Jeeva Films

Aasai Aasaiyai  is a South Indian Tamil film released in 2003. This movie marked the entry of the famous producer R.B Choudary's second son, Jiiva. This movie did not fare well at the box office, but gave decent reviews for him. The story revolves around Vinod (Jiiva), who aspires to become a businessman after completing his bachelors. His parents keep nudging him to start working in a job. He also works part- time as a private detective. He is assigned a detective job to follow a girl and find out her general activities and also if she is in love with anyone. While doing this job, he eventually falls in love with the girl (Sharmelee), and quits his detective job. Sharmelee, who is the daughter of a rich gold seller, has a strict policy in her life to not love anyone, because her sister eloped with another guy in the past and her father (Nasser) had suffered a heart attack. The crux is how Jiiva wins Sharmelee's heart and how they convince their parents to accept their marriage, forms rest of the story.

Raam (Tamil: ராம்) is a 2005 Indian Tamil drama film written and directed by Ameer Sultan. The film stars Jiiva, Gajala, Kunal Shah (Shakti) and Saranya Ponvannan in lead roles, whilst Rahman, Ganja Karuppu, and Murali play supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The film, released in March 4, 2005, was screened at the 2006 Cyprus International Film Festival, where it won two awards for Best Actor and Best Musical Score for Jiiva and Yuvan Shankar Raja, respectively.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Crew
• 4 Soundtrack
• 5 Awards
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Plot

The story revolves around the relationship of a mother and her son, set in Kodaikanal. The movie commences with Rama Krishna (Jiiva) and his mother Saradha (Saranya Ponvannan), a school teacher, lying in a pool of blood; The police find Raam is still alive and arrest him on charges of murdering his mother. Police inspector Umar (Rahman) works on the case. The story is narrated in flashback.
Rama Krishna is an apparently mentally affected teenager (later diagnosed as autistic), living dependent on his mother Saradha (Saranya Ponvannan). His overcompulsive adoration for his mother lands her in various problems. Raam is provoked easily and tolerates little wrongdoing around him. Next door lives Karthika (Gajala), daughter of a Police Sub-Inspector Malaichamy (Murali). She falls for Raam, but upon telling him how she feels, gets a blunt response from him.
One day, Saradha is found brutally murdered. Umar, interrogating various personalities for the case, grills each and every person possibly connected to Raam and the teacher. Every possible motive that Raam might have for murdering his mother is explored. Furthermore Raam's neighbours, the sub-inspector Malaichamy and his children are summoned by Umar for interrogation, much to their irritation. The police eventually find out that it was Karthika's brother (Kunal Shah), who committed the murder, in fear that Saradha would tell his parents about his drug addiction habits.
When Umar confronts him and forces him to surrender, Karthika's brother fatally wounds him and escapes, injuring his father in the process as well. He kidnaps Karthika and takes her to a desolate location. However, Raam, seeking vengeance as well as seeking to save Karthika, follows the killer to the hideout. A brutal fight occurs between the two, and at the end, Raam kills Karthika's brother. The film ends as the police find the hideout, while Raam is meditating on the dilapadated roof.

Cast

• Jiiva as Rama Krishna
• Rahman as Umar
• Gajala as Karthikaayini Malaichamy
• Saranya Ponvannan as Saradha
• Kanja Karuppu as Vaazhavandhan
• Murali as Malaichamy
• Kunal Shah (Shakti) as Satish

Crew

• Story, Screenplay, Direction: Ameer Sultan
• Production: Ameer Sultan
• Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
• Cinematography: Ramji
• Editing: raja mohammed
• Art direction: AC Pillai
• Choreography: Dinesh
• Stunts: Anal Arasu
• Lyrics: Snehan
• Banner: Teamwork Production House

Soundtrack

Raam
Soundtrack album by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Released	12 January 2005
Recorded	2004
Genre	Film soundtrack
Label	Star Music
Producer	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja chronology
Bose (2004) Raam (2005) Arinthum Ariyamalum (2005)

The music was scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja, joining with director Ameer Sultan. The soundtrack, released on 12 January 2005, features 7 tracks, including one instrumental. The lyrics were written by Snehan. Yuvan Shankar Raja fetched critical acclaim for his work, especially for the film score,  resulting in a win at the 2006 Cyprus International Film Festival for Best Musical score in a Feature Film, being the only Indian composer to receive the award till date.

Track	Song	Singer(s)	Duration	Notes
1	Boom Boom	Yuvan Shankar Raja, Jyotsna, Premji Amaran, Tippu	4:36
2	Aarariraro	K. J. Yesudas	4:46
3	Vidigindra Pozhudhu	Madhumitha	3:59
4	Yaaro Arivaal	Madhu Balakrishnan	2:26
5	Manidhan Solkindra	K. J. Yesudas, Vijay Yesudas, Ranjith	4:41
6	Nizhalinai Nijamum	Vijay Yesudas, Yuvan Shankar Raja	5:21
7	Theme Music	Instrumental

Awards

The film has won the following awards since its release:
2006 Cyprus International Film Festival (Cyprus)

• Won - CIFF Award for Best Actor in a Feature Film - Jiiva
• Won - CIFF Award for Best Musical Score in a Feature Film - Yuvan Shankar Raja

Kattradhu Thamizh (English: Learned Tamil; previously titled Tamil M. A.)  is a 2007 Indian Tamil drama film written and directed by newcomer Ram and produced by N. Shivaprasad and Salmara Mohammad Sharief. It stars Jiiva in lead role and newcomer Anjali and Karunas in other major roles. The film was released on 5 October 2007.
Kattradhu Thamizh is a film about an ordinary young Tamil-postgraduate, who, frustrated with the circumstances and futility of his job, slowly loses his mental balance and becomes a psychopath. The film, though commercially not successful, was critically acclaimed.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Production
• 4 Soundtrack
• 5 Critical Reception
• 6 Awards
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Plot

Prabhakar (Jiiva) is a Tamil teacher in a private school in west Mambalam area of Chennai, who leads a lonely life in a lodge. He is frustrated and even tries to commit suicide, in a system where knowing your mother's tongue and teaching it is looked down upon by a society craving for material benefits and imbalance in pay structure.
Prabhakar, for no fault of his is at the receiving end, terrorized by cops and on the run after killing a railway booking clerk in a fit of rage. He roams all around the country and joins some saadhus, high on pot and also grows his hair long and keeps a shaggy beard. Finally he wants to exorcise the devils within and at gun point kidnaps a television anchor Yuvaan-Suang(Karunas), who records his life story, where he confesses to killing 22 people in cold blood. In the flashback he reveals his past, his upbringing by a Tamil teacher Poobaal (Azhagam Perumal) and his childhood sweet heart Anandhi (Anjali) who later in his life becomes an obsession for him.

Cast

• Jiiva as Prabhakar
• Anjali as Anandhi
• Karunas as Yuvaan-Suang
• Azhagam Perumal as Poobaal Raavar

Production

By mid-2006, Ram an erstwhile assistant of Balu Mahendra began working on his directorial debut, initially being titled as Tamil M.A.,  which was later changed to Kattradhu Thamizh to get exempted from the entertainment taxation.  Ram told that the film would revolve around a young man, who gets into trouble because of his education,   quoting that it would show the "pathetic state of our mother tongue [Tamil] in today's society".  He selected Jeeva to essay the lead character in his film, after he had seen Raam (2005) and been impressed by the actor's performance, while a newcomer Anupama from Mumbai was tipped to play the lead female character of Anandhi first,  however she was later replaced by Anjali, who debuted in Tamil cinema with this film.  The film was shot for nearly a year across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Chennai,  and gained high anticipation in its finishing stage, mainly due to Jeeva's looks in the promotional stills,  and Ram's controversial statements at the film's soundtrack release, who cited that he had killed everyone who had hurt him during earlier days through the screenplay of the film.   Jeeva had grown a full length beard for the character and cited the hardships during the shoots of the film, which he considered as his most painful experience and a "torturous affair".  He revealed that he even had to undergo therapy to "come out of the character" as it was "too emotional".   Ram denied that the film was his autobiography, clarifying that, unlike the protagonist in the film, he went on to work as a media consultant and that the film is a biography of a fictional character named Prabhakar.

Soundtrack

Kattradhu Thamizh (Tamil MA)
Soundtrack album by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Released	October 5, 2007
Recorded	2007
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	24:35
Label	BIG Music
Producer	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja chronology
Kannamoochi Yenada (2007) Kattradhu Thamizh (2007) Vel (2007)

The soundtrack was composed by noted music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja to the lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar, which was released on 10 September 2007 under the film's previous title, Tamil MA.  It features five tracks, including one sung by his father, Ilaiyaraaja, which was hailed mostly as the pick of the album.  Noticeably, the album comprises only solo numbers and doesn't feature any female vocals.
Yuvan Shankar Raja won accolades and high praise as the soundtrack received universal critical acclaim and was described as a "musical sensation",  a "must-listen for all musical freaks",  a "fascinating album"   and "a solid and stirring triumph of Yuvan’s composing skills".

Track	Song	Singer(s)	Duration (min:sec)	Notes
1	"Innum Oru Iravu"	Yuvan Shankar Raja	05:56
2	"Unakkagathane Intha"	Yuvan Shankar Raja	04:50
3	"Para Para Pattaampoochi"	Rahul Nambiar	04:06
4	"Paravayin Koottil"	Ilayaraaja	06:07
5	"Vaazhkai Enbathu"	Shankar Mahadevan	03:36

Critical Reception

The film gained highly positive reviews and met with critical acclaim upon its release. Aspects as direction, writing, performance, music, cinematography and editing were immensely lauded and appreciated and expected to bag a bunch of awards.
Behindwoods gave the film 4 out of 5, describing it as a "Kurinji flower in Indian cinema", depicting that such a film seldom gets filmed in Indian Cinema and a "must-see film".  It praised the direction and the acting and technical department, which were of "higher order", pointing out the cinematographer, S. R. Kadhir's and music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja's work.  Concerning the performances, actor Jeeva, it is said, came up with a "performance of his lifetime", while newcomer Anjali was a "delight to watch and spellbinds the viewer with her beautiful fresh look and her performance".  Equally impressed was Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff, who wrote that Kattradhu Thamizh was a "hard-hitting film", while giving it 3.5 out of 5. She praised debutant director Ram and actor Jeeva's performance as Prabhakar, who she says, "leads you through dimensions that are frankly amazing".

Awards

55th Filmfare Awards South

• Best Female Debut – South - Anjali

2nd Vijay Awards

• Best Debut Actress - Anjali
• Best Editor - A. Sreekar Prasad
• Best Actor - Jiiva (Nominated)
• Best Director - Ram (Nominated)
• Best Story, Screenplay Writer - Ram (Nominated)
• Best Cinematographer - S. R. Kathir (Nominated)
• Best Find of the Year - Ram (Nominated)

Film Critics Awards

• Best Writer Award - Ram
• Best Music Director - Yuvan Shankar Raja
• Best Cinematographer Award - S. R. Kathir
• Best Lyricist - Na. Muthukumar

Thenavattu (English: Lethargy) is an Indian Tamil action film directed by V. V. Kathir, starring Jiiva and Poonam Bajwa in the lead roles, whilst, Ganja Karuppu played a pivotal role. The film released to negative reviews, upon release, the film was also criticized by critics for being "silly and ridiculous". However, with the backing of Sun Pictures, the film did below average at the box-office.

Contents

• 1 Cast
• 2 Plot
• 3 Production
• 4 Soundtrack
• 5 Release
• 6 References

Cast

• Jiiva as Kottai
• Poonam Bajwa as Gayathri
• Ganja Karuppu as Vellaiayan
• Ravi Kale as Kailasam
• Shafi as Santhosh
• Saikumar as Suryaprakash
• Rajan P. Dev as Minister
• Delhi Ganesh as Gayatri's father
• Saranya as Kottai's mother

Plot

The film starts with Kailasam (Ravi Kale), the somber bigwig is performing the last rites of some one dear to him—but the appearance of Kottai (Jiiva), first in the chaotic Koovagam festival and later atop a Veeranam pipe, swinging a scythe maniacally sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Cut to the flashback a few months ago: In Madurai, where Kottai's mother (Saranya Ponvannan) is cutting down logs, and boasting about her son: he is a god who deserves to see the outside world and derive its benefits.
And so Kottai journeys to big bad Chennai in company with Vellaiyan (Kanja Karuppu), who dances with every Karagattam dancer on the roadside, makes lewd jokes and appears to have only one thing on his mind. They end up at the massive home of Kailasam, the local terror who slices up people whenever he can—only, our heroes are unaware of the fact.
Kottai and Vellaiyan thinks that all Kailasam does is cut up trees, which is why he requires their aruvaal-making skills but Kottai gets to know that Kailasam hired him to make sickles to kill people. And so Kottai goes to work. So you have Kottai feeding crying children milk, helping men with epileptic seizures and falling in love with the first fair-complexioned, slim beauty he comes across, Gayatri (Poonam Bajwa).
Naturally, Gayatri, as the heroine, is also a wonderfully kind-hearted girl, who wears revealing saris, teaches music to students. Kottai's logic for falling in love with her is that she treats him like his own family.
Meantime, there is yet another villain, Santhosh, Kailasam's son, who goes playing musical instruments, mouthing punch lines and raping women left, right and centre. There is also a remarkably stupid and one-dimensionally portrayed minister (Rajan P. Dev) and a helpless, frustrated cop Surya Prakash (Saikumar) who simply stands like a rock in uniform and he wants to settle a score with Kailasam because his son raped and killed his sister. Naturally, Santhosh goes on raping women, Surya Prakash goes on standing still; Kottai goes on making aruvaals until Santhosh's catches sight of the ravishing Gayatri, touches her inappropriately and all hell breaks loose. Kottai bashes Santhosh, not knowing that he is the son of Kailasam. When Kailasam comes to know that Kottai has beaten his son to death, he tries to take revenge on Kottai. But Kottai, with the help of Suryaprakash, kills Kailasam and minister. The film ends with Kottai returning to his home.

Production

V. V. Kathir who earlier worked as an assistant to Seeman and Suryaprakash narrated the script to R. B. Choudhry and he liked it and Jeeva also liked it.  A photo session was completed in Pallavaram Hills.  Interestingly Antony, producer of this film, had earlier produced Jeeva's elder brother Jithan Ramesh's film Puli Varudhu. Bhavana was originally slated to be heroine but she left the film due to unknown reasons.  Poonam Bajwa who acted in Telugu films including Boss was selected as heroine making her debut in Tamil and was also shooting for Seval simultaneously. Saranya was selected to play Jeeva's mother.  Art director Roobesh created a huge set at YMCA resembling Koothaandavar temple.  This was the first Tamil film which had transgenders treated with respect.

Soundtrack

• Enge Irundhai - Harish Raghavendra
• Usulampatti Sandhaiyila - Shankar Mahadevan, Mahalakshmi
• Onnu Rendu
• Enakkena
• Pattampoochi

Release

Thenavattu was the second film to be distributed by Sun Pictures.
After this film, V V Kathir was supposed to direct Karthi's Siruthai but didn't direct. He went to hibernation and had not directed any film so far. Due to the film's poor response, Antony stopped producing films. Jeeva and Poonam again paired in Kacheri Arambam.

Critical reception

Behindwoods wrote:"Thenavattu is for people who just adore illogical masala flicks".  Rediff called it "silly and ridiculous" and also added "culprit clearly is V V Kathir, who's come up with a half-baked script that manages to destroy even Jeeva's credibility. This flick is all aruvaal and no brains".  Indiaglitz wrote:"Director Kathir didn't experiment much and took the familiar path of commercial entertainer following the footsteps of his guru".  Nowrunning wrote:"Thenavattu is a tale strictly for the brain dead".  Sify wrote:"the film leaves you almost brain dead".

Siva Manasula Sakthi (English: Sakthi is in Siva's heart) is a 2009 Indian Tamil romantic comedy film written and directed by debutante Rajesh. It stars Jiiva and newcomer Anuya Bhagvath, a student of Pune Film Institute, in the lead roles, with Santhanam, Urvashi and Sathyan appearing in supporting and Arya appearing in a cameo role. Released on 13 February 2009, becoming a commercially successful venture at the box office. The film met with mixed reviews upon release. The film was later remade in Telugu as Shiva Manasulo Shruti with Mahesh Babu's brother-in-law Sudheer Babu and Regina Cassandra and released in February 2012.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Reception
• 4 Release 
• 5 Soundtrack
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Plot

The main protagonists Siva (Jiiva) and Sakthi (Anuya) meet on a train from Coimbatore and strike up a friendship. Siva introduces himself as an army officer and Sakthi as an air hostess. The two part ways on arrival in Chennai, but Siva promises to meet her soon. He pays a visit to the airline company where Sakthi claimed to work, with his mother Kalyani (Urvashi) and best friend Vivek (Santhanam) tagging along. When asking for Sakthi, they are instead greeted by another woman with the same name (Shakeela). Siva realizes that he has been tricked.
In reality, Siva is a courier deliveryman and Sakthi, a radio jockey. When they learn of each others deception, they swear to get revenge on each other. A series of humorous incidents happen as Siva teases Sakthi live on her radio show and gets her in trouble with her father; and she retaliates by tattling on him to his family and using him as a driver. When Siva defeats a handful of goons in a tough fight to save Sakthi’s brother (Sathyan) and helps organize his marriage, Sakthi develops genuine feelings for him.
She reveals her feelings by planning a surprise birthday party for Siva, but learns that he had lied about his birth date. Humiliated in front of his family, she leaves angry and bitter. Siva learns of her true feelings for him and attempts to reconcile with her, but she ignores him. Siva grows upset as well, fights with his mother and sister, and continuously destroys Vivek’s new mobile phones (they forgive him eventually). However at one time when he visits her office, he is drunk and misbehaves with the people around. He tells Sakthi's assistant to call Sakthi, but the latter, enraged upon Siva's behaviour sends a man to beat him up and get him out, Siva loses all his love and care for Sakthi.
Some time later, Sakthi’s father arranges for her to meet a prospective groom Arun (Arya). Siva coincidentally runs into Arun and is introduced as Sakthi’s "close friend". He proceeds to tell Arun about all her good qualities, never mentioning anything negative. Sakthi, realizing his true love, leaves Arun and asks Siva to marry her. He is still angry about the time she sent a man to beat him up and because he believed she accepted Arun. She apologizes and Siva forgives, but he asks her to go to a nearby temple where they can get married the next day. She visits the temple early the next day, but Siva doesn't visit, calling her up and saying that he "refuses" to marry her. Disappointed, Sakthi returns home, but sees that Siva organized a surprise birthday party for her. The two of them make love that night. The following morning he plays another prank on her; she realizes that he will never take any relationship seriously and runs away from him.
Some months later, Siva arrives at Sakthi’s house with his family, to formally ask for her hand in marriage. During this time, Sakthi faints and is revealed to be pregnant (as a result of sleeping with Siva). When both their families learn this, they humorously surround Siva and beat him up. As the credits roll, a scene set two years later reveals that Siva and Sakthi are married and have a son, to whom Siva brags about how he successfully “got the girl”.

Cast

• Jiiva as Siva
• Anuya Bhagvath as Sakthi
• Santhanam as Vivek
• Urvashi as Kalyani sivas mum
• G. Gnanasambandam as Sakthi's father
• Sathyan as Shanmugam
• "Mahanadhi" Shankar as Inspector (Special appearance)
• Arya as Arun (Special appearance)
• Shakeela as Sakthi (Cameo appearance)

Reception

This movie's direction and screenplay received mixed reviews. Yuvan Shankar's music was praised.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV. The film was given a "U/A" certificate by Indian Censor Board

Accolades

Ceremony	Award	Category	Name	Outcome
2010 Vijay Awards	Vijay Award	Best Comedian	Santhanam	Won
		Best Music Director	Yuvan Shankar Raja	Nominated
		Best Lyricist	Na. Muthukumar	Won
		Best Debut Actress	Anuya Bhagvath	Nominated
2010 Mirchi Music Awards	Mirchi Music Award	Film Music Composer	Yuvan Shankar Raja	Won
		Film Lyricist	Na. Muthukumar	Won

Soundtrack

Siva Manasula Sakthi
Soundtrack album by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Released	January 25, 2009 (India)
Recorded	2008
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	31:32
Label	Junglee Music
Producer	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja chronology
Kunguma Poovum Konjum Puravum (2009) Siva Manasula Sakthi (2009) Sarvam (2009)

The soundtrack, composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, released on 25 January 2009, featuring 7 tracks with lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar. Thanks to the film's success, the album grew in popularity, with particularly the song "Oru Kal" getting widely noticed,  whilst also garnering accolades and several awards and nominations for its composer Yuvan Shankar Raja and its lyricist Na. Muthukumar.   Yuvan had worked for 20 days on the re-recording at a state-of-the-art recording studio in Malaysia.  During this time, he also composed an additional song "Oru Paarvaiyil" which was added in the soundtrack.  The songs "Oru Kal" and "Oru Paarvaiyil" were reused in the Telugu version Shiva Manasulo Shruti, though credits were not given.

Track	Song	Singer(s)	Duration	Notes
1	MGR Illenga	Haricharan	05:10
2	Oru Adangapidari	Shankar Mahadevan, Shweta Mohan	04:54
3	Eppadio Maatikiten	Clinton Cerejo, Komal Ramesh	04:48
4	Oru Kal	Yuvan Shankar Raja	05:06
5	Thithikum Theeyai	K. K., Shweta Mohan	05:20
6	Oru Kal	Adnan Sami	04:38	Not featured in the film
7	Oru Paarvaiyil	Ranjith	01:36

Ko (Translation: King) is a 2011 Indian Tamil political thriller film directed by K. V. Anand, starring Jiiva, Ajmal Ameer, Karthika Nair and Piaa Bajpai. The film was released on 22 April 2011 to mostly positive reviews,  and was dubbed into Telugu as Rangam as well. This movie was a blockbuster hit of 2011.
The film's plot outline is inspired from the 2009 film State of Play.   Based on an online poll conducted by The Times of India, it won the Best Film Award for 2011.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Production
• 4 Soundtrack
• 5 Release
• 6 Awards
• 7 Remakes
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Plot

The film begins with Ashwin Kumar (Jiiva), a young, energetic photojournalist working for the private newspaper Dina Anjal, witnessing Naxalites robbing a local bank. He chases them and manages to click photos of the robbers. When he tries to escape, he is stopped by a young woman Renuka ‘Renu’ (Karthika Nair) who assumes he is the culprit and helps the robbers to take his camera. However, he is able to secure the memory card of the camera. The police catch him, and to prove that he is a press photographer he shows the photos to the them, who identify everyone except the gang leader (whose face is covered by a mask). At his office, he again meets Renuka, who has newly joined as Article Editor. Saraswathi ‘Saro’ (Piaa Bajpai) also works in his office and has feelings for Ashwin, who does not reciprocate.
Settled in her new job, Renuka writes a cover story about a politician Aalavandhan (Kota Srinivasa Rao), describing his attempt to marry a minor. Enraged by this, Aalavandhan barges into the newspaper office and shouts at Renuka. The audio recording of her interview disappears (courtsey Aalavandhan), and she is fired from her job for falsified reporting. Ashwin later risks his life to capture the pictures of Aalavandhan who actually engages in child marriage in a temple at midnight. Later the story with the photos is printed in their newspaper and this makes Renuka to fall in love with him, which Ashwin reciprocates. Saro is initially jealous of the love between Ashwin and Renuka, but later accepts it and gets over Ashwin.
Meanwhile, Vasanthan Perumal (Ajmal Ameer), a recent graduate and engineer, strives hard to enter the politics by contesting the upcoming election. He is contesting against more experienced politicians who capture the people by giving freebies and money. No one cares about Vasanthan and his team of graduates, who promise a healthy government to people. Their party name is 'Siragugal' (feathers). Ashwin and Renuka find out about Vasanthan's election campaign, and they and the entire Dina Anjal team extend their support to the campaign, covering it extensively, much to the chagrin of Aalavandhan and the Chief Minister Yogeswaran 'Yogi' (Prakash Raj).
One night, Vasanthan's party organises an election campaign meeting. Ashwin, photographing the event, receives a text message from Saro that states there is a bomb underneath the stage where Vasanthan is speaking. Ashwin manages to save Vasanthan just before the bomb explodes. Later, Ashwin finds Saro fatally wounded near the blast site. Saro struggles to tell something to Ashwin and Renuka before she dies. Ashwin, through a video clip recorded by another photographer, finds out that Saro was intentionally killed by someone. He later notices a resemblance between the leader of the bank robbery and this unknown killer, concluding that the Naxalite leader killed Saro.
A few days later, Renuka notices that Vasanthan's photo in their newspaper was cut from a college class photo, where Ashwin is also present. Confronted by Renuka, Ashwin tells her that he and Vasanthan studied in the same college and were best friends. He also tells her that he is happy for Vasanthan's success and is wholeheartedly supporting his election campaign.
In the election, Vasanthan's party wins by a huge majority and Vasanthan becomes the Chief Minister. He orders the release of 20 naxals on Republic Day, citing humanity. Shocked on hearing this news, Ashwin rushes to the secretariat to meet Vasanthan. In Vasanthan's office, Ashwin notices that the Naxalite leader who killed Saro is there, talking with Vasanthan. Ashwin airs his grievances to Vasanthan, who ignores him. Ashwin then follows the leader to his hideout. At the same time, Vasanthan orders the Tamil Nadu Police to go kill the Naxals at their hideout and the Police Commandos surround the perimeter of that place. Ashwin, already at the hideout, confronts the Naxalite leader, whose name is Kadhir (Bose Venkat) and finds out from him that Vasanthan had made a deal with the Naxalites to help him win the election. They orchestrated events such as the burning of a hut and saving the woman in that hut (who was also a Naxalite) in order to win people's sympathy. In the same vein, they had planted a bomb on the stage where Vasanthan was speaking during his meeting. Saro had found out the truth about Vasanthan, but was fatally assaulted by him so that she does not reveal his character and intentions to anybody. Ashwin realises that Saro had tried to warn him and Renuka about Vasanthan's true character before dying and also that now Vasanthan is double-crossing the Naxalites and is planning to kill them as a show of achievement. Ashwin records this confession using his mobile phone camera and sends it to Renuka, who plans to publish this story in their newspaper. Vasanthan then arrives and kills Kadhir. He also tries to kill Ashwin. However, Ashwin triggers a bomb there which explodes, killing Vasanthan, while Ashwin manages to escape.
Meanwhile, Vasanthan's party members arrive at the hideout on hearing the news that Vasanthan had died. Seeing their innocence, Ashwin forces Renuka not to reveal the truth about Vasanthan because his party members would get into serious trouble and lose their seats just for supporting Vasanthan. They did not know about Vasanthan's true character and intentions and supported him, believing his false claims of a 'healthy government'. Instead Renuka publishes an article saying that Vasanthan had sacrificed his life fighting the Naxalites and died as a martyr.
The film ends with Ashwin and Renuka submitting their resignations to the Chief Editor for falsified reporting, but he rejects their resignations and tells them to cover the upcoming election.

Cast

• Jiiva as Ashwin Kumar Jayaraman, the protagonist
• Karthika Nair as Renuka Narayanan "Renu",Ashwin's love interest
• Ajmal Ameer as Vasanthan Perumal, the main antagonist
• Piaa Bajpai as Saraswathi "Saro", Ashwin and Renuka's colleague
• Prakash Raj as Yogeswaran "Yogi", the Chief minister
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Aalavandhan, the secondary antagonist
• Achyuth Kumar as Cheif Editor, News paper
• Sona Heiden as Sumitha Kothari
• D. Suresh as Suresh
• Pattimandram Raja as Jayaraman, Ashwin's father
• Jagan as Chander
• Bose Venkat as Kadhir, the Naxalite group head
• Anthony as TV editor

Special appearances in song "Aga Naga"

• Suriya
• Abbas
• Adharvaa
• Anjali
• Anuja Iyer
• Bharath
• Ganesh Venkatraman
• Harris Jayaraj
• Jai
• Jayam Ravi
• John Vijay
• Kannan
• Karthi
• Krish
• Madhan Karky
• Narain
• Peter Hein
• Rima Kallingal
• Sanjana Singh
• M. Sasikumar
• Shiva
• Tamannaah

Production

Jiiva during the filming of Ko at Bergen

Casting

Initially the film was rumored to have Karthi in the lead. However, it was later officially announced that Silambarasan would play the lead in the film,  but was later replaced by Jiiva.  Actors Ajith and Suriya were also considered for the role.  The lead female role was initially supposed to be enacted by Tamannaah Bhatia, who was replaced by actress Radha's daughter, Karthika Nair.  The trailer of this film was played during the screening of Manmadan Ambu and got a favourable response. 

Filming

The film was shot on location in Chennai, Harbin in China as well as in Western Norway at Trolltunga, Stalheim, Bergen and Prekestolen,  becoming the first Tamil film to be shot in Norway.

Soundtrack

Ko
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Sony Music
Harris Jayaraj chronology
Engeyum Kaadhal (2010) Ko (2011) Force (2011)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Behindwoods.com
Rediff

The soundtrack album is scored by Harris Jayaraj, who had previously worked with Anand on Ayan.  The composition of the songs took place in Macau. During Diwali 2010 a short teaser was released which featured the song "Enamo Aedho" which received acclaim from critics and audience. Another song, "Aga Naga", featured special appearances by several Tamil film personalities, including composer Jayaraj (see under cast). The album was launched on 19 January 2011 in Chennai.
Tamil Tracklist

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Aga Naga"	Pa. Vijay	Vijay Prakash, Tippu, Ranina Reddy, Priya Subramaniam, Solar Sai ,Srik , Emcee Jesz	05:22
2.	"Enamo Aedho"	Madhan Karky, Sricharan, Emcee Jesz	Aalap Raju, Prashanthini, Sricharan, Emcee Jesz	05:36
3.	"Gala Gala"	Kapilan	Tippu, Krish, Haricharan, Sayanora Philip	04:55
4.	"Venpaniyae"	Pa. Vijay	Sriram Parthasarathy, Bombay Jayashree	05:25
5.	"Netri Pottil"	Madhan Karky	Naresh Iyer	02:43
6.	"Amali Thumali"	Viveka	Hariharan, Swetha Mohan & Chinmayi	05:50

Telugu Tracklist
All lyrics written by Vanamali.

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Aga Naga"	Vijay Prakash, Tippu, Ranina Reddy, Priya Subramaniam, Solar Sai ,Srik , Emcee Jesz	05:22
2.	"Endhuko Emo" (English lyrics by Emcee Jesz)	Aalap Raju, Prashanthini, Sricharan, Emcee Jesz	05:36
3.	"Gala Gala"	Tippu, Krish, Haricharan, Sayanora Philip	04:55
4.	"Ee Manchullo"	Sriram Parthasarathy, Bombay Jayashree	05:25
5.	"Masthish"	Naresh Iyer	02:43
6.	"Nemali Kulukula"	Unni Krishnan, Swetha Mohan & Chinmayi	05:50

Critical response

The soundtrack received mixed reviews from critics. C. Karthik from Behindwoods.com gave 2.5/5 writing: "Overall, Harris has tried to re-create the Ayan magic in KV Anand's latest and has achieved it to an extent [...] There are a couple of songs that give bragging rights to Harris but the others fail to scale the same height. Ko is worth having in your personal collection!"  Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave a 2/5 citing that "aside from the sweetly melodious Ennamo Edho, the other numbers are all mish-mashed versions of his earlier hits."  Indiaglitz said "Ko's music is vivacious with different genres of romantic songs, hip hop and nevertheless even poetic."

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Kalaignar. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board and released in nearly 2230 theatres worldwide, making it Jiiva's biggest release ever.  It is also being released in multiplexes across metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Vadodara with English subtitles to attract the non-Tamil audience.Ayngaran International released the movie on DVD and releasing soon on Blu-ray.

Critical reception

The film opened to positive reviews.   The Hindu described the film as a "tale with a realistic twist" and praised Anand who "strikes gold with Ko. Blending the commercial with the realistic is a challenge, but K. V. Anand proves adept at it."    The Times of India gave three and a half citing: "With Ko, director Anand gives notice of his immense talent once again, making a movie that is all set to lord over the box office this summer".   National Film Award-winning critic, Baradwaj Rangan wrote: "If someone wants to make a case for the abolishment of song and dance from our cinema, Ko would be Exhibit A." He also went on to state that Ko was "a series of big scenes with no transitions, no segues, no scenes that just stop to smell the scenery." 

Box office

The film opened 95-100% occupancy on first day collected 10.25 crore.The film first weekend collection is 28.25 crore.The film first week collection is 54.94 crore.  In Chennai, it collected 73.39 lakh in the opening weekend.  After 9 weeks, it collected 7.99 crore in Chennai   The film Total Worldwide collection is 175 crore at the box office thus being biggest blockbuster ever in Jiiva's career.  and completed 175-day run at the box office. 
The Telugu version, Rangam was collected 20.95 crore at the box office and also declared Blockbuster, with distributors organized celebrations in Tirupati on its 100th day of theatrical run. 

Awards

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2011 Filmfare Awards South	Best Actor	Jiiva	Nominated
	Best Director	K.V. Anand	Nominated
	Best Film	Ko	Nominated
	Best Male Playback	Aalap Raju (Enamo Aedho)	Won
	Best Music Director	Harris Jayaraj	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	Ajmal Ameer	Won
2011 Vijay Awards	Best Actor	Jiiva	Nominated
	Favourite Director	K. V. Anand	Won
	Favourite Film	R. S. Infotainment	Won
	Favourite Song	Enamo Aedho	Won
	Best Background Score	Harris Jayaraj	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	Ajmal Ameer	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Piaa Bajpai	Won
	Best Male Playback	Aalap Raju (Enamo Aedho)	Won
	Best Costume Designer	Nalini Sriram	Won
	Best Story, Screenplay	K.V. Anand Subha	Won
	Best Editor	Anthony	Won
1st South Indian International Movie Awards	Best Actor in a Negative Role	Ajmal Ameer	Won
	Best Film	Ko	Won
	Best Actress	Karthika Nair	Won

Remakes

This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2014)

The film is to be remade in Bengali as Kanamachi by notable Bengali director, Raj Chakraborty. It stars Ankush Hazra, Srabanti and Abir Chatterjee in the lead roles played by Jiiva, Karthika Nair and Ajmal Ameer respectively. The remake will be released on January 2013.

Character Map of Remakes

Ko (2011) Tamil	Kanamachi (2013) Bengali
Ashwin (Jiiva)	(Ankush Hazra)		Renuka (Karthika Nair)	(Srabanti)
Vasanthan Perumal (Ajmal Ameer)	(Abir Chatterjee)
Saraswathi (Piaa Bajpai)	(Sayani Ghosh)

Mugamoodi (English: The Mask) is a 2012 Indian Tamil superhero film, written and directed by Mysskin that features Jiiva, Pooja Hegde and Narain in lead roles.  It is the first Tamil super-hero movie.  The film was an average, grossing around Rs 55 crores on a budget of Rs 20 crores, with additional revenues from music and TV sales.    The film is about a man who cannot tolerate injustice and corruption and hence turns into a vigilante to fight against it for a better society. This film was dedicated to Bruce Lee. With mixed critical response the film was released on 31 August 2012, along with its dubbed Telugu version titled Mask.   It has also been dubbed in Hindi as Mahabali Ek Super Hero.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Production
• 4 Soundtrack
• 5 Release
• 6 Critical reception
• 7 Awards and nominations
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Plot

Bruce Lee (Jiiva) is a martial arts specialist but unluckily he is unable to use those skills to make a living. Instead, he falls in love with Police Deputy Commissioner Gaurav's (Nassar) daughter Shakthi (Pooja Hegde), and tries to impress her and her elder sister's kids with his martial art skills. To make it more fun for them he pretends to be a superhero by wearing on a costume each time he visits. On his way back on one such visit, Lee finds himself caught in between cops and robbers chase in the city. He decides to assist the police and manages to nab one robber from the gang and hands him over to the police. Lee doesn't realize that by doing so he has asked upon himself the revenge of Dragon (Narain) who heads the same gang. As the police were involved too, Dragon eyes to take revenge on Police Commissioner Gaurav also. Dragon then connives a plan that eventually frames Lee as a robber and the attempted to kill the Police Commissioner. What lies ahead for Lee now is to prove his innocence to the Police, win his love back Shakthi and more importantly bring Dragon and his gang to justice.

Cast

• Jiiva as Anand/Bruce Lee/Mugamoodi
• Narain as Anguchamy/Dragon
• Pooja Hegde as Shakthi Gaurav
• Girish Karnad as Anand's Grand father
• Nassar as Gaurav
• Selvaah as Sifu Chandru
• Anupama Kumar as Roshini and Shakthi`s Mother
• Aadukalam Naren as Anand's father
• Aadukalam Murugadoss
• Krishna Kumar
• Misha Ghoshal
• Aadithya
• Darshan as Narain's sidekick

Production

In September 2008, UTV Motion Pictures agreed to produce Myshkin's superhero script, Mugamoodi (Mask), and subsequently signed on leading actor Suriya to play the role of the protagonist.  Pre-production work for the film began in late 2008, with the film also being referred to by the media as Agni Puthran.  The film was reported to be made at a cost of 450 million with A. R. Rahman as music composer and Surya portraying a Karate fighter in the film.  However in July 2009, Surya opted out and unsuccessful discussions were held with Vishal to replace him, forcing Myshkin to stall the project.  As the project remained dormant, Myshkin temporarily shelved the project and moved on to script a horror film.
In October 2010, Arya signed on for the film with N. Linguswamy's Thirupathi Brothers production house replacing UTV as producers.   However within months Arya had pulled out as had Linguswamy. In June 2011, a new Mumbai based company had taken the production reins whilst Jiiva, after the commercial success of his political thriller Ko, had signed on to portray the lead role.  Later that month, it was announced that Narain, who had worked with Myshkin in both Chithiram Pesuthadi and Anjathe, would portray the role of the lead antagonist with reports suggesting that the role would be reminiscent of The Joker from the 2008 English film, The Dark Knight, Narain claimed that that his villainy in the film would be totally brutal. His character in the movie has no shades and is absolutely negative.    In early July 2011, sources reported that Amala Paul had been signed up to portray the lead female character in the film,  which the actress dismissed, with Dhananjayan of UTV also confirming that Amala was not approached for the role.  Pooja Hegde, second runner up of the 2011 Miss Universe India beauty pageant was eventually finalized as the female lead.  K, who had scored for Mysskin's Yuddham Sei (2010) previously, was selected as the film composer over two other music directors, while Madhan Karky would pen the lyrics, associating for the first time with Mysskin.  Veteran Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao was added to the cast in November 2011 which proved false and he was replaced by Girish Karnad, while Prakash Raj was also reported to be playing an important role.  The following month, Nassar was selected to portray a police officer.  Pooja Hegde will appear as Jiiva's lover in the film.
Reports further claimed that both Jiiva and Narain would undergo special training in martial arts with experts from the Shaolin Temple in China being flown in. A large group of young aspiring artists were roped in to be part of the fight sequences which are touted be the highlight of the movie. The artists were trained for over 6 months at YMCA, Nandanam, Chennnai rigorously.   High-end gadgets to be used in the film were reportedly designed by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), while teams from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) were roped in to create the costumes and looks of the characters.  Furthermore, a Los Angeles-based firm would handle special effects, while action sequences are planned to be choreographed by stuntmen from Hong Kong.  Costumes are designed by Gabriella Wilkins and it is said that Jiiva's superhero outfit weighs more than 10 kg.    Shooting of the film started officially on 12 December 2011 with the opening scene of Kung Fu as that was so spoken about.  The film is expected to be released during Summer 2012.  The film was being canned in the nights in and around Triplicane in Chennai where the fight scene of Jiiva and Narain was shot in terrace.  Mysskin is planning a 20 day schedule to shoot the climax at Karaikal.The shoot concluded at Karaikal where daredevil stunts were performed by the lead actor at an altitude of 180 feet high where in the Karaikal port`s conveyor belt passes over. Many scenes were also filmed at AVM studio where huge hospital set was erected and also at Victoria hall, Deaf and Dumb school.;  Tony Leung Siu Hung, a stunt coordinator from Hong Kong, has joined the climax shoot of the film that's being canned in a massive scale at Karaikal. 

Soundtrack

Mugamoodi
Soundtrack album by K
Released	6 July 2012
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Language	Tamil
Producer	K
K chronology
Aarohanam (2012) Mugamoodi (2012) Annayum Rasoolum (2013)

Mugamoodi's score and soundtrack were composed by K, who had worked on Mysskin's previous venture Yuddham Sei as well. The soundtrack features eleven tracks including a number of instrumentals. The lyrics were written by Madhan Karky and Kabilan.  The soundtrack album was released on 20 July 2012 at Sathyam Cinemas; it was presented by Vijay and received by Kannada lead actor Puneet Rajkumar.
Rediff wrote: "Mugamoodi's numbers grab your attention and carry you with them".  Milliblog wrote: "Tepid soundtrack from K".  Behindwoods wrote: "On the whole, the music has provided a good platform for the superhero to soar".

Track listing
No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Vaayamoodi Summa Iru Da"	Madhan Karky	Aalap Raju	4:34
2.	"Lullaby For Loss"			2:32
3.	"Bar Anthem"	Mysskin	Mysskin	5:11
4.	"Blue Panther On The Prowl"			1:37
5.	"Maayavi"	Madhan Karky	Chinmayi	4:29
6.	"Don't Drive Your Car With This Music On"			4:42
7.	"Cape Of Good Hope"			2:44
8.	"Hell, Heaven And The Ladder"			1:40
9.	"Come Let's Fall In Love"			4:23

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.  This film was released worldwide screens on 31 August 2012 and it would be the 100th film to be released in 2012.  Also, it is to be noted that the director has planned for upcoming sequels of Mugamoodi. Therefore, the director has planned to release a sequel every year.  The first look and trailer of Jiiva's 'Mugamoodi' took place in a grand scale on 29 June 2012 at Sathyam Cinemas. The trailer was launched by Suriya and received by director Lingusamy while the first look was released by Suriya and Gautham Vasudev Menon.  Mugamoodi released in over 500 screens in Tamil Nadu, and also opened in neighbouring states in good number of screens as well as in northern parts of India including Delhi and Mumbai. The film released simultaneously in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Canada, US and other parts of the world.

Critical reception

Mugamoodi received mixed to negative reviews. IBN reviewed the film positive and cited that it had a "different flavour" further adding: "For those who loves the West and East's action films, Mugamoodi' combines both to give some pleasure".  Behindwoods Review Board rated it 3 out of 5 stating that it had a "pacy first half, [a] slow second half but [was] compensated by the overall performance and effort of the cast & crew".  Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu noted that it "travels on a terrain that’s new to Tamil cinema" and lauded Mysskin, saying that his "effort to make Mugamoodi appear as authentic as possible deserves to be commended".  Prakash Upadhyaya of oneindia.in recommended the film with a 3.5 out 5 rating.
However, Sify termed the film average and a "one-time watch", calling it "good in parts" and claiming that it had "very good music and background score by K, but lacks a proper script and a racy presentation".  Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave it 2 out of 5 stars, writing that it had "all the makings of a successful film but ends up disappointing", particularly criticizing Mysskin's screenplay that "fails him spectacularly".  Rohit Ramachandran of Nowrunning.com rated it 1.5 out of 5 stating that the film was "heavily flawed and utterly boring".  Vivek Ramz of in.com rated it 1.5 out of 5 and sayed that "Mugamoodi is no Batman, just Kanthaswamy revisited!" 

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2nd South Indian International Movie Awards	Best Actor in a Negative Role	Narain	Nominated

Neethaane En Ponvasantham (English: You Are My Golden Springtime) is a 2012 Indian Tamil musical romance film written and directed by Gautham Menon, featuring Jiiva and Samantha in the lead roles.  The film produced by RS Infotainment. cinematography by M. S. Prabhu and Om Prakash. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The film was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu, which features Nani playing Jiiva's role. The film was released worldwide on 14 December 2012 to mixed reviews.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Production
• 4 Marketing
• 5 Release
• 6 Accolades
• 7 References
• 8 External links

Plot

The film begins with Varun (Jiiva) gaining admission into an engineering college, with his best friend Prakash (Santhanam). He and his friends one day participate in a cultural programme, where Varun finds his childhood sweetheart Nithya (Samantha) participating in a dance show. He begins wooing her by singing on stage and later meeting her. As they meet, the film rewinds to their early days when both were in third standard. They become good friends after a small incident and their friendship blossoms. But due to a misunderstanding, Nithya decides not to meet Varun and to never talk with him. However, as destiny would have it, they meet again in their tenth standard. Nithya initially hesitates to talk with Varun, but sheds her inhibitions once Varun breaks the ice between them, and resumes her friendship with him. Nithya is elected as the pupil leader in school and as a pupil leader she is in constant interaction with Deepak, another pupil leader and her classmate, much to the dismay of Varun. As a result, they have another fallout.
The film moves to their current meeting in the college. Both forget their past misgivings and become friends again. This time, they fall in love. During the vacations, Nithya leaves India and Varun is left for himself. Varun's elder brother Harish (Raviprakash) who works in a software company, wants to marry his colleague and confesses the same to his parents. His parents oblige by offering to meet with the girl's parents. However, his parents are humiliated. Varun, in the process of consoling them, realises that despite their embarrassment, his brother and parents care about him rather than themselves. He then decides to take his studies more seriously and begins preparing for CAT. Nithya comes back to India and sees Varun not spending enough time with her due to his busy schedule. Nithya too initially understands his situation. However, when she learns that Varun is going to IIM Kozhikode, she proposes to go with him. Varun rejects her demand, saying that he is going to stay in a hostel, as staying in a rented house will be too expensive for his family and that he won't be able to concentrate in his studies if she stays with him. This leads to a heated argument between the two and eventually ends in another break-up.
After graduating from IIM and landing a job, Varun goes about finding Nithya. Accompanied by Prakash and Jenny (Vidyullekha), he goes to Manapad, where Nithya is working as a school teacher at a tsunami relief camp. Nithya refuses to talk to him even after many attempts by Varun to start a conversation. When he finally gets her to talk, she rejects his advances, saying that she is happy with her current position. Varun, disgusted at her rejection, leaves the place. After some days, Nithya invites Varun to her sister's marriage. At the same time, Varun also mentions that he is about to get married and it is then that Nithya realises the magnitude of the deepening rift between them. Shocked and surprised at this sudden development, Nithya realises that she couldn't fully understand Varun and breaks down before her sister. However, to the surprise of Varun, she attends his reception, which makes him think twice about his marriage. With his father's help, he realises that he cannot devote his love and heart to anyone other than Nithya. So he breaks his engagement with the consent of his father and goes to Nithya's home to win back her confidence. Nithya too apologizes to Varun about her past behavior. The film ends with a note being shown that they are happily married, ever quarreling with each other and loving each other.

Cast

• Jiiva as Varun Krishnan
• Samantha as Nithya Vasudevan
• Santhanam as Prakash
• Vidyullekha Raman as Jenny
• Ravi Prakash as Harish
• Ravi Raghavendra as Varun's father
• Anupama Kumar as Varun's mother
• Sri Ranjani as Nithya's mother
• Dhanya Balakrishna as Nithya's friend
• Ashwathy Warrier as Radhika
• Nani in a special appearance (Train passenger)
• Ganesh Janardhanan in a special appearance

Production

Casting

Gautham Menon met Jiiva to discuss a potential collaboration in May 2011 for his next venture after the Hindi remake of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa.  Menon decided to cast Jiiva in the Tamil version of a bilingual film he was set to make featuring Ram and Samantha.   Film editor Anthony, cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa and composer A. R. Rahman were all touted to be a part of the film;  however M. S. Prabhu replaced Paramahamsa and in December 2011 sources indicated that Rahman too would probably not work for this film, owing to his other commitments.  Reports subsequently suggested that Harris Jayaraj may work with Menon again,  but the composer dismissed those few days later.  Menon clarified that he never announced any music director for the film and that he wanted to keep it as a surprise.  In late January 2012, Ilaiyaraaja confirmed that he would be working with Gautham Menon. 
A Telugu and a Hindi version, titled Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu and Assi Nabbe Poorey Sau, were also being simultaneously made, with Nani in the former and Aditya Roy Kapoor essaying the lead role in the latter, while Samantha played the female lead in all versions.    Initial suggestions indicated that the film was also set to be titled Nithya, after Samantha's character in the film, but this turned out to be untrue.  The title was revealed through the first publicity posters to be Neethaane En Ponvasantham, inspired by a song from the 1982 film Ninaivellam Nithya.  An official announcement was made by the producers of the film, RS Infotainment, that a photo shoot was planned in August and the film would also shoot portions across the United Kingdom.  Jiiva had to lose weight for the film and had to undertake diet regimens and work out sessions to get in shape for the character. Furthermore it was revealed that he would sport three different looks in the film as the film encompasses 15 years.  Ravi Raghavendra and Anupama Kumar were added to the cast to play Jiiva's parents, while Santhanam was also chosen to play a college student in the film.   Film historian Mohan Raman's daughter Vidyullekha Raman,  who was previously a "theatre artist",  made her acting debut in this film as the female lead's "best friend".  For the Hindi version, actress Sonam Kapoor was initially approached to do Samantha's role, but the maker felt she wouldn't have felt the part as the film's protagonist had to go from age 15 to 20 to 25, hence Samantha was retained for the Hindi version.

Filming

The film was set to begin the first schedule on 15 August 2011 but delays led to a fortnight's delay.  It eventually commenced the initial shoot from 29 August 2011 with a photo shoot held and publicity posters were released the following week.  The team shot across Chennai in the first week of the first schedule, with scenes filmed at the cinema multiplex Mayajaal and at a coffee shop, Cafe Coffee Day, on the East Coast Road.  Many scenes were shot in SSN College Of Engineering near Kelambakkam, an engineering college in Chennai. The film was shot alongside the two other versions, with the film shooting the same scene thrice with the various casts.  In late August 2012, important scenes were canned in Kalpakkam.
As per reports, the Hindi remake of the film with same lead actress and Aditya Roy Kapur was temporarily stalled. If filmed in Hindi, Gautham Menon was unsure of the outcome of release and reception since his remake of blockbuster film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa as Ekk Deewana Tha in Hindi performed miserably at the box office. The director planned to observe the reception of his bilingual releases and then probably go ahead with its remake in Hindi after completing pending projects.  However, Gautham Menon insisted that only Aditya's dates had been a problem and that instead the team would go ahead with the Tamil and Telugu release while postponing the Hindi version.  An official statement released recently stated that they have already identified an alternative production house which has agreed to fund the Hindi version and it would release in 2013. 

Music

Main article: Neethaane En Ponvasantham (soundtrack)

A. R. Rahman was initially signed in to compose music for the film. But due to his packed schedules, Rahman had to opt out of the project. Menon thus approached Ilaiyaraaja to compose music for the film. The soundtrack album consists of eight tracks, with lyrics penned by Na. Muthukumar, replacing Gautham Menon's usual associate lyricist Thamarai for the first time.  7 singers have lent their voices for the songs, including composer Ilaiyaraaja, Karthik, Raaja's son Yuvan Shankar Raja, N. S. Krishnan's grand daughter Ramya NSK, Suraj Jagan, Sunidhi Chauhan and Bela Shende.  Touted as one of the most anticipated musicals of 2012 in Tamil cinema,  Neethaane En Ponvasantham's soundtrack was released on 1 September 2012 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai in a grand event,  during which the songs were performed live by the original artists along with the Anglo-Indian Music Productions orchestra and Hungarian session musicians who had also worked on the film's score.  

Marketing

The first poster of Neethane En Ponvasantham depicting the lead pair was unveiled in early September 2011.  On Valentine's Day 2012, a teaser trailer of 50 seconds featuring Samantha and Jiiva with an instrumental version of the song "Neethaane En Ponvasantham" playing in the background was released, claiming the film to be a Summer 2012 release.  However, due to the lead actors' other commitments that shifted dates of filming, eventually release was re-scheduled to 4th quarter of 2012.  On 1 September 2012, the official theatrical trailer of the film was released.  The response to the theatrical trailer was highly positive, that it crossed 1.2 million views in two days of its release, breaking the record of the most ever viewed Tamil film trailer held earlier by Billa 2.  

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Jaya TV. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board, without any cuts.  The movie along with its Telugu version saw worldwide release on 14 December 2012.

Critical reception

Neethaane En Ponvasantham received mixed reviews upon release. The Times of India rated it 3.5 out of 5 and called it "an ideal date movie, despite the slow pace and the flaws".  Vivek Ramz of in.com rated it 3 out of 5 and wrote, "Neethaane En Ponvasantham is not a bad film at all and has its moments, but one expects more from director of Gautham’s calibre. Overall, it’s a one-time watch!"  OneIndia gave the film 3/5 stars, saying, "Like Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa and Vaaranam Aayiram, the film runs in a slow pace and at parts it is boring."  TruthDive.com gave the movie 3/5 stars and wrote, "The film runs in a slow pace and the biggest drawback of NEP is the script focusses too much on the fights between Varun and Nithya and not so much on romantic moments... but the movie keeps us engaged throughout."  However, Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave the movie 2.5/5 stars, calling the movie "disappointing... The second half of the story is full of tears, recriminations and quarrels that make little sense. The arguments and debates...fall flat, and you get tired of the back-and-forth."  IBN Live said the movie "sadly...fails to engage the audience with its cliched presentation".  Moviecrow.com gave the film 3/5 and stated, "The story drags and the moments are mostly pedestrian... Situations and scenes are sometimes repetitive. It is unclear why the director chose to shoot so many important scenes without any cuts and in wide range".

Accolades

Ceremony	Category	Nominee	Result
Vikatan Awards	Best Actress	Samantha Ruth Prabhu	Won
Vijay Awards	Best Actress	Samantha Ruth Prabhu	Won
60th Filmfare Awards South	Best Actress - Tamil	Samantha Ruth Prabhu	Won
2nd South Indian International Movie Awards	Best Actress	Samantha Ruth Prabhu	Nominated
	Best Music Director	Ilaiyaraaja	Nominated

Endrendrum Punnagai (English: Everlasting Smile) is a 2013 Indian Tamil romantic comedy film directed by I. Mueenuddin Ahmed starring Jiiva, Trisha Krishnan, Vinay Rai and Santhanam.  The film has music by Harris Jayaraj and cinematography by R. Madhi.  The film was launched officially in Chennai on 29 June 2012.  Upon its release on 20 December 2013, the film met with positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Production
• 4 Soundtrack
• 5 Release
• 6 Critical reception
• 7 References

Plot

The movie starts with Gautham (Jiiva) as a kid, being told that women are all bad and are very selfish by his father (Nasser) because his wife had eloped on that day. They then move to Chennai, where Gautham meets Baby (Santhanam) and Sri (Vinay Rai). The trio become inseparable friends. Fifteen years later, it is shown that the trio are running an advertisement agency and Gautham has stopped speaking to his father, the reason being untold.After a heated incident, the three friends promise to never get married. They get an advertising offer from Sunny (T.M Karthik) and Sunny sends Priya (Trisha Krishnan) to assist them with their ad. Sonia, (Andrea Jeremiah) an international model is assigned to act for the ad. On the day of shoot Sonia falls in love with Gautham and when the ad is finished, she kisses him. Gautham, startled and enraged, retaliates by slapping her. Sunny scolds Guatham for his behaviour and tells Gautham that he will never work with him again, but Priya supports Gautham telling Sunny that it was Sonia's fault for behaving unprofessionally. After the shoot Gautham calls up Priya and thanks her for supporting him. While speaking to Gautham, Priya meets with an accident. He rushes her to the hospital where Priya recovers the next day. After a few months, Baby and Sri get married and on the same day Gautham's father tells Priya that he had got married for the second time for the sake of his son and that is the reason for Gautham's anger towards him. Gautham and Priya get another contract with Sunny and Sonia and they leave for Switzerland for the shooting. On the day of shooting Sonia recalls everything Gautham had done and asks him to apologize for his act. He refuses to apologize because he knows it's not his fault and tells Sonia to leave, Priya then takes the role of Sonia and acts for the advertisement. During the shooting Priya and Gautham fall in love and share a deep and passionate kiss. When they come back from Switzerland, Gautham meets his friend in the airport, where he introduces Priya as just a stranger whom he met in the flight. Hurt by Gautham's cheap behaviour, she leaves the airport immediately. When Gautham gets back home he goes into his father's room for the first time and notices many paintings of himself and Gautham. Gautham then discovers that his father was ill and rushes him to the hospital, where the doctors say that his father is suffering from pancreatic cancer and cannot be treated. Gautham is heartbroken and starts weeping. Sri comes to meet Gautham and tells him that he knew that his father was suffering form this disease, Baby then comes and tells that his father was the one who compelled them to get married so that Gautham might change his mind and get married too. As the three friends reconcile, Priya comes to the hospital to meet Gautham's father, where Gautham apologizes and admits to Priya that he has fallen for her. The film ends with Gautham and Priya getting engaged in front of Gautham's dad at the hospital.

Cast

• Jiiva as Goutham
• Trisha Krishnan as Priya
• Vinay as Sri
• Santhanam as Baby
• Andrea Jeremiah as Sonia
• Nassar as Sridhar
• Jagan as Sonia's Manager
• T. M. Karthik as Sunny
• Abhinay as Karthik
• Varsha Ashwathi as Sri's Wife
• Tanuja as Baby's Wife
• Sriranjini
• Sanjana Sarathy
• Balaji Venugopal
• Swaminathan as Somasundaram
• 'Lollu Sabha' Manohar as current
• 'Lollu Sabha' Easter
• Raju Sundaram in a special appearance

Production

In 2011, it was reported that Jiiva will collaborate with Vaamanan director Ahmed.  Lisa Hayden who had been approached for a role in this flick was no longer doing that role due to date clashes. Andrea Jeremiah took up the role.

Soundtrack

Endrendrum Punnagai
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	24 October 2013
Recorded	2012
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Language	Tamil
Label	Sony music india
Producer	Harris Jayaraj
Harris Jayaraj chronology
Irandam Ulagam (2013) Endrendrum Punnagai (2013) Idhu Kathirvelan Kadhal (2014)

Music was composed by Harris Jayaraj scoring for a Jiiva film for the third time after Ko and Nanban. The soundtrack album consist of 6 tracks. Harris Jayaraj and the director headed to Turkey for composing sessions.  2 songs for the film were recorded by early May 2012.  A single track from the album titled "Vaan Engum Nee Minna" was released on the 18 October.  The album was released by Kamal Hassan on 24 October 2013   and within 24 hours of its release on the net, topped the iTunes India Charts.  The soundtrack was met with positive reviews from critics, who claimed it to be a 'pleasant album'  with 'catchy songs that are sure to win hearts'.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Vaan Engum Nee Minna"	Madhan Karky	Aalap Raju, Harini, Devan, Praveen	04:26
2.	"Yealae Yealae Dosthu Da"	Viveka	Krish, Naresh Iyer, Krishna Iyer	05:43
3.	"Ennai Saaithaalae"	Thamarai	Hariharan, Shreya Ghoshal	05:29
4.	"Othayilae"	Kabilan	Tippu, Abhay Jodhpurkar	04:14
5.	"Ennatha Solla"	Viveka	Karthik, Haricharan, Velmurugan, Ramesh Vinayakam	05:50
6.	"Kadal Naan Thaan"	Vaali	Sudha Ragunathan, Suzanne D'Mello, MK Balaji	05:10

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Zee Tamil. The film was given a "U/A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.   The film released in 750 screens worldwide on 20 December 2013 along with Biriyani and the Hindi film Dhoom 3.

Critical reception

The movie got positive reviews from critics.Sify wrote, "It's a feel – good breezy entertainer and it's got its heart in the right place. The film works big time due to director Ahmed’s well- written script which encompass friendship, romance and an emotional father-son angle which has been handled sensitively".  Behindwoods gave 3.25 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Ahmed's Endrendrum Punnagai is an extremely good looking film with beautiful people leading colorful and aspirational lifestyles. As an added bonus, the film also gifts you with moments that are genuinely likeable".  The Hindu wrote, "The first half is largely fun and jokes and the film gently breezes along, thanks to the bonding and chemistry between the guys. The problem with Endrendrum Punnagai is that it takes itself a tad too seriously instead of living up to the title and keeping it light. There’s just too much drama...clichés employed to infuse drama into the sluggish second half that is further burdened with songs".  Deccan Herald wrote, "Endrendrum Punnagai is no great shakes as ensemble entertainer. It does have its moments. Beginning on a breezy note, it peters out into a languid tale in the latter half. With a plot as predictable as chicory coffee, especially after friction among friends Endrendrum Punnagai does not turn out everlasting happiness as its title suggests".  Indiaglitz gave 3 out of 5 and wrote, "With a story behind everyone in the background and a lot of fun uniting the jigsaw pieces in the foreground, covering up all the sorrow as though it is a hassle-free life, the film is a different outlook on love and friendship. Endrendrum Punnagai, as aptly titled, is a story that urges to unlock the happiness behind our ego, and a film worth investing your time on".  Hindustan Times gave 1.5 stars and wrote, "Endrendrum Punnagai is predictable piece of a movie where we know what would happen when Trisha Krishnan’s Priya walks into the lives of the three men as a project consultant for an ad film being made by them. It is bad enough that much of Tamil cinema is clocked in clichés and crassness. What is worse is that it continues to handle actors with immense potential with utter callousness".  Cinemalead rated Endrendrum Punnagai with 3.5 rating and wrote "Ahmed has put his efforts into Endrendrum Punnagai to make it a fresh film to watch. The concept of blending friendship, love and ego has worked here. Rom-coms are always fun and this one is no less. " 

^{Sources from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeeva}