When it comes to jail dramas, Vada Chennai is one that immediately comes to our as it gave us jail incidents that stay strong in memory. In similar shoes comes director Sidharth Vishwanath’s Sorgavaasal, a film which sees the story of a common man find his way into jail and how his presence overturns many happenings inside.
The story of Sorgavaasal is based on the incidents that took place during the 1999 jail riots in Chennai, and how the fight between the cops and the convicts rose to the next level there. The film is excellent in getting its aesthetics right, as it helps us get into the situation very early on through a multiple-POV narrative that keeps the ball rolling in the first half. We are introduced to the lead character Parthiban (RJ Balaji) and his family, along with the important members inside the jail through the first 40 minutes, and we then move into how an innocent man is made to rub shoulders with the bigwigs inside. The second half is about the snake-and-ladder game between the characters, and how the lead character fights through the multiple challenges thrown at him.
The film is technically solid and that is what pulls us into the narrative, but Sorgavaasal is one film where the writing and the making are both in good terms but the lack of high moments which such films give us is rubbed out. In films like Virumaandi and Vada Chennai, we had sequences which would either make us feel emotional or root for the lead character, but Sorgavaasal decides to narrate the story as a story instead of a film, and that is where the engagement factor slightly dies down. However, the interesting play between the characters in the second half is where the good things come together, and the film has a convincing ending that works in its favour.
While RJ Balaji has a very different role to play from his usual outings, we get to see Selvaraghavan in a loud role, while Malayalam actor Sharafudeen is very impressive. However, the rest of the cast are just about functional.
The film is technically very strong and there is no qualm about the cinematography, music or the editing which can be called out as fantastic in every department.
On the whole, Sorgavaasal is an engaging and impressive jail drama that will keep our attention arrested through its storyline and drawing up of incidents.