Thiru (Vijay Sethupathi) is a small-time thief whose life revolves around petty robberies carried out with his accomplice Super (Surya Sethupathi). By chance, Thiru’s attention gets drawn to Venba (Anjali) at a shop and he immediately falls in love with her. Venba is in town for a vacation from her work as a rubber estate employee in Malaysia. With time, love blossoms but Venba’s return to work kick-starts a turn of events that proves to be life-changing for Thiru. How he deals with it and the cat-and-mouse game that ensues form the crux of Sindhubaadh.
The pre-release expectations around the film were immense, given that the actor-director combination had delivered a critically acclaimed film in Pannaiyarum Padminiyum and a box office hit in Sethupathi. The success of the latter perhaps pushed S U Arun Kumar to attempt a mass entertainer once again. However, the film fails to take off right from the first frame. Despite having two good performers as the lead pair, Sindhubaadh doesn’t engage the viewer for much of its runtime. The comedy sequences are clichéd and the romance written amateurishly.
The film’s technical side holds up with Vijay Karthik’s cinematography capturing the distinct moods of the film in each half. Ruben’s cuts are also crisp while Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music and background scores are passable. The action sequences are done well but Arun Kumar’s writing is what lets the film down. Although one doesn’t look for logic in a mass entertainer, it’s difficult to not overlook the flaws in Sindhubaadh. By the time the film starts to focus on its core theme, it’s almost time for the climax.
Apart from the lead pair—who are handicapped by a poor script—there aren’t many noteworthy characters in the film barring Sethupathi’s son Surya. The father-son duo shares a fun-filled chemistry. Linga, who plays the antagonist, is cringe-worthy in his performance as a ruthless baddie. Arun Kumar takes the viewers for granted by weaving sub-plots that do not necessarily have anything to do with the plot unlike Sethupathi that kept the viewers engaged throughout.
Sethupathi’s acting skills are well-documented but if there is one criticism that we can make of the actor, it’s his bad choice of commercial films. Rekka, Karuppan and Junga are examples of this and Sindhubaadh becomes the latest to join this list. Sindhubaadh could be tough to sit through, even for those die-hard fans of Vijay Sethupathi.
