Gentleman (film)

Gentleman
Official DVD Cover
Directed by	Shankar
Produced by	K. T. Kunjumon
Written by	Shankar Balakumaran (dialogues)
Starring	Arjun Madhoo Goundamani Charan Raj Subhashri Senthil Vineeth
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Cinematography	Jeeva
Editing by	B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan
Studio	A. R. S. Film International
Distributed by	A. R. S. Film International
Release dates	30 July 1993
Running time	160 mins
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	7 crore (US$1.1 million)

Gentleman is a 1993 Tamil vigilante film directed by S. Shankar marking his debut and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. It stars Arjun and Madhoo in the lead roles.

The film's music (score and soundtrack) is composed by A. R. Rahman, and it was very well received upon release. The choreography in the film was also viewed as a highlight. This high-budget production won positive reviews^[1] and became a blockbuster at the box office.^[2]

Plot

A story begins with a swashbuckling thief, also a master of disguise, who not only targets jewellers but also government agencies is being tracked down by Azhagar Nambi (Charan Raj), an efficient Police officer, who takes things a bit too personal. The story cuts to Krishnamoorthy alias Kicha (Arjun), a respected brahmin and runs a home-based pappadam business.

Susheela (Madhoo), one of many Kicha's female employees, who has a crush on Kicha is constantly devouring for his attention. Adding to her woes, the arrival of her naughty and playful cousin Sugandhi (Subhashri), adds a love triangle to the plot. Sugandhi also forms a crush on Kicha, especially after being saved by him from some molesting goons. But Kicha reveals to her that he has no such feeling for her and wants her to find a suitable mate. Sugandhi steals Kicha's ring as souvenir. An intermittent comedy track featuring Mani and played by the famous comic duo Goundamani) and Senthil respectively.

After several unsuccessful attempts at nabbing the thief, a disgraced Azhagar Nambi shaves his head and left with a ring mark on his face, after a scuffle with the thief. On investigating he later realises that the mark was formed by a ceremonial ring worn by Brahmin priests, but to his vain finds that the specific design of this ring is uncommon to brahmin priests but rather resembles a mangalsutra. Both intrigued and frustrated, Azhagar Nambi is forced by his parents into getting married and by coincidence to Sugandhi, from whom he gets the particular ring he was tracking and finds out that it belongs to Kicha.

In an attempt to Trap and arrest kicha, Azhagar Nambi plots an attempt at kicha's house where they were invited for wedding diner, hosted by kicha, where he shoots kicha, but the later narrowly escapes with bullet injury in his hand, along with mani. They were followed by madhoo to their hide out, where madhoo finds the duo, and fabercasts kicha for his false deed. Then, Kicha reveals his flashback about his student life as a district level topper along with his best friend Ramesh (Vineeth), and even then they both were denied their desired Medical college seats due to bribery, leading to tragic death of his mother (Manorama) and his best friend Ramesh (Vineeth). And since then, he became a thief to build a college of his own, where he desires to make education available to the deserved, with out any difference to poor, rich, or any caste.

In order to fund the final stages of the college building, Aware of the police trap, Kicha makes his final attempt to success, during which he is arrested by Azhagar Nambi. The climax of the movie is set in the courtroom, where Kicha demands the Chief minister of the state should come to the court room, who was the then educational minister who demanded the bribe from him.

Cast

• Arjun as Krishnamoorthy (Kicha)
• Madhoo as Susheela (Susi)
• Goundamani as Mani
• Charan Raj as Azhagar Nambi
• Subhashri as Sugandhi
• Senthil as Babloo
• Vineeth as Ramesh
• Manorama as Kicha's mother
• M. N. Nambiar as Ramesh's father
• Rajan P. Dev
• Ajay Rathnam
• Prasanna
• Omakuchi Narasimhan
• Chokkalinga Bhagavathar

Special appearances in "Chikku Bukku Rayile" song

• Prabhu Deva
• Gouthami Tadimalla
• Raju Sundaram
• Raghava Lawrence
• G. V. Prakash Kumar

Production

The film marked the directorial debut of Director Shankar, former assistant of S. A. Chandrasekhar who went to become one of the famous directors in Tamil cinema.

Sarathkumar was initially approached for the lead role but since he was busy with other projects he was replaced by Arjun.^[3]

Soundtrack

Gentleman
Front Cover
Soundtrack album by A. R. Rahman
Released	1993
Recorded	Panchathan Record Inn
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	23:53
Label	Pyramid
A. R. Rahman chronology
Pudhiya Mugam (1993) Gentleman (1993) Kizhakku Cheemayile (1993)

The score and soundtrack of the movie was composed by A.R.Rahman and lyrics penned by Vairamuthu and Vaali(poet). The soundtrack became a chartbuster upon release and was highly acclaimed. Gentleman marked the beginning of a famed collaboration between A. R. Rahman and director S. Shankar. The film and soundtrack were dubbed and released in Telugu with the same name. The lyrics were penned by Rajashri for this version.

The choreography was done by Prabhu Deva, who also made an appearance in the song "Chikku Bukku Rayile"(Written by Vaali).

The acclaimed soundtrack earned A. R. Rahman, his second Filmfare Best Music Director Award of the year 1993. He also won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director for his work. Sujatha got the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for her soulful rendition of the track "En Veettu Thottathil".

A Gentleman instrumental adaptation album was subsequently released on Lahari and became a run away success. The track "Ottagathai Kattiko" soundtracked a BBC fashion show.

References

External links

• Gentleman at the Internet Movie Database