Apparently Ashok Selvan rejected more than 30 scripts before he was roped in for Savaale Samaali, the tall and handsome Thegidi actor is back after a while along with Jagan and Bindhu Madhavi to be directed by Sathyasiva. The film falls in line of the endless list of wannabe comedy movies that rides high on one liners and occasional humor. Let’s take a look at what SS has in store for the viewers.
The title is inspired by one of yesteryear’s superhit movie and looks to rebound success in somewhat similar manner. Ashok Selvan plays a viscom graduate who works for a mediocre media company “Top TV”. After working in Soodhu Kaavum and Thegidi, this is Ashok’s first straight solo comedy movie, of course aided by Jagan who happens to be his colleague in the media company he works. For the first half hour you wonder what the director is up to, shuttling between two themes; a guy who hits on almost all of his sister’s friends and his antics and the other being the endless attempts to revive a TV channel which is plagued with mediocre programs.
Somehow after seeing Ashok Selvan as a brilliant detective in Thegidi, his antics to become a Romeo and impress Bindhu madhavi takes time to accept, through the first half he keeps hitting on her without luck, much to his sister’s frustration. The director could have given the extra jazz in the romance segment, as after multiple attempts the hero tries to woo his ladylove the routine could have made little more interesting for the viewers. Jagan just keeps to keep the audience alive with his one liners and tidbits which give away for some laughs here and there.
The TV show’s MD is one of Kollywood’s finest comedian Karunaas, he does nothing comical in this movie but rather delivers a fiery dialogue on the lost art of “Koothu” and for a moment we are left emotional and lost in thoughts on his insights, surely one of the best scenes for an actor of his caliber, but that said we expect the film to kick off and take the momentum, but some ordinary narration lets the script, screenplay, direction and everything down. Kollywood has seen several Dad’s, Mom’s, Grandfather’s helping the hero’s love in a rather unconventional way and here is Paravai Muniama returning onscreen after a long time as Ashok’s grandmother who drinks along with her grandson and takes a step ahead in helping out his love.
The story exhibits enough scope for a good movie on the cards, a struggling TV company that fails to pay its employees and two youngsters who have a bunch of ideas up their sleeve, and romance elsewhere for the hero. Surely a promising storyline for a blockbuster, but the screenplay, dialogues and BGM are far from extraordinary and rather appear dull with some occasional jokes and laughs. Ashok Selvan after playing some worthwhile characters in his previous movies enters into a zone that shows a lot of room for improvement acting wise. Jagan as his friend is in his forte, teasing, double meanings and all that he is known for. His dialogue delivery and comical ability is intact offers a few laughs here and there, he is there throughout the movie alongside Ashok Selvan and steals the show now and then. Bindhu madhavi’s scope is limited to that of stereotyped heroine who keeps rejecting love and pretty much that’s it. The inclusion of old timers like Nassar, Urvashi, MS Baskar and rest are just to feed the empty scenes in between the storyline.
The end product of the movie is like a show on TV channel that telecasts comedy scenes from multiple movies. It does try to bring in some truth behind reality shows, talk and all those much hyped shows in TV, but the screenplay is an obvious answer to the fact that the director has run out of ideas to capitalize and show it in a conventional, rather convincing way.
All said, the film is one for some dry humor with an insight on reality shows and its background.
