Sandakozhi

Sandakozhi
Directed by	N. Linguswamy
Produced by	Vikram Krishna
Written by	S. Ramakrishnan (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	N. Linguswamy
Story by	N. Linguswamy
Starring	Vishal Meera Jasmine Rajkiran Lal Suman Setty Ganja Karuppu
Music by	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Cinematography	Jeeva Nirav Shah
Edited by	G. Sasikumar
Production company	G K Film Corporation
Release date	16 December 2005 (2005-12-16)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹10 Crore
Box office	₹30 Crore

Sandakozhi (English: Battle rooster) is a 2005 Indian Tamil action film written and directed by N. Linguswamy and produced by Vikram Krishna under the banner of G K Film Corporation. The film stars Vishal, Meera Jasmine, Rajkiran and Lal in lead roles, whilst Suman Setty, Raja, Shanmugarajan and Ganja Karuppu essay supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The film released on 16 December 2005 to rave reviews and has become one of the huge hits in 2005, running for more than 200 days in theatres.^[1]

The film was dubbed and released in Telugu as Pandem Kodi. The film was remade in Kannada as Vayuputra. It was also remade in Odia as Ganja Ladhei. It was declared a blockbuster at the box office and cult film for action film genre especially south indian cinemas.

The film was also later dubbed into Hindi as Jeet Hamari in 2012.

Plot

Balu (Vishal) visits his friend Karthik’s (Raja) home in Chidambaram after completion of engineering. He meets Hema (Meera Jasmine), Karthik's sister, and they develop an affection which transforms into love. Kasi (Lal) is the local gangster in Chidambaram who is feared by the entire town. Balu, on his way back to his place, sees Kasi chasing a man with a sickle. When Kasi was about to kill the man he was chasing, Balu interferes and stops Kasi. An angered Kasi immediately tries to attack Balu, and to save himself, Balu retaliates by hitting Kasi. Only then, Balu comes to know that the person he hit is none other than Kasi. To everyone’s surprise, Balu smashes Kasi in front of everyone and then leaves.

Kasi is furious and wants to take revenge on Balu. Kasi’s men trap Karthik’s father and get to know about Balu’s native place. Kasi sets goons to kill Balu but gets shocked when he knows that Balu’s father is Durai (Rajkiran), a powerful man in Madurai, and it will be very difficult to attack them. Kasi leaves to Madurai and waits for the right moment to kill Balu and his family.

Meanwhile, Balu meets Hema and her family at a temple. Hema’s father initially gets angry seeing Balu as he was responsible to bring trouble by hitting Kasi, but later, Balu convinces him. Both the families decide to get Balu and Hema married to each other.

One day, Kasi tries to kill Balu but instead attacks Durai. Durai understands that Balu is being targeted and decides to protect him. A localite in Madurai (Thalaivasal Vijay) hates Durai and his family and decides to help Kasi so Durai can get killed. Kasi decides to bring in violence during a temple festival day and utilize that opportunity to kill Balu and Durai. But Balu saves his father and fights Kasi. In the end, Balu hits Kasi badly and leaves the place, challenging him to return if he still has guts to take revenge.

Cast

Crew

Production

Meera Jasmine-Lingusamy duo, after successfully teaming up together for 'Run', come together again in 'Sandai Kozhi', shortly set to hit the theaters. The film gives scope for Meera and Vishal to dominate the first and second half respectively. For Vishal it's his second release after 'Chellamey', and for director Lingusamy it's his fourth film after 'Anandam', 'Run' and 'Ji'. Title is named after the song from Aayutha Ezhuthu which also featured Meera Jasmine. The role of Vishal was originally scripted for Vijay. Vishal says that he worked hard for the role by taking courses in acting and dancing.^[2]

Playing the villain in the film is popular Malayalam actor and producer Lal, who'd played a dual role in the Vijaykanth-starrer 'Engal Anna'. Rajkiran plays the village chief.

A fight scene involving hero Vishal and Lal was picturised in Dindigul for seven days. The songs have been shot at locations in Australia, New Zealand and Chennai. An introduction song for Rajkiran was shot at Theni.^[3]

Soundtrack

Sandakozhi
Soundtrack album by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Released	25 November 2005 (India)
Recorded	2005
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	New Music
Producer	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja chronology
Kanda Naal Mudhal (2005)Kanda Naal Mudhal2005 Sandakozhi (2005) Kalvanin Kadhali (2005)Kalvanin Kadhali2005

The soundtrack, composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, teaming up for the first time with director N. Linguswamy, was released on 25 November 2005. It features 5 tracks, the lyrics of which were written by Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar, Yugabharathi and Thamarai. Both the film score as well as the songs were appreciated and praised as outstanding with the song "Ennamo Nadakirathe" considered as the pick of the album.^[4][5]

Box office

• The film was a commercial success grossing $3.5 million at the box office.^[6]

Sequel

In 2015, Linguswamy announced that he would direct the sequel of Sandakozhi with Vishal again, which was shelved. However the project was revived in 2017 with Vishal confirming his presence in the sequel.^[7] Rajkiran from the original has been retained in the sequel with additional new cast involving Keerthi Suresh and Varalaxmi.^[8]realising for Diwali 2018

References

External links

• Sandakozhi on IMDb