Sabhash

Sabhash is a 2000 Indian Tamil-language mystery thriller film directed by K. Subash, starring R. Parthiban, Divyaa Unni and Ranjith. It was released in September 2000. The film was remade into Hindi language as Vaada (2005).

Plot
The two people in focus are Srinivasan aka Seenu (R. Parthiepan) and his good friend Dharan Viswanath (Ranjith). Seenu is a loving husband of Shanti (Divya Unni). Seenu is blind, having lost his eyesight in an accident in the past. The movie begins with Srinivasan and Dharan discovering that Shanti has hanged herself in the house.

With no strong suspects, the police close the case as a suicide. But soon, several evidences surface which point to the possibility that Dharan is behind Shanti's death, including Dharan's shoe at the site of Shanti's cremation. He resolutely maintains that he is innocent, while Seenu too believes him initially. However, as the story progresses, Seenu seems convinced that his wife has been murdered, and starts to suspect Dharan. Meanwhile, Dharan starts to suspect that Seenu isn't really blind. Dharan wants to frame Seenu for Shanti's death, and, along with his friend Advocate Mohan (Mohan Raman), sets up traps to prove that Seenu is not blind.

A series of flashbacks show that Seenu and Shanti were happily married, but Dharan was also in love with Shanti. Seenu did have proper eyesight, but a car accident rendered him blind. Dharan took advantage of the fact and started troubling Shanti more, while she tried to stay loyal to her husband.

Seenu underwent a surgery without informing Shanti or Dharan to restore his eyesight, and came back home to surprise his wife, but he noticed Dharan being physically intimate with Shanti. So Seenu decided to pretend to be blind.

Eventually, Seenu admits to Dharan that he was pretending to be blind only to trap him and hold Dharan responsible for Shanti's suicide. Seenu convinces the court and the police inspector (Thalaisaval Vijay) that Dharan is guilty and Dharan is arrested. But Dharan insists the court to test Seenu's eyesight to prove his point that Seenu is not blind.

With no choice left, Seenu deliberately blinds himself again by staring at a bright light from a welding torch, and is hence proved innocent. Seenu meets Dharan in jail, where Dharan secretly has a voice recorder. Seenu seemingly admits that he got Dharan arrested, and Dharan claims to have recorded the full conversation. But Seenu reveals that the recorded has no battery in it, so Dharan cannot prove anything. The movie ends with Seenu leaving the jail to start a new life, while Dharan angrily yells at Seenu but to no avail.

Production
The film was originally titled as Paakkanum Pola Irukku.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Deva.

Reception
Savitha Padmanabhan of The Hindu wrote, "The story [..] has several plot twists, some of which are predictable. But in a film that is supposed to be a murder mystery, the badly choreographed song sequences seem to be rude interruptions. Ideally, the film would have worked better if the songs had been cut out and the editing had been tighter." Visual Dasan of Kalki praised Ranjith's acting who overtook other actors and added Deva impresses in background score but messes up in songs and concluded saying it can be watched for one to one manship of Ranjith and Parthiban otherwise, one have to think about how to congratulate (sabash) Subhash after yawning. K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote, "At the end of the movie, you may be moved to say "Syabas (well done) to director Subash. He has provided a taut movie without losing its entertainment value".