Sir movie review: Dhanush single-handedly runs this social drama

Movie: Sir
Rating: 2.75/5
Cast: Dhanush, Samyukhta, Samuthirakani, Sai Kumar
Director: Venky Atluri
Produced By: Sithara Entertainments and Fortune Four Cinemas
Release Date: 17th February 2023

With its aggressive marketing, Dhanush’s Sir/Vaathi has generated a lot of hype. The makers even arranged paid premieres yesterday with huge faith in the film’s storyline. Sir is releasing amidst great expectations and positive buzz. Let’s find out whether this unique combination of Venky Atluri and Dhanush has enough in it to impress the audience.

Story: Bala Gangadhar Tilak or Balu Sir (Dhanush) is a junior lecturer at Tripathi’s (Samuthirakani) Educational Institute. He is transferred to Siripuram to teach. Why was Balu moved to Siripuram in the first place? What is Tripathi’s grand design? And how Balu turns up against Tripathi is what the movie is about.

Performances:  Dhanush is a unique star performer who can effortlessly transition into any type of role and dazzle the audience. In Sir as well, he continues his brilliant form and does great justice to the lecturer’s role. He is the soul of the film and carries the film on his shoulders, especially in the emotional scenes. Samyuktha’s character is quite limited from a performance perspective and does a decent job. Actor Saikumar has a substantial role, and the veteran actor played it perfectly. Samuthirakani performed admirably in the negative role and this is something that he has done several times in his career which is why he just breezes through the role.

Analysis: In contrast to his previous works, which were love stories and family dramas, Venky Atluri has attempted a subject on a social issue. While the storyline and narration appears cliched at points, there are some novel elements and Dhanush’s performance and screenplay in parts make the movie come alive. The outcome would have been much better if Venky had put even more effort into effectively scripting the character establishment passages in the early half. Sir is a social drama that centers on flaws in the educational system and diving deeper into these flaws instead of going for commercial elements would have done more justice to it.

Plus Points:

• Dhanush
• GV Prakash’s Music
• Production values
• J Yuvraj’s cinematography

Minus Points:

• First half narration
• Cliched scenes
• Lack of gripping moments

Verdict: 

Sir takes its own time to get started with proceedings and that might test the audience’s patience. A more gripping screenplay coupled with a crispier runtime would have made this film much more enjoyable. The politics and business part of the education are well brought up but the Sir mainly shows these problems and not solutions. Overall, Dhanush has expertly managed to steer the movie stably and gives another calculated performance.