali Pandian has seen his dad Chellapa Pandian losing his leg while being on police duty and wants to be in a safe job. However, Chellapa has dreams of seeing his son as a police officer and Murali maintains that illusion by pretending to train with the goal of joining the force. However, his desire is to become a bank officer. He meets Ambujam and falls in love with her. Interestingly, she too doesn’t want a cop for a husband. Unfortunately, Murali gets selected for police training. Meanwhile, a gang of ATM robbers are proving to be tough to catch for the police. One night, they cross path with Chellapa and Murali’s life changes for ever.

The modus operandi of the ATM robbers is explained rather too well (the next time you step into an ATM, you might look for pin-hole cameras and skimmers) and Gaurav seems to have done his research on this quite a bit that you can sense the confidence in these scenes. The same goes for many of the scenes involving the police work. He creates a very believable world in which his characters exist. However, the director is more interested in making things heroic and so, the film doesn’t come across as a police procedural. In fact, towards the climax, it entirely becomes a one man show — hero vs villains. Given that it is shown to be a high-profile case, Murali investigating the case all by himself feels a little improbable. And, rather than use the police force, he chooses to take on the villains all by himself (though, the police force does have some sort of role). As for the villains, who seem to be a mix of the bad guys we have seen in Gautham Menon (two of them remind you of the inseparable gay serial killers in Vettaiyadu Vilayadu) and Mysskin’s films (one of them is a martial arts teacher like Mugamoodi’s antagonist), it is strange they decide to go all mano a mano with Murali, despite holding a hostage who is very dear to the cop. The staging of this stunt is also not impressive and at times, it becomes difficult to tell who is hitting who.

The film also gives the feeling that it should have been edited tightly, not on the editing table but during the writing. It feels a bit lengthy and too much time is spent on the romantic track (which happens over a pilgrimage), and despite some imaginative picturisation, the songs aren’t integrated well into the script. There are also unnecessary attempts at comedy, and it is during these instances that we look back fondly at Arima Nambi, which smartly avoided such audience-pleasing elements.

Nevertheless, the success secret for any action movie is to keep things interesting and never let the audience wonder about logic and plausibility. Sigaram Thodu largely succeeds in this and even manages to be both an emotional drama between a father and his son and a thriller on ATM robbery. It isn’t really subtle when it comes to manipulating us. In an earlier scene, the camera halts to give us a look at Chellapa’s leg, and later, the character is assaulted, kicked and even shot. Similarly, it tries to make us empathize with Murali as well by showing us flashbacks from when he was a small boy. But we willingly allow ourselves to be influenced because the actors (especially Sathyaraj, who is an endearing presence) make us care for them.