Sai Pallavi, among the South Indian actresses, has grown so much in stature with her acting ability and dancing skills, that she is now considered a box-office pull in her own right. In Indian filmdom, very few actresses get that coveted stamp. For, only male actors are deemed ‘stars’, and lady artists are seldom seen so in mainstream cinema.
In Bollywood, actresses like Sri Devi, then Madhuri Dikshit managed to break the filmdom’s equivalent of glass-ceiling. Now we have, actresses like Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Vidya Balan who can be the main draw in a movie. In the south, Nayanthara, even though with no great acting chops, has worked way to be the top and is now billed as the Lady Superstar. The thing is behind many such starry rise there is an element of marketing and concerted push.
But in the case of Sai Pallavi’s elevation things have been organic. She started as a demure, comely actress without being glitzy or glamorous. But she became a box-office force with her dazzling dancing ability, and she has now complemented that beautifully with her impressive histrionics. If movies like Maari 2 and Love Story established her dancing prowess, then films like Virata Parvam and Shyama Singha Roy have underscored her acting talent.
In the event, in the recent Tamil release Gargi, she was the USP.
Sai Pallavi’s Gargi to stream on SonyLIV
Gargi turned out to be an impressive film with the right amount of suspense, emotion and social message. It has the elements of a whodunit and courtroom drama and also tacitly makes important points on the class hierarchy in our society. Sai plays a school teacher. She belongs to a typical middle-class family, and her marriage is fixed. Around that time, her dad, who works as a security guard in an apartment nearby, fails to return home. She goes to enquire about his whereabouts, only to learn that the cops have arrested him, in connection with a rape case of a nine-year-old. How she unravels the secret is the story that is told effectively with empathy.
But, as it happens, the film which released on July 14 is not doing all that well at the box-office as per trade reports. This is a shame. But the good news, this is the kind of film that will do well on streaming platforms.
Now we hear that SonyLIV has won the rights for streaming and will do so from mid-August. An official word is expected next week.
Helmed by Gautham Ramachandran, Gargi is presented by Kollywood actor couple Suriya and Jyotika under their production banner 2D Entertainment.
Actor Aishwarya Lekshmi, who is making her debut as a producer with the film, also plays an important role in it. Actors Kaali Venkat, RS Shivaji, Kalaimaamani Saravanan, Jayaprakash, Prathap, Sudha, Livingston, and Kavithalaya Krishnan are also in the cast.