S.A.Chandrasekharan first made his name making movies dealing with the law - mostly
the loopholes in it. Since helming the disastrous Nenjinile ,
he has been content with watching the rise of his son Vijay. He goes behind the
camera again for Dhosth, which deals which the issue of whether a man
can be punished for the same crime twice. It is a fairly engaging thriller
but his contribution is minimal since the movie is a frame-by-frame copy of the
Hollywood hit Double Jeopardy, with Sarathkumar taking on the role played
by Ashley Judd.
Vishwanath(Sarathkumar) is a wealthy widower and thinks the world of his daughter
Nila. His close friend Raghu(Raghuvaran) however is a man willing to sell his
soul if gets the right price. On Raghu's wedding anniversary, Vishwa and Raghu
set out in a boat. Things get heated when Raghu, after a few drinks, accuses
Vishwa of carrying on an illicit relationship with his wife(Indu). Vishwa is
furious and threatens Raghu but then passes out. When he wakes up, he finds a
bloodstained knife and Raghu's blood is all over the boat but hiss body is nowhere
to be found. So he is arrested as Raghu's killer. But he soons finds out that
Raghu is alive and kicking the whole thing was his setup to get his hands on
some insurance money. Vishwa escapes and goes after Raghu while an honest police
officer Neelakanda Brahmachari(Prakashraj) is assigned the task of finding him.
With Vijay increasing his chances of a hit by banking on remakes from other Indian
languages, it looks like Sarathkumar is now choosing remakes of Hollywood hits
to score a hit at the box-office. His last movie Rishi
was also a remake of an English hit(which in turn was dubbed from a Hong Kong
flick). Fortunately, S.A.Chandrasekharan chooses a film that is far more suitable
for a remake and makes the changes necessary to make is acceptable. The scene where
Sarathkumar is set up is quite clever. But Raghuvaran's motive is quite hazy and
the director never elaborates on his MO after the setup.
The movie picks up with Prakashraj's introduction as a police officer not averse to
meting out his own punishment to deserving criminals. Unlike policemen in most movies,
there are a couple of instances where he is in step with (or even a step ahead of)
Sarathkumar and that makes their chase a little interesting. Ofcourse he becomes
braindead at just the right moments allowing Sarathkumar to give him the slip and
prolong the chase.
Set pieces are identical to the original and as a result, there's not much tension
or anticipation about what's coming next. The potential to create some tension
is also reduced because of the constraints of Sarathkumar's image. This is clear
in the scene where he is shut into a coffin and calmly blasts his way out. Ashley
Judd's fear at her predicament was the main reason this scene worked in the original.
There are also a few lame scenes of mixed identities with use of a mask(ala Mission
Impossible) but their poor implementation makes the scenes ineffective.
Sarathkumar shows his mettle in the stunt sequences and gets a little chance to emote
too. Abirami is little more than a spectator to the proceedings. Raghuvaran's
trademark mannerisms and dialog delivery aid him and the same goes for Prakashraj.
Indu suffers from poor characterization of her role and we end up disliking her
for her silence more than we dislike Raghuvaran. Deva's songs are average.
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