Review for SARPATTA PARAMBARAI:
•Language: TAMIL
•Duration: 02 Hours 54 Minutes.
•Genre: PERIODICAL SPORTS DRAMA.
• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.
•Streaming on Amazon Prime Videos.
•POSITIVES:
1: DIRECTION.
2: SCREENPLAY & DIALOGUES.
3: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS.
4: CINEMATOGRAPHY.
5: EDITING.
6: ART DIRECTION.
7: STUNTS AND ACTIONS.
•NEGATIVES:
1: PREDICTABLE STORYLINE.
2: LENGTHY DURATION.
3: MODERATE LAGGING IN SECOND HALF.
4: BACKGROUND SCORE LACKS IMPACT.
•In ONE WORD
An engaging and watchable sports drama.
•STORY IDEA:
Kabilan a young man lives and resides at the North Chennai. His town is famous for boxing competitions which always have the clash between two groups called Sarpatta Parambarai and Idiyappa Parambarai. Kabilan is admired to be a boxer but his mother Bhagyam makes him step back from the boxing life due to a heartbreaking past. Rangan Vaathiyar is a respectable coach and Kabiran admires him very much. One day Rangan Vaathiyar was forced to take a challenge and Kabilan to save the dignity of his worshiped coach steps into the ring and thus his life begins to change. Can he fulfill his dream of becoming a boxer and how is life changes is the rest of the story.
•ANALYSIS TO DIRECTION, STORY, SCREENPLAY & DIALOGUES:
The movie is directed by Pa.Ranjith who had previously made the films like Kabali and Madras. The story, screenplay, and dialogues are also written by Pa. Ranjith along with Thamizhprabha. The movie is produced by Shanmugam Dhakshanraj and comes under the production company of Neelam Pictures and K9 Studios. The movie is distributed by Amazon Studios and is currently steaming through Amazon Prime Videos.
The first positive of this movie is its direction held by Pa. Renjith. As we all know his making always has something new and fresh, and an incompatible pattern is always followed and that’s what I liked in Pa. Renjith films. By the grace of his marvelous direction, his movie has a vibrant sort of power to connect with the audience. Sarpatta Parambarai is good and worth our time but it’s not his best. The treatment he made in this film shows his passionate approach and it’s evident. He carried out the movie bravely and perfectly according to the story but not as per the screenplay. If anyone is fond of Pa. Renjith’s direction one thing is sure that he makes the character realistic and also makes the places summed with a real structure. How the people speak, how they dress, and how they live was beautifully shown by Pa.Ranjith
The basic plot of the film is charming which basically explains that Pa. Renjith had made compelling writing and the inspiration from real life was also written generously. After watching 15 minutes one can surely know how the movie is following its path, thanks to the common formula which we can find in any Indian sports drama. The various events which we can see in the plot offer moments and these moments were delightful to watch. Let’s divide into the first half and second half, the first half is packed with thrilling. punches. The second half moves into the transformation of our protagonist. The second half is also filled with moments and many sparking elements that can inspire us to fight for our dream.
Importantly the writing of the screenplay is combined with many emotions, Pa. Renjith and Thamizhprabha had blended many factors. The numerous emotions like the affection of a mother, downfalls, and winning of our protagonist, the care of a concerned wife, the love of a coach, betrayal, politics, and excitement were having an equal momentum to maintain the emotions in the film. The dialogues had a style of a social and regional mix of Tamil language which was great. Like flipping a coin the writing of script also flips into a backdrop of a thriller but not completely. While watching an excitement had laid throughout to know how the protagonist had achieved. The inner politics has its own patch in the writing of Pa. Renjith and while watching many past political incidents were shown and the connection of this idea of politics had synced with the writing and making.
Now when looking into the negatives, the prior con of this movie is its genre. When a sports drama is made a common thing will follow, a hero, having the ambition to win his dream game, slowly fighting for it, living and giving all his efforts, gradually obstacles arrives on his patch with some villain and eventually winning his dream. This is the method and strategies we can find commonly in any sports drama and unfortunately, Sarpatta Parambarai also follows this style. Therefore, the viewers know how the movie will begin, how the movie tracks, and how it ends. So while watching this predictable way of execution had personally given me a totality of idea of how the movie is going to be. Secondly, the lengthy duration of this movie was an issue in the viewing experience, the biggest advantage of online release is that if they are bored the viewers are getting the chance to make a skip, even though I haven’t skipped anything my mind was forcing. The middle portions of the second half were a bit dragging, I felt many scenes were unnecessarily pulled, some of them could have been trimmed. The third is the sudden gimmick of usual cliches. For example, our hero a boxer after a tragedy gaining lots of weight and suddenly one day deciding to get back to his previous life, next making hard workouts and getting back to the previous physic within a short time, next to the important persons who haven’t supported heroes dream at the beginning finally make their move at the climax for supporting him and roaring for him, next taking enough beating from the villain and at last fighting back to have his supreme victory and in between suddenly after seeing and hearing some powerful words from the coach makes hero rises back to take the cup, etc are filled up in the plot like a common sports drama. But due to the practical making and justifying screenplay, all these above-mentioned gets digested in the viewing experience.
• PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS:
The movie has the casting of Arya, Pashupathy, Dushra Vijayan, Anupama Kumar, John Vijay, John Kokken, Kalaiyarasan and Sanchana Natarajan. Arya as Kabilan did an energetic performance throughout the film. His acting was quite interesting to watch, comparatively looking back to the previous film he had made a genuine hardworking job in this one. The transformation he had made to build the perfect gymnastic body was shocking and speechless. The interesting element I liked in his way of acting was an undertaking of the character because the qualities and attitude of a clever boxer were seen on his style and also the way he interpreted the character defines the charismatic style of a real aggressive fighter. Like I said his fabulous transformation deserves huge applause and big thumps for his hard work. There are few scenes that portray his excellence, especially when it comes to aggressiveness. A student taking the all effort and learning from his master is always something beautiful, here Arya as the student learning skills from his master Pashupathy was fantastic to watch. Both of their chemistry and the combination was thrilling and exciting to watch. The emotional scenes were moderate at most times his sentiments had worked out but an important scene towards the ending hasn’t come out perfectly due to his voice, the modulations were not that great. Still, the efforts he had made for the character and the way he has undertaken as a boxer was fascinating to watch till the end. Pashupathy as Rangan Vaathiyar, Kabilan’s boxing coach was excellent on the whole film. His acting was on the perfect track, perfect emotions were overflowing through his acting. The struggling of a coach and the responsibility to teach his student was done authentically like a real coach. Like previously said there are some notable emotions appearing on his face which is a treat to watch. The dialogue delivery was remarkable and the timing he used for it in different types of scenes was pleasing to watch. John Vijay as Kevin aka Daddy also did a terrific supporting role, the combination scenes with Arya was really good and his unique was dialogue delivery was also impressive. Dushara Vijayan as Mariamma, Kabilan’s wife was amazing, as a newcomer her acting was incredible. The romantic scenes with Arya were awesome with lots of loving and cute moments. The emotional scenes were striking till the end with a great impact also the sentimental scenes happening between her and Arya was having the right pace to lead the movie. Anupama Kumar as Bakkiyam the mother of Kabilan had delivered a superlative performance. The love, concern, and affection of a mother were evidently seen in her entire acting. Sanchana Natarajan had impressed with her ideal dialogue delivery, all her conversations were felt smooth and original like happening in real life also the few emotional scenes were exact to set the premise. Kalaiyarasan as Vetriselvan did a great performance, his acting like as usual was clean with rightful qualities. His combination scenes with Arya had made a great impact and the different shades on his characters were handled accordingly. John Kokken as Vembuli the competitor shines on the whole film till the end, he had also made a great gymnastic body for the character and his acting and actions were validly matching for a villain.
•MUSIC AND BACKGROUND SCORE:
For the first time, Santosh Narayanan’s musical work had given me a disappointing feeling. When working with Pa. Renjith he uses to follow a different style but in Sarpatta Parambarai the style doesn’t change, the pattern of his music with raps remains the same, this repetitive style doesn’t impress and unfortunately, the songs felt normal. The song ‘Vambula Thumballa was good but not great. The tunes composed for the songs were felt like usual, quite average. Also, we know that Santosh Narayanan is extraordinary at making background scores but in this film, I felt he fell flat. There are thrilling elements in the movie in between so to make an ongoing impact the background scores haven’t help precisely. The background tunes were fine but the musical magic of Santosh Narayanan was not seen. It was sad to see the background scores haven’t sunk at the climax portions especially at the boxing actions. Also to maintain the trauma of the emotional and sentimental scenes the background scores were restrained on giving the right sorrowful mood. Every time Santosh Narayanan use to surprise with his phenomenal musical tunes but this time I am surprised to say that he had failed to create his mysticism.
•TECHNICAL ASPECTS:
The movie was having a wonderful technical team from the cinematography to the art direction and the final result came out amazing. The whole team behind the technical division had done a predominate work and while watching it’s clearly evident. The cinematography by Murali. G was captivating with the accurately captured visuals. The lighting techniques used for the indoor scenes and stadium scenes were flawless. The camera movements in the boxing competition scenes were taken faultlessly, the frames and various motions were sharp which had genuinely captured the spirit. The boxing visuals were also thrilling and the different climax frames of sea and boxing training were bewildering to a great extent. The wide-angle shots towards the climax in the training scenes were good and the close-up shots which were used to capture the emotions of central characters while boxing had given a great excitement. The editing of Selva R. K. was fine and relating without giving mismatches and the transformation of scenes was fitting finely. The Art Direction was having the greatest responsibility to recreate the periodical time of the 80s and they had done neat and clean work, the various set looked authentic like one of the 1980s. The wardrobes designed by the Costume Designer were also impressive, the style of 1980 was taken accurately which doesn’t leave any errors. The team behind who choreographed action sequences had also made done a brilliant job, the boxing action sequences were a treat to watch.
•CONCLUSION:
So overall to conclude Sarpatta Parambarai is an enjoyable sports drama in all manner which has given a satisfying experience. The movie has its wonderful moments with the bond of thrilling sportsmanship which won’t disappoint anyone. The energetic performance of Arya and the excellent direction from Pa. Renjith makes the movie worthwhile for our time.
•VERDICT:
WORTH WATCH
• RATING:
3/5.
