‘Singam Puli’ (Tamil, Action Entertainer)
Director: Sai Ramani
Cast: Jiiva, Divya Spandana, Soundarya, Santhanam, Ponvannan and Guna
Sibling rivalry forms the core of ‘Singam Puli’, the debut work of director Sai Ramani who apprenticed with Jananathan. Jiiva plays his first dual role — one of the much misunderstood good guy Shiva and the other of his obnoxious twin Ashok.
A spontaneous energetic actor, Jiiva could have put in more effort to demarcate the two roles. For, quite a few times you do not know if it’s Shiva or Ashok until they get into action. The female leads, Divya Spandana and Soundarya (aka Honey Rose from Malayalam screen), have less to do in the movie.
The earlier part moves at a quick pace where you are introduced to the twins and the family.
Shiva is a school drop-out and sells fish in the market. Being hot-blooded and jumping into fights wherever he saw injustice being perpetrated, he is the bane of his father. In contrast is Ashok, a lawyer, who cohabits with criminals and is a schemer and a philanderer. But, for his father, who was oblivious of the dark side of him, Ashok was the ideal son.
Shiva has a long-term affair with Shweta (Divya), though you do wonder how such an unlikely pair came together. And Ashok has a long list of women (age no bar), whom he seduced or willingly let himself be seduced by. After many failed attempts of Shiva to expose Ashok’s real face to the family, the opportunity finally comes when one of the latter’s seduction affairs results in the death of the victim (Soundarya).
While the plot is nothing new, it still has the elements to keep the audience engaged. But the director lets go the chances to give interesting turns to the screenplay. The cat and mouse game between the brothers could have been worked out better, and so the climax.
The narration is jerky and inconsistent, with a few loopholes in the script. Santhanam’s comic caper laced with double-meaning is definitely a put-off. And to top it all, the film’s viewing time of about 160 minutes doesn’t make it any better.
‘Singam Puli’ is masala fair — loud and crassy.