http://www.filimworld.com/morereview.php?fid=11
[b] The duo of Renji Panikkar and Ranjith who once gave malayalam film industry huge hits, would soon be eligible to be called "Assembly line film makers". How else would one explain the same old stale stories repeatedly being thrust on the audience with no mercy? When Ranjith incorporated the legendary Neelakandan in to Chandramouli and nostalgic Mangalasery to Chennai we knew, he had ran out of ideas, following suit his ex-partner Renji Panikkar comes up with Mammooty as Narendran in Roudram.
We have all seen it before from Renji, the fire brand police officer, a senior who is his caretaker, couple of bad cops, corrupt politicians, ladies who accompany the villain and fiery dialogues. Roudram is nothing short of Bharath Chandran remade, Suresh Gopi turns to Mammooty, Lalu Alex to Rajan P Dev, Saikumar remains as the villain and Vijayaraghavan & co fills the rest of the cast. As expected Ranji takes sides in the current political scenario of Kerala and digs at VS Achuthanandan, which crosses the limits at certain points.
Malayalam cinema has been witnessing extreme kinds of cinema for the past few months, along with creative and tallented directors like Blessy, Lal Jose and Roshan Andrews, it still has the stale Siby Malayil, Ranjith and now Renji Panikkar.
The movie opens to the introduction of the various characters and doesn't get a move until the hero, the care taker of the law, Narendran appears on the screen. The script follows Renji's King, Commisioner and Bharath Chandran. He starts the page-long dialogues this time, even in Hindi, takes on superiors , politicians and who ever comes in his way.(Some one please tell them its 2008 and get a move from the 90s). Under the wrapper of an investigation Renji tells his usual and the one and only story he is capable of.
Mammootty looks handsome, fit and elegant, unfortunately that is the only thing he has to do in this movie. His dialogue presentation as usual is top notch and plays to the gallery very often and understandably get applause too. Saikumar once again plays his ages old role of a corrupt wicked politician to the perfection. One is left wondering whether a lady accompanying the villain is a default in Renji scripts.[/b]
Renji as a script writer does what he is capable of, filling it with fire brand dialogues, which always doesn't make sense. As a director he falls short of expectations and has a long way to go. Raudram cannot be acclaimed for its technical finesse either, the Donmax school of editing is bound to give headaches to the viewers sooner or later and the camera work is nothing extra ordinary. But the background music stand out and is a trendy one.
To put it straight Roudram is old wine in a not so new bottle!.
Verdict: Bharath Chandran reloaded