Bruce Lee (2017 film)

Bruce Lee
Film poster
Tamil	புரூஸ் லீ
Directed by	Prashanth Pandiraj
Produced by	J. Selvakumar P. Ravichandran G. Vittal Kumar
Written by	Prasanth Pandiraj
Starring	G. V. Prakash Kumar Kriti Kharbanda Bala Saravanan Munishkanth Rajendran
Music by	G. V. Prakash Kumar
Cinematography	P. V. Shankar
Edited by	Pradeep E. Ragav G. Manoj Gyann
Production company	Kenanya Films PK Film Factory
Distributed by	Linga Bhairavi Creations
Release date	17 March 2017 (2017-03-17)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Bruce Lee is a Tamil action-comedy film written and directed by Prasanth Pandiraj, starring G. V. Prakash Kumar and Kriti Kharbanda in the leading roles. Produced by Kenanya Films, the film began production during July 2015 and was released on 17 March 2017.^[1]

Cast

• G. V. Prakash Kumar as Bruce Lee (Gemini Ganesan)
• Kriti Kharbanda as Saroja Devi Suprajit
• Bala Saravanan as Abbas
• Ramdoss as Godfather (Ramdoss)
• Rajendran as Mannikam Abbas’s Uncle
• Mansoor Ali Khan as Mansoor Ali Khan
• Anandaraj as Shanmugapandiyan

Production

The project was first announced in June 2015, when G. V. Prakash Kumar had agreed to work with Prashanth Pandiraj on an action comedy film to be produced by Kenanya Films.^[2] The title of the film was changed in July 2015 from Baasha Engira Anthony to Bruce Lee, after the makers failed to acquire the relevant permission to use the title from the makers of Baashha(1995).^[3][4] During October 2015, the film had a brief legal tussle with the makers of the Telugu film of the same, Bruce Lee (2015), after they dubbed and released their film in Tamil as Bruce Lee 2. The team of the Tamil production, Bruce Lee, were unable to prevent the release of the Telugu version or its dubbed Tamil version.^[5]

Samantha and then Trisha were approached to play the leading female role, but their unavailability meant that Kriti Kharbanda, who also appeared in the Telugu Bruce Lee, was signed on to make her debut in Tamil films.^[6][7] The team held a photoshoot in October 2015, with Kriti revealing that her and Prakash would portray college students.^[8][9] Production subsequently began later that month, with the makers targeting a release date in early 2016.^[10] Despite finishing the shoot in early 2016, the film was delayed to allow several of G. V. Prakash Kumar's other films have a theatrical release first.^[11]

Soundtrack

G. V. Prakash Kumar composed the songs, Arunraja Kamaraj, Mani kandan, Vairachandran, Gana Vinoth wrote the lyrics. Lahari Music released the album on 20 October 2016.

Release

Following multiple delays, Bruce Lee had a theatrical release on 17 March 2017. The film was panned by the critics as well as audiences and ended up becoming a disaster at the box office.^[12][13] Vishal Menon of The Hindu wrote "you need a wicked sense of comedy and great actors to pull off this kind of screwball material, but, sadly, there’s not a single funny moment", while Thinkal Menon of The Times of India wrote "if spirits could watch films, the spirit of real Bruce Lee will turn into Kanchana and Chandramukhi after watching this absurd film".^[14][15] A reviewer from FirsPost stated "GV Prakash’s Bruce Lee would make the late legend turn in his grave" and that "the film, which was touted as a black comedy, is amateurish and has neither a story nor style".^[16] Further negative reviews were given to the film by The New Indian Express who stated it was a "comedy gone awry", while Sify.com noted that director "Prashanth Pandiraj has a half-cooked script that doesn’t know where to go after setting up its delicious premise".^[17][18]

References

External links

• Bruce Lee on IMDb