Vettri Vizhaa
Vettri Vizhaa | |
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Directed by | Prathap K. Pothen |
Screenplay by | Prathap K. Pothen |
Story by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Ashok Kumar |
Edited by | B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan |
Music by | Ilaiyaraaja |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Country | India |
Language | Tamil |
Vettri Vizhaa (transl. Ceremony of Victory) is a 1989 Indian
Vettri Vizhaa was released on 28 October 1989 during the Diwali holiday. Santhi Narayanasamy and T. Manohar produced Vettri Vizhaa under the production company Sivaji Productions. The story was written by K. Rajeshwar and Shanmugapriyan. Cinematography was handled by Ashok Kumar, the editing was by B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan, and the art direction was by B. Salim. The first film in which Kamal Haasan and Prabhu co-starred. Filming took place primarily in Goa and Chennai.
Plot
A man (
When he wakes up, he realizes that he is suffering from amnesia and has a few flashes of sculptures and a karate class, but does not recognize them. Meanwhile, a local rowdy has been harassing the doctor and her niece. The man manages to thwart their next attack easily, which makes him believe that he might be trained in martial arts. Since the man has enraged the rowdy, the doctor pleads with him to marry her niece for her own protection. He does so and thwarts another attack from the rowdy during their wedding.
Right after, he decides to leave for
While leaving the bank, he is attacked by an unknown assailant in the lift but he once again successfully maims the assailant and escapes, but leaves a shocked witness. His bank locker contents along with his martial arts skills make him believe that he might have been involved in gangs before and decides to surrender to police but is talked out of it by his wife.
Vijay (
The man then goes to talk to the singer, but is soon recognized and is shot at. The singer helps him escape and gives him a phone number to contact but is seriously wounded. He contacts the number and barely escapes another attempt on his life, but manages to meet the person who the singer referred to, which happens to be Nithyanandam, the Deputy Inspector General of Police.
He finally learns of his true identity. His name is Vetrivel, and he was happily married to Lalitha (Amala Akkineni), and was an undercover IPS officer who teamed up with the DIG to bring down a notorious hit man Zinda (Salim Ghouse). Unable to find any information about Zinda's whereabouts, they devise a plan to make Vetri go undercover and make him a bigger and more dangerous hit man than Zinda, hoping Zinda would get in touch with his fiercest competitor. The plan works, and soon Zinda and Vetri become friends. But soon, Zinda learns about an undercover police officer in his gang through a spy and kidnap Lalitha to oust the spy. Vetri breaks his cover to protect Lalitha, but she is shot and killed, and Vetri is chased (the opening in the movie), but escapes barely.
Vetri puts the pieces back together and uncovers a plot by Zinda to assassinate a very popular priest, Baba Appaji (Janagaraj) when he goes to meet up with the singer. Vijay and Vetri thwart his plans, but Zinda still manages to escape. To avenge this,Zinda kidnaps both Vijay's and Vetri's wives and sends them a photographic evidence of the kidnap. But Vetri and Vijay soon find the location with the background signboard in the photo, rescue their wives, and arrest Zinda.
Awaiting Zinda's presence in the courtroom for his trial, they are surprised to see an unknown man being presented in the trial as Zinda. This makes them think that the DIG may be the spy who swapped Zinda out and rushes to his house to confront him, but finds him murdered in the arms of his crying wife. Suspicions still exist, and Vetri and Vijay find that the real spy is the DIG's wife, and they confront her. She shows them a lot of cash and asks them to let her go. Vijay sees this, and shoots and nearly kills Vetri for the money, and asks the wife to give him the money and leave. Believing that Vetri is finally dead, she rushes back to Zinda. But Vetri is alive, and this was a plan to make her lead them to Zinda's location. Vetri and Vijay follow her to a ship docked on the port, and go in to arrest Zinda. Zinda and his men are soon overpowered by the two-man fighting machine, but before he dies, he arms a bomb in the ship. Vetri and Vijay collaborate once and successfully disarm the bomb, thus relieving the port of the threat. The movie ends with both of them shaking hands.
Cast
- Kamal Haasan as Vetrivel / Stephen Raj
- Prabhu as Vijay
- Sasikala as Shirley
- Khushbuas Jaya
- Amala as Lalitha (guest appearance)
- V. K. Ramasamy
- Radha Ravi as Nithyanandam
- S. S. Chandran as Jaya's brother
- Janakarajas Baba Appaji (Guest Appearance)
- Salim Ghouse as Zinda[1]
- Sudheer as Samuthiran
- Chinni Jayanth as Chinni, Jaya's brother
- Pradeep Shakthi as Victor
- Sowcar Janaki as Shirley's aunt
- Disco Shanti as Reena
- Abhilasha
- Thyagu as Groom
- Kullamani as Jaya's brother
- Mayilsamy as Mayilsamy, Jaya's brother
- LIC Narasimhan as S Ganapathy, Bank Manager
- Vikram Dharma (Elevator fight sequence) (uncredited)
- Ponnambalam (uncredited)
- R. K.(uncredited)
Production
It just so happened that I was reading [The Bourne Identity] at that time and it seemed terrific. It was basically Kalidasa's Shakuntala with lot more action.
— Prathap K. Pothen, on how Vettri Vizha developed[2]
The film is Prathap K. Pothen's fifth directorial and third in Tamil after Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai and Jeeva and was loosely inspired by the novel The Bourne Identity, written by Robert Ludlum in 1980.[3][4] Bollywood actor Salim Ghouse made his Tamil debut with this film, portraying the antagonist.[5] Prabhu's character was not present in the novel, and was created for the film.[2] Prabhu Deva working as dance assistant to his father Sundaram Master choreographed a song "Thathom Thalangu" independently for Vettri Vizhaa.[6][7]
Soundtrack
This music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja.[8][9] For the dubbed Telugu version Vijethalu, lyrics were written by Rajasri.[10]
No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Marugo Marugo" | Vaali | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra | 5:48 |
2. | "Seevi Sinukkeduthu" | Gangai Amaran | Malaysia Vasudevan, S. Janaki | 4:30 |
3. | "Thathom Talangu" | Vaali | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki | 4:31 |
4. | "Poongatru Un Peru Solla" | Vaali | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra | 4:35 |
5. | "Vaanam Enna" | Vaali | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Malaysia Vasudevan | 5:17 |
Total length: | 24:41 |
No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Edye Thullinadhi" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki | 4:43 |
2. | "Marugo Marugo" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra | 5:12 |
3. | "Ningi Choodu" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | 5:07 |
4. | "Thathom Talangu" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki | 4:27 |
5. | "Undali Nee Gundelo" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki | 4:48 |
Total length: | 24:18 |
Release and reception
Vettri Vizhaa was released on 28 October 1989.[11] The film ran for over 175 days in theatres.[12] P. S. S. of Kalki praised Haasan's performance, Pratap Pothan's direction as jet speed, and Ashok Kumar's cinematography.[13]
Re-release
A digitally restored version of the film was released on 4 August 2017.[14][15]
References
- ^ "Vettri Vizhaa & Vettaikaaran actor Salim Ghouse passes away". The Times of India. 28 April 2022. Archived from the original on 27 March 2024. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ a b Sekhar, Arunkumar (2 August 2017). "Bourne again". Cinema Express. Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ISBN 0-19-563579-5.
- ^ Meena, Iyer. "When Mogambo spoke Tamil". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
- ^ Srinivasan, Sudhir (4 August 2017). "Talking Movies: ReBourne". Cinema Express. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
- ^ Kumar, S.R. Ashok (29 June 2006). "Prabhu Deva: From his father's shadow to the limelight". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 20 January 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- ^ பிரபுதேவா (28 April 2017). "இதுதான் நான் 23: முதல் அனுபவம்!". Hindu Tamil Thisai (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ "Vetri Vizha (1989)". Raaga.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
- ^ "Vetri Vizha Tamil Film LP Vinyl Record by Ilayaraaja". Macsendisk. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
- ^ "Vijethalu". Spotify. January 1990. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ "'மாறுகோ மாறுகோ மாறுகயீ'; ஜிந்தா...', 'வெற்றிவேல்...'- 31 ஆண்டுகளாகியும் கமலின் 'வெற்றி விழா'வுக்கு தனியிடம்!". Hindu Tamil Thisai (in Tamil). 28 October 2020. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
- ^ Balachandran, Logesh (30 June 2020). "Tuesday Trivia: Did you know Kamal Haasan had a Bourne movie before Matt Damon?". India Today. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
- ^ பி. எஸ். எஸ். (26 November 1989). "வெற்றி விழா". Kalki (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 31 July 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
- ^ Raghavan, Nikhil (10 July 2017). "Kamal starrer 'Vetri Vizha' to be re-released". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
- ^ "Kamal Haasan's classic hits to be re-release on the big screen". The Indian Express. 16 April 2017. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
External links
- Vettri Vizhaa at IMDb