It's the first month of the year & we had three major releases last weekend to cash in on the Pongal festivities. Among the three, the one that instantly caught my eye was Suriya's "Thaana Serndha Koottam. Apart from the fact that it had an catchy title, it also happened to be the remake of the Akshay starrer "Special 26" which I had really liked. With the foot thumping "Sodakku" ruling the music charts, it had generated adequate hype to garner a sizable initial. So will this walk away with the prize among the Pongal releases???
As mentioned earlier, it is based on "Special 26" which I presume most of you would have watched it. Iniyan (Suriya) is a bright young man who aspires to join the CBI but despite his credentials, fails to make the cut due to the corrupt officer Uthaman (Suresh Chandra Menon). The same fate befalls on his buddy as well, who however commits suicide unable to come to terms with the corrupt system. At this juncture, Iniya decide to form a team of CBI impostors & they conduct raids on individuals who had amassed vast amounts of unaccounted money. With none of the victims formally lodging a complaint, the actual CBI had no clue has to how to nab the culprits. However, the upfront hard nosed CBI officer Kurunjivedhan was determined to put Iniyan & his team behind bars.
About five years have passed since Neeraj Pandey's critically & commercially acclaimed "Special 26" had hit the screens. The task of remaking it in Tamil was entrusted upon Vignesh Shivan who had impressed the audience with "Naanum Rowdythaan". He has maintained the main thread but has worked on the treatment so that it catered to the sensibilities of the Tamil audience. In short, more humour elements were inserted into proceedings & it was given a vibrant colourful mood. However, the climax wasnt quite upto the mark & was rather preachy. As far as the technical aspects are concerned, Dinesh Krishnan impressed with the visuals while Anirudh Ravichander produced some decent tracks with "Sodakku" being an absolute chartbuster.
Suriya was fantastic as the protagonist whether it be the looks or the body language & also seemed to be in absolute ease with the humour. The idea to cast Remya Krishnan for Anupam Kher's role was a smart move & she has done utmost justice to the character of Jhansi Rani. Though Keerthy Suresh's intro was interesting, she was wasted later on. Karthik has done a fine job along with Suresh Chandra while the rest of the cast have also done their parts aptly.
Verdict: Unlike his last couple of releases, this one will garner positive word of mouth which would surely translate into more footfalls. If one is looking for some bindaas time pass, then look no further than Iniya & his team of impostors. In short, give it a try even if you have watched the original!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Regards...Ben
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