Monday Feb 23 2009, Chennai

'Laadam': Thriller sans thrills!

Prabhu Solomon has attempted to make his debut film, 'Laadam', as stylish as a Hollywood thriller and it has a theme similar to 'Lucky Number Slevin'. But, a poor script mars the effort and the film falls flat.

Charmme's skin show may see the film through the B.O. blues.

The film has been simultaneously released in Telugu as '16 Days'.

We have seen the story of innocent young men getting entangled in a gang rivalry many a time. In 'Laadam', the same thing happens as Karupampoochi (Aravindhan), a graduate from the countryside comes to the city to find himself getting caught in the crossfire between two ganglords--Pavadai Samy (Kotta Srinivasa Rao) and Vempuli.

The former gives him 16 days to kill the son of the latter and failure would mean his death, for sure. Angel (Charmme) gives the hero company in his fight to save his own skin. Karupampoochi, as all heroes should, beats up the villains and cleans up the city, by the time the film ends. In his fight against the underworld, he gets himself equipped with sophisticated weapons, roams the city in a huge Volvo without getting caught, and finds time to sing and dance with his lady love.

Charmme lives up to her billing as a hottie. Aravind is passable in his hero avtaar.

Dharan's music is loud and does not add to the watchability of the film. Prabhu, in his maiden attempt, shows glimpses of his talent in some beatiful sequences, but has not been able to make a true entertainer.