Villu (film)

Pugazh "Villu" is an IIT Kharagpur and Oxford alumnus with a master's degree in chemical engineering. With the help of his relative Inspector Joseph, he succeeds in tracking down a wanted criminal named Raaka and trapping him to Joseph. The scene then shifts to a village, where Pugazh is attending the wedding of a Tahsildar's daughter. He meets Janavi, a friend of the bride, and instantly falls in love with her. After persistent wooing, he succeeds in winning her heart. Janavi takes Pugazh to Munich (Germany) to introduce him to her father J. D., a wealthy businessman and covert arms smuggler. During his stay in Bern, he encounters J. D.'s gang, consisting of Shaan, a hotel pimp named Max, and another henchman. After initial confrontations with the three of them, he starts eliminating them one after another, and then J. D. becomes his remaining target. Janavi soon finds out that Pugazh is plotting to kill her father and warns Pugazh's mother about her son. On the contrary, Pugazh's mother not only knows and supports what Pugazh is doing, but she also reveals that she is not his real "mother" and tells her why Pugazh is after her father. Pugazh's father Major Saravanan was a patriotic Indian Army officer. During a peacekeeping mission, he noticed J. D., Shaan, Raaka, and their two henchmen, who were then army officers working in his team, accepting money from terrorists in exchange for allowing them to carry out their activities. When he confronted them, they killed him and fabricated a story claiming that since he accepted money from terrorists to help them, they killed him considering the safety of the other soldiers and themselves. He was stripped posthumously of his titles honours, and badges. During his funeral, his family, consisting of his wife and a young Pugazh, were humiliated as the military withdrew his honours and the villagers banished them from their village. The villagers also barred Pugazh from performing his father's last rites and threw the dead body into a sand pit, where it got lost in a sand storm. The villagers, mainly through J.D. also brandish the forehead of Pugazh's mother with the title "wife of a traitor". She sends her son away with Shaan's estranged wife as she does not want him to grow up carrying the stigma of being the son of a disgraced army officer. In the present day, J. D. takes Pugazh to India to retrieve a Blu-ray containing J. D.'s secret information, which Pugazh had earlier received from Shaan and given to Joseph. Pugazh soon finds out that Raaka has escaped. Pugazh manages to flee from J. D.'s and Raaka's clutches, and after a thrilling chase, he reaches an abandoned temple outside his village where he reunites with his mother, who had been living there since being banished from the village. J. D., Raaka and their henchmen arrive there. They kill Joseph, injure Pugazh and bury him alive. After a sandstorm unearths Pugazh, he wakes up kills Raaka and fights with J. D., weakening him. With all of the villagers assembled around the abandoned temple, Pugazh forces J. D. to reveal the truth about his father to them. After his confession, Pugazh kills J. D. in revenge for his father's death. With the truth about Saravanan finally revealed, the army reinstates his titles, honours, and badges and also returns his army badge and uniform to his widowed wife. ==Cast==

Development Prabhu Deva along with announcing his venture in Bollywood titled Wanted Dead and Alive, which was the remake of Pokkiri, he launched his next Tamil venture in December 2007. Ayngaran International was to produce the film as well. The film was initially titled as Pugazh. Prabhu Deva later announced the titled to be Singam. However, a copyright issue was brought up concerning the title Singam, which was already announced as the title for a film by director Hari. Prabhu Deva then changed the titled to Vill, meaning "bow" in Tamil, a more formal spelling of Villu. The team later found out that S. J. Suryah was to use the title Vill for a Telugu film. Suryah, with the negotiation of Vijay, later changed his film's title. Director Prabhu Deva started shooting for Villu with the team's first location being Palani, Tamil Nadu. Another song sequence was shot in Bangkok, Thailand. Later, reports claimed that the film's script and story would deal with a majority of the film taking place in Italy. Prabhu Deva had reportedly planned two song sequences to be shot in European countries. It was reported that Prakash Raj was missing from shooting when the crew was shooting the climax. Devi Sri Prasad, Kola Bhaskar and Ravi Varman were confirmed the film's composer, editor, and cinematographer respectively while FEFSI Vijayan was chosen as the stunt coordinator. Nayantara was confirmed the film's lead actress upon the film's launch. A song and a fight sequence was shot at Tuticorin while other songs were shot at Bangkok, Malaysia and Switzerland. ==Music==

The soundtrack for this film was composed by Devi Sri Prasad. The audio was launched on 14 December 2008 at Hello FM radio station. Three of the songs, "Jalsa Jalsa", "Dheemthanakka Thillana", and "Daddy Mummy" had their beats reused from three Telugu songs DSP had previously composed: the eponymous song from Jalsa ,"Om Namaste Bolo" from Ready, and "Akalesthey" from Shankar Dada Zindabad respectively. The Song "Everybody Rock your Body" from Jagadam, was reused in the film as a Background score. ==Release==

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Kalaignar TV. Villu had a limited Blu-ray DVD release in United Kingdom and Japan. ==Reception==

This film was released on 12 January 2009, on the same day as Vijay's 2007 film Pokkiri which was also directed by Prabhu Deva. It received negative reviews from fans and critics. Behindwoods.com gave 1.5 on 5 and said "With tacky production values, shabby cinematography and amateurish direction Villu comes across as a more than two-hour long." while another website stated "On the whole, Vijay's Villu is an action-packed mass masala film for his ardent fans but with loose ends." Rediff reviewed the film "Leave your brains behind and prepare to enjoy the adventures of a Tamil James Bond." and rated 2.5/5. Ananda Vikatan rated the film 37 out of 100. Dinamalar wrote "Director Prabhu Deva, despite having such a thousand facilities, has messed up without giving a hit as much as Pokkiri. It is unfortunate that the bow that should be flown has become a slightly pushed model car". Kumudham praised the humour and music but panned the character design of antagonists and concluded calling Villu as bow which does not have arrow to drop fruit. Upperstall wrote "This awful rip-off from the Hindi film Soldier (1998), itself not a very good film, leaves you speechless considering the cast, technical crew and the money spent. Director Prabhu Deva, while making Villu, said he was attempting to make a James Bond film in Tamil. Well, barring a couple of thrills, Villu has neither the humour, style or sophistication nor the bevy of beauties one associates with the Bond films. It is plain rotten". The Hindu wrote "With an excellent team to bolster the proceedings, Prabhu Deva could have had a surefire potboiler provided he had worked more on the screenplay. The enigmas that remain unsolved can be ignored, but the treatment that gets trying towards the end, cannot". Sify wrote "What works in its favour is the star cast, packaging and look of the film. It is the most stylish Vijay film ever made. Villu is technically slick and moves at a rapid pace. The director, however, is less concerned with the film's plot and the pre-climax portion lacks punch as the story goes limp." == References ==