Gulaebaghavali

<p>The story opens in 1945, during rule. A British gentleman and his porter try to catch a ferry at . On the way, however, the porter drops one of the suitcases and opens it, revealing many priceless diamonds. The porter steals the diamonds by wrapping them in his and smartly hides them from sight. He puts stones inside the suitcase and sends the gentleman on his way. He cuts the diamonds carefully and hides the diamonds in a trunk, which he buries near a temple in the Gulaebaghavali village. The story then shifts to 2018, where Maasha fools Mayilvaganam and makes him think her son is dead. Then, she steals his black car and sells it for money. Meanwhile, Badri and his boss Nambi perform petty thefts for a living. While at a pub, Badri spots Viji and falls for her. Soon, due to a misunderstanding, Badri unknowingly accepts to steal a priceless statue from the temple at Gulaebagavali and runs into Viji. The duo escapes from the villagers’ hands and falls into the hands of a businessman named Sampath and his brother-in-law, who is also Munish’s boss. Nambi and Munish’s boss forcefully send Badri and Viji to Gulaebaghavali to steal the trunk (a photo reveals that the businessman is the porter’s grandson). With some help from Munish and Maasha, they steal the ch- Munish opens it, and a skeleton is inside. After a lot of confusion, they deliver the trunk. Everyone soon discovers that the skeleton has the diamonds stored inside. After a long argument, the police comes to the spot and finds that the diamonds had immense value. After they escape from the police, Viji’s cousins discover that a hand of the skeleton fell into Maasha’s car. A flashback shows that when everyone was grabbing the skeleton, the skeleton broke apart, and its hand fell into Maasha’s car during the fight. On finding this out and how Maasha tried to deceive the other three, the trio chases her. A parallel storyline involves Mayilvaganam and a don named Annachi, ultimately culminating in the climax. In April 2017, Prabhu Deva agreed terms to work on a fantasy adventure comedy film titled under the direction of , who had previously made (2016). , who had earlier worked in Prabhu Deva’s productions and directorial projects, was cast to play the leading female role opposite him. Produced by KJR Studios, the makers also cast in a pivotal role, while a bevy of supporting actors including , , and were also recruited. A first look poster was released in May 2017, with Deva and Hansika revealed to be portraying con artists. Following the release of (2017), the team actively decided to enhance the film’s budget on costumes to ensure a rich production value appeared on screen. The makers of the film included a scene which makes a reference to the of the same name, with Kalyaan devising a special flashback sequence to connect the two films. For a particular set in the film, the art director created a replica of the at a cost of two crores. The film’s music was composed by duo , in their fourth film venture following (2014), (2015) and (2015). The soundtrack was released on 24 December 2015 through . Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film were sold for 5 crore. The satellite rights of the film were sold to . On the website , of 5 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.3/10. M Suganth of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote, “Debutant Kalyaan’s writing and filmmaking might lack finesse but he makes up for it with confident narration, never letting the film slip into a lull.” Mythily Ramachandran of Gulf News wrote, “Gulaebagavalli makes no pretensions about its motive. It’s an entertainer and succeeds in doing just that. As long as you don’t take it seriously, Gulaebagavalli is ideal to keep your stress at bay.” Haricharan Pudipeddi of Firstpost gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote, “Gulaebaghavali doesn’t quite excel in the writing or execution, but what it still manages to achieve — thanks to some well thought out comic stretches — is to entertain in installments.” Karthik Kumar of Hindustan Times gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote, “Gulebaghavali, despite being flawed, works to an extent, thanks to the comic angle it brings to the proceedings. If only it showed more creativity in writing, especially in the first half hour, it could have ended up as a worthy competitor to .”</p>