Saamy

Saamy
Movie Poster
Directed by	Hari
Written by	Hari
Produced by	K. Balachander (Presenter) Pushpa Kandasamy
Starring	Vikram Trisha Vivek Kota Srinivasa Rao Ramesh Khanna
Cinematography	Priyan
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Production company	Kavithalaya Productions
Release date	1 May 2003 (2003-05-01)
Running time	161 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹5 crore est.
Box office	₹51 crore

Saamy is a 2003 Indian Tamil action film written and directed by Hari. The film was presented by K. Balachander and produced by Pushpa Kandasamy under banner Kavithalayaa Productions. The film stars Vikram and Trisha in lead roles and Kota Srinivasa Rao (debut in Tamil cinema) in a negative role. Music was composed by Harris Jayaraj. Upon release, the film was highly successful at the box office. It was remade in Telugu as Lakshmi Narasimha (2004) starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, in Bengali as Barood starring Mithun Chakraborty, in Kannada as Ayya (2005) starring Darshan and later in Hindi as Policegiri (2013) starring Sanjay Dutt.

Like other films directed by Hari, this film also specialises a particular city and this time it is Tirunelveli. Saamy along with Kaakha Kaakha started a trend of police films in Tamil such as Bheeshmar, Gambeeram, Anjaneya and many others. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Swamy IPS in 2003 and later into Hindi as Policewala Gunda 3 by Goldmines Telefilms in 2015 with Vikram's voice dubbed by Samay Raj Thakkar. A sequel, Saamy Square, began production in 2017.

Plot

Aarusaamy (Vikram) is the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Tirunelveli who efficiently brings the city under control. Aarusaamy arrives at Tirunelveli, after being in exile for some years, due to being wrongly accused of bribery by corrupt politicians. In an early scene in the film, he eats idli with beer and performs some drunken antics, which had a negative impact on the viewing public. At the outset, he pretends to be a corrupt cop by accepting bribes from the very influential Annachi. Later Aarusaamy starts to rebel against him and the rest is about how he succeeds in overcoming the corrupt politicians.

Aarusaamy's father (Vijayakumar), who wanted to become a cop, but he was unable to become one due to corruption. So, he takes care of agriculture as his living. But he wanted to make his son a cop. Aarusaamy too passes the IPS examinations in merit, but was asked for bribes. His father mortgages his properties and makes him get the desired job. Being an honest cop, Aarusaamy is honored with transfers all over Tamil Nadu due to political pressure. Finally, in Trichy, he is accused of bribery by a politician and gets suspended, as a result. It takes him about six months to prove his innocence and he is finally posted in Tirunelveli now.

In Tirunelveli, he adapts a new policy of adjusting with the local goons, so that he can serve the people in an effective way. Perumal Pichai (Kota Srinivasa Rao), is an underworld don, who has the total control of Southern Tamil Nadu, both in politics and rowdyism. But, he is less known in the media. He bribes Aarusaamy, so that he will not disturb his business because both Perumal Pichai and Aarusaamy belong to the same caste. Aarusaamy also accepts it, but requests him to make some changes, which he in turn accepts. As a result, the city is under the control of Law and Order. He is always accompanied by "Punctuality" Paramasivam (Ramesh Khanna), who is an Inspector of police.

Aarusaamy falls in love with a college-going Brahmin girl, Bhuvana (Trisha Krishnan) and they get engaged. Bhuvana's father, Srinivasan (Delhi Ganesh) is a straightforward government officer, who never gets a bribe and leads a noble life. Aarusaamy and Bhuvana meet each other, when Aarusaamy goes along with Paramasivam in search of a home for rent to Bhuvana's home. Bhuvana misinterprets Aarusaamy and Paramasivam as thieves and locks them in a room, only to be revealed of their identities by the police.

The ruling party has called for a one-day strike all over the state and Perumal Pichai is handed with the responsibility of Tirunelveli on the eve of Pongal festival. But Aarusaamy takes steps to maintain law and order and the strike becomes a failure, causing Perumal Pichai to be angry. Besides this, Aarusaamy also 'seals' Perumal Pichai's gas station because the workers assaulted a woman and others, when they challenged them a very less distribution of petrol than being promised. He was waiting for a chance to take revenge on Aarusaamy. So, Perumal Pichai's henchmen attack the marketplace on the day of Aarusaamy and Bhuvana's marriage, since all the policemen would be attending the wedding. This incident was the last straw that broke the camel's back and started the revolution of Aarusaamy against Perumal Pichai.

This incident marks the start of a direct clash between Aarusaamy and Perumal Pichai. The two of them challenge to get rid of the other in the time of seven days. Perumal Pichai uses his influences and gets Aarusaamy transferred, but Aarusaamy is given a time of seven days to take charge. Aarusaamy also loses his father in a bomb blast in his home which was targeted to kill him. He plans accordingly and takes revenge on Perumal Pichai by the eve of the seventh day.

Cast

• Vikram as DCP Aarusaamy "Saamy"
• Trisha as Bhuvana Aarusaamy (Molagapodi)
• Kota Srinivasa Rao as Ilaiya Perumal (Perumal Pichai)
• Vivek as Venkataraman Iyengar
• Ramesh Khanna as Punctuality Paramasivam
• Vijayakumar as Chokkalingam, Aarusaamy's Father
• Delhi Ganesh as Srinivasan, Bhuvana's Father
• Sumithra as Bhuvana's Mother
• Venniradai Moorthy as Bhuvana's Grandfather
• Manorama as Bhuvana's Grandmother
• Ponnambalam as a fake police Officer
• Bala Singh as MLA Aatangkarai Shanmugam
• Thyagu as MLA Aiyarettu Sundaram
• Cell Murugan as Traffic inspector
• Benjamin as Kudai Repair
• Keerthana as Venkatraman's wife and Bhuvan's sister
• Ilavarasu as Sivakasi Pattasu Raman
• Crane Manohar as Aarusaamy's supporter
• Rajesh as Judge
• Bayilwan Ranganathan as Ilaiya Perumal (Perumal Pichai)'s supporter
• MRK as Narayanan
• Vandhana as Bhuvana's friend
• Besant Ravi as Thiruchi gangster (Chasing scene)
• Sethu Vinayagam Aarusaamy's suitor's father
• Karna Radha as police contable
• Jayamnai as police constable
• Chelladurai as police contable
• S. Ramana Girivasan as police insepctor
• Sri Latha as Punctuality Paramasivam's wife
• Azhagu as party secretary
• Lambert as Ilaiya Perumal (Perumal Pichai)'s henchman
• Singamuthu as a brahmin
• Chaplin Balu as bridegroom of donkey
• Nellai Siva as Ilaiya Perumal (Perumal Pichai)'s supporter
• Pattukkottai Sivanarayana Moorthy as Shanmugam
• Sakthivel as D. D. Dhandapani, police officer

Production

After directing Thamizh, Kavithalayaa Productions called Hari to direct a film for them since Hari assisted few of their films. The film was titled as Saamy, with Vikram and Trisha as a lead pair, the latter was selected as the makers wanted a fresh pair opposite Vikram. Telugu actor Kota Srinivasa Rao was selected to play negative role making his debut in Tamil.

The film's shooting schedule took place at Karaikudi, Some fight scenes were shot at the busy lanes in Karaikudi where Vikram chased some rowdies, The fight scene was shot for five days, with Priyan canning the shots and Super Subbarayan choreographing the fights. Vikram worked on his body for the film, sporting a thick waist to show notable differences from his other police film, Dhill and also put on eight kilograms.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack album and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The lyrics for songs were written by Thamarai, Na. Muthukumar & Snehan and upon release the soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. Due to its popularity on the music charts Harris Jayaraj was nominated for the Filmfare Best Music Director award.

Tamil track list

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Thirunelveli Halwada"	Na. Muthukumar	Palakkad Sriram	04:36
2.	"Idhuthaanaa"	Thamarai	K. S. Chithra	05:19
3.	"Kalyaanam Thaan Kattikittu"	Snehan	KK, Yugendran, Srilekha Parthasarathy	05:02
4.	"Pudichirukku"	Na. Muthukumar	Hariharan, Komal Ramesh, Mahathi	05:03
5.	"Veppamaram"	Na. Muthukumar	Tippu	05:27
Total length:				25:27

Telugu track list

All lyrics are written by Siva Ganesh

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Thapeswaram Kajaaraa"	Naveen	04:36
2.	"Ayyayyo Ayyayyo"	Koushik, Shravya, Komal Ramesh	05:03
3.	"Yedalona Yedalona"	Harini	05:19
4.	"Pelli Pelli"	Tippu, Srilekha Parthasarathy	05:02
5.	"Vepachettu"	Tippu	05:27
Total length:			25:27

Release

Critical reception

Sify wrote:"The patchy storyline merely serves as a pretext to spark off several skirmishes and bombastic dialogues. Ultimately it is Vikram who dominates this action movie. In fact he is the mainstay of the picture [sic] Director Hari packs in a sting, but Saamy is strictly for the no holds barred action addicts". Bizhat called it:"taut, fully engaging actioner". Hindu wrote:"Kavithalaya's "Saami" should follow the "Dhil", "Dhool" line. Vikram's daredevilry and macho appeal ought to go down well with the masses. His presence of mind and intelligence are bound to make an impression on those who expect something more".

Box office

Saamy was released approximately in 100 screens in Tamil Nadu. The film had a huge opening as it was a summer vacation for the Tamil audiences. Theatres in Chennai had almost 100% occupancies and the film recovered all its budget within 4 to 5 days.

Remakes

The film was remade into Telugu in 2004 as Lakshmi Narasimha with Balakrishna and Asin in lead roles though the original version was dubbed and released in Telugu as Swamy IPS. It was also remade in Bengali as Barood (2004) with Mithun Chakraborty, in Kannada as Ayya (2005) with Darshan and in Hindi as Policegiri by the notable director K.S.Ravikumar with Sanjay Dutt and Prachi Desai in 2013.

Sequel

Main article: Saamy Square

In August 2016, during the audio launch of Iru Mugan, director Hari made an official announcement that he will unite with Vikram, also echoed by the latter, for a sequel to Saamy after 13 years being bankrolled by Shibu Thameens, as the principal photography was expected to commencing in the end of 2016 with Harris Jayaraj as music composer During December 2016, Shibu Thameens confirmed that the plan for sequel is still on putting end to the rumours of shelving the project, as director Hari and his team are involved in script development and commencing the principal photography tentatively during April 2017. During May 2017, it was officially announced that Devi Sri Prasad will be the composer of the flick and collaborating again with Vikram for the second time after Kanthaswamy and Hari for the fifth time after Aaru, Venghai, Singam & Singam II. In August 2017, news emerged that lyricist Viveka joined the composer and director for a music composition session at Puducherry. Kanal Kannan and Silva were tasked with action choreography. Priyan, Hari's regular cinematographer was also selected as well, but later Venkatesh Anguraj dons the cinematographer's hat after Priyan's demise due to heart attack in November 2017. Art direction is done by P. Shanmugam and P.V. Balaji, replacing K. Kadhir who earlier collaborates with Hari in his previous films. Saamy Square was released on 21 September 2018 to mixed reviews from critics.

External links

• Saamy at IMDb