Kumki (film)

The film starts with an introduction to the main characters: the protagonist Bomman (Vikram Prabhu), his pet elephant Manickam, his uncle Kothali (Thambi Ramaiah), and his sidekick Undiyal (Ashvin Raja). Bomman spends most of his time with Manickam and earns his livelihood by hiring it out for festivals in temples and wedding celebrations. Meanwhile, in a village dominated by old principles, a rogue elephant (Komban) ravages crops and ambushes its people. Frustrated by this and without any help from the forest officers, their leader decides to bring a kumki elephant to tame Komban. Bomman and his crew reach the village as placeholders to stay for a couple of days until the real mahout and kumki elephant arrive. Life begins to change for Bomman when he falls in love with Alli (Lakshmi Menon), the daughter of the village leader. She is at first reluctant keeping in mind the village's principles but she soon starts to fall for Bomman. Life goes on smoothly, until Komban starts attacking the village. Komban kills Kothali and Undiyal and injures Bomman. In the ensuing fight between Manickam and Komban, Manickam kills Komban but suffers serious injuries and dies. Bomman then cries out loud, regretting that his love had led to the death of his crew and Manickam. Alli's father then recognizes that Alli and Bomman are in love. The film then ends abruptly, leaving Bomman's fate to the viewer's imagination.

• Vikram Prabhu as Bommnam
• Lakshmi Menon as Alli
• Thambi Ramaiah as Kothalli
• Joe Malloori as Maathayaan
• Ashvin Raja as Undiyal
• Sreejith Ravi as Forest Officer
• Junior Balaiah
• Yaar Kannan
• Jeffin as Childhood of Bomman
• Roma Asrani
• Harish Raghavendra

Jog Falls seen in the song "Sollitale"

In a December 2012 interview to Nikhil Raghavan of The Hindu, Prabhu Solomon felt that the success of his previous film Mynaa was because by producing and directing the film, it helped him have creative freedom and pay more attention to detail. He realised that Kumki would be a bigger venture and that he "didn’t want anything to go wrong."[9] At that time, director N. Lingusamy and N. Subash Chandrabose, owners of the production company Thirrupathi Brothers offered to bankroll the film, much to Solomon's delight.[10]

Solomon wanted a new face for the role of Bomman, for which over 60 auditions were held. Vikram Prabhu, who participated in the auditions, was selected.[10] Vikram had earlier worked as an assistant director for films like Sarvam (2009) and Aasal (2010).[11]

The film which was earlier titled as Komban, was shot across the forests of Kerala and Karnataka.[12] The film was shot at athirappalli falls at Munnar.[13] Later, some scenes were shot in Kerala in dense jungles as well as at Jog Falls and on the Orissa border.[11][14] For the climax portion, producers bought two-acres of land to shoot a scene where elephants destroy the land.[15] Solomon shot the film mostly during the day, especially in morning and evening time, to create the right feel for the scenes. Solomon also wished to explore his love of nature through Kumki. The elephant, Manickam, was around 12 feet tall.[9]

The satellite rights of the film were sold to STAR Vijay. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.[16] Release was initially scheduled for Diwali but due to post-production works,[17] it was postponed to 14 December 2012.[18] K. E. Gnanavel Raja's Studio Green has acquired the distribution rights.[19]

Prabhu Solomon has confirmed the sequel of this film, titled Kumki 2. This sequel will feature newcomers in lead roles similar to the first part.[30]

Kumki
Front CD Cover
Soundtrack album by D. Imman
Released	13 July 2012 (2012-07-13)
Recorded	2012
Genre	Film soundtrack
Language	Tamil
Label	Sony Music India
Producer	D. Imman
D. Imman chronology
Saattai (2012) Kumki (2012) Desingu Raja (2013)

The film's music has been composed by D. Imman, who joined with Prabu Solomon. The audio was launched on 13 July 2012.[31][32][33][34][35] Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Suriya had participated in the function.[36]

Behindwoods wrote: "The Imman - Prabu Solomon combo has come up with another huge winner. There are tasteful melodies spread across the album while one nice foot tapping number is there as well".[37] Indiaglitz wrote: "All the 10 numbers make 'Kumki' a jumbo album".[38]

All lyrics are written by Yugabharathi.

• Kumki on IMDb