Film: Saaradhi
Director: Gopalan Manoj
Cast: Sunny Wayn, Srinivasan, Nedumudi Venu, Vinutha Lal, Vishnu Raghav, Baiju
Saaradhi by debutant Gopalan Manoj takes us through an eventful day in the life of Christy, an ambulance driver. The film unveils how destiny drives this easy-going, laidback youth to play a core part in a larger mission. We see new faces all the time. Some hold our notice for a brief moment, most disappear into the abyss of everyday existence. Christy meets a young man at a store where he goes to get his mobile phone recharged. He next meets him in his ambulance, dead. The moment Christy realises he has to rise above himself is the high point of the movie. It largely makes up for the flaws in script and execution, which include an item number in the very beginning. Saaradhi uses the usual ingredients of a thriller: scheming politicians, earnest police officers juxtaposed against corrupt ones, a parallel love track. But for the larger part, it is the trip Christy makes along with his acquaintance, though dead. Sunny Wayn ably carries Christy on his shoulders and we get to see a stellar performance by Nedumudi Venu as a crooked killer on hire. Srinivasan, the sincere officer in this movie, seems to be the obvious choice for film-makers for all virtuous characters since Passenger .
A truly intriguing first half features some unexplored locales of high ranges. While the narrative is mostly from the point of view of Christy, sudden shifts to third person accounts to establish characters and situations feel amateurish. The script by Rajesh K. Raman delivers many lines with a punch, but certain parts fail to convey the intended meaning; especially as the movie is carried forward through a number of phone calls among the lead characters. Saaradhi is essentially an attempt to remind us how ordinary people can do extraordinary deeds and save the day.
