Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan

Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan (English: Saravanan from Pudukottai) is a 2004 Tamil action romance film written and directed by S. S. Stanley. The film featured Dhanush and newcomer Aparna Pillai in lead roles, while Karunas played a supporting role. After this film, Dhanush was called Indian Bruce Lee. The music for the film was scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja, while Krishnakanth produced the venture. The film was released on 14 January 2004, coinciding with Thai Pongal, and received an average response commercially and critically. The film was later dubbed and released as Sourya in Telugu.

Plot

Saravanan's(Dhanush) parents manage to send him to Singapore after having gone through a severe financial drought thinking that he would pay off all their debts as soon as he lands in Singapore. But little do they know that their son would be charged for murder there. Saravanan finds a job in Singapore through an agent and lands there with high hopes of earning 3 lakh and sending back to his family. Put up in a cramped apartment, Saravanan gets into an argument with some Chinese immigrant there.One day, he burns Saravanan's passport and with anger on him, Saravanan start's fighting him. The Chinese guy kills himself by running in towards him trying to kill him with a fire extinguisher, where Saravanan goes by the side, and falls onto the ground on the second block of the apartment. Everyone thinks that Saravanan's is responsible for this. On his agent's advice, Saravanan goes on the run.

Shalini (Aparna) lives a luxurious life with her uncle in Singapore. Her parents and other relatives live in India. Shalini's uncle gets into a huge debt and ends up pawning Shalini in a gamble. After losing the bet he escapes at gunpoint. He finds Saravanan and he makes a request for Saravanan that he takes Shalini back safely to her family in India, and in return he will get the amount of money he has been wishing for, 3 Lakh as payment. Now Saravanan and Shalini are on the run, when he agrees with this.

Since Saravanan does not have a passport and is being searched by Singapore police, with the help of Vimal(Karunas) Saravanan gets a duplicate passport. The two had to walk, hitchhike a ride or steal a car and travel all the way by road through Malaysia, Thailand and Burma to get to India. They sing, dance, make merry and also earn some money in the bargain. On the way, the problems they encounter make them both come close.They hitchhike a ride on a jeep so they could get to Malaysia where the two were covered in vegetables so they would not get noticed by the police but there were border checking, when one of the checker put a sword inside the vegetables on the jeep to see if anyone's hiding there, there was nothing. Shalini was safe but Saravanan got injured by this, as the Jeep drove on.

As they arrive to Malaysia, after the usual initial dislike on them in Singapore, Shalini Falls in love with Saravanan. One day, Saravanan tells her that he is getting married to his relative by the decision of their parents, but he hasn't seen her face before. By hearing this, Shalini felt sad, but she still loves him as they continue on their journey by walking.

However, they have crossed the border of Malaysia safely by wearing a school girls uniform and pretending that they are schoolgirls going on a trip with other girls. As they reach Thailand, Saravanan starts to help by doing some odd jobs to get money. Shalini spends that money on a tattoo and Saravanan got angry with this, but as she shows him what she puts, it was his name tattooed on her chest showing how much love she has on him. Saravanan got shocked by this and later on starts to develop a little feelings on her. They continued on their journey by hitchhiking a ride to get to the border of Thailand so they could reach Burma.

As they reach Burma by boat and ship, they don't have any money on them for food, because of spending the last money on an alcohol to make themselves feel warm when it was cold in the coast of Burma. There were people betting an arm wrestle to win money, however Saravanan had a bet and won the arm wrestle and gets all the coins and cash they had. Now they're finally coming to the ending of crossing the border, but this time they sneak in through the heavily guarded Burma-Indian border, under the cover of a sandstorm that has forced the army to take refuge in their tents.

On December 14 they finally reach India and Shalini is handed over to her parents safely. Her parents give Saravanan 3 lakhs and the moment has come to part. Shalini talks to Saravanan and tells him if he has feelings for her, he should come back to the same location after 2 months February 14. Shalini goes home with her parents and Saravanan goes back to Pudhukottai. Now, he finds himself thinking about Shalini.

Did Saravanan go back to the location to accept Shalini's love?

Cast

• Dhanush as Saravanan
• Aparna Pillai as Shalini
• Karunas as Vimal and Kamal
• Mayoori
• Shasha Sri
• Peter Hein
• Tharika in a special appearance

Production

Stanley who won critical acclaim for his debut in April Madhathil collaborated with Dhanush, who had given back-to-back hits in Kadhal Kondein and Thiruda Thirudi to make a film. Aparna Pillai won the Miss Chennai contest as a student and was sent to other pageants including the Miss Petite International contest in the United States. The director Stanley saw an article which appeared in The Hindu about her trip to the USA and asked her to come for a make-up test, before selecting to play the female lead in the film.^[1][2]

Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan was the first Tamil film after MGR's 1973 Tamil film Ulagam Sutrum Valiban to have scenes shot in Thailand. The film was shot also in Singapore, Malaysia and Pulicat in Thiruvallur District, India.^[3][4] The song with Tharika was shot at a huge set, complete with waterfalls and a pond at the Prasad Studios erected by art director Santhanam, it took about five days to shoot the song.^[5] The film was sold to distributors for Rs 11 crore, showing the actor's high market value at the box office.^[6]

Release

The film won mixed reviews with a critic from The Hindu noting that "Story wise there's nothing much. All the same there are no boring villains or a contrived climax. Intended to be a light film, it stays that way till the end, but the director could have given a thought to the plausibility angle."^[7] Dhanush's fight scene were amazing, After this film Dhanush was called as the Indian Bruce Lee. Aparna, who made her debut in this film, her performance were superb. The film became a hit at the box office. It ran for 50 days and grossed 10 crore in the box office.",^[8] The relationship between the two once they go on the run is enjoyable. Their little fights are sweet and small sequences are cute and funny. Their falling for each other doesn't seem too cinematic and the way their characters are shaped makes it easy to believe when they gradually develop feelings for each other. The climax is short and effective.^[9] The film was later dubbed and released as Sourya in Telugu.^[10] Post-release it was caught in controversy when a song, to which the lyrics had been censored, was shown uncut.^[11] Dhanush says he is innocent and has nothing to do with all these controversies.

Soundtrack

Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan
Soundtrack album by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Released	4 December 2003
Recorded	2003
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	27:56
Label	Mass Audio
Producer	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja chronology
Kurumbu (2003) Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan (2003) Ullam (2004)

The soundtrack of the film, composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and released on 4 December 2003, features 6 tracks and was hailed as the highight of the film. Yuvan Shankar Raja himself sang two songs and hero Dhanush sang the song 'Naatu Sarakku', debuting as a playback singer as well. Lyrics were penned by Pa. Vijay, Thamarai, Snehan and Na. Muthukumar.^[12] Pudhu Kaadhal and Malargale are melodious while Baby Baby is catchy with its lyrics making a nice transition from English to Tamil.

Tracklist

References