NOORU SAMI - Just a watchable human drama for a potentially great storyline.

Ashwin Ram

Premise: Swasika’s husband passes away a natural death. Years later, she wishes for a companion as her sons have grown out. The reactions from her own blood impacts her proposal and how she further deals with it forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:

    The film deals with a mature and progressive content, the message it conveys is a not-so-touched one, yet very relevant and important, however the drill is pretty familiar, the character arcs and stuff to be precise appeal to be usual. The approach is realistic and the portions that are retained in its true nature are the strengths, on the other hand, there are a handful of situations that are commercialised for a better reach act as spoilsport. Starts promisingly with a bunch of impressively written scenes. Then it moves on to this overdramatised zone, keeping the momentum away. The sons realizing the importance of their mother having a life of her own has great potential, but they are fleshed out too generically with no inventiveness in the presentation. The entire YouTube channel angle lands on a cringey manner and just becomes a convenient tool in the end during the payoff. Gets better when Vijay Antony comes into the picture, the mild romance is likeable and we instantly get to root for them to get together. Plenty of sensible dialogues that are even clap-worthy at places, but over stressing on the context again and again weakens the essence. Certain moments are placed just to provide the cinematic tension, the interval block for example, there is a connect in the script, but the way of approach lacks logic. Lively humour is attempted at frequent intervals, but working only in parts.

Performances:

    Lifetime role for Swasika, as the script is female-centric and she plays the lead, such grounded performance that perfectly suits to the intended nativity. Quality role for Vijay Antony, but unexpectedly just an extended cameo who appears only in the tail-end of the film, not sure how commercially that would go, however his role stayed true to the purpose of the story. Ajay Dhishan’s acting has improved, but not enough for a crucial full-fledged role that has so many dramatic stretches. Plenty of known artists, barely appears in one scene, there is an involvement in the story for all of them, but nothing to pin-point that uplifts the flow.

Technicalities:

    The soulful montage number towards the end is good, Sasi is a director who generally extracts good music from the new-gen musicians, this time they all sound too old-school. Way too many songs and they don’t elevate the drama as much. Neat camera work that is apt for a rural backdrop, realistic dim choice of lighting in the dark scenes. Simplistic editing that enhances the realistic approach, the 2hrs, 12mins runtime is pretty convincing as well.

Verdict:

    Solid content with a satisfying noble message, Swasika’s best performance yet. Writing is on and off, works when things are grounded and falters when they go overboard for commercial viability. Also, it is a step down in terms of director’s craft.

NOORU SAMI - Just a watchable human drama for a potentially great storyline.

Rating - 2.75/ 5.