Vaanam

Vaanam (transl. Sky) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by Krish. A remake of his own Telugu film Vedam (2010), the film features an ensemble cast of Silambarasan, Bharath, Prakash Raj, Anushka Shetty, Santhanam, Sonia Agarwal and Saranya Ponvannan. The score and soundtrack were composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, while cinematography and editing were handled by Nirav Shah and Anthony, respectively. The film, jointly produced by VTV Ganesh and R. Ganesh, and was distributed by Dayanidhi Azhagiri's Cloud Nine Movies.

Vaanam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Krish
Screenplay by	Krish
Dialogues by	S. Gnanagiri
Story by	Krish
Based on	Vedam
Produced by	VTV Ganesh R. Ganesh
Starring	Silambarasan Bharath Prakash Raj Anushka Shetty Santhanam Sonia Agarwal Saranya Ponvannan
Cinematography	Nirav Shah Gnana Shekar V. S.
Edited by	Anthony
Music by	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Production companies	VTV Productions Magic Box Pictures
Distributed by	Cloud Nine Movies
Release date	29 April 2011 (2011-04-29)
Running time	161 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Vaanam is a hyperlink film, with the story revolving around the lives of five individuals from different walks of life, and illustrates how their fates intertwine on New Year's Eve at a hospital in Chennai. The film was released on 29 April 2011 and received mostly positive reviews, thereby becoming a success at the box-office.

Plot

Thillai "Cable" Raja is a cable operator born and raised in a slum area in Chennai. He bemoans his poverty and wishes to become rich by marrying his girlfriend Priya. He cons her into believing he is well off and adopts a well-bred persona in front of her. Raja is always accompanied by his best friend Seenu and guided by Bhajan singer Ganesh. When he is asked by Priya to buy high-priced passes to a New Year's Eve gala, he finds himself severely short of money. After a failed attempt at chain snatching and crossing paths with the police, he heads to a hospital with theft on his mind.

Bharath Chakravarthy is an aspiring rockstar from Bangalore who is irresponsible but well-meaning. His mother disapproves of his dreams and wishes him to become an Army officer, which he opposes. When his band misses their flight to a live concert because of him, he takes them to Chennai via road. En route, Bharath and his girlfriend Laasya are attacked by religious fanatics, but are aided by strangers, which causes him to reflect on life. They finally arrive in Chennai, but their vehicle collides with an auto rickshaw carrying a pregnant woman. Sacrificing their concert, Bharath and Laasya rush her to the hospital.

Saroja is a prostitute working at Rani Amma's brothel at the Tamil Nadu-Andhra border. When she discovers that her life is constantly in danger while working there, she escapes to Chennai with her sister Karpooram, a eunuch, in hopes of starting her own business venture. On arrival, she is hounded by thugs and policemen, ultimately being led into a trap. In an ensuing fight, Karpooram is mortally wounded. Desperate, Saroja carries her to the hospital.

Rahimuddin Qureshi and his wife Zara had lost their unborn twins in a communal riot in Coimbatore. When Zara becomes pregnant again a few months later, Rahim heads to Chennai to locate his younger brother, who had run away following the riots. There, he comes into repeated conflict with anti-Muslim officer Shivaram, who suspects him of being a terrorist. Despite his claims of innocence, Rahim is brutally assaulted by Shivaram and is admitted in the hospital under close watch.

Lakshmi is the daughter-in-law of a poor weaver in Thoothukudi. When the weaver is unable to pay back a loan to a cruel moneylender Narasimman, the latter kidnaps Lakshmi's young son, a bright student, and refuses to release him until his debt is cleared. Lakshmi arrives in Chennai with her father-in-law, hoping to sell her kidney to obtain the money. After initial hassles, she undergoes the operation and receives the money, although it is still insufficient. At that point, Raja enters and steals the cash from her, ignoring her pleas. In a state of despair, Lakshmi and her father-in-law attempt suicide.

Struck by his conscience, Raja is unable to continue his plan. He admits the truth to Priya and returns the money, even adding in some of his own money to give up, thus gaining Lakshmi's forgiveness. Meanwhile, Rahim discovers that terrorist leader Mansoor Khan and his gang are planning to kill all the people at the hospital. Rahim tries to escape, but on seeing Bharath wheeling in a pregnant woman, he is reminded of his wife and offers to help them. The terrorist strike begins, and several people are shot dead. Raja, Bharath, Rahim, and Saroja lead a small bunch of survivors to an abandoned room.

Raja and Bharath fight and kill a terrorist one-on-one, with Bharath sustaining multiple bullet wounds to his shoulder in order to save Saroja. Rahim saves Shivaram from a shooter and comes face to face with his brother, who is part of the terrorist gang. When confronted, Rahim's brother shoots himself. Just then, Khan reveals himself to be a suicide bomber, and primes to explode. Raja sacrifices himself by pulling Khan and falling out of the window, followed by the explosion.

In the aftermath, Bharath has lost one of his hands but is alive; he is hailed as a national hero. Saroja and Karpooram head toward a new decent life, hoping to find redemption. Lakshmi and her father-in-law manage to pay off Narasimman and give her son a proper education. Shivaram apologizes to Rahim and asks for forgiveness, which he grants and accepts him as a brother. Raja is mourned by the people in his community and Priya, while Ganesh and Seenu hail him as a martyr.

Cast

• Silambarasan as Thillai Raja alias "Cable" Raja
• Bharath as Bharath Chakravarthy
• Prakash Raj as Rahimuddin Qureshi
• Santhanam as Tantanatan Seenu
• Ganesh as "Bhajana" Ganesh
• Anushka Shetty as Saroja
• Sonia Agarwal as Zara Rahim
• Saranya Ponvannan as Lakshmi
• Vega as Laasya
• Jasmin as Priya
• Radha Ravi as the police inspector
• Jayaprakash as Mansoor Khan
• Ravi Raghavendra as the kidney transplant surgeon
• Ravi Prakash as ACP Shivaram
• Pramila Rani as Raja's mother
• Master Sanjay as Pandi
• Nikki as Karpooram
• Dhandapani as Narasimman
• Sandhya Janak as Bharath's mother

Archival footage from Vedam

• Brahmanandam as Bhairavan
• Prudhvi Raj as the sub-inspector
• Vajja Venkata Giridhar as Gopi

Production

Development

The film producer R. B. Choudary bought the rights of Vedam to remake it in Tamil, and two big stars were reported to star in the film. However, Silambarasan and producer VTV Ganesh had seen the film in Casino Theatre in Chennai. They approached Krish Jagarlamudi, the director of Vedam, to direct the remake, which would mark his Tamil debut. Silambarasan started shooting for the film from early July, while he was expected to work on Podaa Podi during that period. By accepting this film, Silambarasan was said to have lost the project with N. Linguswamy and Dayanidhi Azhagiri, who were unhappy about Silambarasan starting to shoot for this film without informing them and further delaying their film. Krish slightly modified the original script lengthening the Muslim character and modifying the musician character.

Casting and filming

Anushka Shetty was initially hesitant to star in the film and came aboard since Krish was the director. However, she dismissed reports that she denied the film and eventually confirmed that she would reprise her role from the original, citing that "at no point did I refuse to be a part of this project". Manchu Manoj was also supposed to reprise his original character and enact the rockstar role in Vaanam but opted out. He was subsequently replaced by Bharath.

Sneha Ullal was initially hired to make her Tamil debut with this film and play Silambarasan's love interest. Vega Tamotia was hired to play a rock musician, played originally by Lekha Washington, being paired to Bharath, while producer Ganesh would appear in a cameo role, too. In September 2010, Sonia Agarwal was also signed up for a pivotal role, returning to acting after four years, replacing Siya Gautham as Zara, the wife of Prakash Raj's character, which she was initially supposed to play in the original version itself, but eventually missed due to personal problems. Compared to the original, however, she cited that she would have more scenes and one "extra song". Manoj Bajpayee was initially considered to reprise his role from Vedam; however, the role was ultimately played by Prakash Raj. Telugu actor Ravi Prakash was hired to play the same role he did in the original version, making his Tamil film debut. In early 2011, as Ullal, who had already shot for significant portions, was replaced by Delhi-based model Jasmin Bhasin. Bhasin completed her portions in 15 days and also dubbed for herself, had initially auditioned for the rock musician role of Vega Tamotia. Furthermore, scenes shot with Jagan were removed from the project, and then filmed with Santhanam after Jagan had fallen out with Silambarasan. Anushka Shetty's personal makeup man Nikki plays a transgender in the film, reprising his role from the original. Krish, who made a cameo in Vedam as a saamiyar, reprised his role in this film.

Themes and influences

The five central characters, which originated from Vedam, subtly represent the five natural elements—aether, air, water, fire, and earth. Due to the film's multi-narrative format of several short stories joining together in the climax, it drew similarities to films such as Amores perros (2000), Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004), Crash (2004) and Babel (2006). Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu noted how the ensemble cast of Vaanam adds to the film's appeal similar to that of Babel.

Music

Main article: Vaanam (soundtrack)

While Krish worked with composer M. M. Keeravani for the score and soundtrack of the original film, Yuvan Shankar Raja was approached and assigned as the music director of Vaanam to produce original songs and score. a novel attempt, the song "Evan Di Unna Pethan" was separately released as a single track to promote and popularise the film. The track was initially planned to be launched in London, but after several complications and delays, it was officially unveiled on 1 December 2010, at the Citi Center, Chennai, four months ahead of the actual audio launch.

While the original soundtrack consisted of eight tracks, the Vaanam soundtrack featured only five tracks, including the earlier released single. The entire soundtrack album was finally launched on 30 March 2011 at the Residency Towers in Chennai in a simple manner.

Release

Vaanam was initially slated to release on 11 February 2011, to coincide with the Valentines Day weekend. However, the release of the film was pushed to 9 April 2011 before the film was eventually released on 29 April 2011.

Reception

Box office

The film collected ₹72 lakhs at the Chennai box office in its first weekend, notably without much publicity.

Critical response

Vaanam garnered mostly positive responses. Rediff's Pavithra Srinivasan rated it as three out of five and stated that Vaanam was "engaging", further adding that "if you ignore the minor lapses, you've got a reasonably engaging story, and a moving climax". Sify.com's critic felt the film was "very good", citing that the "this short story genre [...] manages to work well for the new age audience. Almost all the stories are deftly told, with the mandatory twist in the climax which keeps you riveted". The reviewer further praised the director and his team as they "push the cinematic envelope and bring savvy freshness to Tamil cinema". Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu said "Pithy, poignant, funny and serious as the situation warrants, dialogue (Gnanagiri) is a highpoint of Vaanam. Climax is another. Krish seems to have cut and pasted a few scenes from the Telugu original – they give a dubbed-film feel to Vaanam. Coming after the stupendous hit, VTV, Vaanam should be another significant film in STR's career". A critic from The New Indian Express wrote that " Relaying a warm message of compassion and hope, ‘Vaanam’, with it’s different take, is worth a watch".

Baradwaj Rangan wrote that his "glass-half-full side wants to deliver a smallish pat on Vaanam's back and label it [...] a "praiseworthy attempt", especially within mainstream parameters", while the "glass-half-empty side" was "still shaking angry fists at what could have and should have been a milestone", criticising that "half the story strands are simply not interesting enough".

Accolades

Silambarasan received the ITFA Best Actor Award for his performance in Vaanam. Santhanam received the Chennai Times Award for Best Actor in a Comic Role.

Controversies

In July 2011, Bharath alleged that he did not receive much attention for being in the film and stated that he was completely overlooked during the film's promotions. He added that he was given favourable publicity during his first multi-starrer Pattiyal (2006), and that Vaanam gave importance to "only one face" – its main lead Silambarasan. In response to this, Silambarasan denied any involvement in the film's promotional strategy and hinted that the film's success was largely dependent on his star image.

"Evan Di Unna Pethan" faced severe opposition for its allegedly provocative lyrics by Silambarasan. A women's rights organisation in Chennai criticised the lyrics and issued a statement to Silambarasan for the lyrics being "chauvinistic" that "demean women". Further it was argued that "music needs to appeal to larger sections than to the 'thrill-seeking' youth who are often misguided into 'cheap thrills' because of such songs", demanding censorship. However, several prominent people from the film industry came to support stating that there have been more objectionable scenes in films in the past and that there were "bigger issues in society" and applying censorship was not "the ideal way out in democracy".

External links

• Vaanam at IMDb