Malaikottai

Malaikottai
Directed by	Boopathy Pandian
Produced by	T. Ajay Kumar
Written by	Boopathy Pandian
Screenplay by	Boopathy Pandian
Story by	Boopathy Pandian
Starring	Vishal Priyamani Ashish Vidyarthi Urvasi Devaraj
Music by	Mani Sharma
Release dates	28 September 2007 (2007-09-28)
Running time	145 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹10 crore (US$1.5 million)
Box office	₹45 crore (US$6.7 million)

Malaikottai (English: Rockfort) is a 2007 Tamil film directed by Boopathy Pandian, who has also directed the movies Devathaiyai Kanden and Thiruvilayadal Arambam with Dhanush as the hero. Vishal got the lead role, pairing with Priyamani. The story and screenplay were written by the director. The film met with mixed critical response. This movie has been dubbed to Telugu like his previous movies, titled Bhayya (Brother).

Plot

Anbu (Vishal) is a happy-go-lucky engineering student, who lives with his family in Pudhuttukottai and is having a good time singing energetic fast numbers like "Kantha Kadamba" with his friends. One day he gets into a fracas with a local politician ('Kathal' Dhandapani) and his comic henchmen while trying to save a friend and is arrested and a case registered against him. The local court gives him conditional bail, provided he signs the register in a Tiruchi police station!

On the way to Trichy police station, he sees a girl on a terrace (Motta Madi) drying clothes and falls for her. It is love at first sight for Anbu as he becomes crazy about Malar (Priyamani) a college girl, which leads to some hilarious situations. The police station, where he has to sign daily, is manned by his father's brother Kandasamy (Ashish Vidyarthi), a comic Inspector whose ex-lover Kamala (Urvasi) is the constable at the station. Anbu kindles the love life of his uncle and makes merry at Malar’s college, leading to funny situations.

Meanwhile Trichy city is run by a powerful politician Palani (Devaraj) and his brother Guna (Ajay), who have killed the local RDO in cold blood watched by a huge crowd of onlookers. The brothers continue with their ‘dada giri’, till they clash with a brave heart. He is none other than Anbu who, while trying to save Malar from a difficult situation with Palani, ends up getting the wrath of the brothers. Although Malar's mother wants to move away from the city, Anbu and his aunt convince her to stay and make Anbu Malar's protector. He accompanies her and protects her from danger. After seeing his care, Malar slowly falls for him and sees his true love for her. Palani causes problems for Anbu, but Anbu overcomes them and gets Palani killed by his uncle. Malar graduates and marries Anbu, and the story ends.

Cast

• Vishal as Anbu
• Priyamani as Malar
• Devaraj as Palani
• Ajay as Guna
• Ashish Vidyarthi as Kandasamy
• Urvashi as Kamala
• 'Kadhal' Dhandapani
• Ajay Ratnam
• Deepa Venkat

Crew

• Direction: Boopathy Pandian
• Music: Mani Sharma (Tamil and Telugu)
• Action: Kanal Kannan

Production

Shooting for the film commenced on 12 May 2007, at the Kumbakonam Mahamaham tank with picturisation of a song on Vishal.

This was followed by shooting near the Srirangam temple, Tiruchirapalli central bus stand, Kollidam bridge, Thiruvaiyaru court and near the Cauvery bridge in Tiruchirapalli.^[1]

Soundtrack

The music was scored by Mani Sharma. The track "Yeh Aatha" is a remix of the same-titled song scored by Ilaiyaraaja for the 1982 film Payanangal Mudivathillai.^[2]

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Kalaignar.^[3]

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews.^[4] Sify wrote:"big let-down".^[5] Behindwoods wrote:"average masala-mix entertainer".^[6] Reviewing the Telugu dubbed version Bhayya, idlebrain.com rated it 3/5, along with writing "This film is definitely not for the class audiences. But has the potential to do well with the masses."^[7] Fullyhyd.com gave it 1.5/5 star rating, along with stating "You can wait for this one's DVD to come out to watch it, but that would be stupid. Instead, just forget it."^[8]

Box-office

The film was successful at the Box-office, Grossing ₹ 45 crore.^[9][10][11]

Telugu dub

Malaikottai was dubbed into Telugu as Bhayya and did average business.

References