Sadhuram 2 movie review: A thriller that could have been more engaging
Cast: Yogi Japee, Sanam Shetty, Riaz ,Suja Varunee
Direction: Sumanth Radhakrishnan
Tamil audiences are yet to witness slasher genre films, which are popular in Hollywood. Debut director Sumanth Radhakrishnan inspired by James Wan’s ‘Saw’ has remade it as ‘Sadhuram 2,’ thus bringing the gore genre to K’town. Apparently, a crowd funding venture, the makers have also credited the original and termed it as ‘philanthropical thriller’.
Dr Vasudevan (Yog Japee), who has an extramarital affair with his colleague (Sanam Shetty in a miniscule role) and a photographer Vishal (Riaz), who takes personal pictures of celebrities and blackmails them with ransom are chained inside a dilapidated locked windowless room along with a dead body oozing with blood lying in between them.
Both are clueless as to why they are harassed until they find the reason for such punishment, which has been recorded in a cassette and kept in their pockets. The abductor says the ways to get out of his clutches as well within a time frame. Then we are shown a young and brilliant professional who suffers from brain tumor and his pregnant wife (Suja Varunee) who play vital characters in the film. Through a back and forth narration, the actual reason for their abduction is revealed with a final twist taking place in the story.
Theater actor Yogi Japee does what is expected out of him. Suja has also done a neat job. The others mostly newcomers are passable. Sumanth has fairly followed the original but toned down the violence and gore to procure a U/A Certification.
The positive aspects of the film are its running time with 95 minutes, decision to steer clear of dance and song routines, Indian adaptation with a social message etc. BGM by Girish Gopalakrishnan is also to an extent good. All the same, the low production values (anyone can make out that the dingy room is a set design), not extracting the best from some of the actors and confusing the audiences with back and forth short episodes are downers.
Had Sumanth concentrated on a taut and clear screenplay, the film would have been more engaging.
