Vanakkam Chennai

<p>K. Madasamy alias Ajay, a youth from , comes to to take up a job. Anjali Rajamohan, a photographer from London, is also in the city to capture South Indian culture on camera. The duo are deceived by Narayanan, a real estate broker who rents out unoccupied houses without informing the house owners. Ajay and Anjali pay the rental money to Narayanan and end up signing the same house. Unable to find another house to rent, the duo decide to stay together, till they find Narayanan. They squabble and argue a lot, but soon Ajay falls in love with Anjali. However, he does not reveal to her of his feelings. After taking her on a trip to Theni, he realises that she does not reciprocate his feelings, leaving him depressed. Soon, Ajay tracks down Narayanan, who he met in a chance encounter earlier, where Ajay pockets Narayanan’s address from his wallet, and blames him for the misery in his life, because it was Narayanan’s trickery that brought them together and now, Ajay cannot live without her love. Narayanan decides to help Ajay and he visits the house, under the pretense of being Ajay’s friend, Billa Senthil. He tries to make Anjali fall for Ajay. Anjali’s fiancé, Deepak then gives Anjali a surprise visit, just as when she begins to enjoy Ajay’s company. Narayanan continues to try to getting Ajay and Anjali together, with no success. On the night of Anjali’s birthday, Ajay decides that she will never love him, and resorts to drinking, after being depressed. Meanwhile, Anjali realises that she loves Ajay, but is angry at his behaviour under the influence of alcohol. The next day, she goes to the wedding of Ajay’s colleague as his wife, due to the fact that his colleagues think she is his wife and looks for him there. Just when they find each other and are about to confess their feelings for one another, Narayanan speaks on the phone with some new tenants. When he jokingly offers Ajay a cut of the deal, Anjali misunderstands Ajay as a fraudster, assuming he was also in Narayanan’s house plot. Anguished, Anjali berates them and leaves the wedding hall, while Ajay looks on in guilt. Three months later, Anjali has returned to London and wins her photography cont- Deepak tells her that Narayanan had told him everything from scratch, and that Ajay is innocent. He convinces her that she loves Ajay and vice versa, as she did not hesitate to visit Theni or act as Ajay’s wife despite being engaged to Deepak. Anjali returns to the Chennai house and looks for Ajay, but does not find him. Just then, Ajay opens the door and finds his passport that he was looking for. Anjali meets him and is initially upset, asking him why he did not come to her for the last three months in London. Ajay tells her that he had just received his passport and was planning to leave for the airport. As the two hug and reconcile, Narayanan enters with a prospective tenant to trick, and takes an advance from him. Ajay and Anjali stop Narayanan and punch him. As per the opening credits: , Adhi of , and appear in the song “Chennai City Gangsta”. is the directorial debut of . After she completed the script, she had no intention of directing it and approached other directors, but none accepted. On the encouragement of , she herself decided to direct. Kiruthiga’s husband produced the film and also helped improvise the script. was initially to play the lead female role which went to Priya Anand. Cinematography was handled by , and editing by . began on 1 February 2013 at . Although Kiruthiga had contracted on the first day of filming, she refused to cancel the shoot for that day. As of May, filming was taking place in . The film’s final schedule began in July 2013 in Chennai, and would be completed in 10 days. Responding to criticism that the film was plagiarised from the 1955 film , Kiruthiga denied them as rumours, saying the story of was something she developed during her college days. The music video for “Chennai City Gangsta” includes animation, which was created by Idea Heavens Studio. The music is composed by . He signed on the project in 2012, and described it as a “fun” and “youthful” album that would appeal to urban audiences. The song “Oh Penne” marks the Tamil debut of Bollywood singer . An alternate version of the song was also produced, sung by musicians Charles Bosco and . Assamese singer sang the song “Hey”, recorded in late June 2013. The song “Engadi Porandha” was sung by and Anirudh; their lines were recorded separately as Anirudh was in for the album mix when Andrea recorded her vocals. “Chennai City Gangsta”, described by Anirudh as a ” party track”, includes vocals by Adhi of , and Punjabi rapper . Adhi had earlier collaborated with Anirudh for the title track of (2013), and described “Chennai City Gangsta” as a thematic follow-up to that song. There were no rehearsals for the song. It serves as a tribute to the city of Chennai and its culture. The tracklist, featuring only the song names, was unveiled in mid-June 2013. The upgraded tracklist featuring the singer names was released a month later. The audio rights were purchased by , and the audio was launched on 27 July at . Vipin of summarised “It is indeed a hat-trick of winners in Tamil for Anirudh Ravichander , with . Must-hear soundtrack!”, giving 8.5 out of 10. of wrote ” is an interesting soundtrack, but has Anirudh’s past catching up too early in his career”. Srinivasa Ramanujam of rated the entire album 3.5 out of 5. He appreciated “Hey” for its “groovy” vocals and believed it was “sure to have people dancing thanks to the beats”, and also appreciated the rustic tone of “Osaka”, deviating from Anirudh’s usual westernised and techno songs. He was however critical of “Engadi Porandha”, but said both versions of “Oh Penne” make up for it, and also appreciated the “melodious” song “Ailasa” and “high-on-energy” song “Chennai City Gangsta”. was released worldwide on 11 October 2013, in . Ahead of release, the film was denied entertainment tax exemption, despite meeting the eligibility criteria. Udhayanidhi subsequently decided to appeal in court, but as of 2016, the film was still not granted the same. M Suganth of rated the film 3 out of 5, saying it “is slick and enjoyable to an extent but also predictable. In fact, most of the time, it is Anirudh’s background score that keeps reminding us that this is a romance as well as a comedy”. S Saraswathi of said, ” is a fun-filled, but slow paced romantic film that does not boast of a great or original storyline. But there is simplicity and charm in the characters. And the great music certainly keeps you entertained”. Prashanth Reddy of said, “Anirudh’s music is a huge positive and I can’t seem to get a few of the background tunes out of my head. Priya Anand looks utterly gorgeous in every frame. But is still just an okay-ish Rom-com that is hard to hate. It does very little to reinvigorate a stagnant genre. Also, it should have avoided using Santhanam”. Writing for , said, “Seeing is to be reminded of how stupidly happy a light-hearted love story can make us feel. Scenes that have no business working — like one involving colours — make us smile, and that’s a sign that we are involved with these characters, that we want them to realise, soon, that they need to get on with the business of being with each other”, calling it a “low-key bliss-out for the most part”. said, “The film has nothing new to offer but is still enjoyable due to its glossy packaging, rich visuals and lots of fun”. Malini Mannath of wrote, “Sweet and warm at places, the film is a monotonous journey on the whole. Offering nothing exciting or novel in either its plot or presentation, it’s at best a stepping stone for a debutant maker”.</p>