Deiva Thirumagal

Deiva Thirumagal
File:Deiva Thirumagan.jpg Production poster
Directed by	A. L. Vijay
Written by	A. L. Vijay
Produced by	M. Chinthamani Ronnie Screwvala
Starring	Vikram Anushka Shetty Amala Paul Nassar Santhanam
Cinematography	Nirav Shah
Edited by	Anthony
Music by	G. V. Prakash Kumar
Production company	Sri Rajakaliamman Medias
Distributed by	UTV Motion Pictures
Release date	15 July 2011
Country	Template:Film India
Language	Tamil

Deiva Thirumagal (Tamil: தெய்வத்திருமகள், English: Holy Daughter of God) is a 2011 Tamil drama film written and directed by A. L. Vijay and produced by Mohan Natarajan that features Vikram in the lead role as a mentally challenged adult with the maturity of a five-year-old boy, while Anushka Shetty, Amala Paul and Nassar portray other pivotal roles. The film comprises director Vijay's 'regular' technical crew with G. V. Prakash Kumar as music composer, Nirav Shah as cinematographer and Anthony as editor. The film is partly based on the Hollywood film I Am Sam.

The film completed its schedules at a brisk pace and only announced the title of the project at the first press conference in April 2011. The teaser trailer of the project was released at the conference and has won critical acclaim, while the film released on 15 July 2011 along with a dubbed Telugu version, Nanna.

Cast

• Vikram as Krishnan
• Anushka Shetty as Anuradha Ragunathan
• Amala Paul as Shwetha Sargunam
• Sarah as Nila
• Nassar as Bashyam
• Santhanam as Vinod
• Y. Gee. Mahendra as Ragunathan
• M. S. Bhaskar as Murthy
• Sachin Khedekar as Rajendran
• Surekha as Raji
• Krishna Kumar
• Pandi
• Karthik Kumar as Karthik (Guest appearance)

Production

Development

With A. L. Vijay and Vikram confirming their presence in the project, the producers failed in attempts to persuade Vidya Balan to appear in the film. In October 2010, Anushka Shetty agreed to appear in the lead female role in the film after agreeing terms. Amala Paul, who appeared in the lead role in Mynaa, was signed on to play the daughter of a millionaire in November 2010. She had signed on in place of Meera Jasmine, who opted out of the film before production began. Despite reports that Divya Spandana joined the cast of the film in early 2011, Vijay refuted the claim as a rumour. The film saw the collaboration of several technicians who had worked in Vijay's earlier film Madrasapattinam, with G. V. Prakash Kumar as music composer, Nirav Shah as cinematographer and Anthony as editor. Santhanam was appointed as art director, whilst Deepali Noor took charge of costumes.

The film proceeded without an official title until April 2011, with several possibilities announced during the production period. The film was tentatively titled Deiva Magan (Son of God), a title from a 1969 film featuring Sivaji Ganesan. However problems arose after Sivaji Productions claimed that they owned the rights of the title and expressed their interest on using the name for a future production featuring Sivaji's grandson, Vikram Prabhu. The title Pitha (Father) also ran into trouble after a debutant team announced that they had registered the title, but subsequently the film was christened as Deiva Thirumagal in March 2011.

Filming

The film was predominantly shot across the hill country settings in Ooty throughout late 2010, with a chocolate factory being constructed as a set by art director Santhanam. Scenes were also shot within Chennai, with the Chennai High Courtroom being reproduced for a scene in the film. The team of the film returned to Ooty in February 2011 to complete the final schedule, after which the film was completed. In order to perfect his portrayal of a mentally challenged adult with the maturity of a five year old boy, Vikram visited Vidya Sagar, a school for children with special needs, to learn and study the behavior of such children.

Marketing

After completing the film with little publicity, the film met the press at Rain Tree Hotel in Chennai on April 3, 2011 to launch the title and logo, the teaser trailer and three twenty-second promotional videos of the film. The event was attended by technicians and actors from the film, with the teaser trailer drawing acclaim and positive reviews from film critics.

Release

The film premiered on July 14 in Dubai. UTV released the film in 300 screens in India.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews , particularly lauding Vikram's performance. Indiaglitz cited, "the movie is sure to impress you, despite the fact it is predictable in parts", while rating Vikram's performance as one of his best. Behindwoods cited it was an "emotional tale between a father and a daughter well told", giving it 3.5 out of 5. Sify wrote: "This is Vikram’s best work in years. You can feel the earnestness of his intentions and the wetness of his tears. He is able to nail the character’s boyish charm and innocence like sunshine and his restraint in the courtroom scene and his poignant dialogues in the climax, is heart breaking".. Get Cinemas wrote "Vikram's performances are fantastic, mind blowing and he has once again proven himself as a star performer"

However, Rohit Ramachandran of nowrunning.com rated it 2.5/5 stating that "Deiva Thirumagal is a well-made crowd pleasing family entertainer with a developmental disability that gets mentally taxing for the audience towards the end."

Soundtrack

Untitled

The film score and soundtrack for Deiva Thirumagal is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, collaborating with director Vijay for the third time after the success of Kireedam and Madrasapattinam. The soundtrack album released on 14 April 2011, at the Chennai Trade Centre. The song "Pa Pa Pappa" is taken from Walt Disney's Robin Hood (1973).

All lyrics are written by Na. Muthukumar

Tracklist

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Kadha Solla Poren"	Vikram, Shringa	05:38
2.	"Vizhigalil Oru Vaanavil"	Saindhavi	06:00
3.	"Pa Pa Pappa"	Vikram	05:51
4.	"Vennilave"	G. V. Prakash Kumar	03:33
5.	"Jagada Thom"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Maya, Rajesh	05:20
6.	"Aariro"	Haricharan	05:25
7.	"Life Is Beautiful"	Kalyan, Navin Iyer	01:44