Sura is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by S. P. Rajkumar, starring Vijay in the lead role along with Tamannaah, Vadivelu, and Dev Gill in supporting roles. The film, produced by Sangili Murugan and distributed by Sun Pictures features film's soundtrack and score was composed by Mani Sharma. Cinematography was handled by M. S. Prabhu and N. K. Ekambaram respectively and editing was handled by Don Max. The film was the 50th film of Vijay. The story revolves around a fisherman who fights against a cruel minister in order to save the lands which is used to build homes for his fishermen hamlet. The rest of the film is about how Sura manages to build lands for his hamlet and destroy the plans of minister. The film, which commenced production on November 2009 in Kerala, was released worldwide on 30 April 2010. The film fared well in overseas box office has collected $897,597 but underperformed domestically. Producer Sangili Murugan reported to the media that the film Sura recovered its budget through other language satellite rights. In survey taken for week 45, Sony Max Hindi TV channel increased its viewership by 25% after hindi dubbed film Sura telecast.
Plot
Sura was born and brought up in Yaazh Nagar, a fisherman hamlet in coastal Tamil Nadu, in the company of his friend Ambar La alias Umbrella. Meanwhile, he comes across young bubbly Poornima, who chooses to end her life, unable to cope up with the death of her pet dog. Poornima becomes attracted towards Sura thanks to his good deeds, and they start romancing. When things seem to go well, trouble enters in the form of a greedy and corrupt minister Samuthira Raja alias Sundaram. He wants to usurp the land where these fishermen live, but his attempts to take away the wealth are resisted by Sura. They cross-fight each other. Sundaram hatches a conspiracy to bump off Sura with the help of his ministerial post and authority and sues him. Sura takes them on single-handedly and destroys his bad intention and helps his town fishermen get their own houses as he wished. However, Sundaram is plotting revenge against Sura for taking his money and because he lost that land in which he was about to build a fair. He plants a bomb, and Sura starts running when he sees Sundaram's henchmen. Sundaram caught him and said he planted a bomb in Sura's village. Sura said the chief guest is Sundaram's wife, much to Sundaram's shock. Sura deactivates the bomb and kills Sundaram.
After the completion of Vettaikaaran, Vijay announced that his 50th film was to be named as Urimaikural named after M. G. Ramachandran starrer of same name but it was titled as Sura. Many directors were considered for the 50th film of Vijay: Selvaraghavan, S. P. Rajakumar, K. V. Anand, Dharani, Prabhu Deva, Siddique, Raja Mohan, R. Madhesh, K. S. Ravikumar and Perarasu. Perarasu was initially selected as director, but later opted out. S. P. Rajkumar, who directed Azhagar Malai was selected as director. Prior to this, S. P. Rajkumar previously worked in Vijay starrer Once More as a dialogue writer. In May 2009, Tamannaah was confirmed to play a role in the film. Originally, Pasupathi was selected to portray the negative role but he was replaced by Dev Gill who appeared in Telugu filmMagadheera, after Vijay was impressed by his performance in that film. The shooting of the film commenced in Kerala in November 2009 and was continued in different places in Tamil Nadu like Marakkanam, Villupuram, Mamallapuram, Chennai, Alleppey, and Pondicherry. The shoot continued on 21 October and canned a few stunt sequences on the Uppaneri Bridge near Marakkanam Salt Lake. Vijay fought with villain Dev's gang for almost three days. After a three-day gap, the shoot resumed in Prasad Studios and the song "Thanjavur Jillakari" was shot at AVM Studio on 27 October. The unit created a slum set at East Coast Road. A song was shot at Ooty. During the shooting, cameraman M. S. Prabhu and Rajakumar had a misunderstanding and he was replaced by N. K. Ekhambharam. Ekambaram reveals that one of the fight sequences, which were shot in the high seas in Tuticorin at 2 am, was choreographed by Kanal Kannan and has stuntmen from Bangkok. Ekambaram says that he has used high speed cameras considering the risks involved in shooting in the seas. The opening song has been pictured in a scenic location in Dhanushkodi.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film, composed by Mani Sharma, was released on 29 March 2010 at Lady Aandal Venkat Subbarao School. The prominent guest list includes Sundar C, Sibiraj, Riyaz Khan and Uma Riyaz Khan, Ramanarayanan, K S Ravikumar, Parthiban, Vadivelu, Sonia Agarwal, Srikanth along with the lead stars of the film and the technical crew. Kabilan reveals that lyrics for all songs from the film were written even before Vettaikaran was released. The album features six songs. "Thanjavoor Jillakkari" and "Naan Nadanthal Athiradi" are based on the Telugu songs "Bommali" and "My Name Is Billa" respectively, both composed by Mani Sharma for the 2009 filmBilla.
Release
The film's release was originally slated to 23 April 2010, but was eventually postponed and released on 30 April 2010. It was also released in Hindi under the same title by Goldmines Telefilms in 2017.
Critical reception
Behindwoods gave it two and a half stars, declaring it "Sura is a usual Vijay fare." The entertainment site Sify wrote that Sura proved that "conviction can bring any formula to life". Rediff gave 3.25 out of 5 stars and stated that "Give your brains a rest, and enjoy this mass masala entertainer".
