Sundarapandian

Sundarapandian
Directed by	S. R. Prabhakaran
Produced by	M. Sasikumar
Written by	S. R. Prabhakaran
Story by	S. R. Prabhakaran
Starring	Vijay Sethupathi M.Sasikumar Lakshmi menon Soori Inigo Prabhakaran Soundararaja
Music by	N. R. Raghunanthan
Cinematography	Premkumar
Production company	Company Production
Release date	14 September 2012 (2012-09-14)
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹ 5.5 crore
Box office	₹ 44 crore

Sundarapandian is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language rural comedy drama film directed by debutant S. R. Prabhakaran.^[1] Sasikumar played the title character, besides producing the film, while Lakshmi Menon, Vijay Sethupathi, Soori, Inigo Prabhakaran and Soundararaja appeared in supporting roles. Music was composed by N. R. Raghunanthan, while cinematography was handled by Premkumar.^[2] The film released on 14 September 2012 to overall positive reviews.^[3] Following its commercial success, the film was remade in Telugu as Speedunnodu and in Kannada as Raja Huli.^[4]

The film was also dubbed into Hindi as Fightwala by Goldmines Telefilms in 2018.

Plot

Sundarapandian (Sasi Kumar) is the only son of a rich landlord and village head Raghupathi (Aadukalam Naren) who lives in kandamanoor near Madurai. Murugesan (Soori) and Arivazhagan (Inigo Prabhakaran) are his close friends from the same town. Arivu had failed in his board exams twice and now are in college final year, while Sundarapandiyan completed college 2 years ago and is living freely. Arivazhagan falls in love with Archana (Laksmi Menon) who lives in a small village near usilampatti, who he sees daily on the bus from madurai to theni. Arivu is scared to propose his love and decides to get the help of Sundarapandian in expressing the love.

Sundarapandian, Murugesan and Arivazhagan board the route bus daily in which Archana travels to her college. Bhuvaneswaran (Appukutty) also loves Archana and travels in the same bus trying to propose her. There araises a clash between Arivu and buvanesh. They resolve it as Buvanesh's native close friend is Sundarapandiyan's classmate Paranjothi (Soundararaja) They give buvanesh 31 days to woo archana, without any of them intervening, failing which he should not disturb her anymore ever. Buvanesh fails and seemingly leaves way for Arivu. There it's revealed that 3 years ago Sundarapandiyan had proposed to Archana and she had rejected him.

Upon arivu's urging Sundarapandiyan goes to archana to give his proposal. The next day, Archana suddenly proposes to Sundarapandian which shocks everyone.But Archana likes Sundarapandian and was waiting to meet him to convey her love towards him. Arivu accepts to leave his love and Sundarapandiyan accepts archana.

But Archana’s parents wanted her to get married to their close relative Jegan (Vijay Sethupathi) although she is not interested. Archana had asked Sundarapandiyan not to contact her as she has exams coming. Buvanesh uses this time and verbally harasses Archana in the bus. Sundarapandiyan catches him and warns him not to repeat it. Sundarapandian asks Bhuvaneswaran to stop following Archana . The next day, Buvanesh comes with 2 of his friends and again insults archana. Sundarapandiyan and his friends board the bus half-way and a clash erupts between Sundarapandian and Bhuvaneswaran while travelling in bus and suddenly Bhuvaneswaran is pushed out of the moving bus which leads to his death. Sundarapandian is arrested for murder. Sundarapandian gets bailed from the case as it was termed as an accident and his father agrees to take care of Bhuvaneswaran’s ailing parents and give money for his sister’s marriage. But some of the friends of Bhuvaneswaran wait for the right time to take revenge on Sundarapandian. Paranjothi is also angry on Sundarapandian but does not express it instead behaves normally and waits for the revenge.

Meanwhile, Archana’s parents try to force her to get married to Jegan. Raghupathi comes to Archana’s home with a marriage proposal between Archana and Sundarapandian. Raghupathi requests Archana’s father to set aside the ego and to fulfil his daughter’s wish by getting her married to Sundarapandian. Archana’s father is convinced by Raghupathi’s speech and agrees for the wedding with Sundarapandian.

Jegan gets furious knowing that Archana is about to get married to someone else. He is even more shocked to know that Sundarapandian is none other than his close friend in college but has lost contact after college days. Jegan decides to kill Sundarapandian and Paranjothi also decides to help Jegan.

Paranjothi meets Sundarapandian and informs about Jegan’s love towards Archana. He also lies that Jegan is transforming into a drunkard worrying about his love in the outskirts of the town. Sundarapandian decides to meet Jegan and try to bring back him to normal. In the meantime, Paranjothi and Jegan have planned to kill Sundarapandian while he comes to meet Jegan.

Arivazhagan accompanies Sundarapandian while on the way to meet Jegan. In the outskirts forests of the town, Sundarapandian meets Jegan and requests him to behave normally. He apologizes saying that he never knew about his love towards Archana before. But Jegan does not listen to Sundarapandian and tries attacking him along with Paranjothi. Sundarapandian pushes them away and tries to escape from the place. But to his shock, Arivazhagan stabs Sundarapandian from behind as he has vengeance regarding his love for Archana.

Sundarapandian feels bad that all his friends betrayed him. However Sundarapandian retaliates and hits back at Paranjothi, Jegan and Arivazhagan with the help of weapons. All three are badly hurt and fall on ground. Sundarapandian reveals that he knew long before that Paranjothi seeks revenge on him for the death of Bhuvaneswaran (a group had a man wearing Paranjothi’s shirt who had come to kill Sundapandian before). He also reveals that it was Arivazhagan who pushed Bhuvaneswaran from the moving bus during the clash but everyone misunderstood that it was Sundarapandian. Sundarapandian decided to take the blame as he does not want his poor friend Arivazhagan’s life to be spoiled. He also scolds Jegan for forcefully trying to marry Archana despite knowing that she is not interested.

Sundarapandian and Archana get married. The movie ends showing that Sundarapandian did not disclose the betrayal committed by his friends to anyone but instead ended his friendship with them.

Cast

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.^[5]

Soundtrack

The music was composed by N. R. Raghunanthan.^[6] The audio was released by Bala and received by Muthaiya and Socrates, two assistant directors of Sasikumar.^[7]

Critical reception

N. Venkateswaran from The Times of India gave it 3.5 out of 5 and called it a "clean family entertainer". The reviewer wrote that "the racy script, easy flowing dialogues and the twists he introduces in the screenplay to take it off the beaten path are commendable" and added that "one more student has passed out with flying colours from the Sasikumar school of cinema".^[8] in.com wrote "Sundarapandiyan is a well made commercial flick with right dose of comedy, sentiment and thrill".^[9] IBNLive claimed that the film was a "honest attempt. Prabhakar does his best and make it an interesting watch thanks to Sasikumar".^[10] A critic from Sify wrote that debutant director SR Prabhakaran made "a confident debut with a film that is both respectable and engaging"^[11] BollywoodLife praised the film, citing: "No masala elements, and still entertaining".^[12] Anupama Subramanian from Deccan Chronicle described it as an "honest attempt from Prabhakaran which is engaging family fare", while noting that "Sasi[kumar]’s touches [were] seen till [the] climax".^[13] Behindwoods gave 3 out of 5, calling it a "family entertainer with ample dose of comedy".^[14] Similarly, Zee News termed the film a "satisfying wholesome entertainer".^[15]

Awards

References

External links

• Sundarapandian on IMDb