''Laabam'' () is a 2021 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

action drama The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

film written and directed by S. P. Jananathan. It stars

Vijay Sethupathi Vijaya Gurunatha Sethupathi Kalimuthu (born 16 January 1978) is an Indian actor and film producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Sethupathi is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Awards, National F ...

and

Jagapathi Babu Veeramachaneni Jagapathi Chowdary (born 12 February 1962), professionally known as Jagapathi Babu (), is an Indian actor known for his works in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Kannada cinema, Kannada, Malayalam cine ...

, with Shruti Haasan, Dhansika, and Kalaiyarasan in pivotal roles. Ramji was hired as a cinematographer, while D. Imman is the music composer. Principal photography for ''Laabam'' commenced on 22 April 2019. The film was released theatrically on 9 September 2021. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences and became a

box-office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

. This would be Jananathan's final film as a director and a posthumous release.

Plot

Pakkiri returns to his native place after an exile and straight away takes on the village head Vanagamudi. With the support of the locals, he becomes the president of the village and decides to give agriculture a new touch with his techniques. The rest of the story is about how Pakkiri manages the local goons with the help of Clara and comes out victorious.

Cast

Production

The film is directed by S. P. Jananathan, who made a brief comeback into direction since working for '' Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai'', which released in 2015. Principal photography for ''Laabam'' commenced on 22 April 2019.

was cast as in a male lead role to play a social activist. Krithi Shetty was initially considered for the role of Clara, before Shruti Haasan was confirmed to play the role. Jananathan died on 14 March 2021 during the post-production stage, thus making ''Laabam'' his final film as a director.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by D. Imman, collaborating with Vijay Sethupathi for the fourth time (after ''

Rummy Rummy is a group of games related by the feature of matching playing cards, cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build ''Meld (cards), melds'' which can be either Set (cards), sets (three ...

'', '' Rekka'' and '' Karuppan'') and Jananathan for the first and only time. The audio rights were acquired by Lahari Music and T-Series.

Track list

Critical reception

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian 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, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' wrote, "The film's narrative is quite fractured. Rather than moving from one incident to the other, here, it moves from one issue to the other at a rapid pace giving us a false sense of momentum." ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' called it "more a visual representation of a protagonist in a television programme .than a film".

Home media

The film is available on online streaming platform Netflix.

References

External links

* {{S. P. Jananathan Films directed by S. P. Jananathan Films scored by D. Imman Indian action drama films Films about agriculture 2021 action drama films 2020s Tamil-language films