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Maari (film)

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Maari
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBalaji Mohan
Written byBalaji Mohan
Produced byListin Stephen
R. Sarathkumar
Raadhika Sarathkumar
StarringDhanush
Kajal Aggarwal
Vijay Yesudas
Robo Shankar
Anirudh Ravichander
CinematographyOm Prakash
Edited byPrasana GK
Music byAnirudh Ravichander
Production
companies
Wunderbar Films
Magic Frames
Distributed byMagic Frames
Escape Artists Motion Pictures
Release date
  • 17 July 2015 (2015-07-17)
Running time
140 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Box office₹25 crore (US$3.0 million) (3 days)[1]

Maari is a Tamil action comedy film written & directed by Balaji Mohan starring Dhanush and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead roles. The film is produced by Listin Stephen and Raadhika Sarathkumar under the banner of Magic Frames and co produced by Dhanush himself under the banner Wunderbar Films. Anirudh Ravichander composed the film's soundtrack and score while Om Prakash undertook the film's cinematography.

Production began in November 2014 after being in pre-production phase since March 2014. Principal photography began on 4 November 2014 and lasted till 15 March 2015. The film was shot in and around Chennai and Tuticorin.

The film was released on 17 July 2015. The official trailer was released by Sony Music India on 25 June 2015 and has reached 3.7 million views as of 17 July 2015.[2] The film released to positive reviews with critics praising Dhanush and Robo Shankar's performance.[3]

Plot

The movie starts off with a Constable talking to the new subinspector Arjun about Maari, a local rowdy, who apparently rose to fame after killing a rival rowdy. Maari (Dhanush) happens to be an irritating guy, who along with his henchmen Sanikilamai (Robo Shankar) and Adithangi (Kalloori Vinoth), constantly pester the people in the locality and extort them. His main line of work is in training pigeons to perform in races and performance events. His boss is Velu, a bigger don who also is involved in the pigeon races as well as smuggling of sandalwood. Maari constantly has fights with "Bird" Ravi (Mime Gopi), another local rowdy who is also working under Velu. That is when Sridevi (Kajal Agarwal) enters, trying to open a boutique in Maari's locality. Maari forcefully becomes her partner in the business, which angers her after she loses some customers. So she helps Arjun in catching Maari by getting close to him, pretending to fall in love with him and incriminating him with an evidence of his confession of trying to kill the rival gang leader, but failing after which he was killed by someone else and the fame comes to Maari. Maari gets arrested and after he is released, he finds out that Velu also has been arrested, Arjun and Ravi are working together and has arrested some people in the area under the pretext of smuggling. Maari decides to take revenge on the duo. He first frees the local people from the extortion by Ravi's gang, when Sridevi also falls in love with him. Later he captures one of Arjun's smuggling vehicles and the driver and forces him to release Velu. When he takes revenge by burning the pigeon coop of Maari, he gets angry and beats up Ravi and Arjun, with the former agreeing to confess to everything. Angered, Arjun stabs Ravi but eventually gets arrested by the Revenue Department after his constable reveals all the secrets. Finally Sridevi approaches Maari to confess her love, which he rejects, returning to pester the local people and extort them for cash.

Cast

Production

Development

The collaboration between Listin Stephen and Raadhika Sarathkumar's production house and director Balaji Mohan was first revealed in early January 2014, with Dhanush and Kajal Aggarwal signed on to be a part of the "romantic entertainer".[4] Mohan wanted the film not to be a bilingual like his previous ventures as he found the process difficult to shoot the same shot twice and to retain the same energy in both of them. He said in an interview in March 2014 that he narrated a one-liner to Dhanush, on whose consent, he would develop the complete script after releasing Vaayai Moodi Pesavum (2014), adding that this film would "definitely not be a love story".[5] Dhanush confirmed in early August 2014 that the project was in it's pre-production stages.[6]

Anirudh Ravichander, who was supposed to work with Mohan for Vaayai Moodi Pesavum, was selected as the film's music director marking his third collaboration with Dhanush after 3 (2012) and Velaiyilla Pattathari (2014). Prasanna, an assistant of A. Sreekar Prasad, was signed in on as the film's editor while Om Prakash undertook the cinematography. Vijai Murugan was signed in on as the film's art director.[7] Shortly after beginning the film's production, Mohan confirmed the film's title as Maari on 7 November 2014. The first look poster confirmed Dhanush as the film's co-producer.[8]

Casting

File:Dhanush at South Indian International Movie Awards 2013.jpg
Kajal Aggarwal (left) was engaged for the female lead role marking her first collaboration with Dhanush (right) after she walked out from Polladhavan (2007) due to scheduling conflicts.

Dhanush was initially rumoured to be seen as a tailor living in north-Madras in the film. Sources close to the film's unit later said that he would be seen as a local slum chieftain for which he had to speak in Madras accent.[9] His character was later revealed to be a person who is in into pigeon racing, similar to the one he played in Aadukalam (2011) where he was seen as a person dealing with rooster fights.[10] Kajal Aggarwal was signed in as the female lead during the film's initial stages of production though she joined the sets in November 2014. This marked her comeback to Tamil cinema after a gap of an year, her last Tamil film being Jilla (2014).[11]

Kajal was supposed to work with Dhanush in Polladhavan (2007) and a photo shoot was also conducted by Vetrimaaran on them. She walked out from that project due to scheduling conflicts with another Telugu film Chandamama (2007).[12] Dhanush insisted the makers to bring her on board to gain a foothold in Telugu cinema by cashing in on her stardom there.[13] She said in an interview that she overcame her fear of birds due to her experiences with pigeons during the film's shoot.[14] Robo Shankar, one of the cast of Vaayai Moodi Pesavum, was signed in on for an important role.[7]

South Indian playback singer Vijay Yesudas joined the team in December 2014 making his debut as an actor in Tamil cinema.[15] He confirmed in late February 2015 that he would play the role of a police officer in the film.[16] Anirudh made a cameo appearance in the film and joined its sets in mid March 2015.[17]

Filming

Principal photography began on 4 November 2014 at T. Nagar in Chennai.[7] The film's second schedule began on 25 November 2014.[18] By 11 December 20 days of the film's shoot was done including a montage song.[19] A special set was erected at Valasaravakkam, Chennai where portions of the film including a song and a fight sequence were shot for 20 days continuously from 23 December 2014.[20]

By 8 January 2015, half of the film shoot was completed which included two songs. The team planned two short schedules, one before Pongal and one around 20 January 2015 for 5 days.[21] Filming continued at a market area in Triplicane during early February 2015 and a similar set was erected in Chennai to shoot major portions of the film.[9] The film's shoot was wrapped up by 21 February 2015 in four months.[22] It was later known that 20% of the filming is remaining for which the film's team left for Tuticorin port to shoot the film's last schedule.[23] The song "Thara Local Boys" featuring Dhanush and Anirudh was shot in mid March 2015.[24] Dhanush confirmed the completion of principal photography on 15 March 2015 through his twitter page.[25]

Soundtrack

Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Behindwoods.com[26]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Times of india.com[27]

Anirudh Ravichander composes the film's soundtrack which reportedly consists of four songs and a theme music with a local, earthy charm. Sony Music India released the soundtrack on 6 June 2015.[28] The tracklist of the album was released on 5 June.The soundtrack was released on 7 June.[29] Within ten minutes of its release, the album grabbed the No. 1 position in iTunes India.

No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Maari Thara Local"DhanushDhanush, Anirudh Ravichander3:50
2."Oru Vidha Aasai"DhanushVineeth Sreenivasan3:11
3."Don'u Donu'u Don'u"DhanushAnirudh Ravichander, Alisha Thomas , Durga3:15
4."Bagulu Odayam Dagulu Mari"G. RokeshDhanush1:06
5."The Maari Swag"  0:30
6."Thappa Dhaan Theriyum"Vignesh ShivanDhanush, Chinna Ponnu, Maghizhini3:20
Total length:15:15

Release

The film was released on 17 July 2015.[30] The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV[31]

Critical Response

The film received mixed to negative reviews from various audiences and from critics. Times of india gave 2.5 out of 5 stating that If you, like many others, had been excited about Maari after watching its trailer, be prepared for disappointment. Almost all the best bits from the film are already in the trailer and the film clearly lacks the crackling energy that we see in the trailer. Maari largely feels like one huge build-up without any proper pay-off. [27] Behindwood gave 3 out of 5 stating On the whole, Maari is a very honest masala flick made to satisfy the mass audience. Enjoy the unlimited mass elements offered by Dhanush and Anirudh.[32] sify gave 3 out of 5 by saying Director Balaji Mohan has made film with punch dialogues, slow-motion shots and an adrenaline pumping background score by Anirudh. It is a film that makes no bones, no pretenses about the fact that it is packaged for B & C audiences.[33]

References

  1. ^ Upadhyaya, Prakash (23 July 2015) 'Maari' Box Office Collection: Dhanush Starrer Off to a Good Start Worldwide. Ibtimes.co.in.
  2. ^ Maari – Official Trailer | Dhanush, Kajal Agarwal | Anirudh | Balaji Mohan. YouTube (25 June 2015). Retrieved on 2015-07-26.
  3. ^ 'Maari' Movie Review: Live Audience Response. Ibtimes.co.in (17 July 2015). Retrieved on 2015-07-26.
  4. ^ "Dhanush and Kajal Aggarwal team up". Sify. 9 January 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. ^ "No love left for Dhanush". Behindwoods. 13 March 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Dhanush firms up Balaji Mohan film". Sify. 5 August 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  7. ^ a b c "Breaking: The DNA 'soup boys' are back". Behindwoods. 6 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  8. ^ "Dhanush's 27th film titled 'Maari'". The Times of India. 8 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ a b Karthik, Janani (3 February 2015). "Dhanush is a local slum chieftain in 'Maari'". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ "What is Dhanush going to race with, in Maari?". Behindwoods. 12 February 2015. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  11. ^ "Kajal Aggarwal to team up with Dhanush soon". The Times of India. 7 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Pudipeddi, Haricharan (26 January 2015). "Spoilt for choice". Bangalore Mirror. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ "Dhanush's eyes now on Tollywood". Deccan Chronicle. 21 July 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ Kumar, Hemanth (29 January 2015). "Kajal Aggarwal has fear of birds!". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "Vijay Yesudas to make his Tamil debut". The Times of India. 11 December 2014. Archived from the original on 12 December 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ "Vijay Yesudas plays a cop in debut film". The Times of India. 27 February 2015. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ "Anirudh's special cameo in Dhanush's 'Maari'". Sify. 9 March 2015. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  18. ^ "Dhanush trashes 'Maari' rumours". The Times of India. 25 November 2014. Archived from the original on 25 November 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ "A handsome singer to make his Kollywood acting debut in Dhanush's Maari". Behindwoods. 11 December 2014. Archived from the original on 12 December 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  20. ^ "The busiest is Dhanush!". Behindwoods. 20 December 2014. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  21. ^ "That furious pace of Dhanush, Balaji Mohan and co". Behindwoods. 9 January 2015. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  22. ^ "Dhanush and team have phinished!!!". Behindwoods. 21 February 2015. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  23. ^ "Dhanush shifts his base from Chennai to Tuticorin". IndiaGlitz. 5 March 2015. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  24. ^ Harikumar, Subramanian (11 March 2015). "Dhanush, Anirudh team up for Thara Local Boys song for Maari". Bollywood Life. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  25. ^ "Dhanush to get into VIP mode now". Behindwoods. 15 March 2015. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  26. ^ "Maari (aka) Maarri songs review". Behindwoods. 7 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help)
  27. ^ a b Suganth, M. (18 July 2015). "Maari Movie Review". Times of india. Open Publishing.
  28. ^ "Maari movie songs lyrics". tamilsonglyrics. Archived from the original on 8 June 2015.
  29. ^ "Dhanush's Maari is going to be 'pakka mass'". Behindwoods. 17 April 2015. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  30. ^ "Dhanush starts shooting for Balaji Mohan". Sify. 5 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  31. ^ "Sun TV grabs Maari Satellite Rights". Tamil Cinema 360. 15 March 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  32. ^ Maari (aka) Mari review. Behindwoods.com (17 July 2015). Retrieved on 2015-07-26.
  33. ^ Maari Review. Siffy
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