Review for SULTHAN:

•Language: TAMIL

•Duration: 02 HOURS 38 MINUTES 

•Genre: ACTION THRILLER 

• Censor Rating: UA 

• [Theatre GMAX Cinemas Kollam Screen 1 with 30% of audience]

• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.

•POSITIVES: 

1: DIRECTION 

2:  PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS 

3: BACKGROUND SCORE

4: CINEMATOGRAPHY 

5: EDITING

•NEGATIVES: 

1: PREDICTABLE STORY 

2: HALF BAKED SCREENPLAY

3: BELOW-AVERAGE SONGS.

•ONE WORD: Sulthan is predictably high but still entertaining for a time pass watch. 

The movie unfolds the story of Sulthan, born into a goon family. On the day of his birth, a group of rowdy’s attacks both his father and mother, but the mother gets saved by his father and by his family goons. Sadly due to the complications at the delivery, Sulthan’s mother dies, Sulthan is born and from his childhood, he was taken care of by his father’s goons. Sulthan never treated the goons badly he always considers everyone as his brother. After completing his robotic engineering Sulthan makes his return to his hometown to spend his vacation. One day a group of farmers comes to visit Sulthan’s father one requesting to help them from a notorious criminal who used to threaten them and illegally holds their land. Sultan’s father decides to help them and also promised them that their land will be returned and the criminal will be executed. Suddenly one-day Sulthan’s father gets attacked by some unknown rowdy’s and during the encounter, his father dies. Mansoor a senior member among the goons decides to leave to the village with others to keep the promise of Sulthan’a father. During this time the city commissioner who conducts the encounter mission makes the target kill all the goons in the city. Sulthan talks to the commissioner and pleads that he can change the life of his goons, he promised the commissioner that he takes the responsibility on that they won’t be any-more conducting any sort of criminal activities, thus commissioner was convinced and demanded that if any sort of cases arises in their name severe actions will be taken. Importantly during all these incidents, his father’s promise was not disclosed to Sulthan. So Sulthan with his goons leaves to the village for marriage but after his visit, some unexpected situations come to his path, will be able to keep his promise and will the goons be able to accomplish Sulthans fathers last promise. The rest of the story unfolds these incidents in a combined track of actions, romance, humour and sentiments. 

Sulthan is directed by Bakkiyaraj Kannan who previously made the hit film Remo. The movie is produced by S. R. Prakash Babu and. R. Prabhu under the banner Dream Warrior Pictures. Along the direction, Bakkiyaraj Kannan also handles the story, screenplay and dialogues. The movie has the casting of Karthi and Rashmika Mandanna in the lead roles and joins along with Lal, Napolean, Yogi Babu, Ponvannan, Nawab Shah and Ramachandra Raju joins as the supporting cast. The music for the film is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and cinematography and editing is performed by Sathyan Sooryan and Ruben respectively. The film comprises 149 minutes with a UA Censor Certificate. 

Let’s divide the positives and negatives; what I liked about the movie is its making, the performance of every actor and the technical division. What I don’t like about the film is its story, screenplay and the music department, now let’s elaborate to some extremes. The direction of Bakkiyaraj Kannan for making a mass masala movie is evident, as a person who has the head behind the story and screenplay he hasn’t won to implement the package successfully. The direction is passionate, no doubt but the fully devoted commitment was seen less mainly on the writing, to be precise especially on the screenplay. The story is something that we have witnessed before, some sort of elements is added but everything from the beginning till the end is predictably high. This predictability is the central issue, the twist and turns in the plot is massively readable which makes the viewing experience a bit dull but not fully. The climax was just exactly what I thought also some clichés are filled with overdramatic sentiments. Looking into the direction Bakkiyaraj Kannan proved his excellence, to make a mass masala movie is not quite simple so the effort which he had contributed for his making and also for the direction need applause because even though the movie is predictable the film doesn’t make any lagging or doesn’t promote to show boring stuff.

The mixed-up factors in the screenplay such as adding massive heavy fights, love, romance, brotherhood, parenthood, sentiments and betrayal etc keep the movie engaged, the whole 149 minutes is filled up with engaging stuff so the continuity in watching won’t give any kind of boring or lagging feel. The message which the movie intended to transfer was good, everyone can be changed for a better life, its a great message and the way of treatment to execute the message has won but sadly not fully. The aim of the maker Bakkiyaraj Kannan is simple and he had brought out moderately, but the implementation of the story into the screenplay lacks depth. The screenplay is the main issue, the events and circumstances which the movie unfolds are almost like the usual repetitive stuff. The factors like father-son differences, their sentiments, hero fated to save the land, saving his loved ones, protecting the land, making agriculture sentiments, the hero having romance, hero defending the villain, cat and mouse play between villain and hero and finally hero defeating the villain through some unbelievable fights, these types of repetitive are commonly found in Tamil and Telugu movies. So here when it comes to Sulthan all these above factors are once again added to the screenplay luckily most of them were having some quiet changes. Bakkiyaraj Kannan as the director managed to finish the job relatively but he could have stepped back from writing the screenplay. 

The movie has various kind of emotions like parenthood, concern, brotherhood, love and betrayal. Among this brotherhood was pleasant to watch, the bond between an educated man and goons were shown beautifully. To make someone change into a good person is difficult, that’s one of the mainly focused element. The character Sulthan trying to make his family goons into agricultural framers was pleasant and delightful to watch. The romance between Karthi and Rashmika was not that effective, a chemistry or a kind of depth was missing in their love. Farmers will do anything to protect their land and that’s something we have seen earlier in many Tamil commercial films so in Sulthan also the same formula continues, some worked some doesn’t. The father-son relationship and attachments were also not that perfect, it was ok but not worked perfectly to create the sentiments. This screenplay has this kind of loopholes, in the story, the issues come at the predicable way of storytelling. Therefore Sulthan can’t be termed as a perfect mass masala commercial movie even though by the execution and by the performance from actors it’s enjoyable and entertaining. 

Looking into the performance Karthi steals the entire show as Sulthan, it’s was all about his rocking and energetic performance. He just once again proved that he can still hold among the top actor’s list, the way he undertook the character Sulthan was amazing and entertaining. The action sequences were terrific especially before the interval block and also at the climax, the style he uses while performing the actions deserves a big applause. His romance was the Rashmika was also good and the brilliant acting at the emotional scenes was also outstanding. Rashmika Mandanna did a notable performance, her beautiful smile and gorgeous looks were impressive, her few emotional scenes were also nice. Lal as Mansoor did a spectacular performance, his screen space with Karthi was wonderful, the chemistry they had in both was incredible to watch. His emotional scenes had also worked out effectively especially at the climax, also some of his situational comedies had worked out. Yogi Babu did a fine job as the goon, most of his comedies were funny and the scenes with Karthi was hilarious. Ponvannan as the father of Rashmika did a notable job, Napoleon as the father of Karthi also did the best, the chemistry was less but his acting was fair.  Ramachandra Raju and Nawab Shah as the villains shine throughout, among screen space were less for Nawab but he was a stylish villain, Ramachandra Babu’s looks and actions need special mention. Also, all those artists who acted as the goons did a remarkable performance. 

The musical composition for the film is by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The background scores were matching to set the mood when the action does Yuvan had composed with neat and exciting tunes which helped to create thrill also at the emotional scenes the BGM was fine with sentimental themes. But the magic of Yuvan Shankar Raja music was not seen in the tracks, all the songs were average, the punch was missing, sadly this is one of his worst work. The cinematography by Sathyan Sooryan was fantastic, the camera movements for the actions was existing also the magical frames of farming land was captured authentically, many close up frames of actors during the actions were also fitting, the high angle shots for both actions sequences and scenery scenes were acceptable. The editing of Ruben was at top-level as usual, with no mismatches; the cuts were with perfect timings. 

So overall Sulthan had given me a mixed kind of experience, the performance of Karthi is the first prior winning factor that makes the movie watchable. The half baked screenplay and the predictable way of storytelling make the movie dull but as a movie intended for a mass commercial mass film, it has some contents to entertain the viewers. Rather I do say that Sulthan is a movie that partially failed to meet the expectations, a normal or a usual typical mass masala movie that can be a choice for a one time watch. So to conclude watch with fewer expectations, stunts and performance from Karthi is worthy of a time pass watch. 

• VERDICT: AVERAGE 

• RATING: 2.5/5