‘Soppana Sundari’ movie review: Three women pack a punch in this simple and neat entertainer

‘Soppana Sundari,’ a dark comedy-drama revolving around a car won on lucky draw, is headlined by Aishwarya Rajesh, Deepa Shankar, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, and Karunakaran

A ‘Thirukkural’ by Thiruvalluvar that goes, “ Natuvindri Nanporul Veqkin Kutipondrik Kutramum Aangae Tharum,” is written on the front and rear windshield of a car around which Soppana Sundari revolves. The couplet says that if one covets another man’s belonging in an unjust manner, he would perish while also taking his family down with him. And as the title of the movie suggests (it’s an ode to Goundamani-Senthil’s crackling comedy from the 1989 film Karakattakkaran about the possession of Soppana Sundari’s car), the many characters of this film claim ownership of this one car that belongs to none of them, only to find themselves in a bizarre series of mishaps.

Agalya (Aishwarya Rajesh), a young woman from a lower-middle-class family, along with her mother Lakshmi (Deepa Shankar) and her speech-impaired elder sister Thenmozhi (Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli), gets the surprise of a lifetime through Naresh (Sathish Krishnan). Naresh, the sales manager of a jewellery shop called SGC Jewellers, informs her that she has won a red Suzuki Swift, that costs ten lakhs, as a part of a lucky draw contest. The brand-new car, looking in contrast to their modest home, is now the only hope for the impoverished family that uses the car as a dowry to get Thenmozhi married off to a well-off man (Shah Ra).

As we realise later, Agalya also works at SGC Jewellers and it’s her estranged brother Durai (played by Karunakaran) who buys jewellery to get the coupon, only for him to see Agalya and throw the coupon at her, which she fills in with her details. When he, along with his annoying wife and her brother Danger Mama (Mime Gopi), comes to claim ownership of the vehicle, the three women put up a fight in an amusing, well-choreographed slow-motion action scene. Things take quite a few turns when the cops are involved; the car gets seized, the ownership of the car gets questioned, Inspector Kannan (Sunil Reddy) lusts after Agalya, Durai and his gang have their own share of secrets to hide, and to make matters worse, we are also told that the car was involved in a major crime, one that can put all of them behind bars.

SG Charles’ sophomore directorial leans a lot on its witty one-liner and a crystal clear screenplay written with conviction, but it is the quirky treatment that makes it whole. Everyone cheats on everyone in Soppana Sundari because deceit is the only means to freedom in their now-chaos-filled world, and the complicated situations that these characters find themselves in pave way for some really good dark comedy. In fact, the humour of Soppana Sundari can be likened a lot to Nelson-Nayanthara’s Kolamaavu Kokila, which also had a lower-middle-class girl stuck in a quagmire being pushed to the extreme to save her family. And with the presence of Deepa Shankar, Sunil Reddy, Bjorn Surrao, and Redin Kingsley (who plays a man masquerading as the car’s original owner), reminiscing on Nelson-Sivakarthikeyan’s Doctoris inevitable. And Deepa is clearly the queen of comedy here; watch out for a hilarious scene about her husband’s kidney.

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After a swift and fun first half, the second half finds Charles’s screenplay reaching a new high when we see how the financial situation of the family doesn’t lend any chance to escape, and how they struggle to get from one point to the other; thankfully, Agalya seems to have a lot of ideas in her mind. Unfortunately, the screenplay stumbles to find a seamless resolution to untie all its knots. The biggest of them is the writing of a scene in which the Inspector of Police, Kannan, takes a helpless Agalya to a lodge to forcibly sleep with her. There she says, “I’d get married someday and it wouldn’t look good if I voluntarily lose my virginity to you; it’s best if you just rape me.” You read that right, and just as one fears that this film would end up shaming rape victims and looking down on pre-marital sex, the film finds redemption. Yet, one wonders if this scene, its writing and staging, and the roundabout resolution it leads to, were the way to go. Couldn’t there be anything more in tune with the tone of the film to deliver a bang before the climax? For a film that has three women packing quite a punch, such turn of events can be buzzkill.

Probably, the only good thing that arises out of the scene is a ‘mass’ moment for Agalya, a character that’s been quite impressive with her masterful schemes. It’s a positive sign to see an A-list actor like Aishwarya give her all to a film that has many other characters taking their rightful space and to a film that looks smaller in scale — in terms of visuals and locales — than her routine.