Jeans (film)

Jeans
Directed by	S. Shankar
Written by	Screenplay: S. Shankar Story: S. Shankar Dialogue: Sujatha
Produced by	Ashok Amritraj Sunanda Murali Manohar
Starring	Prashanth Aishwarya Rai Nassar Raadhika Senthil Raju Sundaram Lakshmi
Cinematography	Ashok Kumar
Edited by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Distributed by	Oscar Films Eros Multimedia Cee I TV
Release dates	Template:Country data World April 24, 1998
Running time	175 min.
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Jeans is a 1998 Tamil musical and romantic film. Directed and co-written by Shankar and produced by Ashok Amritraj and Murali Manohar, its stars Prashanth, Aishwarya Rai and Nassar in multiple lead roles. Raju Sundaram and Lakshmi, prominent actors from the south Indian film industry, played the roles of the lead characters' relatives in the movie.

The film revolves around a Non-resident Indian man who has twin sons, and as a result of his separation from his twin wants his sons to be married to twin daughters. However the elder son falls in love with a woman, who visits America to help her grandmother remove a brian tumour. The eldest son, after helping the woman's grandmother to live, tells her his father's plea. The eldest son and the woman eventually put on a double act attempting to deceive the father, however they're plans are foiled. How the couple manage to change his father's decision forms the crux of the story.

The film opened to Indian audiences after several delays, on April 24, 1998 just after the Tamil New Year, and in the process, becoming the most expensive film to be made in India at the time. Despite receiving mixed reviews on the actors' performances and the basic storyline, the film went on to become a major hit at the South Indian box office. Owing to its success, it was later dubbed into the Hindi and Telugu language and released with the same name. Furthermore, the film was nominated by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1998.

Cast

The cast featured three actors, who were played multiple roles. As per othe Shankar film, the supporting cast was elaborate with several guest appearances by prominent artistes.

• Prashanth as Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy. The twin brothers are both medical students, who assist their father run a catering business. Whilst Vishwanathan is more fun-loving and has a relationship with Madhumitha, Ramamoorthy is more reserved and emotional, especially after being deceived by the double act of Madhumitha.
• Aishwarya Rai as Madhumitha and Vaishnavi. A loving and an optimistic young woman, who leads her family to the United States seeking medical attention for her grandmother. Vaishnavi is the double act improvised by Madhumitha to deceive Nachiappan.
• Nassar as 'Nachiappan and Pachiappan Rajamani. A naive father of twin sons, who remains upbeat on re-uniting with his own twin, Pachiappan. Insists on his twin sons getting married to twin daughters, spurring on Madhumitha's double act.
• Raju Sundaram as Madhesh. An energetic brother to 'Madhumitha with a severe habit of ruining the situation and cracking jokes.
• Lakshmi as Krishnaveiny. A grandmother to Madhumitha, who encourages her grandaughter and her boyfriend to portray a double act. Starts the role as an ill person seeking medical attention to remove a brain tumour in the United States.
• Senthil as Gino. A cook who works at Nachiappan's catering company. Provides comical relief throughout the film.
• Raadhika as Sundaramba. Plays a vital cameo as the wife of Pachiappan, who accidnetly sets fire to herself starting the friction between the brothers.

Production

The key elements

The entire production of the movie took about a year and a half to be completed and released. Prior to Unnale Unnale, Jeeva had directed three films, 12B, Ullam Ketkumae and Run, a Hindi film. Unnale Unnale became his last finished film prior to his death on the sets of his next film, Dhaam Dhoom.

The film was originally announced under the title of July Kaatril (In the Winds of July) with a scheduled casting of Arya, Sonia Agarwal and Parvati Melton. However all three of the proposed lead cast opted out of the film. Agarwal cited that her marriage was on the cards and she would find it difficult to sign on for a year, whilst the other two were unable to star in the film due to undisclosed reasons.

In an interview, Jeeva, said "Romance always finds a special place in Tamil movies. My new film July Kaatril is also about love", confirming it was a romantic flick. While Harris Jayaraj was signed on as the music director with Kavignar Vaali and Pa. Vijay assisting him with the lyrics, Jeeva's wife, Aneez, debuted as a costume designer.

Casting, location and music

The casting of Vinay Rai, after Arya opted out, as Karthik was due to some similarities with the character. Vinay made his debut into the film industry after modelling and featuring in a couple of Tulu advertisements. However, they finalised the choice of the actor only after the script was ready. The choice of Sadha was more difficult and since Anniyan she had received many negative reviews and the film became important to rekindle her success. The role of Deepika went to Tanisha Mukherjee, who despite being a leading heroine's sister (Kajol), she was yet to maintain a hit film. Mukherjee, came down to South India to look for new opportunities and attracted the producer into signing her on. She immediately expressed her satisfaction with the character and consented for the role. The camaraderie that the lead actors shared during the filming, added on to their good performances. Raju Sundaram and Satish were picked for their dancing skills while actresses Paloma, Lekha Washington and Adhisayaa all played floating cameos in the film.

The film was mostly shot in Melbourne, Australia overlooking the Melbourne Docklands. The climax was shot in Sydney while the beginning and the flashback was picturized in various cities across South India.For the film's music and soundtrack, Jeeva renewed his previous association (12B and Ullam Ketkumae) with Harris Jayaraj. Playback singer, Chinmayi dubbed for Tanisha Mukherjee, while Socrates rendered the voice for Vinay's and Renuka for Sadha's characters respectively in the movie.

Development

The film was made by many of the same filmmakers involved in Indian which won several National Film Awards. In 1995, producer Ashok Amritraj revealed his interests in producing an Indian film, however he picked S. Shankar to be his director, hinting at a Kollywood film as all Shankar's film have been originally made in Tamil. The casting of the film was left to Shankar after he had finalized the story. Genes was the title selected but Shankar felt it would not apply to the masses so he used the the homonym, Jeans. The original idea of the roles of Vishwanath and Ram Mohan was to Abbas, an upcoming artiste at the time, but the offer was rejected by Abbas as his dates were booked for the full year of 1996. The second choice, Ajith Kumar also opted out due to differences in idea with the director. The roles of Vishwanath and Ram Mohan finally went to Prashanth, whose film career had struggled after the first couple of his films. Prashanth had to cut his long hair and changed the hair style all together, trimmed up his body, sharpened his mind and dedicated almost a year and half to Jeans (sacrificing seven films in the process), as he considered it "a once in a lifetime" opportunity' which would straighten up his career for good. Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World, was the original choice for the roles of Madhumitha and Vaishnavi. Despite having a huge fan base and publicity, Aishwarya Rai hadn't given a hit in her two movie career, despite her debut movie, Iruvar directed by Mani Ratnam being critically acclaimed. The other cast of the film were chosen including S. P. Balasubrahmanyam who walked out of the project refusing to comment why he did so, he was replaced by S. Ve. Sekhar as the father of Madhumitha.

The film's Puja, a popular trend in Indian movies, was held at the AVM Studios in Vadapalani, Chennai. Shankar began Jeans with a presentation different from his previous other films. A typical Jeans invitation was printed, wrapped in Jeans cloth and was hand delivered by Shankar to his close colleagues and friends in Chennai. A star-studded guest line-up arrived for the puja ceremonies held in December 1996. Kamal Haasan, Bhagyaraj and Rajinikanth all attended the ceremony as chief guests. Directors K. Balachandar, Bharathiraja, K. S. Ravikumar, R. C. Sakthi, Pandiyarajan and many others made it a point to come to the function to check out the grandest Tamil film puja to date in 1996. Actress Lakshmi lit the Kuthu Valakku, a flame holder, as Kamal Hassan presented Shankar with the clapboard for the movie. Actors Sivakumar, Thyagarajan (Prasanth's father), Prashanth, Abbas, Ajith Kumar, Nizhalgal Ravi, Karate Husseini, Senthil, Ganesh and actress Heera Rajgopal were all in attendance as well. Aishwarya Rai, Prashanth, Balakumaran, Shankar and just about anyone else associated with the shooting of the film, wore their favorite pair of blue jeans to make it the highlight of the function.

Production

Producers Ashok Amritraj, Michael Soloman and Dr. Murali Manohar began the Jeans project. Shankar had a lot of great experiences shooting this film all over the United States and across the world. Just about any and every significant and beautiful location in the U.S. seems to have found a place in Jeans. While shooting in Las Vegas, Aishwarya Rai was honored with a Key of Las Vegas, commemorating her celebrity status and her visit to the city. A real life shooting incident also occurred closed to the Jeans shooting spot, where a helicopter, police cars and gun fire created a huge scene in the middle of the night, which shocked the cast and crew of the film. By policy, Universal Studios does not grant permission for foreign films to conduct shooting there. With a influence from Ashok Amritraj they were able to obtain special permission to film a few scenes inside. Besides the King Kong set, Jeans was also shot in the "simulated earthquake experience" sets.

While in Los Angeles, a lot of crowds gathered to watch the Jeans filming and the police had to be called in eventually to control the congestion. Jeans was also picturized at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, where they had to hire a few helicopters, which cost a huge amount. Other Jeans shooting locations include the Valley of Fire, Manhattan Beach, Malibu Lake and many scenic spots throughout California and the United States. The song Columbus was picturized at the shores of Venice Beach, California with some foreign male and female dancers. Shankar also filmed in New York at the World Trade Center when Michael Salmon and his wife, Luciana Balusia visited the sets of Jeans.

After a tough 45 day schedule in the United States, Shankar and the team returned to India only to realize that they had a theme that had to be fulfilled thorough this film. When Shankar read the lyrics to the song Adhisayam, he began tossing the idea in his mind about picturizing the seven wonders of the world for the song. From that inspiration, came another thirty day trip around the world to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Orange Orchards in California, Empire State Building in New York, Pyramids in Egypt, Taj Mahal in India and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was during the shooting in Paris that news of Princess Diana's death shook the world. The cast and crew of Jeans found that they were only a few blocks away from the deadly accident and took the rest of the day off trying to get over the gloominess and depression. A stunt sequence was also shot near the Pyramids in Egypt, when a bomb blast occurred in a bus nearby. For the most part, Jeans was surrounded by world events of all sorts and for Shankar, the cast and crew of the film, the experiences were tremendously vivid and memorable.

Publicity and release

Template:Infobox movie certificates To add lots of spice to the matters at hand were the rumours that there were multiple Nassars, Aishwarya Rais and Prashanths in the movie. People tossed the idea around so much that creative screenplays were effortlessly generated by fans just to keep the hype and interest going. More was made on the issue as word leaked out that the plot was that Prashanth, for some reason, was chasing Aishwarya Rai around the world in the movie. For quite a while after these rumours, things died down. Until word came that Actress Lakshmi was rumoured to be very disgruntled on the unacceptable food conditions during her stay in the United States. When Jeans skipped its initial release date of Pongal 1998, the magazine rumour machines started churning out some good ones once again. As Kaadhala Kaadhala, a Kamal Haasan and Prabhu Deva starrer, had also not released for Pongal, the media turned jubilant over whether Jeans would clash with Kaadhala Kaadhala on Tamil New Year's Day 1998.

Vannathirai magazine published a small article on the possibility that portions of both Jeans and Kaadhala Kaadhala were being remade as the films resembled another film, Naam Iruvar Namakku Iruvar in more than one way. Naan Iruvar Nammaku Iruvar bombed badly when it released for Pongal 1998, Vannaththirai believed that both Kamal Haasan and Shankar sat down to re-shoot parts of their respective films. In the meantime, New Filmaalaya magazine released another rumour stating that Shankar and the producers had fought over some issue and Shankar had stalled the film tentatively. The magazine also indicated that Jeans would not release for Tamil New Year's Day and should not be expected before Deepavali 1998. One of the last rumours came in February 1998 when Vannathirai once again published a small gossip article stating the producer was threatening Shankar to finish the film fast or he would have some other director complete the film and release it instead.

Adding a lot more to the hype at hand were the Anandha Vikatan Magazine team which created a make-believe invitation and sent it out to many of the celebrities in Chennai for a premiere show of the Making of Jeans on April 1st, 1998. A whole pleathora of celebrities including Gouthami, Suriya, Ajith Kumar and Director Vasanth actually arrived. The twist was that an actual documentary on the making of the Jeans pant from the tearing, dying to the stitching. This was confirmed by Anandha Vikatan as an April Fools’ joke although it created havoc and confusion in Kodambakkam.

The film released simultaneously in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu on April 14.

Music

Untitled

Main article: Jeans (soundtrack)

The Jeans soundtrack was released by Westop on April 1 1998. The original scores from the film's composer, A. R. Rahman, make up the tracks on the album. The Lyrics are by Vairamuthu. The soundtrack also features six vocals played during the film: "Ennake Ennaka" by Unnikrishnan and Pallavi, "Columbus Columbus" by A. R. Rahman, "Poovukul" by Unnikrishnan and Sujatha, "Vaaraya Thozhi" by Sonu Nigam, Shahul Hameed, Harini and Sangeetha, "Kannodu Kanbethallam" by Nithyashree and "Anbe Anbe" by Hariharan and Anuradha Sriram. These songs were dubbed into Hindi, using Javed Akhtar's lyrics when it was released in North India.

The climax of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture appears at the end of the track "Anbe Anbe". The revolutionary sounding Overture is played at key parts at the beginning and end of the film.

Track Listings

Tamil

1. Ennake Ennaka - Unnikrishnan, Pallavi
2. Columbus Columbus - A. R. Rahman
3. Poovukul - Unnikrishnan, Sujatha
4. Kannodu Kaanberallam - Nithyashree
5. Varaya Thozhi - Sonu Nigam, Shahul Hameed, Harini, Sangeetha
6. Anbe Anbe - Hariharan, Anuradha Sriram

Hindi

1. Hai Re Hai Re Hai Rabba - Unnikrishnan, Pallavi
2. Columbus Columbus Chutti Hai Aayi - Sonu Nigam
3. Kehta Hai Mera Ye Dil Piya - Unnikrishnan, Sujatha
4. Ajooba Hai - Sadhana Sargam, Hariharan
5. Kehne Ko Daadi Lekin Saheli - Kavitha Paudwal, Sonu Nigam, Sukhwinder Singh
6. Tauba Tauba Ye Jalwe - Hariharan, Anuradha Sriram

Telugu

1. Hayirabba Hayirabba - Unnikrishnan, Pallavi
2. Columbus Columbus - A. R. Rahman
3. Poovullo Daagunna - Unnikrishnan, Sujatha
4. Kannulatho Choseve - Nithyashree
5. Raave Naa Chaliyaa - Sonu Nigam, Harini
6. Priya Priya Champodde - Srinivas

External links

• Jeans at IMDb
• Jeans at AllMovie
• Jeans at Rotten Tomatoes
• Jeans film review at thenisai.com