Kaappaan
Kaappaan
| Kaappaan | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | K. V. Anand |
| Produced by | Subaskaran Allirajah |
| Written by | Pattukkottai Prabakar R. M. Muthu Ganesan (Dialogues) |
| Screenplay by | K. V. Anand Pattukkottai Prabakar |
| Story by | K. V. Anand Pattukkottai Prabakar |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Harris Jayaraj |
| Cinematography | M. S. Prabhu Abinandhan Ramanujam |
| Edited by | Anthony |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Reliance Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 163 minutes[2] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Budget | ₹75 crore[3] |
Kaappaan (transl. Protector) is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by K. V. Anand and co-written by Pattukkottai Prabakar.[4] It was produced by Lyca Productions and stars Suriya, Arya, Mohanlal, Sayyeshaa Saigal, Boman Irani, Samuthirakani and Chirag Jani.[5][6][7]
The narrative revolves around Kathir, an organic farmer and a Special Protection Group (SPG) officer who struggles to protect the Prime Minister from a mysterious man who threatens his life. Kathir also has to deal with agricultural issues cropping in his village and those responsible for it. The film was released theatrically on 20 September 2019.[8]
Plot[edit source]
Terrorists attempt to assassinate the Indian Prime Minister, Chandrakanth Varma, in New Delhi. The event security services learn about this and the attack is started when the PM arrives. The PM is saved and sent to his office. The Government thwarts the attempt with National Security Guard (NSG) operations on Varma's direct orders. Unfortunately the Union minister for Communications is killed as collateral damage. The deceased's daughter is Anjali, the PM's junior office secretary. At the same time, in Thanjavur, Kathiravan aka Kathir, is an organic farmer who also moonlights as a special agent working for the country's military intelligence. Meanwhile, the captured terrorist reveals another plot to assassinate the PM during his visit to London. The SPG seek Kathir's help to protect the PM in London and Kathir is able to identify and shoot the suspect. Anjali mistakes Kathir for the assassin and tails him, but he tricks her into getting drunk and shakes her off. Varma then leaves for India only to find that the Indian soldiers in Kashmir were killed by the Pakistani army. Business tycoon and public figure Mahadev meets with Varma and secretly discusses about methods of retaliation.
While celebrating Kathir's coworker and friend Joseph and his wife Priya's wedding anniversary, Joseph gets a murder threat and his pet cat is fatally shot. Kathir and Joseph track the mysterious caller but he diverts them with a mini bomb blast and escapes. Meanwhile, Varma leaves to Kashmir to address the public. A mysterious caller tampers with the SPG's communication system and points to a bomb on the stage where Varma is present. Kathir locates the explosive and throws it away without any casualties. Varma is moved to his convoy but the caller uses this scuffle to diffuse yet another bomb planted in Varma's car, killing him instantly.
As an aftermath of Varma's untimely demise, there is power struggle for the successor to the PM's position. Varma's advisor chooses Varma's son, Abhishek Chandrakanth Varma (Arya) to be the next PM to avoid a political split. Kathir returns to the crime scene and finds an abandoned house in the vicinity, which is revealed to be the place where the killer had been. Joseph and the forensic team find evidence and match it to Ranjith, a disgraced double agent in the SPG and also their friend. Ranjith is now out for revenge on Varma and the SPG because of his prior arrest resulting in his family's suicide.
Meanwhile, the farmers are rioting against the construction of mines in Thanjavur, since it is destroying their agriculture. Abhishek plans to shut down the mines but is resisted by Mahadev who owns them and the two get into a political cold war. Despite security warnings, Abhishek takes Anjali out on her birthday and a murder attempt is made on him and Anjali injures her arm. Kathir and Joseph save Abhishek but while escaping, Joseph is mortally wounded. During the post-mortem, Kathir finds that one of his officers, Prem, has tried to tamper with the evidence. Prem reveals he is a double agent as well and is in cahoots with Ranjith and he was the one who killed Joseph while he was rescuing Abhishek.
Meanwhile, the fields in Thanjavur are suddenly infested with male caelifera locusts. It is orchestrated by Mahadev, since the farmers didn't give up their land for his mining company. Mahadev also happens to be the brain behind Varma's assassination and Ranjith and Prem are merely his puppets. Abhishek and Mahadev discuss about this ongoing feud and make a deal that in the immediate press conference, Mahadev will agree to shutting down his mines in Thanjavur. Mahadev seemingly agrees, but secretly plans to release both male and female caelifera, which will ensure the destruction of the crops without any chances of revival and his mining company can be established without further problems. Kathir figures this out and destroys the train in which the locusts are being transported. At the press conference, Ranjith gains entry to the control room and plans to kill Abhishek on Mahadev's orders. Kathir beats up Ranjith who reveals that the bomb is with Anjali. She is called to the control room, they find that the cast on her broken arm contains the bomb. Anjali's cast is removed and the bomb is disposed. Furthermore, Ranjith also says that Kathir's jacket has a bomb and removing it will cause it to detonate. With Kathir frozen on the spot, Ranjith and Mahadev escape and enter the latter's car and detonate the bomb. But we find that Kathir had found the bomb in his jacket earlier and placed it in Mahadev's car. Mahadev and Ranjith are killed, thus ending their reign of terror.
Cast[edit source]
- Suriya as Kathiravan (Kathir), an Organic Farmer, SPG Commando, later PM's Principal Security Adviser
- Mohanlal as Chandrakanth Varma, Prime Minister of India[9][10]
- Arya as Abhishek (Abhi), Son of Chandrakanth Varma, later Prime Minister of India
- Sayyeshaa as Anjali, PM's Press Secretary (Kathir's love interest)
- Samuthirakani as Joseph Selvaraj, SPG Director
- Poorna as Priya, Joseph's wife[11]
- Boman Irani as Rajan Mahadev, Industrialist and Businessman[12]
- Chirag Jani as Ranjith Kumar[13] / Former Intelligence
- Prem as Prem, SPG Commando[7]
- Kiran as Vivek, SPG Commando [14]
- Uma Padmanabhan as Chandrakanth Varma's wife
- Thalaivasal Vijay as Santhosh[15], Cabinet Secretary
- Paruthiveeran Sujatha as Kathiravan's mother
- Shankar Krishnamurthy as Sundhar
- Nagineedu as Sikander, Defense Minister
- Swaminathan as Ramanujam
- Mayilswamy as police inspector
- Ravi Prakash as Mahadev's assistant
- Manoj Lulla as Manoj
- R. N. R. Manohar as Member of Parliament
- Anitha Sampath as Newsreader Kavitha
- Pattukkottai Prabakar in a special appearance as a journalist
- Mohan in a special appearance as Kuldeep
- M. S. Prabhu in a special appearance as Kashmir collector
- Anthony in a special appearance as Irfan, interrogation officer
- Nikitha Harris Jayaraj in a special appearance in the song "Vinnil Vinmeen"
- Danielle Haden as an item number in the song "Machan Inga Vandhira"
Production[edit source]
Principal photography of the film commenced on 25 June 2018,in London. Arya replaced Allu Sirish who opted out of the film due to scheduling conflicts, making his first collaboration with Suriya.[16][17] The film was shot on multiple locations at various places across the world including New York, Brazil, New Delhi and Hyderabad.[5][6][18] It was referred to, colloquially, by the media as Suriya 37 as it is the thirty-seventh film to star Suriya.[19] The film also marks Boman Irani's Tamil debut. Amitabh Bachchan was approached for a role as the Prime Minister of India, but later Mohanlal was roped in.[9][10]
Initially, Gavemic U. Ary of Jigarthanda fame was announced as the cinematographer of the film, but in a turn of events Abhinandan Ramanujam replaces him. Later, cinematographer Ramanujam left the project after the first schedule, apparently due to scheduling conflicts with cinematography commitments for Malayalam film 9. Subsequently, M. S. Prabhu who previously collaborate with Suriya and director Anand for the film Ayan was assigned as cinematographer.[20][21]
Also, it was revealed that Harris Jayaraj, Anthony and D. R. K. Kiran was assigned as music director, film editor and art director respectively, continuing their association with the director from his previous films.[22]
The makers had registered three titles: Kaappaan, Meetpaan and Uyirkaa, and asked fans to choose what title to name the film through a poll. Although the majority of fans voted for Uyirkaa,[23] on 31 December 2018, Lyca Productions announced the film's title as Kaappaan.[24][25]
The movie shot a song sequence on Indonesia's Java island. Director K.V Anand shared the news via Twitter. It was also reported that Mohanlal will play the Indian Prime Minister, and Suriya is said to play a high-ranking security officer.[26][27]
Soundtrack[edit source]
The soundtrack album is scored by Harris Jayaraj in his fifth collaboration with director K. V. Anand.[28] On July 21, the audio launch event of Kaappaan was held in Chennai in a grand manner.[29] It was a star-studded affair that saw the likes of Rajinikanth, director Shankar, and lyricist Vairamuthu attend the event.[30] Harris' daughter Karen Nikita Harris has made her debut as a singer with this film, lending her voice to the song 'Vinnil Vinmeen'.[31]
Upon release, the album received a positive review from Firstpost, commenting that "Harris Jayraj composes yet another album loaded with chartbusters for Suriya's film. Dipped in quintessential Harris signature, the album offers different styles of music, ending up with different results." [32] Suriya and Harris Jayaraj have collaborated for the 9th time through this film.
| Kaappaan | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 21 July 2019 | |||
| Studio | Studio H | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 19:28 | |||
| Language | Tamil | |||
| Label | Sony Music India | |||
| Producer | Harris Jayaraj | |||
| Harris Jayaraj chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Kaappaan | ||||
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Release[edit source]
On 31 December 2018, Lyca Productions announced the film's title as Kaappaan, following by two first look posters released on the New Year's Day, 1 January 2019. The teaser for the film was released, coinciding with the Tamil New Year on 14 April 2019. Initially, the makers announced that the film is scheduled to release on 30 August 2019, but considering the release of Saaho, which is scheduled on the same date, the release was pushed to 20 September 2019. The first trailer of the film was released on the YouTube channel of the production company on 4 September 2019, followed by the second trailer which was released on 14 September 2019. A Telugu dubbed version titled Bandobast was released simultaneously with the Tamil version.[33] Kaappaan earned ₹88.75 crore as pre-release business.[34]
Reception[edit source]
Critical reception[edit source]
The film received positive reviews from audience,[35] and mixed reviews from critics.[36] Behindwoods rated 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "Kaappaan is a watchable commercial drama and action treat to Suriya fans, that has some good engaging moments".[37] The Times of India rated 2 out of 5 stars stating "KV Anand’s Kaappaan feels like one of those patriotic films that Vijayakanth and Arjun frequently made in the 90s, but is not as entertaining as those".[14] Sify rated 2 out of 5 stars stating "Ambitious but exhausting!".[38] News18 rated 1 out of 5 stars and stated "Despite Stellar Star Cast, Suriya-Mohanlal Starrer Loses Focus".[39] Firstpost rated 2.25 out of 5 stars stating "Suriya, Mohanlal are charismatic in this formulaic action drama".[40] The Hindu stated, "KV Anand’s latest collaboration with his favourite leading man is a painstakingly long thriller, that neither has soul nor brain".[41] IndiaGlitz rated 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "Interesting premise, let down by a predictable, dull screenplay."[42] The New Indian Express rated 1.5 out of 5 stars stating "Never do you truly believe that this film has a real understanding of the world and its politics."[43] The Indian Express rated 1 out of 5 stars stating "KV Anand fills Kaappaaan with props, in his never-ending endeavour to create that elusive surreal ambience. But the film has artificiality written all over."[44] Deccan Chronicle rated 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "Kaappaan plays a big game and is very commercial in nature."[45] Nettv4u rated 3 out of 5 stars stating "The racy thriller with power-packed performances and the high-octane action sequences is sure to win the hearts. Suriya is definitely back on his track, after a few average films. Kaappaan… is really a Kaappaan for LYCA, Suriya and KV Anand."[46] The News Minute rated 2 out of 5 stars stating "Other than Suriya, nobody in the SPG looks like they’ve even slow jogged on the treadmill, let alone performed miraculous high security ops."[47] The Week rated 2 out of 5 stars stating "The predictable screenplay, which reminds you of some old Vijayakanth or Arjun films, is disappointing as it comes from Anand who has had some decent outings with Suriya earlier, like Maattraan and Ayan."[48] MovieCrow rated 3.25 stars out of 5 stating "Suriya delivers his charismatic Best as SPG agent."[49]
Box office[edit source]
In its opening weekend, the film collected ₹23 crore (US$3.59 million) in Tamil Nadu, which at the time made it the highest-grossing opening weekend in Tamil film history.[50] The film collected approximately more than ₹50 crore (US$7.79 million) worldwide in its first weekend.[51] According to the film's producers, Kaappaan earned approximately ₹100 crore (US$14 million) worldwide.[52] The film was a commercial success and emerged profitable for its makers.[34][52]
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