Review: Rocket Driver
Kaathadi Ramamurthy might have aged but his sense of humour continues to be fresh and refreshing. In fact, it is his presence that saves the day for Rocket Driver.
Film: Rocket Driver
Director: Sriram Ananthashankar
Cast: Vishvath, Sunainaa, Naga Vishal, Kathadi Ramamurthy, Jagan, Ramachandran Durairaj and others
Music: Kaushik Krish Producer: Anirudh Vallabh Cinematographer: Regimel Surya Thomas
Editor: Iniyavan Pandiyan
Rating: 2.5 stars
Director Sriram Ananthashankar comes up with an imaginary story that is based on the idea of what, if one day, the late President APJ Abdul Kalam, who inspired and who continues to inspire scores of youngsters even now, happens to return to present day Chennai? What spices up the proceedings is that the Kalam who returns is not an octogenarian but a teen who is yet to make his mark in the DRDO, the ISRO and the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Although the story is about a young Kalam (played by Naga Vishal), who looks to gain admission in the Madras University, it is told from the perspective of a young scientist (Vishvath), who works as an auto driver due to family circumstances. The auto driver has a friend in a lady traffic constable (played by Sunaina).
The scientist-cum-auto driver is thrilled to take the young Kalam back to his home town. But why is the young Kalam back? What has made him return? Rocket driver gives you the details…
Analysis
The film starts off pretty slowly with the protagonist often imagining how he would ideally like a situation to be. It reminds one of the Hindi comedy serial ‘Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne’ in which the lead character played by Raghubir Yadav, would invariably begin to day dream.
The first half is slow and unimpressive but the second half is exactly the opposite, thanks to the arrival of well known comedian Kaathadi Ramamurthy, who plays A P J Abdul Kalam’s childhood friend Shastri.
The film isn’t exactly thrilling from that point on but it is not boring as well. Eventually, the film has a simple but significant point to make by the time it ends.
Performances:
Almost the entire cast delivers. Kaathadi Ramamurthy might have aged but his sense of humour continues to be fresh and refreshing. In fact, it is his presence that saves the day for Rocket Driver.
Naga Vishal, the child artiste who won the hearts of audiences as the kid in KD Engira Karuppudurai, delivers a stellar performance as the young APJ Abdul Kalam in this film as well.
Combining well with the ace comedian Kaathadi Ramamurthy and Vishvath, the protagonist, the youngster makes a mark with his measured performance.
Young actor Vishvath too plays his part well as does Sunaina.
Verdict: Rocket Driver might not have a story that one would consider intelligent or exceptional. But what it does have is a simple story which is told in all sincerity. To add to that, it does make a significant point. Taking all of these into consideration, Rocket Driver is not a bad film.
