Vijay Antony chooses his subjects wisely; his Nakali had an interesting concept, here the plot is simple but engaging. Vijay plays two roles, in the first half he is the victim and post-interval he is the victimiser. The movie takes off with Dr. Salim (Vijay) picking up a rape victim lying in the bushes and shifting her to a hospital where she breathes her last. The identity of her killers isn’t known and the thread picks up in the second half. Dr Salim is a do gooder, who prays five times daily, feeds the poor, teaches sport to kids and is very humane at the hospital.
Since he doesn’t fleece patients with inflated bills the corporate hospital he works in boots him out. Ironically, his fiancé, flustered with his attitude, calls off their impending marriage at about the same time that the victim in the hospital disappears. The first half of the character is tailor made for Vijay Antony. He shows incredible patience and maturity in dealing with his inconsiderate, eccentric and short-tempered fiancé but at the same time sticks to his principles at the hospital.
The film moves very slowly but the audience are able to sit through because of the interesting point. Once out of the hospital, he saves a woman being harassed by a few youth and keeps the youngsters locked in the hotel room, one of them being a minister’s son. Here onwards, his character goes through a huge transformation. The simple, honest man turns a baddie, almost a terrorist, overnight. Keeping a high profile person as a hostage and getting demands met is not a fresh point, we’ve seen this in umpteen films but what is noteworthy is the narration. The director succeeds in maintaining the suspense throughout the film; only some unnecessary scenes have been inserted just to move the story ahead in the second half even while the entire drama goes inside the hotel.
The film sustains interest because it is a bit different from the regular fare and the technicians have done a good job.
Apart from Aksha and Vijay Antony, the rest of the team seems to have made their debut with this movie. There is excessive melodrama and the entire film revolves around Vijay, the good and the violent. A little toning down of his Salim’s virtues would have looked realistic and some better expressions as an angry man would have justified his character perfectly. All in all, Dr. Salim is not a bad watch.