Vettai (Tamil: வேட்டை; English: Hunt) is a 2012 Tamil action film written and directed by N. Linguswamy.^[3] The film stars R. Madhavan, Arya, Sameera Reddy and Amala Paul in the lead roles while Ashutosh Rana, Thambi Ramaiah and Nasser played supporting roles.^[4] The film score is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, while cinematography is by Nirav Shah and editing handled by Anthony Gonsalves.^[5] The film became announced shortly after the release of Lingusamy's Paiyaa, with Dhayanidhi Alagiri's Cloud Nine Movies agreeing to produce the film, following a successful collaboration during the director's previous film.^[6] During a lengthy pre-production phase, the film underwent major changes in its main cast and Cloud Nine Movies stepped out of the project, with Linguswamy's own banner, Thirupathi Brothers, taking up the film.^[7] Filming was initially planned to begin by mid-2010,^[8] but was delayed until March 2011.^[9]

The film revolves around two brothers, the elder being sensitive to violence and the younger being a jobless rogue, settled in Thoothukudi. After the death of their father, a police officer, the elder brother takes on the same job by request of the younger. The older brother rises to fame in his job by having his younger brother secretly punish suspects and save victims for him. This angers two of the village's biggest mob bosses, who begin to seek revenge on the elder brother. After getting severely beaten by them, the elder brother loses his fear and becomes physically stronger through training from his younger brother. How the brothers get back at two gangs and protect their families form the rest of the story.

Vettai was released worldwide on 14 January 2012.^[2] It received positive to mixed reviews and became a box office hit.^[10]

Plot[link]

Thirumurthy and Gurumurthy are two brothers in Thoothukudi, with Thirumurthy being the elder. He is however sensitive to violence and his younger brother is brave and rogue. Whenever Thirumurthy is beaten by anyone, he has Gurumurthy to finish them. However, Gurumurthy gets frequently punished by his policeman father (Nagendra Babu) for beating up the local people, while Thirumurthy only feels for him. After the death of their father, the now grown-up Thirumurthy (R. Madhavan) takes on the same job by request of Gurumurthy (Arya), who remains a jobless rogue. Meanwhile, Thirumurthy falls for Vasanthi (Sameera Reddy) and Gurumurthy falls for her younger sister Jayanthi (Amala Paul). Subsequently, Thirumurthy marries Vasanthi and both the brothers shift to Vasanthi and Jayanthi's house. A number of humorous incidents follow, such as Jayanthi's to-be husband is actually revealed to be a clumsy NRI, who she disapproves of. She openly expresses her love for Gurumurthy, and hence he subsequently marries her. The NRI, heartbroken takes leave.

Thirumurthy rises to fame in his job by having his younger brother secretly punish suspects and save victims for him. This angers one of the village's biggest mob bosses Annachi (Ashutosh Rana) who begins to seek revenge on Thirumurthy. He has his men to severely beat up Thirumurthy, making the latter confident that his brother will continue his job. Gurumurthy, now enraged, claims that he made his elder brother a policeman not for fake, but to overcome the fears he had and to become stronger. Thus, he begins training up his elder brother, who subsequently loses his fear and manages to defeat a few of Annachi's men. Eventually, Annachi and his men break into the brother's house and cause havoc. Thirumurthy and Gurumurthy arrive and defeat all of Annachi's men, however they seem to be no match for Annachi. Finally after Annachi falls for a trap set by the brothers, he is defeated but the two brothers quarrel whether to kill him or arrest him. Thus, Gurumurthy declares that they will role a gun and when the gun stops rolling at the brothers, they will arrest Annachi. Bu if it stops at Annachi, he will be killed. The gun stops rolling at Annachi and Thirumurthy shoots him dead. As the credits roll, scenes show that Thirumurthy is again congratulated by the local police, but gives equal credit to his brother as well. Through this praise, Gurumurthy also gets to join the police force.

Cast[link]

• R. Madhavan as Thirumurthy
• Arya as Gurumurthy
• Amala Paul as Jayanthi
• Sameera Reddy as Vasanthi
• Ashutosh Rana as Annachi
• Nassar as DGP
• Thambi Ramaiah as Constable
• Sreejith Ravi as Surulai
• Nagendra Babu as Gurumurthy and Thirumurthy's father
• Muthukumar
• Shanmugarajan as Kulasekara Pandian
• N. Linguswamy in a special appearance
• Raju Sundaram in a special appearance

Production[link]

Development[link]

In April 2010, following the success of Paiyaa, Cloud Nine Movies, who had distributed the film, announced a successive collaboration with the film's director N. Linguswamy,^[6][11] who would make a romantic action film with Silambarasan in the lead role.^[8] For pre-production works, the crew of the team subsequently headed to Macau to work out the script,^[12] following which Lingusamy moved to the Orange County resort in Coorg, Karnataka to finalize the script.^[13] Later that month a photo shoot was completed, with Silambarsan sporting the get up of an NCC cadet,^[14] However, in July 2010, reports suggested that Silambarasan was dropped from the project, since he suddenly, without informing Lingusamy and Dhayanidhi, signed himself up and began working in Vaanam (2011).^[15] Silambarasan, in return, revealed that he had not officially signed Cloud Nine Pictures' film, and only decided to work on Vaanam, since Lingusamy was not able to narrate the complete script, despite making him wait for over 100 days.^[16] Controversially, Silambarasan later signed another film in September 2010, which was similarly titled as Vettai Mannan.^[17][18]

Eventually in September 2010, the film was official announced at a press meet with the title Vettai, with Arya replacing Silambarasan. At the press meet, he revealed that he worked for over three months on the script, keeping his editor Anthony Gonsalvez and cinematographer Nirav Shah updated about the developments.^[19] The film's principal photography was initially supposed to commence in June 2010,^[20] but due to pre-production works, it got delayed further and was postponed to December.^[21] The film was announced as a bilingual project, to be shot separately in Tamil and Telugu. The Telugu version was supposed to be produced by Tirupati Prasad of Mega Supergood Films and feature Mahesh Babu in the lead role,^[13] with Madhavan reprising his role.^[4] In March 2011, Cloud Nine Movies stepped out of the project, which prompted Linguswamy to produce Vettai, too, under his home banner Thirupathi Brothers along with his brother Subash Chandra Bose.^[7][22]

Casting[link]

After Silambarasan's exit, Vijay was expected to enact the lead role, who had earlier agreed to star in a Lingusamy film in future,^[23] and was subsequently approached by the team.^[15] He, however, declined the offer, not willing to play a role that was "originally written keeping in mind the image of another actor".^[23] Only in September 2010, during the official announcement, it became apparent that Arya was signed on to reprise the lead role. Furthermore, Linguswamy was trying to rope in Madhavan for another leading role, while, several days later, sources reported that Madhavan definitely had rejected the offer.^[24] The next month, however, it was confirmed that Madhavan was roped in to enact the role as a police officer and brother of Arya's character.^[4] Madhavan accepted the film as the story blewed him.^[25]

The lead female role was reported to be essayed by Tamannaah Bhatia, who had been part of Linguswamy's Paiyaa as well. In an interview later, she disclosed that she was not approached earlier and though she liked the script, she could not take the offer due to her prior commitments.^[26] Anushka Shetty then accepted the offer,^[27] while Sameera Reddy was signed to play Madhavan's pair in the film, as a village girl.^[28] In late November 2010, Anushka pulled out and Amala Paul, following her critically acclaimed performance in Mynaa, was roped in to essay a leading character, as the love interest of Arya's character.^[29]

Filming[link]

Originally planned to commence in June 2010, the filming was postponed several times either due to pending pre-production works and unavailability of the artists.^[30] After Arya had finished shooting and dubbing for Avan Ivan, the first schedule was planned to begin on 2 March, which however, was also cancelled as Dhayanidhi wanted the filming to be pushed by another two months, which supposedly was the reason for Linguswamy's decision to produce the film himself. Shooting eventually started on 16 March 2011 in Karaikudi, with Madhavan, Arya, Sameera Reddy and Amala Paul participating.^[9] A song "Dumma Dumma Dummaa", choreographed by Brindha, was shot first, with nearly 2000 people being part of the shoot along with the four lead actors.^[31][32] A fight sequence, involving Arya and Madhavan, was shot in the Pondicherry University sports complex on 24 April.^[33] In June 2011, other key action sequences were filmed at Madurai, Thoothukudi, Thanjavur and Aruppukottai.^[34] The introduction song of the film was also shot in Thanjavur.^[35] Some action sequences were shot in Madanapalle, a town located in the Chittor district, Andhra Pradesh,^[36] while the climax was shot at Binny Mills in Chennai under the supervision of stunt director Silva.^[37]

Soundtrack[link]

Following successful collaborations with director Linguswamy in Sandakozhi (2005) and Paiyaa (2010), Yuvan Shankar Raja was signed up to produce the film score and soundtrack for Vettai as well. In November 2010, the duo along with lyricist Na. Muthukumar left for Malaysia to compose the first tunes. The soundtrack album was launched on 16 December 2011 at the Anna Centenary Auditorium in Kotturpuram, Chennai,^[38] with several lead actors and directors from the Tamil film industry attending the event.^[39][40] Four days prior to the soundtrack release, the song "Pappappa" was launched as a single track at the studios of Radio Mirchi, with a making-of video of the recording being simultaneously uploaded on YouTube.^[41][42] The song, which was sung by Yuvan Shankar Raja himself along with Renu Kannan, a finalist of the second season of the reality-based singing competition Airtel Super Singer, quickly gained attention and became very popular.^[43][44]

All lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar. 

Critical reception[link]

Behindwoods said "Vettai has some peppy likeable soundtracks to its credits. Even if it’s not Yuvan's best, Vettai packages all genres of folksy music well. With songs like 'Pappa Pappa' and the romantic 'Kattipudi', the album is all set to turn out to be a commercial winner".^[45] Itwofs criticized the album as underwhelming package of Yuvan.^[46]

Release[link]

Vettai released on the Pongal weekend on 14 January 2012. The film had a wide release in 550 screens worldwide, including 300 screens in Tamil Nadu, 150 screens in the rest of India, and about a 100 screens overseas in 15 regions consisting of USA, UK, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Holland, Germany, France, Mauritius, Australia, Middle East, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.^[47] and did well in the box office. Satellite rights has been bagged by Vijay TV.^[48]

Critical reception[link]

Vettai received mixed to positive reviews. Behindwoods rated the film 2.5/5 and called it a "light hearted film for the holiday season".^[49] Sify's critic wrote: "Lingusamy's Vettai is a racy mass entertainer with all the ingredients mixed in the right proposition. No doubt that the director understands the pulse of the common man and has beautifully packaged it with all the essential commercial elements to suit the taste of the masses".^[50] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave 2.5/5 and noted: "Vettai is no classic, but it is good fun."^[51] The Times of India wrote: "Though there is nothing new in terms of the story or screenplay, the movie is a fun ride as long as it lasts".^[52] Rohit Ramachandran of Nowrunning.com rated it 3/5 stating that "Vettai is regular Kollywood stuff superiorly packaged with insurmountable energy.".^[53]Malayalam net gave the movie a good rating of (2.75/5) and said that it is a good entertainer..".^[54]

Rachel Saltz of The New York Times wrote: "Vettai partakes of the something-for-everyone formula, mixing the serious — corruption, evil gangs and limb-threatening fights — with the less so: songs, romance and comedy. It entertains without breaking any new ground, though it can also surprise".^[55].The film grossed 72 crores worldwide.

Remake[link]

Vettai is currently being remade in hindi by Lingusaamy himself with Shahid Kapoor playing Arya's role^[56] while Ali Zafar confirmed to play Madhavan's character^[57]. Ileana is rumoured to be the heroine^[58] and Asin refused the film^[59]. Film was originally to be release in a dubbed version in telugu but the film is going to be remade with Naga Chaitanya and Sunil in lead roles^[60].

References[link]

External links[link]

• Vettai at the Internet Movie Database
• Vettai at Rotten Tomatoes

Saranya Mohan born 20 February 1989) is an Indian film actress, who has acted in Malayalam and Tamil films. She is probably best known for her performances in Yaaradi Nee Mohini and Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu.

Early life[link]

Saranya was born on 20 February 1989 in Alappuzha, Kerala as the eldest daughter to Palakkad Iyer parents Mohan and Devika, and has a younger sister named Sukanya.^[1] Her mother, Devika, is a trained classical dancer, who runs a dance school in Alappuzha, where Saranya herself also learnt dancing bharatanatyam. She studied at St. Joseph's College in Alappuzha, completing her B. A. degree in English literature.^[2]

Career[link]

She was brought to light by Malayalam director Fazil, who had seen Saranya dancing at her dancing school.^[3] After approaching and persuading her parents, he casted her for a child character in the 1997 Malayalam film Aniyathi Pravu and its Tamil remake, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai. Following two more roles as a child artiste, she took a break, concentrating on her studies,^[4] before enacting a supporting role in another Fazil directorial, Oru Naal Oru Kanavu (2005), in which she acted as a sister to the male lead character.

Her subsequent release, the Dhanush-Nayantara starrer Yaaradi Nee Mohini (2008), brought her into limelight. Her comedic performance as the younger sister to the lead female, who has a crush on her sister's love interest, won her fame and many accolades. She subsequently appeared in a number of Tamil films, which, however, were less successful. 2009, she had six releases, four of which being Tamil projects. Out of her Tamil releases, the tragedy sports film, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, directed by debutante Suseenthiran, and the supernatural thriller Eeram proved to be commercially as well as critically successful. Later that year, she made her Telugu debut with Village Lo Vinayakudu and made her comeback to Malayalam films, starring in Chemistry. In 2011 she acted in M.Raja's Velayudham which turned out to be a huge hit. Her role as Vijay's sister won her a lot of good reviews. She also acted in another film named Dharani's Osthi in 2011.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

http://manoramanews.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/mmtvContentView.do?contentId=10618722&programId=9958865&tabId=0&BV_ID=%40%40%40

External links[link]

• Official website
• Saranya Mohan at the Internet Movie Database

Amala Paul
Amala Paul at a public relations event (2010)
Born	Amala Paul (1991-10-26)October 26, 1991 Kochi, Kerala, India
Other names	Anakha
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	2009 – present

Amala Paul (born October 26, 1991) is an Indian film actress, who works primarily in the Tamil film industry. After appearing in supporting roles in a few low budget ventures, she received critical acclaim for the portrayal of a controversial character in the film, Sindhu Samaveli. Despite the failure of that film, Amala became noted after playing the title role in Mynaa, receiving critical acclaim for her work. Since then, she has been signed on for several notable projects and is considered the leading upcoming actress in Tamil films.^[1]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Amala Paul, after finishing her Plus Two education, took a year out before planning to pursue engineering. At the time, her modelling portfolio was spotted by noted Malayalam director Lal Jose who offered her a supporting role in his remake, Neelathamara (2009). Despite emerging a success, the film failed to attract any further offers, as she had anticipated.^[2] She pursued roles in Tamil films and went on to sign the low-budget comedy film Vikadakavi which was delayed and ultimately became her sixth release, while also signing on to play the lead role in another small budget film Veerasekaran (2010). The film, which became her maiden Tamil release, was panned by critics and went completely unnoticed,^[3][4] while Amala's role was being labelled as 'minimal',^[3] and she later cited that she regretted doing the film and many of her scenes were edited out.^[2] Amala Paul then went on to work in Samy's controversial Sindhu Samaveli (2010), portraying the role of Sundari, who has an illicit relationship with her father-in-law. The director of the film had previously drawn criticism for his depictions of illicit romances as well as for assaulting his previous lead actress in a film, but Amala played down the issue citing that she had no problem with the director.^[2] She was approached after the major portions of her next release, Mynaa were ready and signed on before listening to the entirety of the story, claiming that she was shocked but not upset with the controversial scenes which she heard later.^[2] Upon release, the film met with contrasting reviews, whilst some critics refused to give the film a rating, declaring their disgust at the film's plot.^[5][6] Amala's performance won her critical acclaim. However her success was marred with extreme reactions from the public, with Amala claiming she received death threats from anonymous callers and was publicly scolded by women at a cinema hall in Chennai.^[7]

[edit] Mynaa and the future (2010 - present)

Amala's next release, the romantic drama film Mynaa (2010) by Prabhu Solomon, made her a recognised actress in the industry. The film had garnered much anticipation prior to release, with noted distributors Udhayanidhi Stalin and Kalpathi S. Aghoram purchasing the rights of the film after being impressed with it.^[8] Amala played the village belle Mynaa, attaining unanimous praise from critics for her portrayal; a critic labelled her work as "outstanding" and that she put in a "riveting performance",^[9] while other reviews claimed she had "immense talent" and scores in "every instance" in the title role.^[10] The film, which also saw her gain recognition from noted actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, subsequently became a large commercial success at the box-office.^[8] Amala Paul gained recognition from several award committees and notably secured the Vijay Award for Best Debut Actress, while also gaining nominations in the Best Actress category at the Filmfare Awards and the Vijay Awards.

Following the success of Mynaa, Amala became touted as the "new star of 2011" as she subsequently signed on to several prominent projects.^[1] Her first release of 2011 was in a supporting role in the Malayalam drama film, Ithu Nammude Katha, a remake of the successful Tamil film Naadodigal and the second was meant to be her launch in Tamil films, the coming-to-age tale of five friends Vikadakavi with the film opening to limited screens. Both films opened to limited screens due to the moderate budget of the projects, with her performance in the latter being described as "full of potential".^[11] She went on to sign three big budget films with established production houses, with the drama Deiva Thirumagal directed by Vijay, featuring her opposite Vikram and alongside Anushka,^[12] becoming her next release. Her portrayal of school correspondent Shwetha Rajendran won critical acclaim with a reviewer citing that her "expressive eyes help her leave a mark in a small but important role" whilst another critic claimed she "acquits herself well".^[13][14] Her final release of 2011 was Ram Gopal Varma's Bejawada which marked her début in Telugu language films. The film saw her portray college girl, Geetanjali, and featured her opposite Naga Chaitanya, but the film opened to negative reviews and became a surprise box office failure.^[15]

Amala Paul's first release of 2012 was in Linguswamy's multi-starring action entertainer, Vettai, alongside Arya, Madhavan and Sameera Reddy.^[12] The film opened to critical and commercial acclaim with The New York Times claiming the film "entertains without breaking any new ground, though it can also surprise".^[16] Amala Paul won mixed feedback for her performance; while the critic from Sify mentioned she "is lovely to look at and her feisty performance proves that a star is born",^[17] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff cited she "struts, pouts and hams to the hilt".^[18] The actress had three films released on the Valentine's Day weekend of 2012, with Balaji Mohan's bilingual Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi and Love Failure becoming critical and commercial successes. The film, made in Tamil and Telugu, featured her alongside Siddharth and portrayed as her college girl, Parvathi, showing her romantic encounter. About the Tamil version, a reviewer from The Hindu wrote: "Amala Paul, after coming across as convincing in her last few movies, looks finally set as a leading lady", while another critc labelled that she "comes across as natural" and "it is a pleasure to see her in a role and costumes that suit her age as compared to her recent movies".^[19][20] Rediff.com called the Telugu version of the film "refreshing", highlighting that the lead pair's on-screen chemistry "sparkles".^[21] The romantic musical Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal opposite Adharvaa, also released on the same day in which she played Charulatha, a modern girl based in Bangalore. She played a notable role in renowned director Dr. Biju's Aakashathinte Niram, which was her first art-house film. The film was screened at the competition section for the Golden Goblet Award in the 15th Shanghai International Film Festival.

Personal life[link]

Amala was born on October 26, 1991 in Ernakulam, Kerala to Christian Malayali parents, Paul Varghese and Annice Paul.^[22] After completing her Plus Two examinations at Nirmala Higher Secondary School, Aluva she took a sabbatical to begin a career in films, but has since joined St. Teresa's College in Kochi, to pursue a BA degree in English and is currently in her third year.^[12][23] Her father had been strictly against Amala pursuing an acting career, but was forced to accept her decision with her older brother, Abijith, strongly backing her ambition.^[12] She later claimed she had performing arts in her DNA, revealing that her mother was a singer and her dad was into theatre in college.^[24] Amala had changed her on-screen name to Anakha, on director Samy's insistence, who cited that another actress, Amala had already made her name popular. However, after the failure of Sindhu Samaveli, she reverted to her birth name since she felt that the replacement had brought her bad luck.^[12]

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

|Just For Women- Sun TV |Youth Female Actor |style="background: #99FF99; color: black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="yes table-yes2"|Won |}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Amala Paul at the Internet Movie Database
• Amala Paul in Twitter