Seemaraja Movie Review

Rating : 2.5/5
Seema Raja Synopsis: The heir of a royal family tries to save his land and villagers from a greedy man.

Seema Raja Review: Seemaraja marks third collaboration with director Ponram, and compared to their previous films, it shows some ambition – in terms of scale, visuals and mostly importantly, in turning its star into a mass hero. We get to see Sivakarthikeyan getting a ‘mass’ introduction, where he crashes open the gates, and kicks up a storm while beating the bad guys, speaking punch dialogues dressing up like Rama, supporting farmers, and invoking seemingly modest comparisons with Rajinikanth, Vijay and Ajith. We even get a line telling him that he should next plan his political entry.

The actor plays Seemaraja, the heir of royal family of Singampatti. But the character is pretty much the same as what we have seen him play so far – an aimless youngster whose only activities are building up his image with sidekick Kanakku (Soori, who gets to showcase his six-pack abs) and people and wooing Sundhanthira Selvi (Samantha), a teacher. Selvi belongs to Puliyampatti, a rival village, where Kaathadi Kannan (Lal, typecast) and his wife and partner-in-crime Kaaleeswari (Simran, whose dubbed voice feels odd) hold fort. Their modus operandi involves forcing the villagers to give up their land for windmill projects. How Seemaraja foils their plan and saves his land and people – while also learning about the illustrious past of his family – is what forms the plot.

Where Seemaraja impresses is in a brief flashback portion that tells us about the valour of Kadambaveera Raja (Sivakarthikeyan), an ancestor of Seemaraja, who fought against Allaudin Khilji’s army headed by Malik Kafur. There is a sense of spectacle in these scenes and the film also smartly weaves in a statement that holds contemporary relevance – about how If we allow an anniyan (read north Indian) to rule our Tamil land, hewill force us to forget our language and culture.

But otherwise, the film is like most of Sivakarthikeyan’s other films – the romantic portions have that element of stalking, for which the star has come in for criticism even earlier, and comic portions with Soori, which feel like an extension of what the duo has given us in their previous films. A stretch where they try to pass off a dog (named Tiger) as a leopard is amusing.

In a self-referential moment in the film, we have Sivakarthikeyan singing in his opening song, “Aracha maava arachaalum adhukkum venum oru therama”. Agreed, it does take some talent to repeat the same thing again and again. But, for a moment, let’s think from the point of view of the consumer of this “aracha maavu”. At one point, he/she is going to get fed up. And Seemaraja feels like that threshold moment for Sivakarthikeyan’s films. No wonder you feel like reciting a countering lyric: “Aracha maava arachaalum adhukkum venum oru poruma”.