Beginning with a voiceover of ‘Vidhi’ (the fate), Sabhaapathy is a comic fantasy drama revolving around a simpleton having a speech disorder of stammering. As we see the titles, the old man representing fate announces that he will be playing a game with Sabhaapathy’s life soon after a road accident. The accident certainly changes his life when he finds a bag full of notes of 20 crores, falling out of a burning van belonging to a corrupt politician (Sayaji Shinde). But strangely, the accident happens one hour into the film around intermission, giving almost nothing to write about its initial hour.
Directed by R Srinivasa Rao, Sabhaapathy tests your patience in its first half with no story development of any kind as per the announcement made in the beginning. Vaguely throwing in sequences of quarrels between the father and his son, love interest in the neighbour and a jobless friend, the film goes on and on with the twist coming just before the interval. However, even after the revelation, it remains a strictly below-average drama, largely relying upon slapstick comedy focusing on the bag full of money changing hands.
The execution also falters with the father-son fights going overboard in a forced manner and the lead presented as a kind of unstable or retarded personality. In reality, stammering is just a minor condition that isn’t associated with any mental disorder. Many known achievers of the world used to stammer in their childhood, who never took it as a disability hindering their growth. The film largely relies upon this faulty representation to create an impact.
In all, with only a few entertaining scenes, Sabhaapathy is quite an exhausting film that has only one merit of sincere lead performances by Santhanam and M. S. Bhaskar playing his father. So, this can only be seen for them in particular or can easily be missed for something better.
Rating : 2 / 5
(Streaming at Amazon Prime)
Bobby Sing
(bobbytalkscinema.com)
NOTE : The article was first published in THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Newspaper (Mumbai Edition) on 4th January 2022.
Tags :
SABHAAPATHY (Tamil) Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Tamil Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Indian Regional Language Movies Reviews by Bobby Sing.
