Kumki

<p>The film starts with an introduction to the main characters: the protagonist Bomman ( ), his pet elephant Manickam, his uncle Kothali ( ), and his sidekick Undiyal ( ). Bomman spends most of his time with Manickam and earns his livelihood by hiring it out for festivals in temples and wedding celebrations. Meanwhile, in a village dominated by old principles, a rogue elephant (Komban) ravages crops and ambushes its people. Frustrated by this and without any help from the forest officers, their leader decides to bring a kumki elephant to tame Komban. Bomman and his crew reach the village as placeholders to stay for a couple of days until the real mahout and kumki elephant arrive. Life begins to change for Bomman when he falls in love with Alli ( ), the daughter of the village leader. She is at first reluctant keeping in mind the village’s principles but she soon starts to fall for Bomman. Life goes on smoothly, until Komban starts randomly attacking the village. On the eve of their departure, Komban attacks Manickam. Komban’s actions kill Kothali and Undiyal and injure Bomman. In the ensuing fight between Manickam and Komban, Manickam kills Komban but suffers serious injuries and dies. Bomman then cries out loud, regretting that his love had led to the deaths of his crew and Manickam. Alli’s father then recognizes that Alli and Bomman are in love. The film then ends abruptly, leaving Bomman’s fate to the viewer’s imagination. My son surprised me by his performance in . I used to call my son during his film shoot and enquire about his performance. “Wait and see daddy”, would be his answer. In a December 2012 interview to Nikhil Raghavan of , Prabhu Solomon felt that the success of his previous film was due to his having produced and directed it, which afforded him the creative freedom to pay more attention to detail. He realised that would be a bigger venture and that he “didn’t want anything to go wrong.” At that time, director and , owners of the production company offered to bankroll the film, much to Solomon’s delight. Solomon wanted a new face for the role of Bomman, for which over 60 auditions were held. , who participated in the auditions, was selected. Vikram had earlier worked as an assistant director for films like (2009) and (2010). The film which was earlier titled as , was shot across the forests of Kerala and Karnataka. The film was shot at athirappalli falls and Munnar. Later, some scenes were shot in Kerala in dense jungles as well as at and on the Orissa border. For the climax portion, producers bought two-acres of land to shoot a scene where elephants destroy the land. Solomon shot the film mostly during the day, especially in morning and evening time, to create the right feel for the scenes. Solomon also wished to explore his love of nature through . The elephant, Manickam, was around 12 feet tall. Malathi Rangarajan of compared the film’s similarities to ‘s (1972) and ‘s (1979) in terms of the protagonist’s relationship with elephants. The and is composed by , in his third collaboration with after (2007) and (2010). The album has seven numbers written by with three karaoke versions. The soundtrack album was released by on 1 August 2012, which coincided with an audio launch event held at in , where , and , amongst other celebrities in the film’s cast and crew, participated in the function. Kamal Haasan unveiled the audio CD and handed the first copy of the album to Rajinikanth and Suriya. The film’s distribution rights were acquired by , under his banner . The film was initially scheduled to release on 13 November 2012, coinciding with , but due to post-production works and also due to the release of -starrer and -starrer , the release was postponed to 14 December 2012. along with ‘s , were scheduled to release on the same day. Both becoming the most anticipated films of the year, because of the success of the soundtrack. On 1 December, the makers confirmed the release date on the said before date. Two days before the release of along with , the advanced bookings for the first weekend were sold out. The film was dubbed in Telugu as , and was released simultaneously on the same date. Post-release, the makers has shot three climax scenes and planned to change the tragic climax with an alternate positive climax of the film, as the audiences were not happy over the film’s ending. However, the climax of the film remained unchanged. received critical acclaim. Malathi Rangarajan of praised the performances of Vikram and Menon, noting that while Vikram “makes an impact with effective underplay”, Menon showed “apt expressions”; she found Ramaiah’s dialogues to be a bit “contrived” after a certain point of time. gave 3 out of 5 saying that while the movie is at times “dragging”, the subject makes it an “engaging affair although the climax is predictable”. also gave the film 3 out of 5 saying that “Kumki definitely lives up to the hype. It is a beautifully shot movie with good performances and an emotional core”. rated 3.5 out of 5 to the movie and stated “Prabu Solomon’s ode to love in the times of elephant attacks, holds a lot of promise but sadly flatters only to deceive.” Pavithra Srinivasan of gave 3.5 out of 5 and stated ” is an unforgettable ride through the wilds of Tamil Nadu’s virgin forests.” Deccan Herald gave the film 3.5 out of 5 and summarised that “Kumki may not be the year’s best film, but definitely can’t be looked down upon.” stated “Prabhu Solomon has come up with a neat entertainer, though the slow pace hampers proceedings at some places.” Kumki was made with the budget of 5 crores. The film was a success at the box office. The film grossed 10 crore in 3 days. The film grossed more than 40 crore at the box office. The film got Super Hit status at the box office. In (2014), Kannan ( ) will only give medicine to the old people if the nurse says “I love you”. Mistakenly thinking that the nurse is actually in love with him, the song “Solitaley” plays in the background. In early 2016, Prabhu Solomon confirmed to the media that he would soon start work on a sequel the film’s sequel This sequel will feature newcomers in lead roles similar to the first part. He then delayed the project to finish his commitments to the -starrer, (2016), while also contemplating potentially remaking into Hindi. Following the disappointing response to , Prabhu Solomon chose to finish scripting the sequel to and registered the title for a production for during the final quarter 2016. He went on a recce to to finalise the script and hunt for locations. Prabhu Solomon confirmed in July 2017 that pre-production was almost complete and the team were waiting for the end of the monsoon season to begin the shoot of the film in Thailand. He stated that debutants would feature in the lead role, and subsequently signed Mathi, the nephew of director to play the male lead. Mathi’s earlier film, ‘s , remains unreleased as a result of Linguswamy’s financial problems. Debutant Shrita Rao will starring as the female lead in the movie. took over as producers and replaced D. Imman, before the start of the shoot in August 2017 in Thailand. plays a role with shades of grey. Main production ended in mid 2018. Dubbing of the film was recorded during and after the in May 2020.</p>