Making a movie out of an idea that's been done to death can only result in something phenomenally boring — and Sooriya Nagaram is no exception. Director Ma Chellamuthu seems to have nurtured the hope of making his film stand out from others with similar plots with an ending that can at best be described as gory and uninteresting.
A caste-crazy leader Kathirvel (R. V. Udhayakumar) opposes his daughter Tamilselvi's (Meera Nandan) love for Vetrivel (Rahul Ravindran), a mechanic who works in a workshop opposite his home. His young son Senthil (Udhay), who does not believe in caste, supports his sister's love. After Kathirvel is murdered by members of a rival caste, Senthil's community expects him to lead them. Senthil turns down the offer. He wants to get his sister married to her lover, who is serving a life sentence for killing the bridegroom chosen by Tamilselvi's father. Just as he is about to conduct the wedding, the whole community puts pressure on him and stalls it. He ends up killing his sister and her lover, whose love he once supported.
Moving at a snail's pace, with no novel ideas to offer and devoid of humour, the movie generates little interest. The actors, however, cannot be blamed for the sorry state of affairs as most of them seem to have done their jobs. R. V. Udhayakumar, Meera Nandan and Rahul Ravindran, in particular, impress. However, Ganja Karuppu and Suri fail in their mission to make audiences laugh.
The story and the screenplay are to be largely blamed for the film's failure to strike a chord with the audience. The whole plot is stretched to such an extent that by the time the film ends, one feels drained and exhausted. Fen Viallee's music has a good and a bad side to it. The good thing is the songs aren't revolting, save the item number. The bad thing is they aren't good enough to recall. J. K. Venky's cinematography is definitely one of the pluses of the movie, which otherwise doesn't have much to boast of.
Sooriya Nagaram
Genre: Drama
Director: Ma. Chellamuthu
Cast: Rahul Ravindran, Meera Nandan, R. V. Udhayakumar, Ganja Karuppu, Soori, S. N. Lakshmi, Krithi, Ammu, ‘Anjathey' Sridhar.
Storyline: A caste-obsessed society causes the death of a couple in love.
Bottomline: A painful affair!
