Sigaram Thodu
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''Sigaram Thodu'' () is a 2014 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 thriller film 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 ...
written and directed by Gaurav Narayanan, and produced by
UTV Motion Pictures UTV Motion Pictures (also known as Disney UTV from 2012–13) was the feature film unit of UTV Software Communications founded by Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Screwvala in 1996 as UTV Motion Pictures Plc., the film distribution division of UTV S ...
. The film stars
Vikram Prabhu Vikram Prabhu is an Indian actor working in Tamil language films who made his debut in Prabhu Solomon's ''Kumki (film), Kumki'' (2012). He also played the protagonist in ''Ivan Veramathiri'' (2013) and ''Vellaikaara Durai'' (2014). He is the so ...
,
Sathyaraj Rangaraj Subbiah (born 3 October 1954), known professionally as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, film producer, film director and a media personality who appears predominantly in Tamil films. He also appears in works in Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam ...
, and
Monal Gajjar Monal Gajjar is an Indian actress and model who mainly appears in Gujarati language, Gujarati and Telugu language, Telugu films. She debuted with 2012 Telugu film ''Sudigadu''. She has also acted in Satish Kaushik directed Hindi film ''Kaagaz'' ...
while
Sathish Sathish Muthukrishnan (born 23 May 1987) is an Indian actor and comedian working in the Tamil cinema. He made a breakthrough portraying a role alongside Sivakarthikeyan in '' Ethir Neechal'' (2013). He won Edison Award for Best Comedian for h ...
, Gaurav Narayanan, and
Charandeep Charandeep Surneni is an Indian actor who is known for his works in the Telugu, Tamil and Kannada film industries. He was noted for his roles in the films like ''Jilla'', '' Sigaram Thodu'' and ''Boxer''. Early life Charandeep Surneni, also ...
play supporting roles. It has cinematography by Vijay Ulaganath, editing by Praveen K. L. and music by
D. Imman Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film music composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. His first film as music director was ''Thamizhan'' in 2002. Since then he has comp ...
. The film was released on 12 September 2014 and become a commercial success.


Plot

Muralipandian is the only son of Chellapandian, a disabled policeman who is now working in the State Crime Records Bureau and expresses a desire to see his son as an
Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia The rank of Inspector is present in all Australian police forces excep ...
. However, Murali is against becoming a policeman due to an incident which happened in his childhood; when Chellapa lost his leg during police duty, his wife fell down the stairs on hearing the news, leading to her death and left a crippled Chellapa to single-handedly look after the young Murali. Murali's ambition is to become a bank manager, and he manages to get an interview for the same in a bank. While on a pilgrimage, Murali meets Ambujam, a young doctor who is travelling with her chaperone, who is her grandmother Aishwarya. Ambujam initially thinks ill of Murali due to unsavory incidents which occur between them during the journey, but after she finds out about Murali's true character as he helps Aishwarya recover from dehydration, she falls in love with him. She expresses a distaste for marrying policemen, which impresses Murali. Meanwhile, a spate of robberies occurs in
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
where several bank accounts through ATM machines are stolen. The robberies are led by a bank employee Shiva, assisted by a
martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...
instructor Lawrence. The duo manages to avoid being caught. Murali first encounters the duo robbing an ATM while returning from the pilgrimage and breaks Lawrence's arm in a combat. An injured Lawrence vows vengeance against Murali. Later, Murali receives a letter stating that he had been accepted at the Tamil Nadu Police Academy for police training. He reluctantly attends the training for Chellapa's sake and deliberately performs poorly during the training in the hope of getting expelled from the academy. Unfortunately, SP Nagaraj, who happens to be Ambujam's father and a former colleague of Chellapa, finds out about Murali's plan and makes a deal with him to avoid the matter reaching Chellapa's ears: if Murali performs badly during training, he will not be expelled from the academy; instead, he will be made as an SI with the assurance that he can resign if he does not like the job after 30 days, after which he can marry Ambujam. Murali accepts, but this strains his relationship with Ambujam. Shiva and Lawrence plan to steal money from ATMs using information from international credit cards. The robbery is a success, but the
CCTV cameras A closed-circuit television camera is a type of surveillance camera that transmits video signals to a specific set of monitors or video recording devices, rather than broadcasting the video over public airwaves. The term "closed-circuit televisi ...
in two different ATMs have exposed Shiva as one of the robbers due to his height. The duo is arrested by Murali, who is now a
sub-inspector Sub-inspector (SI), or sub-inspector of police or police sub-inspector (PSI), is a rank used extensively in South Asia: in the police forces of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka, which are primarily based on the British model. It was form ...
, but they manage to subdue the constables and escape later that night, while Murali is out on a date with Ambujam. They encounter Chellapa, beat him up, and shoot him in his chest. Ambujam feels sorry about what happened to Chellapa and accepts Murali's decision to become a policeman. Buoyed by Ambujam's approval and also determined to take revenge on those who shot Chellapa, Murali takes up the robbery case and assumes that the duo did not work alone, instead having an accomplice. This proves to be true; the accomplice turns out to be a forger who made fake credit cards for the duo to steal money from the ATMs, but this evidence reaches a dead end when the accomplice reveals that he never saw the duo without their bike helmets. Murali then interrogates the security guards of the ATMs in the outskirts of Chennai as he feels that the robbers would have used them to conduct their robberies since money would not be refilled in such ATMs until it runs short of cash due to lesser number of withdrawals. One of the guards interrogated turns out to be an accomplice of the robbers, providing them gadgets to assist them in the robbery, but he himself does not know where they are. Murali decides to track the robber's phones with the intention of finding their location once someone calls them. In retribution, Shiva and Lawrence try to kill Chellapa, who is in the ICU, also kidnapping Ambujam in the process. Murali rushes to the hospital, where he sees Chellapa still alive, after which he pursues the robbers, finally encountering them on the banks of the Cooum River, where he kills Shiva and Lawrence and rescues Ambujam. Murali is later honoured by the
police department The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...
for his role in thwarting the ATM robbery, in the presence of Chellapa and Ambujam.


Cast

*
Vikram Prabhu Vikram Prabhu is an Indian actor working in Tamil language films who made his debut in Prabhu Solomon's ''Kumki (film), Kumki'' (2012). He also played the protagonist in ''Ivan Veramathiri'' (2013) and ''Vellaikaara Durai'' (2014). He is the so ...
as SI Muralipandian *
Sathyaraj Rangaraj Subbiah (born 3 October 1954), known professionally as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, film producer, film director and a media personality who appears predominantly in Tamil films. He also appears in works in Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam ...
as Inspector Chellapandian, Crime Records Bureau *
Monal Gajjar Monal Gajjar is an Indian actress and model who mainly appears in Gujarati language, Gujarati and Telugu language, Telugu films. She debuted with 2012 Telugu film ''Sudigadu''. She has also acted in Satish Kaushik directed Hindi film ''Kaagaz'' ...
as Ambujam Maami (Voice dubbed by
Raveena Ravi Raveena Ravi (born 11 December 1993) is an Indian dubbing artist and actress. She has dubbed several television advertisements directed by Rajiv Menon in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu. She debuted as a voice artist with ''Saattai'' (2012) and an ...
) *
Sathish Sathish Muthukrishnan (born 23 May 1987) is an Indian actor and comedian working in the Tamil cinema. He made a breakthrough portraying a role alongside Sivakarthikeyan in '' Ethir Neechal'' (2013). He won Edison Award for Best Comedian for h ...
as Kay Kay * Gaurav Narayanan as Shiva *
Charandeep Charandeep Surneni is an Indian actor who is known for his works in the Telugu, Tamil and Kannada film industries. He was noted for his roles in the films like ''Jilla'', '' Sigaram Thodu'' and ''Boxer''. Early life Charandeep Surneni, also ...
as Lawrence *
Chinni Jayanth Chinni Jayanth is an Indian film director, producer, comedian, actor and mimicry artist who has appeared in many main, character and supporting roles in Tamil films. He is also a popular television personality having hosted hit shows like ''S ...
as Chinna Nambi *
Erode Mahesh Erode Mahesh is an Indian television presenter, actor, writer, comedian, video jockey and educator. He is well known for his works in the television field and is currently serving as one of the judges in the comedy premiere show, ''Kalakka Pova ...
as Adhi Moolam *
Poster Nandakumar Nandakumar, better known as Poster Nandakumar (born August 26, 1967) is an Indian actor, producer and poster distributor, who has worked in Tamil language films. He made a breakthrough as an actor with his performances in ''Madras'' (2014) and ...
as Seeniappan *
Kovai Sarala Kovai Sarala is an Indian actress and comedian, who plays supporting roles in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She has won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian three times, for her performances in '' Sathi Leelavathi ...
as Aishwarya *
Vaiyapuri Vaiyapuri (born 23 October 1968 as Ramakrishnan) is an Indian actor who has worked in Tamil-language films. He rose to fame by appearing in supporting roles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, often portraying supporting comedic characters. Hi ...
as Gunasekhar *
Pandu Pandu () was the king of Kuru kingdom, with capital at Hastinapur in the epic '' Mahabharata''. He was the foster-father of the five Pandavas, who are the central characters of the epic. Pandu was born pale, to Vichitravirya's second wife ...
as Pandu *
Singampuli Singampuli is an Indian actor and Film director, director working in Tamil cinema, Tamil films. After making ''Red (2002 film), Red'' (2002) and ''Maayavi'' (2005), he has made a career appearing in comedy roles and supporting roles. Career S ...
as Pickpocket *
Swaminathan Saamy (born 31 January 1959), known professionally as Swaminathan, is an Indian actor and comedian on working in the Tamil film and television industry. He appeared in prominent roles in Vijay TV's satiric series '' Lollu Sabha'' before becom ...
as Santosham *
Ganja Karuppu Karuppu Raja, known for his stage name Ganja Karuppu (born 5 January 1976), is an Indian actor who has predominantly appeared in comedy roles in Tamil cinema. After making his debut in Bala's ''Pithamagan'' (2003), Ganja Karuppu experienced suc ...
as Venkat *
Lollu Sabha Manohar Lollu Saba Manohar (born 10 January 1958) is an Indian actor and comedian who has appeared in Tamil cinema. He started his career with the television show '' Lollu Sabha'' alongside other comedians, including Santhanam. Career Manohar first ga ...
as Arumugam *
Sampath Ram Sampath Ram is an Indian actor who works primarily in Tamil-language films. He is known for his villainous roles. Career Ram started his acting career with the television series '' Ethanai Manithargal'' that aired on Doordarshan as a thug. H ...
as Sagayam * Krishnamoorthy as Vetrivel *
Vagai Chandrasekhar Chandrasekhar (born 3 May 1956), also known as Vagai Chandrasekhar, is an Indian actor and politician working in Tamil language films, known for his wikt:histrionics, histrionics. He is currently the Chairman of Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Mandra ...
as Rajasekhar *
Saran Shakthi Saran Shakthi (born 5 May 1997) is an Indian actor, who primarily works in Tamil films. He made his film debut, as a child artist in '' Kadal'' (2013). Saran was a contestant in the television reality show '' Survivor Tamil 1'' and was announc ...
as Young Murali * SVS Kumar as Swamiji * Nishanth as Nishanth * Vinayak Raj as Mannavan * Kalyanamalai Mohan as Murali's Grandfather *
K. S. Ravikumar K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, film producer, screenwriter and actor who primarily works in Tamil cinema and few Telugu films. He is one of the most commercially successful directors of Indian cinema. He has won m ...
as Ravi (Guest Appearance)


Production

In March 2012 it was reported that Gaurav Narayanan, who earlier directed ''
Thoonga Nagaram ''Thoonga Nagaram'' (; ) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by debutant Gaurav Narayanan, starring himself along with Vimal, Bharani, Nishanth, and Anjali. The film, produced by Dhayanidhi Alagiri's Clou ...
'', was all set to start work on his next film, ''Sigaram Thodu''. He stated, "The film, which is based on the relationship between a father and son, will star three big heroes, one from Tollywood and two from Kollywood, and will most likely be made as a bilingual. Richard and
Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979), is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use o ...
will be handling the cinematography and music respectively".
Vikram Prabhu Vikram Prabhu is an Indian actor working in Tamil language films who made his debut in Prabhu Solomon's ''Kumki (film), Kumki'' (2012). He also played the protagonist in ''Ivan Veramathiri'' (2013) and ''Vellaikaara Durai'' (2014). He is the so ...
was signed as the hero, and
Monal Gajjar Monal Gajjar is an Indian actress and model who mainly appears in Gujarati language, Gujarati and Telugu language, Telugu films. She debuted with 2012 Telugu film ''Sudigadu''. She has also acted in Satish Kaushik directed Hindi film ''Kaagaz'' ...
was chosen for the female lead.
Sathyaraj Rangaraj Subbiah (born 3 October 1954), known professionally as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, film producer, film director and a media personality who appears predominantly in Tamil films. He also appears in works in Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam ...
was hired for a pivotal role. Gaurav Narayanan changed the initial team and signed cinematographer Vijay Ulaganath and music composer by
D. Imman Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film music composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. His first film as music director was ''Thamizhan'' in 2002. Since then he has comp ...
. Gaurav Narayanan worked on pre-production and met a fraudster jailed in
Puzhal Pulhal or Pullhal is a Northwestern residential town in Chennai district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. Pullhal is located on the banks of Pulhal aeri, Pullhal Lake. The town is known for Pulhal Central Pris ...
to get him to open up on the methodology he used for scamming credit and debit cards, which forms the backdrop of the film. The process took nearly eight months to complete and then adapt into a screenplay. For his role, Vikram Prabhu trained and shot at the Vandalur Police Academy, where he was given guidance by officers. The shooting of ''Sigaram Thodu'' commenced on 6 May 2013 at Chandi Devi Temple in
Haridwar Haridwar (; ; formerly Mayapuri) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 in 2011, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district. The city is s ...
,
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...
. Director Gaurav said "It is India's first film to shoot the
Gangotri Gangotri is a town and a ''Nagar Panchayat'' (municipality) in Uttarkashi district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is 99 km from Uttarkashi, the main district headquarter. It is a Hindu pilgrim town on the banks of the river Bha ...
temple opening ceremony amidst 20,000 people in −2 degree Celsius". A location in the Himalayas used for the song "Pidichirukku" in the film is only opened two days a year, so the team shot for a few days in 2013, before returning a year later to complete portions.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by
D. Imman Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film music composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. His first film as music director was ''Thamizhan'' in 2002. Since then he has comp ...
.


Critical reception

Rediff wrote:"The director keeps you hooked from the first shot with his well-written script that cleverly weaves the commercial elements into the realistic narration" and also revealed that it is "a well-executed film with good performances". Sify wrote:"On the whole here is a film that strikes a balance between style and substance. The director and his screenplay have been able to construct an engrossing actor –driven thriller with panache". Baradwaj Rangan of the Hindu wrote "I liked how the villains were portrayed – one's the brain, the other the brawn. And they're not larger than life. They're – if this is the word for it – realistic, and this realism colours the final action stretch. Best of all are the procedural bits, which are well-researched, well-portrayed."


References


External links

* {{Gaurav Narayanan 2014 films Indian action thriller films 2014 action thriller films 2010s Tamil-language films 2010s Indian films UTV Motion Pictures films Films set in Uttarakhand Films shot in Uttarakhand Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police Films set in Delhi Films shot in Delhi Techno-thriller films Films about computing Indian heist films Films about bank robbery Films about organised crime in India Films about identity theft 2010s heist films