‘Silkuvarpatti Singam’ review: Old fashioned masala movie that works in parts

No matter how many structurally tight movies are made in Tamil cinema, commercial movies such as Silkuvarpatti Singam will never be out of fashion.

It is easy to see why young actors like Vishnu Vishal want to keep starring in these films despite tasting success and critical acclaim in tightly written, serious films such as ‘Jeeva’ or ‘Ratsasan’. It is decent fun and caters to the audience that wants to experience all kinds of emotions in a single film.

This is a film that is primarily held together not by a strong plot. Rather, a convenient plot is stretched and written around the so-called ‘commercial elements’ – boy-stalks-girl, hero and his sidekicks spout ridiculous lines, over-the-top but contrived action sequences – that we have seen so often in Tamil cinema.

The film is about how Sathiyamoorthy (Vishnu Vishal), a meek police constable, who is content with serving tea and food to his superiors, inadvertently humiliates and jails a feared rowdy Cycle Shankar (Sai Ravi) who is in Silkuvarpatti to kill a minister.

This thin plot is wrapped awkwardly around a bunch of stand alone sequences with specific functions: Sathiyamoorthy stalks and falls in love with his relative Rajeswari (Regina), there are subplots involving Singam Puli and a bunch of drunkards in a liquor shop, Anand Raj (who plays a local dada) and his gang of idiotic goons…the list is long.

Vishnu Vishal has proved yet again that he is a consistent actor, delivering what is needed for a film. While he has not completely owned the film, Vishnu holds the film together and carries it on his shoulders adequately.

To be fair to the film, Silkuvarpatti Singam does achieve what it set out to do… in parts. The film depends on exaggerated character sketches to guarantee the laughs and guess what…the film manages to entertain. That’s not to say that the film is without its problems.

As it has been the case with ‘commercial cinema’, many problematic societal issues are milked for purposes of comedy: a police constable is seen making kids to deliver love letters to their teacher and stalking her, wives of drunkard-husbands are seen asking the police to slap rape cases on their husbands for ‘raping’ them drunk in the night and a constable is consciously harassing a woman by sending her messages and so on. All for purposes of comedy.

Having said that, Silkuvarpatti Singam is difficult to write and execute. There is always a certain amount of doubt when the film doesn’t depend on coherent, structured plot but incoherent, disjointed sequences designed for ‘comedy’, ‘romance’ and so on? If one has to judge a film like Silkuvarpatti Singam purely based on whether the film achieves what it aspires to — then, it is clear that Chella Ayyavu has delivered a success.