THALAIVA ARTICLES

Thalaivaa



Thalaivaa English: Leader) is a 2013 Tamil action thriller film directed and written by A. L. Vijay. The film features Vijay and Amala Paul in the lead roles,Abhimanyu Singh as the main antagonist, as well as Sathyaraj, Santhanam,Ponvannan, Rajiv Pillai and Ragani Nanwani  in supporting roles. The film, produced by Chandraprakash Jain, features background score and soundtrack composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar with cinematography handled by Nirav Shah. The film was released worldwide on 9 August 2013, except inTamil Nadu and Puducherry, where the film's release was delayed until released on 20 August 2013 due to controversies.The movie received mixed to positive reviews.This movie was dubbed in Malayalam and Hindi as the same title but in Telugu as Anna.



Plot


Thalaivaa is about Vishwa (Vijay), a dancer in Australia who lives his good life engaging in dance competitions and managing his water distribution business with his partner and childhood friend Logu (Santhanam). His father Ramadurai/Anna (Sathyaraj) is a don in Mumbai and the people’s leader for Mumbai Tamizhans, a fact that Vishwa is unaware of. His father keeps him away from India throughout his life and Vishwa is under the impression that his father is a businessman. He comes across Meera (Amala Paul), the daughter of one of his customers, and slowly falls in love with her. She joins his dance team and they win a major competition. Vishwa then asks for Meera’s hand in marriage from her father, who wishes to discuss the matter formally with his father. So, Vishwa, Meera and her father head to Mumbai to meet Ramadurai. This is where Vishwa’s life changes forever. What happens next to Vishwa and his loved ones forms the rest of the plot.


Cast





  • ·   
                      Vijay as Vishwa Ramadurai (Vishwa Bhai)
    ·     Amala Paul as A.C.P Meera Narayanan
    ·         Sathyaraj as Ramadurai (Anna)
    ·         Abhimanyu Singh as Bhima Bhai
    ·         Rajiv Pillai as Raju
    ·         Santhanam as Logu
    ·          
    • Nassar as Ratnam
    • Udhaya as Video Kumar
    • Ponvannan as Ranga (Chitappa)
    • Y. Gee. Mahendra as Lawyer Radhakrishnan
    • Suresh
    • Manobala
    • Subbu Panchu as Ravi Kiran
    • Rekha as Ganga Ramadurai
    • Ravi Prakash as Kesav
    • Sam Anderson (cameo appearance)
    • G. V. Prakash Kumar (special appearance)
    • Silva (special appearance)
    • Sridhar (special appearance)
    • Dinesh Kumar (special appearance)
    • Sathish Krishnan

Casting



Vijay on the sets of Thalaivaa



 After watching A. L. Vijay's period drama film Madrasapattinam (2010), Vijay was impressed by the film and contacted the film director for a new project. A. L. Vijay later narrated the Thalaivaa story to Vijay and he agreed to play the role within fifteen minutes. Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Yami Gautam were initially approached for the lead female role.Later Amala Paul was selected. Vijay Yesudas was reported to be finalized for antagonist role in this film, but he denied it as rumour. Sathyaraj was also selected to be a part of this film. A. L. Vijay's brother Udhaya has been selected to feature in a prominent role. G. V. Prakash Kumar will be the music director while Nirav Shah will crank the camera. R.K. Naguraj has been enrolled as art director. Rumors about a Hollywood star portraying a singer, were refuted by Vijay

Filming

The muhurta of the film was held in Chennai on 16 November 2012. The first schedule began in Mumbai from 23 November 2012. The title song "Thalaivaa Thalaivaa" was shot in Mumbai with 500 junior artists. A major portion of the film was shot in Australia.The first look and title was revealed on 14 January 2013. Additional posters were released on 26 January 2013.
As of 8 February 2013, 50 percent of total shootings were completed, with stunt scenes conducted by Stunt Silva. Ragini Nandwani, who plays a North Indian, stated that all of her film sequences were shot in Mumbai over 25–30 days. They moved to Chennai and shot a song at Binny Mills. A last shooting schedule in Australia was completed by 24 April.They shot scenes at the Bondi Beach in New South Wales.It was revealed that Vijay would portray a leader of a dance group based in Australia, performing dance styles of different genres including tap dancing with Sathish (June Ponal song fame), Karthik (Ungalil yaar Prabhu Deva winner) & their dance schoolmates.

Music

Thalaivaa

Front cover
Soundtrack album by G. V. Prakash Kumar
Released21 June 2013[26]
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length31:25
LanguageTamil
LabelSony Music India
ProducerG. V. Prakash Kumar
G. V. Prakash Kumar chronology
Udhayam NH4(2013)Thalaivaa(2013)Raja Rani(2013)
The soundtrack features five songs and two theme music tracks. The soundtrack was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar and the lyrics are by Na. Muthukumar, both teaming with A. L. Vijay for the fifth time. This was also G. V. Prakash's first collaboration with actor Vijay. As of 21 November 2012, he had composed two songs for the film. One song had been sung by Vijay being his 26th song alongside with Santhanam. A third song was completed on 11 February 2013. The audio launch took place on 21 June 2013 in Hotel Connemara. The audio rights of Thalaivaa was bought by Sony Music.
All lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar.
  


Track listing
No.
Title
Singer(s)
1.
"Tamil Pasanga"  
Benny Dayal, Sheezay.Psycho Unit
2.
"Yaar Indha Saalai Oram"  
G. V. Prakash Kumar,Saindhavi
3.
"Vaanganna Vanakkanganna"  
Vijay, Santhanam
4.
"Sol Sol"  
Vijay Prakash, Abhay Jodhpurkar, Megha
5.
"The Ecstacy of Dancel"  
Kiran, Chennai Symphony
6.
"Thalapathy Thalapathy"  
Haricharan, Pooja Vaidyanath, Zia Ulhaq
7.
"Thalaivaa Theme"  
G. V. Prakash Kumar




Reception

The soundtrack garnered rave reviews from audience and critics. Behindwoods rated it 3.5/5, stating "A true for the fans, high on energy and drama". Oneindia said GV Prakash Kumar has composed the songs keeping new-age audience in mind. Thalaivaa album simply cannot be ignored. Indiaglitz said "Thalaivaa is all about energy and jive. Ranging from foot tapping to soul lifting, the album is elevating in all respects. For a crowd puller like Vijay, this album is aptly scored to be cheery and soulful. In all, GV Prakash has redefined music crafted for dance and rated 3.75 / 5 – Energy packed album. Get up and dance."

Release

Thalaivaa distribution rights for the United States and Canada were bought by Bharat Creations. Ayngaran International acquired the overseas rights for Thalaivaa Tamil Nadu rights were bought by Vendhar Movies and Kerala rights by Thameens via Vendhar movies. The music rights were sold to Sony Music. Prior to Vijay's birthday on 21 June a theatrical film trailer was released by Sony Music India on their YouTube channel. Trailer got 1.2 million in 32 hours and 2 million views within 2 days on YouTube after its release. The film garnered totally 3.4 million hits on YouTube. The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV. The film's running length is 3 hours 2 minutes and was given a "U" certiticate by the Indian Censor Board. The film has been released on Friday, 9 August all over India and abroad except in Tamil Naduand Pondicherry. Thalaivaa released on 20 August in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

Controversies

On 7 August 2013, the film were taken to court by the son of a Mumbai-based Tamil businessman who filed a civil suit charging the makers of the film with distorting the lives of both his late father and grandfather. In the petition, S. K. R. Karnan from Tirunelveli District said he reliably learnt that the film’s story was based on the life of his grandfather, S.S. Kandasamy Sait, alias SSK, and his father, S. K. Ramasamy, alias SKR. His grandfather and father were well known among the Tamils in Dharavi, Mumbai. Karnan also argued that his grandfather and father were being portrayed as dons in the Dharavi area in the likes of the famous Varadarajan Mudaliar, which was a total distortion of facts. According to the petitioner, they never indulged in illegal activities, as did the lead characters in Thalaivaa played by Vijay and Sathyaraj did, and were social leaders.

On 9 August 2013, the release of Thalaivaa in Tamil Nadu was halted after several prominent theatres in Chennai reported to have received bomb threats, which critics would later describe as being similar to the controversies related toVishwaroopam (2013).The film also reportedly failed to receive tax exemption from the Tamil Nadu Department of Revenue. On 17 August 2013, it was announced that the film will see theatrical release on 20 August.

Reception

The film opened with mixed to positive reviews.Oneindia.in stated that the film is a typical Vijay's masala entertainer, but will make his fans to be proud as his fans. IBN Live rated 3/5 stating that the film is a half-baked product. Sify.comstated "Thalaivaa likes the curate’s egg is good in parts and would have been better if it was more racy and shorter".Behindwoods.com gave the movie 2.75/5 commenting "Although slow at the start and missing in some of its character backstories, the film makes up for it with few unexpected turns of events.Relatively, greatandhra.com gave the movie 2.8/5 stating that the film tests the patience for 3 hours. Metromasti.com gave the movie 2/5 stars stating, "Thalaiva which runs for 185 minutes has very intelligent scenes and is expected to be a complete class hit entertainer movie of the year" AP Herald.com gave 3/5 stating that "the film is not only for die-hard Vijay fans".
'Times of India' gave 3 stating Vijay is in top form when he's normal and menacing. Sathyaraj as the don is effective. But the one who makes this arduous journey enjoyable is Santhanam, whose poker-faced humour provides relief in a largely grim story. Chitriyala.com gave the movie 3.75/5 stating "First half is fast paced with romance, dance, funny scenes like chemistry between Santhanam-Amala Paul is glorified better than Vijay-Amala in the movie and second half is good with twists and revenge drama. MovieCrow rated 3/5 stating that the movie could be watched only for the first half.APlive.net gave 3/5 and commented, Thalaivaa is old wine in new bottle".

Box office



The film got a good opening in Kerala grossing  20.4 million views in two days. At the end of the third weekend, total gross of the film in Kerala is  5 crore.
The film totally grossed  20 million in Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, the film grossed about  77.4 million with the distributor’s share being .60 million. In Bangalore city, the occupancies in the second weekend were hovering around the 85% mark in single screens while some of the multiplexes such as Cinemax and Gopalan were sold out.

In Chennai, after having a delayed release in Tamil Nadu, the film got a good opening by fetching  42.2 million in its opening day. In Malaysia, the film overall grossed $1,902,959 (.80 million).

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