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Siruthai: Routine Andhra fare served with Tamil niceties

With Pongal being the next most significant period to release a Tamil movie after Diwali, it is only natural that filmmakers ensure a blockbuster (which, in 99 times out of 100, is of the feel-good variety with action and glamour thrown in generous doses). A safer bet to do so is by remaking a movie that has tasted success in another language. Siruthai (the leopard), a remake of the Telugu hit Vikramarkudu, follows the above dictum to a T by casting Karthi, Surya’s sibling brother, in polemic characters.
Rocket Raja (Karthi) and Kaatupoochi (Santhanam, in familiar territory as the hero's sidekick) are petty thieves who aim at making a quick buck. Raja chances upon Shweta (Tamanna) while attempting to rob a marriage party, and, true to cinematic tradition, falls in love with her. His distaste for children gets into a tailspin when he and Kaatupoochi rob a chest supposedly containing jewels, only to find a girl inside, who identifies him as her father.
Meanwhile, we have Rathnavel Pandian, an IPS officer, (Karthi again, in what can be termed a reprisal of Alex Pandiyan, Rajnikanth's character in the 80's sleeper hit Moondru Mugam, minus the chutzpah) who wages an unsuccessful crusade against Bhavuna (Avinash), a drug dealer, in a village in Andhra Pradesh.
Implausible sequences and jingoistic dialogues about police pride (Sample this: Even the khaki uniform of a policeman is enough to eliminate bad elements in the society) slow down the narrative in the second half. Pandian puts the proverbial cat of nine lives to shame by emerging unscathed despite sustaining one serious injury after the other, and is in no way an Anbuchelvan IPS (Surya’s character in Kakkha Kakkha), although his comic timing is impeccable. Tamanna provides eye-candy for the wolf whistles, as does Meghna Naidu in an item-number.
Vidyasagar plays to the gallery with his music score and has laid out a barrage of racy numbers.

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