It is one thing to be chasing glory on the race track and a totally different one to be running after success in the glamour world of cinema. For Dilip Rogger, who was once on the cusp of achieving some big things in the world of motor sport, the shift to another world, literally as the filmdom is, appears seamless.
The rugged looking Rogger makes a good fist of his debut role in 'Udumban', which takes a closer look at how private educational institutions are ruling the roost in the modern day and how people are suffering as a result.
Credit is also due to the director S Balan, a debutant himself, for taking up a rather sensitive subject and handling it rather well. Importantly, he hasn't got too preachy while driving home the point that the education sector needs better handling from the authorities.
The hero Udumban (Rogger), an uneducated youth had to stop his schooling mid-way as his father is a robber on the run. A grown-up Udumban is now a 'professional thief' and is more often than not spotted with his 'pet', monitor lizard (Udumbu in Tamil) and his world revolves around his mother. He has a brother - Kaalai, a tough-looking ruffian, who is feared by one and all in the village.
The story takes a twist when apparently flustered by the constant pestering of a police inspector seeking 'mamool' for the stealing exploits of Udumban. In the meanwhile, when he goes to rob at the house of a high-ranking police official, he is shocked to hear from the policeman that all his savings have been 'looted' by a private school where they his child had been enrolled.
He has a change of heart and decides to open a school through which he assumes he can make a lot of money. After enduring some teething trouble, the hero manages to start the school.
However, he comes across a hurdle for he is jailed soon after launching the school. In the meanwhile, Udumban's brother Kaalai (Sunil), with a scowl on his face more often than not, takes charge of running the institution.
When the hero returns from prison after six months, he finds that a lot has changed. His brother is running the school with pure business intentions, charge hefty fees from parents and has plans to open an engineering college. Moreover, he calls himself an 'educationist.'
A shocked Udumban is keen to turn things around but is unable to find ways to unseat his brother, who is now a ruthless operator. Incidentally, Kaalai is incarcerated because he murders Udumban's prospective bride in a fit of rage.
There are some romantic interludes too for Rogger as he falls for Isaipriya, whose ambition is to earn a doctorate. She is doing a thesis on how private educational institutions were ruining society.
After twists and turns and when Kaalai is about to sell the school to a foreign buyer, Udumban manages to put a lid on things. All things end well, as it is often said and the point that education must be a priority of the government is driven home.
The director, it must be done has done a pretty good job of what he aimed to do, though a couple of songs in the second half peg back the pace a touch.
The debutant hero, as the unrefined Udumban has acquitted himself rather well while the two heroines Sana (as Isaipriya) and Geethika have nothing much to do. The comic interludes involving Rogger and his friend evoke a few guffaws.
In the end, 'Udumban' isn't about the monitor lizard but a bigger animal - privatization of education and its ill-effects and does pass muster.
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