''Irandam Kuththu'' () is a 2020 Indian
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
-language
horror comedy
Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...
film, written and directed by
Santhosh P. Jayakumar
Santhosh P. Jayakumar is an Indian film director who works in Tamil and Telugu-language films.
Career
Santhosh made his directorial debut with ''Gaddam Gang'', the Telugu remake of the Tamil film ''Soodhu Kavvum'' (2013). He made his Tamil deb ...
and
Daniel Annie Pope
Daniel Annie Pope is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films. After appearing in uncredited and minor roles, he made his breakthrough as an actor with his comic role in '' Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara'' (2013).
Career
D ...
alongside Meenal Sahu, Karishma Kaul and Akrithi Singh. A
spiritual successor
A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product l ...
to the director's earlier ''
Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuththu
''Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuthu'' () is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language adult horror comedy film written and directed by Santhosh P. Jayakumar and produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja. The film stars Gautham Karthik and VJ Sha Ra, with Yashika Anand, ...
'' (2018), the film was released on 14 November 2020 and received mixed to negative reviews both from critics and audiences.
Premise
Veera and Vasu are two friends who are taken for
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...
s all their lives marry two girls and go to a
resort in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...
for their honeymoons, where a
horny ghost who won't let them in peace until they satisfy it
sexually.
Cast
Production
Director
Santhosh P. Jayakumar
Santhosh P. Jayakumar is an Indian film director who works in Tamil and Telugu-language films.
Career
Santhosh made his directorial debut with ''Gaddam Gang'', the Telugu remake of the Tamil film ''Soodhu Kavvum'' (2013). He made his Tamil deb ...
announced plans to make a sequel to his earlier ''
Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuththu
''Iruttu Araiyil Murattu Kuthu'' () is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language adult horror comedy film written and directed by Santhosh P. Jayakumar and produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja. The film stars Gautham Karthik and VJ Sha Ra, with Yashika Anand, ...
'' (2018) in October 2019, after his other project, ''Pulanaivu'' featuring
Arvind Swami
Arvind Swamy (born 18 June 1970) is an Indian actor, model, entrepreneur and television presenter known for his work in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam films. He was introduced as an actor by Mani Ratnam with the blockbuster ...
, had an extended production break. Santhosh opted to star in the film himself, after other actors expressed their reluctance to be a part of the project owing to its adult theme and the flak faced by the previous film's lead actor
Gautham Karthik post-release.
Daniel Annie Pope
Daniel Annie Pope is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films. After appearing in uncredited and minor roles, he made his breakthrough as an actor with his comic role in '' Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara'' (2013).
Career
D ...
was signed to play a pivotal role, while three new actresses Karishma Kaul, Akriti Singh and Meenal joined the film's shoot in December 2019. The film was shot in late 2019 and early 2020 in locations across
Huinan County
Huinan County () is a county of southwestern Jilin province, China. It is under the administration of Tonghua City, with a population of 350,000 residing in an area of .
Administrative divisions
There are 10 towns and one ethnic township.
Towns: ...
in China,
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...
and
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...
. The title of the film was confirmed to be ''Irandam Kuththu'' in September 2020.
Music
Soundtrack was composed by
S. N. Prasad while score was done by Dharan Kumar.
Marketing
Following the release of the film's
official trailer in October 2020, director
Bharathiraja
Bharathiraja (born 17 July 1941) is an Indian film director and actor who works mainly in the Tamil film industry. Making his debut in 1977 with ''16 Vayathinile'', he is known for realistic and sensitive portrayals of rural life in his films. ...
criticised the visuals and theme of the film in an open letter. In reply, Santhosh called out the director for being hypocritical citing examples of
glamorous
Glamorous may refer to:
* "Glamorous" (Fergie song), a 2006 song by Fergie
* "Glamorous" (Natalia song), a 2007 song by Natalia & En Vogue
* ''Glamorous'' (album), a 2005 album by Denise Ho
* ''Glamorous'' (TV series), a 2023 Netflix televisio ...
stills from Bharathiraja's ''
Tik Tik Tik'' (1981) before revoking his response and apologising.
A public interest litigation petition was sought to stop the release of the film, citing the film was propagating
vulgarity
Vulgarity is the quality of being common, coarse, or unrefined. This judgement may refer to language, visual art, social class, or social climbers. John Bayley claims the term can never be self-referential, because to be aware of vulgarity is to ...
,
obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be u ...
and
pornography
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, . while the media promotions were being misused for the purpose of commercial benefit.
As a result, although the film was allowed to release, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court ordered the producers to remove the
teaser
Teaser may refer to:
* One who teases
* Teaser (animal), a male livestock animal (typically a bull) whose penis has been amputated, "''gomer''"
Film exhibition, broadcasting, advertising
* Teaser (trailer), a short film used to advertise an ...
and
trailer from YouTube.
Release
Theatrical
''Irandam Kuththu'' was released on 14 November 2020 across theatres in
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...
, becoming the first film release in over eight months owing to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
.
Prior to the release, barring the legal dispute on the film's adult content, it also faced potential delays as result of a dispute between the Tamil Film Active Producers Association (TFAPA) and Qube, a digital service provider. Likewise, as a result of a decision by newspapers to increase advertising, the makers opted to promote the film through online and physical posters only.
Reception
Critical response
A reviewer from ''
The Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...
'' gave the film one star out of five, noting "if the plot follows the template set by the first film, everything else sinks to lower depths than what we witnessed in that one." The critic from ''
Cinema Express
''Cinema Express'' was an Indian Tamil-language entertainment fortnightly magazine published from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was a part of The New Indian Express Group, which also publishes ''Samakalika Malayalam Vaarika'' weekly as well as '' ...
'' gave the film the same score, noting "''Irandam Kuththu'' lacks the necessary horror or the comedy elements and resorts to sexual innuendos as the only weapon to tickle your funny bones", concluding it was "a hideously unfunny and unoriginal fiasco". ''
Sify
Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...
s reviewer also gave the film one star, writing the film was "a below average adult horror-comedy".
Karthik Keramalu of Film Companion, wrote, "The sex comedy, which is streaming on
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service p ...
, is a bore-fest in three tragic acts."
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 11497592
2020s Tamil-language films
2020 films
2020 comedy horror films
Films shot in Chennai
Indian comedy horror films
Films scored by S. N. Prasad
Films scored by Dharan Kumar
Indian sex comedy films