| Aadukalam | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Vetrimaaran |
| Screenplay by | Vetrimaaran Additional screenplay: Vikram Sugumaran |
| Story by | Vetrimaaran |
| Dialogues by | Vetrimaaran Vikram Sugumaran |
| Produced by | S. Kathiresan |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Velraj |
| Edited by | Kishore Te. |
| Music by | G. V. Prakash Kumar |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Sun Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 160 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Budget | ₹10 crore[1] |
| Box office | ₹30 crore[2][a] |
Aadukalam (pronunciationⓘ;transl. Playground) is a 2011 IndianTamil-languagesportsaction drama film[4] directed byVetrimaaran, produced byS. Kathiresan and distributed bySun Pictures. The film starsDhanush in the lead role, alongsideTaapsee (in her Tamil debut),Kishore,V. I. S. Jayapalan,Naren Narayanan, andMurugadoss.G. V. Prakash Kumar composed the film score and soundtrack.
The film was released on 14 January 2011 to critical acclaim, with critics praising the screenplay, direction and performances (particularly of Dhanush, Jayapalan and Naren). The film won six awards at the58th National Film Awards, includingBest Director,Best Screenplay andBest Actor.[5] The film also won five awards at the59th Filmfare Awards South –Best Film,Best Director,Best Actor,Best Music Director andBest Cinematography. Based on an online poll byThe Times of India, Vetrimaran was chosen as the best director forAadukalam.
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InMadurai, veteranrooster trainer Periyasamy aka "Pettaikaaran" and Madurai Central Police Inspector Rathnaswamy are tough competitors incockfights, and it is often Pettai who wins because nobody knows his way of maintaining the quality of the birds. Rathnasamy and Pettai were once protegees of veteran Doraisamy, who has retired from active competition but is considered the honorary overlord of rooster fighting in southTamil Nadu.
K. P. Karuppu and Durai are the favourites in Pettai's team. Karuppu is very talented in breeding and training roosters, while Durai is very rich, owns three bars in the town ofThiruparankundram, and is talented in rooster training. One day, during an informal match, local police raid the spot and arrest most of the involved, except Rathnaswamy and Durai who escape. Everyone is released after stern warning from the local police, after intervention from Rathnasamy. Pettai's roosters were abducted by the fleeing men from Rathnasamy's party, and Pettai orders his guys to bring them back by any means. He also asks them to kill any fowl which had bred with his roosters, to prevent the strength of his roosters passing to Rathnasamy's flock. Karuppu goes to the railway colony at night, to retrieve their rooster, since an ally of Rathnasamy lives there. He kills the fowl which had mated with their rooster, and bumps into anAnglo-Indian girl named Irene. He is smitten with her beauty, but silences her and leaves.
Having been defeated in all earlier bouts with Pettai's roosters, Rathinasamy keeps insisting on having one last fight to win and satisfy his old mother's wish, but Pettai declines to have any more cockfights because he feels that Rathnaswamy has lost faith in his roosters and will be using nefarious methods to win, like the earlier raid.
Karuppu falls in love with Irene, who dislikes him. He does not recognise this initially and keeps following her. One day, the residents of Irene's colony confront him and ask Irene to tell who she is in love with – Karuppu or Dinesh, another man in the locality. She points her finger at Karuppu, and he goes into rapture. She explains later that she had to lie in order to avoid Dinesh, who has been bothering her for a long time. Later, Irene too falls in love with Karuppu.
Meanwhile, Rathnasamy tries to cajole Ayub, Pettai's veterinarian, to convince Pettai for a competition against himself, in exchange for a huge amount. Ayub refuses and insults Rathnasamy. The same night, Ayub is killed in ahit and run accident. Durai initially suspects Rathnaswamy and all of Pettai's gang wants revenge, but Pettai decides to conduct a state tournament in Ayub's name and provide his family with funds so that Ayub's destitute daughters can be married. He asks permission from Rathnasamy as the police have to permit it, but Rathnaswamy refuses, manhandles him, and berates Pettai as a thief. In a rage, Pettai, suspecting Rathnaswamy of Ayub's murder, agrees to the one-on-one rooster fight that Rathnaswamy has been asking for so long. He bets that he will field his roosters against every rooster that Rathnaswamy brings to the field in the upcoming tournament, and even if one of Pettai's roosters loses against Rathnaswamy's, Pettai will tonsure his head and shave his face, publicly apologise to him, and will quit rooster fights. If Rathnaswamy is not able to beat at least one of his roosters, the same conditions will be applied on him. Finally getting his way, Rathnaswamy permits the tournament.
The grand state tournament is arranged by Pettai's team, getting heavy funds and official permission. In the initial 11 fights, Rathnasamy's roosters are defeated by Pettai's. Rathnasamy brings high-bred roosters fromBangalore and enters them into the tournament. Seeing the quality of the new roosters, Karuppu asks Pettai to let his rooster fight, but Pettai puts his rooster down and says that he will choose the best-competing rooster himself. Karuppu surreptitiously enters the contest as Pettai's team before Pettai can choose the rooster because he needs to repay Irene for the loan he took to prepare his rooster for the fight. Pettai does not believe in Karuppu and his rooster - announcing that Karuppu will not represent Pettai, and the result of Karuppu's match will not be acknowledged by his team. However, the 'underdog' emerges victorious in three consecutive rounds, despite facing roosters spiked with steroids. Karuppu gets the best coach award of the tournament and wins the bet of₹3 lakh (equivalent to₹6.2 lakh or US$7,300 in 2023).
While initially happy that Karuppu won, Pettai is soon overcome with anger and jealousy. His ego is hurt by the fact that Karuppu earned both popularity and money, by refuting his judgement. Karuppu is not aware of the changes in Pettai's mind. Karuppu gives Pettai the money from the competition for safekeeping, which he plans to use to start a business, but it goes missing. Pettai also starts spinning stories about his associates and makes everyone suspicious of each other. He incites Karuppu and Durai into pitting their roosters in a fight. Meanwhile, Karuppu's mother dies from the shock of losing all the money. Pettai poisons Durai's roosters, making him suspect Karuppu, who is arrested for this. Pettai then lies to Irene that his wife was in an adulterous relationship with Karuppu. Irene's family also pressures her to move toChennai, which pushes her into attempting suicide. Pettai, meanwhile, calls Karuppu to a location near a temple and informs Durai about his whereabouts. When Irene recovers, she calls Karuppu and informs him that Pettai is badmouthing him, so Karuppu goes to find Pettai and confront him. Karuppu finds that Pettai was the one who stole his money, and a guilt-ridden Pettai kills himself. Karuppu does not wish to reveal Pettai's scheming against him, so he flees with Irene to start a new life in another city, leaving the money with his friend.
A lot of research has gone into the script. I was born and brought up in Chennai and to learn new things, I had to unlearn many. I went to Madurai with a script in mind, but I had to change the script to accommodate reality. To make my film authentic, we have cast people who belong to thesub-cult. I even share credits for scriptwriting with Vikram Sukumaran [sic], who hails from Madurai.
Following the success of their 2007 collaborationPolladhavan, the entire team of that film — directorVetrimaaran, lead actorDhanush, producerS. Kathiresan, and music directorG. V. Prakash Kumar — collaborated again forAadukalam.[10] Vetrimaaran spent a period of two years inMadurai to understand the local dialect and lifestyle of the people living there.Aadukalam was the first film of Vetrimaaran to have a production office set up outside ofChennai.[9] Vetrimaaran took a year to complete the screenplay, script, and dialogues forAadukalam and held a bounded script for the venture, which is considered rare in Tamil films.[10][11] Vetrimaaran narrated only half of the film's script to Dhanush before the latter was impressed with it and agreed to act in the film.[10] The film was initially titledSeval, but since the rights to the title were already taken by directorHari for hisproject with Bharath, Vetrimaaran decided to rename his film asAadukalam.[12] Vetrimaaran revealed that the idea of the story was inspired from several international films such as,Caché,Amores perros,Babel, Tamil filmsThevar Magan,Virumaandi,Paruthiveeran and novelsRoots: The Saga of an American Family andShantaram, which mentioned during the end credits.[13]
Shriya Saran was signed on for the project in February 2008 but eventually pulled out citing schedule conflicts.[10][14] In June 2009,Trisha Krishnan, who was selected to replace Saran for the role of Irene, was forced to opt out of the project after her schedule clashed with the allotted dates for her other films,Namo Venkatesa (2010) andVinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010).[10][15][16] NewcomerTaapsee Pannu, aPunjabi software engineer, was named as her replacement.[10][17]R. Parthiban was originally offered to portray Karuppu's mentor Pettaikaran, but declined due to scheduling conflicts.[18]Sri Lankan Tamil writer and political commentatorV. I. S. Jayapalan portrayed the role, thereby making his debut inTamil cinema.[19]Attakathi Dinesh makes a small cameo in the film as Dinesh, Karuppu's nemesis when it comes to winning Irene's love.[20]Murugadoss plays Karuppu's friend Oole whileNaren appears as Rathnasamy who is Pettaikaran's rival in cockfighting; both actors added the film's title to their stage names.[6]
Principal photography began inMadurai in February 2009 with scenes featuring Dhanush being shot.[10][11] The first look of the film was released shortly after the commencement of filming. It featured a series of promotional posters depicting the characters played by Dhanush, Jayapalan andKishore.[21] During early stages of production, Dhanush revealed he would play the role of a local cockfighter named K. P. Karuppu, and described the venture as his "dream project".[22] The cockfight sequences that take place before intermission was filmed for 26 days in a set created by art directorJacki.[12] Filming was completed in August 2010.[10] In addition to being shot in Madurai, some portions were also filmed inThiruparankundram. The cockfights were filmed usingcomputer-generated imagery (CGI).
The post-production works on the cockfight sequences delayed the film's release.[10] The voices for Kishore, Taapsee, and Jayapalan were dubbed bySamuthirakani,Andrea Jeremiah andRadha Ravi respectively.[12]
G. V. Prakash Kumar's soundtrack consists of seven tracks. It was released by Sony Music and the audio was launched at a small function at Lady Aandal School auditorium inChennai on 1 December 2010.[23] The songYathe Yathe topped the charts and remained in the No.1 position for nearly five weeks.[2]
Aadukalam premiered on 12 January 2011 at Four Frames Preview Theatre,[24] and was theatrically released two days later.[6]
The film received critical acclaim from critics and audiences, praising the direction, screenplay and performances (particularly Dhanush, Jayapalan and Naren) and music.Sify called it "a gutsy and brilliant film" and mentioned that it " lives up to the expectation that the film carried and the credit goes to Vetrimaran whose research and hard work shows on screen".[25] Karthik Subramanian ofThe Hindu praised the film stating that "The detailing of every characters in the story is intricate. The narrative moves like a good novel where the first few chapters are all about etching and detailing the players, and the plot and the action unfold much later".[26] Pavithra Srinivasan ofRediff.com called it "one of Dhanush's best works to date".[27]Ananda Vikatan rated the film with 44 marks and mentioned that "This arena is new for presenting cultural nuances of a region and changes in human emotions beautifully".[12]
Made on a budget of₹10 crore (equivalent to₹21 crore or US$2.4 million in 2023) including the promotional costs,[28] the film collected around₹30 crore (equivalent to₹62 crore or US$7.3 million in 2023) at the box-office and was declared a success.[12] The film had a theatrical run of 50 weeks in 4 theatre centres.[29]
Aadukalam won six awards at the58th National Film Awards ceremony, thereby sharing the record withKannathil Muthamittal (2002) for the most National Film Awards won by a Tamil film.[30] It won awards under theBest Direction (Vetrimaaran),Best Actor (Dhanush),Best Screenplay (Original) (Vetrimaaran),Best Editing (Kishore Te) andBest Choreography (Dinesh) categories with aSpecial Jury Award being presented to V. I. S Jayapalan.[31] The film was nominated in seven categories at the59th Filmfare Awards South, winningBest Film – Tamil (S. Kathiresan),Best Director – Tamil (Vetrimaaran),Best Actor – Tamil (Dhanush),Best Music Director – Tamil (G. V. Prakash Kumar), andBest Cinematographer (Velraj).[32][33] At the6th Vijay Awards, it was nominated in twenty-two categories and won in five, includingEntertainer of the Year (Dhanush),Best Director (Vetrimaaran) andBest Music Director (G. V. Prakash Kumar).[34][35] Among other wins, the film received sevenAnanda Vikatan Cinema Awards,[36] fourSouth Indian International Movie Awards,[37][38] threeMirchi Music Awards,[39][40][41] and oneNorway Tamil Film Festival Award,Chennai International Film Festival Award, and Chennai Times Film Award each.[42][43][44][45]
AADUKALAM is a Tamil language drama set in a rural town with a long and thriving tradition of rooster fighting.
