''Thumbaa'' is a 2019 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
adventure film
The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...
written and directed by Harish Ram L. H. on his directorial debut. The film stars
Darshan
Darshan, a Sanskrit word meaning "sight" or "viewing", may refer to:
Ceremony and religion
* Darshan (Indian religions), the auspicious sight of a divine image or holy person; also a school of Hindu philosophy
* Darshan (Judaism), a Scriptural ...
, newcomer
Keerthi Pandian and
Dheena
''Dheena'' is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by AR Murugadoss in his directorial debut. The film stars Ajith Kumar and Suresh Gopi in the lead roles along with Laila as the female lead. Gopi made his Tamil debut ...
. Produced by Surekha Nyapati, the film was distributed by KJR Studios. The film is set against the backdrop of
Western Ghats, and mostly consists of
VFX
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...
and
computer graphics
Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...
.
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
began on 27 December 2018, and was completed on 11 April 2019.
The soundtrack of the film features three songs composed by
Anirudh Ravichander
Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also credited mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian composer and playback singer who works primarily in Tamil cinema, in addition to Telugu and Hindi films. He has won two Filmfare Awards South, ten ...
,
Vivek-Mervin, and
Santhosh Dhayanidhi, with the latter composing the background music. The cinematography was handled by Naren Elan and edited by R. Kalaivanan. The film was dubbed in
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India
** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language.
* Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
and
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 ...
and released worldwide on 21 June 2019.
Plot
Hari (
Darshan
Darshan, a Sanskrit word meaning "sight" or "viewing", may refer to:
Ceremony and religion
* Darshan (Indian religions), the auspicious sight of a divine image or holy person; also a school of Hindu philosophy
* Darshan (Judaism), a Scriptural ...
) and Umapathy (
Dheena
''Dheena'' is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by AR Murugadoss in his directorial debut. The film stars Ajith Kumar and Suresh Gopi in the lead roles along with Laila as the female lead. Gopi made his Tamil debut ...
) come to Top Slip to paint a tiger statue and colorfully design a well-located mountaintop. Then, there is an aspiring young wildlife photographer named Varsha (
Keerthi Pandian), who gets special permission to click pictures inside the forest. Meanwhile, Thumbaa, a tiger from Kerala, enters into Top Slip along with its cub. A cunning forest officer denies that the tiger entered his range and sketches a plan to capture it and sell it to buyers. The reason why the forest officer planned to capture Thumbaa is because it does not have the tracker, whereas all other tigers in the forest are being monitored. The rest of the film is all about how Hari, Uma, and Varsha, with the help of local people, save Thumbaa and its cub from the forest officer and his gang.
Cast
Production
The filmmakers hired
Keerthi Pandian, the daughter of veteran actor and producer
Arun Pandian
Arun Pandian is an Indian actor, film director, film producer and politician who predominately works in Tamil films. He began his career as an actor as part of the critically acclaimed film '' Oomai Vizhigal'' (1986). After retiring from acting ...
, on her acting debut as the female lead in the film opposite
''Kanaa''-fame Darshan and
Dheena
''Dheena'' is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by AR Murugadoss in his directorial debut. The film stars Ajith Kumar and Suresh Gopi in the lead roles along with Laila as the female lead. Gopi made his Tamil debut ...
who play the male lead characters. The film's shooting
wrapped on 11 April 2019.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack album has three songs, with
Anirudh Ravichander
Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also credited mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian composer and playback singer who works primarily in Tamil cinema, in addition to Telugu and Hindi films. He has won two Filmfare Awards South, ten ...
,
Vivek–Mervin
Vivek–Mervin is an Indian music composer duo consisting of Vivek Siva and Mervin Solomon. They are known for their work in Tamil language films. They worked together on '' Vadacurry'' (2014), Dora (2016), '' Pattas'' (2020), '' Sulthan'' (202 ...
, and
Santhosh Dhayanidhi composing one song each. All the songs were released as singles. The first single track "Pudhusattam" composed and sung by Anirudh Ravichander and written by
Madhan Karky
Madhan Karky Vairamuthu is an Indian lyricist, screenwriter, research associate, software engineer, and entrepreneur. A holder of a doctorate in computer science from the University of Queensland, Karky began his professional career as an as ...
was released on 8 April 2019. The second single track "Jilebara" sung by
Vivek Siva
Vivek (or Bibek/Bivek in some regions) is a masculine given name that is popular in South Asia, particularly in India and Nepal. It is of Sanskrit origin and means "wisdom" and/or "conscience".
Vivek may refer to:
People
* Vivek (actor) (1961–2 ...
,
Mervin Solomon and
Jonita Gandhi
Jonita Gandhi (born October 23, 1989), credited professionally as Jonita, is a Canadian singer known for her work in the Indian film and music industries. Since 2024, she has performed as a solo pop artist by releasing her debut Independent E ...
, written by Ku. Karthik was released on 26 April 2019. The third single track "Humpty Dumpty" which composed by Santhosh Dhayanidhi, penned by Ku. Karthik and sung by
Sivakarthikeyan
Sivakarthikeyan Doss (born 17 February 1985), also known by the initialism SK, is an Indian actor, playback singer, lyricist, film producer and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. In 2021, he won the Kalaimamani Awar ...
was released on 10 May 2019.
The album met with positive reviews. ''
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 ...
'' reviewed that "Thumbaa songs play and frolic around you like a refreshing wave. The songs do what many of the new releases haven’t managed to — touch/change your mood. All the three songs are fun and playful, reminding one of childhood days spend running around catching butterflies."
Marketing
A musical promo video of the film was released on 21 February 2019 in Tamil by actress
Keerthy Suresh
Keerthy Suresh (born 17 October 1992) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu and Malayalam Cinema, Malayalam films. Her film accolades include one National Film Award, five South Indian In ...
, Telugu by actor
Sai Dharam Tej
Sai Durgha Tej (born Sai Dharam Tej; 15 October 1986) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Telugu cinema, Telugu films. Tej started his acting career with the box office success ''Pilla Nuvvu Leni Jeevitham'' (2014), which earned him t ...
, Malayalam by
Nivin Pauly
Nivin Pauly (born 11 October 1984) is an Indian actor and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He is the recipient of two Kerala State Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards South, two Kerala Film Critics Association Awards, and ...
and Hindi by rapper
Badshah
Badshah or Baadshah may refer to:
* Padishah, or Badshah, a superlative sovereign title of Persian origin
People
* Badshah (rapper) (Aditya Prateek Singh, born 1984), Indian rapper
* Badshah Begum (1703–1789), first wife and chief consort of ...
.
It features composer Anirudh Ravichander and a VFX generated tiger. The promo was unveiled on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and crossed 1.5 million views within 24 hours and gained positive reviews among the audience in the social media.
Release
The film initially slated to release on 17 May 2019, but its release date pushed to 21 June 2019. The film was dubbed in
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India
** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language.
* Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
and
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 ...
and released on the same day.
Reception
M. Suganth of ''
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 ...
'' gave 3 out of 5 and wrote, "The film might entertain kids, but for the adults who accompany them, it might engage only in parts because of the uneven narration". S. Subhakeerthana 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 ...
'' gave 3 out of 5 and said, "An enjoyable children's film that will leave you with a smile".
Sify
Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology (ICT) company providing telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation integration services, and ...
stated, "Thumbaa is a film which will be surely enjoyed by kids but the makers failed to attract all age group audiences mainly because of the weak writing".
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
2010s adventure films
2010s Indian films
2010s Tamil-language films
2019 directorial debut films
2019 films
Films scored by Anirudh Ravichander
Indian adventure films
Tamil-language adventure films
Tamil-language Indian films