Gentleman (1993 film)
Gentleman is a 1993 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film written and directed by S. Shankar, marking his debut, and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. It stars Arjun and Madhoo, while Goundamani, Senthil, Charan Raj, Subhashri, and Vineeth play supporting roles. The film's music was composed by A. R. Rahman.
The film narrates the story of a Brahmin Krishnamoorthy "Kicha", a modern day Robin Hood who runs a papadum business in Chennai along with his sidekick Mani. Azhagar Nambi, a tough police officer takes it upon himself to nab the outlaw and break his mask in front of the society only to fail miserably. Unable to digest this fact he continues his pursuit while Kicha surges ahead with his escapedes for serving the needy. Whether Nambi will succeed in catching Kicha and the events which led Kicha to be altruistic forms the rest of the story.
Gentleman was released on 30 July 1993. The film received positive reviews and became a blockbuster at the box office. The film was remade in Hindi as The Gentleman in 1994.
Plot
In Ooty, Krishnamoorthy alias Kicha and Mani perform a swashbuckling heist of money of several crores while being in disguise diverting the attention of police, and escape in Nilgiri Mountain Railway, much to the frustration of a chasing police officer named Ratnam.Kicha is a respected citizen who runs a home-based papadum business along with Mani in Chennai. Susheela, one of Kicha's many female employees, has a crush on him and is constantly demanding his attention. Another thing adding to her woes is the arrival of her jovial cousin Sugandhi. She makes the place so lively and playful with silly fights between Mani and Babloo. Sugandhi later develops a crush on Kicha, especially after being saved by him from some molesting goons. Kicha tells to her that he has no such feelings for her and wants her to find a suitable mate. Before leaving Chennai, Sugandhi steals Kicha's ring as a souvenir.
After several unsuccessful attempts at nabbing the thief, a disgraced Azhagar Nambi shaves his head and is left with a ring mark on his face, after a scuffle with the thief. On investigating, he later realizes that the mark was formed by a ceremonial ring worn by Brahmin priests, but to his vain, finds that the specific design of this ring is uncommon to Brahmin priests, but rather resembles a mangalsutra. Nambi is forced by his parents into getting married and by coincidence to Sugandhi, from whom he gets the particular ring that he was tracking and finds out that it belongs to Kicha. In an attempt to trap and arrest Kicha, Nambi plots an attempt at Kicha's house where they were invited for a wedding dinner, hosted by Kicha, where he shoots Kicha, but the latter narrowly escapes with a bullet injury in his hand, along with Mani. Susheela follows them to their hideout, where Susheela finds the duo and accuses Kicha for his deed.
After Susheela threatens to commit suicide, Kicha reveals his flashback about his student life as a district level topper along with his best friend Ramesh, and when they both were denied their desired medical college seats due to bribery, that leads to the tragic suicides of Kicha's mother Ponnamal and Ramesh. Since then, Kicha became a thief to build a college of his own, where he desires to make education available to the deserved without any difference to poor, rich, or any caste.
In order to fund the final stages of the college building, aware of the police trap, Kicha makes one last attempt to steal money from the Chief Minister, resulting in success, but Nambi gains the upper hand in arresting him. In the courtroom, Kicha demands that the State CM should come to the courtroom, who was previously educational minister demanded the bribe from him. Though the CM is exposed to the public, he is still let off, which infuriates a youth who was inspired by Kicha's ideologies. The youth kills the minister by planting a bomb on himself.
During the end credits, it is shown that Kicha serves his jail sentence and subsequently inaugurates the medical college for the poor students after his release.
Cast
- Arjun as Krishnamoorthy
- Madhoo as Susheela
- Goundamani as Mani
- Senthil as Babloo
- Charan Raj as Azhagar Nambi
- Subhashri as Sugandhi
- Vineeth as Ramesh
- Manorama as Ponnammal, Kicha's mother
- M. N. Nambiar as Ramesh's father
- Rajan P. Dev as CM
- Ajay Rathnam as Ratnam
- Rajendran as Stunt Artist
- Prasanna as Lawyer
- Shanthi Williams
- Omakuchi Narasimhan
- Chokkalinga Bhagavathar
- Radhabhai
After scoring back-to-back successes like Vasanthakala Paravai and Suriyan, producer K. T. Kunjumon wanted to collaborate again with director Pavithran and actor R. Sarathkumar; however since they went on to do other projects, the collaboration did not happen. Photographer Stills Ravi and editor V. T. Vijayan suggested the name of S. Shankar who worked as an assistant in these two films. Impressed with Shankar's story, he decided to produce the film, Gentleman. Arjun Sarja was selected to portray the lead role after attempts to sign Sarathkumar failed. Even Arjun was initially reluctant. According to him, no filmmakers were ready to make a film with him until the release of Sevagan which was directed by Arjun himself. Therefore when Shankar approached him with the script of Gentleman, he decided to say a "No" after listening to the script just as he did to a few other directors. But he was impressed by the story and hence decided to do it. The climax scene where a student sacrifices his life by killing the film's antagonist was inspired from the assassination of Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa. Kunjumon insisted Shankar to rewrite the climax by adding this element, much to the dissatisfaction of Arjun, who felt that his heroism would get diluted. However, Kunjumon was adamant about the climax and it was shot as per his wish.
Soundtrack
The score and soundtrack of the movie was composed by A. R. Rahman and lyrics by Vairamuthu and Vaali. Gentleman marked the beginning of a famed collaboration between A. R. Rahman and director S. Shankar. The film and soundtrack were dubbed and released in Telugu with the same name. The lyrics were penned by Rajashri for this version.The choreography was done by Prabhu Deva, who also made an appearance in the song "Chikku Bukku Rayile", written by Vaali.
The soundtrack earned A. R. Rahman, his second Filmfare Best Music Director Award of the year 1993. He also won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director for his work. Sujatha got the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for her rendition of the track "En Veettu Thotathil".
A Gentleman instrumental adaptation album was subsequently released on Lahari and became a runaway success. The track "Ottagathai Kattiko" soundtracked a BBC fashion show. The song is based on Carnatic rāgam Dharmavati. The song "Paakathe" is based on Mohanam raga.