JILLA ARTICLES

Jilla is a 2014 Tamil action-drama film written and directed by R. T. Neason.It stars Mohanlal, Vijay, and Kajal Aggarwal. The film released on 10 January 2014 to positive reviews and proved to be massive commercial success by completing 100 days of theatrical run.

Plot

The moviebegins with Sivan (Mohanlal) who is a Madurai-based don, being cornered by a gang while taking his pregnant wife (Poornima Jayaram) to the hospital. He manages to thwart the gang, following which he adopts his slain driver's son Shakthi. Shakthi witnessed his father being killed by a police officer during the fight, which induces a hatred for the police in him to such an extent that he does not tolerate others wearing a khaki shirt or even dreaming of becoming a police officer, including his friend Gopal (Soori), who aspires to join the police when he grows up.

Several years later, Shakthi, now a young man (Vijay), has become Sivan's most trusted aide, assisting him in his criminal activities and also twinning as his bodyguard and driver. His aversion for the police has not waned, even rejecting a woman named Shanthi (Kajal Aggarwal), for whom he had aninfatuation after witnessing her admonishing two female police constables (Jangiri Madhumitha and Vidyullekha Raman) taking a bribe until he found out that she is a police inspector herself. Life goes smoothly for Sivan and Shakthi until the new police commissioner for Madurai (Pradeep Rawat) takes charge. The commissioner takes Sivan to the outskirts of Madurai, threatens him to quit his nefarious activities or else face arrest, following which he leaves him there. This incident leaves Sivan humiliated, prompting him to force Shakthi to join the police to save his crime syndicate and prove the commissioner's word's wrong (A policeman can think like a

criminal, but a criminal can never think like a policeman). Shakthi, due to his hatred for the police, deliberately fails the exam and physical tests required to become a police officer, but still ends up becoming a police officer due to Sivan's "backroom dealing". Shakthi reluctantly takes up the job as Assistant Commissioner, giving Sivan and his henchmen a free rein to perform their criminal activities. However, after witnessing a mass scale destruction caused by Sivan and his gang, which led to the death of several innocent people, including children and mothers, being admonished by Shanthi for showing disrespect for the police profession, and witnessing the assault of a woman (Meenal) (who had come to the police station to lodge a complaint against Sivan for being responsible for the death of her husband due to the destruction) at the hands of Sivan's gang, he changes gears and decides to become an honest and upright police officer. He lodges Sivan's henchmen in prison, and tries to convince Sivan to give up his criminal activities, which does not go well with him, forcing them to part ways.

Undaunted by Sivan disowning him, Shakthi decides to rid Madurai of Sivan's influence within one night by launchingOperation Clean. The operation proves to be a success, with most of Sivan's henchmen ending up in jail when the night is over. This

angers Sivan, who tries to get Shakthi removed from the police force by using a minister named Aadhi Kesavam (Sampath Raj), who was also adopted by Sivan as a young boy. However, this proves counterproductive; Shakthi is instead promoted to Deputy Commissioner. Sivan then reacts by not inviting Shakthi for his daughter Mahalakshmi's (Niveda Thomas) wedding, a gesture which makes Shakthi upset, as he is very fond of Mahalakshmi. Mahalakshmi too supports her father until she is assaulted by her new father-in-law (R. K) (who had been cheated and insulted by Sivan ten years ago), forcing her to call Shakthi, who immediately rushes over and beats up her father-in-law. When Sivan finds out however, he again insults Shakthi, telling him to stay away from his family, despite Mahalakshmi's pleas. Shakthi is still not daunted by Sivan's insults and later thwarts Sivan's illegal land grab to construct a factory. Meanwhile, Shakthi and Shanthi fall in love.

Later, a lorry owned by Sivan rams into Shakthi's car while he is driving. Shakthi survives with minor injuries and then traces down who sent the lorry to kill him, knowing that his adopted father would never try to kill him, despite their stand-off. He soon finds out who sent the lorry: it was Aadhi. Aadhi has plans to kill Sivan; he was the son of the police officer who killed Shakthi's father. A young Aadhi witnessed Sivan murdering his father after the latter had killed Shakthi's father, which prompted him to attempt to murder Sivan. This failed, and he ended up being adopted by Sivan instead. He decided to bide his time for his revenge, instead using Sivan's influence

to become a minister, following which he decided to take his revenge by subtle means, all of which were thwarted by Shakthi in his efforts to thwart Sivan. Aadhi then plans to ensure that Sivan ends up killing Shakthi by using Sivan's son Vignesh (Mahat Raghavendra). Vignesh is made to instigate riots in Madurai at the words of Aadhi. Aadhi's ultimate plan is to kill Vignesh and put the blame on Shakthi, who will end up being killed by Sivan in retaliation, which will allow him to finish off Sivan. Shakthi, who is aware of Aadhi's plan, arrests Vignesh and locks him up in a hut, with his friend Sub-Inspector Gopal (Soori) made to guard the hut and take care of Vignesh. Despite Shakthi's pleas however, Vignesh refuses to believe that he is being made as a pawn in Aadhi's plans. He manages to escape from the hut after knocking out Gopal, and

then calls Aadhi for help. Aadhi comes over to the place where Vignesh is hiding from Shakthi, and kills him in front of Shakthi's eyes.

Shakthi decides to avenge Vignesh's murder by tracking down Aadhi in order to kill him. When he is about to attack him however, he is kicked in the chest by Sivan, who is also present. It appears that Sivan is on Aadhi's side until Aadhi mentions that Shakthi killed Vignesh, which causes Sivan, who knows that Shakthi would never kill his foster brother, to turn against Aadhi. Sivan and Shakthi reconcile and then team up to finally kill Aadhi.

The movie ends with a now-reformed Sivan asking Shakthi to arrest him for his misdemeanours, a request to which he reluctantly agrees.

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Production

 

Upon the completion of Velayudham (2011), Vijay announced his next project to be with R. T. Neason, who had worked inVelayudham as an assistant to director Jayam Raja. The project however commenced only two years later, after Vijay completed three other films. Neason described Jilla as a "Madurai-based movie" and also revealed that right from 2009, he had this story line about two powerful characters and their emotional interaction, making it his second directorial after Muruga (2007). Vijay who had several collaborations with R. B. Choudary decided to produce the film.Vairamuthu was chosen to pen the lyrics for a song in Jilla, who would be writing a song for a Vijay-starrer after 12 years. Mohanlal liked the script and accepted the film. Master Raju Sundaram will be choreographing the dance sequences in the film.

Nisha Agarwal was rumored to be performing in the film, but she denied these rumors

on Twitter, stating that she had not been approached for a film role. Kajal Aggarwal and Poornima Bhagyaraj were also slated to perform in the film. Gautam Kurup was signed up as the second antagonist. Niveda Thomas said that she would be playing the daughter of Mohanlal's character and sister of Vijay's character. Due to clash of dates, cinematographer Natarajan Subramaniam was replaced by R. Ganesh. During a photoshoot with the main cast, Nesan announced that filming would take place in Madurai, Chennai and Andhra Pradesh, while songs would be filmed overseas.

The opening ceremony for the film was held on 11 March 2013 at R. B. Choudary's Chennai office. The first schedule of film shooting took off on 13 May in Madurai and Karaikudi with Mohanlal and Poornima Bhagyaraj. Vijay was reported to join by the end of the month, but this didn't materialise. For the next schedule the film crew shifted to aChennai-based studio where large sets resembling the city of Madurai were build up for the film. In September 2013, it was reported that Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal would be playing police officers in the film.

The fourth schedule of the film was supposed to start on 14 August. However, the shooting got cancelled due to heavy rain. In October it was reported that 80% of the film had been completed with only the song sequences remaining.

Some reports claim that the producers are planning to remake the movie in Telugu, instead of dubbing it, with Ram Charanreprising Vijay's role and Chiranjeevi reprising Mohanlal's role.The film is slated to be remade in Kannada withRavichandran and Sudeep. Chiranjeevi announced his plans to remake this film in Telugu, with himself in Mohanlal's role and his son Ram Charan in Vijay's role.

Soundtrack

Main article: Jilla (soundtrack)

Rights

The satellite rights of the film were purchased by Sun TV.

Critical reception

Jilla received positive reviews from critics.Sify gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and stated "Jilla is masala entertainment and a full course meal that leaves you with a smile on your face", calling it "a perfect outing with your family this festival season".The Times of India gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and stated "As far as commercial films are concerned, Jilla is definitely assured filmmaking", while adding, "the main issue with Jilla is that it is overlong. Neason, probably in an effort to make it a wholesome entertainer, keeps packing in scenes oblivious to the running time. So, we have an unwarranted sub-plot involving Sakthi's sister and forcefully fitted songs which only make the film lengthy".

Indiaglitz gave 3.25/5 and stated "Pure family entertainer and movie will not disappoint you".Behindwoods gave 2.75 out of 5 and stated, "The charismatic screen presence of Vijay and Mohanlal, few enjoyable musical tracks and comedy scenes and power packed action sequences mark Neason's Jilla that travels on a standard template and satiates Vijay's fans".Bangalore Mirror gave 3.5 out of 5 and called it "a perfect festival film that has all the trappings of a blockbuster".