Singam garnered lot of attention for one — it is the silver jubilee film of actor Suriya. Secondly, the actor who gave two hits — Aaru and Vel with filmmaker Hari is teaming up with the latter once again. Thirdly, Sun Pictures known for their master promotional strategies lapped it up to present the film. Coming to Singam, the movie’s story may sound familiar, but what makes the film work is the awesome and magical screen presence of Suriya and the racy and logical screenplay by Hari.
Consciously deviating from their earlier blockbuster cop stories (Suriya’s Kakka Kakka and Hari’s Samy), the two had delivered a mass entertainer with the right mix of action, romance, songs and humour.
Duraisingam alias Singam is a simple and straight forward sub-inspector in his hometown Nallur in Tutocorin district. Though he aspired to run his family business of managing the provision store, his dad’s (Radha Ravi) dream was to make him a police officer. A friendly person, Singam treats all local case like his own family disputes and settles them in an amicable manner without punishing them. That’s why he is loved by one and all. There is this funny “Eattu” Erimalai (Vivek) who is a constable in the police station. Now enters Kavya (Anushka) daughter of businessman Mahalingam (Nasser) who visits her grandparents on her vacation. Kavya falls for the charismatic appeal and upright nature of Singam and the inevitable happens. Yes, romance blossoms between the two. When everything seems fine, fate enters in the form of Mayilvaganan (Prakash Raj), a dreaded kingpin in Chennai who runs a parallel government in the city. He along with his brother Vaikundan (Adhithya) drives an old man to commit suicide when the latter refuses to part with the money demanded by the thug. The old man was constructing a house in his native near Nallur, thanks to the money sent by his sons from abroad. Before he ends his life, the old man had sent a detailed email to his sons as why he took the extreme step and things become hard for Mayilvaganan when the embassy interferes in the case. This leaves in the arrest of Mayilvaganan, who manages to get a conditional bail that he has to appear at Nallur police station and sign everyday.
Now Mayilvaganan comes face to face with Singam and his upright ways adds to his rage. He uses his power to get Singam promoted as inspector and brings him to Chennai. Singam comes across another side of Mayilvaganan — that he runs a kidnap racket and gets away with ransom. By bringing to books the nasty side of Mayilvaganan, Singam gets promoted to ACP —Anti-Kidnapping Squad operations by the home minister (Vijayakumar). Meanwhile, a new pattern of cat and mouse game between Singam and Mayilvaganan now. How he accomplishes his mission of putting an end to the illegal kidnapping activities of Mayilvaganan forms the rest with the movie that begins in Nallur ends in Nellore in Andhra with a riveting climax.
It’s a Suriya spectacle! After proving his mettle as a class actor in offbeat themes, he is equally efficient in mass masala action flicks. If Anbu Selvan of Kakka Kakka was a suave and stiff cop, Doraisingam is friendly, assertive and rooted to his culture. With a body language that matches with his flawless expressions, Suriya simply excels. After a gap Prakash Raj has got a meaty role and he is there to deliver his best. Anushka does make an impact with her simple looks and minimal makeup with few scenes to score also. Vivek’s comedy is original and good for a change. The huge star cast includes Nasser, Sumithra, Nizhalgal Ravi, Radha Ravi, Manorama, Adithya etc. Though there are few clichéd scenes and over the board stunt sequences to portray heroism, Hari’s racy pace with a different dimension makes up for it. The director should also be lauded for coming out with a police story without much blood and gore which used to be part of his earlier offerings. Devi Sri Prasad’s songs are peppy but the background score is loud and did not match up with the scenes many times. Priyan’s cinematography is vivid especially the song sequences shot in Dubai. All said and done Singam produced by Gnanavel Raja is a summer treat for the masses.