Mugamoodi

Mugamoodi
Movie poster
Directed by	Mysskin
Produced by	Ronnie Screwvala Siddharth Roy Kapur
Written by	Mysskin
Starring	Jiiva Narain Pooja Hegde Nassar Selvaah
Music by	K
Cinematography	Sathya
Editing by	Gaugin
Studio	UTV Motion Pictures
Distributed by	ShowMaker Pictures
Release dates	31 August 2012 (2012-08-31)
Running time	162 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	20 crore (US$3.2 million)[2]

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.^[3] It is the first Tamil super-hero movie.^[4] 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.^[5][6][7] 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.^[8][9] It has also been dubbed in Hindi as Mahabali Ek Super Hero.

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.^[10] Pre-production work for the film began in late 2008, with the film also being referred to by the media as Agni Puthran.^[11] 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.^[12] However in July 2009, Surya opted out and unsuccessful discussions were held with Vishal to replace him, forcing Myshkin to stall the project.^[13] As the project remained dormant, Myshkin temporarily shelved the project and moved on to script a horror film.^[14]

In October 2010, Arya signed on for the film with N. Linguswamy's Thirupathi Brothers production house replacing UTV as producers.^[15][16] 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.^[17] 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.^[18][19][20] In early July 2011, sources reported that Amala Paul had been signed up to portray the lead female character in the film,^[21] which the actress dismissed, with Dhananjayan of UTV also confirming that Amala was not approached for the role.^[22] Pooja Hegde, second runner up of the 2011 Miss Universe India beauty pageant was eventually finalized as the female lead.^[23] 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.^[24] 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.^[25] The following month, Nassar was selected to portray a police officer.^[26] Pooja Hegde will appear as Jiiva's lover in the film.^[27]

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.^[3][28] 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.^[3] Furthermore, a Los Angeles-based firm would handle special effects, while action sequences are planned to be choreographed by stuntmen from Hong Kong.^[3] Costumes are designed by Gabriella Wilkins and it is said that Jiiva's superhero outfit weighs more than 10 kg.^[29][30][31] Shooting of the film started officially on 12 December 2011 with the opening scene of Kung Fu as that was so spoken about.^[32] The film is expected to be released during Summer 2012.^[33] 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.^[34] 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.;^[35] 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.^[36][37]

Soundtrack

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.^[27] 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.^[38]

Rediff wrote: "Mugamoodi's numbers grab your attention and carry you with them".^[39] Milliblog wrote: "Tepid soundtrack from K".^[40] Behindwoods wrote: "On the whole, the music has provided a good platform for the superhero to soar".^[41]

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.^[42] This film was released worldwide screens on 31 August 2012 and it would be the 100th film to be released in 2012.^[43] 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.^[44] 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.^[45] 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.^[46]

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".^[47] 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".^[48] 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".^[49] Prakash Upadhyaya of oneindia.in recommended the film with a 3.5 out 5 rating.^[50]

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".^[51] 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".^[52] Rohit Ramachandran of Nowrunning.com rated it 1.5 out of 5 stating that the film was "heavily flawed and utterly boring".^[53] Vivek Ramz of in.com rated it 1.5 out of 5 and sayed that "Mugamoodi is no Batman, just Kanthaswamy revisited!" ^[54]

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Mugamoodi at the Internet Movie Database