''Vallinam'' () is a 2014 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

sports film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the sp ...

written and directed by Arivazhagan and produced by

Aascar Ravichandran Viswanathan Ravichandran is an Indian film producer and distributor in Chennai, India. He is the founder and owner of the production and distribution company, Aascar Films Pvt. Ltd, previously known as Oscar Films. Ravichandran started his vent ...

. The film stars

Nakul In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, ''Nakula'' (Sanskrit: नकुल) was fourth of the five Pandava brothers. Nakula and Sahadeva were twins blessed to Madri, by Ashwini Kumaras, the divine physicians. Their parents Pandu and Madri - died early ...

and newcomer

Mrudhula Basker Mrudhula Basker, also known as Naveena, is an Indian actress. She is best known for her role in the 2014 film ''Vallinam'', directed by Arivazhagan Venkatachalam, and ''Ice Cream 2'', directed by Ram Gopal Varma. She also performed in the Tamil ...

. It was released on 28 February 2014.

Plot

The film starts with Krishna (

) and Shiva (

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...

). They are childhood friends studying in the same college and prominent

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

players preparing for a national-level basketball tournament. Following the events of the college, Shiva dies due to heart attack because he was hit by a basketball shot by Krishna. This makes Krishna end his college career. He then joins a new college where a basketball game is teased by a cricket team there. The story lines up when Krishna takes on basketball again and wins the national-level tournament.

Cast

as Krishna *

as Meera *

Atul Kulkarni Atul Kulkarni (born 10 September 1965) is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, English, Odia and Telugu language films. Kulkarni won the National Award for the Best Supporting Act ...

as Coach * Siddharth Jonnalagadda as Vamsi *

Anaswara Kumar Anaswara Kumar is an Indian actress, who works in the Tamil film industry. She started her career with Arivazhaghan's sports thriller ''Vallinam'' (2014), though the romantic comedy ''Ego'' (2013) released first. She made her breakthrough portr ...

as Anu *

Amzath Khan Amzath Khan is an Indian actor, who is known and famous for acting in ''Maya'' (2015) and ''Kaithi'' (2019). Career Seeking a career in media, Amzath pursued an MBA in film marketing and finance and briefly worked at Sony Pictures and then as ...

as Guna *

Jagan Jagan is an Indian actor and comedian who has appeared in supporting roles in Tamil films. His breakthrough was with K. V. Anand's ''Ayan'', where he played a small-time smuggler Chitti Babu, and the role won him critical acclaim. He was th ...

as Jagan * Jayaprakash as Krishnamurthy * Santhana Bharathi as Puzhaldasan * Saravana Prakash as Balaji *

Y. Gee. Mahendra Y G Mahendran (born 9 January 1950) is an Indian Actor, dramatist, actor, singer, playwright and comedian from the state of Tamil Nadu. He has acted in a number of plays and films. He is the son of Y. G. Parthasarathy, one of the pioneers of mo ...

as Venkatachalam *

Anupama Kumar Anupama Prakash Kumar (born 4 December 1974) is an Indian actress and model. Having appeared in more than 300 commercials, she made her debut as an actress in the 2010 movie '' Ishqiya'' and went on to play supporting roles in Tamil language fil ...

* Chandru * Mathivanan Rajendran * Mippu as Train passenger *

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. He ...

Kreshna Krishna Kulasekaran (born 14 February 1978) credited as Krishna is an Indian actor who mainly appears in Tamil cinema. He is the younger brother of Tamil film director Vishnuvardhan. Early life Krishna's father is film producer K.K.Sekar (Pa ...

as Shiva (Cameo) *

Aadhi ''Aadhi'' is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. The film stars Pranav Mohanlal in the title role (in his debut adult role) and features Jagapathi Babu, Siddique, Lena, Aditi Ravi, An ...

as Basketball coach (Cameo) *

RJ Balaji Balaji Patturaj (born 20 June 1985), popularly known as RJ Balaji, is an Indian actor, radio jockey, television presenter, comedian and film director in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is best known as the host of the 92.7 Big FM shows ''The Night Sh ...

as Show host (Cameo)

Production

The film was earlier titled as ''Acham Thavir'' and planned with

Arulnithi Arulnithi Tamilarasu (born 21 July 1987) is an Indian actor best known for playing the lead roles in '' Vamsam'', directed by Pandiraj, Mouna Guru, and Demonte Colony. Personal life Arulnithi's grandfather is M. Karunanidhi, former Chief Minis ...

in the lead role, who later opted out. This film revolves around a basketball player and Nakul underwent special training to "ensure that he lived the role rather than act". Telugu actress

Bindu Madhavi Bindu Madhavi (born 14 June 1986) is an Indian model and actress and a reality show winner, working in Tamil-language and Telugu-language cinema. After starting her acting career in Telugu, she shifted to Tamil cinema where she was part of sev ...

was initially signed to portray the lead female character. However, reports in November 2011 confirmed that she was dropped from the project since the director and the crew were not impressed with her performance. She was subsequently replaced film by a newcomer Mrudhula, while other reports during production claimed that Nakul had been replaced by

Jai Jai or JAI may refer to: Abbreviations and codes * Jaipur International Airport (IATA: JAI), in Jaipur, India * Jamna Auto Industries, an Indian automotive parts company * Java Advanced Imaging, an API for the Java platform * Jet Airways (ICAO: ...

, although this proved untrue. Latest addition Marathi actor

is playing a crucial role in this film. Siddharth Jonnalagadda who acted in the Telugu film ''Love Before Wedding'' was selected to play another villain. During production, the makers of the film ran into crowd trouble with students attempting to get autographs from Nakul when he was preparing for the shoot, they were subsequently prevented in doing so from the crew of the film prompting a student protest. The team worked for 72 hours without break for a particular scene which was shot near the Chengalpet railway station.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. T ...

collaborating with Arivazhagan for second time.

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali f ...

was said to be approached to sing a song in the film which proved false.

Release

Although completed way before in early 2013, the film's theatrical release was delayed due to unknown reasons. It finally released on 28 February 2014.

Baradwaj Rangan Baradwaj Rangan is an Indian film critic, writer, and formerly the deputy editor of '' The Hindu''. He later became a senior editor of Film Companion. Rangan won the National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 2006. Before joining ''The Hin ...

wrote in '' The Hindu'', "Arivazhagan isn’t a lazy filmmaker, and at a time when most Tamil films have begun to look like flatly lit television serials, without the slightest interest in framing and staging, this quality cannot be underestimated".

Awards

National Award for Best Editor

References

External links

* {{Arivazhagan Venkatachalam 2010s sports films 2010s Tamil-language films 2014 films Basketball films Films directed by Arivazhagan Venkatachalam Films scored by Thaman S Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing National Award Indian sports films