Vedalam

<p>The film begins with a police unit being instructed by their officer to capture the trio of brothers who head a French human trafficking ring – Aniket, Abhinay and Rahul. The group is successful in intercepting Rahul in his plane but he holds the families of the officers of the unit hostage with the help of his men thereby turning on to the officer-in-charge and shooting him. Before the officer-in-charge dies, he tells Rahul that he’d be killed by a good man for his deeds. The story then shifts to where a man named Ganesh arrives with his sister Thamizh to enrol her in an arts college, where he becomes friends with “Kolkata” Kaali, who escorts Ganesh and Tamizh to their new house. After enrolling Thamizh, Ganesh works at a taxi company under his boss, Laxmidas, where he gets his first customer, a lawyer named Swetha, who makes Ganesh pose as a fake mute eyewitness in a case in exchange for not paying the fare. Ganesh does so but his phone rings and the judge fires her when Ganesh talks in front of everyone. Swetha tries to kill Ganesh, but Laxmidas saves him, though he is embarrassed by Ganesh. Shwetha and Laxmidas team up to take revenge on Ganesh, but Shwetha later falls for him after she realises her mistake. Ganesh arranges Tamizh’s marriage with Swetha’s brother Arjun. Meanwhile, Yashpal calls Ganesh and the other drivers and asks them to report any activities by members who have been causing trouble in the city. Ganesh reports a case of , which leads to Aniket and his men capturing and presenting him before Aniket at his private boatyard. Aniket orders his men to kill Ganesh, but Ganesh surprisingly single-handedly defeats all his men and kills Aniket thereby revealing his true maniac ruthless self. Learning about the death of his brother, Abhinay reaches India and investigates the murder the next day, where he and his technical crew track Ganesh’s mobile signal to their own building. Ganesh enters the building, ambushes the entire squad, and kills Abhinay single-handedly. Swetha follows Ganesh and is horrified by his actions. She tells him that she will stop the marriage between Arjun and Thamizh, but Ganesh reveals that Thamizh is not his sister and reveals his past. : Ganesh is a ruthless thug-for-hire called Vedalam who meets Thamizh at the hospital after his enemies stab him. A builder threatens Thamizh and her parents to sell their house for a company site, where she and her friend Esther hire Vedalam, who betrays them, having been paid earlier and a higher amount, and the family leaves their home and starts living in Vedalam’s home. Vedalam mistakes their innocent activities for their antics and becomes annoyed. However, Thamizh and her parents leave as a sign of gratitude after Vedalam unknowingly saves Thamizh and the other girls from being . The syndicate finds them vulnerable on the streets. They kill Thamizh’s parents and injure her. Vedalam, who has a change of heart, rescues Thamizh (who loses her memory) and states that he is her brother and takes care of her. Ganesh makes sure as to not show his true ruthless self in front of Thamizh and thereby masks a demure identity. : Ganesh requests Swetha not to reveal this to Thamizh, and Shwetha accepts Thamizh’s marriage. After learning about his brother’s death, Rahul uses an injured victim of Ganesh’s assault to find his brother’s killer. Rahul coincidentally hires Thamizh to draw . Ganesh comes prepared and takes one of Rahul’s henchman’s son hostage to ensure Thamizh’s freedom. Rahul abducts Thamizh, and Ganesh chases after him through the streets of Kolkata. Ganesh finally tracks Rahul down, as his vehicle is stopped by a procession and they both fight when an anguished Thamizh urges him to shoot Rahul. Ganesh picks up the gun and shoots in the wrong direction to distract Thamizh and finally kills Rahul. Ganesh and Thamizh return to their home, and Tamizh later gets happily married to Arjun. Following the success of their previous collaboration (2014), announced that he would direct again in May 2014, with the planned venture announced to begin after the completion of Kumar’s prior commitments with . Siva worked on the script in and approached leading production companies, including , to produce the film, though announced that he would finance the project in October 2014. It was announced that Kumar would romance two heroines in the film. The makers announced that the film would begin production in the first week of February 2015, but production was delayed because Kumar took a two-month break to spend time with his wife . In mid-February 2015, Siva reported to the media stating that Kumar would have a new look in the film. Siva scouted locations in March 2015, with being served as the primary location. The film was developed with the tentative title , before it was confirmed that it would be titled as in September 2015. During October 2014, , Samantha Akkineni, and Shruti Haasan were reported to play female leads. Motwani denied reports that she had signed on to appear in the film in the same month. In November 2014, it was reported that , who worked with Kumar in several projects, was speculated to compose the music for the film. Later was reported to be on board. On 11 March 2015, was hired to compose the music, and it was officially confirmed on 19 March 2015. The same day, was signed on to the project. , who worked previously with Siva in and were hired. On 1 April 2015, was cast as the antagonist. The role of Ganesh’s sister in the film took considerably longer to finalise, with several actresses having been approached to portray the character. On 6 April 2015, was rumoured to play the second leading role, but she denied the allegations. and were considered to play Ganesh’s sister, with the latter saying she was only interested in playing the lead actress opposite Kumar. After further unsuccessful negotiations with , was cast to play the role of Ganesh’s sister in April 2015. , who initially signed a comic role in the film, was replaced by after he became busy with his own productions. was also added to the cast as a supporting role on 1 June 2015. began on 9 April 2015, with scenes intermittently shot for the rest of the month. The first official schedule began shooting in , , with scenes featuring Kumar and Menon entering a college. Subsequent scenes were shot around sets at in Chennai on 7 May 2015, and on 18 May, a song resembling celebration, featuring Kumar, Menon, , and 150 dancers, was also shot at the same location. Sources reported that the song is similar to “Pillayarpatti Hero” from (1996) and “Maha Ganapathi” from (1999). Stills from the song were leaked into the internet. The team moved to Kolkata and scenes were shot featuring Haasan as a lawyer and Kumar as a taxi driver, with images from the shoot leaked on social networking sites. The makers announced that the producers went on location scouting at Dubai with 30% of the shoot being completed. However, the government had denied permission to shoot in Dubai, citing the month-long Ramzan celebrations from mid-June 2015. The unit then moved to shoot few scenes and a song sequence in , Italy featuring Kumar and Haasan. The team moved to Kolkata in July 2015. The unit returned to Chennai in August 2015 to film in Chennai, and joined the project. Scenes were shot at and a special set was erected at in , , and Fortis Malar Hospital, featuring Kumar and Haasan. The team also filmed night shots and few climax scenes. The team finished production in mid-October 2015 after making finishing touches on a song. Kumar was injured on the final day of the shoot, causing a minor delay. Despite his injury, Kumar immediately dubbed for the film to ensure that it would release to coincide with in November 2015. The film’s soundtrack was composed by , collaborating with Ajith Kumar and Siva for the first time. The album featured four songs written by , , , and Siva, and a theme track, though media falsely reported the film had five songs. On 1 May 2015, Anirudh announced on social media that the introduction song and theme music for the film was completed. “Veera Vinayaka”, the introductory number is based on the celebrations, and is similar to “Maha Ganapathi” from (1999) and “Pillayarpatti Hero” from (1996). The theme track of the film is rumoured to be titled “Verithanam” which was disproven. The album featured songs recorded by Haasan, and . The audio rights were purchased by . The film’s incomplete track list featuring the song titles was released through Anirudh’s account on 12 October 2015, and the official track list was revealed after two days. It was reported that the soundtrack album would be released during the composer’s birthday on 16 October 2015, but it was released on 21 October 2015 instead, coinciding with . In May 2015, Rathnam confirmed that the film would be released on Diwali, 10 November 2015. The film’s title was expected to be announced on , 15 August 2015. On 23 September 2015, Kumar’s manager Suresh Chandraa officially confirmed via Twitter that the title and the first screening would release on midnight, which confirmed the title to be The film received a from the with a runtime of 157 minutes, and also became eligible for entertainment tax exemption. Prior to the official release, the introductory scenes and songs were leaked onto the Internet. The film opened in 62 screens in the , being the widest release in the country and 80 screens in the United States, on 9 November 2015, a day before release in India. The film released on 10 November 2015, clashing with . The film was sold across India and abroad in September 2015. In India, Jazz Cinemas and Sushma Cine Arts acquired the theatrical rights. The rights of the film was bought by Gokulraj of Sri Gokul Films. K.G. Nair of Shenoy films has bought the distribution rights of . For overseas rights, MM Media acquired the distribution rights for the film in the USA. has bought the distribution rights in UK & France. Tamil Nadu rights were sold to Jazz Cinemas for (US$3.9 million). The of the film was released on the midnight of 7 October 2015. The producers planned to release the trailer of the film on 22 October 2015 to coincide with , but there was no trailer release; instead, audio teasers of the songs “Aaluma Doluma” and “Veera Vinayaka” were released on 25 and 30 October, respectively. The satellite rights of the film were sold to . The film’s television premiere took place on 5 September 2016, coinciding with Ganesh Chathurthi. M. Suganth of rated the film 3 out of 5 and called it “A packaged mass entertainer for Ajith fans and family audiences”. Sify gave a rating of 3 out of 5 and stated, ” is Ajith’s one man show and it might enthrall his ardent fans for others, it’s a formulaic film with few enjoyable moments.” Indiaglitz rated the film 3 out of 5, calling it an “enjoyable mass entertainer”. Avinash Gopinath from gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and concluded, “Though this movie suffers from logical loopholes and melodramatic sequences, it gets saved by Ajith and director Siva’s propaganda that puts human values before money, which makes Vedalam watchable.” Behindwoods rated the film 2.5 out of 5, stating, ” – Sparks do fly but not frequently enough.” Gauthaman Bhaskaran of the gave 1.5 out of 5 stars and stated “Vedalam is but an Ajith Kumar show (all the way where Menon and Haasan are wasted). The man arrives with a big bang and never tires of bashing up baddies — but now and then taking a break to cleanse society of minor evils like fooling law courts or cheating on wives. Certainly not for children, who might wonder how Phantom sprung out of their favourite comic books in such a horrifically mutated form.” gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated “Siruthai Siva has worked the “mass” image of Ajith in Vedalam and the family sentiments to his advantage. In the process, he has not cared much about logic, which goes right out of the window.” gave the film 2 out of 5 and stated “‘Vedalam’ is another star vehicle that rides with expectations and mutilations.” Sudhir Srinivasan of said that “Vedalam needed more inventive storytelling, and seems too forced, too easy, too mawkish”. Anupama Subramanian of gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated, “This Ajith starrer largely depends on the mass appeal and star power of the actor with a script sans solid content and logic and just tailor-made by for him. Though the story travels in predictable lines, it has high-octane stunt sequences, bro-sis sentiment, and loads of punch lines, hit songs to satisfy the mass audiences.” gave a review stating “Director Siruthai Siva has ensured that there is plenty for Ajith fans and the family audience. Ajith has punch dialogues, high octane action sequences and all the right dance moves. He plays the good and the bad with ease and is a treat to watch on screen. The sister sentiment (the story revolves around Tamizh) and the fact that men need to respect women is a major highlight in the film. The storyline may not be new for Tamil cinema, but the director has tailor-made it for Ajith and the mass audience.” opened to 95% occupancy on Diwali, despite clashing with . The film opened across 750 screens worldwide, with 500 screens belongs to Tamil Nadu, and set a highest opening of (US$1.8 million). On the second day, the film had collected (US$1.4 million). Within 11 days of its release, the film had collected 103 crore worldwide. On 18 November 2015, trade analyst Ramesh Bala stated that the film had earned a major revenue of 60% from Tamil Nadu, with 12% from Karnataka, and rest of India, 10% from , and 18% from rest of the overseas. At the Chennai box office, the film’s performance had been affected due to the . Shortly after the film success, Rathnam wanted to remake the film in and , with and reprising Kumar’s role in the former, while the latter had playing the lead role. Although the Kannada version never finished, the Telugu version had playing the lead, replacing Kalyan, and was reported to be directed by under the title . In September 2019, acquired the remake rights of . ‘s transformation and the following fight scene is parodied in .</p>