Sorgavaasal Movie Review: RJ Balaji's Sorgavaasal adds a new flavour to an old recipe
Sorgavaasal Movie Review: Critics Rating: 3.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,Sorgavaasal works as it isn’t trying to make grand statements but instead, focuses on its characters
Critic's Rating: 3.5/5
Sorgavaasal Movie Synopsis: When a common man lands in prison due to systemic corruption, his experience reveals the harsh realities of incarceration and its role in either reforming or hardening criminals.
Sorgavaasal Movie Review: The conventional prison drama gets a reality check in debutant director Sidharth Vishwanath’s Sorgavaasal. Unlike the redemptive arcs of the genre, this film flips the script to show how the system actively works against reform, turning even the most earnest inmates into hardened souls.
Set in 1999 and inspired by a real-life prison incident, the story centers on Parthi (RJ Balaji), who runs a popular food stall in North Chennai with his mother. When his regular customer, IAS officer Shanmugam, turns up dead with chili powder from Parthi’s shop on the body, the police fabricate a case against him. Thrown into a prison run by Sunil Kumar (Sharafudheen), a calculating officer transferred from Tihar, Parthi finds himself in a world controlled by Siga (Selvaraghavan), a feared criminal who once did the dirty work. What starts as Parthi’s attempt to prove his innocence turns deadly when a devout Nigerian inmate Kendrick (Samuel Robinson) dies in solitary confinement, sparking the beginnings of a riot that exposes the rot within. The record comes out through testimonies to Officer Ismail (Nataraj), but everyone has their own spin on it, like a little game of who can tell the best story.
Sidharth keeps the narrative tight despite the prison’s claustrophobic setting. The site is starkly alive: overcrowded, under-resourced, and a breeding ground for more crime. His decision to tell the story through multiple witnesses is an interesting choice. It adds some guesswork to the plot, but is also confusing. You’re often wondering where we are in the film. It could also be shorter; perhaps 15 minutes could have been cut.
The prison dynamics ring true - from the power hierarchy among inmates to the calculated indifference of officials. When reform attempts surface, like through Kendrick’s religious influence on others, the system swoops in to crush it. These moments land harder than the predictable plot turns, mainly because they feel pulled from headlines about actual prison conditions.
RJ Balaji sheds his comic image for Parthi’s intensity, even if the character stays limited to two notes - desperation and calm. Selvaraghavan brings menace to Siga without overdoing it, while Sharafudheen is your typical scheming officer behind a polite facade. Hakkim Shah’s performance as Mani, Siga’s right-hand man, is impactful and he delivers. Karunas and Nataraj both have prominent roles and they play their part. Parthi’s mother and Saniya Iyappan get little to do beyond filling in Parthi’s backstory.
Prince Anderson’s camerawork is on point, and Christo Xavier’s backgrounds match the theme.
Sorgavaasal works as it isn’t trying to make grand statements but instead, focuses on its characters caught in a place they can’t escape. Like Parthi’s food stall, the film serves up familiar ingredients while creating its own flavor.
Written By: Abhinav Subramanian
Sorgavaasal Movie Review: The conventional prison drama gets a reality check in debutant director Sidharth Vishwanath’s Sorgavaasal. Unlike the redemptive arcs of the genre, this film flips the script to show how the system actively works against reform, turning even the most earnest inmates into hardened souls.
Set in 1999 and inspired by a real-life prison incident, the story centers on Parthi (RJ Balaji), who runs a popular food stall in North Chennai with his mother. When his regular customer, IAS officer Shanmugam, turns up dead with chili powder from Parthi’s shop on the body, the police fabricate a case against him. Thrown into a prison run by Sunil Kumar (Sharafudheen), a calculating officer transferred from Tihar, Parthi finds himself in a world controlled by Siga (Selvaraghavan), a feared criminal who once did the dirty work. What starts as Parthi’s attempt to prove his innocence turns deadly when a devout Nigerian inmate Kendrick (Samuel Robinson) dies in solitary confinement, sparking the beginnings of a riot that exposes the rot within. The record comes out through testimonies to Officer Ismail (Nataraj), but everyone has their own spin on it, like a little game of who can tell the best story.
Sidharth keeps the narrative tight despite the prison’s claustrophobic setting. The site is starkly alive: overcrowded, under-resourced, and a breeding ground for more crime. His decision to tell the story through multiple witnesses is an interesting choice. It adds some guesswork to the plot, but is also confusing. You’re often wondering where we are in the film. It could also be shorter; perhaps 15 minutes could have been cut.
The prison dynamics ring true - from the power hierarchy among inmates to the calculated indifference of officials. When reform attempts surface, like through Kendrick’s religious influence on others, the system swoops in to crush it. These moments land harder than the predictable plot turns, mainly because they feel pulled from headlines about actual prison conditions.
RJ Balaji sheds his comic image for Parthi’s intensity, even if the character stays limited to two notes - desperation and calm. Selvaraghavan brings menace to Siga without overdoing it, while Sharafudheen is your typical scheming officer behind a polite facade. Hakkim Shah’s performance as Mani, Siga’s right-hand man, is impactful and he delivers. Karunas and Nataraj both have prominent roles and they play their part. Parthi’s mother and Saniya Iyappan get little to do beyond filling in Parthi’s backstory.
Prince Anderson’s camerawork is on point, and Christo Xavier’s backgrounds match the theme.
Sorgavaasal works as it isn’t trying to make grand statements but instead, focuses on its characters caught in a place they can’t escape. Like Parthi’s food stall, the film serves up familiar ingredients while creating its own flavor.
Written By: Abhinav Subramanian
