| Director: | Boopathy Pandian |
| Producer: | T. Ajay Kumar |
| Starring: | Vishal Priyamani |
| Music: | Mani Sharma |
| Cinematography: | Vaidy S |
| Editing: | G. Sasikumar |
| Studio: | Sri Lakshmi Productions |
| Runtime: | 145 minutes |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Tamil |
Malaikottai is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Boopathy Pandian. The film stars Vishal, Priyamani, Devaraj, Ajay, Ashish Vidyarthi, and Urvashi. The music was composed by Mani Sharma, while the cinematography and editing were handled by Vaidy S and G. Sasikumar respectively. The film was dubbed in Telugu as Bhayya.[1] [2]
Anbu, a happy-go-lucky engineering student, lives with his family in Pattukottai and has fun with his friends. One day, Anbu gets into a fracas with a local politician and his henchmen while trying to save his friend, where he gets arrested and has a case registered against him. The local court gives him conditional bail, provided that he signs the register in a Trichy Fort police station. On the way to the police station, Anbu sees a college girl named Malar and falls in love with her. The police station, where Anbu has to sign daily, is handled by his uncle Inspector Kandasamy, whose ex-lover Kamala is the constable at the station. Anbu kindles his uncle's love life and makes merry at Malar’s college.
Meanwhile, Trichy is run by a powerful politician named Palani and his brother Guna, who have killed the local RDO in cold blood, watched by a huge crowd of onlookers. While trying to save Malar from a situation with Palani, Anbu ends up getting the wrath of Palani and his brothers. Although Malar's mother wants to move away from the city, Anbu and his aunt convince her to stay and makes Anbu as her protector. After seeing his care, Malar slowly falls for Anbu. Palani causes problems for Anbu, but Anbu overcomes them and gets Palani killed by Kandasamy in an encounter. Malar and Anbu graduates from college and they get married.
Principal photography commenced on 12 May 2007, at the Kumbakonam Mahamaham tank with picturisation of a song on Vishal. This was followed by shooting near the Srirangam temple, Tiruchirapalli central bus stand, Kollidam bridge, Thiruvaiyaru court and near the Cauvery bridge in Tiruchirapalli.[3]
The music was composed by Mani Sharma. It includes a remix of "Yeh Aatha", composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the 1982 film Payanangal Mudivathillai,[4] while the track "Kantha Kadamba" uses a partial instrumental sample from the song "Marumalli Jabilli", composed by Sharma for the 2004 Telugu film Lakshmi Narasimha. The audio was released on 29 August 2007.[5] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote "Ye aatha’s remix rocks only because the source itself is a cracker of a track, conjured decades back. That says much less about Manisharma’s score in Malaikottai – commonplace, uninspired and adequately boring".
| Song | Lyricist | Singers | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Devathaye Vaa Vaa" | 04:34 | |||
| "Kantha Kadamba" | Naveen Madhav | 05:23 | ||
| "Oh Baby" | Rahul Nambiar | 04:37 | ||
| "Uyire Uyire" | 05:02 | |||
| "Yeh Aatha" | 04:01 |
Rediff.com wrote that "Director G Boopathy Pandian probably thought he had the next best story since Ben-Hur, and fell prey to the ever-present Director's Folly".[6] Sify described the film as a "big let-down".[7] Behindwoods wrote it was an "average masala-mix entertainer".[8] Chithra of Kalki wrote the screenplay is fast paced and creates interest. Despite some scenes remind of seeing earlier, Bhoopathy Pandian has achieved what he want to.[9] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "It's all that we have seen in earlier films. But it is the clever blend of action, comedy and sentiment, and it's racy narrative style, that keeps one engaged through 'Malaikottai'. The casting of actors in roles contrasting to their image works well here".[10]
The film, despite receiving unfavorable reviews, performed well at the box office.[11] [12] [13]