Varalaru

Varalaru
File:Varalaru2 2.jpg
Directed by	K.S. Ravikumar
Written by	Screenplay: K. S. Ravikumar Story: K. S. Ravikumar Dialogue: Sujatha
Produced by	S.S. Chakravarthy
Starring	Ajith Kumar, Asin Thottumkal, Kanika Subramaniam, Ramesh Khanna Suman Shetty Vijayan Ponnambalam Mansoor Ali Khan Sujatha M. S. Baskar
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Distributed by	NIC Arts Ayngaran Ayngaran Ayngaran Ayngaran
Release dates	Oct 22, 2006 Oct 23, 2006 Oct 23, 2006 Oct 23, 2006 Oct 23, 2006
Running time	158 mins
Language	Tamil

Varalaru - History of Godfather (Tamil: வரலாறு) is a Tamil film released on Diwali 2006. the movie. The film stars Ajith and Asin, and is directed by K.S. Ravikumar. Ajith played three roles in the movie: a father and his two sons. His female lead as the father is actress Kanika. Ramesh Khanna and Suman Shetty are featured in supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by A. R. Rahman.

The film had been long delayed, originally slated for release in April 2005.

The film's release was originally scheduled for May 1, 2005, on Ajith's birthday, but was delayed; it opened on Diwali November 14, 2006 in India. It was successul at the box office in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler Shivshankar (Ajith Kumar), bound to a wheelchair, has a son, Vishnu (also Kumar in a double role), who is a playful, spoilt and youthful character, but not really responsible. In order to teach him a lesson, Shivshankar sends him off to Thottapuram in order to help the poor people there. Vishnu doesn't want to go, but the owner of a pizzeria tells him and his friends that the village is essentially one big brothel, so they go. However, Thottampuram is really one of the most sacred villages and the pizzeria owner wants Vishnu and his friends to be beaten up there. Coming to Thottapuram is also Dviya (Asin Thottumkal), along with her college class - they are there for their social activity course: they want to improve the hygiene there.

The village head wants Divya and friends to stay with poor families, instead of the large village building, because the building is reserved for the six rich guests that will be coming. Divya decides to woo the six newcomers and drop them afterwards, so she and her friends can get the building and the boys have to live with the families.

Vishnu and his five friends arrive, are greeted by the village and start to woo Divya and the girls whom they mistake for Thottapuram's prostitutes. When Divya finds out, they decide to teach Vishnu and his friends a lesson - also, to make sre they leave the large building, so Divya and her friends can occupy it.

A large feast is celebrated, Divya and the other girls woo Vishnu and his friends and finally lead them to the bedrooms. Vishnu's friends are injected a substance called "Monkey Blood", which makes them itch all over and they leave, screaming and scratching. Vishnu himself refuses to sleep with Divya (who desperately tries to give him the "Monkey Blood", but he evades her attempts), since he says he has committed lots of small mistakes and doesn't want to make a big one by sleeping with her. He asks her to leave her profession and Divya lies to him, saying she can't, as she has to support a family that is crippled with various diseases. Vishnu, moved, leaves, and goes without the "Monkey Blood".

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Shivshankar in song 'Innisai'

Vishnu wants to give Divya money, so she can start a new life, but Divya refuses one again, saying she doesn't need a new life, she has to restore her honour - so Vishnu agrees to marry her in the village temple. Divya doesn't believe him, but Vishnu says, he will be there to marry her the next day. However, Divya doesn't come and Vishnu and friends see her bus leaving, that bears the name of their college. They know now they have been cheated and the girls weren't prostitutes.

Back at home, Shivshankar notices that Vishnua ahs fallen in love - he makes sure, Vishnu and Divya get engaged.

However, during the night, Jeeva (the third role played by Ajith Kumar) turns up. He is a bank robber and desposits money under Vishnu's bed, so Vishnu is suspected to have robbed the bank. Shivshankar believes him.

Vishnu, after getting drunk at a party and Jeeva uses a spray to knock him out. The he drives to Divya's house to see her, however her father and brothers won't let her in. A fight ensues, where Divya's father, Vijayan, tries to shoot Jeeva, who finally drives away. Vijayan ends the engagement between his daughter and Vishnu, because of the latter's behaviour who has no idea what's going on.

Vishnu visits Divya's cousin, but Jeeva's already there, knocks him out, takes over and tries to rape her. Shivshankar hears of this, he whips his son, who does not know what happened. They send Vishnu to a therapist, however Jeeva again takes over and stabs Shivshankar's assistant.

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Jeeva in song 'Theeyil'

It is revealed that Jeeva hates Shivshankar since he has left his mother (Kanika) and she has become mad because of this.

At the same time, Divya manages to sneak into Vishnu's hospital and tells him that she thinks he's innocent. She leaves and shortly afterwards, Jeeva appears, smuggles Vishnu out of the hospital, dumbs him somewhere, takes over his identity and goes to kill Shivshankar. The father notices that it's not his son and gets out of his wheel chair in order to defend himself - Vishnu arrives at the scene, surprised that his father is able to walk and demands an explanation.

Shivshankar tells him that he wanted to become a dancer - however dancing is not seen as a "masculine" trait, especially by his mother, who thinks that dancing is as bad as having a disorder. She also wants Shivshankar to marry Jeeva's mother; which he does, however it's not a happy wedding, since Jeeva's mother rejects Shivshankar, as he is too demine. Shivshankar, enraged, rapes Jeeva's mother - a deed that results in a pregnancy. The doctor refuses to give a contraception to Jeeva's mother and so, Jeeva is born, because Jeeva's grandmother wanted the child. Despite wanting to go back to Shivshankar, Jeeva's mother slowly goes mad.

Jeeva escapes and now threatens the wedding between Vishnu and Divya. He wants to blow up the entire ceremony, and Shivshankar tries to stop him. Finally, Jeeva's grandmother comes out of hospital, explains the entire affair and Jeeva realizes that he has done. He wants Shivshankar to shoot him, but instead of Jeeva, his father gets shoot and dies.

In the end, Jeeva is taken custody - and Jeeva's mother does not accept food from anyone, until Vishnu comes dressed up as Jeeva and feeds her. It ends with stating that Shivshankar is their Godfather.

Cast

For Varalaru the original cast was to consist of Kamal many years back but however it did not go ahead, then it was Rajini but he also had other commitments at the time. The third choice for the film was Ajith who finally accepted. Kanika Subramaniam played a very important role of Shivshankar's wife. The film was also well supported by the rest of the cast. Director K. S. Ravikumar made a special appearance as a family doctor.

Actor	Role	Character
Ajith Kumar	Shivshankar	An old man smoking his pipe and on a wheelchair at the start, living with his son Vishnu, later he discovers Jeeva is also his son. In th eflashback he is a dancer and does not want to pass on his attributes so acts disabled.
Ajith Kumar	Vishnu	An fun going chap, who is the first son of Shivshankar and Kanika. He falls in love with Divya and eventually marrys her. Jeeva takes the advantage of him whilst trying to kill Shivshankar.
Ajith Kumar	Jeeva	The second child of Shivshankar and Kanika, affected by the fact that his mother is mental and his dad has left her, so he is on a vengeance to kill his father Shivshanker.
Asin Thottumkal	Divya	A pretty young college girl who comes to the village of Thottapuram as a part of her course. She then falls in love with Vishnu and eventually gets married to him at the end.
Kanika Subramaniam	Shivshankar's wife	A young girl that had studied abroad and was raped by Shivshankar after she rejected to marry him. She then turns mental as she thinks her baby had died.
Ramesh Khanna	Ramesh	The friend of Vishnu, together they went to the Thottapuram village in order to have sex, but instead he was injected with a substance. Significant factor is that he shouts bomb at the end.
Suman Shetty	Oorundai	Another friend of Vishnu, together they went to the Thottapuram village in order to have sex, but instead he was injected with a substance. He falls in love with Divya's teacher.
Vijayan	Divya's father	He looks after his daughter along with his two sons, he nearly shoots Jeeva with his gun, but Divya prevents him from doing so.
Ponnambalam	Divya's brother	A comical essence on his return, he fights Jeeva, thinking he is Vishnu and miserably loses, he even gets chucked outside a window in the process of it all.
Mansoor Ali Khan	Divya's brother	Back to films he plays a minor part as he fights Jeeva and loses badly, and with Divya's other brother gets chucked out side a window.
K. S. Ravikumar	Family Doctor	Plays a minor role as he does in most of his films although the part was significance, as he does not provide Kanika with the right dosage of contraception.
M. S. Baskar	Disguised Dean	Has one scene for an extra comical essence to the film, he fools everyone by dressing up a dea, he is actually mental.
Sujatha	Kanika's mother	Plays a pivotal role, in letting the audience and Shivshankar know what actually went on over time. She wants Shivshankar and Kanika to join hands buit it only works momentarily.
Mathan Bob	Shop owner	Tricks Vishnu and his friends that Thottapuram is a fun place to be and having sex it not lowly looked upon. Although Thottapuram itself is a very strict village itself.
Citi Babu	Police Officer	Investigated the fall ofr Divya's brothers out of the window, and tells them to re act in in the exact position. He also catches them for the murder of Jeeva's Uncle when it was really Jeeva.
Sivashankar	Dance Master	The person that the Shivshankar character was based on, he comes throughout the Innisai song and at the end of the song Shivshankar falls to his feet.
Santhana Bharathi	Jeeva's Uncle	Cares and looks after Kanika and Jeeva to a certain element, he provides shelter for them. His demise is a sad one as he is always drunk and Jeeva ends up killing him in a lift in the hospital.

Crew

The crew for the film is another key element, the film was able to unite Ajith with K. S. Ravikumar and A. R. Rahman. All three of them were looking to get their careers back on track with the film. The production house and distributors were also able to make this happen and revive a few careers in Kollywood.

Profession	Name	Effect
Actor	Ajithkumar	Ajith works hard throughout the film and the final product has definitely not disappointed him, he has donned the triple role to perfection.
Actress	Asin	Asin although has little time in front of the camera impresses with her style and lovable atitude.
Director	K. S. Ravikumar	The director started filming quite a long time ago although the film turned out to be good, some scenes seemed to just stop.
Screenplay	K. S. Ravikumar	The screen play was pretty smooth throughout the entire piece of the story.
Story	K. S. Ravikumar	The story was one of the key elements that Varalaru was a hit, it was well done and well executed.
Dialogue	Sujatha	The dialogue as normal was well done, although improvement could have been made here and there.
Script	K. S. Ravikumar	The script written was also on a average scale but however well executed.
Producer	NIC Arts	The production house was able to provide money for such a project and they will not be dissapointed.
Music	A. R. Rahman	Another classical Album from the genius himself, with Innisai being a favourite.
Choreography	Raju Sundaram	The choreography was well done and worked out by Raju Sundaram
Editor	A. Sreekar Prasad	The Editor had work to do to cut the film down into a sizeable and good movie.
Director of Photography	Nirav Shah	Held the camera very well some fo the scenes marked a new style which was very promising.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features 9 songs composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu. This soundtrack was released before the movie had even come out. Some of the songs themselves had been released a very long time before the release of the film itself, as the film had to face a number of obstacles before getting released itself. But however A. R. Rahman has been able to deliver the goods once again with his songs in Varalaru. A singer that was much talked about after the release of Varalaru was none other than Naresh Iyer, his two songs became huge hits with the fans. He and A. R. Rahman teamed up once again for Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, producing another super hit song. The Varalaru songs have taken time to come out just as the film, but however has pleased us as it marks the returns of the King of Music.

Song	Singer(s)	Review
Ilamai (Remix)	Suresh Peters, Blaaze	A song to indicate Jeeva's youth at the start. Suresh Peters provides sings well.
Kamma Karaiyil	Naresh Iyer, Sowmiya	The combination of singers leads this to being a sing along.
Innisai (Remix)	Mahathi, Saindhavi	A nice Carnatic music themed song, showing the peaceful essence.
Kaatril Oru Vaarthai	SP Balasubramanyam, Sadhana Sargam, Reena Bharathwaj	A calm and classic song, Sadhana Sargam sings well and SPB provides great backup.
Ilamai	Aslam, Thambi, Shalini	A quick paced song to show Jeeva's youth at the start of the movie. Well sung by Aslam and Shalini.
Thottapuram	Kalpana, Sonu Kakar, Leon James, Peer Mohamad, Ranjith	The combination of singers leads this to being a sing along. Rajith shows his depth whilst singing.
Innisai	Naresh Iyer, Mahathi	A wonderful song constructed by A. R. Rahman, very well sung by Naresh Iyer.
Theeyil Vizhundha	A. R. Rahman	A song sung by A. R. Rahman himself,show a lot of mother and son sentiments throughout the song.
Innisai (Remix 2)	Mahathi, Saindhavi	Yet another fine remix of the same song, this ones gives it an extra edge with the voice of Saindhavi.

Production

The producer of the film S.S. Chakravarthy and NIC Arts were key to success of Varalaru. The production of the film allowed for great stars to come together initially for the film. However there was a major twist as the film was delayed for a long time due to trouble in the production. At the end Ajith himself paid a considerable amount of money for the film to be released so it does not collide with his later acting plans.

Publicity and Release

The publicity of the fiim was initially created when K. S. Ravikumar picked Ajith to star in the movie and hence named the movie Godfather. People thought it will be as great as the Marlon Brando classic, which was arguabily the best film series of all time. The name of the film was however changed to Varalaru but the hype still did not tone down, as people were eagerly awaiting it on a day to day basis.

When the cast showed Asin opposite Ajith, for Asin fans it marked her claim to fame, as initially she had signed up for Godfather before she had signed up for Ghajini opposite Suriya. The film eventually put the hero and the heroine very high up the [ecking order in Kollywood.

Themes

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The film covers many different themes within it like love, the love between Divya and Vishnu at the start is quite corrupt as he is looked upon by Vishnu as a sex maniac. However he still loves her, this tells us that Vishnu is a very nice person and feels sorry for Divya. So therefore his love is true love, Divya's is also true love as when Vishnu is found out to be a murderer she still comes back to him and tells him that she still does love him. Another issue within the story is homosexuality as Shivshankar is thought to be homosexual by his society and even his future wife Kanika, this causes great controversy and he goes on to prove that he is not by having sex with Kanika so hence raping her in order to do so.

There are also many other assumptions and explorations that can be made into the film such as evil in the form of Jeeva, if it was the way that he was brought up and had no one really to care for him as he had to care for his mother so evetually his anger grew an grew to an extent that he wanted to kill. We can also talk about the demise of Shivshankar as he was shot twice at the end of the story, this links in that it is an tragic end as the eventual hero of the whole story dies.

Development

Varalaru was made by many of the same filmmakers involved in another Ajith Kumar and K. S. Ravikumar starrer, Villain which won several awards. In 2002 after the success of Villain, NIC Arts revealed their interests in working with K. S. Ravikumar again. The casting of the film was left to Ravi Kumar after he had finalized the story. He selected the title, Godfather at first, hinting a possible remake of an episode of the Hollywood trilogy, The Godfather, but he then denied the rumours claiming it was a brand new script. The original idea of the roles of Shivshankar, Jeeva and Vishnu were written for Rajanikanth, who shared a great friendship with Ravi Kumar after their double success at the box-office with, Muthu and Padayappa, however Rajanikanth, despite liking the script, claimed he wanted a sabbatical after the debacle of his home production, Baba had suffered. Kamal Haasan was also approached for the film, but he also rejected the opportunity citing his timetables for the years 2003 and 2004 were booked up due to, Anbe Sivam, Vasool Raja MBBS and his home venture, Virumaandi. After consideration, the roles of Shivshankar, Jeeva and Vishnu finally were offered to Ajith Kumar, who was high on the success of Villain, produced by the same banner. Ajith Kumar accepted the offer in May 2003, ready to start the work after his, Anjaneya was completed. Asin Thottumkal who was yet to appear in a Tamil film, despite having signed two projects at the time, signed up during the pre-production stages in November 2003. Kanika Subramaniam, who had worked with K. S. Ravikumar in Aethiree, was added to the project in March 2004. Other regular actors in Ravi Kumar's films such as Ramesh Khanna, Ponnambalam, Sujatha and Santhana Bharathi were added to the casting in early 2004.

The film's Puja, a popular trend in Indian movies, was held at the AVM Studios in Vadapalani, Chennai. K. S. Ravikumar began Varalaru with a presentation different from his previous other films. A star-studded guest line-up arrived for the puja ceremonies held in April 2006. Vijay, Bhagyaraj and Rajinikanth all attended the ceremony as chief guests. Directors K. Balachandar, Shankar, A. R. Murugadoss, R. C. Sakthi, Pandiyarajan and many others made it a point to come to the function to check out the Tamil film puja in 2006. Actress Asin lit the Kuthu Valakku, a flame holder, as Rajinikanth presented Ravikumar with the clapboard for the movie. Actors Sivakumar, Surya, Madhavan, Prabhu Deva and Senthil, were all in attendance as well. Asin, Ajith, Sujatha, K. S. Ravikumar and just about anyone else associated with the shooting of the film, gave speeches on how the film was going on and the where abouts and happening in the shoots.

Influences

Influences from K.S. Ravikumar's other popular films like Avvai Shanmugi and Villain have been noted. The use of the time-slice method in the film, as with The Matrix films and earlier used by Shankar in his film Anniyan, as well as the Farah Khan directed Main Hoon Na, proved popular with the audience. The Special Effects are to be provided by Big Freeze, a department based in London. Art Direction for the film was provided by Thotta Tharani. K.S. Ravikumar has also gained experience from previous hits of recent times such as Ghajini, Anniyan and even the Rajinikanth starer Chandramukhi. The film as a whole shows Ajith in a triple role. One of the roles as a dancer is influenced by the dance master of the film himself, Shivshankar. Although this may be redeemed to be not very welcoming, the dance master allowed K. S. Ravikumar to use his name and continue with the script. His dance was key to the film as Ajith represented as Shivshankar.

Box Office

• The film opened in over 300 screens worldwide including 23 screens in Chennai district, 16 screens in the USA and 16 screens in Bangalore.
• The film grossed Rs.102 million in Tamil Nadu within the first two days beating Chandramukhi's record.
• The film opened at No.24 in U.K. box-office collecting Rs.1.2 million in its opening weekend. Overall gross in U.K. was Rs.2.4 million.
• The film was declared a blockbuster within a couple of weeks after its release.
• The film turned out to be the biggest blockbuster in Ajith's career grossing almost Rs.500 million, reported India Today.
• The film is also the biggest grosser of 2006 beating Kamal's Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, reports India Today.
• This is the first Ajith film to gross Rs.100 million in Chennai district.
• The film completed 13 weeks successfully before being replaced by the next Ajith film Aalwar.
• The film is remade in Telugu by Pawan Kalyan.

Trivia

• It was originally titled Godfather (Tamil: காட்ஃபாதர்) but due the State Government’s order to grant entertainment tax exemption to movies titled in Tamil, prompted producer NIC Arts Chakravarthy and director K S Ravikumar to opt for a Tamil title for Godfather was then titled as Varalaru (meaning History).
• Rajinikanth invited Ajith and Shalini and had a family dinner with him to appreciate Ajith's performance in this film.
• During the process of this film Ajith grew his hair for Naan Kadavul for Bala but eventually he was forced out of the project and replaced by Arya.

External links

• Varalaru at IMDb
• Varalaaru Photo Gallery
• Video Songs