Kaakha Kaakha
| Kaaka Kaaka | |
|---|---|
 Poster |
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| Directed by | Gautham Menon |
| Produced by | Kalaipuli S. Dhanu |
| Written by | Gautham Menon |
| Starring | Surya Jeevan Jyothika Ramya Krishnan Daniel Balaji |
| Music by | Harris Jayaraj |
| Cinematography | R. D. Rajasekhar |
| Editing by | Anthony |
| Distributed by | V. Creations |
| Release date(s) | 01 August 2003 |
| Running time | 153 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Budget |  3 crore (US$600,000)[1] |
| Box office | Approx 30 crore (US$6 million)[2] |
Kaakha Kaakha (Tamil: காக்க காக்க, Kākka Kākka ?; English: To Protect) is a 2003 Tamil crime thriller film starring Surya, Jyothika and Jeevan in the lead roles. The film was written and directed by Gautham Menon and the music was composed by Harris Jayaraj. It was Gautam Menon's second Tamil movie after Minnale and was the most top-ranked Tamil movie of 2003 for return-on-investment, based on collection figures from theatres, distributors and producers.[3] It was considered a comeback film for producer Kalaipuli S. Dhanu.[4] Kaakha Kaakha was a major milestone in Surya's acting career, establishing him as a lead actor and carving a niche for him in the Tamil film industry.
Gautham remade the film in Telugu as Gharshana (2004) with Venkatesh and Asin in main roles. In 2011, further remakes of the film were released in Kannada as Dandam Dashagunam with Chiranjeevi Sarja and Ramya and in Hindi as Force (2011) with John Abraham and Genelia D'Souza.
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[edit] Plot
A badly-injured Anbuchelvan (played by Surya Sivakumar) is lying on the bank of a stream, thinking about his wife Maya and how he needs to rescue her. The story moves quickly from this opening scene to a flashback of Anbuchelvan’s time as a young policeman.
Anbuchelvan and his friends, Shrikanth, Arul and Illamaran, have been recruited for part of a special unit of police officers who are battling organized crime in Chennai, Madras, India. Violent and laconic, Anbuchelvan finds little patience for a personal life. The unit is ruthless in its confrontation with criminals, going as far as assassinating gang members; the unit is finally disbanded by senior authorities. Anbuchelvan is posted to traffic duties.
One day a schoolteacher named Maya (played by Jyothika) rebuffs Anbuchelvan's routine questions regarding safety, not knowing that he is a police officer. He meets her again when she and her friend are questioned for driving without a license. However, Anbuchelvan lets them off with a warning. When one of Maya’s students has a problem with local kids, she asks Anbuchelvan for help. Anbuchelvan resolves this problem, a mutual respect grows between them and they begin seeing one another. When Maya gets into a road accident, Anbuchelvan helps her to recover and they fall in love. Shrikanth and his wife, Swathi, become good friends with Anbuchelvan and Maya.
In response to rising levels of crime in the city, when the son of an influential movie producer is kidnapped and killed, the special unit is reassembled. The unit tracks down and kills the head of the gang that was responsible. The brother of the gang leader, Pandya (played by Jeevan), returns from Mumbai and takes over the gang, promising revenge over his brother’s death. Pandya and his gang members target the families of the men in the special unit, but the police close in and a badly-injured Pandya barely escapes Anbuchelvan.
Maya and Anbuchelvan get married and leave for Pondicherry. But the next day, Pandya and his thugs enter the cottage the honeymoon couple are staying in and torture Anbuchhelvan, leaving him for dead. They kidnap Maya. This brings the viewer back to the opening scene of the movie, in which Anbuchelvan is battling for life but thinking only about rescuing Maya.
Shrikanth and Arul arrive at the cottage, discover Anbuchelvan and take him to the hospital. Shrikanth reveals that his wife Swathi was kidnapped earlier and confesses that it was he who gave away Anbuchelvan’s location to Pandya, for the safe return of Swathi. Shrikanth feels extreme remorse over what has happened. Whilst in the hospital, they receive a message from Pandya to meet him at a particular location. When they go there, they find a package containing the decapitated head of Swathi. Shrikanth is distraught at seeing his wife's head and in an agony of grief and guilt at being responsible, probably, for Maya's death as well, he commits suicide by shooting himself.
Anbuchelvan tracks down Pandya before he can escape from Tamil Nadu and fights with the gang. Pandya stabs Maya to distract her husband and she dies in Anbuchelvan’s arms. An enraged Anbuchelvan tracks down Pandya and, in a final encounter, kills him.
An epilogue shows that Anbuchelvan, after the death of Maya, continues his job as an IPS officer some weeks later.
An alternative ending was shot and placed in the DVD version with a running commentary by Gautham Menon,in which maya comes alive and he explains why this ending was not used in the version for cinema release.
[edit] Main characters
[edit] Anbuselvan
Surya Sivakumar plays Anbuselvan IPS (Indian Police Service). Surya Sivakumar plays the role of a police officer who gains the cinema audiences' support by killing criminals wherever he meets them. He believes that a family would be a hindrance to performing his duties without fear and he likes being single.
[edit] Pandya
Jeevan plays the villain's role in Kaakha Kaakha. His raw portrayal of this gangster made people notice him as an actor. Pandya is someone who doesn't care about anything. His only motive is to take revenge for his brother's death and he will go to any level to inflict pain on his enemies and make them fear him. Jeevan went on to win a Filmfare award for best villain, 2004, for his role in this film.
[edit] Maya
The character of Maya is portrayed by actress Jyothika as a beautiful young woman who is initially frightened by Anbuselvan. Later, she gets to know him and falls in love with him. The complete opposite of Anbuselvan's character, Maya is a schoolteacher who is very intelligent, outspoken and bold.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Surya | Anbuchelvan |
| Jeevan | Pandian (or Pandya), voiced by Gautham Menon |
| Jyothika | Maya |
| Daniel Balaji | Shrikanth |
| Devadarshini | Swathi |
| Vivek Anand | Arul |
| Rajan | Ilamaran |
| Yog Japee | Sethu |
| Gautham Menon | Vasudeva Nair |
| Ramya Krishnan | Bar Dancer |
[edit] Character map of remakes
| Kaakha Kaakha (Tamil) |
Gharshana (Telugu) |
Force (Hindi) |
Dandam Dashagunam (Kannada) |
| Surya | Venkatesh | John Abraham | Chiranjeevi Sarja |
| Jyothika | Asin | Genelia | Ramya |
[edit] Awards and nominations
In addition to the following list of awards and nominations, prominent Indian film websites named Kaakha Kaakha one of the 10 best Tamil films of 2003, with Rediff, Sify and SearchIndia all doing so. The film was, before release, in "most awaited" lists from film websites.
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 Filmfare Awards South | Best Actor | Surya Sivakumar | Nominated |
| Best Actress | Jyothika | Nominated | |
| Best Villain | Jeevan | Won | |
| Best Director | Gautham Menon | Nominated | |
| Best Film | Kalaipuli S. Dhanu | Nominated | |
| Best Choreography | Brindha (Thoodu Varuma & Uyirin Uyire) |
Won | |
| Best Music Director | Harris Jayaraj | Won | |
| Best Cinematographer | R. D. Rajasekhar | Won | |
| Best Editor Award | Anthony | Won | |
| 2003 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards | Best Music Director | Harris Jayaraj | Won |
| Best Editor | Anthony | Won | |
| 2004 International Tamil Film Awards | Best Movie | Kalaipuli S. Thanu | Nominated |
| Best Director | Gautham Menon | Nominated | |
| Best Actor | Surya Sivakumar | Won | |
| Best Actress | Jyothika | Nominated | |
| Best Villain | Jeevan | Won | |
| Best Music Director | Harris Jayaraj | Won | |
| Best Lyricist | Thamarai | Won | |
| Best Male Playback | Karthik (Oru Ooril) |
Won |
[edit] Soundtrack
Music was composed by Harris Jayaraj.
| Kaakha Kaakha | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj | ||||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Harris Jayaraj chronology | ||||
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| Song title | Singers |
|---|---|
| Ennai Konjam | Timmy, Tippu, Pop Shalini |
| Ondra Renda | Bombay Jayashri |
| Oru Ooril | Karthik |
| Thoodhu Varuma | Sunitha Sarathy |
| Uyirin Uyirae | KK, Suchitra |
[edit] Production
Menon revealed that he was inspired to make the film after reading of articles on how encounter specialists shoot gangsters and how their families get threatening calls in return, and initially approached Madhavan, Ajith Kumar and then Vikram for the role without success, with all three actors citing that they did not want to play a police officer. The lead actress Jyothika asked Menon to consider Suriya for the role, and he was subsequently selected after Menon saw his portrayal in Nandha.[5] He did a rehearsal of the script with the actors, a costume trial with Jyothika and then enrolled Suriya in a commando training school before beginning production, which he described as a "very planned shoot".[5]
[edit] Reviews
The film consequently opened to very positive reviews from critics on the way to becoming another success for Menon, with critics labeling it as a "career high film".[6] Furthermore, the film was described as for "action lovers who believe in logical storylines and deft treatment" with Menon being praised for his linear narrative screenplay.[7]
[edit] Remakes
Gautham Menon subsequently remade the film in the Telugu language for producer Venkata Raju and went on to claim that the new version was better than the previous version and that his new lead actor Venkatesh was more convincing that Surya in the role.[8] The film also featured actress Asin and Saleem Baig in prominent roles and went on to earn commercial and critical acclaim with reviewers citing that "film redeems itself due to the technical excellence and masterful craft of Gautham", drawing comparisons of Menon with noted film makers Mani Ratnam and Ram Gopal Varma.[9] In July 2004, Menon also agreed terms to direct and produce another version of Kaakha Kaakha in Hindi with Sunny Deol in the lead role and revealed that the script was written five years ago with Deol in mind, but the film eventually failed to take off.[10] Producer Vipul Shah approached him to direct the Hindi version of the film in 2011 as Force with John Abraham and Genelia D'Souza, and Menon initially agreed before pulling out again.[11] Menon and the original producer, Dhanu, also floated an idea of an English version with a Chechnyan backdrop, though talks with a potential collaboration with Ashok Amritraj collapsed.[5]
[edit] See also
- Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu – Another police film by Gautham Menon
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Suriya: Bollywood’s hottest six-pack". Mint (newspaper). http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/02211011/Suriya-Bollywood8217s-hott.html?pg=4. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "Romancing the remake". Screen India. http://www.screenindia.com/news/romancing-the-remake/731169/. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "Reel of fortune". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 2003-12-29. http://www.hindu.com/mp/2003/12/29/stories/2003122900170100.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- ^ "The many faces of success". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 2005-09-03. http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/09/03/stories/2005090302070300.htm.
- ^ a b c Rangan, Baradwaj (2006). "Interview: Gautham Menon". Baradwaj Rangan. http://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2006/12/17/interview-gautham-menon/. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ Subramaniam, Guru (2003). "A career high film for Surya'". Rediff. http://www.rediff.com/movies/2003/aug/11kaaka.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ Rangarajan, Malathi (2003). "Kaakha Kaakha". The Hindu. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2003/08/08/stories/2003080801870200.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ "'Gharshanaa' is far superior to 'Kaakha Kaakha': Gautham". Sify. 2004. http://www.sify.com/movies/telugu/interview.php?id=13519360&cid=2410. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ "Gharshana – Flying colors in khaki". Indiaglitz.com. 2004. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/telugu/review/7127.html. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ Adarsh, Taran (2004). "Sunny in `Kaakha Kaakha` remake". Sify. http://www.sify.com/movies/sunny-in-kaakha-kaakha-remake-news-bollywood-kkfvK6dacdj.html. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
- ^ Daithota, Madhu (2010). "John Abraham loved 'Kaakha Kaakha'". Times of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/regional/news-interviews/John-Abraham-loved-Kaakha-Kaakha/iplarticleshow/5569383.cms. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
[edit] External links
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