Cast: Jiiva, Riya Suman, Navdeep, Varun, Sathish, Gayathri
Director: Rathna Siva
Music: D Imman
I’ve been watching Varun feature in every film under Vels’ production (most possibly because of the fact that it’s his family’s). I’m not complaining though because he’s a competent actor. Seeru too has worked out to be a perfect film to launch him in a negative role. More than a ‘Jiiva’ film, it was a Varun film with Jiiva serving as a catalyst for action. There is more screen presence for Jiiva, but Varun takes the front seat when it comes to creating an impact.
Manimaran (Jiiva) owns a television channel ‘Kokkarako’ in Mylaadudurai along with his friend Gopi (Sathish). He is extremely fond of his sister Ilakkiya (Gayathri) who is pregnant and about to deliver. An MLA, who is against Mani for some local cable TV issues sets up Malli (Varun) to kill Mani, who instead ends up saving his pregnant sister. Mani and Malli befriend each other and tackle Ashok Mithran (Navdeep), a criminal lawyer and Malli’s unexpected enemy who was involved in the murder of a young girl.
I found the first half completely unnecessary. If I didn’t have to sit through the mawkish sibling sequences, the frustrating humour, and the so-called romantic scenes, there’s a chance this movie might have worked better for me. It didn’t add value to entertainment, let alone plot. The second half though has a good deal of ‘content’. But again, if you don’t see the story develop until half-way through the film, you wouldn’t bother indulging it as much as you would if it had arrived at the beginning. And that’s where the movie fails.
Rathna Siva has clearly defined his characters. But I only wish he’d avoided characters that just don’t help the plot. If Jiiva just needed to identify a number on Truecaller, he could’ve asked anybody around him. The female lead isn’t of any special significance. The MLA and policeman are a part of the story just so that Rathna plug some loopholes.
Through the film, everyone is seen offering poor justification for their actions. The fact that Manimaran could keep in control an MLA just by owning a TV channel is completely baffling (and we have the MLA explaining this to his assistant). A professional criminal lawyer is appalled by the speech of a 12th std student and decides to get rid of her because of the pressure building on him. And why is that pressure? Because her statements opened up closed cases at the High Court. Here we are, when nobody pays heed to open debates and protests; I want to meet these high court officials who open up sealed cases because of interviews from school students. And in that interview, we find the girl, Pavithra (Chandhini) acting way above her age and biting off more than she can chew. Why you may ask? Because when she was seven years old, she fell off a merry-go-round, went into a coma and turned ‘brilliant’.
Celebrities At The ‘Seeru’ Press Meet
The film does justice with its flashback sequences. The girls also deliver the right kind of emotion. If we remove Jiiva from the plot, the story would still move the same way it did. He’s not woven into the plot but only remains an outside element throughout the story. It’s more of Varun vs Navdeep than Jiiva vs Navdeep, with Jiiva helping his cause.
After witnessing Varun only in boy-next-door roles, his bearded countenance in this film was a refreshing change. I think we may have a promising actor who can play the antagonist after a long time. Navdeep is impressive in the role. This is definitely not one of Imman’s best albums. Editor Lawrence Kishore has done a superb job; even while the first half is boring, it doesn’t drain you thanks to his slick editing.
Also Read,
The Seeru review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.
