Winner (2003 film)

Sakthivel Sathyamoorthy is studying Engineering in a college in Chennai, and gets into quarrels every other day. Unable to withstand the threats from hooligans, his wealthy parents send him to his mother's village in Pollachi where his maternal grandfather Velayutham and grandmother Sivagami reside. Though his grandparents are rich and respected farmers, Sakthi has not met them due to a small dispute between his father and grandfather. In the village, an innocent third cousin of Sakthi, Kaipulla, lives with the old couple with hopes of becoming their heir. He has a small gang and roams around the village with his mates. Kaipulla is constantly challenged by Sakthi's distant relative Kattadurai Thevar, also a rich landlord. Sakthi visits his grandparents and decides to stay in the village for a month. A marriage of their relative is planned, and the whole family from all over Tamil Nadu assembles. Neelaveni, who accompanies her relatives, sees Sakthi at the wedding and falls in love with him. Kattadurai is supposed to marry Neelaveni. Many events follow. Kattadurai often clashes with Sakthi and gets beaten up. Amidst the wedding preparation, a group of former enemies including Vaira Kannan and Neelavani's aunt, along with Neelaveni's father, kidnap Neelaveni. After a huge tussle, Sakthi brings Neelaveni back. == Cast ==

Actor Prashanth signed on to star in the film in late 2001, with Aarthi Agarwal signed on as the lead actress, her Tamil debut. It was reported that Agarwal had impressed actress Khushbu with her performances in Telugu films and Khushbu thus recommended her to her filmmaker husband, Sundar C. Vivek was the director's original choice for the comic role of Kaipulla, that was eventually played by Vadivelu. Agarwal was later replaced by Kiran Rathod. Despite this, Agarwal can be seen in the beginning of the song "Mathapoo", which was filmed in Thiruvananthapuram. Scenes showcasing a wedding at Rathod's character's house were shot at Vasan House, Chennai. Other scenes were shot in Hyderabad. Prashanth was briefly hospitalised after injuring himself filming an action scene. Vadivelu was injured on a separate occasion and could not walk properly, so his limp was written into the script as a result of his character being beaten up. == Soundtrack ==

The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. Vignesh Ram of Nilacharal called it an "above average album with a mixture of western, folk, dappanguthu and melody numbers". == Release and reception ==

Winner was released on 27 September 2003. Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote, "It's a typical Sunder C film, one of his more enjoyable ones, with the right dose of action, sentiment, romance and humour, all weaved into a single film that is engaging and with not many lagging moments. The film makes no pretensions of being a classy affair, but nevertheless it is wholesome entertainment for the entire family. The highlight is the humour generated by the comedy track". Visual Dasan of Kalki called Vadivelu as man of the match while also praising Rathod's acting and Prashanth's action. Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote, "It is a typical Sundar C. brand entertainer [...] with comedy, stunts, romance and sentiment thrown in to make the product racy [...] So naturally don't expect too much of logic in the story or plausibility in the narration". Sify wrote "The thrills are there all right, but C.Sundar should have given some importance to the script. He depends on stunts and Kiran’s glamour to bring the audience to the halls. The last 20 minutes of the film look exactly like the recent Jayam where lovers are fleeing from the village with the entire villagers close on their heels as they try to catch the last train!". == Post-release ==

Post-release, the film's producer Ramachandran criticised Prashanth for his alleged unprofessional behaviour during production. Vadivelu's association in the film titled 'Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam' became popular, and was used as the title for a 2013 film. == References ==