What are the similarities between directors Vinayan and Jayaraj? Both know how to create lot of curiosity, hype and publicity for their films before their release. What’s the difference? Vinayan’s films become hits at the box office.
With that intelligent question, let’s get to review ‘Ashwaroodan’.
When Jayaraj and Suresh Gopi went to Ramoji Rao Film City to shoot their film on the last moments of a terminally ill patient, Telugu producer Rama Rao was so impressed by the unit’s efficiency that he decided to produce a film in Malayalam. He might now be wondering why he even bothered to.
Jayaraj’s films always have a standard formula- Pick a current issue from the papers and somehow incorporate it in the story.
So, here’s the story.
The story was probably inspired by the papers and lot of ‘good-hearted village chieftain’ movies from Kollywood. Suresh Gopi is Veerabhadran, a man belonging to a family of righteous village chieftains. The entire village worships him. His father, Vishwanathan (played by Captain Raj), was murdered by the chief villain, Karunakaran. But Karunakaran’s son Manikkan (played by Sai Kumar) disowns his dad and joins the Veerabhadran camp.
When Sai Kumar is playing the role, you can rest assured that sooner or later you will discover that he is a baddy too! And you’re right!!!
The current issue involved in the film is the Muthanga shootout.
Padhmapriya is the heroine of the film. She is a Brahman girl who fights for the rights of the tribal community and thus stops Manikkan in his grand plans of taking over their lands. She loses her family’s support when things start going out of control. Soon, Veerabhadran comes to her rescue. By then, he too realizes that Manikkan wasn’t all that good either.
Both get together and beat Manikkan at his game.
If Sai Kumar is going to continue with his villainous performances, he risks the danger of getting terribly typecasted. But in the acting department, his performance ironically turns out to be the saving grace in the film. Suresh Gopi, at many instances, overdid his role. Padhmapriya wasn’t convincing in her role. The rest of the cast didn’t have much to do.
Jassie Gift had scored the music. Unfortunately, ‘4 The People’ still remains his sole hit.
Director- Jayaraj
Cast- Suresh Gopi, Padhmapriya, Sai Kumar, Captain Raj, TG Ravi and others
Producer- Rama Naidu
Music- Jassie Gift
Cinematography- Venugopalan
The Good
Cinematography
The Bad
Lots of things…
The Ugly
The fact that the film failed miserably to meet up to the expectations
- 07.07.2006
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