Thaanaa Serndha Koottam
Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language heist comedy film directed by Vignesh Shivan and produced by Suriya. The film stars Suriya and Keerthy Suresh with a supporting cast including Karthik, Ramya Krishnan, Nandha, Kalaiyarasan, RJ Balaji, and Suresh Chandra Menon. The film's music was composed by Anirudh Ravichander and cinematography performed by Dinesh Krishnan and edited by A. Sreekar Prasad.The film is an adaptation of the 2013 Hindi film Special 26, which was inspired by the 1987 Opera House heist in Mumbai.
Principal photography of the film commenced in September 2016. Thaana Serndha Kootam had a worldwide theatrical release on 12 January 2018. The film grossed more than ₹60 crore at the Tamil Nadu box office.
Plot
All the events in this movie happen in the period of 1986–1987. The film begins with Pallavaram Paranjothi Pandian attending an interview for a clerk's post and getting rejected due to lack of money for giving bribes to the officials.Now the story shifts to Nachinarkiniyan aka Iniyan attending CBI interviews and his friend attending police interviews. Both get rejected due to lack of bribe money for the post. Iniyan's father Porchelvan works as a CBI office clerk. He wants his son to be an officer, hence he pleads for the posting for his son to his higher officials.
However, he earned the wrath of his senior official officer Uthaman, a corrupt official. Once during a raid, he asks for money. Porchelvan did not approve of this and complains about Uthaman in the form of an anonymous letter. Uthaman comes to know about this and exacts revenge by purposely rejecting and humiliating Iniyan at the interview and later asking him to bribe in order to get the job. Iniyan and his father are dejected, and Iniyan's friend is dejected due to his failure in the interview, and he later commits suicide.
Iniyan is depressed after all these events and decides to loot money from the corrupted and rich people. He loots black money and tries to reform society, making sure the deserved people get posting in the government departments. He forms a gang with him and starts to heist by posing as CBI and income tax officers.
The CBI appoints Kurunjivendhan to investigate and capture the thieves. Meanwhile, Iniyan falls in love with Madhu, and she accepts his marriage proposal. One day, the gang conducts an interview for the CBI. The gang plans to raid a jewelry shop. Uthaman and Kurunjivendhan come to know about this, but learn that they already came and finished the raid. Kurunjivendhan apprehends Iniyan and wants him to be a police inspector, but he rejects the offer as he believes that even more good can be done if he continued to do his deeds. He then reveals the force with kurunjivendhan is actually the men he gave jobs using the heist money.He escapes the place with ease.
Later on we see him escaping abroad with Madhu and all his other accomplices.
Cast
- Suriya as Nachinarkiniyan /Uthaman
- Keerthy Suresh as Madhu
- Karthik as Kurunjivendhan CBI Officer
- Ramya Krishnan as Azhagu Meena
- Nandha as Vetrivel
- Kalaiyarasan as Iniyan's friend
- RJ Balaji as 'Pallavaram' Paranjothi Pandian
- Senthil as KP
- Sathyan as Muthukumar "Muthu"
- Suresh Chandra Menon as Uthaman
- Thambi Ramaiah as Porchelvan
- Brahmanandam as a Hyderabad Income Tax Officer
- Anandaraj as Kuthalingam
- Yogi Babu as Narayanan
- Sudhakar as Azhagu Meena's husband
- Nirosha as Kuthalingam's wife
- Sivasankar as Ondiveeran "Ondi"
- Vinodhini as Mangaiyakarasi
- Bala Singh as Gunasekaran
- Venkatesh Harinathan as Kapil Gavaskar
- Gadam Kishan as Kapil's brother
- Abhirami as Azhagumathi
- Meera Mitun as Iniyan's friend's wife
- Winner Ramachandran
Production
Development
Following the success of Neeraj Pandey's Special 26, the director revealed that he was approached by several film makers who were keen on producing a Tamil version of the film. Linguswamy subsequently bought the rights of the film and planned to produce the venture in collaboration with Friday Filmworks, who had made the original version. Linguswamy held initial discussions with Kamal Haasan, Suriya, Karthi and Vikram about portraying the film's lead role with Sathyaraj, but the production failed to materialise. In August 2014, producer Thiagarajan announced that he had purchased the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada language rights to remake Special 26, and revealed that he would also direct all four ventures. Thiagarajan's son Prashanth was revealed to be playing the lead role in the Tamil version, while Prakash Raj and Sathyaraj were signed to portray supporting roles. A further press release in March 2015 stated that Srikanth Ravichandran, then husband of television host Divyadarshini, would instead direct the film and that he had already begun work on planning music compositions with Thaman. The team also revealed that they had signed on actress Trisha to feature in the leading female role. After a period of little development, Prashanth revealed to the media in September 2015 that the film's shoot would commence soon after with Madhesh as the director of the project.A press release in December 2015 suggested that Simran and Devayani would also be a part of the cast, while Jacqueline Fernandez would appear in a song. It was also stated that Anirudh Ravichander had been signed on to compose the film's music and Sreekar Prasad would be the film's editor. Thiagarajan revealed that he would adapt the original film's script and dialogues to suit a Tamil audience and that filming would take place in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. The film failed to materialise over 2016 and it was widely reported in the media that the remake rights of the original film had been transferred from Thiagarajan to Studio Green and the film was to be made as Thaana Serndha Kootam by Vignesh Shivan with Suriya in the lead role. The title was taken from a dialogue spoken by Rajinikanth in Baashha.
However, in an interview during February 2017, Thiagarajan insisted that the film was still being planned with Prashanth in the lead role. In late 2017, Thiagarajan made an application seeking an interim stay of the film's release, claiming that his studio of Staar Movies still owned the film's rights. He stated that Staar Movies had entered into an agreement with the original producers, Viacom, in August 2014 and obtained the rights to remake the movie in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada and that the agreement was valid for a period of three years. In early January 2018, the High Court refused the interim order application and called for the issues to be decided in a civil claim.
Filming
agreed to work on Thaanaa Serndha Koottam at short notice, after another project, Kaathu Vaakkula Rendu Kadhal with Vijay Sethupathi became delayed. Studio Green's K. E. Gnanavel Raja asked Vignesh to do a project to star Suriya and the team chos to use an earlier script planned by Vignesh on the 1987 Opera House heist, like Special 26, where a group posing as Central Bureau of Investigation officers executed an income tax raid on the jeweller in Mumbai, which he initially wanted to make with either actors Sivakarthikeyan or Vijay Sethupathi. The team claimed to legally purchase the remake rights of Special 26, but instead of copying the film scene-by-scene, Vignesh was insistent that it was adapted to make it suitable for Tamil-speaking audiences.The film's title was announced to the public on 22 September 2016, with the shoot supposed to be starting thereafter in October 2016. Keerthy Suresh was signed on as the lead actress, while an ensemble cast of veteran actors including Ramya Krishnan, Suresh Chandra Menon, Senthil and Sudhakar were also a part of the first schedule. The film's principal shooting was scheduled to be held at 9 November 2016, in Chennai, with Karaikudi, Madurai and Hyderabad were being finalized as the film's shooting locations. However, the shoot was commenced on 18 November 2016.
On 30 January 2017, the makers progressed the film's shoot in Hyderabad. The makers erected a set resembling the 80's portion at the EVP Film City in Chennai, where a replica resembling Mount Road and Gemini Flyover has recreated for the ongoing schedule. In March 2017, the makers entered into the final leg of shooting, with 75% of the film being complete. The film was predominantly shot across Chennai and Mysore, with the shoot is expected to be completed in August 2017. On the same month, the makers planned to shoot for the final song abroad. The film's shoot was affected by the ongoing strike, due to the standoff between Film Employees Federation of South India and Tamil Film Producers Council. Following the strike, the makers entered into the final schedule of the film in September 2017. Post-production works for the film were completed at Knack Studios in Chennai. On 2 December 2017, the makers announced that the principal photography of the film was completed.
Suriya dubbed for himself in Telugu for the first time, for the Telugu version Gang.
Music
The soundtrack album and background score of Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, was composed by Anirudh Ravichander, in his second collaboration with Vignesh Shivan, after Naanum Rowdydhaan, and his first collaboration with Suriya. Although, the makers had confirmed that the album would feature eight songs, the official tracklist consists of five songs written by Vignesh Shivan, Thamarai and Mani Amudhavan. The music rights were acquired by Sony Music. The album which was released on 6 January 2018, during the Natchathira Vizha, a fundraiser event organised by the Nadigar Sangam, held at Malaysia, features five tracks with four of them being released as singles.The first single track "Naana Thaana" was released on 27 July 2017. The song is touted to be a fun romantic number, sung by Anirudh, with lyrics written by Vignesh Shivan released directly on the streaming platform Saavn, opening to positive response from audiences. On 16 October 2017, coinciding with Anirudh's birthday, the makers unveiled the teaser of the second single, "Sodakku" which featured Sheril and Anna, who rose to fame with her dance cover of the song "Entammede Jimikki Kammal" from Velipadinte Pusthakam. The full song sung by Anthony Daasan, with lyrics written by Mani Amudhavan, was released on 26 October 2017. Another single track "Peela Peela" was released on 23 December 2017. The title track of "Thaanaa Serndha Koottam" was released on 30 December 2017.
The soundtrack received postiitve reviews from music critics and listeners. Behindwoods stated "Anirudh's magical combination with Vignesh Shivan continues as the album shines high on variety", and gave the album a rating of 3.25 out of 5 stars. Sharanya CR writing for The Times of India commented "Anirudh and Vignesh's combination has worked again – and the composer only proves, time and again, to experiment and give some fine tracks for each album he works on". Firstpost reviewed the soundtrack as "The album is low on romance, but high on fun". Studioflicks rated the soundtrack as 3.25 out of 5, stating that "Thaana Serndha Koottam brings us a much valuable package of tracks based on different genres. Moreover, for Suriya this is a real big success for most of his erstwhile albums weren’t the favourite of music lovers. Anirudh and Vignesh Shivn encompass best music with simple lyrics and right choice of singers to offer the best treat to everyone." Milliblog reviewed it as "Thaana Serndha Koottam’s music is a far cry from the duo’s—Anirudh and Vignesh ShivN—Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, though Sodakku is an easy winner." Sify rated 3 out of 5 to the album and stated "Thaana Serndha Kootam has some interesting elements in its music as it takes a fresh approach from Anirudh’s recent albums. The songs are refreshingly light-hearted barring the extremely moving and well scored ‘Engae Endru’ number. The songs are zingy and is likely to stay up the charts in the coming days." Onlykollywood gave the album 3.5 out of 5 and stated "TSK shows that Anirudh has changed his approached towards commercial soundtracks, and has learnt to balance the fun and the fire. It may not be downright innovative, but sure has something in it to connect with the audiences. Bring on some solid visuals and watch the flowers bloom bright."
The song "Sodakku" attracted controversy after an AIADMK office bearer, Sathish Kumar, lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Police seeking changes in the lyrics, which he claimed were offensive and anti-political. Kumar's claims were widely criticised by those in the film industry, with RJ Balaji speaking out against the complaint.
The soundtrack for the Telugu version titled Gang, was released on 10 January 2018.