Singam

Singam
Directed by	Hari
Produced by	K. E. Gnanavel Raja
Written by	Hari
Starring	Suriya Anushka Shetty Prakash Raj Adithya Menon Nassar
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography	Priyan
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Production company	Reliance BIG Pictures Studio Green
Distributed by	Sun Pictures
Release dates	28 May 2010 (2010-05-28)
Running time	159 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹150 million[1]
Box office	est. ₹650 million[2]

Singam (Tamil: சிங்கம், English: Lion) is a 2010 Indian Tamil action masala film directed by Hari, starring Suriya and Anushka Shetty in the lead.^[3] The film, produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja in association with Reliance Big Pictures, and distributed by Sun Pictures, was released on 28 May 2010. Upon release, the film was dubbed into Telugu and released as Yamudu and into Hindi as The Fighterman Singham.^[4][5] The film's success led to remakes in Kannada as Kempe Gowda,^[6] in Hindi as Singham,^[7] and in Bengali as Shotru.^[8] The sequel, Singam II, which released in July 2013, was a big commercial success as well.^[9] S3 is to be released in December 16 2016.^[10]

Plot

Durai Singam (Suriya), is the honest police sub-inspector of Nallur, a small village in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu, assisted by his bumbling colleague Erimalai (Vivek). He belongs to Nallur with his father (Radha Ravi) having a respectable status in the village. His family business is provision stores and Duraisingam wants to join it, but he joined police due to his father's wishes. He resolves most of the problems in his village with non-violence and mutual counselling. He uses force only when the situation demands it, thereby gaining much reputation and love from the villagers. Mahalingam (Nassar), an industrialist in Chennai and a friend of Singam's father, comes to the village with his daughter Kavya (Anushka Shetty). Eventually Singam and Kavya fall in love with each other.

Chennai-based Mayil Vaaganam (Prakash Raj), a big-time extortionist with shady mafia dealings who blackmails people by complaining to the Income Tax Department, is required to travel to Nallur to sign a conditional bail. He instead, sends one of his allies to do the formalities, much to the anger and rage of Singam who demands Mayil sign the bail in person. Humiliated, Mayil reaches Nallur but is unable to take any revenge on Singam fearing the immense love and devotion of the entire village towards Singam. Using his political contacts, he gets Singam transferred to Chennai to teach him a lesson.

Singam, unaware of Mayil's hand behind his transfer, joins Thiruvanmiyur police station. His co-worker, Sub-Inspector Ravi (Bose Venkat), hates Mayil for his crimes but is unable to take any action because of Mayil's political powers. The assistant commissioner (Nizhalgal Ravi), Singam's senior, is on Mayil's payroll and takes care in concealing and eliminating the evidence of Mayil's crimes from the eyes of the law. The police commissioner (Ajay Rathnam) also does not help Singam as there is no evidence against Mayil and the assistant commissioner and in turn, warns him to stay away from Mayil's case. Unable to take on Mayil in his stronghold, Singam wants to return to his village but is stopped by Kavya who encourages him to fight against the evil and not run like a coward.

Being mentally tortured by Mayil, Singam arrests Mayil's brother (Adithya Menon) in a fake case of illegally smuggling alcohol. He thwarts off the assistant commissioner in full view of the public when the assistant commissioner, bounded by his duties to Mayil, tries to protect the henchman. Meanwhile, Mayil kidnaps Kavya's younger sister for ransom. Rescuing her, with unexpected help from the Home Minister (Vijayakumar) Singam successfully traces the origins of the kidnapping racket to Mayil. Singam also gets promoted to Assistant Commissioner of the specially-formed Anti-kidnapping Task Force. Mahalingam, who was hostile to Singam following an altercation with Singam's father back at Nallur, softens up and agrees to give him Kavya's hand in marriage.

The police officers, including the police commissioner, and the assistant commissioner, now on Singam's side, decide to help Singam fight Mayil. They manage to kill Mayil's henchman in an encounter at a hospital and begins to target everyone and everything related to Mayil. In retribution, Mayil starts targeting everyone close to Singam, including Kavya, whom he shoots but is saved by Singam, and Ravi, who is hacked to death by Mayil's henchmen. To escape the arrest warrant issued out to him, Mayil kidnaps the Karnataka Home Minister's daughter. He falsely tells Singam that he is going to Pondicherry with her when actually he is going to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to put the police off the track. However Singam manages to pursue them till Gudur near Nellore, where he rescues the home minister's daughter and kills Mayil in an encounter.

During the credits, Durai Singam is seen with Kavya heading back to Nallur, and as when Singam is stopped briefly by the Home Minister who offers an undercover mission, to which Singam willingly agrees.

Cast

Production

Development

After Suriya had finished K. S. Ravikumar's Aadhavan, discussions regarding his subsequent project, notably his 25th film, were held. Initially, reports emerged that it was going to be directed by Prabhu Deva.^[11] At the launch of his film Seval in May 2009, however, director Hari announced officially that he would direct Suriya's 25th film titled Singam and that he had finished penning the script.^[11] Becoming Suriya's third film with Hari following Aaru and Vel, it was announced that the project would release in July 2010.^[5] Suriya's cousin, K. E. Gnanavel Raja was announced as the producer.^[12]

Casting

Though initial reports suggested that Yuvan Shankar Raja would score the music, Devi Sri Prasad was chosen as the music director, thus becoming his third venture with Suriya. Suriya was revealed to play a police officer in the film, the second time in his career after Kaakha Kaakha.^[13] Anushka was chosen to play the female lead, after several actresses were considered and approached.^[5] Priyan was chosen as the lead camera man and V.T. Vijayan as the editor.^[14]

Filming

After completing Seval, Hari joined the cast and crew to start the filming in 2009. The shooting began in Thirunelveli district and was carried on in southern parts of Tamil Nadu. A scene from the song "Stole my Heart" was shot in Muscat Park that was choreographed by Brindha.^[15] Afterwards, some scenes where shot in Karnataka. The main scenes were shot in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai. During December, Hari announced that the film wouldn't have a formal audio launch as per his previous films and that the shooting would get over quickly.^[16] The trailers were released on 24 February. Sun Pictures acquired the distribution rights,^[17] and Sony Music bought the music for a hefty price.^[18]

Soundtrack

Singam
Soundtrack album by Devi Sri Prasad
Released	11 May 2010
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Sony Music
Producer	Devi Sri Prasad
Devi Sri Prasad chronology
Sye Aata (2010) Singam (2010) Manmadan Ambu (2010)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Behindwoods	*[19]

The film's soundtrack, released on 11 May 2010, was scored by Devi Sri Prasad, marking his third collaboration with Suriya after Maayavi and Aaru.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV. The film was given a "U/A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board and released worldwide on 28 May 2010 released in 850 screens worldwide. Telugu dubbed version titled Yamudu released on 2 July 2010.

Critical response

Behindwoods gave 2.5 out of 5 and stated that Hari has "concocted and packaged his masala contents in the right proportion and has served a tasty dish", while praising Suriya for having "diligently worked towards balancing the niche and the mass" and proving "once again that he can deliver a commercial masala flick with as finesse as he can deliver a performance-oriented film".^[20] Sify described the film as a "predictable entertainer that follows the age old formula", citing that it was Suriya who "carries the film to the winning post. His passion and the way he brings an ordinary regular larger-than-life hero character alive on screen is lesson for other commercial heroes".^[21] Rediff also gave 2.5 out of 5 stating that the film was an "unapologetic, entertainer and has Suriya in every frame. Lovers of commercial potpourri will definitely get their money's worth."^[22] Indiaglitz wrote that Singam was the "king of the masses, who love action and commercial films".^[23] A Times of India critic gave 3.5 out of 5, claiming that "even with a sleepy narration in the first 30 minutes or so, Singam is worth a watch."^[24]

Remakes

Awards

Filmfare Awards South

Best Dance Choreographer - Baba Bhaskar for "Kadhal Vandhale"

See also

• Overseas Box office of Kollywood films

References

External links

• Singam at the Internet Movie Database