Starcast: Siddharth, Shruti Hassan, Hansika Motwani, Navdeep
Direction: Venu Sriram
Music: Rahul Raj
Production: Satish Film Corporation
Cashing in on Siddharth’s recent success Kadhali Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi comes Sridhar, the Tamil version of his recent Telugu hit Oh My Friend, directed by debutant by Venu Sriram. A yuppy and urban film, it speaks about friendship between a boy and a girl.
The storyline is interesting and execution is decent. A sense of sophistication prevails all through, making the regular movie-goer to feel little alien.
With the likes of Shruti Hassan, Hansika Motwani and Navdeep in the cast, the feel of watching a Telugu dubbing thankfully doesn’t prevail.
The film with right mix of comedy and emotions makes it count. Siddharth’s breezy performance is the movie’s highlight. he is col and casual. Shruti Hassan is impressive while Hansika is bubbly and cherubic.
Childhood pals Sridhar (Siddarth) and Sridevi (Shruthi Haasan) live a happy life. Their bond gets stronger as they grow old.
But life sees a change for them when Ritu (Hansika Motwani) comes in their life. Sridhar falls in love with Ritu. He spends all time with her that upsets Sridevi. In the meantime, Sridevi gets ready for her marriage with Uday (Navdeep), who comes from America.
There are some mistaken identities. Sridevi’s friendship with Sridhar is on the verge of bear up. Friendship or love, which wins at the end is the rest of the story.
Siddharth is the hallmark for the film. He is youthful and at his best. Not far behind is Shruthi, who performs well.
Navdeep and Hansika fit the bill. The director handles the script in a mature fashion, despite the fact that the screenplay moves on a snail’s pace in the second half.
Produced by Satheesh, Sridhar should do well in multiplexes.
Rahul Raj’s songs and Manisharma’s background score are adequate. Camera work by Vijay K Chakravarthy is commendable.
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Sridhar, an intriguing title indeed! As per the crew, the nomenclature points its reason to veteran film maker Sridhar and this is the crew’s way of paying their tribute the legend. And of course, hero Siddharth goes by the same name.
Sridhar, for those uninitiated, is the dubbed version of the Telugu flick ‘Oh my friend’ and is directed by Sriram with Siddharth, Shruthi Haasan and Hansika helming the lead roles.
We have seen quite a few films that have sung paeans about friendship, love and the thin line separating the two. Sridhar, also talks about the same but in a quite endearing manner that is likely to tug at a few heart’s strings. The director has ably demonstrated the beautiful relationship that exists between a man and a woman and how it is difficult for them to continue in the same level and their pangs of having to choose one for the other.
This premise may not be something new to Tamil cinema but Sriram lends a fresh touch and contemporary feel and gives a ‘feel good’ experience.
There are just about few characters and the director has spun his tale around them in a fairly linear fashion, having the audience’s attention for most parts. The performance of the lead artists especially Shruthi Haasan and Siddharth helps the director achieve his objective.
Shruthi Haasan is spontaneous and natural and her growth as a performer is evident. It is an easy ride for Siddharth who had essayed such roles in few of his earlier films, all the same, a neatly crafted portrayal indeed.
There is not much scope for Hansika in Sridhar but as a helpless lover, she delivers the goods. Navdeep who features after the intermission gets his acts right. The supporting cast of Thanikala Bharani and Lakshmi Ramakrishnan is apt. While M S Bhaskar’s voice perfectly suits Bharani, the same cannot be said about Siva Karthikeyan who has dubbed for Siddharth. In fact, this is the major drawback of the film.
Having heard Siddharth’s voice, it is very difficult to accept Siva Karthikeyan’s voice especially the English segments where Karthikeyan’s diction sounds very rustic and unrefined and does not match Siddharth’s urban character.
Sharp and expressive dialogues like “namakku mathila irukkara space yaaro occupy pannikittu irukkara maadiri irukku”, “purushan pondaatti friends aaga mudiyalennaalum, best friends purushan pondaatti aaga mudiyum” add significant value to the film.
The scene where Shruthi instructs Hansika to take care of Siddharth and Hansika’s reaction to the same is a good example of the relationship that exists between Shruthi and Siddharth and how that can be construed by others.
The Telugu feel in the few minutes in the first half takes some time to wear off and showing minarets and telling them to be at Chennai could have been avoided. Siddharth and Hansika are shown as school mates who have lost touch but Siddharth’s dialogues about Hansika losing in the college beauty contest cannot be explained.
Music of Rahul Raj is functional and it is not anything that you will hum the next day. Art direction is another minus as the work is too obvious. Cinematography is unobtrusive, pleasant and brings out the mood.
In all, Sridhar is a charming tale of friendship that would appeal to all those who value this noble relationship and would stand for it against all odds.