Mugamoodi

<p>Anand alias Bruce Lee, a college graduate, lives in and studies with a group of similarly jobless friends as he hates the idea of 9-5 jobs. Anand, in an attempt to recruit new students to pay tuition fees and save their school, gets involved in a brawl and falls for Shakthi, the daughter of Gaurav. In the city, a series of burglaries are happening across the city, which has left dozens dead and countless amounts of money stolen. The police believe that a new robbery is about to take place. Anand’s grandfather advises him to make Shakthi see him as a hero. Anand wears a borrowed costume and introduces himself as to Shakthi, where he tries to impress the children with his skills but accidentally ends up in the middle of a police chase. Anand helps the cops capture one of the bandits, but the gang shoots the captured member when they are transferring him. The news which Mugamoodi captured one of the suspects, which police could not catch them in months, spreads across the city and Shakthi begins to like Mugamoodi. Gaurav finds a match between a from the crime scene and one from police records. Anand decides to visit Shakthi again unmasked to reveal his identity and confess his love to her. While arriving to meet Shakthi, Anand encounters a gang member, who shoots Gaurav. Anand tries to seize him, but the gunman escapes after the gun is seized by Anand and the family believe Anand shot Gaurav. Anand is being chased by the police and is on the run. The gang kills Anand’s friend Viji, who went with him to visit Shakthi. Anand is again seen by police alone with Viji’s dead body and is naturally thought responsible for the killing. Anand’s grandfather and brother create a superhero costume. Gaurav survives and the gang decides to kill him and his family in the hospital. Anand (masked himself as Mugamoodi) saves them by defeating the gang and takes Gaurav’s file containing the latest findings of the case, including the fingerprint match, as he wants to avenge Viji’s death. To Anand’s shock, the police findings in the documents are against his martial arts teacher Sifu (a fake martial arts a la kung fu) Chandru. Chandru reveals that he is not connected to those cases and reveals that Anguchamy alias is behind the crimes. Chandru and Dragon learnt martial arts in the same school 22 years ago. Meanwhile, Dragon also learns that Mugamoodi is Anand, where he and his gang raids Chandru’s school to kill Anand, but they kill Chandru when he is nowhere to be seen. The gang seizes a port and kidnaps 30 children, along with three adults including Shakthi, as hostages to blackmail the cops. They demand the police to arrange a ship which guarantees their safety across the , while they also demand Mugamoodi to drive a van of gold alone. The gang threatens to kill the hostages if their demands are refused. Anand agrees to drive the gold and a fight ensues between him and Dragon. During the fight, Dragon takes off Mugamoodi’s mask and reveals his identity to Shakthi. Dragon also confesses that his brother Anthony had shot Gourav earlier. With the help of his grandfather and friends that had him sneaked into the port, Anand kills some key members of the gang. A fight ensues between Anand and Dragon, where Dragon falls to his death in the sea. Anand release the hostages and Shakthi tells him to continue as Mugamoodi. Mysskin wrote s story in 2005. In September 2008, it was reported that signed a film titled (Mask), which will be directed by and produced by . It was reported that would compose the music for the film. The film was reported to be made on a budget of 35 crore, as the film involved extensive and . Suriya was also intended to learn martial arts for the film. In July 2009, Suriya opted out due to schedule conflicts and it was reportedly that would play the role. As the project remained dormant, Mysskin moved on to script a . Later, it was reported that would play the main lead, who liked the concept. The film is produced by and of . was the first superhero film in . Pre-production of the film began in late 2008. Mysskin started scripting the film after completing (2010). In July 2011, it was reported that the makers began for the film. The shooting of the film was reported to start in late November 2011. Reports further claimed that Jiiva and Narain would undergo special training in with experts from the in . In September 2011, it was reported that the lead casts would go to to learn Kung Fu. Both Jiiva and Narain went through three months of Kung Fu training. Mysskin revealed that the film will be made in his style, with tout-thrilling moments. “Taking into consideration that I am making an Indian film, I can’t showcase something that is impossible. I want my audience to accept my films and not make a joke of it. This is real cinema and I have shown what any superhero can exhibit in his zone,” he added. The film was launched with a formal , which was held in December 2011 at school auditorium, . , who had scored for Mysskin’s (2010), was selected as the film composer over two other music directors, while would pen the lyrics, associating for the first time with Mysskin. Action sequences were choreographed by Tony Leung, who has worked with and action choreographers from . Other technicians includes cinematographer , editor Gaugin, dance choreographer , art director Bala, and costume designer . In October 2010, signed on for the film with ‘s production house replacing UTV as producers. However, within months, Arya had pulled out as had Linguswamy. In June 2011, a new Mumbai-based company had taken the production reins whilst , after the commercial success of his political thriller , had signed on to portray the lead role. Jiiva who plays Anand in the film would called as Bruce Lee in the film. Later that month, it was announced that , who had worked with Mysskin in both and , would portray the role of the lead antagonist in the film. The film was his highest paid film till then. Narain claimed that his villainy in the film would be totally brutal, where his character in the film has no shades and is absolutely negative. In early July 2011, it was reported that would portray the lead female character in the film, but, Dhananjayan of UTV confirmed that Amala was not approached for the role. , who is the second runner-up of the , was eventually finalized as the female lead. Telugu actor was added to the cast in November 2011, which proved false, and he was replaced by , while was also reported to be playing an important role. The following month, was selected to portray a police officer. A large group of young aspiring artists were roped in to be part of the fight sequences which are touted be the highlight of the film. The artists were trained for over 6 months at Mansuria Kung Fu YMCA, , Chennai. A lot of the kung fu content of the film were handled by R. Shekhar. High-end to be used in the film were reportedly designed by consultant’s from the , while teams from the were roped in to create the costumes and looks of the characters. Furthermore, a -based firm would handle of the film. The team travelled four countries to finalize the Jiiva’s suits and finalized in . The costumes were designed by Gabriella Wilkins. Wilkins and her 10 assistants took six months to design the costume, including suit, mask, cap and the belt. A dozen suits and more than 30 different masks were created for the character, out of which Mysskin chose the b- Costume designer also worked on Jiiva’s costume which weights more than 10 kg. The shooting of the film started officially on 12 December 2011, with the opening scene of kung fu as that was spoken about. The film is expected to be released during Summer 2012. The film was being canned in the nights in and around in Chennai where the fight scene of Jiiva and Narain was shot in terrace. Mysskin is planning a 20-day schedule to shoot the climax at . The shoot concluded at Karaikal where daredevil stunts were performed by the lead actor at an altitude of 180 feet high where in the Karaikal port’s conveyor belt passes over. Many scenes were also filmed at where huge hospital set was erected and also at . Tony Leung Siu Hung, a stunt coordinator from , has joined the climax shoot of the film that is being canned in a massive scale at Karaikal in May 2012. The team moved to to shoot two song at in late July 2012. Later, the team moved to to shoot a song and filming wrapped in early August 2012. for the film begin once the film completed its shooting and went for several months as the film involved extensive and . A -based firm handled of the film. The final copy of the film was ready by mid August 2012, and was submitted to the (CBFC) that month. On 21 August 2012, the film received a from the , with a finalized runtime of 162 minutes. s score and soundtrack were composed by , who had worked on Mysskin’s previous venture as well. The soundtrack features eleven tracks, including a number of instrumentals. The soundtrack album was released on 1 August 2012 at ; it was presented by and received by Kannada actor . In June 2012, it was reported that the film’s marketing would begin soon. The first look and launch of took place in a grand scale on 29 June 2012 at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai. The trailer was launched by and received by director while the first look was released by Suriya and . Including the film’s cast and crew, , , , , , , , , , were also present at the event. The film was released worldwide screens on 31 August 2012 and it would be the 100th film to be released in 2012. The film was dubbed and released in Telugu as and in Hindi as . was released in over 500 screens in Tamil Nadu, and also opened in neighbouring states in good number of screens as well as in northern parts of India including and . The film was released simultaneously in , , , , , and other parts of the world. In July 2012, it was reported that the film would be released simultaneously in and languages. Later, Jiiva’s father acquired the Telugu dubbing rights of the film. The Telugu version titled was released by . The Hindu version titled was distributed by . The satellite rights of the film was acquired by . The digital rights of the film were sold to , and . received mixed to positive reviews from critics with praise for its cast performances, VFX, action sequences, direction and music, but criticised its script. Prakash Upadhyaya of gave 3.5/5 stars and recommended the film and wrote “Mysskin’s approach to is realistic, like before, and he has not tried to add unnecessary commercial elements. Mugamoodi would have a better appeal if the length of the movie would be reduced.” gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote “The fact remains that Mugamoodi is not as taut as the director’s earlier works.” gave 3/5 starts and told that it had a “pacy first half, [a] slow second half but [was] compensated by the overall performance and effort of the cast & crew.” R. S. Prakash of gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote “In comparison, the film’s first half is better than the second. The opening scenes are deadly till the director opts for a different route to tell the tale.” Pavithra Srinivasan of gave 2/5 stars and wrote “Mugamoodi has all the makings of a successful film but ends up disappointing.” cited that the film had a “different flavour” and wrote “For those who love the West and East’s action films, combines both to give some pleasure.” Malathi Rangarajan of noted that it “travels on a terrain that’s new to Tamil cinema” and wrote “Mysskin’s effort to make Mugamoodi appear as authentic as possible deserves to be commended.” termed it as average and wrote “Mugamoodi is a one-time watch for Mysskin and Jiiva’s attempt to do something different. It has very good music and background score by K, but lacks a proper script and a racy presentation.” had higher occupancy on its opening day. The film grossed 10 crores in 3 days of its release. The Tamil and Telugu versions alone got 9 crores in India, with 2 crores from . The film was also well received at . The film was box office success at the end of its theatrical run. Reports of a planned sequel of began surfacing prior to the film’s release, stating Mysskin planned to release sequels every year. Later, the reports suggested that Mysskin had the script of , with same casts part of it. Later, it was reported that the film would be shot bigger in scale, in . Jiiva said in an interview that he will do the sequel only if the makers find a lighter and friendlier costume.</p>