Santosh Subramaniam

Santosh Subramaniam
Theatrical poster
Directed by	M. Raja
Produced by	AGS Entertainment Kalpathi S.Aghoram Kalpathi S.Ganesh Kalpathi S.Suresh
Written by	Abburi Ravi Bhaskar Raja
Based on	Bommarillu  by Bhaskar and Abburi Ravi
Starring	Jayam Ravi Genelia D'Souza Prakash Raj
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography	D. Kannan
Editing by	Mohan
Studio	AGS Entertainment
Release dates	11 April 2008
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Santosh Subramaniam is a 2008 Indian Tamil romantic comedy film directed by M. Raja and produced by Kalpathi S. Agoram. The film stars Jayam Ravi and Genelia D'Souza in the lead roles, while Prakash Raj, Geetha, Sayaji Shinde, and Sadagoppan Ramesh play supporting roles. The film is a remake of the successful Telugu language film, Bommarillu, which starred Siddharth and Genelia D'Souza in the lead roles.^[5] As of 2008, a Hindi remake of the film titled It's My Life was reported to have been planned with Harman Baweja in the lead, and with Genelia D'Souza reprising her role.^[6][7]

The film's narrative revolves around a father and son relationship; the father's dotes on his son, who resents his father's dotage. The son's choices and his ambitions to achieve something in life are subdued by his father. At the end of the film, the father repents his foolishness and the happy marriage of the protagonists.

Santosh Subramaniam was released on 11 April 2008 during the Tamil New Year festival.^[8][9] It won accolades and positive reviews, and became influential in Tamil cinema along with Yaaradi Nee Mohini, starting a trend for family orientated films.^[10]

Plot

A baby takes his first steps on a beach while the father supports him. The son, Santosh (Jayam Ravi)—who is now 24 years old—begins verbally abusing all the fathers in the world. When inquired about his disgust, he says that his father, Subramaniam (Prakash Raj), gives him more than what he asks for, and chooses his clothes and hairstyle. Santosh vows that he will choose his career and his future wife for himself.

Muthu (Sathyan) the family's servant wakes up Santosh in the morning. Subramanium—who is Managing Director of a construction company—asks Santosh whether he will will join their office and help manage the business. When Santosh deliberates, his father impatiently plans for Santosh's marriage. The next week, his father announces that Santosh will get engaged to Rajeswari (Keerath) against his wishes. Rajeswari is a spoilt woman whom Santosh does not like. However, with Subramaniam’s final say, they get engaged.

While contemplating his options in a temple, Santosh meets Hasini (Genelia D'Souza), an engineering student. Seeing her chirpy nature and vibrancy, Santosh begins to like her and tries to see her regularly. Eventually, he realises that he has fallen in love with her.

Santosh applies for a bank loan to start building his career. His love for Hasini deepens and he wishes to propose to her. He tell her that he is engaged to Rajeswari against his wishes, but he wants her. Hasini is dejected about his engagement but a day later she accepts his proposal. Santosh is ecstatic but his father is furious and admonishes him. Santosh expresses his disinterest in marriage with Rajeswari. When Subramaniam asks his son why he likes Hasini, Santosh replies that if Hasini can stay with their family for a week, then all their questions shall be answered. He persuades Hasini to stay at his house after seeking permission from her father Govindan (Sayaji Shinde).

When Hasini is introduced to Santosh’s family, she gets a lukewarm welcome. As she settles down in the house, the family begins to like her. Subramaniam reprimands Santosh when he knows of his bank loan and his plans, which further enrages Santosh. His entire family along with Hasini attends a wedding. Hasini cheers up the ceremony with her playful nature. Govindan recognises Santosh as the drunken young man whom he encountered on an earlier occasion. Hasini realises her father's presence and quickly exits to avoid his attention. Santosh admonishes Hasini for her antics at the wedding; she is sad and angry and moves out of the house. She rebuilds trust in her father. Santosh is left forlorn; Santosh's mother Lakshmi (Geetha) confronts Subramaniam on Santosh’s choices. Santosh opens up his heart and leaves his father to repent his foolishness. He asks Rajeswari and her parents to call off the impending marriage. While they relent, Subramaniam persuades Govindan to allow Santosh and Hasini's marriage. In return, Govindan wants to know more about Santosh, and invites him to live in their house for a week, to which Subramaniam agrees.

Cast

• Jayam Ravi as Santosh
• Genelia D'Souza as Hasini.
• Prakash Raj as Subramaniam, Santosh's father.
• Sayaji Shinde as Govindan, Hasini's alcoholic father.
• Geetha as Lakshmi, Santosh's mother.
• Sadagoppan Ramesh as Sanjay, Santosh's elder brother.
• Keerath as Rajeswari, Santosh's fiancé.
• Vijayakumar as Ramamoorthy, Rajeswari's father.
• Santhanam as Srinivasan, Santosh's friend.
• Premji Amaren as Shekar, Santosh's friend.
• M. S. Bhaskar as Kootha Perumal, Santosh's college lecturer.
• Kausalya as Santosh sister
• Satya Krishnan as Sanjay's wife
• Neelima Rani as Santhanam's wife.

Production

Despite early indications that the same team that worked on the original, Bommarillu—including Bhaskar and Dil Raju—would remake the film in Tamil, the pair said they were not interested.^[11] Raju was willing to sell the remake rights and held twenty previews in Chennai for potential buyers.^[12] Veteran editor Mohan, under his home company Jayam Combines, outbid Prakash Raj, who wanted to remake the film with Vishal in the lead role.^[13] Others outbid included Vijay under Appachan Films,^[14] Bhagyaraj for his daughter, Saranya,^[14] and Ravi Krishna under the banner of A. M. Rathnam.^[14] Mohan handed the director's role to his son Raja Mohan, and the lead role to his second son Jayam Ravi. The film would become Raja's fourth consecutive Telugu film remake.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

The film had its launch on 16 July 2007 with the attendance of all the lead actors, including guests Dhanush, Sibiraj and Jeevan.^[15] For the inauguration function, 300 talking invitations were made.^[16] The invitation for the launch featured many successful father-son duos from various fields,^[16] such as Sivaji Ganesan and Prabhu, Sivakumar and Suriya, and Sathyaraj and Sibiraj.^[17]

Genelia D'Souza was chosen to play the female lead, reprising her role from the original film.^[16][18] Prakash Raj, who also acted in the original film,^[19] was chosen to reprise his role as the lead actor's father in this film. Geetha was signed to play the lead actor's mother.^[20] Former cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh made his acting debut in this film, playing the protagonist's elder brother, and Sayaji Shinde was signed to act as the female lead character's father.^[21] Keerath was signed to play the lead male's fiance. Actors Kausalya, Santhanam, Premji Amaren, Srinath and Sathyan, were also added to the cast.^[20]

Raja stated that the film would feature a "huge house" that was constructed at a cost of 50 lakh (US$80,000) and a "bus with state-of-the-art facilities" bought for 10 lakh (US$16,000)". He stated that both of them were the film's "highlights".^[22] Two songs were shot at the South Island of New Zealand, on the way from Christchurch to Queensland. An advantage of shooting in New Zealand for the film's crew was that they had 16 hours of sunlight on any given day. Some sequences were even shot around 9:30 pm under "blazing sunlight".^[23] One song depicting the marriage of Premji Amaran's character was shot in several temples "in and around Kumbakonam".^[23]

Soundtrack

For the film's music and soundtrack, Raja renewed his association with Devi Sri Prasad,^{[lower-alpha 2]} who predominantly used his tracks from the original film.^[24] Siddharth Narayan, the lead actor in the original, sang one of the tracks from the film.^[22] The film has six songs, with the lyrics mostly written by Na. Muthukumar and Vivega.^[25] The audio of the film was released on 23 March 2008, three weeks before the film's release.^[26][27]

Behindwoods rated the album 3.5 out of 5, calling it "[o]verall, a lively album all set to become a chart buster".^[28] Rediff rated the album 3 out of 5, and stated that "listening to Santosh Subramaniyam music really gives 'Santosham' (happiness). Go for it."^[24]

Release

Box office

Santosh Subramaniam was released worldwide with 72 prints. Owing to the success of the film, around another 30 prints were issued. The film was released in India with a "U" (Universal) certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification.^[29] After opening at number one, the film earned over 2.5 crore (US$400,000) in Chennai alone by the end of the seventh week.^[30]

The reception in the United Kingdom was equally successful, entering the UK box office at number 40.^[31] The film was released in four major cities, collected GB£10,067 in its first week of opening and earned a cumulative gross of £24,962 in its three week box office run.^[32]

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews for the story and the actors' performances. Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave the film a rating of two and a half out of five; she called the film a "classy remake of the Telugu blockbuster Bommarillu (Toy-house), the movie is a love-story but it strives to be something even more".^[33] The three lead actors, Jayam Ravi, Genelia D'Souza and Prakash Raj, garnered praise for their portrayals. Pavithra Srinivasan said D'Souza's character "appears a little too good to be true, at first. But her character grows on you", and praised Prakash Raj's performance, saying that the role "was a cakewalk" for him.^[33] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu praised the music, locations and the main cast's performances, and wrote that in the film, "dull moments are rare, enjoyable ones aplenty".^[20]

Sify said D'Souza's portrayal is "the soul of the film" and its "biggest strength"; he called Ravi's performance "mature" and Prakash Raj's "outstanding".^[34] Behindwoods gave the film three stars out of five and called it a "[w]ell made family entertainer". The reviewer wrote, "[w]atch Santosh Subramaniam for that ‘feel good’ feeling, overlook minor glitches", and said that Prakash Raj is "the real master" who "proves his class yet again".^[21] Settu Shankar of OneIndia said, "[t]here are few minuses in the script but those are very minor and not affect the flow of the story". and concluded, "[o]verall, Santosh Subramaniam is a promising entertainer that brings the first word of the title in every viewers mind for long time even after come out from the theatre".^[35]

Accolades

The film also won the third prize for the Best Film at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards of 2008.^[37]

Footnotes

References

External links

• Santosh Subramaniam at the Internet Movie Database