Saripodhaa Sanivaaram review: Vivek Athreya’s quirky twist to the ‘angry young man’ needed more precision

“Anger, when used for futile purposes, holds little value. Surpass it and push it by a day to know if the emotion or the person continues to affect you,” a mother cautions her perennially angry son, who lands in trouble for trivial reasons.

As the son grows up, he makes note of the people who disturb him and revisits the diary over the week to check if they’re worthy of his anger after all.

Saripodhaa Sanivaaram lends a quirky new-age twist to the “angry young man” trope popularised by Salim-Javed in the 70s. It doesn’t take much effort to rile up Surya but he reserves his outbursts solely for Saturday—a self-imposed philosophy he religiously swears by.

It’s easy to mistake him for a split-personality disorder victim. An untamed beast of a cop, Dayanand, puts his ideology to the test.

Character building

Both Surya and Dayanand are victims of anger. While Surya has a strategy in place to channel his emotions, Dayanand (mis)uses the system as a mask to validate his rage. Surya’s love interest, Charulatha, a constable by profession, sandwiched between a superior and a partner, has a tough choice to make. Vivek Athreya sets up a delicious conflict pushing his pivotal characters to the limits.

The writer-director takes ample time to establish the worlds, philosophies and conflicts of his lead characters. Beyond Surya’s temper, you also know why Charulatha chose to be a cop. While Dayanand’s childhood as the ignored brother (to a politician Kurmanand) isn’t established, you can trace the roots of his misdirected anger.

There’s also an interesting backstory around a colony united in its fear, Sokulapalem, reminiscent of the tainted village Stuartpuram (once infamous for its burglars), desperate for a facelift. Its residents, hapless victims in the hands of a reckless cop, are paying the price for the sins of their ancestors. The supposed protectors of the system—a cop and an MLA—are the villains in the story.

The peace-loving father Sankaram is interestingly played by Sai Kumar—an antithesis to his righteous, angry cop Agni in his much-celebrated film Police Story. While Surya’s mother is symbolically named Chayadevi (for her courage?), the son is referred to as the Suryakantham of the family (pun intended).

Related: Saripodhaa Sanivaaram trailer breaks internet 

Situational humour and action save the film

With the predominant focus on anger and the protagonist’s philosophy, Saripodhaa Sanivaaram isn’t a vanilla cautionary tale. While portraying the repercussions of anger, the film suggests why it could be wiser to use it economically. At heart, the story is of a temperamental young man who needs to rise above emotion to protect his family and redeem himself.

Akin to Ante Sundaraniki (2022), Vivek Athreya yet again uses childhood as a standpoint to define a protagonist’s personality. However, he moves beyond his personalised, slice-of-life filmmaking style and employs a wider, colourful canvas to drive the destinies of his characters.

The conflict has a larger-than-life appeal and for the first time, the director deals with a “conventional”, crowd-appealing antagonist—a cop.

The action blocks are set up tastefully, but the film’s strength is its situational humour—both understated and loud, as per the pitch of the characters. Even as they’re antagonists, Kurmanand and Dayanand don’t mind laughing at their lapses of judgement, while Ali and Vishnu Oi provide the laughs in lively appearances.

Overloaded with ambitious ideas

While the flashy concept of conserving one’s anger for a day in a week is its USP, the director oversells it beyond its expiry date. There are several paisa vasool moments—filled with anxiety and tension— leading to the conflicts, but just when you expect them to culminate in an emphatic finale, the charm wears out. Many sequences work individually and verbally though they don’t aid the progress of the story.

Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is overloaded with ambitious ideas and subplots, and many of them don’t get the closure they deserve. The palette is too expansive for a mainstream film to shoulder. It attempts a psychological take on anger, has many backstories, sets up a juicy hero-villain conflict, aims to revive the fortunes of a cursed colony and also debates the saviour complex.

“Sokulapalem doesn’t need a hero, but brotherhood, where people stand by one another in their joy and grief,” Surya says towards the end.

However, the story takes too long to arrive at the realisation and one is rather exhausted. At times, you wonder what the film wants to be and this could be traced back to Ante Sundaraniki (2022) again—where an overwrought narrative affected its aftertaste.

Intelligent masala film

Vivek Athreya’s issue isn’t the lack of ambition, but vice versa. All he needs is precision and the awareness of the thin line that separates excellence from indulgence. Despite his problems with Saripodhaa Sanivaaram, he proves it’s possible to make an intelligent masala film with well-defined characters, philosophies, and tastes and still draw a wider audience.

The film is tailored perfectly to complement Nani’s strengths—where the protagonist is both an underdog and a hero in varied situations. Nani’s choices largely remind you of Chiranjeevi’s trajectory in his 80s—where he could be a terrific performer and a star at once in the same film. Nani alternates from relatable to larger-than-life like a piece of cake.

Priyanka Mohan’s Charulatha is definitely among the better roles in the actress’ career, and she has a strong identity beyond being the hero’s arm candy for a change. Sai Kumar delivers a fine, warm performance as the ice-breaker daddy, while it’s disappointing that Aditi Balan is restricted to a minuscule role. Abhirami, in her brief appearance, makes a solid impact.

While Tamil audiences are aware of SJ Suryah’s exploits already, Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is likely to be the actor’s “deal breaker” film in his Telugu stint. His restless dialogue delivery and caustic humour are supremely entertaining (although loud), and he brings the right intensity to the action sequences, facilitating the director’s aim to make populist cinema.

There are wonderful performances all around; by Murali Sharma, Harsha Vardhan, Sivaji Raja, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Anita Chowdary, Ajay, Ajay Ghosh and Harsh Roshan. Apart from the terrific action choreography, composer Jakes Bejoy is the show-stealer among the technicians. The background score is intense, emotionally uplifting and stylish, adding a new dimension to the well-written scenes.

Final take

Saripodhaa Sanivaaram is worth a watch for its novel approach to a familiar action drama. With better focus, it could’ve been a massive explosion with a touch of class.

(Views expressed here are personal)

(Edited by S Subhakeerthana)