Sembi Movie Review

Filmmaker Prabhu Solomon’s affinity for travel-based films keeps brewing over the years. The films like Myna and Thodari have been a great illustration of his interests, and the latest one to join the bandwagon is ‘Sembi’. The film owns lots of flashpoints, and one among them is actress Kovai Sarala stepping out of her comedy zone, and appearing in a serious character.

The film opens with a private bus crashing into pieces down the hill steep, and we hear its personified voice that says, “I have seen many characters traveling with me, but the story of a grandma (Kovai Sarala) and her granddaughter Sembi, who transited few hours before this mishap is something special.” Later we are exposed to the brutal and merciless deed of a few miscreants upon the little girl. When Sembi and her grandma take this bus, we see the passengers soon getting involved.

Starting with the positives, Prabhu Solomon doesn’t waste the time with unwanted sequences. The opening scene sets the mood, and in the next 25 minutes, we have a clear picture of what the film is all about. Then as the journey begins, we are endowed with some good engaging sequences too. With the arrival of Ashwin Kumar, the story gets more gripping as well. However, the screenplay soon misses the track, where we find lots of elements are purposely forced.

Let’s look into this with a clear-cut example. Before the bus journey begins, we see a girl having conflicts with her boyfriend working in a mobile network, and later patches up with him to get help from the victimized Sembi. This is somewhat okay that can be sparred beyond logic and illogical grounds. On the other hand, there is a scene, where a YouTuber instantly gets in touch with a hacker to illegally download the CCTV footage. The characters traveling in the bus give an impression of a university, where everyone is influenced by high-level contacts. Scenes like this forcefully included starts boring us after a certain point in time.

As with performance, Ashwin Kumar looks perfect for his character. He has delivered commendable acting. Kovai Sarala is a big surprise to the Tamil audiences as she appears in a serious avatar for the first time. Although she has lots of amazing scope during the initial moments of the film, her substantiality vanishes into thin air sooner. The little girl performing the role is good. Thambi Ramaiah overacts in many places. The film has lots of supporting actors. While the character of the drunkard looks good, the corrupt policer’s character looks neat, and the rest of them are artificial.

Nivas K Prasanna treats the film as a ‘Musical’ genre. The BGM is remarkable, but it would have been good if there was silence in a few places. However, this is the best from Nivas to date in his musical journey. The cinematography is appreciable.

While some of the hard-hitting themes might look gripping and heart-touching, they became outdated and time-worn with the overuse. Tamil cinema has already witnessed it with psychotic hero-based movies, and ghost movies, and now ‘Child Abuse’ has become the core attraction of Kollywood filmmakers. Sembi is one such film that joins the league.

Overall, ‘Sembi’ is okay in parts as some scenes look engrossing, but most of them are illogical.