Thotta

Thotta (English: Bullet) is a 2008 Kollywood film directed by Selvaa and produced by Mariappa Babu Baskar of Oscar Movies (a pioneer film production house in Kollywood). The movie, which has a critically acclaimed storyline, stars actor Jeevan as the protagonist with Priyamani playing a pivotal role as his lover. The movie, though ran for 100 days,later succeed at the box office.

Plot

Shanmugham (Jeevan) comes to Chennai with his mother in search of his father (Raj Kapoor). When they get to the place, they see him living with another wife. In a hussle, he kills this old wife and sends this boy outside to beg. He comes out with dead mother and an auto driver (Chandrasekar) helps with all he has to cremate the body and gives some money and asks him to go back to his own city.

Shanmugham wanted to read and become a great man. But he gets caught with the corrupt police guys and was used for their jobs (which involved murder). So when he grows up, he becomes a big rowdy by the name of Thotta (bullet). The highly corrupt police officer DCP Murugavel (Sampath Kumar) also uses him for a lot of encounters for which he takes credit and gets promoted to commissioner level. In one incident where he is asked to put acid on a girl Nalina's (Priyamani) face, he finds that girl to be the auto driver's daughter itself in her house. He helps that family, which is in poverty, with lot of gifts and also loves her.

Nalina's aim is to become a police officer and she tells this to Shanmugham. As he has commissioner influence, he promises to get her the job. For this he kills a minister who is a big rival of the chief minister (Livingston) at the instance of Murugavel. But when Nalina goes to Murugavel for the job, the latter insists that she have sex with him. When Shanmugham finds out what happened, he and Murugavel part ways.

Shanmugham has a friend Giri, who is also a rowdy, but gets him married to a nice girl Gauri (Mallika). She wants to separate him from this rowdy group and get settled, for which she tries not to send him for their encounters. After much thought, Shanmugham lets them go separately. But Murugavel kills Giri in an encounter.

Prabhakar (Saranraj), a CBI officer, wants to get Shanmugham alive, whereas Murugavel wants him killed, otherwise he would be in deep trouble as he was the one who made Shanmugham a rowdy after all. How Shanmugham overpowers this duo and whether Nalina becomes a police officer forms the climax of the story.

Cast

• Jeevan as Shanmugham
• Priyamani as Nalina
• Mallika as Gauri
• Sampath Kumar as DCP Murugavel
• Saranraj as Prabhakar
• Livingston as the chief minister

Music

The movie has 5 songs and one instrumental composed by Srikanth Deva. The music is hopeful, straight out of an 1980's B grade flick, and did not meet with any positive review.

• Anbe Vaa- Gopal Sharma, Thanvi
• Mugam Poo- Chinmayi, Naresh Iyer
• Saami Aaduda- Asith, Senthil Dass, Suchithra Raman
• Theme Of Thotta - Instrumental
• Va Va Va Mappillai- Asith, Janani, Srikanth Deva
• Venum Venum- Jaidev, Sangeetha

Production

The film was launched in 2005 at Prasad studios.^[1][2] Srikanth Deva was selected to compose music.^[3] The film was shelved midway due to some reasons^[4] Jeevan and Selva went on to do the remake of Naan Avan Illai, during the time Selva's another project "Ma.Mu" with Sathyaraj and Sibiraj being dropped^[5] and at the sametime he completed Nenjil and his long-delayed project Manikanda with Arjun. The project was revived in 2007^[6][7][8] because of Jeevan and Priyamani achieved success with their films Naan Avanillai and Paruthi Veeran.^[9] During the shoot, actor Chandrasekar was really stabbed with a knife unintentionally.^[10]

Reviews

Rediff wrote: "Avoid Thotta".^[11]

Nowrunning wrote: "Though the director has obviously treaded a beaten track, many interesting sub-plots and startling episodes are woven into the script making the film click".^[12]

Sify wrote: "This Thotta just does not fire and is a rehash of so many films, and has nothing new to offer and is predictable".^[13]

Behindwoods wrote: "Thotta seems to be director Selva’s attempt at reviving the 80s mindless action adventure flicks with an overdose of mother sentiment and sacrifice".^[14]

References