Saindhav Review: An action binge from Venkatesh, solely SaiKo action

It looks like an off-season release for a complete action film like Saindhav hitting the screens for a festival like Sankranti, but still Saindhav finds its audience.

Saindhav, starring Venkatesh Daggubati, marks the 75th film by the actor. The film was written and directed by Sailesh Kolanu, who delivered the blockbuster H.I.T. film series. Saindhav was released in theaters for this Pongal. It looks like an off-season release for a complete action film like Saindhav hitting the screens for a festival like Sankranti, but still Saindhav finds its audience.

Saindhav is the story of a father and daughter, where the father goes to the maximum extent in the crime world to get an injection for his daughter to save her from death. Venkatesh plays the father with the name Saindhav Koneru, and Baby Sara plays his daughter Gayatri.

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Saindhav Koneru works as a crane operator in the port of Chandraprastha. He is also known as SaiKo in his past, where he led a very dark life as a master criminal. Saindhav now goes against his fellow gangmates with whom he worked in the past for two reasons: one to make some money to buy a Rs 17 crore injection for his daughter, and the other to hide heavy weapons-laden containers in the port from the bad uncles.

Sailesh Kolanu has made a mark in delivering thrillers with his last two films from the HITverse. This time, in Saindhav, he relied mostly on action rather than thrilling the audience. A few action episodes are truly terrific by world-class standards, particularly the bullet-proof car attack episode. Saindhav could be more engaging if Sailesh tried to add on a few thrilling elements to get an engaging screenplay. Sailesh’s writing of the emotional part between Saindhav and his daughter is well balanced in this high-action film. Also, the bond between Saindhav and Manogya was well written. Sailesh, not going deeper into the flashback, is also a good choice. The best part about Sailesh for Saindhav is his choice of actors for their respective roles. Nawazuddin Siddiqui stands out as Vikas Malik. But at the same time, Arya’s role could have been written much better. Also, the part about child terrorists could have been explored more or avoided in terms of the story. Wish Sailesh justifies that if he really has a thought for a sequel.

Venkatesh Daggubati has become everyone’s favorite among the top four Tollywood senior actors in the last few years with his choices like Narappa, Drushyam film series, and Rana Naidu web series. Now in Saindhav, Venkatesh serves the best action dish that you have never tasted before from the actor. His energy and potency in action sequences will leave the audience in awe. His looks and costumes are also good.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui will surely make the audience fall in love with his performance. The best effort and excellence from him is his own dubbing for the character. They are just apt and perfect. His body language is an add-on.

Shraddha Srinath, as Manogya, is a perfect pick. Arya as Manas could be justified better. Andrea, as Jasmine, is again a good choice. Ruhani Sharma and Jishu Sengupta are just fillers. Baby Sara is another good pick.

Santosh Narayan is exceptional with his soundtracks, particularly the ‘paga paga’ score. Cinematographer Manikandan did a good job. Editor Garry could have been much more effective. Production designer Avinash gave his best again.

So, Saindhav is totally for action movie lovers and also for those who love to watch Venkatesh in the wild setup. The cool man offers you some ruthlessness this time as SaiKo.