Our Tamil film heroes have the penchant and passion to play policeman on screen and most of them have done cop roles at least once. And, many of those police stories have emerged blockbusters in the box-office.
This week, as part of its Friday Special Article series, Mykollywood.com tracks some of the popular cop films of Tamil cinema that glorify the men in khaki.
MOONDRU MUGAM
Though superstar Rajinikanth’s recent flick ‘Darbar’ featured him as a police officer, it was ‘Moondru Mugam’ that first featured him as a dare devil cop Alex Pandian. The 1982 film is directed by A Jagannathan.
The movie stars Rajinikanth in three distinct roles as Alex Pandian, Arun and John. The film was a blockbuster and ran for 175 days in theaters. It received the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize in 1982.
The film was remade in Hindi as ‘John Jani Janardhan’ with Rajinikanth again reprising his roles, in Telugu as ‘Mugguru Monagallu’ with Sobhan Babu, and in Kannada as ‘Gedda Maga’ with Shankar Nag.
VETTAIYAADU VILAIYAADU
‘Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu’ is a 2006 action thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Jyothika, and Kamalinee Mukherjee in prominent roles, while Prakash Raj, Daniel Balaji, and Salim Baig played supporting roles.
The film featured Kamal as Raghavan IPS. The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj with cinematography being handled by Ravi Varman and editing done by Anthony. The film is also one of the first Indian films to be made using Super 35.
The film was released on 25 August 2006 to positive reviews and became a blockbuster at box office. It also released in Telugu as ‘Raghavan’ and in Hindi as ‘The Smart Hunt’. Kamal Haasan won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor. Jyothika was nominated for the Best Actress category at the Filmfare Awards for her character Aradhana.
SETHUPATHI IPS
Vijayakanth has played police officer in many films and ‘Sethupathi’ is one among them. It is a 1994 action thriller film starring Vijayakanth, Meena, and Nambiar and Sri Vidya in key roles. Produced by AVM, the film directed by P Vasu had musical score by Ilayaraja.
The movie deals the story of a police officer who fights against terrorism. The movie was shot in 180 days and entirely in Chennai. It is one of the blockbusters of Vijayakanth’s during 1990s. It was dubbed in Telugu as ‘Raghupathi IPS’.
THERI
This 2016 film is written and directed by Atlee and produced by Kalaipuli S Thanu. The film stars Vijay, Mahendran, Amy Jackson and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, featuring music composed by G V.Prakash Kumar and cinematography handled by George C. Williams.
The story revolves around a baker who holds a secret identity as former Deputy commissioner of police and he is on a secret Ghost Protocol mission organised by the Commissioner of police (Prabhu).
YENNAI ARINDHAAL
‘Yennai Arindhaal’ is a 2015 film co-written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, and produced by A M Rathnam under the banner Shri Sai Ram Creations which presented by S Aishwarya. The film stars Ajith Kumar, Arun Vijay, Anushka, Anikha, Trisha, and Parvathy Nair in the lead roles with, Vivek, Ashish Vidyarthi, Suman, and Avinash playing pivotal roles.
The film revolves around Sathyadev (played by Ajith), who is a sincere police officer trying to stop an organ-trafficking racket. However, he is unaware that, Victor (Arun Vijay), the person who is performing the illegal trade, is the same person who killed his beloved one.
SINGAM
‘Singam’ is a 2010 film written and directed by Hari, and produced by K E Gnanavel Raja under his Studio Green banner in association with Reliance Big Pictures, and distributed by Sun Pictures.
It stars Suriya in the lead role, marking his 25th film, with Anushka Shetty, Prakash Raj and Vivek in other lead roles. It is the first installment in the Singam franchise. The film was released on 28 May 2010.
The film was a commercial success at the box office, and was remade in Kannada as ‘Kempe Gowda’, in Hindi as ‘Singham’, in Bengali as ‘Shotru’ and in Punjabi as ‘Singham’. It was followed by the sequels ‘Singam II’ (2013) and ‘Si3’ (2017).
SAAMY
‘Saamy’ is a 2003 film written and directed by Hari. The film was presented by K Balachander and produced by Pushpa Kandasamy under banner Kavithalayaa Productions.
The film stars Vikram (as tough police officer Aarusamy) and Trisha in lead roles and Kota Srinivasa Rao (debut in Tamil cinema) in a negative role. Music was composed by Harris Jayaraj. Upon release, the film was highly successful at the box office.
It was remade in Telugu as ‘Lakshmi Narasimha’ (2004) starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, in Bengali as ‘Barood’ starring Mithun Chakraborty, loosely in Kannada as ‘Ayya’ (2005) starring Darshan and later in Hindi as ‘Policegiri’ (2013) starring Sanjay Dutt. Like other films directed by Hari, this film also specialises a particular city and this time it is Tirunelveli.A sequel, ‘Saamy Square’, was released in 2018.
THEERAN ADHIGAARAM ONDRU
‘Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru’ is a 2017 film written and directed by H Vinoth and produced by S R Prakashbabu and S R Prabhu of Dream Warrior Pictures. The story is based on true events from the Operation Bawaria case, which involved the nefarious activity of dacoits and its eventual containment by Tamil Nadu police.
Karthi and Rakul Preet Singh play the lead roles in this movie, while Abhimanyu Singh played the prime antagonist. The film was released on 17 November 2017. Karthi received Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor – South and nominated Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil.
THANI ORUVAN
‘Thani Oruvan’ is a 2015 film directed by Mohan Raja and written by Raja and Suresh and Balakrishnan. Produced by Kalpathi S Aghoram, S Ganesh and S Suresh under the studio AGS Entertainment, it stars Jayam Ravi, Arvind Swamy and Nayantara in the lead roles, whilst an ensemble cast featuring Ganesh Venkataraman, Harish Uthaman, Nassar, Thambi Ramaiah, Mugdha Godse, amongst others play supporting roles.
The plot revolves around IPS Officer Mithran who wants to arrest Siddharth Abhimanyu, an affluent scientist who uses secret illegal medical practices for profit.
KAAKI SATTAI
‘Kaaki Sattai’ is a 2015 action film co-written and directed by R S Durai Senthilkumar and produced by Dhanush, their second collaboration after Ethir Neechal. The film features Sivakarthikeyan and Sri Divya in the lead roles, while Prabhu and Vijay Raaz play supporting roles.
The movie’s title was inspired by a Kamal Haasan starrer of the 1980s. The film’s music was composed by Anirudh Ravichander. The story revolves around police constable Mathimaran who wants to prove himself as a true, powerful cop by finding ways to solve issues of corruption in the law and order system in the department of police. In 2018, the film was dubbed in Hindi as ‘Daring Policewala’.
By Naveen
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