Poojai

<p>Vasudevan “Vasu” is the heir of , a cloth manufacturing company in . Due to a misunderstanding, Vasu gets disowned by his mother and matriarch of his joint family Rajalakshmi. Years later, Vasu is now working as a moneylender and lives a normal life with his friends Kutti Puli and Pandi, where he also falls in love with a rich girl named Divya. At a theatre, Vasu saves a newly transferred Sivakkozhundhu and his wife from a group of North Indian killers who work for Anna Thandavam, a -based businessman and hitman as Sivakkozhundhu was transferred to investigate Anna Thandavam’s client case. Anna Thandavam also plans to illegally grab land a village temple, which was planned to be gifted by Vasu’s late father Rathnaswamy. These two incidents cause enmity between Vasu and Anna Thandavam. When the land is formally gifted to the temple, an irate Anna Thandavam orders his henchman to assault Vasu’s uncle Ramaswamy. Rajalakshmi realizes her mistake of misunderstanding Vasu and reunites with him. Vasu learns about the incident and thrashes Anna Thandavam’s henchmen and breaks his hand. Anna Thandavam tries to attack Vasu, but Vasu brutally thrashes him in full view of public, which goes viral online. Assisted by Sivakkozhundhu and Divya, Vasu subdues Anna Thandavam’s attempts to destroy his family by capturing the North Indian killers, leading to arrest warrant on Anna Thandavam. During the temple festival, Anna Thandavam’s second wife kills Rajalakshmi with a venomous knife, while Anna Thandavam rushes to . Learning of Rajalakshmi’s death, Vasu rushes to Patna and tracks down Anna Thandavam and his hitman friend Rai Bahadur, where he brutally finishes them, thus avenging Rajalakshmi’s death. Vasu returns home to mourn Rajalakshmi’s death with Divya and his family. In December 2013, Vishal told that he would produce and feature in a film which would be directed by and that the pair would collaborate again after the success of their previous venture, (2007). Hari had described the film as a “triangular action story” which starts in and ends in , while revealing had already completed composing the film’s songs before production commenced. The film was officially launched on 28 March 2014, with a press release naming the film’s cast and crew. was selected to compose the music for the film, while and were confirmed to be the cinematographer and the editor of the film respectively. was also selected to do costume designing. Early reports in December had suggested that would be signed on to play the film’s heroine, though she only confirmed her participation in March 2014. and were added to the cast to play supporting roles, while actress was announced to be making a comeback with the film starring alongside other supporting actresses. The team approached to play Vishal’s mother in the film, but her unavailability meant that the team later cast instead. and were also selected to play Shruti Haasan’s parents. was selected to make a cameo appearance in a folk song. Sathyaraj sported a bald look for this film thanks to his simultaneous shoot for ‘s (2015) and his role was said to be “very powerful” and also the “suspense element of the film”. Bhojpuri actor Awadhesh Mishra was selected to play an gangster in the film which marks his debut in . was selected for an important role in the film, but his role was not a part of the film. Vinay Bihari, who is the Youth, Arts and Culture Minister of Bihar, was selected to play the role of a in the film’s climatic portions when he expressed his interest in acting to Hari when he was in Bihar for location scouting. Barath Raj, who has won and the second runner up 2014 title, played a crucial role of collector’s son from Bihar. was selected to play a supporting role, while was selected to play the main antagonist. commenced on 18 April 2014 at . During the shoot of an action sequence in a one crore worth set at Saligramam, Vishal injured his middle finger in his right hand for which 14 stitches were administered. Thus the shoot was temporarily halted. The featuring Vishal and Andrea Jeremiah was shot by early May in the backdrop of the in Chennai. Later, the unit proceeded to for filming major portions of the film. At that time, it was known that Hari planned to wrap the film’s shoot in 40 working days. A fight sequence was shot in a popular mall multiplex there and scenes involving Vishal and Shruti Hassan were also shot in the mall in Coimbatore. The filming continued at in early July where scenes featuring the principal cast were shot. The shooting continued in hot weather making things difficult while Vishal suffered injuries for the second time in the film’s shoot. He suffered a fracture during the shoot of an action sequence after trying to avoid falling on his face while he slipped from an asbestos sheet. In the first week of August 2014, the film’s climax was shot in in a 10-day schedule and by then, 95% of the film’s shoot was complete. The climax was said to have few risky stunts which were shot first in the final schedule. Both Vishal and Shruti Hassan carried out the risky stunts and fights by themselves. Some scenes for the climax were also shot in in in special and enormous sets erected for the climax and a song was also shot there. On its completion, one romantic song was shot at and the remaining fast-paced song was shot in . Vishal and Shruti Haasan completed a hard folk song sequence, which was shot in and choreographed by Baba Baskar. One more song sequence was also shot in . On 29 September 2014, Shruti confirmed that the shooting of the film was completed. The soundtrack was composed by . The album consists of six tracks and had penned the lyrics for all songs. The track list was released on 29 September 2014, while the audio launch took place on 1 October 2014 at the . released the album through his newly launched music label – , a subsidiary of the production house alongside . The album received mixed reviews from critics. gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and concluded that “Yuvan delivers what is needed for a commercial entertainer”. gave 2.75 out of 5 and wrote that the album was “a commercial cocktail which could have been better”, and chose “Devathai”, “Soda Bottle” and “Veraarum” as the album’s picks. All lyrics are written by . During the film’s launch, Hari stated that the film would release in October 2014 as a release. The same was stated again in the end of July 2014. The Tamil Nadu theatrical distribution rights were acquired by Vendhar Movies. The stills featuring Vishal and Shruti Hassan were released on 18 April 2014. The official motion poster teaser of the film was released on 1 September 2014. The official teaser of the film released on 11 September 2014. The satellite rights of the film were sold to . The film released in over 1100 screens worldwide. M. Suganth of gave 3/5 stars and wrote “Poojai is closer to in Hari’s filmography — not as powerful as but at the same time, not tedious like .” gave 3/5 stars and called it “a typical Hari mass entertainer, though this time he has not got the mix in the right proposition”. Prakash Upadhyaya of gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote ” is a pure commercial movie and watched by all section of audience.” S. Saraswathi of gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote “Poojai is your standard Hari fare; there is loads of everything that we expect from him. The screenplay may not be as exciting as some of his earlier hits, but it keeps you entertained just the same.” gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote “Poojai is a mix of a lot of genres, but they seem disproportionate for the times and taste of this day. However, it is an entertaining three hours of festivity, to chill out on. Most importantly, thanks to Hari for a thoroughbred masala movie after a long time in Kollywood.” gave 2.25/5 stars and wrote “Poojai is still a watchable entertainer to spend time on, with your family on a festive day.” was dubbed into as which was simultaneously released with the original version. The first look poster of the Telugu dubbed version titled was released on 11 August 2014. According to , the Telugu version was commercially successful, delivering 5.51 crore. The film was initially planned to be remade in Kannada as with , but was officially remade in Kannada as by with and playing the lead roles.</p>