Kalaignan
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''Kalaignan'' () is a 1993 Indian
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
-language
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
written and directed by G. B. Vijay and produced by
Ramkumar Ganesan Ramkumar Ganesan (born 3 July 1955) is an Indian film producer and actor. He is the eldest son of veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan and the head of Sivaji Productions, a film production company that has produced several films, particularly featuring ...
. It stars
Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...
and
Farheen Farheen Prabhakar () is an Indian actress, who works in Hindi, Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbo ...
while Sivaranjani, Sindhuja,
Nirmalamma Nirmalamma (18 July 1920 – 19 February 2009) was an Indian actress in the Telugu cinema. She appeared in more than 1000 films and was well known for her grandmother roles in several films. She won two Nandi Awards. Early life She was born in ...
and Chi. Guru Dutt play supporting roles. It was released on 14 April 1993,
Puthandu Puthandu (), also known as Tamil New Year (), is the first day of year on the Tamil calendar that is traditionally celebrated as a festival by Tamils. The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the solar Hindu calendar, as the first day ...
.


Plot

Indrajith is a
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
pop singer based in
Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
with a large female following. When a back-up dancer, Sandhya, in Indrajith's group, is murdered under mysterious circumstances, the police suspect Indrajith, but they have no evidence linking him to the crime. Meanwhile, Sandhya's sister Divya arrives at her aunt Dr. Prabhavathy's house to find out the truth about Sandhya's death. She gets off on the wrong foot with Indrajith. She talks to his manager, Harichandra Prasad, and other musicians who all have differing opinions about Sandhya. While investigating, Divya stages an attack in a bar, getting Indrajith to save her and takes her to his concert. At the end of the concert, Jennifer, a fan, gets on stage and kisses him. That night, Jennifer is killed by someone wearing Indrajith's coat. With no better evidence, the police keep a closer eye on Indrajith and warn Divya that Indrajith is a possible suspect in Sandhya's death. Divya stages a kidnapping to test Indrajith's knife skills (all the women murdered were skilfully cut by the murderer). But the next day, Indrajith sees Divya with the bandaged kidnapper walking out of the hospital and realises that she was faking her love. He comes clean to her about Sandhya. She was an unstable substance abuser who had a thing for him, but he did not reciprocate. She had threatened to commit suicide if he did not reciprocate. He managed to save her and that was the last he had seen of her. The killer, who has pictures that look incriminating, has been blackmailing him into coming to the murder scenes just minutes after the murders. Divya believes him and falls for him. In the course of a long cat-and-mouse sequence between the killer and Indrajith, the killer is revealed to be Harichandra Prasad the manager, who attacks Dr. Prabhavathy but she survives. Indrajith finds similar clothing in his closet, and later finds a secret room filled with photographs of the victims. The killer then kidnaps Divya and tells Indrajith to come to an abandoned house with the photographs. His motive is revealed to be jealousy of the women who lusted after Indrajith and ignored him. In the course of a giant chase and fight scene, the killer is killed, Indrajith's name is cleared, and everyone lives happily ever after.


Cast


Production

The film was initially titled ''Indrajit'', but was later retitled ''Kalaignan''. G. B. Vijay was associate director for
Pratap Pothen Pratap Pothen (13 August 1952 – 15 July 2022) was an Indian actor and filmmaker who acted in about 100 films and directed 12 films. He appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, and Telugu cinema, Telugu as well as Bollywo ...
and worked with
Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...
in 1989 film ''
Vettri Vizhaa ''Vettri Vizhaa'' () is a 1989 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Prathap K. Pothen. It stars Kamal Haasan, Prabhu, pairing with Sasikala and Khushbu as lead heroine along with Amala in guest appearance. The film was a blockbuster ...
'' which was directed by Pratap and produced by
Sivaji Productions Sivaji Productions was an Indian film production and Film distribution company, distribution company based in Chennai. Established in 1956, it was involved mainly in Tamil language, Tamil and Hindi-language films until 2010. History Sivaji P ...
. While filming an action sequence in a subway, Haasan's spine was struck by a speeding car; this resulted in a dislocated jaw, cracked nose and three fractures, but Haasan eventually recovered. Farheen, also known as Bindiya, was offered the film around the same time as ''
Baazigar ''Baazigar'' () is a 1993 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir action thriller film directed by Abbas–Mustan and produced by Venus Movies. It stars Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role alongside Kajol, Siddharth, Shilpa Shetty (in her film debut ...
'', but refused that film to accept this.


Soundtrack

The music was composed by
Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...
and lyrics were written by Vaali. The song "Endhan Nenjil" is set in the
Carnatic raga A Carnatic raga refers to ''ragas'' used in Carnatic music. It has several components: a primordial sound (''nāda''), tonal system (''swara''), pitch (''śruti''), scale, ornaments ('' gamaka''), and important tones. Origins and history Carnati ...
known as Nalinakanthi, and "Dillu Baru Jaane" is set in
Sankarabharanam Sankarabharanam may refer to: * ''Sankarabharanam'' (1980 film), an Indian Telugu-language musical drama film * ''Sankarabharanam'' (2015 film), an Indian Telugu-language crime comedy film * Sankarabharanam (raga), a rāga in Carnatic music ...
.


Release and reception

''Kalaignan'' was released on 14 April 1993,
Puthandu Puthandu (), also known as Tamil New Year (), is the first day of year on the Tamil calendar that is traditionally celebrated as a festival by Tamils. The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the solar Hindu calendar, as the first day ...
. Ayyappa Prasad of ''
The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...
'' wrote, "A mixture of '' Sakala Kala Vallavan'' and ''
Sigappu Rojakkal ''Sigappu Rojakkal'' ( ) is a 1978 Indian Tamil-language psychological thriller film co-directed and co-written by Bharathirajaa. The film starring Kamal Haasan and Sridevi, with Goundamani, Bhagyaraj and Vadivukkarasi in supporting roles. I ...
'', the director has used every trick in the book to make the film a slick presentation" but that he went "overboard in the climax". G. B. Vijay later moved away from directing feature films and apprenticed under
Rajiv Menon Rajiv Menon (born 20 April 1963) is an Indian filmmaker who has worked as a director and cinematographer in several Indian regional film industries. After making his breakthrough as a film cinematographer with Mani Ratnam's Tamil drama ''Bombay' ...
as an ad filmmaker. He played a pivotal role in mentoring
Gautham Vasudev Menon Gautham Vasudev Menon (born 25 February 1973) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He has also directed Telugu cinema, Telugu, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Ma ...
, while he went on to write the dialogues for ''
Minsara Kanavu ''Minsara Kanavu'' () is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language musical romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Rajiv Menon. The film stars Arvind Swamy, Prabhu Deva, and Kajol (in her Tamil debut), and revolves around Priya (Kajol), a conven ...
'' (1997).


References


Bibliography

*


External links

* 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1993 films 1993 thriller films Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films set in Bengaluru Indian thriller films Tamil-language Indian films {{Improve categories, date=February 2024