Sundattam movie review

My Twitter handle - @lmkmoviemaniac ...

1.75 / 5
Sundattam is a movie set in North Madras and the period portrayed is the 1990s, a time dominated by Rajinikanth and his Rasigar Mandrams. Carrom is a core ingredient of the movie and that is a definite pat on the back for the team. We also have the hero's instant love with his sister's friend, the opposition from her brother, his bromance with his area buddies and a gang war between two prominent gangs in the area.

The vendetta induced in a drug addicted carrom champion by the hero's own carrom expertise is the main aspect of the movie though.

A better hero, than Irfan, could have made the very same movie a commercially viable venture too. Irfan lacks screen presence and his earnest efforts can do only that much. The heroine Arundhati is tall, pretty and adequate. The songs by Britto are the main highlight of the movie with Adi Unnale, Narumagaye, the gaana song among a really likable soundtrack.

But the movie has too many cliched North Madras elements like ugly bearded males, gangsters, violence, drugs, smoking and alcohol. We have already seen this in movies like Polladhavan and Pudhupettai. In fact Irfan tries to do a Dhanush act in many places in the movie, with his boy-next-door demeanor. And the shots of drug usage by the villain are quite a lot.

But the look and feel of the 90s has been brought out very well by the production team. The props used, the vehicles, the hairstyles in vogue etc. have all come out authentically on screen.

And more importance could have been given to the hero's carrom skills which are highly spoken about but rarely shown properly. Mostly only long shots are used when Irfan is playing. And the love story and gangster elements are something we have seen in many movies before. But the carrom aspect definitely gives the movie some extra brownie points. And what is it with today's directors and tragic endings. Did Brahma G. Dev run out of ideas on how to end his film?

On the whole it's not a bad film at all and you won't complain if you catch this film on a weekend on TV. But it doesn't have any major draws to attract the audience to the cinema hall.