Osthi Movie Review

Osthi is the remake of the blockbuster Hindi movie Dabangg which had the Bollywood's bad boy Salman Khan and the dashing then new entry Sonakshi Sinha.

Osthi or Osthe (which means best or of high quality) is directed by Dharani and has Simbu aka STR and Richa Gangopadhyay in the lead.

After Kuruvi Dharani is back to direction with this film. Interestingly Simbu plays a cop for the first time in this film.

Velan (Simbu) is a rough and tough cop who is corrupt and would do anything for money. But he is a kind hearted guy and falls head over heels in love with a simple girl Richa who plays the role of Neduvaali.

Osthi Story
Velan a stylish cop in his own terms, who speaks in Thirunelveli Tamil dialect and loves his mother (played by Revathy) and hates his step father (played by Nazer).

Velan has a step brother played by Jithan Ramesh as Balan who gets more prominence in the house than Velan, which irks him and grows up to be a tough rugged guy.

Balan is a dull dumb guy who is not of great help to the household, while Velan grows up to be a police officer, yet a corrupt one and creates his own status in the village. Once he chases a gang of robbers who robs money from a  bank and he beats them down only to take the money for his purpose and shares the rest with his police Men. The gang happens to be Sonu Sood's men, who becomes a threat for Velan. Sonu Sood plays the role of Daniel.

Meanwhile Balan is in love with Saranya Mohan, but his father (played by Nizhalgal Ravi) happens to be a big shot in the village and opposes their love. Balan wants to elope with her and gets money from Revathy (which was actually given to her by Velan). Balan gives the money to Saranya Mohan's father to get them married and the father then approves for the Marriage. Velan is not aware of these happenings.

Velan who happen to see Neduvaali by chance, during his chase of the robbers, falls in love with her in one sight. He follows her and proposes her to get her approval for marriage. He also informs his mother about the girl and expresses his wish to get married.

Neduvaali's father played by VTV Ganesh is a drunkard and he also agrees to get his daughter married to Velan after a point.

Amongst all this, Revathy dies and so does Ganesh, after which Velan happen to shoulder some responsibilities and he gets married to Neduvaali.

While Velan sense some mystery pertaining to the death of his mother, later he realizes that Sonu Sood and his gang are responsible for his mother's death. Balan joins Daniel as he wishes to get money for his marriage and goes against Velan after an insulting incident takes place.

Daniel who wishes to hold the position taken care by Vijaykumar in the village ( a politician in power) uses Balan as bait to kill Vijaykumar.

Velan who realizes that Daniel is plotting his brother tries to save him from the trap and how he thrashes the baddie forms the climax.

Osthi Review
Dabangg was criticized and also praised (after the film was declared a hit), for the film had a strong mass masala theme, which is said to be a typical south Indian film types ( basically seen in Tamil & Telugu). The strong points to the film's success were for its action sequences, Salman Khan, songs, also the then debutant Sonakshi Sinha, not to forget the 'Munni' factor.

So what made this typical south Indian flavored film that was a success in Hindi to be made in Tamil is one question that runs in many minds. As we have seen this typical mass masala story in many of our films, it might not sound great, but yet watchable.

Though we have seen Simbu previously in many masala flicks, post his make over from VTV, we expect some sensible films. When we know that Simbu will remake Dabangg we were sure that he would mouth some punch dialogues and fly during action sequences, after all it is directed by mass masala movies fame Dharani.

Changes that they have included to the Tamil version is the inclusion of comedy characters that Simbu is comfortable with and has tasted success also. Santhanam and Mayilsamy who play constables to Velan (Simbu), makes certain dialogues interesting that the Simbu's cop role is made funny too and not just a typical strict police officer. Santhanam's one liners is always fun to watch and has succeeded in this film.

Also the equation Simbu and VTV Ganesh shares is well used in this film. Though Ganesh's role is a short one he makes it interesting.

The Tamil version also has the equivalent of Munni and here the catch phrase is 'Kalasala' and we have the oomph queen Mallika Sherawat gyrating to the number sung by yesteryear singer LR Eeshwari and T Rajendar. Well it is enjoyable.

Thaman has made his efforts and has given a  hit album. Sonu Sood though enacts a typical role of a baddie which he repeats in the Tamil version too, has made it quite impressive unlike the miss a blink act in Rajinikanth's Chandramuki.

Richa Gangopadhyay who still remains in our minds as 'Yamini' (her character in Mayakkam Enna) has done her small role well.

Fights, cinematography and the dialogues add to the remake, while songs which gives a mass appeal also help for a commercial package.

Rating - 2.5/5

Check out the making of Kalasala Song Video here.

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Osthe Cast
Silambarasan as Osthe Velan
Githan Ramesh as Balan
Richa Gangopadhyay as Neduvaali
Sonu Sood as Daniel
Saranya Mohan as Nirmala
Santhanam as Selvam
Ganesh as Neduvalli's father
Nassar as Velan's Father Subbaiah
Revathi as Velan's mother Devaiyani
Vijayakumar - Kaalai Pandiyan
Mayilsamy as police constable
Thambi Ramaiah
Nizhalgal Ravi as Thanga Perumal
Mallika Sherawat (Special appearance in song "Kalasala")

Osthe Crew
Directed by - S Dharani
Produced by - Mohan Apparao, T. Ramesh
Screenplay by - Dileep Shukla, S. Dharani
Story by  - Dileep Shukla & Abhinav Kashyap
Music by - S Thaman
Cinematography - Gopinath
Editing by     V. T. Vijayan
Studio - Balaji Real Media
Distributed by - Reliance Entertainment
Release date - December 8, 2011 (2011-12-08)
Budget - INR30 crore (US$6.08 million)