Veera Sivaji review: A fine blend of everything; partially entertaining

Cast: Vikram Prabu, Shamlee, Yogi Babu, Rajhendran

Director: Ganesh Vinayak

Mumbai: Sivaji (Vikram Prabhu) works as a call taxi driver in Pondicherry. He is an orphan but he shares a great bond with the neighbouring lady (Vinodhini) who runs a mess and calls her akka and dots on her little daughter Yazhini. Siva meets Anjali (Shamlee) and the inevitable happens – yes it was love at first sight for him. What follows are the usual duets and some insipid scenes in the name of romance and the heroine vanishes from the scene.

Meanwhile, Yazhini suffers from brain tumor and the doctor tells Siva that she has to be immediately operated and the surgery costs Rs.25 lakhs. Siva turns to all his friends for money, but everyone ditches. He comes across two conmen Ramesh and Suresh (Yogi Babu and Robo Shankar) who promise to help him.

They tell him that they know a financier who would give him four times the money deposited with him. Siva sells his car and pays Rs 5 lakhs adding the duo's money to the financier (John Vijay ) who is actually a cheat who deals with counterfeit currencies. All hell breaks loose when Siva finds out that he was cheated and vows to get back his money using his brain. With his clever plan he manages to get the money back from the gang, but while returning to Pondy, he meets with an accident and suffers from selective amnesia. The rest is all about how Siva gets over his problem and Yazhini gets operated on time.

Vikram Prabhu has given a good performance and he is appealing in well conceived action sequences. Shamlee is a typical heroine who appears in three songs and nothing more to prove. Her lip-sync goes for a toss. Also, there's a lack of chemistry between the romantic pair. Yogi Babu and Robo Shankar (characters designed on the famous duo in the chocolate ad commercial) bring the roof down with their comic acts.

Especially, Yogi is in full form. John Vijay and Mottai Rajhendran in routine roles are adequate. The director takes a long time to establish the characters in the first half and the actual story starts only after 45 minutes. The twist in the interval block was interesting and well executed. Post interval the story picks up momentum for a while, but once again the screenplay starts moving in a predictable manner. It's just another formulaic film with a mix of all elements like comedy, action, romance, emotions which is entertaining partially.