| Director: | Gautham Vasudev Menon |
| Producer: | Manickam Narayanan |
| Starring: |
|
| Cinematography: | Ravi Varman |
| Editing: | Anthony |
| Music: | Harris Jayaraj |
| Studio: | Seventh Channel Communications |
| Runtime: | 175 minutes |
| Country: | India |
| Language: | Tamil |
| Budget: | crore[1] |
| Gross: | crore |
Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language neo-noir action thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film stars Kamal Haasan and Jyothika, while Kamalinee Mukherjee, Prakash Raj, Daniel Balaji, and Salim Baig play supporting roles. It revolves around DCP Raghavan, who tries to track down two serial killers Amudhan and Illamaran.
The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj with cinematography being handled by Ravi Varman and editing done by Anthony. The film is also one of the first Indian films to be made using Super 35.[2]
Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu was released on 25 August 2006 to positive reviews and became a box-office success.[3] [4] Haasan won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor.
Rani is the daughter of former Chennai police officer SP Arokiya Raj. She tells her father over the phone that she will be back home in Madurai soon. As Rani leaves the telephone booth, she is approached by her acquaintance and does not return home. The following morning, Arokiya Raj finds Rani's index finger hanging at his door. Arokiya Raj calls DCP Raghavan, his ex-colleague from Chennai, to help in the investigation of Rani's disappearance.
Raghavan finds Rani's body within 12 hours, buried in the outskirts of Madurai. The coroner's report states that the killer slit Rani's throat with a scalpel, proving that the killer has a medical background, and also bisected her body with an axe. Without any solid clues, the case is left open. Six months later, Arokiya Raj and his wife Chithra, following the trauma of losing their only daughter, move to New Jersey.
Three months later, Raghavan learns that both Arokiya Raj and Chithra have been brutally murdered in New York. Collaborating with the NYPD, Raghavan goes to New York. On the flight, Raghavan reminisces about his late wife Kayalvizhi, who was abducted by a local gang in an attempt to get to him and fell to her death. After reaching New York, Raghavan begins his investigation with Detective Anderson. Raghavan stays at a hotel in Downtown New York, where he constantly keeps his superiors in Chennai updated on the investigation.
At the hotel, Raghavan meets Aradhana, an NRI. He immediately notices that she is going through a rough patch in her life and one night, worried about her safety, breaks into her room, only to find her attempting suicide by asphyxiation. Raghavan saves her and the two strike a friendship. Aradhana reveals that Arun, her violent husband, is filing for divorce after cheating on her. Later, Raghavan and Anderson find a connection between Rani's murder in Madurai and a 23-year-old unsolved disappearance of an Indian American girl Chandana, whose finger was also possibly found hanging in her boyfriend Hitesh's car.
Raghavan's instinct leads them to Chandana's body in a restricted area in the suburbs, found along with three other American women, murdered in a similar manner. After narrowing down their suspects using flight records, Raghavan's and Anderson's suspicion falls onto two Indian doctors, who studied in Brooklyn Medical University: Amudhan Sukumaran and Ilamaaran Aanandhan, who are secretly involved in the killings. They murder their former professor Veronica, along with two NYPD officers in the same area, where Raghavan set them on surveillance and leave the bodies there. Raghavan and Anderson visit Amudhan's and Ilamaaran's apartment to question them, only to find it unoccupied. Raghavan and Anderson break into the apartment and find pictures of the victims and the murder weapons, thus cracking their case and concluding that Amudhan and Illamaran are the serial killers.
Before they can call for backup, Ilamaaran arrives unannounced and kills Anderson and Raghavan hits him till he became unconscious. Right afterwards, Raghavan gets stabbed by Amudhan with a scalpel. To buy time, Raghavan asks Amudhan why he killed Arokiya Raj, his family, Chandana and three women. Amudhan explains that they had developed a habit of killing from their childhood itself, by starting with pushing a classmate from a train at the age of 13 and murdering their school teacher at the age of 17. He and Ilamaran stopped this habit once they joined MBBS at Rani's college.
Amudhan claims that he managed to control his violent urges under control for three years, but after seeing Rani, Amudhan and Ilamaran assaulted her, after she provoked him. Two days later, Arokiyaraj assaulted the duo outside a theatre. He and Ilamaaran were locked up in the local station for the rest of the night, but Inspector Kumaravel neglected to interrogate them and tortured them heavily, even setting them up with a eunuch, who inadvertently assaulted them. Illamaran made Amudhan calm down as he was thirsty for revenge on Rani, Arokiya Raj and the police officers. Both of them left for New York to pursue their higher studies in surgery and went on to abduct and kill local young women, who looked down on them or were disrespectful to them.
On their trip to India for a holiday, they met and killed Rani and returned to the United States. Once they found out that Arokiya Raj and Chitra had moved to New York, they followed their residence and killed them too. Thinking that Raghavan will be dead in minutes due to his lung injuries, they set their apartment on fire and take the next flight to Mumbai to escape from NYPD. Amudhan and Ilamaran evade the Mumbai police at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and finally reach Chennai, leaving a trail of bodies in their path. Raghavan makes it out alive by jumping out the window and is hospitalised with severe injuries. Aradhana takes care of him and their bond grows stronger. Four weeks later, Raghavan and Aradhana return to Chennai together. During their flight, Aradhana explains that she has a daughter, who is living with her parents in Chennai, and she realised her mistake for being selfish and wanting to commit suicide.
Aradhana states that she will be taking her daughter and mother back to New York in two weeks. As they wait in line for customs, Raghavan proposes to Aradhana, but she refuses, saying that she is not ready for another relationship, having just finalised her divorce, and wishes to focus on being a good mother to her daughter. Raghavan issues a statewide hunt for them. The dean of their medical college also revokes their degrees, thus beginning their violent rampage.
After seeing Aradhana with Raghavan, Amudhan kidnaps her, while Ilamaaran tries to get into Raghavan's house to kill him. When the cops arrive, Ilamaaran attempts to flee, but is caught by Raghavan. After a fight, Raghavan captures Ilamaaran and realises that Amudhan and Ilamaaran are bisexual and are in an intimate relationship. Trying to negotiate Ilamaaran's freedom for Aradhana, Raghavan agrees to meet with Amudhan; on the other hand, Amudhan decides to outright bury Aradhana alive after realising their hypocrisy. Raghavan arrives at the place to save Aradhana. When he learns that Amudhan buried Aradhana alive, he becomes enraged and kills Amudhan and Ilamaaran. Raghavan finds the place where Aradhana is buried and revives her. A few months later, Raghavan and Aradhana marry.
In 2005, Gautham Vasudev Menon planned to make a film in Malayalam (which eventually became Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu) and approached Mohanlal after finishing the script, but nothing materialised.[5] Kamal Haasan had agreed to make a film for producer Kaja Mohideen of Roja Combines, and the pair discussed signing Menon to be the director after they were impressed with his work in Kaakha Kaakha (2003). Initially, Haasan narrated the script of Dasavathaaram (2008) to Menon and asked him to direct it, but the latter rejected it. Later, Menon discussed the script of Pachaikili Muthucharam (2007) with Haasan, and the actor asked him to develop it into a script within forty days. However, he later had second thoughts and asked Menon for a different script to collaborate on. Menon was keen to make a trilogy of police films, much like Ram Gopal Varma's gangster trilogy, and subsequently planned Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu as the second in the series after Kaakha Kaakha. The film narrated another episode from a police officer's life, that of an Indian police officer who moves to America to investigate the case of psychotic serial killers before returning to pursue the chase in India.[6] As per Menon's usual method for picking a title, he asked his associates for suggestions, which included the title of Thadaiyara Thaakka, which was later used for another film.[7] An early working title for the film was Sippai.[8] The title Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu was derived from a song from Arasa Kattalai (1967).[9]
Actresses Rohini and Andrea Jeremiah dubbed for the voices of female leads Jyothika and Kamalinee Mukherjee respectively.[10] [11] Ganesh Janardhanan, who later became popularly known as VTV Ganesh, portrayed the role of the kidnapper of Mukherjee's character at Haasan's request after the original actor failed to turn up for the shoot.[12] Menon selected Bidushi Dash Barde, from several girls who screen tested, to play a murder victim.[13]
The film began production in August 2005 in Chennai, with Ravi Varman signed as the cinematographer.[14] Towards the start of the shoot, producer Kaja Mohideen ran into financial troubles and subsequently attempted suicide. As a result, Haasan wanted to quit the project but Menon convinced him to stay on as they had taken advance payments.[15] Ravichandran of Oscar Films stepped in and spent on the film, before also suddenly withdrawing from the project within fifteen days. In order not to waste dates, Menon personally funded a schedule in Mumbai featuring Haasan and Jyothika and spent . Menon revealed that unlike Haasan's other films, the actor did not want to take control of the script or production. Angered by the delays of the film, he kept to himself and made minimal suggestions barring to change some dialogues on location. The film however had gone through changes from the original script, with less emphasis on the antagonists than Menon had hoped, and he also revealed that scenes for songs were forced and shot without him.[16] For the American schedule, Manickam Narayanan took over as a producer and made the film on a "first-copy" basis. Subsequently, fifty per cent of the film was shot in New York City, where shooting lasted for a month. Menon had planned to shoot more scenes in the city, including a car chase sequence, but the change of producer delayed the schedule and cold weather elongated the team's stay and increased costs.[17] [18] Menon worked on the post-production of the film in May 2006, while he was simultaneously filming Pachaikili Muthucharam.
Like in Kaakha Kaakha, Menon wanted the script to feature sequences, where the police officer's personal life gets involved and affected in the course of the investigation.
The soundtrack of the film consists of five songs composed by Harris Jayaraj, collaborating with Menon and Haasan for the fourth and first time respectively.[19] The song "Manjal Veyil" marks Krish's singing debut.[20]
Behindwoods wrote a positive review, stating: "The album has not let down expectations. It is the usual mix by Harris. However, Bombay Jeyashree's contribution and the beautiful lyrics by poetess Thamarai are the greatest assets to the album. Harris once again proves his mastery in orchestration and the audio will surely be a hit like Minnale or Kaakha Kaakha."[21]
Baradwaj Rangan said that "The story of a police investigation is detailed in a smart, grown-up movie that gets most things right".[22] Behindwoods wrote "It is definitely a triumph of sorts for Gautham and Manickam Narayanan, who have gone through innumerable hitches in getting the movie released. Enjoy!!"[23] Rediff gave 3.5/5 stars, saying "In his best performance in recent times, Kamal portrays the character with believable honesty and charm."[24] Sify stated that "what gives you goose flesh is the finely calibrated performance of Kamal as DCP Raghavan. You just [can't] take your eyes off him as he laces his portrayal with dignity, grace and dry wit."[25] G. Ulaganathan of Deccan Herald wrote, "Technically the movie is good but lacks what is most important --good story and script". He added, "Gowtham alternates between action, thrills and romance, but it is quite obvious that he is unable to use Kamal Haasan’s talent fully".[26] Lajjavathi of Kalki praised the acting of Kamal, Jyothika and Prakashraj, Ravivarman's cinematography, Harris Jayaraj's music but felt second half was boring and psycho killers changing their looks were unbelievable.[27]
Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu emerged the biggest Tamil blockbuster of the year grossing a total of 500 million worldwide.
Film Fans Association Award[28]
The film faced controversies for its portrayal of LGBT people, including one scene where Haasan's character throws homophobic slurs at the homosexual antagonists.[29] [30]
At the audio launch of Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu, Kamal Haasan asserted the possibility of a sequel to Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.[31]
Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu was re-released in Tamil Nadu theatres on 23 June 2023.[32]