Young sensation Karthi's "Saguni" hit the screens today with mounted expectations, thanks to his combination with Santhaanam, the flavor of the season. This combo had weaved their magic in 'Siruthai' early last year and this time too managed to rock the galleries with their comic timing and Santhanam's unique punch dialogs laced with some satirical repartee. That said, I am afraid that it was the only thing that worked in the entire movie and that too only for the fist half. The second half wandered aimlessly with tons of flaw and potholes, finally falling flat without making the desired impact.
The story of Saguni revolves around 'Kamalakannan alias Kamal', who reaches Chennai with the sole aim of recovering his ancestral property from being demolished by the government for a railway project. He gets swindled in the process by the political system and decides to take on the same single handedly using his 'smart moves' and achieves the impossible at the end! As unbelievable as it sounds, so many movies in the past decade with the likes of 'Dhil' and 'Dhool' had worked the same magic with a racy screenplay and gripping narration. But in 'Saguni' the cinematic liberties have been exploited to an extent that it appeared like a political 'Lollu Sabha'!
The story had hardly anything to offer in terms of content. Debutant director Shankar Dhayal had made his intentions clear of marketing a mass masala entertainer with a young sensation and a comedy riot as seen in Karthi and Santhanam respectively. With an introduction song for the hero, followed by an array of comic scenes, a few romantic songs in foreign locales, the odd sentiment and above all the political satire which should have had the audience hooked, sadly fell between stools after sometime as the screenplay lost control.
Karthi has given a solid performance as always and his combination with Santhaanam was the only saving grace for the movie. His brilliant timing and body language is getting better with every film he does.
Pranitha made a sad debut as she made her presence felt only with the songs which came in every now and then.
Prakash Raj had a standard political villain role where he had to deliver high pitched dialogs for the most part of his role.
Nassar, Roja, Radhika, Kiran and Kota Srinivasa Rao hardly managed to add any fuel to the already slowing train.
Had it not been mentioned on the title card, it would have been hard to trace that the music for the film was by G.V.Prakash. None of the songs created an impact and it proved to be a total disaster in terms of BGM too.
There was unnecessary cameo appearances from Anushka and Andreah and it goes to prove once again that too many cooks spoil the broth.
Overall the movie can be enjoyed in bits and pieces especially in the first half, while the second half loses steam big time.
Verdict: Below Average
Rating: 2/5
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