VISITOR COLUMN

The Indian cinema is celebrating 100 years of its existence. During this time, the viewers have been exposed to various genres.The commercial action entertainer or an action thriller is most common genre. And in Tamil cinema, the action story is most used and abused genres in recent times. But success has been very rare. Also the fact that presenting a raw action story could isolate the family audience is a huge risk to take! Directors most often take the safe route of a comedy movie. Saamy is one of those movies which succeeded in the action genre.

 

Exactly 10 years before, on this month, Saamy released. Vikram was a big star then, having hits like Dhil and Dhool. The film was Trisha's third film in the industry. A new villain was introduced by the name of Kota Srinavasa Rao. This film being helmed by Hari was a major plus as he was known for presenting films in racy, entertaining manner. This film was also no exception. I remember watching the film as a young kid and the feeling at the end of it all was that of immense satisfaction.

 

To credit actors like Vikram or Kota Srinavasa Rao for making their characters powerful would be a mistake. Although it is true that both these people were the pillars of strength, it was Hari who showed immense potential in creating a racy film. The comedy aspect made the film more entertaining. Also the presence of some senior artistes like Vijaykumar added strength to the film. While the story was essentially a one-liner involving a policeman and a politician/rowdy, the backstory involving Vikram's past provided some depth making it more appealing. Also it is interesting that while at the core it is a raw action revenge story, more elements were added to make it appealing to the family audience as well.

Saamy is being currently being remade into Hindi as Policegiri .The movie is directed by Ravikumar. There are opportunities for improvement upon the original. One hopes that the Tamil version is not clerically remade by the director. Also the storyline could be improved upon by providing some more depth. And the villain could be projected as someone more powerful. One of the major disappointments of the original was how the villain became a powerless towards the end.

Hindi cinema has seen successful money spinners like Wanted and Dabbang. So the film has some high expectations. As far as the casting is concerned, Sanjay Dutt plays the police officer role. This character has two shades: one of a honest police officer and another of an arrogant don-like persona. It is not clear whether Sanjay will bring his Munnabhai persona into this one or follow Vikram's footsteps. Prakash Raj has big shoes to fill. The problem is how the audience would react, whether will grow tired of watching a police story again or enjoy the film. A big advantage for Ravikumar is that the audience would come with an open mind having not seen the original.

 

Congratulations in advance for a successful debut in Bollywood. After all, this seems to be a season of cross-over of Tamil artistes into the Hindi heartland!!