2015 film by Ramesh Aravind
 (transl. The Righteous Villain) is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Ramesh Aravind and written by Kamal Haasan. The film was presented by N. Lingusamy in association with Kamal Haasan and produced by S. Chandrahasan for Raaj Kamal Films International and N. Subash Chandrabose for Thirupathi Brothers Film Media. It features an ensemble cast that includes Kamal Hassan, K. Viswanath, K. Balachander, Jayaram, Andrea Jeremiah, Pooja Kumar, Nassar, Parvathy Thiruvothu and Urvashi in prominent roles. This is the posthumous film of actor and director, K. Balachander following his death in December 2014.
It follows Superstar Manoranjan (Kamal Haasan), who is affected by a brain tumour, learns that he has only a short time to live and approaches his mentor, director Margadarisi (K. Balachander) to direct his next project — a folklore-ish comedy about a man who keeps cheating death and his role in saving a kingdom. Meanwhile, he has to sort out his personal life, which involves an estranged son, and a daughter from the love of his life.
The project materialised in late 2013, and the film's principal photography commenced on 3 March 2014. The filming which took place in Chennai, Bengaluru and Turkey was completed on 9 August 2014. The cinematography was handled by Shamdat and Vijay Shankar did the editing work. The music is composed by Ghibran, in his first collaboration with Kamal Haasan, the soundtrack album received high praise upon its release.
, after many delays, was scheduled to release on 1 May 2015, but was released a day later on 2 May, after the disputes between financiers and producers were sorted out. The film received outstanding reviews from critics and several awards from International Film Festivals
Plot.
Manoranjan is a leading film star who is immensely popular among his fans but is beset with several personal problems. Twenty-five years ago, he had been forced to marry Varalakshmi, the daughter of noted film director Poornachandra Rao, despite being in a relationship with a woman named Yamini (not shown on-screen). His relationship with his son with Varalakshmi, Manohar, is troubled. Besides, he comes to realise that he has a daughter Manonmani, who was born out of wedlock, during his relationship with Yamini, and was raised by Yamini's husband Jacob Zachariah, after Yamini's death. Furthermore, he is recently diagnosed with advanced stage brain cancer and has only a few more months to live, a fact which is unknown to his own family. He is treated by his family doctor Dr. Arpana, with whom he has an extramarital affair.
After these revelations come to him in a flood, Manoranjan decides to withdraw from a film produced by Poornachandra Rao and instead act in a film produced by himself and directed by Margadarsi, who was his mentor. The two directors had fallen out when Manoranjan married Varalakshmi and started acting in films directed and produced by Poornachandra Rao, who is Margadarsi's rival. Despite the personal differences between the directors, Manoranjan wishes for Margadarsi to be the director of his last film before he dies. Margadarsi initially refuses to direct Manoranjan, but when he hears from Arpana about Manoranjan's terminal illness, he is visibly moved and accepts to direct Manoranjan. When Poornachandra Rao and Varalakshmi find out about Manoranjan's plan, they become enraged and leave his house along with Manohar. Undaunted, Manoranjan proceeds with his film.
Manoranjan's film with Margadarsi is titled . It is a fantasy comedy film which tells the story of a street artist named Uttaman, who has dodged death several times and is hence believed to be immortal. With the help of a princess named Karpagavalli, he works to defeat the evil king Muttharasan, who is obsessed about gaining Karpagavalli and the whole Theeyam empire. During the shooting of the film, Manoranjan's condition worsens, and he is hospitalised several times. Margadarsi convinces Manoranjan to inform his family about his condition. This leads to his rapprochement with Poornachandra Rao (and also between Margadarsi and Poornachandra Rao) and the growth of a bond with his son Manohar. Varalakshmi, on the other hand, suffers a heart attack on hearing the news, though she soon recovers. She apologises to Manoranjan for her actions to forcibly separate him from Yamini, so that she could marry him. Later, Manoranjan finds out that a letter he had written to Yamini shortly after they had separated, had not been delivered to her. When Manonmani reads this letter, which tells about Manoranjan's support for Yamini's decision to not undergo an abortion despite being pregnant out of wedlock, her hatred towards her biological father turns to love and she finally accepts him as her father.
After completing the shooting of , Manoranjan becomes very sick, suffering from delirium as well as slurred speech and movement, and faints. He is immediately rushed to the hospital. Margadarsi completes editing the film and plays it in the hospital. The people present in the hospital, including all the loved ones of Manoranjan, enjoy the film, which ends with Uttaman killing Muttharasan in a stage drama (Iraniya Naadagam), thus dodging death yet again. However, in real life, Arpana informs Manohar and Manonmani that Manoranjan had died.
The film ends with a screening of in a theatre, which is enjoyed by the audience and becomes a hit.
Cast.
Ghibran, Subbu Arumugam, Shamdat and Vijai Shankar make cameo appearances as themselves, working as technicians on the film in the film. Rajesh M. Selva, the first assistant director, appears as a spy in the film.
Production.
Development.
In early 2013, director-producer N. Lingusamy made an official statement confirming that Kamal Haasan had agreed to direct and feature in a film to be produced by the production house, Thirrupathi Brothers. The actor had handed Lingusamy three scripts with the pair chose the most commercially viable option, with the early working title of the film being "Bitter Chocolate". In June 2013, the project was retitled , with Kamal Haasan himself writing the script for the film, while Crazy Mohan was involved in early discussions for the film's dialogues. Eventually, Kamal Haasan wanted to do as a full-fledged comedy film after the production of "Vishwaroopam" (2013), due to Haasan's commitments of acting in comedy films soon after he finishes an experimental film, with the controversies he faced during the release of "Vishwaroopam" being added as one of the factors.
Yuvan Shankar Raja was signed on to compose the film's music, after being the first choice for Haasan's Vishwaroopam, when Selvaraghavan handled the direction duties for the film. Reports also incorrectly suggested that Rajesh was added to the scripting team for the film. In July 2013, Ramesh Aravind took over the task of directing the film from Kamal Haasan, for whom the film became his directorial debut in Tamil, after previously directed films in Kannada. However, it was not being the first film; his proposed directorial debut was titled "KG" (2004) with Haasan which was shelved after Haasan's commitments with "Mumbai Xpress" (2005). In February 2014, Ghibran was announced as the film's music composer instead of Yuvan Shankar Raja. Sanu John Varghese and Mahesh Narayanan was initially reported to be the film's cinematographer and editor respectively after working with Haasan in "Vishwaroopam". However, Haasan chose Shamdat Sainudeen and Vijay Shankar as the director of photography and editor of the project respectively and Gautami was selected to handle the costume designing for the film. According to Ramesh Aravind, Kamal Haasan wrote the majority of the dialogue and that Crazy Mohan's input and suggestions were recorded.
Casting.
Kamal Haasan was reported to play two roles for the film: one being a 21st-century cinema superstar named Manoranjan and an 8th-century drama actor named Uthaman. Kajal Aggarwal was initially reported to have signed on to play the lead female role, though her manager later confirmed that she was not approached and that her dates were already allotted for other projects. Similarly, Santhanam was also reported to play comedian in the film but the actor denied such claims. Asin and Deepika Padukone were also reported by the media to be cast in the lead female role, though neither reports materialised. The team later held discussions with actresses Divya Spandana and Lekha Washington for roles in the film, though neither were signed. A month prior to shoot, three female lead characters were touted to appear in the film, with the names of Kajal Aggarwal (who initially refused the film), Tamannaah and Trisha Krishnan were surfaced.
In a turn of events, the team chose Pooja Kumar and Andrea Jeremiah as the female leads, whom earlier worked with Haasan in "Vishwaroopam", and Parvathy Thiruvothu was also offered for the third female lead role. Pooja played the role of a non-Tamil-speaking modern-day actress, who was offered a character that spoke classical Tamil. Pooja also performed 3 song sequences in the film, unlike in "Vishwaroopam" (2013), where she had no song sequences. Kamal Haasan's daughter Shruti Haasan was considered for the role of his on-screen daughter in the film but her unavailability meant that the team chose to pick a new actress instead. Another actress Parvathy Nair was added to the cast after impressing the team in an audition and was select to be paired opposite Ashwin, a debutant who plays Kamal Haasan's son in the film. Actors Sarath Kumar and Vivek were reported to have been added to the preliminary cast, but the actors later noted the news as untrue.
In January 2014, noted director K. Balachander was selected to play a pivotal role in the film and sported a beard for his character. He was reported to play Manoranjan's mentor Margadarshi, who guided him to this status of superstardom, ironically Balachander was also Haasan's real-life mentor. Producer Lingusamy himself was reported to be playing a role in the venture, after being seen sporting a new look during the making of his directorial project "Anjaan" (2014). Director K. Viswanath also joined the film's cast as did Jayaram, and the pair began filming scenes in March 2014. Anant Mahadevan, who featured in "Vishwaroopam" (2013), was given the role of the manager of Kamal Haasan's character in the film. More details about the film were shown in mid-March with a detailed cast and character list released to the media. In May 2014, actor Nassar was signed for a supporting role. In July 2014, director Chitra Lakshmanan joined the team to play a small role in the film. Actress Abhirami was selected to dub for Pooja Kumar in the film. Ramesh Aravind himself was to make a cameo appearance in the film, but the director did not reveal much about it and kept his decision under wraps. Following the death of K. Balachander, the team released the film as a homage to the late director.
Filming.
In mid-February 2014, the team carried out make up tests involving Kamal Haasan in Bangalore with a photo shoot being held with the actor. Following this, the first teaser of the film unveiled on 1 March 2014 with the title and logo design. A series of posters were also unveiled by the film's team on the following days and the principal photography began on 3 March 2014. The team then shot for two weeks in Bangalore, before moving on to film sequences in Chennai with Gautami joining the team as a costume designer. In early April, parts of the film were shot in Madhya Pradesh before the team returned to Bangalore to film scenes involving Parvathy Nair and Ashwin. Further scenes involving Kamal Haasan in the role of a star actor were filmed at a shopping mall in Bangalore, with several hundred onlookers used as extras. Posters from a fictional film in the plot, "Veera Vilaiyaatu", were put up around the mall by the film's art direction team.
After initially planning a trip to Australia to film the songs from the soundtrack for a week, the team later opted to fly to Turkey instead. Many scenes in the film, including a song featuring Kamal Haasan and Pooja Kumar was consequently shot in Istanbul. The cast performed night rehearsals to perfect their expressions and dialogues. The portions featuring Kamal Haasan as an aging superstar were completed with the shoot of the song, followed by the 21st century portions which were completed by mid-May 2014. In between, Kamal Haasan took a break from the shoot to attend the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and to inaugurate the Indian Pavilion there. Another