| Kanthaswamy | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Susi Ganesan |
| Produced by | Kalaipuli S. Dhanu |
| Written by | Susi Ganesan |
| Starring | Vikram Shriya Saran Prabhu Ganesan Krishna Ashish Vidyarthi Vadivelu Mukesh Tiwari |
| Music by | Devi Sri Prasad |
| Cinematography | N. K. Ekambaram |
| Distributed by | V. Creations(India) Ayngaran International (Worldwide) |
| Release date(s) | 21 August 2009 |
| Running time | 195 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Kanthaswamy (Tamil: கந்தசாமி, Kantacāmi ?) is a 2009 Tamil language feature film directed by Susi Ganesan, who with Kanthaswamy completed his fourth film. Vikram acts in the lead role, whilst Shriya Saran, Prabhu Ganesan, Krishna, Ashish Vidyarthi, Mukesh Tiwari, Mansoor Ali Khan, Vadivelu and Y. G. Mahendran also play roles in the film. Mumaith Khan features in a cameo appearance while Susi Ganesan himself makes a special appearance. The film's soundtrack and background score is composed by Devi Sri Prasad. The film was dubbed and simultaneously released as Mallana in Telugu and is said to be also dubbed into English, Spanish and Italian.[1] S. Thanu, the film's producer had initially mentioned that the film would be released by mid-2008, however the filming has taken much longer, mainly because of a few shooting halts; especially because of the sudden death of Raghuvaran, who was given a major role in the film. The film's soundtrack was released on 17 May 2009 and the film was released on 21 August 2009 to average reviews.[2]
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The film's plot revolves around Kanthasamy (played by Vikram), who is a Income Tax officer in the CBI, and his friends, granting the wishes of the needy who write letters to a local Lord Muruga temple by disguising himself as an anthropomorphic chicken. During a CBI income tax raid, he discovers a stash of black money owned by Ponnusamy (played by Ashish Vidyarthi), a rich and corrupted entrepreneur. Ponnusamy pretends to be paralysed to escape the questioning. Angered by the news that her father is paralysed, Ponnusamy's daughter, Subbulakshmi (played by Shriya Saran) goes after Kanthasamy to seek revenge by pretending to be in love with him. Kanthasamy, knowing Subbulakshmi's real intentions plays along in the game. This forms a cat and mouse chase between the two. In a comical role, Thengakadai (played by Vadivelu) is also sought after by a local police inspector who tries to solve the mystery of "Lord Muruga saving the people". The fate of Kanthasamy's disguise leads into the climax of the story. The local police inspector was able to bring out the truth that a CBI is involved in the role behind the secret work of helping the needy people although he was not able to confirm it. Kanthasamy finds the password of Subbulakshmi's family bank account, in which the black money is illegally saved. He tricks Subbulakshmi into revealing the password and answers for the security questions indirectly. Kanthasamy finally transfers the money to his account which would be used for helping the poor and needy people. Ironically, in the end, Subbulakshmi's father was paralysed at the end knowing that the password which was used by him to access his black money was changed. After that Subbulakshmi and Kanthasamy were married and were living in northern India. Kanthasamy saw some letters tied to a tree, just like the ones at the Lord Muruga temple. He read one and he put a letter into his pocket with a secret smile, which meant he is the anthromorphic chicken again.
In January 2007, early reports suggested that Kalaipuli International were set to make a film starring Vikram directed by Susi Ganesan, titled Kanthaswamy for a release during Diwali 2007.[3] Soon after the announcement Shriya Saran, who was acting in Sivaji: The Boss at the time was roped in to play the heroine.[4] However due to Vikram and Shriya's projects, the film was delayed and the first schedule was postponed to July 2007. The film's first photo shoot was carried out in June 2007 at Mutukadu near Chennai featuring the lead actors.[5] The film began filming a pre-launch trailer, the first of its kind in Tamil cinema, to be screened at the launch, with Vikram, Susi Ganesan and fashion designer Chetan travelling to Malaysia to look for Hollywood-inspired costumes.[6]
The inauguration of Kanthaswamy took place on 22 September 2007 at the Devi Paradise theatre in Chennai. For the event, a unique electronic invitation, made in China, was presented to guests who had been invited. The invitation was the size of a laptop and featured a 8 minute trailer of Kanthaswamy.[7] Each invitation had cost about Rs. 15,000, making it the most expensive invitation in Indian film history.[8] Following the launch ceremony, the team announced they had adopted two villages near Madurai; Sangampatti and Gandhi Nagar, to shoot in initially and then to provide basic amenities like school and proper roads among other things to the villagers for a year. The team, who were praised for their actions, were the first production team to take part in such activity in Tamil cinema.[9]
In November 2007, the shooting was halted temporarily due to an accident that occurred at the shooting spot at the Chennai Boat Club. Cameraman Ekambaram was canning the shots as per director Susi Ganesan's instructions when a pole erected on the sets unexpectedly fell on the director's head resulting in an injury.[10] The film has finished schedules at Italy, where the trailer was filmed as well as schedules in Tanzania, Kenya and Switzerland. A schedule in locations in Mexico was also held, after the team went location hunting there, with a song and several scenes canned.[11] The film, initially described as a "hilarious comedy", was rumoured to be a remake of the Hollywood cult hit, The Breakfast Club,[12] however Susi Ganesan has claimed that the film has a more Robin Hood feel to it.[13]
Following the announcement of the project, titled as Kanthaswamy, Vikram and Katrina Kaif was originally selected to be the heroine, however due to commitments in Bollywood as well as the fact that she would have had to have a pay cut from her usual higher salaries in Bollywood, Kaif opted out of the project.[3] Shriya Saran was signed in February 2007, when she was in the middle of completing her other prestigious projects Sivaji: The Boss and Azhagiya Tamil Magan.[4] In September 2007, with the release of the trailer several other artistes names were featured as supporting cast. Prominent supporting actor Raghuvaran was selected to play as Shriya's father and shot scenes in the role, before his unexpected death during the production of the film, subsequently, his role was replaced by Ashish Vidyarthi.[14] Prabhu Ganesan was also added in a supporting role, as well as lesser established actors such as Vikram's father Vinod Raj, Y. G. Mahendran, Shiv, Arun Madhavan, Vinayak and Alex, whilst Mumaith Khan was assigned an item number role. Later on, veteran Telugu actor Krishna,[15] father of Mahesh Babu was signed to a role in the project as well as Indrajith, elder brother of prominent actor, Prithviraj, whom will do a villainous role in the film.[16] Indrajith was selected for the role ahead of other prominent character actors Arjun Rampal, Irfan Khan and Suman.[17] Along with the change of actor for Raghuvaran's role, Indrajith's role was taken by Mukesh Tiwari and the role created for Santhanam was deleted. Moreover Vivek, who had featured in the original trailer, opted out and was replaced by Vadivelu. Mansoor Ali Khan took up a negative role in the film to make a comeback ino the acting foray.[18]
The producer of Kanthaswamy, Kalaipuli S. Dhanu and Susi Ganesan the director ensembled an experienced team to produce the film. Veterans Thotta Tharani, A. S. Laxmi Narayanan and Viveka between them, take care of the art direction, audiography and lyrics respectively. Devi Sri Prasad composes the music for his biggest film to date following several compositions for smaller budget Tamil films and Telugu films. N. K. Ekambaram controls the cinematography of the film, whilst Praveen K L edits the film. Kannal Kannan is the fight master for the film, whilst Mittra media are responsible for the publicity designs the film outputs, adding to their work with the trailer and the invitations. The film is co-produced, by Chennai businessmen, A. Paranthaman and A. K. Natraj along with Dhanu.
The film opened up to tremendous response and collected 37 crores in the first week worldwide. It opened to packed houses all over Tamil Nadu and the first show started at 6 am at Sathyam cinemas on its first day of its release, thus it had a mad opening in chennai.[19] In Tamil Nadu alone the collection is estimated to have reached 16 crores during the first week, while in Andhra Pradesh it was 8 crores. Kerala 2.5 crores and Karnataka 1 crore. The total collection was estimated to be 60 crores in its overall running. This film collected 1.37 crores in UK.[20] In Malaysia it collected a whooping $1,077,658 in its total run.[21] In Chennai Box Office it collected 52.8cr at the end of 50 days.[22] Kanthaswamy completed 100 days and was elevated to 'hit' status by trade pundits.[23][24][25] Despite this, reviews received were mostly average
The film has been nominated for the following categories:[27]
| Kanthaswamy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Devi Sri Prasad | ||||
| Released | 17 May 2009 | |||
| Recorded | Chennai | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Label | Sony Music | |||
| Producer | Devi Sri Prasad | |||
| Devi Sri Prasad chronology | ||||
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The film has seven songs composed by Devi Sri Prasad. For the first time, Vikram has sung most of the songs in this movie. The songs from the bilingual albums were released to the public after an audio launch at the Trade centre in Chennai on 17 May 2009.
| Song title | Singers | Length (m:ss) |
Description | Lyric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excuse Me Mr. Kanthaswamy | Vikram, Suchitra | 5:46 | Vikram and Shriya Saran shown quarrelling in a romantic relationship song. | Viveka |
| Allegra | Rita | 5:23 | Shot on Shriya and Italian dancers against the backdrop of the majestic opera house, for her introduction song. | Viveka |
| Meow Meow | Vikram, Priya Himesh | 4:30 | Sensuous song featuring the lead pair | Viveka |
| Ithellam Dupe | Vikram, Devi Sri Prasad | 4:08 | A song on pizza boys featuring Vikram and his friends in the flashback | Viveka |
| Mambo Mamiya | Vikram, Rita | 4:36 | Shot in a famous bull ring in Mexico on the lead pair and Mexican dancers accompany them. | Viveka |
| Bambara Kannalei Remix (En Peru Meenakumari) | Malathi Lakshman | 4:20 | An item number featuring Mumaith Khan | Viveka |
| Kanthaswamy Theme | Devi Sri Prasad | 3:03 | Theme song | |
| Kanthaswamy Theme (DSP mix) | Devi Sri Prasad | 3:16 | Title song |