Kalaignan

Kalaignan
Poster
Directed by G. B. Vijay
Produced by Ramkumar Ganesan
Screenplay by G. B Vijay
Story by G. B Vijay
Based on
Starring Kamal Haasan
Bindiya
Chi. Guru Dutt
Music by Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography Jayanan Vincent
Edited by R. Mohanraj
Production
company
Sivaji Productions
Distributed by Sivaji Productions
Release date
  • 14 April 1993 (1993-04-14)
Running time
 143 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil

Kalaignan (Artist) is a 1993 Tamil-language thriller film directed by G. B. Vijay and produced by Ramkumar Ganesan. It features Kamal Haasan and Bindiya in the lead roles while Sivaranjani, Sindhuja, Nirmalamma and Chi. Guru Dutt play supporting roles. The film opened in April 1993. The story was inspired by Arthur La Bern's novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square, which was adapted into a film by Alfred Hitchcock titled Frenzy (1972).

Plot

The story revolves around a Tamil pop singer Inderjeet based in Bangalore who has a large female following. The movie opens with the death of a back-up dancer, Sandhya, in Inderjeet's group. Soon a police detective is put in charge of the investigation. Although the police suspect Inderjeet as he is very short-tempered, they have no evidence linking him to the crime. Meanwhile, Divya, Sandhya's sister, arrives at her aunt Dr. Prabhavathy’s house to find out the truth about Sandhya's death. She goes to meet Inderjeet but is put off by his arrogance. She talks to his manager, Dr. Harichandra Prasad, and other musicians who all have differing opinions about Sandhya.

While investigating, Divya is attacked in a bar. Coincidentally, Inderjeet saves her and takes her to his concert. During the concert, Inderjeet gets flashes of his parents' and sister's deaths in an accident during his childhood and breaks down in tears. At the end of the concert, Jennifer, a fan, gets on stage and kisses him to the bemusement of all. That night, Jennifer is killed by someone wearing Inderjeet’s coat. With no concrete evidence, the police keep a closer eye on Inderjeet and find that Divya seems to have an interest in him. To warn her, the police detective reveals that Inderjeet is a possible suspect in Sandhya's death.

Divya plans to outwit Inderjeet with the help of Sandhya’s friends, who attacked her earlier in the bar. She feigns to have fallen for Inderjeet and she stages a kidnapping to test Inderjeet’s knife skills (all the women murdered were skilfully cut by the murderer). He is quite good with a knife. But the next day, Inderjeet sees Divya with the bandaged kidnapper walking out of the hospital and determines that she was faking her love.

He comes clean to her about Sandhya. She was an unstable substance abuser who had a thing for him, but he did not reciprocate. She had threatened to commit suicide if he did not reciprocate. He managed to save her and that was the last he had seen of her. The killer, who has pictures that look incriminating, has been blackmailing him into coming to the murder scenes just minutes after the murders. Divya believes him and falls for him.

One afternoon, while with Divya, the killer calls and demands Inderjeet to come or he will kill another person. He refuses as he has had enough and tells the killer that he can tell the truth to the police even if the pictures are given to them. But Divya slips away and goes to that location. Inderjeet, worrying about her, goes to the location with Dr. Prabhavathy. The car stalls, leaving Inderjeet to pursue Divya and the killer on foot and leaving Dr. Prabhavathy alone in the forest.

The killer’s next victim is Dr. Prabhavathy. The killer stabs her till she nearly dies, takes a picture of her unconscious body, and leaves. Divya arrives and calls the police. Inderjeet arrives and notices that the police have found one of his gloves at the murder scene, making him their suspect. He escapes to his manager’s house. The police arrive at the manager’s house, and he asks Inderjeet to hide in the closet. Inderjeet finds a jacket similar to his in the closet and a match to the glove found at the murder scene. He realizes that his manager is the killer and flees. The manager sneakily leads the police to his closet but finds Inderjeet gone.

Inderjeet calls his manager and impersonates a forest official who has photographed the murder earlier and asks for money. He specifies a location and asks the manager to get there soon. He enters the house when the manager leaves and looks around. He finds a secret room filled with photographs of the victims. He calls the manager again and makes him run to another location. After that, he reveals his identity and says that he now has proof of his innocence since the killer's reflection is on the car window when he took the photograph earlier. Shocked, the manager stumbles out but runs into Divya. He kidnaps her and tells Inderjeet to come to an abandoned house with the photographs.

The police spot Inderjeet and chase him. Meanwhile, the manager tells Divya that he started the killings because Sandhya had once turned his request for love down and laughed at him for being a lesser man than Inderjeet. He killed her and the other women who had liked Inderjeet in a jealous rage. Inderjeet escapes the police and rescues Divya. The manager is killed in the ensuing fracas with Inderjeet, and the police find the truth. The police detective says that Dr. Prabhavathy has survived the attack and is recovering in the hospital. The movie ends with Inderjeet and Divya riding happily on a motorcycle.

Cast

Production

The film was initially titled Indrajit, but was later retitled Kalaignan.[1] G. B. Vijay was associate director for Prathap Pothan and worked with Kamal Haasan in 1989 film Vetri Vizha which was directed by Pothan and produced by Sivaji Productions.[2] Malayalam cinematographer Jayanan Vincent was in charge of the photography, while Sabu Cyril designed disco-themed sets for songs in the film.[3]

Release

The film was an average grosser at the box office.

Shortly after the release of Kalaignan, Kamal Haasan's 1982 Hindi film Sanam Teri Kasam was dubbed and released in Tamil as Paadagan. Still images from his look in Kalaignan as a pop singer were used for the publicity of the dubbed film.[4] The director, G. B. Vijay, later moved away from directing feature films and apprenticed under Rajiv Menon as an ad film maker. He played a pivotal role in mentoring Gautham Menon, while he went on to write the dialogues for Minsara Kanavu (1997).[5]

Soundtrack

Kalaignan
Soundtrack album by Ilaiyaraaja
Released 1993
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Label Pyramid
Aditya Music

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics were written by Vaali.

References

  1. ↑ "கமல் நடிப்பில் உருவான துரோகி, டாப் டக்கர் படங்கள் என்ன ஆனது என தெரியுமா?". www.vikatan.com. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  2. ↑ http://www.hindu.com/cp/2008/09/05/stories/2008090550010100.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.cscsarchive.org:8081/MediaArchive/art.nsf/(docid)/AEF05EE38D88B60065256940004D0DC0
  4. ↑ http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?8822-Films-Documentary-that-made-you-post-here/page232
  5. ↑ http://www.hindu.com/2001/03/21/stories/0421401x.htm
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