London (2005 Indian film)

London
Directed by	Sundar. C
Produced by	Subha Sandeep
Written by	Badri (dialogues)
Screenplay by	Sundar. C
Story by	Priyadarshan
Starring	Prashanth Ankitha Mumtaj Pandiarajan Vijayakumar Srividya
Music by	Vidyasagar
Cinematography	K. S. Shiva
Edited by	P. Sai Suresh
Production company	Inspired Movies Spice Team Entertainments
Release date	11 March 2005 (2005-03-11)
Country	India
Language	Tamil

London is an Indian 2005 Tamil language comedy film written by Badri and directed by Sundar C. The film is a remake of Priyadarshan's 2001 Malayalam film Kakkakuyil.^[1] The film features Prashanth and Ankitha in the lead roles, while Mumtaj, Vijayakumar, Vadivelu, Manivannan, Srividya, and Pandiarajan play other supporting roles. Featuring music composed by Vidyasagar, the film was released in March 2005 with more positive reviews and was declared as Block-Buster at the box office. The film completed successful run of 200 days.^[2]

Plot

Shiva Raman (Prashanth), an easy going young man, comes to London in search of a job, but he loses all his certificates. He finds Kathiravan (Pandiarajan) wandering in London aimlessly without a job. Now they need jobs and money. Kathir persuades Shiva to join a bank robbery planned by Bhaskharan (Manivannan). His stammering brother Natrajan (Mayilsamy) and Aishwarya (Mumtaj), who is the former's lover, lands them in more trouble as the robbery ends vainly. Aishwarya informs the police about the robbery and tells that the entire plan was hatched by Baskar. Baskar hides the money before getting arrested, and the place is known only to his lawyer Vedimuthu (Vadivelu). Aishwarya fakes to be in love with Vedimuthu to find where the money is hidden.

Meanwhile, to find a safe cover, Shiva and Kathir plan to imitate Saravanan, the grandson of a rich elderly couple Shiva Kumar (Vijayakumar) and his wife Parvathi (Srividya). They haven't seen their grandchild since his birth. Shiva and Kathir end up disguising Kadhir's body and Shiva's voice to make up for Saravanan in front of the blind couple. Ganesh (Delhi Ganesh), who knows Kathir before, makes several attempts to expose the truth to the old couple. But all fails to Shiva and Kadhir's luck. All of a sudden, Anjali (Ankitha) arrives in the disguise of Saravanan's lover. She calls on all the relatives of Shiva Kumar and Parvathi. The relatives arrive in Shiva's absence. Finding no way out, Kathir pretends to have fainted unconscious, and he gets admitted to hospital. Shiva comes to his rescue & says that he is Dr. Karthikeyan, a friend of Saravanan from America.

Amidst their drama, Kathir tries to steal the Lord Muruga statue for which he plays a trick to injure Parvathi which keeps all others out of the house for sometime. Shiva engages in a fight with Kathir when he tries to leave with the statue he had stolen. Shiva Kumar accuses his relatives for his wife’s accident & asks all his relatives to leave at once. Shiva and Kathir get separated and part ways. Anjali reveals that she is Saravanan's actual lover, and Saravanan died in an accident in America. She had come to intimate this to the old couple. After revealing all this, she gives them money and asks them to get out of the house. Shiva, realizing his mistake, refuses to take the money and asks Kathir not to take the money. Kathir leaves Shiva in anger, taking the money with him. Shiva returns to Shiva Kumar and confesses all his mistakes. Shiva Kumar asks them to continue the drama for the sake of his wife, who loves her grandson more than her life. Parvathy comes and calls Saravanan, but gets no replies. She finally gets hold of the arms of Kathir, who has returned in remorse. Hence, the movie happily ends with the marriage of Shiva and Anjali, who suddenly fall in love with each other.

Cast

• Prashanth as Shiva Raman alias Shiva (Saravanan's voice)
• Ankitha as Anjali
• Pandiarajan as Kathiravan alias "Kathir" (Saravanan's body)
• Vadivelu as Advocate Vedimuthu
• Mumtaj as Aishwarya alias "Ice"
• Vijayakumar as Shiva Kumar, Saravanan's Grandfather
• Srividya as Parvathi, Saravanan's Grandmother
• Nalini as Baby, Vedimuthu's official wife
• Manivannan as Bhaskharan alias Boss
• Delhi Ganesh as Ganeshan alias Kudikaran
• Mayilsamy as Natrajan Krishna Moorthi alias Nattu Kicchu
• Chithra Lakshmanan as Rajkumar
• Lakshmi Rattan as Shiva Kumar's son-in-law

Production

Prashanth and Sundar C had previously worked together in the successful 2003 action film Winner, and chose to work again in a film titled London in mid 2004. Meera Jasmine was the team's initial choice for the lead actress, but she later opted out citing date issues.^[3] Ankitha, previously seen in Telugu films, was added to the cast in October 2004 to play the lead female role.^[4] Mumtaj, Vadivelu, Manivannan and Pandiarajan were added to the cast and the film was described to be an "out and out comedy". The film was announced to be the first Tamil film production of Spice Team Entertainment, a wing of Inspired Movies in the UK and also signed up to distribute the film.^[5][6]

In late 2004, the team shot scenes for 25 days across London and due to the early sunset, ended up having early starts to make most of the daylight hours.^[7] Scenes were filmed primarily in studios in Chennai, though outdoor scenes were shot near Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus amongst other locations.^[8] The film was completed and ready for release in February 2005 and Prashanth opted to release London before his other completed film, Adaikalam.^[9]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of six songs composed by Vidyasagar, and was released on 24 February 2005.^[10]

Release

The film opened in March 2005 to predominantly positive reviews from film critics, who praised the film's entertainment value. Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu revealed "London comically stresses on the importance of wealth in this mercenary world and in the bargain logic, credulity and spontaneity go for a toss."^[11] Sify.com gave the film a positive review noting that "Please leave your logical mind at home when you watch a Sundar.C film. The trio of Prashanth-Sundar.C-Vadivelu has a “Winner” in London".^[12] Critics from Indiaglitz.com noted "If you forget a thing called logic, this is indeed a hilarious roller-coaster ride." The critic added that "Prashanth, as Sivaraman and Saravanan, does not complicate things. He sticks to a neat and simple path. Ankitha has nothing much to do, except simpler and look good. And she does look ravishing."^[13] Another reviewer added "on the whole Sundar.C has given a colorful movie which people could sit through, laugh, smile and relax for two and half hours."^[14] Thiraipadam.com wrote, "Prashanth seems lost in the ocean of characters surrounding him and is mostly a spectator to the goings-on around him. Ankitha's face looks kinda asymmetrical and she certainly doesn't deserve the accolades Prashanth heaps on her in a song. Pandiarajan raises a few laughs in Prashanth's company. Vadivelu is very funny both when drooling over Mumtaj and when caught in some unexplainable position with Nalini. Mumtaj gets to do more than an item number while Vijayakumar and Srividya are solid. Only Yaaro Oruthi makes an impression in Vidyasagar's otherwise weak soundtrack."^[15] The film was later dubbed and released in Telugu as Namasthe London by Gayatri Movies.

References

External links