Udhaya

Udhaya
Directed by Azhagam Perumal
Produced by Pyramid Natarajan
Written by Sujatha (Dialogue)
Screenplay by Azhagam Perumal
Story by Azhagam Perumal
Starring Vijay
Simran
Nassar
Vivek
Music by A. R. Rahman (Songs)
Pravin Mani (Background Score)
Cinematography Priyan
Edited by Raja Mohammad
Production
company
Release date
 30 March 2004
Running time
 133 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil

Udhaya is a 2004 Tamil drama thriller film which was direct by Azhagam Perumal. The film features Vijay and Simran in lead roles, while Vivek, Nassar and Rajesh are play other supporting roles. The soundtrack for the film was compose by A.R. Rahman and the background score was done by Pravin Mani.

It was dubbed in Hindi As Toofan - One Man Army.[1]

Plot

Udhayakumaran (Vijay) is a college student who does research on subatomic physics. He is offered a research position at Cambridge University due to his ground-breaking research papers. However, he declines the offer and becomes a lecturer in his college, where he meets Vasanthi (Simran), and soon they fall in love with each other. Udhaya later comes to know that she has already been engaged, and decides to move to another city. With the help of Basheer (Vivek), he finds a job as a reporter in Chennai.

Unfortunately, Basheer dies in a bomb blast, and Udhaya unwittingly gets to meet the people responsible for Basheer's death, who then introduce him to their boss Dhananjay Veeran (Nassar), who poses as a crusader with veiled intentions. Udhaya sympathizes with the crusaders and helps build an instrument to break granite slabs, aiding manual labor. Later, he builds a bomb born out of his research and gives it to Veeran to help their cause in supporting labourers. However, Veeran uses the bomb on a train without Udhaya's knowledge, killing many innocent people and framing Udhaya for the bomb blast, who is further arrested for a crime he did not commit.

En route from the court, the police vehicle is caught in a puddle, and Udhaya seizes his chance and escapes. On the run, he stumbles upon Veeran and his accomplice discussing a plot to bomb a school bus, and comes to the realization that Veeran is the culprit. Udhaya manages to save the school kids from the explosion. Veeran arrives and attempts to shoot Udhaya. A fight ensues in which Veeran is thrown into the flames of the wreckage. Udhaya is arrested and tried in court, where he pleads not guilty and is released, embracing Vasanthi as the credits roll.

Cast

Production

Azhagam Perumal, an assistant to director Mani Ratnam in the 1990s, made his directorial debut with the project.[2] Simran was signed on to be a part of the film and the team began shoot as early as November 1998, with former Chief Election Commissioner of India, T. N. Seshan, also said to portray a key role.[3][4] An item number was shot in 2000 with Vijay and Sophia Haque for the film.[5]

The film's delay led to Azhagam Perumal being labelled by the media as an "unlucky director", also as his first film Mudhal Mudhalaaga starring Arvind Swamy and Karisma Kapoor had also failed to take off. He however signed on to direct Dumm Dumm Dumm, a film produced by Mani Ratnam, which became a box office success.[6]

Simran briefly announced her retirement from films after her marriage in December 2003 with producer Natarajan filing a case against the actress for failure to participate in shoot.[7] As the film finally geared up for release in the summer of 2004, trade pundits were insistent that despite the presence of Vijay's other big budget film, Ghilli, time should be allotted to publicise Udhaya too. Eventually the films released a month apart.[8]

Release

The film didn’tget an opening[9] and was average in the box office.[10] The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Jaya TV

Music

Udhaya
Soundtrack album by A.R. Rahman
Released 2004
Recorded Panchathan Record Inn
Genre Film soundtrack
Length 28:02
Label Sa Re Ga Ma
Producer A.R. Rahman
A.R. Rahman chronology
Tehzeeb
(2003)Tehzeeb2003		 Udhaya
(2004)		 Lakeer – Forbidden Lines
(2004)Lakeer – Forbidden Lines2004

The soundtrack for the film was composed by A.R. Rahman. One of the songs had lyrics written by Gangai Amaran. This film also marked the second song sung by Hindi singer Sukhwinder Singh in Tamil, after the song Lucky Lucky in the movie Ratchagan.[11]

SongSinger(s)Lyrics
Pookum Malarai Hariharan Pazhani Bharathi
Udhaya Udhaya Hariharan, Sadhana Sargam Arivumathi
Thiruvallikeni Rani Sukhwinder Singh, Karthik Gangai Amaran
Enna Enna Shankar Mahadevan, Gopika Poornima Ilayakamban
Anjanam S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki Pazhani Bharathi, A. M. Rathnam

References

  1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su6AfK7iOb8
  2. ↑ "rediff.com, Movies: 'I'm jealous of Mani Ratnam!'". Rediff. 2001-04-24. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  3. ↑ http://chandrag.tripod.com/nov98/
  4. ↑ "Rediff On The NeT, Movies: Gossip from the southern film industry". Rediff. 1999-08-16. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  5. ↑ "TFM Old News Items". Tfmpage.com. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  6. ↑ ""We Rise fast, fall fast": Jyothika". Cinematoday2.itgo.com. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20031211070915/http://www.chennaionline.com/reeltalk/12reeltalk9th.asp
  8. ↑ "In a fix". The Hindu. 2004-03-29. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  9. ↑ Udaya did not get opening
  10. ↑ HostOnNet.com. "BizHat.com - Udaya Review. Vijay, Simran, Vivek, Nassar". Movies.bizhat.com. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  11. ↑ "Different tunes". The Hindu. 2003-02-24. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
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