Jeans (film)

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Jeans
DVD cover
Directed by	S. Shankar
Produced by	Ashok Amritraj Sunanda Murali Manohar
Written by	Screenplay: S. Shankar Story: S. Shankar Dialogue: Sujatha
Starring	Prashanth Aishwarya Rai Nassar Raadhika Senthil Raju Sundaram Lakshmi
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Cinematography	Ashok Kumar
Editing by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Distributed by	Oscar Films Eros Multimedia Cee I TV
Release date(s)	April 24, 1998
Running time	175 min.
Country	India^[1]
Language	Tamil
Budget	12 crores
IMDb profile

Jeans is a 1998 Tamil musical and romantic film. Directed and co-written by Shankar and produced by Ashok Amritraj and Murali Manohar, its stars Prashanth, Aishwarya Rai and Nassar in multiple lead roles. Raju Sundaram and Lakshmi, prominent actors from the south Indian film industry, played the roles of the lead characters' relatives in the movie.

The film opened to Indian audiences after several delays, on April 24, 1998 just after the Tamil New Year, and in the process, becoming the most expensive film to be made in India at the time. Despite receiving mixed reviews on the actors' performances and the basic storyline, the film went on to become a major hit at the South Indian box office. Owing to its success, it was later dubbed into the Hindi and Telugu language and released with the same name. Furthermore, the film was nominated by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1998.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release
- 4.1 Reception
5 Music
- 5.1 Track Listings
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

The film revolves around a Non-resident Indian man who has twin sons, and as a result of his separation from his twin wants his sons to be married to twin daughters. However the elder son falls in love with a woman, who visits America to help her grandmother remove a brain tumour. The eldest son, after helping the woman's grandmother to live, tells her his father's plea. The eldest son and the woman eventually put on a double act attempting to deceive the father, however they're plans are foiled. How the couple manage to change his father's decision forms the crux of the story.

[edit] Cast

The cast featured three actors, who were played multiple roles. As per other Shankar film, the supporting cast was elaborate with several guest appearances by prominent artistes.

Prashanth as Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy. The twin brothers are both medical students, who assist their father run a catering business. Whilst Vishwanathan is more fun-loving and has a relationship with Madhumitha, Ramamoorthy is more reserved and emotional, especially after being deceived by the double act of Madhumitha.
Aishwarya Rai as Madhumitha and Vaishnavi. A loving and an optimistic young woman, who leads her family to the United States seeking medical attention for her grandmother. Vaishnavi is the double act improvised by Madhumitha to deceive Nachiappan.
Nassar as 'Nachiappan and Pachiappan Rajamani. A naive father of twin sons, who remains upbeat on re-uniting with his own twin, Pachiappan. Insists on his twin sons getting married to twin daughters, spurring on Madhumitha's double act.
Raju Sundaram as Madhesh. An energetic brother to 'Madhumitha with a severe habit of ruining the situation and cracking jokes.
Lakshmi as Krishnaveiny. A grandmother to Madhumitha, who encourages her granddaughter and her boyfriend to portray a double act. Starts the role as an ill person seeking medical attention to remove a brain tumour in the United States.
Senthil as Gino. A cook who works at Nachiappan's catering company. Provides comical relief throughout the film.
Raadhika as Sundaramba. Plays a vital cameo as the wife of Pachiappan, who accidentally immolates herself starting the friction between the brothers.

[edit] Production

[edit] The key elements

The entire production of the movie took about a year and a half to be completed and released. Prior to Jeans, Shankar had directed three films, Gentleman, Kadhalan and Indian, all three of which had been successful ventures at the box-office. Jeans, unlike the others, was his first film which was shot outside of India, for the majority of the film.

Producers Ashok Amritraj, Michael Soloman and Murali Manohar all made their Tamil film debuts with Jeans, respectively, in producing the most expensive film til date in 1998. Critics felt that Jeans, if it became a hit like Shankar's previous films, would capitulate him into the top bracket of directors as both the lead actors, Prashanth and Aishwarya Rai had been labelled as "flop" actors. The film was made by many of the same filmmakers involved in Indian which won several National Film Awards. The casting of the film was left to Shankar after he had finalized the story. Genes was the title selected but Shankar felt it would not apply to the masses so he used the homonym, Jeans.

The film's launch was held at the AVM Studios in Vadapalani, Chennai in December 1996. The Jeans invitation was printed, wrapped in Jeans cloth and was hand delivered by Shankar to his close colleagues and friends in Chennai, which included prominent actors in the Tamil filmdom, making it the grandest Tamil film launch to date in 1996. Aishwarya Rai, Prashanth, and S. Shankar and just about anyone else associated with the shooting of the film, wore their favorite pair of blue jeans as per request from the producers.

[edit] Casting

The original actor considered for the roles of Vishwanathan and Ramamoorthy was Abbas, an upcoming artiste at the time, but the offer was rejected by Abbas citing that his dates were booked for the full year of 1996. The second choice for the lead role, prominent actor Ajith Kumar also opted out due to call sheet problems. The roles eventually went to Prashanth, whose career in films was not as successful as the previous actors enquired. Prashanth dedicated almost a year and half to Jeans, sacrificing seven films in the process, as he considered it "a once in a lifetime" opportunity which would have straighten up his career. Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World, was the original choice for the roles of Madhumitha and Vaishnavi. Despite having a huge fan base and publicity, Aishwarya Rai hadn't given a hit in her two movie career despite her debut movie, Iruvar directed by Mani Ratnam being critically acclaimed. Amongst the actors in the film were Senthil, Nassar and Raju Sundaram, all three of them appearing as supporting actors with Nassar starring in his first Shankar film. Prominent supporting actresses Radhika, Lakshmi were all signed up for the film, with Lakshmi joining the team later following the death of her father-in-law. Furthermore popular singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam who was selected for a role, left the project and S. V. Sekhar replaced him.

The other substitution in the project involved the cinematographer. Despite popular belief that Shankar would again sign on Jeeva, whom he had worked with in Kadhalan, Gentleman and Indian. However Santhosh Sivan was announced as the cinematographer for the film but between the time of the announcement and the finishing stages of the film, cinematographer Ashok Kumar was publicized as the official cinematographer for the film. In mid-1997, film organisation FEFSI striked and in the midst of this, the film's art director Thotta Tharani, a FEFSI supporter, refused to sacrifice his position in FEFSI in order to continue filming Jeans. Without much choice, Shankar signed a newcomer Bala to take over the set design and art work for the film. The film's art direction is credited with both Thotta Tharani and Bala. Venki was signed up to deal with the special-effects in the film, with Jeans containing the most number of minutes of special effects amongst any film made til 1998, including Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. The film also were assisted in graphics of having the effects created by the Pentafour company in Hollywood.

[edit] Filming

The filming of Jeans, broke the record for the number of different foreign locations featured in an Indian film. The initial scenes of the Rajamani family's catering company was filmed in Las Vegas. Other scenes were shot in California at the Universal Studios, who usually does not grant permission for foreign films to conduct shooting there. However with influence from the film's producer Ashok Amritraj they were able to obtain special permission to film a few scenes inside. Besides the King Kong set, Jeans was also shot in the "simulated earthquake experience" sets. The filming in Los Angeles received much publicity as well as the filming at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Other Jeans shooting locations in the United States of America included the Valley of Fire, Manhattan Beach, Malibu Lake and many scenic spots throughout California. The song Columbus was picturized at the shores of Venice Beach, California with some foreign male and female dancers. Shankar also filmed in New York at the World Trade Center when co-producer Michael Salomon and his wife, Luciana Balusia visited the sets of Jeans.

After a 45 day schedule in the United States, Shankar and the team returned to India to film a couple of scenes in the climax. The team then visited several other countries to picturize the song Poovukul, with featured scenes with six prolific buildings in the world, dubbing Aishwarya Rai as the "seventh wonder of the world". The team made a thirty day trip around the world stopping to can scenes at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Empire State Building, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Egyptian pyramids, and the Eiffel Tower. During the shooting in Paris the death of Princess Diana had taken place and shooting was delayed in the France, due to her death. For the most part, Jeans was surrounded by world events of all sorts and for Shankar, the cast and crew of the film described the experiences as "tremendously vivid and memorable".

[edit] Release

[edit] Reception

Ratings
Australia:	PG
India:	U
United Kingdom:	U
United States:	PG

Despite missing the original release date of January 14, 1998, Jeans was released worldwide on April 24, 1998 soon after Tamil New Year's Day with 240 prints, the record for a Tamil film in 1998. Upon release the film was subsequently dubbed into two languages, Telugu and Hindi. Owing to the success of the film, the number of reels grew to about hundred, it was estimated that the film garnered about Rs. 5 crores (50 million) in India. The film completed 100 days of screening in the theaters in the state of Tamil Nadu. In local parlance, this is considered to be one of the measures for a film's success. The reception in Malaysia was equally successful and was released in six major metropolises for up to 9 weeks, the film collected 114,883 (then approximately Rs. 5 million) within its 50 day run.

[edit] Music

Jeans

Soundtrack by A. R. Rahman

Released

Recorded

Length

34 Minutes

Label

Westop

Producer

Ashok Amritraj

Professional reviews

Raaga [1]

A. R. Rahman chronology

Vishwa Vidaatha
(1997)

Jeans
(1998)

Dil Se...
(1998)

Main article: Jeans (soundtrack)

The Jeans soundtrack was released by Westop on April 1, 1998. The original scores from the film's composer, A. R. Rahman, make up the tracks on the album. The Lyrics are by Vairamuthu. The soundtrack also features six vocals played during the film: "Ennake Ennaka" by Unnikrishnan and Pallavi, "Columbus Columbus" by A. R. Rahman, "Poovukul" by Unnikrishnan and Sujatha, "Vaaraya Thozhi" by Sonu Nigam, Shahul Hameed, Harini and Sangeetha, "Kannodu Kanbethallam" by Nithyashree and "Anbe Anbe" by Hariharan and Anuradha Sriram. These songs were dubbed into Hindi, using Javed Akhtar's lyrics when it was released in North India.

The climax of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture appears at the end of the track "Anbe Anbe". The revolutionary sounding Overture is played at key parts at the beginning and end of the film.