Thankfully, the villains of Samar (U/A) make a very late entry. No film in recent times has witnessed such annoying screen crooks! How long can a viewer watch the idiosyncrasies of two rich loonies, whose guffaws and silly exchanges are irritating from the word go? And because dialogue in these scenes show paucity of imagination, it is more like the logorrhoea of two juvenile delinquents. How did such talented and well-known actors as Manoj Bajpai and J.D. Chakravarthy, from Hindi and Telugu tinseldom, agree to play roles that show them in such a poor light?
Throughout the first half of this action thriller, director Thiru and hero Vishal manage to keep you on tenterhooks with thrilling occurrences. Theeratha Vilaiyaattu Pillai , Thiru’s debut, also with Vishal, was a dampener. But this time the same combo returns to make some amends in Samar , if you can forget the high-level improbabilities that plague the latter part.
Even in the earlier portions when the story gets the hero entangled in more and more knots, you feel somewhere down the line Thiru is going to have a lot of trouble untying each of them plausibly. He proves you right. And that’s the time in the film when the two strange characters mentioned at the beginning, enter. They are busy bodies with a whole lot of businesses to handle, you are told. Still they have all the time in the world to play cruel games with human minds!
Vishal emerges as a mature performer sliding into the role of a sitting duck with ease — a gullible young man in Bangkok, who is clueless about the enemy who stalks him to kill. These are engaging segments of Samar . But after the terrific build-up, when you get to know the real reason for the hero being targeted, things plateau. The less said about the second half, the better.
Trisha looks ravishing in every frame and pulls off her transformation into a siren with élan. Comparatively Sunaina’s is more a cameo, but one that’s very different from the kind of characters she’s played so far.
The linear narration that doesn’t get sidetracked by the antics of a comedian is a positive aspect of Samar . Sriman, Sampath, Jayaprakash, John Vijay — impressive cast you could say, but none makes an impact.
Except for the ‘Azhagae Azhagu’ piece to some extent, Samar is surely not Yuvan Shankar Raja at his best.
The first half of Samar shows promise. The second leaves you exasperated.
Samar
Genre: Action
Director: Thiru
Cast: Vishal, Trisha, Sunaina
Storyline: Two wealthy sadists play dangerous games with innocent lives …
Bottomline: Well begun and that’s it.
