Si3 (film)

Si3
File:Singam 3 poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hari
Written by	Hari
Produced by	K. E. Gnanavel Raja Dhaval Jayantilal Gada
Starring	Suriya Anushka Shetty Shruti Haasan
Cinematography	Priyan
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan T. S. Jay
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Production companies	Studio Green Pen Movies Aadnah Arts
Distributed by	Pen Movies
Release date	9 February 2017 (2017-02-09)
Running time	156 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Si3 (also known as Singam 3) is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language action-masala film written and directed by Hari. A sequel to Singam II (2013) and the third film in the Singam franchise, it stars Suriya, Shruti Haasan and Anushka Shetty in the lead roles.

Principal photography commenced in January 2016 in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The film was released worldwide on 9 February 2017 along with the Telugu dubbed version, Yamudu 3.

Plot

Durai Singam (Suriya), a fierce honest cop has been promoted as Commissioner (Crime Branch). He is all set to head to Andhra Pradesh to investigate the murder of former Commissioner of Vizag. The course of investigation leads Durai Singam to an international mission where he meets up with the villain. Why was the Commissioner murdered and how he handles the case?

Cast

• Suriya as DCP Durai Singam
• Anushka Shetty as Kavya Durai Singam
• Shruti Haasan as Vidhya (Agni)
• Raadhika Sarathkumar as Ramakrishna's wife
• Krish as V. Sreenivas
• Thakur Anoop Singh as Vittal Prasad
• Nithin Sathya as Murali
• Soori as Veeram
• Robo Shankar as Subba Rao "Subbu"
• Sarath Babu as K. Sathyanarayana, Home minister of Andhra Pradesh
• Vijayakumar as Ramanathan, Home minister of Tamil Nadu
• Sharat Saxena as Madhusudhana Reddy "M. S. Reddy"
• Nassar as Mahalingam
• Radha Ravi as Soundara Pandi, Durai Singam's father
• Janaki Sabesh as Mahalingam's wife
• Sumithra as Kalyani, Durai Singam's mother
• Yuvarani as Dhanalakshmi, Durai Singam's sister
• Manorama as Kavya's grandmother
• Delhi Kumar as Kavya's grandfather
• Imman Annachi as Pushparaj
• Thyagu as Habour Shanmugam
• Chaams as Police contable
• Vishwa as Police inspector
• Joe Malloori as School teacher
• Jayaprakash as Ramakrishna
• Ilavarasan as Krishnaraj
• Suman as Ram Prasad
• Mohan V. Raman as Judge
• Kamalesh as Rajeev Krishna
• Crane Manohar as Palani
• Vimalraj as Madhusudhana Reddy's henchman
• Sandra Amy as Aarthi
• Nalini
• Jeeva Ravi as Mallaya
• Bonda Mani
• Balasubramani
• Venkat Subha as Opposition Party Leader of Andhra Pradesh
• Neetu Chandra special appearance in the song "Sone Sone"

Production

Following the commercial success of Singam 2, Hari was keen to collaborate with Suriya for another action film with a fresh script away from the Singam franchise, and agreed terms in principle with the actor in October 2014. Hari revealed that as a result of pressure from those around him, he later developed the one-line story from the film into a script for a third part of Singam. While the first film was primarily shot within Tamil Nadu and the second featured a few scenes in South Africa, Hari stated that the third part would be more "international" and would be set in three countries as the protagonist tackles a global issue.

While most of the cast was retained from the earlier films, Shruti Haasan was added to the team in July 2015 to portray another leading female role, while Anirudh Ravichander was signed as the music composer replacing Devi Sri Prasad. Anirudh later opted out of the project citing scheduling issues and Harris Jayaraj was brought in to compose the film's music. Vivek, who portrayed the police officer Erimalai in the first two films, declined to reprise his role in this film as he felt he "did not have a meaty role in it". New actors to the series including Radhika, Soori, Robo Shankar, Krish and Nithin Sathya were added to the cast, while Thakur Anoop Singh was signed on to portray the lead antagonist. In preparation for his role, Suriya bulked up his physique by spending more hours in the gym and by adopting a strict oil-free diet.

The start of the film's shoot, initially scheduled for December 2015, was delayed as a result of the 2015 South Indian floods. Production began in Visakhapatnam during January 2015 with scenes featuring Shruti Haasan as a journalist being shot. Following a series of action sequences shot in the city, the team moved to film song sequences in Romania with Anushka joining the team. After a production break, the team restarted the shoot in Visakhapatnam, before moving to the Talakona Forest region and then on the AVM Studios in Chennai during mid-2016. The team moved to Malaysia to finish filming the climax in October 2016, before a further song was shot in Georgia with Suriya and Shruti Haasan. In January 2017, the film was re-titled from S3 to Si3 (spelt சி3 in Tamil) to exploit the Tamil Nadu Government's rule of entertainment tax exemption for films titled in Tamil.

Release

The film went through several changes of release date, before being released on 9 February 2017. The film was completed in mid-2016 and the team completed post-production work aiming to have a theatrical release in October to coincide either with the Ayudha Puja or Diwali season, but the release was postponed to avoid a box office clash with Suriya's brother, Karthi's film, Kaashmora. The film was then scheduled to release on 16 December and then even later on 23 December to make most of the Christmas holiday season, but was delayed after the team chose to allow the public of Tamil Nadu more time to recuperate from the aftermath of Cyclone Vardah, the death of Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha and the ongoing demonetisation problems. Prior to the film's revised release date of 26 January, PETA India had remarked that Suriya was trying to garner publicity for S3 by speaking out against the organisation at the 2017 pro-Jallikattu protests. Suriya subsequently filed a legal notice against PETA for the defamatory allegations. The film was pushed back even further following riots in Chennai at the end of the protest, with the producers finalising a worldwide theatrical release date of 9 February.

Critical reception

A critic from Times of India stated that the delayed release " did not seem to deter Duraisingam from roaring loud, making swift actions, bashing up the baddies uncompromisingly and winning applause from his colleagues as well as the audience", while also lauding Suriya and Hari's contribution to the film. The critic wrote "Suriya, who carries the entire film on his shoulders, is in full form — Duraisingam looks as intense, brave and energetic as he appeared more than six years ago", and "director Hari’s consistency in handling cop stories convincingly and entertainingly needs to be commended as he has been proving his expertise repeatedly". The New Indian Express also gave the film a positive review, stating "In Si3, Suriya proves with the third film of the franchise that no one can play Durai Singam better than him", while analysing that "Hari maintains a sense of urgency in his films from the beginning to end, but, as a commercial film director, his storytelling methods also suffer from following a set of rules, which include frequent yawn-inducing songs", though added that "he makes up for that formulaic approach with fast-paced narration in the scenes that follows". Behindwoods.com rated the film 2.75 out of 5 and stated that "Durai Singam strikes again! Suriya and Hari don't disappoint you in this Singam franchise". Filmibeat.com rated it 3 out of 5 and stated "Singam 3 is sure to entertain the fans of Singam franchise. With full-form, Singam 3 packs the same punch as it's prequels". In contrast, the critic from The Hindu stated that the film was "loud, fast, and without a single memorable moment". Likewise, Sify.com called the film "a cocktail of harebrained predictable plot, exhausting action scenes and slapstick comedy", while concluding it was "loud and exhausting".

Soundtrack

Untitled

The film's soundtrack is scored by Harris Jayaraj, who replaced Devi Sri Prasad as the composer of the film series. Taking a break after various schedules of shooting, director Hari and Harris Jayaraj completed the song composing in Bangkok, Thailand. The audio rights of the film was acquired by Eros Music and the complete album was released on 27 November 2016. Reviewing the album, Srivatsan of India Today stated "S3 might not be Harris' best work, but definitely not bad either. Having said that, it's a pucca commercial album from the composer. Be it the songs or the theme music, the album has enough scope to pander to the B and C centers".

Tamil (Original)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"O Sone Sone"	Pa. Vijay, M. C. Vickey	Javed Ali, Priya Subramaniyan, M. C. Vickey	5:06
2.	"Mudhal Murai"	Thamarai, Ramya NSK	Harish Raghavendra, Swetha Mohan, Ramya NSK, Karthik	5:05
3.	"Universal Cop"	Viveka, Dinesh Kanagaratnam	Christopher Stanley, Dinesh Kanagaratnam, Krish	4:49
4.	"He's My Hero"	Hari, Maalavika Manoj	Maalavika Manoj	2:31
5.	"Wi Wi Wi WiFi"	Hari, Harris Jayaraj	Karthik, Christopher Stanley, Nikhita Gandhi	4:50
6.	"Mission To Sydney"	Hari, Lady Kash	Lady Kash	2:28
7.	"S3 Vettai Theme"	Hari	M. C. Vickey	1:32

External links

• S3 (2017) at IMDb