Cast: Srihari, Prakash Raj, Vaibhav, SP Charan, Siva, Premji, Vega, Kajal, Nikitha, Saran and others
Director:Venkat Prabhu
Producer:T.Shiva
Music:Yuvan Shankar Raja
Action : Selva
Banner : Amma Creations
Editing : Praveen KL and Srikanth NB
Dialogues :Vennelakanti
Cinematography : Sakthi Saravanan
Art : Videsh
Released Date : September 5, 2008
Story :
'Saroja' is a kidnap drama. Industrialist Vishwanth's daughter Saroja (Vega) is kidnapped by unknown group and the ransom is 10 Crores.
Police Commissioner Ravi (Srihari) tries to catch the kidnapper. On a parallel story, a group of four friends in Chennai - Ramaswamy
(Vaibhav), Rangaswamy (SP Charan), Ganesh (Premji) and Ajay (Siva) leave for Hyderabad to watch Indo Pak Cricket match. But a
tanker is collided on the highway, so they take short cut to Hyd through a forest and enter the den of the gang that is kidnapped Saroja. How
they rescue the girl and who really kidnaps her is told in the end in thrilling climax.
'Saroja' is a bilingual movie directed by Tamil director Venkat Prabhu. Taking basic storyline from Hollywood movie Judgment Night
(1993), Venkat Prabhu weaves this suspense thriller. Though it is not a chilling suspense thriller, it has its moments and well crafted with
parallel screenplay, good camera work and the twist in the tale.
The first 45 minutes induce nothing but boredom. The real momentum comes after that and then it holds your interest till the end. It has too
many loopholes and the jokes among the four friends are too bland. The episode of how these four friends come out from kidnap gang
along with the Saroja is shot very interestingly.
Biggest problem with the movie is that the director tries to concentrate both on the kidnap drama and as well as with the comedy part on
the four friends. But the comedy doesn't work. And also the director incorporates unnecessary technical gimmicks (like in your face editing,
time ticker on the screen), just to make the film look different as the story is very simple one.
First half needs to be trimmed for 30 minutes nearly and the second half is interesting.
Performances :
Srihari as honest police commissioner is okay. His real screen presence and performance are seen in the climax scene only. Although the
movie revolves around Saroja, actually Vaibhav, SP Charan, Siva and Premji get more footage. Vaibhav has proved that he is good actor.
He is very promising. SP Charan's act is fantastic. Premji in the role of a guy who dreams about any girl that he sees evokes laughter but
after a point it is very irritating. Siva as TV artiste is okay. Nikita as girlfriend to a villain looks sexy. She does a very sizzling number. One
wonders how does Kajal agreed to do this miniscule role which can be done by any junior artiste. Prakash Raj and other actors have done
neat job.
On the technical side, the movie scores in a big way. Sakti Saravanan’s camera work is splendid. His work and flashy editing are big plus
points to the movie. Songs by Yuvan Shankar Raja are mediocre but his re-recording has added value. Director Venkat Prabhu seems to
be good at screenplay and holding suspense.
Last word :
Saroja has good storyline but it needs urgent trimming. On the whole the movie is average. |  |
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