|
|
Director:
Vasanth
Cast: Prashant, Devayani,
Vignesh, Kaveri, Prakashraj, Mohan Sharma.
A remake of the Mahesh Bhat film
'Sadak', the story of 'Appu' is set in the red light area of
Mumbai. It is about a taxi driver Appu, who puts his life and
those of his friends in danger to rescue Sita, a girl trapped in
a brothel run by a dreaded eunuch 'Maharani'. Prashant gets an
image-change from a romantic hero to a macho one and fits into
his new avatar well. He is an angry young man ready to take on
the world. Years back, Appu's sister had been betrayed by her
lover and sold to a brothel in Mumbai. Later the girl had
committed suicide and Appu could only watch helplessly as she
leapt 
to her death. Haunted by demons from the past, Appu
gets a chance to redeem himself when he rescues Sita, a girl sold
by her own uncle to 'Maharani'.
Devayani has the soft innocent
looks needed, but one wishes she had put a little more expression
on her face, so that one would feel she was terrified of the
goings-on and the situation she was in. Sadashiv Amrapurkar,
Bhat's 'Maharani', with his dark swarthy looks and draped in
female garb, created a spine-chilling effect in the original. But
here, Prakashraj cuts a handsome figure and seems to enjoy his
role. Probably that is why Devayani didn't look terrified enough
despite his making all 
those menacing noises. Scenes like the
death of Prashant's best friend Vignesh and his lover Kaveri at a
shoot out during the rescue act; and Ramesh Khanna's legs being
chopped off; all should have created a horrifying effect. But
they do not.
To the Tamil audience, the ambience may seem alien and not very identifiable. In a 'remake' film, a director has not much to do. A sensitive director of Vasanth's caliber is clearly wasted here. But he does leave a mark in his song picturisations (Va da va…), which are catchy, despite the absence of expensive props and sets. Cinematographer Vinod leaves a mark in his maiden effort.