Villu

Villu
Directed by	Prabhu Deva
Produced by	K. Karunamoorthy C. Arunpandian
Written by	Prabhu Deva Shyam Geol Sachin Bhowmick
Starring	Vijay Nayantara Vadivelu Prakash Raj Anand Raj Sriman Manoj K. Jayan Geetha Dhamu Vaiyapuri Aarthi Raj Kapoor
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography	Ravi Varman
Editing by	Kola Bhaskar
Distributed by	Ayngaran International
Release date(s)	12 January 2009
Running time	150 minutes (Original) 135 minutes (Theatrical cut)
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	28 crores

Villu is a 2009 comedy and spy film directed by Prabhu Deva Sundaram. The film stars Vijay in dual roles while Nayantara and Prakash Raj play other prominent roles. Manoj K. Jayan, Vadivelu, Adithya, Geetha, and Ranjitha play supporting roles whilst Prabhu Deva, Mumaith Khan, Zabyn Khan, and Kushboo Sundar appear in item numbers. The film is produced and distributed by Ayngaran International and composed by Devi Sri Prasad. The film released on 12 January 2009.^[1]

Plot

It is an unofficial remake of Hindi movie Soldier. The film begins with Inspector Joseph (Manoj K. Jayan) being called in for a secret meeting by a senior police official. At the meeting he learns that their long-awaited target Raaka (Adithya) will be arriving secretly in a cargo shipment by sea and that he should be caught at the site. Meanwhile, a television reporter (Dhamu) goes around asking people from the streets who their favourite actors are. As names such as Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth are mentioned, one old woman claims she is a big fan of M. G. R. and says she also admires a young man who saved her granddaughter from a bunch of local goons. The young hero is none other than Pugazh (Vijay).

Joseph informs Pugazh through a secret instant message that Raaka will be arriving at the harbour and tells him about their special operation on catching the culprit.

Joseph and his team disguise themselves as harbour workers at the harbour and await for Raaka. Joseph soon spots Raaka ready to jump onto the harbour from the cargo ship. Just then, he is pulled back and hidden from the police by Pugazh. Pugazh helps Raaka escape from the disguised policemen and takes him away. The police chase the two until they loose them. Just then, Pugazh and Raaka try to escape on a water scooter and are chased by the police. Just then, another ship blocks their way and quickly, Pugazh submerges their boat underwater to hide from the police and dodge the boat. Pugazh and Raaka later comeback to sea level. After acknowledging Pugazh's help, Raaka tries to kill Pugazh, but in turn, Pugazh kills Raaka. Pugazh phones and informs Joseph that their "operation was a success."

Later, Pugazh leaves to a Tehsildar's house in a nearby village for a wedding. He meets Janavi (Nayantara), and tries to woo her. Eventually, Janavi gets irritated by Pugazh's mischief. Janavi later tries to get back at Pugazh for his mischief but fails each time. Also, Pugazh tries his best to make Janavi fall in love with him, after getting ideas from an M. G. R. film he sees on television. On the wedding day, when trouble is stirred up by a local village gang, he saves the bride, who is Janavi's friend. Janavi then falls in love with Pugazh, admiring his strength and style.

On the occasion, Pugazh sends an instant message back to Inspector Joseph, saying that his next mission was complete, which was making Janavi fall in love with him. Joseph tells Pugazh it is now time to target Raaka's superior commander, J. D. (Prakash Raj).

Janavi informs her father J. D., a rich businessman in Munich, Germany, of her love with Pugazh. J. D. tells Janavi to bring Pugazh to Munich. Pugazh meets J. D. in Munich and is told that he is not worthy enough to marry his daughter. Pugazh tells J. D. that it was he who killed Raaka. Pugazh is told by Joseph to go to a hotel in Munich. After a conflict in the hotel with the hotel's pimp (Sriman), he is targeted by the pimp and his boss Shaan (Devaraj), who is J. D.'s business partner in crime.

They follow Pugazh to the airport where Pugazh goes to pick up his mother (Geetha), who lost her son during his childhood. Shaan then decides not to shoot Pugazh, after seeing that Pugazh's mother is none other than his wife, who left him because of being a corrupt army cadet and receiving money for helping the enemy terrorists of India. Shaan holds a party for finding his long-lost son, Pugazh. J. D. also comes to know that Pugazh is his partner's own son.

Shaan takes Pugazh to his secret locker room and hand him over his secret Blu-ray disc containing all the evidence of J. D. and his plans. Shaan tells Pugazh that he should retrieve the discs that J. D. has hidden in order to take over all his business, once he marries Janavi. Pugazh then takes his father on an airplane and tells him something that shocks him. He then escapes from the plane with the help of a parachute and the plane crashes into a cliff, killing Shaan.

Pugazh meets J. D. and tells him that he killed Shaan. Pugazh also tells him that he was not really Shaan's son and that he tricked him into believing that he was Shaan's real son who was lost long ago. Pugazh tells J. D. that he will bring Shaan's henchmen over, pretending to kill J. D. and eventually kill them instead. A happy J. D. tells Pugazh to proceed. Just then, J. D. records Pugazh's conversation with him and sends it to Shaan's henchmen, telling them to kill Pugazh. When Pugazh brings them to J. D.'s place, Pugazh is targeted by them and gunpoint Pugazh and threaten him to tell them who he really is and why he killed Shaan. Pugazh then sets a bomb and all of Shaan's henchmen get killed in the explosion.

Pugazh sends the Blu-ray disc he received from Shaan to Inspector Joseph in India, who found Raaka alive. Raaka injures Joseph and escapes from Joseph's custody. Raaka then informs J. D. that he is alive. J. D. sends his men to bring Pugazh over. While Janavi, who is not aware of the conflict going on between Pugazh and J. D., listens to the two confront, J. D. asks for the disc back from Pugazh. Janavi finally finds out about Pugazh and tells Shaan's wife about Pugazh's identity. Shaan's wife is already aware of Pugazh's true identity and knows that he is not her real son. She also tells Janavi the reason why he killed Shaan and why he is after J. D. and about Pugazh's real father, Major Saravanan (Vijay).

Major Saravanan was an Indian Army officer, who was a fellow friend of Inspector Joseph. He was told to undertake a peacekeeping mission task force. Meanwhile, J. D. and Shaan, who were the corrupt army cadets seeking money from the terrorists and willing to help them, plan their means of killing Saravanan. During the mission, J. D. and his corrupt army men brutally murder Saravanan while on duty. J. D. acts as an eyewitness account, telling the army commanders that they killed Saravanan, whom they claim was corrupt and tried to attack them while helping the terrorists, only for the safety of the others soldiers and themselves. Abiding the final court hearing regarding the incident, the army takes away Saravanan's badges, uniform and titles at his funeral. Pugazh's mother (Ranjitha) tries to unsuccessfully stop them, claiming that her husband was not a betrayer to the country. When Saravanan's body was to be cremated, the villagers throw out the body into a ditch, claiming that it was a sin to burn his body on their soil. Pugazh and his mother cry as they could not find Saravanan's body in the blowing sand. Pugazh's mother sits in a temple that night with Pugazh. She sends Pugazh off with Shaan's wife, fearing the village might accuse Pugazh to be a "child of a national criminal." Pugazh and his mother did not see each other since then.

In the present time, J. D. takes Pugazh to India to retrieve the Blu-ray disc back. They meet Joseph who is at gunpoint by Raaka. When J. D.'s henchmen get out of the car to get the disc back, Pugazh flees with J. D. to the temple where his mother is at. After an emotional moment with his aged mother, J. D.'s men arrive at the place. They kill Inspector Joseph and hurt Pugazh. Pugazh becomes weak, unable to fight, and J. D. burries him alive in the sand. Pugazh's mother cries out loud to God to save his son. Just then, heavy winds blow, slowly blowing the sand away. Pugazh then jumps out of the sand with rage. J. D., in disbelief, fights an intense battle with Pugazh. Now, J. D. is weakened by Pugazh and the villagers began to gather around them. Pugazh tells J. D. to tell the villagers the truth. J. D. tells the villagers that Major Saravanan was actually an honest man and it was himself who helped the terrorists. After his confession, Pugazh kills J. D. at once. The film's credits role as the army force gives back Saravanan's army badge and uniform to Pugazh's mother.

Cast

• Vijay as Pugazh and Major Saravanan. Pugazh is the film's protagonist who is on a mission to find the man behind the false accusation and murder of his father Major Saravanan, who was an honest army soldier killed on duty by J. D.

• Nayantara as Janavi. Janavi is J. D.'s daughter who falls for Pugazh's love, part of Pugazh's mission on catching J. D..

• Prakash Raj as J. D.. J. D. is the one who killed Pugazh's father, Saravanan.

• Vadivelu as Maadaswamy. Madaswamy is the audiographer who Pugazh sees on the way to the wedding of Janavi's friend. He often does clumsy acts of humour, getting himself into trouble.

• Manoj K. Jayan as Inspector Joseph. Joseph, Saravanan's old friend, informs Pugazh of his duties on the mission of finding J. D. and the culprits.

Production

Development

Prabhu Deva, who found success in his maiden Tamil directorial venture Pokkiri which also had Vijay in the lead role, sought interest in remaking the Bollywood film Soldier in Tamil. Along with announcing his venture in Bollywood titled Wanted Dead and Alive, which was the remake of Pokkiri, he launched his next Tamil venture in June 2008. Ayngaran International was to produce the film as well. The film was initially titled as Pugazh, which turned out to be the Vijay's character name in the film. Prabhu Deva later announced the titled to be Singam. However, a copyright issue was brought up concerning the title Singam, which was already announced as the title for a film by director Hari, starring Surya Sivakumar. Prabhu Deva then changed the titled to Vill, meaning "bow" in Tamil, a more formal spelling of Villu. The team later found out that S. J. Suryah was to use the title Vill for a Telugu film. Suryah, with the negotiation of Vijay, later changed his film's title.^[2] The title Villu subsequently became the film's official name.^[3]

Soon after Vijay's Kuruvi released, director Prabhu Deva started shooting for Villu with the team's first location being Palani, Tamil Nadu.^[2] The team's second location was set to be in Karaikudi where the team had shot a few important scenes featuring Vijay and Nayantara. Later, reports claimed that the film's script and story would deal with a majority of the film taking place in Italy. Prabhu Deva had reportedly planned two song sequences to be shot in European countries.^[4] Another song sequence was shot in Bangkok, Thailand. In an interview with Prabhu Deva, a month prior to the film's release, Prabhu Deva stated the film will be a "Tamil version of a James Bond film."^[5]

Casting

Vijay was Prabhu Deva's initial choice for the lead role. Prabhu Deva trusted the actor, due to their widely-known friendship, after their success with Pokkiri the previous year. However, several critics and media had dubious thoughts on the choice of Vijay as the lead role actor for the film. Some websites wondered if Villu would promote his career, or give him another below average box-office response, like his previous films Azhagiya Thamizh Magan and Kuruvi, which proved to be failures at the box-office due to their storyline and screenplay.^[6] Asin Thottumkal was expected to pair with Vijay again, after their pairing in Pokkiri, but she later rejected the offer due to her commitments in Bollywood. Nayantara was later confirmed the film's lead actress apon the film's launch. Vadivelu was also confirmed for a supporting role.^[2] Earlier reports claimed that Biju Menon or Napolean were to be given a supporting role, but later the role went to Manoj K. Jayan. Vaiyapuri, Kushboo Sundar and Kovai Sarala were also said to be given roles in the film. However, Sundar was later confirmed an item number appearance while Sarala was to sing a song in the film.

Devi Sri Prasad, Kola Bhaskar and Ravi Varman were confirmed the film's composer, editor, and cinematographer respectively while FEFSI Vijayan was chosen as the stunt coordinator.^[2] Prabhu Deva, Lawrence Raghavendra, Brindha, Kala, and Vijay's assistant Ashok Raj signed as the film's dance choreographers.

Soundtrack

Villu
Studio album by Devi Sri Prasad
Released	14 December 2008
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Ayngaran International
Producer	Ayngaran International
Devi Sri Prasad chronology
King (2008) Villu (2009) Arya 2 (2009)

Box Office

Villu was also a average grosser.Though production cost was not lost,Villu did not create a big impact in the box office

References

External links

• Villu Official Web Site