Roudram (Malayalam, 2008)

Release Date: Feb 01
Cast: Mamooty, Lalu Alex, Rajan P Dev, Vijayaraghavan, Sai Kumar and Manju
Directed by Ranji Panikker

Ranji Paniker is back with his next directorial venture Roudram. And with him, need I say that the dictionary to be brought along. The verbal diarrhea of characters in Malayalam and English begins to pour down, fast and furious. However it looks like the writer has turned a new leaf since he has reduced that bit drastically, though they still are strewn all through the writing.

Also for a change it is Mammooty and not Suresh Gopi in the uniform of a cop. And we all know that Mammooty can sleep walk effectively through a cop role. So if you liked flicks like the The King, here is one more tale about the righteous cop against the corrupt bureaucrats. So here comes one of those dialogue heavy thrillers. But then again it is a lot similar to many of Ranji Panikker’s earlier works.

The plot is the usual one man vs the system one , with this time the main protagonist being ACP Narendran aka Nari (Mammooty). Not the one to back off easily, he becomes at the receiving end of the ire of his superiors and his numerous transfers justify that. However he also do have some superiors and colleagues (Rajan P Dev, Lalu Alex) who support his stand.

The plot moves forward with a murder case being handed over to Nari from the chief ministers’ office. However as he goes about his investigations, he realize that this murder case can actually throw light on a huge drug mafia, with even some of the big names in the police force and politics being involved.
Now with the people who opened the case threatening to end the investigations, Nari goes all out to get to the bottom of it all and reveal the truth.

Going at full pace with no songs, the film still seems lengthy. However Mammooty delivers another stellar performance as usual.

THE PANEL ROOM
SIFY - certainly not in the league of Panikkar’s earlier works, however the director does construct an engrossing actor-driven political action adventure with panache.

IndiaGlitz – Roudram is a mostly taut action if it had not been for the tame climax and some slackened post interval portions that hamper the film’s overall flow.

Rediff has no problems in trashing the flick claiming that you are in for royal disappointment if you are looking for any kind of novelty in this film.