Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Saroja, I love you!



Movie: Saroja
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Produced by: Amma Creations
Producer: T.Siva
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raaja
Cinematographer: Shakthi Saravanan
Cast: Premji Amaren, SPB Charan, Vaibhav Reddy, Mirchi Siva, Nikitha, Prakash Raj, Jayaram, Vega and Kajal Agarwal


I have to admit this. I watched this movie for 4 times. Yes, 4 friggin times in the same week. And I laughed more and more each time I watched it. Never bored. If you give me a chance now I will watch it again. One movie that is so close to my heart and worth my RM 11. Not forgetting, you can watch this movie till the end, literally the end, till GSC close down their curtains J Movie tagline: One ordinary day, Four ordinary men, One extra ordinary situation

Ok, let me get into my review now. If you have watched Chennai 600028 then there are some rules that you have to follow. Be prepared to laugh more, get yourself and your mind out of that movie first before you watch this. Believe you will fail comparing. Well when I first watched the trailer, I was thinking this movie must be full of thriller and suspense; well tell you what, HELL NO! Why? Watch it to believe it.

Saroja is name of one of the character in this movie. The core of the story does evolve around Saroja but that is not all about it. I will reveal the story of this movie but I can shadow it for you, it's about 4 friends who are heading for a cricket game and there is an accident. It's a one-day story, which starts morning till the next day morning. Just 24 hours.

For the first time in Tamil cinema, Saroja have a promotional video " My Life ”. This song will not appear in the movie it is only for promo use. You can find it in youtube. Composed by Yuvan and sung by a Singaporean singer. Opening of the movie reminds me of movies like Babel, Heat, during the credits. I would define Saroja as Tamil version of Scary movie, where there are spoofs of other movies in it. Yes I'm not kidding, it does have the spoofs of famous movies. For instance the opening credits have similar type of opening like Dasavatharam, that flying through the clouds and that view above the ground. Well as the movie goes on you get to see all those elements involved.

There is a scene where Siva and SPB Charan will run away from the villains, they will hide in a area behind a huge wall. At that point they will re-enact the scene from Kaaka Kaaka where the 4 policemen will find one of the officers wife beheaded and put in a box. "Why is this happening to us? They killed a policeman!" remember that scene in an open field. Surya and his other officers. Yes that's the same scene they will mock here and it's superbly hilarious. The whole cinema was laughing to it. Ahhhahaaha even now I'm laughing! Another that you can look for is each time Premji bumps into a girl he will have his angels running around the girl and dancing for an old song from one of Bagyaraj's movie. Adding to the spoof's one of the last scene where the villain played by Sampath will ask his girlfriend Kalyani played by Nikitha to go away and then there will be one last guy who wont go away even Sampath will ask him to follow Nikitha to go. This scene reminds me of Pudhupettai and Pattiyal.

This movie does not have those typical hero elements, flying on the wall and kicking butt. No typical love song and item numbers and no damn opening song for hero. In fact there is no fixed hero in this movie and also heroine. Another interesting portion that viewers can look for is when the whole of Chennai-28 cast will be featured in this movie at one scene. That's funny too! Every part of this movie is hilarious and will be enjoyed by viewers. Even the suspense moment we will laugh because end of each suspense bit there will be comedy. The whole movie is shot at one location only and fully night scene. Even though it's at night but you will have the feel that you are part of the cast and being there yourself. Salute to the cinematographer Shakti Saravanan. Ok now we move on to the technical part of the movie.

BGM. As usual Yuvan Shankar Raaja have done a wonderful job here. His bgm's are simply superb just like his songs as well. Opening song Cheeky Cheeky will feature Yuvan himself. The music video was made in a very westernized way just like how Pussycat dolls, Justin Timberlake or even Snoop Dogg video will look like. Please don't miss that song. Then we have Aja Mere Soniye, this song have that Om Shanti Om feel where you get the chance to see all the TV serial actors coming together in one song and dancing. They even have Radhika featured in that song. Very colorful and lively. The next song that really impressed me personally was Dhost Badha Dhost. I wish I could make a music video just like that. It has that Dil Chahta Hai feel in that song, well even the music is kinda similar but it suits the Tamil audience. The song runs the whole journey of the 4 friends to Hyderabad and then we have Kodana Kodi song. Kodana Kodi is something like item number but not really an item number. It's like a jolly mood song, which has Nikitha dancing, and she is hot! Kalyan who choreographed for this song has a trademark step and I think this step will become famous just like that Theepedika step. Lastly " My life " , as I have mentioned earlier will not be feature in the movie but towards the end they will have the song for the closing credits. As for background scores, one bgm that I will not forget is the part where Sampath's intro comes in and also another scene where the villains will walk to their jeep. It's just out of this world. Sounds like 50cent rapped for it. Very short but killer!!

The lighting for the movie is still making me wonder how they did it. Perfect lighting that made the whole night ambience so realistic and will certainly make the viewers amazed. Hopefully Saroja ’s team wins an award for this year. Shakthi Saravanan who handled the camera for Chennai-28 is roped for the same role in this movie and this time he has set his limits high. In most of the scenes the camera is handheld so I can feel how much trouble he have been through for every scene. It’s not a light camera that they have used for the movie.

Jayaram and Prakashraj role are very small but important. End of the movie you will get the chance to see who is the real villain and how jealously turns into betrayal and murder.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

first day this movie been release , two weeks back , my friend ask me follow him to watch in the theater , i say no cause of mountain of collage work .

now already two weeks i not yet watch this wonderful movie ,

Am i should wait for original CD or go theater and watch , hhhmmm....

rujjcoomarh said...

pls watch it in theatre at least once!

Vilves said...

Im waiting to watch this movie.. Cant wait !!

Anonymous said...

townguy, please watch it in cinema!!!i pay u back the ticket money if u regret..but u have to b honest to urself that u really enjoyed the movie nt..
savadee review la machi!!!really worth wait for ur review and its a good one...u made me wanna watch one more time...

Anonymous said...

i would like to highlight something else that you guys should lookout for in the movie... every now and then premji says a few lines which was spoken by rajni in 'sivaji the boss'... lookout for that.. its hillarious!

HANUSHA said...

Hi Jay.. are u refering to the "Yevvalavo Panithom, ithe panne matomah??"" :s:s