Star (2001 Film)
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''Star'' is a 2001 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 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 ...
directed by Praveenkanth and produced by Vijaykrishna. The film stars
Prashanth Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973), known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor, businessman, playback singer and film producer known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in f ...
and
Jyothika Jyothika Saravanan (; born 18 October 1978) is an Indian actress and producer who primarily works in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. She has received several accolades including a National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards South, four Tamil N ...
while
Raghuvaran Raghuvaran Velayuthan Nair (11 December 1958 – 19 March 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly acted in films made in South India. He has acted in more than 200 Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi ...
, Vijayakumar, and Praveenkanth play other pivotal roles. The film features songs by
A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...
reused from his own
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
films '' Thakshak'' and '' 1947: Earth'', while the background score was composed by
Sabesh–Murali Sabesh–Murali is an Indian music director duo, who have jointly composed for many Tamil films in Chennai, India. Sabesh and Murali are siblings who began their careers working under their brother, the music director Deva, as assistant composer ...
due to Rahman's unavailability. The film was released on 27 July 2001 and failed at the box office.


Plot

Murthy earns his living taking the blame for the mistakes of other people, and so the jail is his second home. Dhanushkodi has sworn to kill ex-collector Ramanathan's son Santhosh, and so, Ramanathan has transferred Santhosh to
Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
while telling the world he has run away. Wishing to save his son, he hires Murthy to act like him, hoping Dhanushkodi would kill him instead of his actual son. Murthy too accepts the gig since his lover Preeti is Ramanathan's niece. In the climax, Santhosh supports Dhanushkodi for killing his father, but Dhanushkodi kills Santhosh. The film ends with Murthy taking the blame for killing Santhosh and surrendering himself to the police.


Cast


Production

The success of '' Jodi'' (1999) prompted director Praveenkanth to collaborate with Prashanth and Simran again in a project called ''Star'', but Simran soon dropped out. Praveen moved on to relaunch the film with
Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar Subramaniam (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. To date, he has starred in over 63 films, and won four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Ta ...
in the lead and producers Vijayam Cine Combines. Praveen began pre-production work and cast
Nagma Nagma Arvind Morarji (born Nandita Arvind Morarji; 25 December 1974), known mononyomusly as Nagma. is an Indian politician and former actress. She gained prominence as a leading actress in the 1990s and appeared in films across various India ...
in a proposed
item number In Indian cinema, an item number or special song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films ( Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu c ...
, but was later dropped from the project after falling out with Ajith. Vijayam Cine Combines moved on to instead make '' Dheena'' (2001) with Ajith, selecting debutant
AR Murugadoss Murugadas Arunachalam (born 25 September 1974), known professionally as AR Murugadoss, () is an Indian film director, screenwriter and film producer who predominantly works in the Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He is best known for directin ...
, an assistant of Praveen, as the project's director. After their successful association in ''
Ratchagan ''Ratchagan'' () is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language romantic action film written, produced by K. T. Kunjumon, and directed by Praveen Gandhi in his directoral debut. The music and background score is composed by A. R. Rahman. It stars Nagarjuna an ...
'' and ''Jodi'', Praveen Kanth wanted Rahman to provide the music yet again, but the composer was short on time, so Rahman compromised to reinvent tunes earlier composed for films like '' Thakshak'' and ''Earth'' for the project. Prashanth and
Jyothika Jyothika Saravanan (; born 18 October 1978) is an Indian actress and producer who primarily works in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. She has received several accolades including a National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards South, four Tamil N ...
were later confirmed as the lead pair, though Praveenkanth's sudden decision to act in the film irked Prashanth and his father, who threatened to opt out of the project, before the issue was mediated. The introduction of Jyothika's character was filmed on the streets of Chennai. The team then went on a shooting stint to Kurinji village at Gobichettipalayam and during the time there provided Rs 2 lakhs to help renovate a temple, which had been closed for twenty years.


Soundtrack

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...
was approached to compose music for the film, but Rahman could not accept the movie owing to his busy schedule. The director sought permission to re-use four songs from Rahman's Hindi film, '' Thakshak'' and one song from ''
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
''. The director followed the same approach in his previous film '' Jodi''. Initially, songs were going to be reused from '' Taal'', but since that film was already dubbed in Tamil, songs were not reused from that film. Playback singer Karthik made his playback debut with this soundtrack. Ezekiels of ''Chennai Online'' wrote, "Compared to the earlier hits of Rahman-Vairamuthu, 'Star' fails to keep up to the standards set by this gifted pair. Let us just hope that this 'Star' twinkles in A.R Rahman's firmament". Due to Rahman's unavailability, the background score was composed by
Sabesh–Murali Sabesh–Murali is an Indian music director duo, who have jointly composed for many Tamil films in Chennai, India. Sabesh and Murali are siblings who began their careers working under their brother, the music director Deva, as assistant composer ...
.


Release and reception

''Star'' was released on 27 July 2001. Malini Mannath of ''
The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu ...
'' criticised the "shoddy" script and narration, adding that "the director’s attempt to try his hand at acting, and his taking on one of the crucial characters in the film, makes matters worse". She added, "It’s impossible to rise above a script of this type though Prashanth makes a futile attempt. Jyotika’s expressions are becoming repetitive". Prabhu from ''Lollu Express'' added that the film would not give a boost to Prashanth's career as he had anticipated stating that it was a "below average movie". Visual Dasan of ''
Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...
'' wrote that one must not rush to the theatre if anyone screams time killing. K. N. Vijiyan of ''
New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...
'' reviewed the film more positively, calling Rahman's music the "highlight" and concluded, "Go for ''Star'' if you are a fan of Prasanth or Jothika". The failure of the film ended the partnership between Rahman and Praveen Kanth, with the composer refusing to score the music for the director's next venture, '' Thullal''. Plans were made in 2003 to remake the film in Telugu as ''Mahendra'', but the venture never took off.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 2000s Indian films 2000s Tamil-language films 2001 action films 2001 films Films directed by Praveen Gandhi Films scored by A. R. Rahman Indian action films