Narasimha (2001 film)

Rasool Akhtar(Rahul Dev) plans to terrorise the nation by kidnapping the chiefs of the defense services and executing them publicly. Narasimha (Vijayakanth), an honest police officer working undercover tries to foil Rasool's plans and save the Nation.

The film was initially supposed to be directed by N. Maharajan of Vallarasu fame but due to a lack of dates, Vijayakanth had to opt for another director with Thirupathisamy, being selected.[3] Due to the success of his previous two films and his work in Narasimha, the director was signed up to direct a new film titled as Velan with Vijay and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles.[4] However the director died before the release of the film after being a part of a car crash while returning home from an editing session — the producers of Narasimha later dedicated the film to him.[5] The film marked the debut of cinematographer Boopathy, who has since been a regular in Vijayakanth films.[6]

The Soundtrack of the film was composed by Mani Sharma. Lyricist Pa. Vijay wrote his 100th song for the film.[7]

The Hindu wrote that the film "has beautiful songs and dance, a touch of comedy, attractive costumes and above all a message which says that the country matters more than anything else". In regard to performances, the critic claims that Isha is "beautiful", Rahul Dev "impresses" and that Vijayakanth "has used his histrionic ability to do justice to the character".[8] However the critic from Rediff called the film a "commercial confection" and concluded that the director "doesn't manage to put all the ingredients together in the right proportion."[9] The film also dubbed and released in Telugu as Salute.[10] The Indian Express concluded "the film, despite its dramatics and slick presentation, lacks a clear, solid screenplay, and among the numerous characters, not one is clearly etched."[11]

In 2006, producer L. K. Sudhish his brother-in-law, were engaged in a legal battle to compensate distributors due to the film's losses.[12][13]