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Siddham - Encounter specialist fires a blank!
Release date: 12 February 2009
123Telugu.com Rating: 2.75/5
Director : JD Chakravarthi
Music Director : Amar Mehili
Producer : Kiran Kumar Koneru
Starring : Jagapathi Babu, Sindhu Menon, Kota Srinivasarao ...
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The J D Chekravarthy (yes that is how J D has spelled his name in the credits) directed film Siddham starring Jagapathi Babu, misses its mark by the proverbial mile.

What is it about : Jagapathi Babu plays Dayanand a cop specializing in encounters. He stalks and shoots them off – as simple as that. Very early in the movie his character of a no-nonsense cop is established when he guns down a baddie in a dhaba. In one of the few punch dialogues in the movie, he tells a new recruit into the team that the police are trained to kill. They either kill criminals or they kill time. The only problem as the audience realized very early in this movie is, less cops and more time is killed. J D is too immature a director to be able to pull off a movie without any songs. A cop movie needs relief. Siddham has none. Trigger happy cops in movies have a nervous twitch about them – Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon series or Nana Patekar in Aab Tak Chappan (on which this film is based) are top of the mind recalls. Jagapathi Babu though not in that league does a fairly good job. But the rest fail miserably. Except for the last 20 minutes, Siddham just stumbles on from one frame to another devoid of any drama.

What is Good: Jagapathi Babu as Dayanand is good. And I might sound cruel in saying this. Actually it is an average performance by the rest, which makes Jagapathi Babu look good. Amar Mohili’s rerecording is really good. But lack of songs means this music director had very little to do. Narsing Yadav, as Daya’s assistant Francis, is the surprise packet. He plays a loyal cop with just the right tone of deference and obedience. All the rest in the cast seem to have accidentally stepped into the set.

What is bad:Oh, the list is long. But it is the director J.D. Chekravarthy’s dragging treatment of an already overstretched plot that will truly test your patience. Mukul Dev’s villainy, which is poorly sketched and acted, is an apology. Villainy is not about grandeur. It is about meanness and menace. Mukul Dev as Bilal does not seem to have a mean bone in his body. Radha Ravi as the top cop (Sivalinga Prasad) with underworld connections is an absolute give away. What on earth was J D thinking when he cast them? And J D’s attempts at comedy are simply left unsaid – they are an embarrassment.

Me Thinks:J D Chekravarthy should learn to walk the talk. Making a film without songs and comedy does not make him a Ram Gopal Verma. He should spend a lot more time as an Assistant Director before wielding the megaphone all by himself.

Tailpiece: Watch it if you are a huge fan of Jagapathi Babu. But then if you are one you can always call up your nearest video store and have Antahpuram or any of his earlier blockbusters. Why watch him waste his acting skills with a director who evidently is not ready to direct a full length feature film. And having done one has the temerity to call it “siddham”!

- Pramod Reddy   
123Telugu.com Rating : 2.75/5

Legend:    5 - Flawless
                4 - Must Watch
                3 - One Time Watch
                2 - Wait for the DVD
                1 - Stay Away
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