Seemaraja -  Has his moments 

The first half though giving a been there seen it all feeling is quite entertaining with the right mix of all the commercial masala elements of comedy, romance and some mass buildup moments.  

Sivakarthikeyan and Ponram along with Soori and D.Imman have given two rural entertainers 'Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam' and 'Rajini Murugan' . Is their third collaboration 'Seemaraja' one step higher in its colorful entertainment and engagement factors as promised by them remains to be seen.

Seemaraja (Sivakarthikeyan) is a youth who belongs to a royal jameen family who loiters around with his friend Mathsu (Soori) an accountant for namesake.  He falls in love with the local silambam wielding PT eacher Suthanthira Selvi (Samantha) and dons various getups to woo her.  There is the arrogant Kaleeshwari (Simran) and her husband Karikadai Kandan (Lal) who harbor enemity on the hero and vow to finish him off.  The rest of the story is the cat and mouse game between the two warring parties with the usual twists and turns and how the Seemaraja emerges the victor.

Sivakarthikeyan has grown leaps and bounds as far as handling the mass hero role with ease and cleverly making sure to crack self deprecating jokes on himself.  His chemistry with Soori brings laughs every time the two appear on screen together.  Siva also shines in the romance portions with Samantha especially when he tries to woo her in different avatars and gets disappointed when they dont work.  The best surprise in this film is of course the ancient King get up where Siva's demeanor and Tamil diction are impressive.  Samantha in a rare rural role looks very pretty and her expressions are apt in all her scenes.  Watch out for her silambam show which gets the applause in the climax.  You have seen Simran as an eternal beauty so far but kudos to Ponram for bringing out the hitherto unknown dark side of her.  She excels as Kaleeshwari and is a worthy opponent for the hero though at times the voice actor dominates.  Soori after a gap is back to form in his trademark brand of comedy which works in most of the scenes with the cheetah sequence taking the cake.  It is amazing to see him sporting a six pack but the effort could have been complimented better in the scene.  Keerthy Suresh puts in a special cameo appearance as the ancient queen but does not have the scope to make any impression. Napolean as the hero's father and Lal as the fuming villain are apt. Manobala in his brief appearance is funny while  Mottai Rajendran is wasted.  The actor playing the sidekick of the villain scores the best laughs in the film and it is commendable the way he delivers his dialogue deadpan.

The first half though giving a been there seen it all feeling is quite entertaining with the right mix of all the commercial masala elements of comedy, romance and some mass buildup moments.  The director has cleverly embedded current politics in his screenplay like justifying the protesting nature of Tamils and warning against threats for the language and culture coming from the "North".  The deep insight into the ancient Tamil weapon "Valari" is well documented.

On the downside the second half takes a nosedive and sadly the most expected historical portion is placed at a wrong moment in the screenplay robbing it off its value.  Siva is already shown as a capable fighter in two sequences in the first half and the question arises where the need for inspiration from his forefathers arise to manage the climax fight.  The computer graphics both in the cheetah and the period sequences are found wanting.  The story narration goes on in circles and never moves forward. Compared to 'VVS' or even 'Rajini Murugan' the entertainment and engagement factors are a notch lower.

D.Imman's lilting melodies punctuate the narration with "Onnavitta yaarum" getting top honors and his background score as usual is a big plus. Balasubramaniam's camera takes in all the colors and presents it to the audience as a visual treat..  Art director T. Muthuraj is another backbone for this film with his market and palace sets impressing the most  Vivek Harshan's editing is slick and keeps the film at a lively pace.  Ponram has taken his usual template and added a historical portion to emphasize his point but it has to be said that on the whole it does not match up to his previous two films.  24 AM Studios has left no stone unturned to provide the highest quality production values to the film.

Verdict : Give the Seemaraja a thumbs up if you are looking for a light entertainer in the familiar Sivakarthikeyan-Ponram territory.