Saripodhaa Sanivaaram Enough for this Saturday? is a vigilante action thriller that debuted last week as a commercial cinema blockbuster with a great response from audiences. By now the cumulative box office collection earned by the film is a stunning record of Rs. 36.75 crores in India. Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is an engaging watch, featuring a hero from a humble background with the courage to challenge the system, a villain who is truly malicious, and an innocent heroine, a calm cop who balances the hero’s rage with her logic and emotions.
Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is an engaging watch, featuring a hero from a humble background with the courage to challenge the system, a villain who is truly malicious, and an innocent heroine, a calm cop who balances the hero’s rage with her logic and emotions.
Set in the land of Sokulapalem, which belongs to people who are constantly oppressed, Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is bound by a promising but typical narrative of a hero named Surya played by Nani who has serious anger management issues. However, he gives word to his mother Chayadevi, played by Abhirami, who worries it will only do more harm than good to carry on with rage. Thus, she gives him a solution to keep his temper in check, by only displaying it on Saturdays to avenge those who have done wrong to him.
Hence, Surya is nothing but your regular office going guy next door for six days a week with carefully combed hair and tucked in shirt working as an LIC agent who leads his normal life. However, by night he also maintains a careful record of everyone who has made him angry.
Saripodhaa Sanivaaram: Revenge on Saturdays, regular life on weekdays
His pent up anger is solely unleashed for the corrupt and malicious. With the plot of Saripodhaa Sanivaaram reclaiming the background context of a tragic incident that makes Surya live a dual life like this, the film is being considered a commercial success by now. And why wouldn’t it be? It infact has all that takes for a film in our Indian cinema to become a commercial success. One may find the plot very generic, redundant and repetitive but who minds it? Well certainly not a commercial audience who wants the same plot served in a different style!
The evil villain of this story is a ruthless and borderline-manic Inspector Dayanand, played by famous Telugu actor SJ Suryah. He takes out his personal frustrations on the villagers of Sokulapalem, who are abused by his power. He basically makes their lives a living hell. It is also his agony with MLA Kurmanand (Murali Sharma) that affects the fate of the villagers. As the story of Saripodhaa Sanivaaram unfolds, Surya finds himself entangled in a confrontation with Daya.
The film’s first half builds up characters and their plot raising questions about the relationship between Daya and Kurmanand. It also leaves audiences in a dilemma regarding what raises a clash between Surya and Daya. This intense setup paves the way for the unfolding drama and action and ends with a powerful interval.
The film’s first half builds up characters and their plot raising questions about the relationship between Daya and Kurmanand.
This Telugu violent vigilante justice film is written and directed by Vivek Artheya, who usually crafts romances and comedy. Alongside him is producer D.V. V. Danayya under DVV Entertainment and top Tollywood actors like Nani as Surya and Priyanka Mohan as PC Charulatha in the lead roles with others like Abhirami, Aditi Balan, P. Sai Kumar, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Murali Sharma, and Ajay Ghosh.
As the name suggests, for the hero Surya, Saturday is alone enough to avenge all his wrongdoers. He is the messiah of the oppressed. He has no Gandhian approach of fighting the wrongdoers in a non violent manner. He is a character quite relatable for the audiences. What makes Surya interesting is his strength and courage to be able to stand against all odds to deliver justice which is denied by even the authorities who are in power. With a regular good vs. evil narrative as base storyline, Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is just like your usual Bollywood action films, though a better one.
The vigilante justice conflict between the good and evil
From themes like vigilante justice by the oppressed and submission of female characters as side roles who do not add much to the plot, Saripodhaa Sanivaaram just has all that would be expected from a commercial film. A commoner rising against all atrocities to fight against those in positions of power who are corrupt and misuse their authority against the already oppressed individuals and communities, Surya constantly writes names of those who’ll face the doomsday through his hands on Saturdays. He is the hope of the voiceless.
The Clark Kent of the Sokulapalem universe, who transforms by night to save the world from the evil, he has the ability to transform from a suppressed weak employee to a typical macho hero. Most of the ‘why’s of Surya projecting his anger only on Saturdays to the inspector Daya being so cruel to the people of Sokulapalem have been explained through the Saripodhaa Sanivaaram‘s plot and narrative. In spite of this, one would want more background to the land of Sokulapalem itself. This approach might have been adopted in order to prevent sympathisation of the audience with the area settings of Saripodhaa Sanivaaram.
The Clark Kent of the Sokulapalem universe, who transforms by night to save the world from the evil, he has the ability to transform from a suppressed weak employee to a typical macho hero.
Instead, it lays more emphasis on the hero, Surya himself. In this sense, the plot of Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is very character-driven. With a pretty basic plot, the film gives audiences all the masala they expect. However, the abrupt ending doesn’t justify all the violence, reasoning and madness through the comedy that has been placed from time to time in between the plot.
Treatment of the female characters in Saripodhaa Sanivaaram
Actor Priyanka Mohan plays the female lead of Charulatha who is an innocent, calm and resilient female cop in the film. Charulatha has all that it takes for her to yet again be the typical action thriller heroine. Beauty, calmness and a “fix him” attitude towards the hero, Surya who is exactly the opposite of her. Even though she is shown as a cop, a woman in a very challenging and bold profession, her character is not placed in a manner like that of the hero and villain. She is there to drive emotional resilence in the hero. One may say the character is actually filled with boredom as it lacks a strong substantial storyline.
The inconsequential role of female characters in Saripodhaa Sanivaaram do not add much to the plot except for the romantic masala or victims protected by the hero. The female characters are crafted in order to prevent boredom and lighten the mood from action and all the violence committed by the male characters, Surya and Daya. Even this is done, only to make the hero look macho as well as show his softer side through the romantic angle, so as to make him look like a “wholesome man”, and therefore a wholesome hero, who has no flaws and lacks nothing.
Not just Saripodhaa Sanivaaram, most commercial cinema films subject women to flower pot roles, just pleasant and beautiful to look at from afar. Rarely one would find such films having the female characters in lead delivering this vigilante justice. The film has been filled with a pinch of comic track to make sexist jokes that keep the regular flow going for a patriarchal audience to stay tuned and enjoy the generic patriarchal standpoints. The music composition in the film is refreshing from a listening point of view, given the fact that there are no random dance numbers to cut the flow, either.
The background score by composer Jakes Bejoy, in particular, goes well with Surya’s mood in the film. It makes for an immersive experience instead of adding depth to a story that is already a bit too lengthy in terms of it’s runtime. Saripodhaa Sanivaaram gives Nani as Surya many whistle-worthy moments. Overall, the film manages to keep the commercial cinema audience engaged, and that is the reason why it’s succeeding in the cinema.
