Think ‘big, fat twist’ and director Karthik Subburaj immediately comes to the mind, thanks to his films like Pizza, Jigarthanda and even the recent Rajini-starrer Petta. With Suttu Pidikka Utharavu, director Ramprakash Rayappa attempts something similar — and even succeeds. The last twenty minutes of the film lifts things on the screen, after an hour and a half of what you thought would be an ordinary fast-paced thriller.
Suttu Pidikka Utharavu is mostly about life in fast-forward mode, and it’s with the same intent that the film kickstarts... with a bank robbery. A glass window is broken, and all hell breaks loose inside the bank, where a bunch of robbers, including Selva (Susienthiran) and Ashok (Vikranth), are making away with the booty. The cops are called, but the robbers escape and make their way into a neighbourhood that’s filled with a dozen long, tiny streets, and multiple dead ends.
The cops cordon off the neighbourhood and bar anyone from entering or exiting before they nab the robbers. Life is disrupted, with many people going about their everyday jobs, and with some planning something quite unusual.
- Director: Ramprakash Rayappa
- Cast: Mysskin, Susienthiran, Vikranth, Athulya Ravi
- Storyline: The police force is out to nab a bunch of thieves who have robbed a bank
Enter Ibrahim (Mysskin), who plays the top cop leading the operation. He’s restless (much like Sujith Sarang’s cinematography, as it ought to be when dealing with such a subject) and is determined to track down the robbers, even if it means upsetting a few higher-ups. Mysskin in apt for the role, as is Vidharth. The latter, especially, strikes in the few emotional scenes in which he converses through a video call with his daughter.
There’s another angle to the story involving Bhuvana (Athulya Ravi), who is just another girl in the neighbourhood but gets pulled in to do a reporter’s job. These scenes act as speedbreakers to an otherwise rather-tense storyline — but the director misses the trick by leaving this track dangling while pursuing the core plot. He also stereotypes quite a bit — in the part involving a group of Nigerians, especially. There are quite a few logical loophopes as well — many of them involving Mysskin and his fractured hand — but those are minor grievances in an otherwise tight film that has the right intentions.